Monday, October 23, 2006

SEM Times (Issue 10) - How do I do SEO for my site?

Dear Reader,

Search Engine Optimization process can be described by the following seven steps:

  • Website and Competitor Analysis: Researching the customers and competitors website, understanding the domain (for e.g. Health Industry).
  • Keywords Identification: Identifying the potential keywords
  • Meta Tags Creation & Web Page Optimization: Optimizing targeted web pages including creation of various meta tags
  • Site Submission: Submitting sites to various Search Engines and Directories
  • Link Building: Getting inbound links from other sites of the similar theme through:

* One way linking

* Link exchange

* Online PR

* Article/Ezine Submission

  • Reporting: Below are some of the important reports I use.
    • Competitor Analysis
    • Keyword Identification
    • Search Engine Ranking Report (Google, Yahoo and MSN)
    • PR and Alexa Rank
    • Site Submission Report
      • Directory
      • Article/Ezine
      • Online PR
    • Link Building Report
    • Traffic Analysis
Maintenance, Re-submission and Re-optimization: Based on the reports analysis, continuous optimization and submission will be done till the ranks are stabilized.

I hope the above brief provides the basic information about SEO implementation.

Till then Happy SEO'ing!

Best wishes,
SEM Times

Sunday, September 24, 2006

SEM Times (Issue 9) - How is AdWords different from AdSense?

Dear Reader,

Many people are confused between AdSense and AdWords.

Google AdWords, as described earlier, is a Pay Per Click program for the Advertisers. AdWords, is a program for Publishers. It allows publishers to display Ads (through Adwords) on their site and in exchange receive the commission from Google. Today, you will find that many sites (owned by Individuals or Organizations) display ads from other sites on their site and thus, use AdSense as a revenue source.

Let me explain the difference in terms of how the money flows in these two programs. In AdWords, an advertiser pays money to Google for every click. In AdSense, Google pays money to the publisher for every click.

An interesting phenomenon which is common today is that site owners are paying to Google for AdWords which brings traffic to their site. These site owners (or publishers) encash on the traffic by having the visitors go out of their site by clicking on the Ads (displayed by AdSense). Effectively, they are making money (at least some of them), as the difference between the AdSense Revenue and the AdWords Cost.

Hope this makes the distinctions clear!

Best wishes,
SEM Times

Saturday, February 25, 2006

SEM Times (Issue 8): What is Blogging?

Dear Reader,

Blogging came first into existence in mid 1990’s.

The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called "blogging". Individual articles on a blog are called "blog posts," "posts" or "entries". A person who posts these entries is called a "blogger".

Blogs are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. Blogs, in some cases, are used as daily diaries about personal lives of people, group or communities.

Blogging is considered as next revolution on Internet. Blogging enables people to publish content without requiring technical knowledge as in case of a normal website. The ease and speed to publish and distribute new content is what makes blogging so popular.

The phenomenon of blogging is today used not only by individuals but organizations are also using the power of blogging.

If you want to be part of this revolution, you can visit the below sites:

1. http://www.blogger.com
2. http://www.wordpress.com

Happy Blogging!
SEM Times

Monday, February 13, 2006

SEM Times (Issue 7): SEO Basic Principle

Dear SEM Times Reader,

Now, we have learnt SEO, its time to understand the basic principle of SEO. In other words, "what is the fundamental reason for one site ranked higher than other site?" To understand it, let me give you a real life analogy.

How do you decide the movie to watch or book to buy? Fundamentally, we take such decisions based on the recommendation of others. You decide to go for a particular when a friend, family member or someone else known to you recommends the same. So, your decisions are based on the number of people recommend. Not only, has it depended upon the number of recommendations but also on the quality of recommendation. For e.g. if you best friend recommends a movie then you are more likely to go for such movie then if 5 distant friends of yours recommend the same.

Same principle applies to SEO. But, what is recommendation in the context of websites?

Yes, you've guessed it right! It is the "links to your site from other sites". So, based on the number of links and also the quality of links (i.e. how authoritative those sites are), one site stands to rank better than other. Of course, other factors (like on page optimization) matter but "links from other sites" is the most important factor.

To find the number of links to the home page of your site (on Google), type the following in Google Search Box:
link: http://www.yourdomain.com

For e.g. 'link:http://www.amazon.com' gives 2,610,000 links on Google.

I hope this has been valuable to you. As always, your inputs are highly valuable.

Happy Learning!
SEM Times

Saturday, January 28, 2006

SEM Times (Resources 1): SEM Discussion Forums

Dear Friends,

Do you know what has changed in the internet space over the last few years? One of the fundamental shifts that happened is that ‘information has moved from Scarcity to Abundance’.

Earlier, we were using net for the purpose of finding information which was otherwise not available. Today, the challenge is not to get more information about any topic but it is actually to find the right information from the abundance of information available.

Internet Marketers also face this challenge. Towards this end, I thought of sharing with you the ‘right or best’ available resources for various Internet Marketing topics. Thus, this ‘Resources Series’ will help you reach out to the relevant and most updated information.

Of all the available resources, I believe one of the best resources is “Discussion Forums”. Why? Because, through these discussion forums you can keep yourself ahead of crowd. Please find below the list of 3 best discussion forums on various Online Marketing topics.

- SEO Today
- Search Engine Forums
- Web Pro World

As always, your inputs are highly appreciated.

I will share more valuable resources in the next issue.

Happy Learning!
SEM Times

Thursday, January 12, 2006

SEM Times (Issue 6): What is Affiliate Marketing?

Dear Reader,

The next topic to learn about Online Marketing is “Affiliate Marketing”. Dictionary.com gives the following meaning of the word “Affiliate”:

To adopt or accept as a member, subordinate associate, or branch

Affiliate Marketing as the name suggests is the way through which your affiliate (or member) does the marketing (brings traffic to your shop). Affiliate refers to another website that has been accepted by you as a member.

How does it work?

1. Affiliate (another site) sends traffic to your site through links, banners etc.
2. Some of these visitors who come to your site take the desired action (buying or subscribing to your product/service). These visitors are being tracked.
3. For each successful transaction (e.g. sale or subscription), you pay your affiliate a pre-decided commission.

















It is comparable to “Franchisee Model” in the traditional world. Today, there are lots of tools available which help you set up, launch, promote and track your affiliate program.

Amazon.com is an example of world’s most successful affiliate marketing program. It does significant portion of its business through affiliate marketing. You would have thousands of sites with links to Amazon books. When you go through those links and purchase book(s) on Amazon, the owner of the website gets commission from Amazon.

Your inputs have been highly valuable and encouraging!

Happy Learning,
SEM Times