Hermesmyth Internet Marketing Blog

I wish all my Blog Vistors, Internet Marketing Learners and Readers a Very Happy, Prosperous and a Successful New Year 2010.

Thank You For your Kind Support all these days, and expecting your continued support all the way to 2010……

Most of the website designers and developers  often concentrate on the design, look and feel, aesthetics of the website, whereas  forget about the name, size and the number  of  images appearing in the webpage. So it’s a must  to optimize the images. There are two types of Graphic Optimization,  one which helps in acheiving high speed website and the other which help in search engine optimization.

1. Optimizing the Image Size ie. Creating a image which is less in size.
 
The graphic/image present in the website should be less in size and more efficient , hence when a website gets downloaded, along with the image also gets downloaded. So if the image size is big, then it would take time for the website to display and also consumes high bandwidth.

Say for example, if a image is 40 KB, it would take some time to get downloaded, instead if it is just 4 KB, within a fraction of milli-seconds it would get downloaded, which results in quick display of the web page.

Recommendation:  It’s recommended that the homepage or any other page is less than 200 KB overall and with less than 20 Objects. This would increase the download speed of the website at the same time doesn’t consume more bandwidth.

2. Optimizing the Image Name

When Website Templates are created, it involves writing a style sheet, which may contain some images. It is good to name the images as header_img.gif , body_img_bg.gif etc in case of style sheets to easily understand,  whereas when it comes to products boxes, mangement people images, its good to have the name related that product.

Say for example, if there is an antivirus program boxshot,  you can name the image as “Buy_Antivirus.gif” with an alt text as “Virus protection software” etc. So this would also help the website listed in search engines for keywords like buy antivirus software protection etc. Because all the search engine spiders see only the text and not the image. So its necessary to the image with relevant names which adds value to SEO. In case you the an antivirus software as “as.jpg” then as is not going to be listed nor conveys a meaning.

So while creating a website HTML,HTML Images, CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)Images, Image names , size , format (recommended is gif, png) ,Javascript, Graphics and multimedia objects should be given importance.

Hope this helps!

H1, H2, Alt Texts , Page Title are more important when optimizing a website. So its important to have the target keywords  in these tags. Below are the few important HTML tags that needs to be used in SEO.

Title Tag

<title> Internet Marketing Blog </title> – This tag is the one which is more important and would be seen in search engine results as well as browsers.

Meta Tags

Keyword Tag – This would contain the words which are generally searched in search engines

<meta name=”keywords” content=”keyword, keywords, key words, effective search terms, search keywords “>

Description Tag -  Gives a short description about what the page is about.

<meta name=”description” content=”Optimize your website with important SEO HTML tags”>

Author -  Provide the author name or email address

<meta name=”author” content=”Yuvaraj Hermesmyth”>

Robots – a conditon with which we can allow or disallow indexing by search engines
<meta name=”robots” content=”allow”>

Header Tags

<h1> Heading 1 </h1>
<h2> Heading 2 </h2>
<h3> Heading 3 </h3>
<h4> Heading 4 </h4>
<h5> Heading 5 </h5>
<h6> Heading 6  </h6>

Tag for Automatically Refreshing a Webpage after 20 Seconds

<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”20;url=http://www.hermesmyth.com/”>

Tag for Image Optimization

Optimizing a image name is also important. A good alt text will also be helpful in SEO.

<img src=”painting.gif” alt=”Mordern Paintings” />

Email Tag

When you want to post an email and when clicked it that needs to be opened in the users default email client this tag is used.

<a href=”mailto:yuvaraj@hermesmyth.com?subject=Hello%20Yuvaraj“> Send Mail</a>

Hyperlinks

Internal Links or Links placed within the webpage should have proper keywords in alt text, which helps the website rank better.

<a href=”http://artgallery.hermesmyth.com” alt=”Art Gallery, Mordern Day Paintings”>Art Gallery</a>

Few important points to be noted:

1.) Website Submission: When a website is submitted in a website it is good to have minimum 200 words, with 2-3% keyword density.

2..) Javascripts sometimes prevents the search engines to crawl the entire page, so its good have the Javascripts, call/embed the link inside the html page, like we call forward the CSS and embed in a webpage.

