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How To Use Images To Improve Your SEO
This article is guest posted by Lior Levin.
Everyone knows that you should add images to your blog posts to make them more attractive. Blog posts with images look better, stand out more and attract more readers. If you are routinely blogging without images, you are likely wasting a good deal of your potential readership simply on the fact your content looks boring to those who find your words.
But can images be useful for SEO? Everyone knows that Google can’t “read” images like it can text nor are they truly searchable. Sure, there is an image search function, it only looks at text around the image and is not exactly the best tool for gaining traffic, especially after the recent overhaul.
Still, there are several ways that images can easily help you improve your SEO, including these 5 very easy suggestions:
1. Use Original Images
Google Image Search now has a “similar images” function that works moderately well. Images that are too similar to others on the Web are less likely to get attention from Google as the results try to focus on a variety of relevant images. If possible, use your own images, even if you have to take screenshots
2. Use Keywords in File Names
Load up your file names with relevant keywords. Make it clear what the image is and how it relates to the larger post. Try to separate keywords with a dashes to help the SEs understand what the keywords actually are.
3. Use the Title Attribute
Use the title attribute on your IMG tags as a means to add still more relevant keywords. Your title is a way to associate text with your image directly in a way that human visitors rarely see but SEs place high value on.
4. Use the Alt Attribute
Much like the title attribute, the alt attribute of the IMG tag is yet another opportunity to add relevant keywords. However, remember that the alt attribute is also used by screen readers for the visually impaired so make sure that this tag is also useful for human that might need to read it.
5. Link the Image
An image is also an opportunity to provide another link to a different page on your site. WordPress, for example, automatically creates a new page for each uploaded image and can link to that. You can also have the image link back to the post itself, which is useful if the post is scraped or otherwise misused.
In addition to the above steps, you may want to consider enabling reuse of your images, either via embedding or a Creative Commons License, to let others take advantage of them in exchange for dofollow links back. Depending on the nature of your site, the links from external domains may be much more valuable than the exclusive use of the images themselves.
All in all though, images are an often-overlooked but still very important part of a robust SEO strategy. Fortunately, it only takes a few seconds to turn an image into a powerful tool for SEO and, since you are probably putting images into your posts anyway, it’s time well spent.
In fact, the hardest part for many is remembering to take the steps, no actually doing them.
This blog post was written by Lior who works with an online task management tool start-up and also advises to a nursing tops company.
Online Tools to Take You Beyond the Basics in Affiliate Marketing
This article is guest posted by Jason Acidre.
If you consider yourself an advanced affiliate marketer you may be on the lookout for the latest and greatest tools to use for your online business. Having the proper tools and services to use to your advantage can increase your profits and make you a much more efficient marketer.
Once you’ve learned the ropes with affiliate marketing and making money with the internet, it’s time to move on to bigger and better things—like making more money and finding more lucrative opportunities. One of the best ways to scale your online business to create more income is through using useful and innovative tools that will take your marketing efforts to entirely new levels. Many marketers understandably avoid these tools, and for good reason. A lot of the “top” programs and services can cost a lot of money and be a questionable investment. That being said, let’s take a look at some of the top online tools for increasing profits and growing your affiliate marketing business online.
Traffic Travis – A great free SEO tool to use is Traffic Travis. This free tool was rated on Cnet.com with 4.5 out of 5 stars and is an excellent free alternative to other expensive SEO programs. This software will give you a good idea of the search volume certain keywords get in each search engine (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) and will generate as many keywords as you like from your “seed keyword.” The software is completely free to download and use and is one of the better free keyword research tools online.
Affiloroma’s Affiliate Tools – At Affiloroma.com there are a wide variety of tools to take advantage of that aren’t just limited to either SEO or keyword research. This site offers a variety of tools that will help you check what backlinks your site has or even help you generate PPC ads. The site has premium features so it does cost money for most of their tools but for the access to multiple high quality tools you get on this website the price tag makes it a complete steal.
SEOmoz.org Tools – Another well known and highly reputable SEO website that offers tools to use is SEOmoz.org. This website offers a few free tools and several paid tools that you can use to better optimize your site and get better rankings in the search engines. There are programs that allow you to monitor and track your rankings, view backlinks and see how difficult a potential keyword is to rank for. The free tools on the site are worth trying out but the premium tools offer far more value and data. If search engine optimization plays a large role in your affiliate marketing efforts then getting your hands on these tools is a great idea.
