How Much SEO Do You Need To Get Top Rankings?

By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions, perpetuated by

industry SEO experts, is that a website must follow perfect SEO

strategies to get top rankings. While adhering to simple common

SEO standards does help the search engines both find and index

your site more quickly, it doesn’t guarantee by any stretch of

the imagination that following those SEO guidelines will propel

your site to the top of the rankings.
If only search engine optimization was that easy!
No doubt, there are some SEO faux pas that will do harm to

your site’s rankings, especially in Google, the ultimate

hall-monitor all puffed up and ready to pounce on any

misbehaving webmaster. Things such as keyword stuffing, keyword

spamming or linking out to bad neighborhoods such as link farms,

pharmaceutical or gambling sites may get you blacklisted.
But how much SEO do you need? How much search engine

optimization do you need to get top rankings? Do you need a

whole lot or do you need very little SEO?
Actually, after 10 years of marketing online, the answer to that

question varies depending upon what you’re trying to accomplish

with your SEO efforts? If you’re operating an online business in

a very competitive (read lucrative) market, SEO will be high on

your agenda as you go about annihilating your competition.
Even if you’re an ordinary webmaster or website owner you’re

probably fussing over your rankings in the search engines. The

higher the rankings you achieve for your chosen keywords; the

more traffic you will get. Good quality traffic that converts

well into loyal subscribers and fans of your site.
Many webmasters and companies spend thousands of dollars each

month in order to get their keywords and sites up to the top of

the list. If you’re into affiliate marketing, your daily income

will rise and fall almost parallel to your rankings. Now, if my

earnings increase, I know automatically my rankings have gone

up, usually in Google. If my earnings go down, I know my

rankings have gone south. Some times even a drop or rise of one

place on the first page SERPs will affect how much you earn.
Obviously, because of this fact, SEO or how well I am optimized

for the search engines is extremely important to me. I am

constantly building quality links and quality content for my

sites. Some keyword battles you win, some battles you lose. I

have been fighting some keyword battles for over 3 or 4 years

now!
But how much SEO is enough? How much SEO should you do with your

sites? Many webmasters make sure all their on page set-up or

lay-out is done exactly to what the SEO experts say you should

do. This is not a bad idea. Make sure your Title, URL,

Headlines, Keyword Density… are all laid out right. These are

things we can control and adjust to meet the SEO standards.
Other SEO or ranking factors are much harder to predict, many of

them are simply out of our control. How other sites link to us,

what they put in the anchor text, what they say about us…

simply things we can’t control.
I believe the over-riding reason why your site is listed at the

top of any rankings has to do with the number, the quality and

the quantity of sites linking back to your page. The higher the

number of related quality one-way links you have flowing back to

your site, the higher it will perform in the rankings. Your

anchor text is very important (underlined part of a link); it

must contain your keywords or variations of it. The content on

the linking page should also be related to your chosen keywords.
Get this part right and you will get high rankings.
Or at least this has been my experience – all the other ranking

factors do count but this is the over-riding factor in my

opinion.
Another major ranking factor lately, has been the importance

Google is placing on social media links. Get your content to the

first page of Digg with lots of diggs and it will rank high in

Google. This is not surprising when you consider the nature of

these social bookmarking sites… it really is an actual “vote”

for the quality of your content. Getting Delicious bookmarks has

a similar positive effect.
Another prominent factor, from my observations, is having your

major keyword in your Domain Name. Use hyphens if you want but

having those keywords in there, does help rather than hinder

your rankings.
Now if you’re wondering about how Google ranks pages or your

keywords…. Google has around 200 ranking factors (with filters

and penalties thrown in to make all our lives interesting) which

it uses to rank your keywords/pages. This is still the best

online resource that lists all of Google’s ranking factors:

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm
Now the question still remains, how much SEO do you need? How

much time should you spend at optimizing, building links,

worrying your head off over the latest Google Itch?
The answer always comes back to quality content. Create a site

that has quality content and the SEO will take care of itself.

People will link to your site, you will get bookmarks in all the

social media sites, Google will find your content and rank it.

