With the downturn in the economy encompassing nearly every aspect of our lives, businesses large and small are feeling the pinch. MarketingSherpa recently published a survey stating that over 60% of large companies are unceremoniously planning on slashing their marketing budgets significantly this year.

With smaller marketing budgets, companies are hunting for cost-effective, measurable solutions to sagging sales figures. This naturally leads to online marketing in order to generate new prospects and customers. Surprisingly, many sales and marketing heads don’t know enough about the true power of web marketing and the latest tips and tricks to take full advantage of its cost-effective nature.

“It all starts with a powerful, search engine-friendly website,” says Jon Wuebben, author of “Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web” (Encore Publishing). “Companies today need to focus on the words they are using to communicate with their prospects and how they leverage this content in order to maximize their online exposure. In a time when more companies are chasing fewer prospective customers, ensuring your online copy is strong and then accessing the viral nature of the web to get it out there, can put you well on your way.”

Wuebben says if you want to begin harnessing the power of cost-effective online marketing, here are 7 quick and easy tips to follow:

1. The Copy on Your Website Should Be Conversational. Connect directly with your potential customer by writing copy in the conversational style you would use in speaking with them directly. Not only will it immediately appeal to your visitors, but it also enables your message to be easily understood.

2. Use Bulleted Lists. Long strings of sentences which create long paragraphs are hard for people to read and will tire their eyes. Convert the features and benefits that you promote on each page into bulleted lists. These will pop out of the page when your prospect is scanning through. The result? They won’t miss any important details or sales points about why your product or service is so valuable.

3. Limit the Amount of Words Per Page. Each page of your website should be limited to 350 words. If you have more than this, you need to re-evaluate your copy and make some cuts. A wordy webpage can overwhelm to the point where your prospect may leave. So instead of being “copy-heavy” try to be “quality-heavy.”

4. Is Your Copy Interesting to Read? Ask yourself the following questions about your website. Does the copy grab you? Is it interesting and informative? Is there variety in the copy layout? No’s all around? Then you need to edit that copy and create a more engaging read for you visitor.

5. Use Headings and Subheads. Like bulleted lists, they break up the page and give the eye something to focus on. A prospect visiting your site will need you to direct them, and this is a great tool to get them to zero-in on specific information.

6. Use the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) Method. Your website and its copy should grab the reader’s attention, build their interest, and create desire so they will take action - in that order. This method will bring you closer to closing the deal with your prospect.

7. Ask for the Sale. Make sure that the copy includes specific “calls-to-action” which compel your visitors to the next step in the sale. Are the words “Order Now” found next to your product? Is the phrase “Click here to get your free newsletter” visible anywhere? Add these calls-to-action as they promote the visitor to take a more active and involved approach.

No matter how aesthetically appealing your website is, writing compelling website copy is a good first step in helping to turn your prospects into life-long customers. In Wuebben’s book “Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web” he also emphasizes the need for SEO (search engine optimization) and off-page factors like link building to drive more prospects to your website. “The combination of winning copy and strategic SEO will put your website on the right track to make your business a success.”

About the Author
Jon Wuebben is a veteran copywriter, speaker, entrepreneur and online marketing leader. He has an MBA in International Marketing from Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management and a BS in Management from California State University,Chico. The company he founded, Custom Copywriting, is one of the fastest growing content providers in the industry (www.customcopywriting.com). Custom Copywriting has written website copy for hundreds of companies in many different industries since 2003. His articles on online marketing, SEO copywriting and other topics can be found on thousands of sites across the web. “Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web” is his first book and is aimed at helping businesses write their own content and learning the tricks of SEO copywriting and online marketing. www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/www.contentrichbook.com
Source: ArticleTrader.com

When it comes to increasing web traffic and optimizing your website for search engines, external links to your site are the key. In general, the more websites that link to your site the better. But first, it’s important to know the basics about links.

A link is simply a means of navigating from one webpage to another. An internal link takes you to another page within the same website, while an external link takes you to a completely new website. The term back-link refers to another website providing a link to yours. Back-linking is great for getting your website exposure.

