The vast majority of people who have their own website realize the importance of keywords and just how vital they are if you want your site picked up by the search engines. Unfortunately though, there are still scores of website owners who are not yet familiar with “long-tail” keywords. Essentially, they have the potential to drive a ton of targeted traffic to your site, which is why you should use long-tail keywords.

So what exactly are long-tail keywords? Perhaps the easiest way for me to explain, is by giving a few examples:

Niche – acne
Basic keywords – acne, pimples, zits
Long-tail keywords – types of acne, home remedies for pimples, how to get rid of zits

Niche – cars
Keywords – auto, car, motor vehicle
Long-tail keywords – buying a used car, second hand cars, how to change a car tire

Of course, these are just a few examples. I’m sure you could think of many more. However, the key benefits are:

• Long-tail keywords are much easier to rank for.
• People who search by using long-tail keywords are far more likely to become buyers!

How Long-Tail Keywords Can Benefit You

The purpose of any keyword is to get traffic to your site, but where long-tail keywords differ from regular keywords is, they allow you to reach quality targeted traffic. While they may not bring as much traffic as regular keywords, the traffic they bring will be more likely to convert. Why? Because the traffic from long-tail keywords, will be people who were searching for those specific terms in the first place. Ideally, if you want to take full advantage of long-tail keywords, you should use them on all the pages of your site because not only will they bring quality traffic, but they’ll also help with your search engine rankings.

The Ideal Way to Use Long-Tail Keywords

As I’ve said already, you’re best off if you place a couple of long-tail keywords on as many pages as you can and of course, use the most searched for words in your site’s title. Another recommendation I always make is, your long-tail keywords should be in bold, so visitors see the words they were searching for immediately. In fact, having them in bold also makes them more visible to search engines. Just remember not to overdo it. Another useful tactic is renaming your webpage files, using your long-tail keywords. Here’s an example: http://www.yoursite.com/types-of-acne.html.

How to Determine What Long-Tail Keywords to Use

If you’re looking for the most commonly “searched for” long-tail keywords then you’ll more than likely find Google Adwords Keyword Tool invaluable. Another outstanding tool which many Internet marketers are using is Micro Niche Finder, a tool specifically designed to help them with SEO.

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Traffic to a website is like oxygen is to a human and there is simply no better way of getting traffic, than having your site listed on the front page of Google search results. Of course, if you do have loads of technical expertise it’ll certainly help you in getting your site on page one but it certainly isn’t essential. Below are some tips which can be applied by anyone whether you’re a techie or not.

Understand Your keywords

Okay, the first thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that keyword research requires no technical skills, so don’t be tempted to skip it. Simply write down all the words and phrases you can think of which relate to the type of business your site is involved in. Next, use a free keyword research tool to establish how frequently people search for those words or phrases. By following this method, you’ll be able to see which words and phrases have the least competition. An additional benefit is, you’ll more than likely discover a range of other suitable keywords as well.

Article Writing and Article Submission

The golden rule when it comes to writing is, always write good quality articles which your readers will find helpful. When you submit them to article directories, you’ll be given an opportunity to include links back to your site in the resource box so always remember to include a resource box for this reason. Furthermore, make sure your anchor text includes your keyword and just in case I’ve lost you, your anchor text is the wording that someone will click on in order to visit your site.

The reason I say your anchor text must include keywords, is because search engines use this as one of the means of ranking your site. Essentially, simply type in your catch phrase including keywords or keyword phrase and then insert a hyperlink so when someone clicks on it, they are taken to your site.

Submitting Your Website to Directories

In all probability, links from these directories won’t result in any direct traffic but they will improve your ranking. Interestingly enough, if you have links from sites with a high page ranking, they can be worth their weight in gold because not only will they boost your own ranking, but they also tend to project your site in a very professional light.

Blogging

Starting your own blog can work wonders for your site because it introduces you to a world of potential customers in addition to increasing your site’s visibility. One thing you need to understand though is, you need to ensure your blog gets lots of fresh content daily. This has a knock-on effect because the more people read your blog posts, the more the search engines will like you and that in turn means you’ll get more traffic to your site.

Well, as you can see from the steps I’ve mentioned above, you really don’t need to be SEO specialist or any other sort of techie person in order get more traffic to your site.

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I don’t think that anyone in the Internet world would argue the fact that blogging is very popular. I’m also willing to bet that very few people, especially those whose business is making money on the Internet, would argue the fact that there is a lot of money to be made blogging. However, you have to do it right, and part of doing it right is by making your blog search engine friendly.

The search engines are changing everyday based on what and how the users of the search engine are looking for information. Which means that you need to stay on top of the game and take advantage of beneficial tactics to help make sure that your blog is going to be seen.