Your SEO will grow naturally as your site grows. Keep building

more pages, keep targeting more and more related keywords in

your niche or subject area and you will get higher rankings.
Now, of course, some webmasters are a little more aggressive in

how quickly they want their rankings to rise to the top of the

search engines. Here’s something you can do if you want to go

into the SEO battle full-force.
1. Download SEOquake (http://www.seoquake.com/) and place this

free SEO toolbar plug-in on your Firefox (or I.E.) browser.
2. Go to Google and type in the keyword or keyword phrase you’re

targeting with your site or content.
3. Click on the number one ranking and observe how many pages it

has indexed, PageRank, how many backlinks it has, age of the

site… and so on.
4. Then click the page info button and study all the on-page

factors this site has and notice what it’s doing with its page

and keyword density lay-out.
5. Check all the backlinks this site has in the different search

engines. Copy or try to get the same backlinks for your site

that your competitor has acquired. Then get more backlinks

and/or higher quality backlinks than your competitor.
6. Watch your rankings rise…
Just a few more words of wisdom and we’re done. Some battles

will be too tough to fight, the competition will be so stiff you

just can’t compete. Other battles will take a long time; months,

even years before you rise to the top. Your best bet is to

choose long-tail (multi-worded) keywords that have little or no

competition. You can rise to the top within days, even hours.

The sweet thing is this: long-tail keywords are often the most

lucrative and bring in the most sales. For in the final

analysis, you just don’t want SEO, you want smart SEO. And you

will quickly learn, most times you can often out-smart your

competition, even if you can’t out-rank them.

“Site conversion” is a dull way of saying “how to get more profits from the same amount of website traffic.” And Who doesn’t want to get more profit from the same number of visitors?

Increasing your conversion rate is a straightforward, even dramatic way of positively impacting your bottom line. It really cannot be emphasized too much that any improvement at all in your conversion rate means additional revenue that is total profit.

Remember this when you are told that the way to “make more money” is to invest in more traffic-generating schemes (and dreams, at times). Before you start spending more money to generate additional traffic, you need to do as much as you can to make sure the traffic you are getting is being converted as well as they can. By making sure your site conversions are maximized, you will have a more accurate track of visitors to conversions to optimize.

The following tips are not in any particular order (except for Number 1), and can be modified and reordered to suit your particular situation. Take ownership of the change and improvement, and make sure everyone involved understands the importance of maximizing every revenue source, beginning with the existing ones!

1: Before you can repair or improve something, you have to have a good way of measuring where you are, what you’re doing, where you’re going, etc. You can sign up for a free Google Analytics account and use other low- and no-cost tools to develop your “analytics” and “metrics” – essentially fancy words that tell you how you’re doing with numbers.

2: Create landing pages that are both keyword- and campaign-specific. Try separating any related pay-per-click keywords into smaller and tighter groups, and then create the landing pages for each of those new subgroups. Conversions will almost certainly be better if keywords, advertising approaches and landing pages are thematically related and tightly integrated.

3: Test different headlines and copy writing. This might be the most effective way of quickly showing improvements. Therefore, you need to write compelling copy or find someone else who can do it for you. There is plenty of free advice about this (much of it worth every penny you pay for it), but the importance of copywriting as it affects site conversions cannot possibly be overstated. This is key.

4: It is very important to test your pricing, as it really does make a huge difference in conversions. If your goal is to maximize customer value, then the highest converting price may not actually be the optimal one. In other words, if you raise your price by 50% and only see a 10% reduction in conversions, you will more than compensate for the drop. Going the other direction, if you lower the price 15% and this doubles or triples your ratio, your gain compensates for your price reduction. Test your prices, and test them in both directions.

5: Website load time has become an oft-overlooked item in this age of “broadband everywhere.” Load time is critically important in reducing your “bounce rate” on landing pages. There are various online services that will measure your load speed (websiteoptimization.com), and when you know what it is, you can reduce it by compressing images, removing redundant items, optimizing your style sheets (CSS) and HTML code, and so on. The referenced website will also give you advice on other ways to improve your site’s load speed.

