Your Online Business Tune-Up: Boosting Your SEO Efforts in 2010

No matter how great your product is, or how great your website looks, your online business will be left spinning its wheels unless the search engines know you exist… and your potential customers can find you in the search engines!

We wrote on Day One about giving your website a thorough tune-up, and on Day Two about providing great content on your website to keep your visitors and customers coming back again and again.

Now we’re going to give you some tips on snagging more search engine traffic in 2010.

Revisit your keyword research regularly: If it’s been a few months (or a…

Google Caffeine: Will Google’s Tweaks Stir Up Your Search Ranking?

Nothing stays the same in search engine marketing.

Every now and the folks at Google put on their overalls and start messing around under the hood. They’ve been at it again recently, and sometime in the next couple of months we can expect the new, supercharged Google Caffeine.

These Google tweaks generally result in changes in search engine rankings. Sometimes significant changes! Will Google Caffeine change your search rankings? They’re giving you the chance to test it out.

You can test out the new Google Caffeine here. And if you’re impatient, you can see the results side by side with the with this Google Comparison Tool.

And…

Checklist of On-Page SEO Strategies

When was the last time you had a really good look at your website to make sure your search engine optimization is in top shape? It’s probably been a while… That’s why it’s a good idea to set some time aside every few months to make sure your site is still optimized for the search engine spiders.

When you’re readdressing your on-page SEO there are a few things you need to remember:

• The spiders determine what your site is about by looking for keywords in your text and in the HTML code behind your site.
• Your keywords need to relate to the content on the page.
• Spiders automatically follow…

Do you “Bing?”

(Yes, I just “verbed” Microsoft’s new search engine… I feel a little dirty.)

Since Microsoft released Bing in June, the new search engine has outperformed many people’s expectations. Unlike the ill-fated “Live,” Microsoft’s last attempt to introduce a search engine to go up against Google, Bing has been steadily gaining ground on its mammoth competitor.

A Unique Approach to SEO (giggle)

One of our mentors just passed the following email around the office, causing many of us to laugh out loud and even spew coffee in one case!

(OK, so we’re easily amused…)

What are the REAL Chances of Getting a #1 Ranking in Google

One of our readers left this comment on one of our recent blog posts :

“With an estimated 2 Billion websites now what is the real chance of SEO marketing companies really ranking anyone on page 1 of Google consistently with organic marketing?”

That’s a great question…

(But I think when the reader said “2 billion websites,” he was actually providing a ballpark estimate of the number of web pages on the ‘Net. The most recent stats we found said the number of websites was just over 182 million. But one website can have hundreds or even thousands of different pages to it.)

Despite…

Online Success Series Part Two: How Important Are Keywords?

Check out the first post in this series here.

Now that you’ve chosen a market to target through your intensive niche research, you’ll want to do three things to make sure your business actually connects with your market:

(Ready?)

Snag your ideal customer from the search engines…

Make it clear that you know exactly what they’re looking for, and why they’re looking for it…

… and let them know that you can easily provide the solution to their problems and concerns at your site!

Which is why NO sales website is complete without keywords.

Keywords act as roadmaps for your potential customers from search engines like Google and Yahoo —…

Easy Tip to Drive More Action-Primed Visitors to Your Site

When you optimize your site for the search engines, you need to place your keywords in prime locations throughout your site: in your title tags, your header and sub-header, your body copy, your image “alt” text, and so on.

But did you know that you can optimize for your call to action too?

Your call to action is the action you urge your visitors to take on your site, whether it’s making a purchase, downloading a free report, or signing up for your opt-in list.

You always want to use a strong, compelling verb that captures people’s attention and compels them to act. Good…

Google Now Lets You Change Domain Names

Finally! Google lets you change domains without losing rankings
(Warning: doesn’t work for subdomains)

Google has finally added a “Change of Address” feature to its Webmaster Tools that makes it easier for you to move from one domain to another without losing your rankings.

In the past, if you switched domains you could lose all your hard-earned rankings for your top keywords. But now, with Google’s new “Change of Address” feature, such moves should now become a lot smoother.

So if you’ve been hesitating to buy a new domain name that has your keywords in it or better reflects the value of what you offer, you can…

Google hands you relevant keywords on a plate

If you’re building a landing page or writing articles for SEO, this is a potential goldmine!

Google has added a helpful feature to its search results pages. After you enter your #1 keyword into Google, scroll down to the bottom of the results to find a table of links labeled “Searches related to:“. Each of those links is a whole new Google search.

These search suggestions weren’t generated by any genius Google code. They are based on real searches that actual people perform. The suggestions are the most common ways people refine their searches when they’re looking for your keyword.

Here’s an example. Say you search…