Keyword Elite 2.0 – Another great keyword research tool that can be considered a competitor of Micro Niche Finder is Keyword Elite 2.0 This software program actually does multiple things aside from just basic keyword research and can give you valuable information on how to dominate certain keywords. For any PPC advertisers it also shows you the past successful ads of your competitors and their advertising history. The fee for this software is one time and it’s a great all-in-one option for PPC advertisers.
Market Samurai – Another top keyword research tool that does cost a fee to use is Market Samurai. This is considered by most as another great keyword research tool and competition measuring tool for seeing what keywords and niches can be easily dominated with little work. While this tool does cost money to use it gives you far more valuable data about the keywords and niches you’re targeting, so it virtually pays for itself over time. There’s a trial version of the program you can try out to see if it’s right for you before purchasing it.
As you become more advanced with your affiliate marketing you’ll likely want to use more and more of these tools until you’ve got a pretty good “arsenal” at your disposal. If you can afford to it really is best to have a variety of these services and tools to use so you can get the benefits of each individual one. If you’re uncomfortable with paying money for a tool you’re not sure you’ll use then taking advantage of some of the free services and programs is a great way to test the waters.
Make full use of the trial versions of programs to see if they work for you before committing to the monthly membership or full onetime payment. If you consider yourself an experienced internet marketer but you’re still wary of online programs and services then don’t purchase any service you aren’t completely sold on. There are complete beginners in affiliate marketing who make a fortune using nothing more than free tools and keyword research programs like the Google adword keyword tool. These programs do work well enough but for those who want to relieve some of the work load and get better results from their efforts paid programs and services should be used for the best results.
Jason Acidre is a Marketing Consultant for Affilorama, an affiliate marketing portal. They provide affiliate marketing education and advanced affiliate marketing tools for beginning and advance affiliates.
SEO Blogging Tips: How To Rank Well Without Losing Readers
This article is guest posted by Shaun Connell.
I’ve been professionally blogging for a little over a year now. In June of 2009, I was working full-time on my blogs for the first time. Whenever people ask me what the key to me going full-time was, I always give them the same answer: passive search engine traffic.
Search engine traffic is, for the most part, consistent and passive. Once you get about a thousand visitors per day, you’ll get about a thousand visitors per day. Every day. Whether you post or not. Search traffic is also valuable traffic — searchers are more likely to click advertisements, buy products, subscribe to newsletters — they’re more likely to make money.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a common myth in internet marketing and blogging circles that implies that you have to choose between making your readers happy and making Google send more traffic your way. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are a few ways to increase search traffic without ticking off your readers.
User-Friendly Ways to Increase Search Traffic
- Keyword Titles. My favorite method for writing titles is to put the keyword at first, and then a normal title afterwards. For example, this post is called “SEO Blogging Tips: How to Rank Well Without Losing Readers.” The obvious first two words are keyword titles. Doing this means the keyword is still in the title first thing, and yet the title is still easy to read.
- Link Building. Link building is the crux of search traffic. If you have a lot of links, you’ll have a lot of search traffic. It’s unavoidable. And your readers will never notice it. Try to manually build at least 5 links per week through article marketing and guest post writing. It’ll pay off in the end, I promise.
- Internal Linking. Internal linking is probably one of the most underused SEO tactics by bloggers. If you have a few pages you’re trying to get ranked on Google, link to them constantly in your own pages. I have a set of nearly 10 posts on every one of my websites that I link to from most of my new posts. This insures that Google and other search engines realize those are the most important and desirable posts on the website — giving them more authority. There are plugins that make internal linking almost automatic.
- SEO-Friendly Sidebar. Your sidebar is an important place to link to your most important SEO pages. Have a special widget that links to your most important articles, and use only keywords for the links. This helps with internal linking, and insures that every page links to the important pages.
- Search-Only Ads. While this isn’t technically a tactic for getting search traffic, it’s certainly a tactic for monetizing search traffic better. Find a way to make advertisements show only for search-engine visitors — this means you don’t upset your regular readers with too many ads, and can still profit from the easily monetized search traffic. Have your cake and eat it too.
