Search Engine Promotion

How to Profit from Knowing the Most Expensive Keywords

by: Dave Lavinsky

By knowing the most expensive keywords on the internet, you can create websites and web pages based on these keywords. On these sites and pages, you can serve expensive ads and/or promote affiliate offers that reap high bounties when clicked or completed.

The challenge lies in driving traffic to these sites. One way to drive traffic is through search engine optimization, whereby you create a website that ranks highly on the search engines and receive free traffic. Or, if you already have an existing well-ranked site, you can create new pages linked from your existing pages. A second way to drive traffic is through online advertising.

With regards to advertising, one key is to understand correlations between keywords. By determining correlations between inexpensive and expensive keywords, you can advertise on the inexpensive keyword (via pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on search engines) to drive traffic to your website that serves ads based on expensive keywords. For instance, advertising on the keyword painting ($0.20 keyword), and sending visitors to your site about the related topic home remodeling ($2.00 keyword) allows you to profit from the wide spread between the keyword prices of the two correlated keywords.

Likewise there are many opportunities to run banner and other ads through online advertising networks to drive traffic to your website. These ads can run on both painting and home remodeling websites. The cost of CPM (cost per impression) advertising typically does not reflect the price of the keywords. That is, a banner ad on a painting website typically costs the same as a banner ad on a home remodeling website. This sharply contrasts the price of PPC advertising on search engines which vary widely based on the keyword.

There are two other ways to profit from knowing the most expensive keywords. The first doesn't even require you to own or operate a website. In this method, you advertise using inexpensive means (e.g., via pay-per-click advertising on inexpensive keywords or CPM advertising) and direct traffic to high paying affiliate offers. The second method is to set up your own search engine. There are several companies that allow you to easily set up a search engine that serves PPC ads syndicated from Google, Overture or other PPC search engine networks. Once you create your engine, you can drive traffic directly to your PPC results, and get paid every time someone clicks on one of the results. Likewise, on your search engine's home page, you can include many links to expensive keywords, so that when someone clicks on it, the engine shows expensive ads based on those keywords.

Understanding keyword pricing is critical to the online advertising, PPC search engine and affiliate marketing businesses businesses that combine for over $25 billion a year in revenues. With a market of this size, generating substantial profits, if you have the right information, is really not that challenging.

About The Author
Dave Lavinsky is the President of TopPayingKeywords.com, a firm which tracks and publishes databases of the 15,000+ most expensive PPC keywords.
http://www.toppayingkeywords.com

12 Steps to Higher Search Engine Placement

by: Craige Stacey

Getting a high ranking in the search engines can mean the difference between success and failure. Here's twelve steps to getting highest possible placements.

Recent studies suggest that more than 80% of new visitors to any web site get there as a result of a search engine query. If this study is to believed, it certainly suggests that working to get high rankings in the search engines might be the most effective thing you can do to bring traffic to your site.

The following 12 design tips will help you get started in optimizing your site's search engine placement.

1. Design for Specific Search Engines - there are hundreds of different search engines, but for best results you should design your site to take full advantage of the search criteria of the big three - Yahoo, Google and MSN. If you can get high rankings in these three, you won't need to worry about the other search engines. Knowing how these search engines rank sites (as well as why they will penalize a site) is important. The rules change often, but the tips below are the most current.

2. Know your target audience. Before you apply any of the tips below, do some research and find out what are the most likely key words and phrases your target audience will be searching for. In most cases, the key words or phrases won't be your site name, but will be something related to the solution to a specific problem or the answer to a specific question. Knowing the question that will be asked is half the battle.

3. Use Meta tags. By now just about everyone knows about Meta tags. These are commands you can place in the html on your web page to help the search engines categorize what your page is about. The two most important Meta Tags are 'Keyword' and 'Description'. The description Meta tag should describe what is on the particular page, and the keyword Meta tag should include the important key words from the page. Avoid using 'fluff' words and phrases as these will be ignored by the site.

Warning: If the keywords in the Meta keyword line are not found within the text on the web page, some search engines will penalize the page or simply not list it. This is done to prevent 'meta tag' spoofing.

My advice - have a different Meta description tag on every page. And be sure that keywords in the keyword tags are used on the page.

4. Optimize your Title tag. Many search engines give considerable weight to the html title tag on the page. It is the first element the search engine will scan and weight. Not including a title instantly reduces the search engine ranking your page will receive. When yo create a title tag, include keywords and write it to catch the attention of the users be scanning lengthy lists of titles in search engine results.

For higher ranking, make sure the title tag matches headline text on the page. And be sure to use a different title tag for each page on your site. (Pages with the same title tag will often be ignored.)

5. Use Keywords in page headlines. Page headlines are important - to your visitor as well as to search engines. Use short keyword phrases, including hot button words and phrases. Avoid 'fluff' and generic words.

My advice - use a strong headline on the page, and use the same headline in the title tag.

