Internet Business Blog

Rapid Growth

Whether you know me personally or just casually read my blog, you probably know that I’m always stressing the importance of creating the perfect title tag for every page, and what it can do to help rank you higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). What better way to drive this point home than by showing you two good old fashioned screen shots of effective title tags in action.

Before One week ago - Prior to creating the perfect title tag.
Rank: Page #2 in Google, slot #11

…

After Today – Reaping the benefits.
Rank: Page #1 in Google, slot #5

As you can see by the screen shots above, this blog is quickly moving up in the ranks and I haven’t done any further “On-Site SEO” during this time. I have a little bit of “Off-Site SEO” by submitting this blog to a couple of directories but nothing significant enough to accomplish this sort of SERP escalation in such a short amount of time.

How I Did It

I owe my recent SERP success to using long tail keywords in my title tags. Time after time, project after project, they remain to be a very successful method. In fact, I was able to acquire enormous success in ecommerce by using such techniques.

Long tail keywords can be described as 3-6 words grouped together which are very specific to the product, service, or information which you are promoting or selling. The best part about long tail keywords is the fact that they will pick up traffic for not only the full, exact phrase – but all of the other keywords in between as well. Many top search engine authorities will agree that nearly 60% to 80% of all internet searches are unique in nature, and not the vague one or two keyword phrases like one might imagine. This makes long tail keywords a very hot technique that must be capitalized on.

Previous Title: Paul Bradish - Internet Business for the Masses.

This is still a decent title tag, as it is the official name for my blog. The problem is that it won’t rank well since no one likely searches “Internet Business for the Masses”. It’s true that this is a long tail keyword, but it isn’t focusing on the right keywords!

New Title: Internet Business Blog by Paul Bradish

Using the long tail method mentioned earlier I was able to create a vastly superior title tag. “Internet Business Blog” is a desirable phrase in the SERPs and at this point is worth owning. I will now also greatly improve my chances for ranking with the terms: Internet Blog, Business Blog, Paul Blog, Bradish Blog, and of course – Paul Bradish (which I am #1).

This isn’t Keyword Suffing!

I hope that this blog entry encourages others to update their title tags as well. Due to the ever changing nature of search engine optimization, I feel that it’s important to note that long tail and keyword stuffing are not the same thing - and under nearly all circumstances keyword stuffing is not going to help. In fact, keyword stuffing will eventually penalize your blog or website and you may even be black listed from the major search engines.

You’re Opinion?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this subject. What sort of experience have you had using long tail keywords in your title tags? Do you encourage others to use them as well?

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Sara stated that the blogosphere felt rather small, and I quickly agreed. It seems like the more time that I spend within the blogosphere (professionally), the more I notice the same old blogs authored by the same “inner circle” of bloggers. This makes me wonder how many blogs remain undiscovered, and how deep the talent pool really could be if prospective bloggers were lead down the right path.

So Why Haven’t YOU Been Discovered?

There are many potential reasons for this, but none of them are the fault of the blogosphere and the sooner that aspiring bloggers realize this fact, the sooner that they will be able to harness their true potential and will become “discovered” so to speak.

Let’s delve into a couple of key factors that that I consider to be especially important:

Blog Networking

In my opinion, this is the #1 reason that you should own a blog in the first place. Turning a profit will come with time if you are truly dedicated to your craft, but networking with others in the blogosphere will help you now in so many other ways that it simply cannot be overlooked.

Social Networking. When I say social networking, I’m not about talking Myspace - I’m talking about MyBlogLog. If you’re going to be a successful blogger, you’ll have to find out where the successful bloggers network. Contrary to popular cultural belief, I refuse to believe that most successful bloggers are 16 year old girls writing about Paris Hilton or the latest episode of The Hills. Get out there, join blogging communities and network within your niche.

Comment on Similar Blogs. I make it a point every morning to wake up thirty minutes early and read up on what my blogosphere friends have to say. Not only will this keep you one step ahead of the game (since our industry changes so rapidly), but it also gives you a prime opportunity to leave a comment as well. Leaving quality comments are both a great way to meet new bloggers and gain some extra traffic at the same time. It’s also nice because those same bloggers will often return the favor by commenting on your blog, which always feels good. I try to make it a point to visit at least one new blog every single day on top of my current ‘rounds’ to ensure that I’m always meeting and interacting with new bloggers.

Join the Forums. Hang out with us. By visiting and posting on the forums, you’ll be able to learn from both our mistakes and successes. There’s a ton of webmaster forums and many of them now contain specific blogging sub forums. There are also a couple of excellent blog-specific forums that have started to sprout up over the past couple of months.

Blog Optimization

Optimizing your blog is extremely crucial and its importance should never be ignored. I’ve been writing more and more material on this subject as of late and the fact is, search engine optimization is my livelihood. For WordPress users, I highly recommend downloading and installing All In One SEO Plugin Pack for a great start.