The very first priority that you should have is to optimize your blog, which I’m sure you know means search engine optimization. This means that the content you are putting on your blog is keyword optimized. It also entails that you have taken the time to do the research and find the words and phrases that are most searched for that are related to the topic of your blog. A blog that is well optimized and loaded with unique content is more likely to get more exposure than a blog that does not have the following things:

1. Text Navigation

The first thing you need to take into consideration is text navigation. JavaScript and Flash navigation is wonderful, except for the fact that the search engines have a difficult time reading it. So if you’re going to use either of these options, then you’re going to want to display a text version of your navigation elsewhere on your website. Most people tend to put the text version at the bottom of the page. Adding the text version of your navigation is going to help the search engines spider your site more effectively.

2. Sitemaps

As far as I’m concerned a sitemap is essential for any website that is really meant to be seen and make money. There are two reasons for this, first a search engine spider is able to enter your sitemap and then navigate through your entire site with ease. I recommend that you go to Google and submit a sitemap.xml or install this WordPress plugin on your blog as described in this article post. The second reason that a sitemap is a must is because it helps visitors navigate your site and find the information they are looking for.

3. Change Your Permalink Structure

Search engine spiders have a difficult time making sense of the numbers at the end of your url. Go into your control panel and customize your url, so that you can use different tags from your permalinks and archives. Which means that when you post to your blog the link that people are going to see, as well as the search engines spiders will be something like this:

Post: The Best Way to Optimize Your Website
URL: http://yourdomain.com/category/the-best-way-to-optimize-your-website/

4. Blogger’s Lab Suggestion

Probloggers everywhere will tell you that you should only use a postname tag for your permalink. However I also recommend that you use a category tag along with the postname. This helps give you a wide range of keywords in your URL.

5. Single Post Title – Customize

Believe it or not the page title is a important part of search engine optimization. Search engines such as Google include page titles in their search results. This is important because you really don’t want to go to the search page and see the name of your website in each and every search result. Instead you want people to see the attention grabbing title that you came up with for your post.

6. Images

It is equally important that you use images on your website, and that you tag them with keywords so that they have the biggest effect when you’re optimizing your site for the search engines and making your site more search engine friendly. There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words and if you tag it the right way it will help boosts your search engine power. On top of that, it will greatly enhance the viewing pleasure for your visitors.

What other things do you do to make your blog search engine friendly. Share them here in the comments section.

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Have you ever wanted to go to a site that you were visiting the other day, but for the life of you, you can’t now remember?  No, it’s not time to pack it in and start taking more fish oil for forgetfulness – the truth is that the domain name that you were thinking about just wasn’t that memorable!

When you are starting an online business or putting an existing business online, you will find that there are plenty of reasons for you to be concerned about the domain name that you are going to be choosing.  Your domain name can make the difference between mediocre sales and spectacular one, and once you have picked it, you will, for the most part, be stuck with it.  I’ve found that your domain name is part of your brand strategy as well as part of the way that people identify you, and if you want everyone to keep you in mind, no matter what their memory is, you’ll find that you need to keep a few things in mind.

Should I Use Dashes?

You’ll find that one way to break up the URL and to get a more commonly worded domain name is to break up the domain name with dashes.  While there are some successful websites that do this, you’ll find that there are reasons to avoid it.  It is generally understood that websites with dashes look less professional than ones without, and you will also find that for the most part, typing in the dash will be a bit more difficult for your customers.  While this isn’t a huge thing, you’ll find that this small bit of difficulty can make a difference.  Unless your business actually has a dash in the name, avoid this convention.

Choosing the Extension

When you go to choose your domain name, you’ll find that you have a choice between addresses and their extensions.  If at all possible, you’ll find that choosing the .com extension is going to work the best for you.  While choosing the .net or .org option could also work, you’ll find that generally .net is best for Internet or tech related business and .org usually refers to a non-profit organization of some kind.  You’ll also find that if you are looking to market only to a particular country that you can pick a country specific extension, like .ca for Canada and .fr for France.

Subject of the Domain Name

Your domain name should reflect directly on your business.  For instance, your company’s name can be made into your domain name, unless it has already been taken.  You’ll find that this will cut down on confusion.  If you cannot get your company’s name, you may want to take a look at what your company does.  When someone looks at your URL, they should have a rough idea of what you do, whether it’s computer repair, clothing alterations or cheese sale!

Things to Stay Away From

The more variables that happen to be in your domain name, the more difficult people are going to find it.  In my experience, you should never use abbreviations unless they are extremely obvious and you should stay away from numbers as well.  This makes it easy for your customers and for the search engines to find you and this can go a long way towards getting your traffic where you want it.

Shorter Is Better!

Remember what I was saying before about the memory issue?  The truth is that most people don’t have great memories and if their friend mentioned something about your site, they are going to want to get back to it.  If they can’t remember it, on the other hand, everyone’s got problems and you will find that you want to avoid this at all costs.  Keep it as short and as recognizable as you can. Balancing between a good length and a memorable name can be a bit tough, but it is important to keep in mind.

Choosing the right domain, one that even your grandmother can remember is extremely important if you want to do some Internet marketing.  Lots of people are looking to make sure that they can get the right results when it comes to putting their work online, so get off to a good start with a domain name that is easy to remember!

I hope you find this post useful and as always – you’re more than welcome to post your feedback in the comments.

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