And The Winner Is....

I put the names in a hat and picked out one and The Winner is:



Sea By Me Candles


Congratulations You have won 5 Hours of SEO work!

So get ready to get your site listed on the first pages of the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN and to see an increase in traffic!

You will have 4 of your categories optimized plus a Bonus of adding your sitemap to Google and Yahoo. Plus you will have your site submitted to the search engines!



I'll be contacting you shortly to go over the details!

Yours Truly,

Carla Phillips

Are you ready to go Universal?

Did I get your attention? Well I hope I did because if you don't know what universal search is then you might be left in 2008 as far as search engine page rank is concerned.

I came across a great informational article and here's what I got from it about Universal Search. It's long but worth the read.

What exactly is Universal Search and What does it have to do with you.

This blog topic will explain what Universal Search is and ways you can benefit from implementing these tactics into your SEO plans for 2009.

There are some sites that are already using these tactics and they will benefit from them and their are tons of website who don't even know about these changes and these new tactics will ultimately end up working against you.

Universal Search in a nutshell is the combination of all Google's search engine databases into one index that will serve a single set of search engine result pages.

Examples of some of these databases are: Google Images, Google News, Google Blogger and Google Video.

So when you go to Google and do a search for whatever you are searching for that day. You usually get a list of links that may be relevant to your search. Well instead of just getting those links, what you will get is a list of everything combined together; Blogs, Images, News, and Videos.

Pretty Cool Huh!?

Maybe Not....

So right know we all know that you would have to search each of those databases in order to get the information you are looking for. What Google is planning to do is to integrate everything into one BIG search engine.

On one hand as a searcher what this means is easier access to everything you would look for in Google News, Images and Videos would be available in one search. On the other hand as a business owner looking to get more targeted traffic, this could either be a good thing or a bad thing.

This seams like a cool idea as long as it doesn't get too complicated. As long as their layout is not too confusing then I think this is a really great idea.

So I guess you are wondering what this has to do with your online business?

Well these changes can work against you if you don't take action now and start getting your site optimized and keep up with the jones so to speak.

What should you do to make sure you aren't left in 2008:

• Organic Results : If you site isn't already optimized for organic or natural search engine results (listings that you do not have to pay for by Pay Per Click ads), this would be the place to start. Without this type of SEO you have no chance of competing in the search engines with or without Universal Search.
  

• Since Universal Search will be taking information from databases like press releases, blogs, images, etc.. It would be wise to start using one of these resources to get exposure for your site.

• Google Image Search: It's a great idea to have images on your site that convey a message, sale or promote a product. Now Google has it to where customers can find your site via a Google Image Search. Make sure you optimize your images with descriptive, keyword-rich file names and use ALT tags in each image. This will be useful to those who can only search text formats.

• Google Video: Use good, keyword file names for your video files. Create a good keyword title tag, description tag, and video site map.
  
  
• Google News: Submit your press releases for display as news. You can also make a new content page on your site and display your press release on your site as well.

• Google Blog Search : Use Social Media sites and Blog Submission sites to drive traffic to your website. Make sure to submit your blog to Google Blog search and your blog can help you with Universal Search as well.
  

So when someone does a search for a product or service that you have to offer using the Universal Search Results and your website comes up. Within the same search your competitors site comes up under videos, images, news and blogs. That searcher is more likely to click on your competitors site since they have more results that come up for the keyword phrase being searched for instead of your site.

Without knowing exactly how Google will layout the results. Just know that you will be competing for the top listing. The top position could be videos, blogs, images, or news and if you are missing one of those listings then you will miss out on a potential customer.

So in summary you want to make sure you optimize your site to have most if not all of databases listed above.

Make sure you don't wait until it's too late to start optimizing your site! If you don't do it, your competition will. :)

Get listed on Google in less time

Over the past week or so I have received or been asked numerous questions about how I get sites listed on the first pages of the search engines for my clients targeted keywords in less than a month or what type of keyword tools I use.

So I decided to give a tip based off of those two questions. Well okay, I guess it would be tips instead of tip.LOL

I will start with the keyword tool first. When researching what type of keywords people are using for products you are selling or thinking about selling you can try Wordtracker or Miva. They both have free tools that you can use. Just enter in your type of product and there will be a display of keyword suggestions along with the number of daily searches. Locate the best that works for your products and use them in your meta titles, keywords in description.

Hurray!!! You are on your way to being listed on Google. Well no, not really. Yes keyword research is a MAJOR part of getting listed on the first pages of Google but.... that's not all to it though. If using the tools mentioned above and putting the keywords in your meta title and keyword tag and description were enough we would all be SEO experts.LOL

But the truth is, keyword optimization is not the win all situation.

Yes you can have the keywords in your meta title separate them by any symbol of your liking have them in the description over time you will start to see your site on the first four pages of the major search engines just by using that method but not any sooner than two months to a year.

It is somewhat difficult to really know how fast any SEO campaign will show results, and every campaign is different of course. SEO results are impacted by a lot of factors. One is the number of competitors competing for a keyword, the age of the site, the age of your competitors sites, and how well set competing sites are.

Okay so got the keyword thingy covered. So here's how you get listed quickly and I already know you guys know this but do you really know how it works?

How do I get some of my clients sites listed in as little as three weeks?:

Link Building

That's it!

Link Building. ..

Yes, it's tedious and boring and can make your head spin but it works.

You may say, well Carla that's what I have been doing for months and I am still not being listed on page 1, 2, or even 20!

Yes, but it depends on the type of links you are building.

You must focus on one way link building instead of just reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking is okay and necessary if you are new and don't let anyone tell you that reciprocal link building is not good for your site! Yes, if you go overboard with it, it is not. For example, if you are exchanging links with over 100 sites per day than that just isnt natural and Google can see right through that. Hint stay away from sites that promise you thousands of links. They most likely own tons of websites and they just submit your website to all of their sites. Not good at all and it is known as one of those black hat tactics.

Start getting people to link to your site via site reviews, or product reviews. Create content that will make other sites want to link to you. Post comments on blogs with high page ranks and that do not have a "no follow" tag. If you get incoming links from sites that have a page rank of 3 or higher you will start to see your site appear right away in as little as four weeks.

So I know that's not what you wanted to hear because link building is truly boring but so worth it.

So put that on your to do list. Start getting incoming links, then your keyword research will come into play and things will all start to come together naturally.


I hope this helps out.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Wishing you all a successful business day.

Affordable Link Building Services starting at only $45.00 a month!