A 6-Month Case Study
I decided to launch a case study to see how fast I could get a website to the top of search rankings for a competitive keyword without sacrificing the user experience of the blog. I registered a domain about gold coins (the most popular way to buy gold for small-time/private investors) and began to follow the steps listed above.
I uploaded an article every day that targeted a keyword. I made the content user-friendly. I did the SEO-friendly sidebar, internal linking, and consistently built at least 3 real links every day. That was it. Nothing else.
Within six months the website ranks top 10 results on Google for “gold coins” — an extremely competitive topic that takes on almost every gold dealer in the nation, including hundred-million dollar companies. The site is also on page 3 of Google for just the keyword “gold”, which is effectually taking on every major investing, financial, economic, and news site on the Internet — almost every major money-related website has a section on their site about gold.
But the rankings didn’t happen because of any “guru” powers or “secrets” or any complicated positive-thinking philosophy. It happened because I followed the simple SEO blogging tips above. Content, internal linking, links = success. It’s literally that simple.
What other SEO blogging tips do you have to share?
About the Author: Shaun Connell is a full-time blogger and runs over 6 blogs, including a financial planning blog where he teaches readers everything from getting out of debt to learning how to make money online.
WordPress Plugins To Make The Search Engines Worship Your Blogs
This article is guest posted by Xavier Lazos and Alex Jon Alavi.
If you’re a niche blogger like myself then you need to arm yourself with the right tools to make your online equity a success from the get go.
So everyone has been advising you to switch over to WordPress pronto because if Google would have a mistress … then WordPress would definitely be #1 ;-)
So you’ve installed WordPress (the best decision you could ever make).
Now what?
Well.
The next step is to get the following WordPress plugins installed and activated to help you start on the right track straight off the bat.
I’ve listed the following 8 plugins I use (via priority as I see it), which you can also use as a checklist, the next time you set up your blog.
Plugin #1: Cbnet Ping Optimizer
Advantage: The last thing you want, is for your blog to be listed in the spammer twilight zone.
Well guess what? Every time you update your posts there’s a very good chance your (new)blog is already sending out pings WITHOUT you even knowing it and the last thing you want is all your SEO efforts going down the toilet drain right?
With the Cbnet Ping Optimizer plugin , you’ll be able to make sure your blog ONLY chatters with the rest of the blogosphere when YOU want it to.
After all. A well behaved blog is a good blog ;-)
Plugin #2: Broken Link Checker
Advantage: From an SEO perspective broken links on your blog is a BIG NO-NO and you can be dead sure that your blog will be penalized if your blog is crowded with broken links.
With Broken link checker, you will be notified of broken links via the WordPress dashboard (=cool cockpit view once you’ve logged in) and link nirvana will be a thing of the past.
Plugin #3: WordPress Database Backup
Advantage: Creates simple backups of your blog which is a must if you don’t want to lose all your hard work in the event of gremlin infestation or worse.
Plugin #4: WP Super Cache
Advantage: What do you think a Google bot would say if it (re)visited your website and found a slow churning machine? Most probably: “Slow blog. No time to index it. NEXT !!!”.
With this plugin you’ll be able to speed up the loading of your websites and the Google bots will thank you for it big time the next time they come round for a tea party at your blog.
Plugin #5: Google XML Sitemaps (Search engine Sitemaps)
Advantage: Creates a sitemap which is a layout of your website for smooth web crawlers. Make the bots’ lives easier and they will thank you for it. Big time.
Plugin #6: All in one SEO
Advantage: From a search engine perspective this is a must have and gives you the power of page titles, meta tags, keywords and descriptions. You’ll even be able to configure them on a post by post basis.
Plugin #7: All In One Webmaster
Advantage: As a webmaster there’s a good chance you’ve come across the Google webmaster tool. Yahoo has its equivalent the Yahoo site explorer and Bing the webmaster central.
This All In One Webmaster helps integrate the power of these tools from within your blog.
Plugin #8: Chennai Central
Advantage: There’s a good chance you are hosting several blogs on several domains either for yourself or family and the last thing you need is bandwidth problems.
Chances are you’ve come across sites with the following message : “User has exceed bandwidth for this month”.
Don’t let it happen to you. With Chennai central you’ll be able to control your bandwidth.
And that concludes my comprehensive 8 for WordPress plugins to install on your niche blog(s), so that the search engines will worship em.
