Tips and Tutorial

Keyword Research

The best way to achieve search engine dominance is by focusing on keyword research. As a search engine optimization consultant, I’ve worked with hundreds of companies that miss this very important step. Achieving top search engine rankings is largely based on the competitiveness of the keyword phrase you are trying to optimize for. If your competitor is in the top spot with a well entrenched web site, then your chances of out ranking him may be limited.

In addition to focusing on a keyword phrase that doesn’t have strong competition, you need to find terms that are frequently searched on. I recently finished a consulting assignment for a foundation trying to optimize their website. They had top rankings for a keyword term that seemed to be somewhat desirable. However, keyword research proved that the term received less than 100 searches per month. As a result, top rankings for this keyword phrase were nearly meaningless.

Once you have found a keyword phrase that isn’t too competitive and receives an adequate number of monthly searches, the next step is to thoroughly check out your competition. Google the keyword phrases you want to optimize for a run a back link check on the top three ranked web sites. This indicates the strength of those web sites relative to their search engine ranking. The more links, the more difficult it will be to rank higher than they do without some type of sustained link building campaign.

After doing your keyword research and confirming your choice of keywords and keyword phrases, it’s time to focus on improving your web pages around the keywords you’ve selected. Enhance your meta tags, titles, and web copy to include your keyword phrases. This helps to tell the search engines what your web site is about so it can rank your site appropriately. In addition to the on page factors, Google weighs off page factors to determine web site ranking.

Off page optimization requires a sustained effort that uses new content and additional links from third party websites. The most effective strategies are the most basic. Begin with a link building plan. Focus on article directories, web site directories, blogs, social bookmarking sites, and other resources where you can establish in bound links.

Your plan should include daily, weekly and monthly tasks that can attract links from authority websites consistently over time. Your goal should not be to generate thousands of inbound links quickly because Google will penalize your website. Rather, focus on steady link building.

If you want to improve your organic search engine ranking, begin with keyword research. By selecting the right keywords, you’ll be able to optimize your website more quickly than your competitors. After choosing the right keywords, focus on integrating your chosen keywords into your web site. Then you’re ready for link building and other off page optimization tactics that significantly improve rankings.

Michael Fleischner is an SEO consultant and author of SEO Made Simple, revealing strategies guaranteed to improve search engine rankings. Learn more about Michael’s hands-on SEO training program, Internet Marketing Forum, and SEO consulting at MarketingScoop.com or contact him via the Marketing Blog at http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com.

©2009 MarketingScoop.

By Michael Fleischner

Popularity: 3% [?]

Link Building With Blog Commenting

Do you know that you can achieve higher search rankings with blog commenting? Blog comments can be an effective link building method if you do it right.

Among all the link building methods, blog commenting is perhaps the most frowned upon. That is because this method has been blatantly abused by many so-called SEO experts. They use automated software  to spam nonsensical comments on blogs.

Now the reason why blogs allow comments is to encourage healthy discussions. So comments should be intelligent and relevant to the blog post. Otherwise, it’s considered spam. Using software to post to one thousand innocent blogs with the comments “nice post” is definitely not an acceptable practice. So what then, is an acceptable practice?

Blog commenting is acceptable when the comments are posted by human beings. If you are interested in the post, and genuinely have something to share, then it’s okay to post some comments on the blog. In other words, you are indirectly adding value to the websites with your comments. That is acceptable practice. Once your comments are approved, your links will appear on the blog posts.

Many webmasters
are insistent that the links have the “NoFollow” attribute assigned to them, so they are useless for SEO. Bear in mind that comments are not meant for SEO, advertising, and link building. They are meant for discussions. Due to the amount of spam on these blogs, search engines have no choice but to put in some kind of algorithm to help detect spammy links. But if you are commenting as a human writer, you have nothing to worry about. The search engines always reward content that are written by humans for other human readers. Here are 3 simple steps to get higher approval rates for your blog comments.

Step 1: Select only relevant blogs.

Step 2: Post intelligent comments.

Step 3: Write in a personal style.

Step 1: Select only relevant blogs.

Don’t post to hundreds of blogs that are irrelevant to your own website. Select only relevant blogs. You can easily get a list of blog URLs from the search engines.

Step 2: Post intelligent comments.

Please do read the post content before writing any comments. Also, spend some time to see what others have written on the blog post. Whenever possible, try to join in the discussion. Don’t post some kind of off-topic comment. That will just tick people off.

Step 3: Write in a personal style.

Many blogs are personal websites. So writing in a personal style would be ideal. Your goal here is to make new friends and if possible, build a relationship with the bloggers. On the Internet, you need partners to be successful. So write with the intention of building and growing relationships. You wouldn’t spam a friend’s blog would you?

When you follow the tips aboveFree Web Content, your links will grow naturally in the blogosphere. You will notice your rankings improving gradually in the search engines.

by: Gen Wright

Popularity: 2% [?]