6: Clearly identify the sales path(s) and discard any points of resistance, or bottlenecks. Even if you have just a single product, there may be a number of different “paths” that lead to a sale. Perhaps you have a landing page to acquire visitor contact data, which then takes them to a sales page, and then to an order page, and so on. Check your metrics and analytics carefully and you should start seeing patterns in how your visitors navigate your site. If you can see when, where and how visitors are leaving the site, you can delete unnecessary steps, enhance the sales copy or the “call to action,” insert a few testimonials, emphasize your warranty or something else to capture that business. Do everything you can to keep the sales process simple and straightforward. The less confusing it is, the less resistance visitors will display.

7: Let your praises come from others’ lips. Sometimes talking about oneself can sound egotistical, and it has been clearly proven that third-party testimonials boost conversions. In marketing it is called “social proof” when you bring in statements and assessments from others to buttress your message. If you add testimonials – short blurbs, highlighted quotes, letters – to your various landing pages, sales pages and even shopping cart pages, you will almost invariably notice an improvement in your conversion rate.

8: You need to understand the mind of your market, and your customer’s experience with your website. Place an order on the site yourself as you step into the mind of a first-time visitor. Identify the hang-ups, inefficiencies and confusing or missing components that hinder your conversions. In concert with step #6 above, you want to identify why you are not converting, so that you can make the necessary improvements, whatever they may be, to improve your ratio.

9: Some people believe passionately in the power of media on landing, sales and order pages to raise conversions considerably. Others are not convinced, and there is not much hard data from controlled studies to consult. You should consider testing this idea yourself. You should try pages both with and without automatic play engaged. The idea is to lower buyer resistance, and if media helps, all the better. Music, motion graphics and video do add life and personality to your website, but there is a “sweet spot” (balancing point) and the fact remains that different age and cultural groups respond differently to the media. You need to make changes here in the context of your site’s demographics. You wouldn’t put rock music on your page of ladies’ perfumes, probably – unless you have a 20-something demographic and it’s a signature fragrance from U2 or some other chart-topping band.

Aren’t most of these lists called the “top 10″ this or that? You can count this tip as a bonus, then: Keep track of everything you do! Nothing “goes without saying” anymore, so you are hereby reminded that all your hard work can go for nothing if you do not keep good records of what changes you are making, when, where, why and how. Chart your progress, review it regularly and don’t be afraid to make continuing refinements as you move along your strategic path.

Finally, as a “super bonus tip” – use some kind of sales accelerator, “offer intensifier” or other method to move people faster through the sales process. It could be a special “one time” or “limited time” offer, a limited quantity offer or even a “special event” promotion. Research what’s going on at other sites in your industry and others, and stay abreast of what seems to be working. Add your creativity to the mix, tailor things to your company’s situation and you should start seeing increased conversion rates in short order.

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How does Google Incorporate the Hawthorn Effect

First off, what is the “Hawthorn Effect” ?

The Hawthorn Effect refers to the proneness of people to work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment. It was found that many people change their behavior due to the attention they are receiving from researchers..

The Hawthorne Effect was first discovered in 1924 by researchers at Harvard University who were studying the relationship between productivity and the work environment. Conducting these experiments at the Hawthorn Plant of Western Electric in Chicago found that productivity increased due to attention from the research team and not because of changes to the experimental variable.

Wait, I thought this article was about Google in the 21st century?
Did you know that Google is watching you? Quick, go put some pants on! No, not that way, get your mind out of the gutter! Google is watching you in a user behavioral and beneficial manner. Google is working on several products and projects that will eventually change how the search engine will respond to your interaction. The process is for Google to capture your request for information and measure the response to the data it provides you. Google obtains key data that helps them understand how to better manipulate the results that are being returned to you by measuring your responses. There are several beta tools currently in place testing to help them determine their course of action and refine their process in an effort to produce a better user experience for.
The “Web History” utility that is now available to all users of Google Search. Collects information about the sites you visit and uses it to generate a better response to your queries. This utility contains…

1) The ability to view and manage your web activity – search across the full text of the pages you’ve visited, including Google Searches, web pages, images and news stories.

2) Get search results that are more personalized and based on the things you’ve searched for on Google and the sites you’ve visited.

3) Get reports on your trends and web activity – how many searches did you conduct and at what time of the day. Which sites do you frequent the most?