Now get cracking :-D
About the authors: Xavier Lazos and Alex Jon Alavi are brother in laws with a passion to create bonuses for cool information products, that teach beginners and intermediates the ropes to dominating competitive buying niches that make money online. Their latest bonus is Alex’s Crazy DPA Experiment – A Unique Traffic Ultimatum Bonus
Super Secret Traffic Generation Method Kept Secret On The Internet
This article is guest posted by Style.
So, you’ve decided that you want to make money online, that’s cool but there’s just one problem. How are you supposed to compete with inferior knowledge, inferior skills and an inferior budget.
In order for a “system” that you’ve design to be profitable and easy to manage, it has to have two desirable features. a) it needs to be automated and b) it needs to convert visitors into buyers. This married to another very important aspect of Internet Marketing; the source of your traffic. Your traffic will determine how much success you have online.
There’s only one problem with descent traffic and that’s cost. The saturated arena of PPC is hardly a place to start. You’ll spend more than you make (without a doubt) and the truth is, you don’t need it. Sure it’s a good way of targeting your traffic, but there are much more cost effective ways of doing this and having the same results.
Did you know that only 5% of traffic on the internet is generated through search engines? This is a bold statement, but it’s true! 85% of ALL traffic online, comes from display marketing. You know, those irritating teeth whitening offers you see on almost every single page on the internet? That’s display marketing (also known as banner marketing or buying media).
So now you know where all of the traffic online comes from, are you sick of competing with 99% of other marketers out there for only 5% of the potential traffic out there? You don’t need to answer that because I already know the answer.
Buying media is a really good way of generating traffic and this is how it works.
Step 1 – Testing
Firstly, you’ll need to make sure that your landing page (if you have one – not required if your direct linking) is all set up and ready for testing. You can use Google Website Optimizer to do this, as well as StatCounter. This will give you a good idea of how much traffic you’re generating and how well each of your landing pages are doing (Website Optimizer is used to split test your offer).
Once you’ve done that, you may also another really valuable tool; ClickTale. ClickTale allows you to set up “recordings” of your visitors. You can watch (in real time) what they do on your site and evaluate the effectiveness of the various different aspects of your landing page, such as the copy or images etc. Once all of this is in place, you’re then ready to “flood” your offer.
Step 2 – Demographics
This is an often overlooked part of the average newbie’s marketing drills. You need to know who your offer appeals to (you’ll be surprised). Once you know who you’re targeting, you can then start to look for sites that relate to your market, product or service.
Finding out demographic data is really easy to do. You’ve got Compete.com, Quantcast.com, Google AdPlanner and Alexa.com. All of these sites allow you a small amount of demographical data, but it’s enough for a simple campaign. I would recommend getting the free SEO Tools Firefox plug-in by SEO Book.
Once you have found the sites you’re looking for, you can then start comparing the demographic data. Choose the site that has the nearest match and go with that one.
Step 3 – The maths
It’s important that you are aware of the potential earnings of your offer before you begin any sort of display campaign. You could work out (by looking at the traffic data in Compete.com) how many unique visitors a site has. From there you can work out how much money you can spend and still manage to be in profit.
You’re looking for at least a 200% ROI (return on investment) and initially, you’re going to use the most conservative figures to work out how much you can spend.
Let’s say that a site has 10,000 visitors a month. You should be able to convert 1% of this traffic to click on your offer. That leaves us with 100 people who see our ad.
If we, again using extremely conservative estimations, manage to convert 1% of that 100 into a buyers, that means you will make one sale. Now, you know, that if you sold X ebook for $20, that you can afford to spend $10 on advertising it (giving you the 200% ROI). That means that you can (in this example) spend $10 on 10,000 views.
Would you get excited now if I told you, you could get 1,000 views for as little as 5c? (No need to answer that one).
Step 4 - Approaching the sites with an offer
Now that you’ve done your homework, you know who and where you’re going to be sourcing your traffic from, and you also know how much you are willing to pay per 1,000 impressions. It’s now time to start approaching websites with offers for advertising.
This can be done in a number of different methods. You can either look for an “advertise here” link and follow the instructions, or you can contact the site owner directly with an offer. NOTE: some websites have 3rd party advertising networks that manage the advertising on their sites for them, all you have to do if this is the case, is look near the advertisements on the page and find a text link that says advertise.