6. Use interesting text. Search engines actually count all the words on a webpage, then rank those words by frequency of use. The more often you use a word or phrase(up to a point), the higher you will rank with that word or phrase in the search engine. For that reason, be sure to include words or phrases that are likely to be searched for on your pages.

My advice - Keep your text short, on topic, and packed full of keywords. Avoid useless and meaningless words, and certain phrases that will place you in the penalty box.

7. Use the AlT tags on all images. Search engines are starting to index sites by the images found on the site. They accomplish this by looking at all the image tags on the page, and cataloging the ALT tags accompanying the image. Obviously if you don't use the ALT tag, then images on your site won't be properly cataloged. When using the alt tag, be sure to use a keyword or phrase describing the content of the image.

8. Use the Title tag on links. Search engines look at all text on the site, including the title tag on the links on your site. Most sites still don't use the link title tag, so when you do, you gain an advantage. The link title should be a short keyword or phrase.

My advice - Check out how the pages on my site have a left navigation menu filled with department names. I try to make these names keywords for my site, and the link to the departments all make use of the title tag. Doing it this way means that the search engine ranks the department names twice. Once as text, and again as a Link Title Tag.

9. Provide a Link Trail. Search engines coming to your site follow the links on the front page that lead into your site. These links should provide a 2 level trail to all pages on your site. If you don't provide a link trail, the search engines probably won't find all your pages. (And even if you do provide a 'link trail' - if you use the same title tag and Meta tags on your pages, the search engine may ignore all the pages beyond the first one.)

My advice - check out how every page on my site has a one click link trail to any department on the site. You are never more than two clicks away from any page. Plus every page has at least 30 different link trails (through the departments) making it easy for visitors as well as search engine spiders to move through the site.

10. Avoid the Penalty Box. Search engines are getting smarter every day, and they will penalize a site if it violates search engine rules. These rules include:

• Keyword spoofing - using keywords not related to site content
• Keyword spamming - pasting hundreds of copies of the keywords on the page just to get high ranking
• Numerous doorway pages - using hundreds of index pages that do nothing but point to the site
• Link Spamming - submitting links to the 500,000 link submission services
• Page Redirects - not necessarily a major penalty, but can cause loss of ranking
• Frames on Main Page - not necessarily a major penalty, but can cause loss of ranking
• Flash Movie on Main Page - not necessarily a major penalty, but can cause loss of ranking

11. Check for errors. Before you submit your page to the search engines, run the page through an html checker and a spelling checker. Search engines do check and take into consideration spelling and html errors, and will penalize a page that has too many of either.

My advice - take the time to do it right. If you get a poor ranking on a search engine it might be six weeks before the search engine comes back to re-rank you. Get it right before you submit to the search engines, and then keep it right so when the search engine returns, you will continue to get high rankings.

12. Manually submit the site. Don't be tempted to use an automatic site submission program. They don't work, and can get you penalized. Better to manually submit your site to the top search engines. Yahoo, Google, MSN.

My advice - Start with Google.com, then yahoo.com, and then MSN.com. Each has a place to register your site with their search engine.

This may seem a lot of work, but if you do it right and get high rankings, it will pay off.

Copyright Craige Stacey
http://www.publishergate.com

A Back Road Loophole For Getting a Top Google Ranking

by: Alexis Dawes

While everybody wants their site to receive a top 10 ranking in Google, it's just not possible for everyone.

And this is especially true if you've got a brand new site. New sites that have been crawled by the Googlebot are sometimes given a decent ranking in Google for a few days before they plunge to the depths of Neverworld.

What a TEASE that Google is!

The unknowing webmaster thinks they've hit paydirt with an almost instantaneous top 20-30 listing. Then one day - POOF - their site is gone as fast as it arrived.

Now the webmaster has to prove that the site has staying power by getting links from other sites within its niche. Not just any links. Links from sites with a decent PageRank would really do the trick. Getting listed in the infamous Yahoo! or Open Directory would be even better.

That's what the experts constantly tell us. And in fact, it's all 100% true.

However as the old saying goes... There's more than one way to skin a cat.

One of the things I teach my readers is that your site doesn't necessarily need a top 10 position in Google in order for you to be successful.

You can get your marketing message listed in Google's top 10 results for your targeted keyword, and still get a ton of traffic to your web site.

Let me explain how it works...

• You advertise on a specific site. (I'll tell you about this site in a few moments.) This advertisement will promote your web site;
• Your advertisement get's spidered by the Googlebot.
• Your advertisement receives a top Google ranking for your targeted keyword.
• People see your advertisement in Google, and click on to your actual web site.
• And this has NOTHING to do with placing an AdWords advertisement.

This loophole works because--

• Google LOVES itself.
• Google trusts that expert researchers are going to lead searchers to the right tools.

Users submit specific questions to Google Answers, and specify how much they're willing to pay for the answer. They accept questions on all types of topics ranging from arts and entertainment, business, health, science, and so on.