Want to learn more about this utility? Then visit google.com/psearch
So, How will This Collected Web History affect the Search Engine industry?
Well, on its own, or combined with other beta tools in the making, it will help Google provide you with results that you want to see the most, and it will help remove items that you are not interested in seeing. In other words, Google is now tailoring the search results to each indivdual person searching on the web. Joe will get different resutls than Jan when they both search the exact same keyword.
Let’s experiment?
Put on your google goggles! Begin by creating a user account with Google. Then turn Web History on for a week or so, and chase your tail looking at keywords that are specific to the ranking of your website or a site you are maintaining. Check several times a day, closing and relaunching your browser each time you check. Eventually you are going to see a message near the top of the window that the results of your search are being influenced by… you guessed it… Web History. Pay attention to where your site is ranking with Web History turned on.

Now, after a week of allowing “Web History” to collect some information… go to your google account and turn it off, and check your page positions on Google for the same Keywords? Did you see any difference? You betcha! Google is watching you and capturing your behavior and they are manipulating your search results to match your expectations and what they perceive is your preference based on the “experiences” they have collected from you. If Web History perceives that Pink Watches by a particular manufacturer are important to you in the majority of your searches, they will bubble to the top of the page while other Pink watches by different manufactures will sink lower and lower.

Is it the end of the Search Engine Optimizing Industry?

Most likely not, factors that will make one site’s links above another will most likely not be completely limited to the users interaction and preference in the future. Traditional factors we all know and pursue like content and page ranking will continue to play a part in winning the position on the page.

Will it end here?

I doubt it! There’s at least two more prominent areas where Google can capture user preferences and then modify the result set to meet their expectations, and they are actively testing or running programs to do exactly that right now.

Mac or PC, The Final Authority Answers the Question.

Are you a PC or Mac user?
Thinking about getting a new computer?
Confused about what software you need?
Wondering what system is best for making videos?

http://www.CreateWealthOnTheInternet.com/mac_or_pc

The answer is here in a video a friend of mine made.

He discusses:
- the benefits of each system
- the features and options you should look for
- brands
- what software to get
- where to get the best deals

Whether you’re a newbie or advanced user, you’ll enjoy this
video.

Enjoy,
David Budlong

P.S. This is exactly the type of video content you want to make and
blast out all over the Web to get top rankings, traffic and leads.

http://www.CreateWealthOnTheInternet.com/mac_or_pc

P.P.S. Send this to anyone you know who’s thinking about making “the switch”
or thinking about getting a new machine.

How to Finance a New Online Business..

This is a great topic that could take a long time to answer.  I will be honest here, there are a lot of ways…

• dig into the college fund
• sell off some old stuff on e-bay
• go to the SBA
• get a loan from a bank
• get a new business credit card
• do it on a budget

All of these are viable ways to finance a new online business. Most you may not want to do. But for me, the best way is OPM.  OPM “Other People’s Money” is the best way to start a new online business.  The hardest way to use OPM is to find a rich friend and wait till they kick it and hope they have included you in their will.

One of the easiest ways to use OPM is to apply for and get a business Credit Card. There are a lot of credit card offers out there these days, and you need to find the best deal for you by comparing these cards. A web site I use a lot for my credit questions, EasyCreditRepair750.com has  a great page where you can select several different cards to look at and compare them so you can get the best value. Many of these cards are offering 0% financing for the first few months or even a year in some cases.

If your credit is halfway descent, 670 or above, it is quite easy to get one of these cards.

As an example, lets say you get a $10,000 credit line at 0% interest for 6 months, you would have more than enough to start your online business. It takes about $50.00 for your domain and hosting, $2000.00 for a serious online course, $2000.00 to attend a Seminar to get some hands on and networking accomplished and $5000.00 to live on for a month or two while you get your business up and running, leaving you $950 as a slush fund.

So instead of using your own money to start an online business, check into using Other Peoples Money. Visit the EasyCreditRepair750.com blog site and click on the orange tab labeled “Credit Card Comparison”

If you don’t want to go through that hassle, I have collected and reviewed two cards I used and provided you links and reviews below.

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