Links can also take on different forms. Being able to recognize and identify the various types is important. The 4 main types of links are: -URL Link: A website’s URL listed out as a link. -Text Link: (also known as Static Link). This is when a word or a phrase is clickable and takes you to another place. -Image Links: When clicking on an image navigates you to another page. -Dynamic Links: Inbound links from websites where the page is dynamically generated via a database query. Besides allowing visitors to navigate around the web, links are also important to computer programs used by popular search engines called spiders. Spiders crawl around the internet gathering information about various sites and then index those sites. This is why the more links to your website that exist on the web, the higher your ranking will be on search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Different Links, Different Values
Not all links are created equally in the search engines’ eyes. One-way-links which occurs when another website links to you but you don’t link back to them-are more valuable to the search engines than reciprocal links. Search engines also assign value to links based on various factors, such as the link’s relevance to your site, the text around the link, and the authority the website that links to you has.

There are also links that mean nothing at all to search engines. Dynamic links and links that have no follow codes built into them are of no value to spider programs. However, that doesn’t mean they should not be used on your website. While a link that cannot be followed by a search engine spider may not be useful from a search engine optimization perspective, it can still provide increased traffic and visitors to your website.

Ideally, your website should contain links of all types, but should contain more high quality links than anything.

What are High Quality Links?
High quality links are those that produce Page Reputation and PageRank, both of which are ranking methods used by Google. Linking to target keywords is one way to get higher rankings for your website.

Anchor text are links that appear as words that can be clicked, and they are very valuable in the eyes of search engines. The clickable text should always include some of the primary and secondary keywords that you have identified in your keyword research. Because anchor text links are higher quality than URL links, remember when building one-way links to use them as much as possible.

Don’t let your focus on keywords and links compromise the quality of your site’s content. It’s important to make sure you have valuable, relevant content on your website for actual people, and not just filler pages loaded with your target keywords. Google’s spiders have figured out how to spot those who try to cheat the system that way with technology called Latent Semantic Indexing. Basically, this means that their programs are able to analyze all of the words on your page and how they relate to each other, easily spotting and disregarding nonsense pages loaded up with keywords.

Be Selective with Targeting your One-Way Links
When targeting your one-way links, be aware that Google also ranks your site based on the relationship between your site’s content and the content of the sites that link to you. One way links from sites with content similar to yours (i.e. yours is a pet related site and other pet related sites link to you) rank higher than one way links from sites with very different content.

One final word of advice: Think twice about paying another person to link to your site; if caught, your site can be banned from the ranking system all together. Instead, focus on building your links legitimately by taking advantage of as many social media networks you have time for, and also by blogging.

About the Author
NewSunSEO : Internet Marketing NYC NewSunSEO.com NewSunSEO develops and utilizes search engine optimization strategies that result in top placements. With extensive knowledge about the underlying structure of search engines, we help your website gain exposure, added traffic and more business. NewSunSEO uses the top current technologies with highly effective, ethical methods that are proven to work continually.

Have you ever wondered how a search engine works? It must be fascinating figuring out how this search tool could direct you to several websites that are relevant to your keywords. Or, have you experienced instances where the link that supposedly contains your keywords is not exactly what you have in mind? You would probably think that there must be something wrong with the search engine that it generated irrelevant results.

How does a search engine work?
Two things figure greatly in making search engines work effectively and efficiently: the electronic search spider and the sitemap.

What is a sitemap?
A sitemap is basically a page or pages that serve/s as a directory by listing all the links to all documents and files found in a website. It is not merely a random listing of links, but organized in such a way that it gives the web user an idea of how all the information that can be found in the site fits into an outline or framework. It is like viewing the table of contents of a book, or viewing the concept map of the site’s content.

What is a spider?
In SEO language, spider is not an animal found in your closet. This electronic search spider is actually a bot which collects data and copies content to be stored in the search engine’s database when keywords are fed into the search dialogue box. The spider reads the content of the site and sends another bot to follow the links and copy the content contained in them.

What purpose does a sitemap serve?
A sitemap like any other map gives directions to a navigator. It primarily targets search engine spiders so that they are properly directed to your site and to the links where keywords entered in the search dialogue appears. As such, it is actually a useful tool in search engine optimization. A well organized site map would guide the spider to find the information it needs when keywords are entered during a search operation.

As an additional beneficial consequence, sitemaps have proven to be useful even to web users. Since a sitemap displays all the links to information found in a website, it helps the user to search for a particular topic in mind. Many users also use the sitemap to navigate between pages in a site.

What are the benefits of having a sitemap for my website?

