My Web SEO

Archive for July, 2010

Choosing The Right SEO Keywords

The first step is to brainstorm and make a list of say 25 of what you think might be keywords and phrases a web searcher would use to find your page. Come up with both single words and phrases. We’ll use some neat tools to narrow these down and even discover some nuggets you might not have thought of.

As a rule optimizing for a single word is a lesson in frustration. For instance can you imagine how many pages on the web would be competing for a single word like cars? Millions!

However using a single keyword to search for those hidden nuggets is well priceless!

Keyword Research Tools

Next you will need some tools to help you find those perfect keyword phrases for your site. Although there are tons of commercial tools on the market I am going to concentrate on some freely available tools that I have found of particular value.

These will help you find out how popular your keyword phrases are how many times they are searched for in a given time period and how much competition you will have with your phrase. And because this article is targeted to the newbie SEO these free tools give you a chance to kick the tires before you buy the top of the line model.

My favorite is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. What? You say you are not running any AdWords pay per click campaigns! Why would you use this tool?

The answer is that Google AdWords Keyword Tool is free for anyone to use. You do NOT have to be running any AdWords PPC campaigns and the tool gives valuable keyword research information in a graphical easy to understand format perfect for the newbie!

And yes this tool is based on AdWords so the search volume reflects PPC search and competition but these estimates will apply to organic search as well.

Here’s a perfect example of how what you think you want to rank for might be in opposition to reality.

I live in Palm Springs California and have done web design for real estate agents in the past. We must have 10000 real estate agents in the desert and each and every one of them has a web site and each and every one of them would like to rank 1 for the keyword phrase palm springs real estate.

The trick here is to find more green in the Search Volume bar and less green in the Competition bar. In this example you’ll see 100 competition for a moderate search volume for the phrase palm springs real estate. This tells me that optimizing for that phrase is probably not worth the effort. It would be better to try to target other phrases with less competition for the search volume.

For instance the Palm Springs area has a large gay population and there’s no competition no green bar for palm springs gay real estate which has a moderate amount of search volume. If this is a community that you’d like to target then this is the kind of search phrase you want to look for search volume with little or no competition. Look around. You never know what targeted keyword phrases you will discover.

See how you can think you know what to target as far as keywords and how easy it is to be way off?

Try running your single keyword ideas through this tool and you are likely to find good keyword phrases with little or no competition for you to target as well. And the Google AdWords Keyword Tool makes downloading the keyword lists you generate a snap for offline use.

Then select the keyword phrases that look like they might work for you and run each of them through the tool again to create a list of even more highly targeted keywords.

Another free nongraphical tool you might want to try is the Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from WordTracker. WordTracker also offers a good paid version but the free tool is enough to get you started.

Unlike the Adwords Keyword Tool this tool takes data from DogPile and Metacrawler so the results are more organic in nature but as you will see somewhat similar.

As you can see you get a list of keyword phrases and the volume of searches for them in the past 90 days. This gives you a great place to start looking but it does not give you any idea of the competition as the Adwords tool does. My suggestion is that you use both tools comparing the lists to see what you might have missed on one or the other.

About the writer:  Get more information at http://www.weboptimist.com/seo101/2007/05/13/ Read more articles like this one at http://getlistedinternetmarketing.com

How To Choose The Right Web Design Company To Design Your Website?

Whether you want a new website designed for your company or are looking to redesign your website finding the right web design company for your needs is the first and crucial step that will ultimately decide its success or failure. Unless your are an established business with an inhouse Web design team the chances are that you will need to either hire a professional web designer or build the website or contract a web design company to do this for you.

Most businesses small or large do not have inhouse expertise to design websites themselves and have to contract the work out to an external web design company. The importance of professionally designed website is essential. A poorly designed or an outdated website can have a negative impact on your company’s brand and drive customers away to your competitors. A company’s website is a window to its products and services and often the first point of contact with customers. It is vital for your website to present the right image and brand for your business.

Should you work with a Web design company or a Freelance Web designer?

Whether your website is designed by an independent contractor or a web design company you will need to consider certain issues before you make the decision. Both working with an independent web designer or a web design company have their advantages. Working with an independent web designer can be cost effective and flexible. Working with web design companies on the other hand may cost more but offers significant advantages. They are represented by a team of web designers who often possess wider skills and experience. Each member of the team will often specialise in a distinct area of website design and development and will often be able to solve complex business issues with ease. Working with a web design company will provide your business with easy access to support as and when required or when something goes wrong.

Factors to consider when selecting a Web Design Company to design your website

Experience and Skills Analyse their experience and technical skills. Review the information on their website and marketing material. Better still speak to them personally as often a direct conversation about your project will give you a clear idea of their knowledge and expertise.