If you’re just starting out, it is advisable that you avoid the bigger sites as again saturation will kill your business, there are loads of websites out there that don’t make enough money and are always looking for other sources of income.
TOP TIP: If you find a site that only has AdSense on it, then you are going to want to promote on there. Here’s a simply formula to work out how much money a site makes using adsense.
For every 100 visitors to an adsense site, the site owner will make $1. All you’ve got to do is work out your potential profit, and try to beat the amount of money made by the webmaster of the site.
Step 5 – The Creative’s
This is the daunting part, finding the right banners to put onto the site. Luckily, you can outsource banners for a relatively small amount of money, either using the Warrior Forum (warriors for hire) or some similar service like elance.com or oDesk.com.
Make sure your banner has contextual relevance for your users (doesn’t promise more than the site can deliver or isn’t misinforming them) in relation to your offer.
Make sure your banner sticks out and ALWAYS make sure that you use different creative’s and test which one works best. Doing this will allow you (further on down the line) to have a fully automated proven money printing machine!
That’s it…
Now that you know about this secret method of pulling in traffic, it’s time you stepped out from the crowd of dazed newbie’s, stop paying extortionate prices for PPC, and start growing your internet marketing skills.
This form of advertising is the way to go. If you want more information on buying media, please visit Style (It’s Like Internet Marketing; Only Much, Much Cooler).
Keyword Country – Crushing the Competition
This article is posted by Valerie and sponsored by Keyword Country.
Crushing the Competition with Keyword Country
In the world of the Internet, building the best website possible is one of the keys to success. The underlying tenet of good website design is solid content – keyword optimized content, of course. To help website developers make the most of their virtual real estate, quite a wide range of keyword tools have been developed.
One of the most promising is Keyword Country, a new offering that promises to help you “crush the competition,” according to their website. What does Keyword Country offer, though? How does it stack up against more established keyword tools?
All-In-One Internet Marketing Tool
According to the website, Keyword Country is an “all-in-one Internet marketing tool.” From the list of features and functions, it certainly appears that it does what’s promised. What’s on offer with this tool?
First, it allows you to handle all of your SEO marketing needs. From finding the most successful SEO strategies of rival websites to determining what keywords, keyword phrases and tagging structure makes those pages successful, this tool truly provides. It also helps you build your website with inspiration from these sources.
PPC marketing is another strong suit here. Keyword Country lets you scope out the competition, determining competitors’ PPC strategies and allowing you to capitalize on this information. It also provides you with the means to advertise instantly with Bing, Yahoo, Google and 4 other PPC engines, as well. Finally, it also allows you to build your own high-conversion landing pages from scratch, based on your newfound ideas.
There are many other features here, including social marketing tools, video marketing, article marketing, blog marketing, affiliate recruitment, keyword research (a vital necessity), keyword tracking, rank monitoring and content placement, as well.
Flexible Plans and Pricing
One hallmark of Keyword Country is the fact that you’re offered flexible plans and pricing for your needs. For instance, you can sign up for a single month at less than $50. A span of three months is less than $100 and a full year comes in at less than $300.
That puts Keyword Country squarely in the “affordable” category. Of course, as you can see from the information listed above, you won’t be sacrificing any capabilities or functionality for that affordability. As a tip, the program is available with a 30-day money back guarantee, so you get some peace of mind about your investment, as well.
It’s All about Support
One area where many keyword tools fall short is in support. Once you purchase a program and get used to using it, you hit a problem. When you turn to the company for help, you’re given short shrift. In fact, getting support can be a lot like pulling teeth.
However, with Keyword Country, you get an enormous number of sources that can help you out when you’re stuck in a tight spot. You’ll find support forums on the website where you can turn for advice from experienced users and moderators. You can also make use of the articles written by experts on topics as wide ranging as keyword research, search engines and SEO, web directories, marketing and promotion, and tons more.
Other sources of help here include online chat and news groups, as well as free documentation to help you maximize the potential of your website with this innovative tool.
A Winner Is Born
When contrasted with other keyword tools on the market, Keyword Country certainly has some incredibly appealing aspects. While it is definitely not free to use, the 30-day money back guarantee does ensure that you are satisfied. Moreover, with the wide range of features and functions, there’s simply no reason why you wouldn’t be satisfied.
Click here to give Keyword Country a try