1. No page would be left unturned
Going back to the purpose of sitemaps, having one would mean faster and easier tracking and crawling of spiders all over your site. As a result, search engines would surely get to the view all the pages of your site and not just the pages containing random keywords.

2. Easier navigation for site visitors
Once a web user has accessed your sitemap, they need not go back to the search engine page to look for what they need. If what they are looking for is in your site, then they would have an easier and faster way of locating it.

3. Potential advertising value
If it so happens that a relevant product or service company reaches your site, then it would be easier for them to see how best they can position themselves in the different pages of your site as a paid page advertisement.

4. Encourage greater traffic to your site
If your company website has a sitemap then potential buyers would have an easier time in accessing your latest products and services. Moreover, they would not miss out on any product that might be off future interest to them since the sitemap would display all information found the site.

How are sitemaps formatted?
There are at least three major types of sitemaps: indexed, full categorical, and restricted categorical. An indexed site map appears as an alphabetical listing or directory.

A full categorical map displays all links classified into categories; while a restricted categorical sitemap displays all links listed in a chosen category at a time. The full and restricted sitemaps are very similar except that the former displays all links in all categories all at once in a page, while the latter focuses only the links under the selected category for easier and less eye-straining viewing.

The most widely used format is the full categorical. Based on the results of a 1999 SURL study on sitemap designs, the full categorical format is most preferred by users since it is easier to search for topics within the site and it allows easier comparison between and among categories.

Some tips in setting up your sitemap

1. Link the sitemap only to your homepage.
This is to ensure that the spider starts searching from your homepage down to all the pages listed in your sitemap. In this way, no page would be left unvisited by the spider.

2. Do not go beyond 30 pages for a sitemap.
Large websites having 50 or more pages should not go beyond 30 since this adds more pages to the site, and might make search engines think that the sitemap is a link farm. Also, this prevents overcrowding of links which could be tiring to view.

3. Check all the links listed in your sitemap.
It can be discouraging when you click on a link only to find out that nothing is displayed. Test your sitemap; click all links in every page to make sure that all links are indeed linked to the right page.

4. Give keyword-rich titles to sitemap links.
Keyword-rich titles give your site more advantage in being searched properly under the right category. But be sure to have this sitemap link linked back to the sitemap (e.g. back to sitemap).

5. Provide a short description for the links in the sitemap.
Doing so would give readers a better idea of what to find in the link and save them time on surfing.

6. Be consistent in designing your sitemap with the other pages of the site. Employ a recurring design and the same HTML template for all pages to establish identity and build character to your website.

Now that you have learned basic things about sitemaps, maybe it is time for you to build one for your site.
Keyword Articles: http://www.keywordarticles.org

Find your Keywords!
Keywords – the words that people will use to find your website. Choosing the right keyword and being consistent with it is vital to your websites success in the search engines.

There are many tools on the market to help you make the right keyword decision. Tools such as Wordtracker will highlight keyword opportunities. We are looking for popular keywords in terms of expected traffic delivery but have a low competition score from other competing sites. This score can be called KEI.

KEI or Keyword Effectiveness Index is a measure of performance. KEI is a ratio of business against competitiveness. The lower the KEI number the harder to get results in the search engine results pages.

As a general rule avoid any keyword with a KEI of under 0.1 as this will be very difficult to target and you could be wasting your efforts.

Go for longer, perhaps 3 word keyword phrases that carry good traffic. The benefits being that they are usually easier to target and provide better, more qualified traffic. Try to avoid broad, non specific terms.

Competitors to that keyword?
Find out how many backlinks your competitor sites have - there are many to choose from, just do a search for backlinks tool. They all give varying results but don’t get distracted by that, just find a tool and use that in all cases, this will ensure that the results you get are at least relative.

No1 competitor HTML
Have a good look at the top two or three websites HTML for that keyword. Have they done anything that you can improve upon? usually be looking closely at three different sites you can arrive at a best method to use for your site. Ensure that title, heading and other tags include your keywords - remember to be consistent as mentioned earlier.

Improve your HTML
Aim to write valid HTML code. The search engine robots prefer clean code and a valid site will usually guarantee that all of your site will get crawled. Always take the time to write original content too - avoid the copy / paste syndrome that plagues many sites. The search engines thrive on original content, make sure that they notice yours.

Search engines are always looking out for duplicate content and will choose not to display your pages for a given search if it thinks your site is not the originator.

