Showing posts with label Analytics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Analytics. Show all posts

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Page Rank, was it ever worth it?

It isn't often that I find a article worth linking to but I believe this is important to those people who struggle to understand how to get more traffic. In the SEO world it seems like little is ever explained about statements made revelant to how much we are charged for SEO work.

I personally have never believed much in Page Rank, I tend to go with Key Words and Key Phrases. Putting myself in the shoes of the seacher. In other words, if I'm looking for X product, what words would I use to find that product on the web; and it works.

I've posted an article here about Google and Page Rank. I hope it sheds a little light on the subject; there are some good comments also, I said "some" good comments. (I also posted a link here so you can read comments.)

Google Ditches PageRank in Webmaster Tools
By Chris Crum

Google has quietly gotten rid of PageRank in Webmaster Tools. Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable points to a thread featuring an explanation from Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa.

"We've been telling people for a long time that they shouldn't focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it's the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true," says Moskwa. "We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it."

Search marketers are wondering why Google tells people not to focus on PageRank and removes it from Webmaster Tools, but still keeps it in the Google Toolbar. "Back in 2007, Google wanted feedback on removing PageRank from the Toolbar," says Schwartz. "I felt it was a good idea but the idea died out. Google cannot remove PageRank from the Toolbar, it is too much of their branding. No matter how much Matt Cutts and the Google search quality and webmaster trends team want it removed, I cannot see Google's executives allowing it."

Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim says the role of PageRank has been reduced to nothing more than a "comfort blanket for SEO Noobs." He adds, "I say this, with a high degree of confidence that most experienced SEOs pour over the data in Google Webmaster Tools, whereas those new to the industry likely let the toolbar be their only guiding light."

He also notes, however, that PageRank data can still be useful. For example, it can be a good indicator of a site's behavior in Google's index. "Any green means 'go.' No green, means there's something to investigate," says Beal.

Despite this usefulness though, Moskwa pretty much closes the case on Google's position on it. In fact, she even points to a FAQ page about crawling, indexing, and ranking, which says that webmasters shouldn't even bother thinking about it. It also says that PageRank is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed, and ranked.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Traffic - Traffic Falling? No Traffic:

Check out Google Trends, you can learn about the trend of your market. Becasue I am a Home Based Jeweler I checked http://www.google.com/trends?q=handcrafted+jewelry. In an effort to promote traffic and sales of Handcrafted Jewelry on http:homebasedjewelers.blogspot.com I checked the "trend" of handcrafted jewelry and this is what I found:



Google states: "Trends scales the first term you’ve entered so that its average search traffic in the chosen time period is 1.0; subsequent terms are then scaled relative to the first term. Note that all numbers are relative to total traffic."

Checking Jewelry the trend shows:



basically the same trend.

People get so frustrated becasue they don't get enough traffic and I ask, how may of the same people really work at "getting traffic". Are you using the tremendous tools that are available at no charge. SEO's charge big bucks to "guarantee" top listings and what tools do you think they may be using?

Go to http://www.google.com/trends to check out what your market looks like.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Search Engine Optimization

"Search Engine Optimization May Not Be As Hard As You Think"

About the Author: Stefan Hyross publishes information for the Toronto search engine optimization company WebClimb. Specialists in real estate search engine optimization techniques. Visit the site for more information, news and tips.

Being found on page one of the major search engines is one of the number one marketing techniques you can use.

It's all about bringing targeted traffic and visitors to your site for your niche. Not only that but it is often one of the least costly kinds of advertising even if you hire an expert to do it for you.

For example a Toronto search engine optimization company may charge a few hundred dollars a month for their services. In comparison you would easily spend upwards of a thousand dollars trying to get similar results from paper ads. And optimizing your site can give it much a broader exposure.

You don't always need to hire an expert because you can do a number of things yourself if you are willing to put in the effort.

Before you even begin to optimize your site you need to think about which keywords you wish to rank for.

Think like a customer to discover keywords phrases they might use to find a similar product or service. The more you can think of the better. These may then be plugged into on-line tools like Google's keyword research tool or on sites such as Wordtracker or Wordze.

These sites can give you an estimate on how often these terms are searched for. If you find some terms that have a great number of monthly searches then it is a good indication that being on page one for that phrase could equal a large number of site visitors.

Remember that frequently the keyword phrases with the most amount of searches are often the most competitive also. That does not mean that you can never rank for them, only that it may take quite a lot of time.

A good strategy is to select a mix of difficult and easy to optimize terms. This will help get you a short term and long term focus.

The content contained on the pages of your site should be your next focus.

Try to use your chosen keywords into the various web pages. Despite the fact that one of the reasons for using your keywords in your site is for the search engines don't forget that actual visitors will be viewing it.

The greater the number of pages you can add to your site the better. Every time you add new content you are attracting the search engines to frequently return and reindex your web site. This can increase the chances of getting you to page one for many more terms than the ones you are specifically focusing on.

Finally comes what is definitely the most critcal part. Every time another site points to your web site you are one step closer to being on page one. That does not mean getting just any kind of link from any site. They need to be from sites that are of the same theme to yours.

For example if your site is real estate oriented site then you will need to have a real estate search engine optimization strategy. This may include getting links from various real estate agent sites, blogs, or anything related to that topic. You should be more concerned with quality, not just quantity.

One of the premier ways to accomplish this is with article marketing. You create content in the form of articles. These can then be submitted to various directories for inclusion like Article Alley. Your site will get a link pointing back to it in return for handing out free content. This is step you should be doing a minimum of once a week.

You will slowly begin to see your site's traffic and ranking soar. The greater the time period you optimize your site for the better your results will be. It could take some time and work however it is well worth it.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, May 13

How Many Backlinks Do You Need?

When it comes to link building there is no way to overemphasize the importance of backlinks. It is pretty much common knowledge that you need them. Different search engine optimization experts will put varying degrees of emphasis on them, but all SEOs pretty much agree that they are important. How important are they? Do you need thousands? Hundreds? How many is enough?

There’s no easy answer to the how much is enough question. It depends on a lot of factors, primarily the competitive nature of your niche. One keyword in a very competitive niche may require tens or hundreds of thousands of thousands of backlinks just to make a dent, and a small one at that, in the armor of your competition. Why bother beating your head against a stone wall?

Instead, go for the smaller, less competitive keywords first. The ones that won’t require an army of link builders to spread artillery all over kingdom come just to sound like the squeak of a mouse. If you target those less competitive key phrases and get respectable traffic from those, once you capture the top of the search engine rankings for the long tail phrases, you’ll start to see yourself climb for the more generic phrases within your niche. But it takes time. And patience.

How many backlinks does it take to succeed? One more than you had yesterday. Just keep plugging away, one link at a time, until you win.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com/2009/05/13/how-many-backlinks-do-you-need/

Monday, June 8, 2009

Google Tracking For You



We are not sure how anyone can sell this service when Google provides it free along with so many other services at no charge. This Fast Implementation is great, it's easy and we love it. We Rate: 10 out of 10

Go to the : Getting Started Page

You don't have to buy a kit, that is a scam.
You don't have to pay anybody to do this for you, it is truly simple.



You also have an entire section on help, the help describes and gives directions on everything you need to get the job done. If you use the information, read the reports, use the reference materials provided you will be amazed at how you can attract more traffic to your site.

As for the experts, well, we all have to start somewhere.