3.) Don’t use Frames or limit the usage of frames, hence search engine won’t recognize the frameset which cause lot of problems to the search engine spiders. Its better to use internal hyperlinks inside frames, if you wanted to have frames.

4.) Flash Pages:  Use the Meta keywords and description tag for flash pages.  Webpages which are completed designed using flash is called as splash pages. Most of these flash components are not recognized by search engines as they are not HTML hyperlinks.

5.)  Have Speed, Reliable and  Best Web Hosting Server, to prevent website down-times.

Globally today internet is playing a major role in any type of business. Even we can say that internet has become a part of our day-to-day life. Individuals, Small Scale Business sectors to large scale business sectors, has been investing lot of money and time to attract worldwide customers to their website via internet search engines, to enhance and promote their company’s brand name and products.   In order to drive more traffic to a website and get a good percentage of conversion rates, an organised internet marketing strategy needs to be worked out. Below are few important points that need to be followed while doing online marketing.

• Design your website in a way that you sell your concept and then the product. This means, you need have a good design, which attracts the customers and is pleasant to the eye, meanwhile is should say what your company/product is about, with a CALL TO ACTION
• Follow up-to-date Search Engine Optimization Techniques. Keep studying quality SEO forums, blogs etc. I would recommend you to have a glance at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ and http://www.seochat.com/
• Build quality links focusing on right keywords
• Email Campaign – Shoot out regular emails and newsletters to your target customers. Be sure you provide an unsubscribe option and opt-in list in your emails and website.
• Do regular Press Releases, and submit it to editors and PR websites. Get your products reviewed my product review editors
• Assist your customers via forums, blog and respond them as soon as you find a new thread or question
• Write and publish your articles online, and submit it to article publishing websites and social media websites.
• Analyse your website on a periodic basis to check for broken links, redirects, sitemaps and other related information
• Promote your products, providing special offers in your website.
• Update your website regularly
• Prepare monthly web metrics and progress of your website traffic vs. conversion rates
• Last but not the least – Have a constant eye on your competitor’s website and marketing strategies.

Do you have a blog or website and want to make money with it - sign up  now to earn some revenue.

Source: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/search-engine-market-share.aspx?qprid=4

Day-to-day there are some changes that has been happening around web. So we Search Engine Optimizers need to be aware about all the recent happenings both the on-page optimisation techniques and off-page optimisation techniques to acquire top rankings in all major search engines, which inculde google, yahoo, rediff, msn and many more.

Below are list of few latest trends in SEO at present, which needs to be followed to get good rankings for our website.

1.) Identifying and researching proper target Keywords

2.)  Professional keyword based content / copywriting

3.) Web Page Content Optimization

4.) Graphic / Image name optimization

5.) Localized / Regional / Geographical Optimization

6.) Social Media Optimization / Social Bookmarkingearch

7.) Press Releases and Articles writing / distributing

8.) Blogging, participation in discussion boards / forums

9.) Link Building – with right focus keywords

                                                                                             10.) Usability Testing – Based on Web Analytics

Can  we implement SEO in all the fields ranging from Pin to plane industry? (This is a common question asked by SEO Beginners)

Yes offcourse, its all about the actual marketing tactic and the concept understanding. If you understand who your target customer is, then you need not worry about what industry it is.

Sometime back, I was asked a question, you have been experienced only in the security software industry, and now how would you do SEO for our  Mobile industry. I was bit puzzled, hence the interviewer had got good experience in marketing. (I just got puzzled, when the interviewer said, I have been in this mobile industry for the past 15 years, and if you leave me in internet security industry, I won’t be able to market it) Then I thought for a while, and said, its all about the understanding of the marketing concept and the product. If I know what the product is, and whom it is meant for  then really its not a big concern. I know where to get my Cup of Tea from.  The true fact is that, if we understand the product and know our target customers then we need not worry about what the industry is going to be. We can definitely make our money there if we are really well in what we do.