Blog Design

Though this may go hand in hand with blog optimization, it’s certainly important enough to list under its own sub-heading. I feel that it’s very important to have a unique design to separate your blog from the rest of the blogosphere. Think of it this way:

Are you more likely to remember a blog that looks like dozens of others, or are you more likely to remember the one that has its own unique look and feel?

Templates are great – as a starting point. Don’t make the mistake of treating them as a be all end all solution to your blog’s design. After all, you invest a good amount of time writing quality content; your blog definitely deserves its own unique look and feel.

You’re Thoughts?

Though this entry revolves around the subject of blogging, all of the key aspects will work well with most any type of website. The point is to get out there and network, optimize, and polish your design. After you draw each visitor in, make them want to keep coming back time and time again. – What are your thoughts on the subject?

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As an Internet Business or website owner you probably already know all about the importance of being ranked highly in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and how it can exponentially benefit your website by landing more visitors, subscribers, and sales. What you may not know is how to accomplish such a task - and make no mistake, it can be quite an accomplishment.

Unfortunately, most websites are still being designed to fail. They may look pretty, sleek, or very ‘web 2.0′, but lack the fundamentals of proper site structure. If search engines aren’t crawling or able to index your website properly you will be at a huge disadvantage. Follow the techniques below to make sure that your site is on the path to higher search engine results and proper indexing.

Title Structure

It’s pretty easy to surf the internet and find sites which still concentrate on stuffing their page titles with keywords separated by commas. Granted, they may get away with this if they are in a small niche market due to lack of competition but this is still generally a frowned upon technique that will not get you very far.

Here is a classic mistake that you should absolutely under no circumstances make. Every single page on their website has the exact same title. This is a very bad practice for one major reason:

Title Tags Tell the World What Your Page Is All About. This is why each page needs to have a unique title tag, preferably outlining the page’s content. It doesn’t need to be very long, a couple of words will do just fine, but make sure that it is absolutely unique on your website or you run the risk of duplicate content -or- having your pages indexed incorrectly.

Meta Structure

I’m only going to cover meta tags briefly because they are now considered to be a technique of the past. You may as well fill them in, but don’t spend more than a couple of minutes doing so.

A. Meta Description. The Meta Description is still sometimes used today when your website is pulled up in the search results page, so writing an interesting yet brief description of your site’s contents may encourage a higher number of click-thrus.

B. Meta Keywords. Meta keywords are basically dead. Most if not all of the major search engines no longer use them, and many of the minor engines are actually powered by the major engines. In other words, Meta Keywords carry little to no weight in search results. Still, time after time I am contacted by aspiring SEOs, Webmasters, and Business Professionals who still want meta work to be done.

Why?

I have to assume that this is strictly due to lack of knowledge regarding the subject. Many people may have learned the initial “ins and outs” of search engine optimization a couple of years ago during a simpler, much easier to manipulate search algorithm. Not so anymore!

C. NOINDEX & NOFOLLOW. The robots attribute lets search engines know whether or not they are allowed to index or follow specific pages on your website. This can be very useful in some circumstances, which is why I have listed it here. Most webmasters will not need to pay attention to this however, since we generally want all of our pages indexed and crawl-able.

… There are many other meta tags but none of them are considered to have any real relevance in today’s Search Engine Optimization industry so I would recommend forgetting about them and focusing on what works.

Content Structure

The structure in which your content is laid out on your website is extremely important. This key process is often times the difference from being on page #1 in the SERPs and page #10.

Use Heading Tags. Heading tags essentially tell search engines which keywords to emphasize their focus on. I suggest using the standard H1 through H3 on every single page as if you were writing an outline. I try to think of heading tags as the skeleton of my content. In any given page I try to use:

H1 - Once.
H2 - Two to Three times.
H3 - Three to Five times.

This heading structure has always produced excellent results.

Express Yourself. Don’t be afraid to bold, italicize, and underline words from time to time. Not only does this help your readers, it’s a common line of thought that it helps search engines distribute weight as well.

Write Unique Content. Do not copy, Do not steal, and Do cite your sources. Nothing angers search engines and webmasters more than stolen or duplicate content. If you do steal content, expect to eventually be black listed from every major search engine. It’s simply not worth it, no matter what situation.

What is “worth it” however is spending some time to create very unique, very useful content that will keep visitors and search engine bots coming back for more. Think: if you write it, they will come. This will also help to establish link relationships and build back links to your website because readers will want to show the world what you have written.

As always, this is only a rough overview. There have been many articles written about proper Site Structure and how it relates to search engines and I encourage everyone to seek them out. If you follow the structure techniques listed above you will be well on your way to not only a cleaner more efficient site structure, but quite possibly a higher listing in the SERPs as well :).

Tell me your thoughts on the subject below! I am always looking to learn and share ideas.

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