Portfolio and case studies Review and analyse their portfolio or case studies. This is usually available via their website. Reviewing other software or websites designed by the web design company can provide useful information anon their suitability for your project.

A streamlined process with a fast turn around time Understand the web design company’s process to see how it fits with your requirements.

Ask for a detailed proposal outlining costs timescales and proposed solution. A professional web design company will always submit a detailed proposal outlining theses issues.

One stop shop

Think forward. Determine what other products and services can the web design company offer. If your require web design now chance are you will need additional services in future such as web hosting search engine marketing content m management system and so on. It can be daunting and an administrative nightmare to deal with many different companies for different services.

Long term relationship

Focus on building a long term relationship with the web design company. It is better to go for a company that offers excellent and timely support as required. Analysing the company and communicating with them will give you an idea whether the company focus on long term relationship or just a one off sale. Supported service knowing that they will be around should something was to go wrong or if requirements change with time.

By taking time to communicate with the prospective web design company beforehand will enable you to select the right web design company to partner with who will meet your expectations. Finding the right web design company and forming a relationship can be a valuable asset for your business for many years to come.

The author K.Singh is the editor for Web design company blog offering advice and tips of Website design Search engine marketing and Ecommerce

About the writer:  Author K.Singh is Technology Consultant for Website Design Company Kronik Media in London and a guest author for Ecommerce Blog. Visit Internet marketing lense.

How Much Bandwidth Do You Need

Bandwidth is the measurement of the amount of data transmitted over an internet connection in a given time. Most web hosts measure bandwidth by the month and set limits accordingly. You have to know how many bandwidth you need while choosing hosting plans.
You can’t really know the bandwidth or monthly transfer you need before your web site has been up and running for a while. But how do you choose a proper hosting plan if you don’t know your bandwidth requirement?
Let me tell you honestly first. Be careful when someone claims they provide unlimited bandwidth or monthly transfer.
Anyone claiming “Unlimited Bandwidth” is simply lying. There’s no such thing as “Unlimited Bandwidth”.
In the real world we’ve never seen any broadband company offering an internet connection as “Unlimited Megabytes per Second.” So how could a web hosting company which normally doesn’t even own its own access lines claims to customers that it will give them “Unlimited Bandwidth”?
These web hosting companies are lying to the public to attract customers. Most of the time high bandwidth sites on these “Unlimited” plans will be disconnected and no refund given. Normally the web hosting company will say that the site violated its Acceptable Use Policy or Terms of Service.
Whenever you visit a site promoting “Unlimited Bandwidth” as one of the account features be sure to visit the Acceptable Use Policy or the Terms of Service. Read the fine text about the socalled “Unlimited” disclaimer you will be surprised! It’s solely up to them to decide whether you violate their policy.
Choose wisely.
When you first look for web hosting services those who state clearly bandwidth offered you have to make your best estimation and watch your usage carefully in the first few months. Before signing up make sure the hosting company won’t charge your legs if you upgrade.
Take these factors into consideration while estimating.
*How many users will access your web site?
*How many pages to be access?
*How big are the graphic and HTML files?
To estimate bandwidth usage multiply the size of an average HTML page plus the combined size of images included in the page by the number of pages in your web site. Multiply that number by the number of visitors you will have in a month.
Take our site at http://www.singaporewebhosting.com as an example.
The HTML file of the home page average page is 10.9k. There’re 4 images at the top 5k total. Currently there’re 90 pages in this site but we expect to add in more contents soon so lets make it 150. Based on experience we’ll have 6000 visitors per month. However nobody except me will ever read all the pages. It’s rather safe to assume that about 10 of all the pages will be viewed per visitor. That depends on the nature of your site.
So we need 15.9x150x6000x10=1.43GB
That sounds reasonable for a service and information site with mainly text. As you can see we seldom use images except the top logo because we intend to provide service and information not beautiful graphics or games or music download.
For safety we’d rather choose a plan with at least 3GB bandwidth.
This number is not accurate to say the least. It’s just a rough estimate. For example the images on each page don’t have to be reloaded every time the visitor views a new page because the browser will cache them. We’re also not very sure how many visitors will come since this site is online for just a couple of days.
And think of your own situation. If you’re going to set up a forum the page views will be far more than our number. You know how sticky a forum can be don’t you ;?
Large audio/video files computer programs and file downloads require more bandwidth. Flash web sites use tons of bandwidth. Virtual Reality VR and fulllength threedimensional audio/visual presentations require the most bandwidth of all.
Though it is not accurate but still gives you something to work with until your site has been online for a while and actual traffic statistics have been generated.
Feel free to use this article in your publication or web site. It’s prelicensed to you. The only requirement is to include this resource box at the end of the article:
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About the writer:  James Brown writes about 1and1.com coupon codes 123Together online coupons and Acceller Inc. discounts