Some HTML tips with SEO in mind:

Description tag - take the time to write an appropriate description tag for every page of your site. Google will display this in its results pages and a well written description here should lead to more searchers actually clicking your link and becoming a visitor.

Title tag - This is probably the most important piece of HTML. Always include your keywords here and write an accurate keyword rich title tag for every page of your site.

Keywords tag – It is good practice to put a list of related keywords into this tag although don’t overdo it and do not include any keywords that are not relevant to your web page.

Keep the code clean, use DIVs and not Tables where possible as this has many benefits and it means the ratio of content to code is greater. Try to use your keywords in heading tags throughout the pages.

Take the time to write original copy that uses the chosen keywords throughout. Write the text for a human to read though and not as though you’ve written it for a search engine. Over use (or spamming) of keywords will work against you always.

Try to get the good text content as near to the top of your code as possible. You could use CSS positioning to help with this.

Navigation – Use keyword rich absolute text links with a title where possible and not relative links.

Link to the domain name itself when linking back to the homepage and not /index.html. The search engines will then find the content in one place and not try to index two URL’s - a very common mistake.

To target several keywords, create several pages to do this using the above methods. You can’t expect one page to perform for everything.

About the Author

IC endorses Chris Tyrrell who writes for Studio-40 web design Leicester. Learn more about website design and search engine optimization by visiting the Studio-40 website.
Source: ArticleTrader.com

In the everchanging world of internet marketing Google’s AdSense and AdWords have become iconic. In fact many advertisers do not realize that there are more ways than Google to be successful on the internet. These ways have the added benefit of requiring less capitol investment.

If you are not familiar with this topic, Adwords is a pay-per-click advertising/marketing business; when someone views an ad posted with Adwords the advertiser pays a fee.

Fees for pay-per-click are normally well under one dollar. But these small fees quickly combine to represent a lot of money. This happens more rapidly when the keywords that are used are very popular and general and create higher than average false leads. This method is a gamble and like casino gambling it is very easy to eat up a large advertising budget.

Fortunately, contrary to popular belief AdWords is not the only means of advertising on the internet; as a matter of fact, it is not even the most commonly used technique. There are many ways with which to skin a cat, and the internet marketer intelligent enough to step beyond the boundaries of AdWords will quickly find their profits growing without the continual draining of their budget.

The simplest and least expensive method of advertising without AdWords is to utilize the powers of social networking through blogs and forums. Each of these is a community feature, which allows web surfers to come together to discuss topics that are of great interest to them, and the exposure is unbelievable.

By posting a blog to a topic related to their product and including a link to the website in question an advertiser can exponentially increase the number of viewers their site receives without having to pay a penny.

Advertising on some other businesses website is another great marketing method. The trick comes in choosing the site to advertise on. The most important thing is to analyze with care his desired audience and find the sites they visit the most.

There are three ways you can go about advertising on someone else’s site.

For an advertisement you can create a text or banner ad for the site then pay them to post the ad. Use caution though, this might not be better then the ppc method; except if they will charge a normal fee based on the amount of time your ad is displayed.

Good web content is the basis for the other two methods. In the one way a writer is paid to write articles full of information on a specified topic, that ties in to the advertisers website, to post on the advertisers site to raise his sites credibility with search engines and thereby increase his traffic.

Instead of charging a fee the savvy advertiser will create an article in this manner and approach the creator of said website, offering to allow them to absorb the article into their website in exchange for including their name and site information on the bottom. This is what is known as link building.

Actually, link building works best when the reader in reality finishes the article completely. They also have to enjoy the article enough to want to see if the author has anything else available. But with how limited the attention span of the majority of internet users, the likelihood is low.

Instead, the author can write an article which will have links to key information locations on their own website scattered throughout the article. If the reader comes to a point where they wish to explore an idea more thoroughly or they cannot grasp what is going on they can select the link and it will instantly transport them to the other site.

This is called hosted web content and the majority of sites charge some kind of fee in exchange for displaying your article because a visitor can be taken away from their site.

With strategic use of these ideas you can be profitable and limit your use of the, sometimes dangerous attractions of AdWords. You can walk away with pride and wallet undamaged.

Keyword Articles: http://www.keywordarticles.org
Kirt Christensen’s dynamic flair in AdWords Management as he managed over $612,000 of yearly ppc advertising for clients, has them raving about him! managemypayperclick.com