Menambahkan Modul Online Help YM pada Prestashop

Menurut saya, salah satu layanan penting yang harus ada pada setiap website adalah online help, dimana pelanggan atau calon pembeli dapat langsung berintersaksi dengan penjual.

Dengan adanya layanan online, pelanggan bisa bertanya langsung tentang produk yang telah dibelinya “after sales service”, dan penjual dapat melakukan pendekatan yang lebih kepada calon pembeli agar mereka yakin dengan produk yang ditawarkan. Dengan demikian probabilitas terjadi penjualan menjadi lebih besar dan loyalitas pelanggan yang ada bisa terjaga.

Untuk Prestashop ada satu modul yang saya sendiri juga pakai untuk layanan online ini, namanya ONLINE HELP yang saya temukan dengan bantuan alat pencari yang powerfull. Google! Read more…

Popularity: 37% [?]

Upgrade (Update) Wordpress secara Manual

Wordpress dan Plugins-nya secara berkala merilis versi terbaru untuk perbaikan atau menambah fungsi masing-masing.

Wordpress menyediakan 2 cara untuk melakukan upgrade. Automatic Upgrade dan Manual Upgrade.

Upgrade secara otomatis bisa dilakukan langsung pada halaman wp-admin. Namun dari pengalaman; upgrade otomatis ini sering kali gagal, bahkan saya belum pernah sekalipun berhasil. Berbeda jika saya melakukan upgrade otomatis pada plugins, selalu sukses. Jika teman-teman tahu kenapa saya selalu gagal upgrade wordpress secara otomatis let me know yach!! : )

Karena selalu gagal dengan automatic upgrade, pilihan saya tinggal manual upgrade. Berikut yang saya lakukan untuk manual upgrade:

1. Backup. Harus!! Untuk mencegah hal-hal yang tidak kita inginkan.
2. Download Wordpress versi terbaru, kemudian extract.
3. Delete wp-admin dan wp-includes wordpress versi terdahulu. Bisa menggunakan File Manager atau FTP.
4. Upload semua file dari Wordpress yang baru, kecuali folder wp-content dan file wp-config-sample.php
5. Ketik pada address bar http://situskamu.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php. Jika sudah enter, ikuti saja instruksi yang ada sampai selesai. Dengan demikian proses upgrade telah berhasil.

Saya sudah berhasil upgrade manual, dan mudah-mudahan kamu juga berhasil. Selamat mencoba : D

Popularity: 2% [?]

Edit Themes atau Template Prestashop

Dengan sedikit pengetahuan dan bantuan dari Dreamweaver tamplate prestashop bisa kita ubah-ubah.

Lokasi file-nya ada di themes > prestashop

Saya sendiri sementara ini melakukan utak-atiknya hanya sebatas pada file global.css yang terdapat di themes > prestashop > css.

Sebelum melakukan perubahan apapun ada baiknya kita membuat situs bayangan di localhost, sehingga perubahan-perubahan bisa di test dulu di localhost baru kemudian di aplikasikan ke situs yang sudah on air.

Selamat mencoba.

Popularity: 37% [?]

SEO Tips to Increase Blog Traffic

While it is true that “content is king” in blog publishing, writing blog content is not the only activity that a blogger should do to attract a following. Quality SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is also important, otherwise the blog remains a well-kept secret — all content and very few visitors.

Many bloggers may not know it, but there are actually several SEO tips that will come in handy to turn an ordinary blog into a highly trafficked site.

Placing Keywords Strategically

One of the most important SEO tips to remember is that search engines like Google and Yahoo, which send out automated web crawlers or “spiders” to categorize and rank all published web sites and blogs in the Internet, do so by searching for relevant content through prominently and strategically displayed keywords. Make sure to follow the following best practices: Read more…

Popularity: 1% [?]

Menghapus Website yang dibuat dengan Fantastico

Cara paling mudah untuk membuat website adalah dengan menggunakan Fantastico yang biasanya telah disediakan oleh penyedia jasa hosting melalui Cpanel-nya.

Fantastico menyediakan berbagai macam pilihan script untuk membuat situs website.

Website dengan fungsi Blog bisa menggunakan script Wordpress, untuk E-Commerce bisa menggunakan Zen-Cart, dan jika ingin kedua fungsi-nya bisa menggunakan Joomla. Dengan tambahan VirtueMart, Joomla dapat menjadi situs E-Commerce. Pilih-lah script yang paling sesuai dengan peruntukannya dan yang paling dikuasai.

Untuk yang baru coba-coba biasanya tidak puas dengan install pertamanya, dan ingin mengulang lagi dari awal “Fresh Install”. Kebanyakan akan langsung menghapus semua file yang terdapat di public_html baik itu melalui FTP client maupun dari File Manager. JANGAN!! Read more…

Popularity: 5% [?]