How to Be an SEO Guru

SEO is not rocket science; it's much more difficult than rocket science. To become a ninja-level SEO master takes years of practice for most people, and like a ninja if you don't practice, one quickly loses one's skills. The reason for this is that the search algorithms shift constantly, and as they are well guarded secrets, you never know what the search engineers are up to. No, it's not rocket science; It's more like reverse engineering a UFO that you can only see off in the distance and whose propulsion system constantly shifts gears.

It is extremely difficult to be a true expert in this field. The competition is fierce, and one mistake can cost you months of work. If you are working for a client, you had better be certain that you do not get their site thrown into the "sandbox," meaning that it will never be found. This is like being exiled to the far reaches of the Internet where only the most intrepid explorers will ever find them. It's not good for business.

For this reason, it is extremely important to choose the right SEO company or employee if you are in business. If you want to become that person (the right SEO company or employee), here is what you need to do:

1. Administer at least five websites for at least a year. Do not link them to each other. Each is its own little petri dish that must not be contaminated.
2. Be scientific about it. Develop theories and test them rigorously. Keep track of results. Note changes in the way the search engines index your site and in the way your visitors find it, and connect those changes to actions that you have taken (link building, keyword weight, social networking, etc.)
3. Learn how to find the right keywords. This is not as simple as finding words that people search for and that are not insanely competitive. In this, you have to be somewhat intuitive. What keyword combination is a potential customer likely to use as opposed to a bored web surfer?
4. Use different tools until you find one that works. I have my favorite, but I'm not allowed to mention it. Follow the link in the resource box and surf around my blog. You'll figure out what it is. It may not be for you, but you can try it free.
5. Get at least 20 pages to the top for fairly competitive keywords. This is what turns prospects into clients.
6. Be a ninja. Once you figure out how to do it, take a cue from the people who write the search algorithms and keep it to yourself. Also train and improve continuously so that your skills do not slip.

That is how to become an SEO guru who commands top dollar with good reason, the good reason being that you know how to attract the right people, not just the most people. More on that later.

Bing SEO - How to Optimize Your Website For Bing

A few months ago, Microsoft launched their new search engine: Bing. Since it's launch, there are many discussions and debates about whether Bing will overtake Yahoo and Google. Although it is still very early to talk about Bing disposing the big 2, the future seems good after several good reviews about Bing.

It does not matter whether Bing is going to be the new number 1 or number 2. The fact is, Bing is definitely going to capture a bigger market share compared to its predecessor MSN Live. So it is important that you know how to optimize your website for Bing. Now, let me share with you a few tips to get your website to rank high on Bing.

1. Name your HTML pages properly. If a page is talking about cleaning services, you should name your file as "cleaning-services.html", using hyphen to separate each word. Using important keywords to name your files will definitely help in Bing optimization.

2. Make sure the title is relevant to the content of the page. Title tag optimization is very important when it comes to Bing optimization. Place important keywords at the start of the Title and make sure that the keywords you use are relevant to the content of the page.

3. Register your domain name early and don't change it unnecessarily. The age of a domain plays a part when it comes to SEO. Bing tends to like older domain names. So you choose the right domain name from the beginning so that you don't need to change it after a year.

4. Add more content to your website. Search engines love content, especially Google and Bing. So if you have articles, post them onto your websites. If not, add a blog to your site and update it regularly.

5. Keep your URL simple and static. URLs that change frequently are difficult to index. So make your URL static and keep it as simple as possible. Remember to place keywords in your URL.

6. Build links. Link building is an important process of SEO. If you want to rank high on Bing, get other sites to link back to your website. Bing will see your site as popular and reward you with high rankings.

7. Rank well on Google. If your site ranks well on Google, most probably you will rank well on Bing.

So start optimizing your website for Bing today and get more traffic to your website.

Getting Traffic - Page Rank 101

Page rank is where a web site places on the pages of search engine results. The search engines use algorithms to determine the importance of a page and where it will place.

Algorithms are mathematical formulas that use data in a complex series of steps. While the algorithms can be simple or very complicated they turn numbers into usable language. The factors considered by the algorithms to rank a page are estimated to be over 175.

Search engines are working around the clock to crawl web pages and index them. As pages are compared to other pages and every link is weighed, the complexities are mind boggling. You can see some of the results on search result pages. These include a relevancy score which shows how the search engine ranked the pages on the results page, the page title, a brief description, and the total number of relevant pages found which can number in the millions.

Websites strive to get better page rank, or page placement within the search results. Better page placement or page rank usually means more visitors. These search results are called natural or organic because the website did not pay to be there but was placed there by relevance and importance. Website marketers practice SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which includes keyword research, and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) to achieve better page rank.

Most search engines are making money through advertising and searching is free. Most of them earn money through PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising. These show up as sponsored listings on a search results page.

Search Engine Positioning and Promotion

According to a research conducted by iProspect and Jupiter research, 62% of internet users click on a link within the first page of results. To win higher rankings in natural search engine position results, businesses and individuals have sought the assistance of search engine optimization (SEO) service providers and consultants.

Some of the search engine promotion techniques used by search engine optimization service providers and consultants are web content optimization, which is the frequency of a specific keyword or keyword density throughout the pages of the site. A web page optimization report provides this information and an analysis on what to improve and work on in terms of on-page SEO. However, search engines, nowadays, have been very clever in crawling the sites and have set keyword density limits to avoid spamming and outright promotion and advertising. Another common web promotion strategy is by securing links to the site from other high-ranking websites. This is, by far, the easiest SEO service either by link submission to link building directories or by link exchange.

However, if one has the extra budget, and would want to go the easier way of web marketing, what better way to do it than by having a paid search campaign. Popularly known as Pay Per Click Management, paid search campaigns drive traffic to the website and at the same time increase its search engine position ranking.

Though reaping the benefits of increased visibility and search engine promotion, there are also a couple of misconceptions of having an SEO website. One of which is that the whole internet marketing project stops once the website has reached its desired position and ranking. In line with this, there are also people out there who think that establishing an SEO website and achieving a high page rank is enough. It may be enough for a couple of days or weeks but as more and more people seek SEO service providers, the more difficult for one's SEO website to sustain its position.

In addition to the usual SEO techniques and campaigns, the success of an SEO website and its search engine promotion is market and competitor intelligence. Some SEO service providers and consultants provide ranking and indexation reports to be aware of how well their competitors' websites fare in web marketing and page ranking and to compare which one is improving or being left behind.

Getting Traffic - Is Your Website Money Optimized?

SEO is a continual marketing process. Many website owners measure their results by page rank achieved and conversions. For better performance your website must be tested. Every time changes are made you should test. For best results you must split test. Split testing is a controlled experiment where you create different variables to find what works best.

Create two landing pages that are identical and then alter one thing at a time and check results or conversion rates. Run the same pay per click keyword campaign and then compare conversion rates. This is a typical split test. Change something such as a headline, graphic, or content and measure results.

Make sure you allow enough time and measure the same amount of traffic for each test. Take into account any extraneous factors such as the day of the week, competitor offers, or news events that could affect your product or service. You want your comparisons to be as identical as possible except for the change you control.

You can test a single site by altering just one variable at a time. Test your page and then make only one change and run the test again. This type of testing can take longer.

Split testing can be a bit time consuming but the information you obtain can be invaluable. The smallest changes, such as a color, font type, word changes, or page placement of a graphic can have surprising results. Within a short time you should be able to money optimize your website.