You can go through the off-page optimization tips and on-page optimization tips to better perform in the interviews. But be sure, you have implemented them atleast once, to know about the pro’s and con’s, which the interviewer may question you

Most of the fresh search engine optimizers spend lot of time in certain things which are not that much we need to worry while optimizing a website. Below are few common mistakes that needs to be avoided while doing SEO for a website

1.) Don’t spend lot of time researching meta keywords. Its better you can use the keywords which are already present in the website.

2.) Focusing on keyword density is no more of that much importance, if you focus on keyword density more, then your website may probably move above one site, that’s it. So you can have the keywords occurances in the content itself. Also long tail keywords would help your website rank good.

3.) Avoid keyword stuffing in H1, H2 Tags. Don’t provide the same keyword in H1,H2 tags, I may affect the search rankings. Its better you use the appropriate, descriptive tags, which itself will bring your site to top based on relevancy.

4.) Avoid Duplicate Content, don’t copy paste someone’s content in your website. Hence the content which you copy paste may be already indexed by search engines. Duplicate content not only leads to legal copy right issues, but also affects your search rankings.

5.) Reciprocal linking – Gone are those days. But while providing reciprocal links, check how the other website is relevent to your business/website and what  their page rank is. If their page rank is more less when compared to yours, your page rank might get shared.

6.) Creating Sitemaps – Sitemaps are used by your website visitors for easy navigation and other by search engines for quick and easy indexing. So don’t create a sitemap with keywords which are linked outside. Because many do provide the backlinks in sitemap with a good keyword. Sitemap must be of your website and not linked to third parties.

7.) Most of the fresh SEO learners read lot of posts searching in the web and implement all known and unknown things reading certain wrong postings. I wish Search Engine Beginners, should first strategize what needs to done and do it accordingly. Good Luck will follow you .

Also read On Page Optimization and off page optimization.

Viral Marketing the word itself says a technique in marketing which can spread fast like a fever. But how? Yes the marketing fever that spreads fast via Social Networking Sites, where there should be definitely a group of people gathering or buzzing around.

Companies ranging from Start-up to Days-old are interested in creating a successful viral marketing programs to reach their target customers, spreading viral messages that appeal the individuals or a set of people who spread the message fast to their community.

Viral Marketing is like telling a secret to a women , Yes, its spreads so fast if effectively conveyed and is passed along from one individual to a group of individual who is ready to hear the individuals speak.

Online Viral Marketing techniques involve Social Networking Sites, media sites, Video Clips, games, images and also tech messages. These modes are used to create brand awareness between individuals,enterprises and others.

Viral Marketing can be done using your favorite websites which you visit regularly with lot of interest. Few Sites to point out include

www.youtube.com
www.orkut.com
www.facebook.com
www.twitter.com
www.digg.com and more…

Honestly Viral Marketing is now becoming the highest contributor to SEO, link building activities and other online marketing tactics.

Few has been asking me how to select an SEO consultant, or Agency to optimize their website. I would like to share a few tips in choosing the right SEO Professional. Below are those.

1. Don’t beleive in Agencies, who Guarantee 1st Position in Few Weeks

There is lot competition, and there are lots of rules and work that needs to be done to bring a website to a first position. Though all those are done, it very very tough to bring our website to top rankings for all our target keywords. So better don’t believe agencies who say, “We will bring your website to No.1 for all your target keywords”.

2. Ask for Real Facts

Always ask the SEO specialist about the real facts and the possibilities of the site to rank top. For ranking top, what and all needs to be done and average time period etc.

3. Link Building

A good SEO professional will provide the list of links he has purchases to do link building. Moreover its our right to ask for list of links purchased, hence we are paying them to acquire those links.

4.  SEO Plans

Ask the SEO specialist to plan execution. What and they are planning to do, and what needs to be done in our part to execute their SEO plan effectively.

5.  Website Objects

Make sure you are aware about the activities carried out the SEO professional, and all the accounts, domains, content, images etc used for promoting the website is  rooted to you. “Please donot outsource your website project to a agency who says, links, promotional content are confidential”.

6. Reports

Be sure you get the reports periodically, along with the list of activities carried on and a comparitive performance once is 3 months. A professional SEO Consultant would explain the realy facts after the first 3 months of exclusive research, and from next phase he would be able to better bring the site up.