Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Organic SEO for Small Businesses – Part V

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Abstract: A detailed look at this area of search engine optimization focussing on relevant links targeted towards small businesses, organizations and sole traders.

Intended Audience: Small Business Owners/webmasters and anyone new to the world of web design and search engine optimization (SEO) particularly those working with small businesses, organizations and sole traders.

Note: Part IV of this series of articles was published on July 22nd, 2009 and can be viewed at http://www.istech.ie/blog/?p=127

The fourth article in this series focused on trusted links and we will continue the link theme in this article and take a look at relevant links and their significance in improving your website's position on search engine results pages.

Let's take a look at the concept of a relevant link. Consider the following examples:

1. A website about motor bikes linking to a website about fishing.
2. A dental care website linking to a dental association website

Obviously example 1 is not a relevant link while example 2 is a relevant link. A search engine will attach more value to link illustrated in example 2. A large number of non-relevant links can also be detrimental to your website's rankings on search engines and should be avoided.

The golden rule of relevant links is that links are from websites with content that is relevant to the content of your website. It is preferable to have relevant backlinks from a number of different websites but if you are able to acquire a number of backlinks from a particular website then it is important to have them point to different pages on your website i.e. not all backlinks should go to your home page.

It may be possible to have an SEO company unearth a list of relevant backlinks but remember that you are the best judge of which websites are relevant to your website so it's worth doing some research to establish your own personal criteria for a relevant backlinks. Sources of relevant backlinks include:

* Your Suppliers
* Industry Specific Websites and Blogs
* Industry Specific Forums

If you do decide to outsource the placing of relevant links to an external company it is important to retain control over the link approval process i.e. approve links before they are established not after as it can often take time to remove a link especially after it's been indexed by the search engines.

Your competitors are often a good source of information about where you should look for relevant websites to get a link. You can use Yahoo Search's linkdomain function to display a list of all websites that link to a competitor website.
The next article in this series will expand on the topic of free and paid web directories, social media, local directory services etc.

Article Tags: Search Engine, Relevant Links, Relevant Link, Relevant Backlinks

About the Author

Eoin Redmond – 23rd July 2009
Istech Technology Services Ltd
Leading Website Developer and SEO Specialists
Kilkenny, Ireland.
00 353 86 154 1049
Web: Website Design Kilkenny by Istech
Blog: Istech's Website Design Blog

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Ways To Make Your Blog Helpful For Your Online Business

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Today, many business owners are realizing the effectiveness of using blogs to promote a business. Blog was derived from the words “web” and “log” and was later coined to refer to the concept of posting a journal entries online. In the past, blogs were used as a means to express personal thoughts and feelings on the web. Now, blogs are used to help a business gain recognition and stronger customer relationships.

If you haven't tried blogging before, then it's about time you try it and see what tremendous change it can bring to your business. Here are some ways to make your blogging experience more enjoyable and successful:

Use blogs to provide information to your prospects.

Unlike a business website, a blog allows you to upload fresh information every day for your readers. By providing useful information about topics that are related to your business, people will begin to see you as a credible resource on your field. This builds trust in your prospects and is a good way to start building strong customer relationships. Although prospects will not buy from your blog, when they have the need for the products and services you offer, customers will surely check out your business website.

Interact with your customers.

Unlike a website, blogs allow more interaction with your customers. For instance, customers can leave their comments or share their thoughts about an entry posted in your blog. Blogs can is also a venue for forum discussions where you can respond to topics and give your share about a topic that interests you. This allows the online community to recognize you as well as the business you represent.

Work on your web design.

Just like your business website, a blog that is well designed gains more followers. A blog that is professional, organized and easy to navigate invites more visitors than a blog that is cluttered and poorly designed. Keep the colors of your fonts professional and easy to read. Avoid using background and font colors that are too bright as to strain the eye.

Use CSS coding.

A CSS format of coding is a lot better than HTML. CSS allows you to edit and make modification on all entries in your blog more easily. This will come in handy when you have already gathered lots of entries in your blog.

Keep focused in providing quality content.

Keeping your site updated with fresh content on a regular basis can be a challenge in the long run. However, don't let up and make sure that you will still maintain the high quality of the content in your site. Keep in mind that the reason you're posting content in your blog is not just to promote your business but to provide interesting and valuable information for the people.

Be active in the online community.

Participation is also required if you want to be successful in blogging. Bloggers are all part of an online community and each of them supports the other. Visiting other blogs and leaving insightful comments will surely turn your blog into a success.

Danielle Jacob is an established online entrepreneur who has maintained strong business relationship with Reputable Wholesale Dropshippers since 1990. Learn how you too can build homebased business empire and profit by dropshipping, the most creative e commerce strategy. Copyright Protected

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Free Internet Marketing Tips for Your Online Business

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Before you start dreaming of making money online, you have to start thinking about your business. Settle important things first like, "what product or service are you selling?", "who are your target customers?", or "what are your goals for this business of yours?" Once you have answered these questions perfectly, you are ready to start an online business because it's time for you to start considering putting up a website.

Putting up your website can come in different forms. It can be an actual site with just the order form, a catalogue of products with additional features here and there. If that is so, you have just built a straight-forward, enterprising website. Some business websites are in the form of a weblog or blog. If you simply have no idea how to build a website that would be perfect for you, you can always hire a web designer to do this challenging task for you. However, if you want to be more hands-on in developing your site, you can look around the internet for tips on how to build a website. There are some templates that are available for free which you can utilize for your site and free tips on how to do HTML, CSS, SQL or Perl.

However, putting up a website does not guarantee the success of your business. Your website could be very pretty and the product could be very informative but if it does not gather enough traffic, people would not know about it. This is what internet marketing is all about. Internet marketing is different from the marketing that happens in traditional businesses but the principles are similar. People have to become aware that you exist before your business can thrive.

Starting an online business is a very tricky undertaking. Although there are people out there who give free lessons or tips on how to make money online, it doesn't guarantee anyone that online business will be a success. Truly, no matter how many free tips you take to heart or how much internet marketing tips you put into practice – if your product is really not going to cut it, how can you expect to thrive as an internet business?

Simply put, you really need to take the questions at the beginning seriously. These are the things from which your business will jumpstart and continue to build and gain following which is the only sure fire way to make money. In putting up an online business, you will certainly run across some challenges. One of the problematic things you have to consider is how you would not earn any money if you don't work hard – especially at the beginning. You don't have a boss, and neither do you have a staff, so the success or failure of your business is entirely dependent upon you.

If you want to know more about how to make money with your online business, you can continue to read. Coming from someone who able to start an online business, you lose nothing when you listen to these free lessons I offer.

Dan Martin is an aggressive marketing consultant with a strong background in internet marketing. He became successful by learning the internet marketing tips from his mentors website www.EricsTips.com. If you want to learn more about using internet marketing to improve your business just take a look at www.EricsTips.com where you can learn some proven business strategies which will really help you to succeed in your online business.

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