Google has an arsenal of 500 researchers who answer these questions.

While Google isn't accepting any more researchers, anybody with a Google account can post comments answering questions. People who post comments don't get paid like researchers, but that's not the important part.

Now here's where it gets juicy--

I've noticed that Google loves to list questions and answers from Google Answers within their top 10 search results.

For example, somebody posted a query saying that they needed a list of brokers who buy and sell used LED boards. You can view the query here: ( http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=458689 )

I ran a search on Google for the keyphrase "LED boards" and sure enough, this exact query from Google Answers showed up in the #2 position.

Any LED board broker could get a ton a free publicity here.

All they'd have to do is post a comment to this query listing their company as broker of LED boards. You can even list URL's in the comment.

And VOILA your job is done.

Your marketing message is listed in the #2 position under an extremely targeted keyphrase.

It's free, and you didn't have to break a sweat to do it. You simply added some information about your site, and got instant rank.

Making this technique work for you.

Google Answers receives many new queries every day.

Your job is to keep an eagle eye out for queries that you can post comments to, referring people back to your site.

But it's important to do a quick check several times a week.

It took less than 2 weeks from the time the LED board question was posted, till it reached the #2 position in Google's main search.

You want to make sure you get prime advertising space before the query get's a top 10 ranking. This way you maximize how much traffic you receive.

Copyright 2005 Alexis Dawes

About The Author
Alexis Dawes is the author of "Taking The Back Road To Get On Google's First Page." This report offers details on several more loopholes you can use to get a top Google ranking. You can find more information at ( http://www.Get-In-Google-Now.com ).

Google's Aging Delay for New Sites

By Scottie Claiborne (c) 2005

You've Got To Pay Your Dues

Many site owners and SEOs are worried because their new sites that rank well in Yahoo and MSN, aren't doing well in Google, and they're blaming it on the "sandbox." The current theory is that new sites are somehow being penalized for obtaining too many links, too quickly.

Is There a Sandbox?

Is there some sort of link analysis going on; some sort of threshold that will get links to new sites discounted? It sounds like a logical possibility. However, many of us who don't buy volume links or participate in linking networks are seeing the same ranking delays. New resource sites with a few good relevant links are taking just as long to climb Google's ranks as the instant link pop sites. I think a lot of people are confusing the sandbox, with an "aging filter" that appeared earlier this year.

6 Months For Results in Google

I haven't seen any brand new sites with new domains appear at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP) since early in 2004. There seems to be a delay of about 6-8 months. I've checked with many site owners and SEOs and I haven't found anyone who's gotten a brand new domain ranked well in Google. If there's a magic bullet, no one's spilling the beans.

What happens is new sites get indexed, they appear for some obscure queries and they may appear at the top for a week or so, but then they drop to the bottom of the SERP for several months. The page shows a PageRank in the Google toolbar, as well as backlinks. Everything else works fine but it just doesn't rank well for any terms in Google. Many times, not even the company name.

If you have a brand new site, stop driving yourself nuts wondering what you are doing wrong! Stop tweaking and changing things, trying to influence your rankings; until the site has been in the index a while, it doesn't seem to matter what you do to it.

Why an Aging Delay?

My own theory is that the age factor for new sites is Google's answer to mini-networks and other multi-site strategies intended to artificially inflate link popularity. Many people divide what should be a single site into multiple sites in order to capitalize on the links that are exchanged between them. Others build a series of small sites that are only designed to add link popularity to the main site.

By delaying the ranking of brand new sites, the mini-network strategy becomes more of a long-term strategy than a quick jump to the top. Site owners who might have started new sites are going to be more inclined to build new pages on existing sites in order to avoid that delay.

Plan Ahead for New Sites

If you are launching new sites for clients, make sure you set the expectation that it is likely to be 7-8 months before the site achieves any real results in Google.

We used to keep a site under wraps and launch it once it was "perfect." Now it makes sense to get a few pages up for your new site as soon as you complete them. The sooner Google is aware of the domain, the better.

As soon as you have a domain name, get the hosting set up, put up a temporary page and link to it from another site in Google's index to start that clock ticking.

Subdomains May Avoid the Aging Delay

Pages on subdomains are generally treated as part of the main domain, making them a possible workaround. If your client has the option of building their site on a subdomain instead of a new top-level domain name, let them know that this may avoid the time delay.

MSN, Yahoo, and AdWords

When launching a new site, if traffic from Google is critical to your plan for success you need to plan ahead. Get the site out there and linked to as early as possible and plan to run an AdWords and/or Overture campaign for a few months until the site can be established in the editorial results. Yahoo and MSN do not have this delay built in, so focus your early efforts on these engines.

Don't worry, Google will eventually give your new site the respect it deserves -- just give it time.

Scottie Claiborne is the Web Marketing Strategist for The Karcher Group and the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter . She is a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and the High Rankings Seminars as well as the administrator of the High Rankings Forum. This article originally published in the High Rankings Advisor.