The Page rank was launched by Larry Page – the co-founder of Google Search Engine. However, this measurement does not determine the relevance of the page to a particular term. So, in other words, the importance of a website can be increased by raising it’s page rank. However, even though a site’s page rank might be very high, it will not be listed in search results if it is not relevant to the search phrase utilized.
The Page Rank, which is trademarked by Google, is calculated through the use of an algorithm applied to a website’s links. As can be correctly assumed, a website’s PageRank is still vital when conducting Search Engine Optimization procedures, even though its calculation tends to regularly change. Therefore, link building plays an essential role when angling for a higher website ranking. High quality links from main websites combined with a healthy variation of linked domains will contribute towards an increase in your ranking. There are a number of ways in which links can be achieved. Among these are:

We have talked a lot in previous newsletters about Search Engine searches and results listings. Your aim is to get Search Engines to direct traffic to your site by picking up on the keywords in the aforementioned links, thus connecting the keywords present to what your site is really about. Search Engines want to provide search results that are relevant to the original search so inserting clear link keywords is one way in which to help them pinpoint your website when relevant searches are made.

So, having said this, it is important to optimize the links to provide the utmost benefit from their use. Some tips to keep in mind to avoid having links that add no value to your website include:

* Search Engines cannot read images, so including them alone in your link will not help you increase traffic towards your website. You can however, make sure to add keywords and optimal link text that will greatly increase its Search Engine worthiness.

* Use keywords that are most likely to be utilized by your clients in their Internet Search Engine searches. If your company name, for example, is not a widely recognized brand name, chances are that it will not be used in a search by prospective clients and therefore will not add value to your link.

* Try to avoid using ‘click here’ links. Instead, construct useful links that include your main and most relevant keywords.

One of our recent reviews covered the advertising of websites through online search engines. It was also noted that the most popular search engine advertising occurred through Google with its renowned Google AdWords. In this article we aim to expand on our previous topic by giving you tips on how to optimise results without raising your Google AdWords costs.

1. Identify your advertising goals.

Make sure that you have a clearly defined objective along which your campaign will be created. Clearly defined, specific goals will help you create a proper strategy, track performance and subsequently make the necessary amendments that will better aid the achievement of your desired results. Examples of such goals include: “I want to get more visitors to my website.”; or “I want to increase my return on investment”. These are goals against which performance can be measured and advertising details can be arranged.

2. Organise your account for maximum effectiveness.

Having a well-structured account will help ease its management and will allow you to effectively target your viewership. Organise separate campaigns for each different product line, brand or resource as this will help you monitor your advertising performance more easily and will allow you to make the necessary targeted changes aimed at improving your campaign results. Make sure you target the languages and locations, for each of your campaigns, that are most relevant to your business objectives. Create highly specific ad groups to ensure that they reach the users you would most like to impress. Avoid duplicate keywords across ad groups as these end up competing against each other. Google shows only one advert per advertiser for a particular keyword.

3. Choose relevant keywords and placements.

Improve your chances of reaching more potential customers by choosing keywords and placements that are relevant to your pre-established goals. So make sure you select your keywords carefully and include specific ones that directly relate to the theme of your ad group or landing page. Also include relevant keyword variations and singular and plural versions as this will improve your ad visibility. Placements are locations on Google’s Content Network where your advert can appear. Target your ad placements by choosing spots on the Network that will show your advert, or else let Google select placements for you on those websites that are most relevant to your products and services.

4. Create straightforward, targeted advertisements.

Your adverts should have content that is sure to grab users’ attention and that will set your business apart from that of your competitors. Thus, you are advised to include keywords in your advert text to show users that your ad relates to their search engine search. The keyword will be shown in bold in your text when it appears in response to search results. Create simple, appealing adverts by highlighting those factors that differentiate your products and services from those of your competitors. Utilise a strong call-to-action that will encourage users to click on your advert. Examples of call-to-action phrases are: Buy, Sell, Sign Up and Order. Experiment with different offers and call-to-action phrases to establish which are most effective for your advertising goals.

5. Optimise your website for advert conversions.

Once users have clicked on an advert it is your website that determines how successful the visit will end up being. Point users to the right landing page that clearly reflects the information displayed in your advert. Internet users make a quick decision on whether they want to stay on a website or move on to another one, so make sure they immediately find what they are looking for. Attractive, easy to navigate and informative websites tend to be the most profitable ones, so go through your website to ensure its appropriate overall layout and functionality. As you design your website place the user’s experience as your highest priority.

6. Track your account performance.

By monitoring the results you are achieving through your campaign you can ensure that you are getting the desired return on your investment. Check your account statistics to see how well your ads are performing. These are reported at campaign, ad group, and keyword or placement levels. They include clicks, impressions, cost, conversion rate and cost per conversion, among other things. Create custom alerts and specify the parameters you would like to monitor. This enables Google AdWords to automatically notify you when certain behaviours or changes occur within your campaigns and ad groups. Create customized reports and make use of Google’s web analytics to be in a better position to analyse what actions people are taking while on your website.

7. Test and modify your campaigns to ultimately achieve the results you want.

By keeping track of your campaigns, analyzing user responses, and amending your campaigns accordingly you ensure the optimisation of your advertising efforts, designed to accommodate varying market trends and user preferences with the specific aim of achieving your advertising goals. Evaluate your campaign performance and make the necessary changes that will ensure even more successful results.

Online marketing involves a number of online activities that are undertaken with the specific intention of directing additional traffic to a website to increase visitors, and consequently, product or services sales. Placing paid adverts on the Internet forms part of the online marketing package. As is the case with traditional advertising and printed matter, you will find yourself faced with an array of different online advertising possibilities.

Online advertising offers the unique opportunity of placing online adverts that are subject to payment only according to the number of times visitors will actually click on the advertised link. So you are not paying for every time your advert appears but only for each time an interested party actually accesses your site through that particular link. So, essentially, most visitors to your site will actually be very interested in what you have to offer. In this way, hopefully, more visits will transform into sales. One of the most popular forms of advertising on the Net is carried out through Google AdWords.

What is Google AdWords?

Google AdWords is the advertising branch of Google. Through it each business can create simple adverts that will appear on the Google website and anywhere in Google’s advertising network. Conveniently, you will only pay for each time your advert link is clicked upon by visitors.  Along with the advert you must specify certain keywords that you consider being the most relevant to your business. The adverts you place with Google will appear along with search results each time someone places a Google search utilizing one of the keywords you have pre-specified. This limits your adverts to viewers who already display an interest in your kind of business. You can additionally choose to display your adverts on content sites and blogs Google utilizes as part of its Network. Adverts can be in the form of text, image or video and their performance can be tracked through the available performance reports in your account. Your charge will be an activation fee plus an additional charge for each time your advert is clicked upon.

Target Languages and Locations

When setting up your advert you will need to set up your language target. This means that your advert will appear to those users that have that same language setting on their computer. You can select one or more of over 40 languages. You can furthermore narrow down your target audience by specifying one or a combination of locations you would like to display your promotion to. These locations can include countries, territories, regions, cities and custom areas. Thus, for example, you can specify the AdWord to appear to users using your chosen keywords who access the Internet only from Malta. In this way you will not pay for clicks on your advert from viewers overseas who are not likely to purchase your product. Otherwise, if your target market does include areas overseas, you can include these areas as part of your target locations.

If you are interested in adopting this form of online advertising you will find extensive information on the Google website detailing what Google AdWords is all about together with guidelines on the proper setting up of your account, your AdWord settings and your overall campaign budget and cost.

Company/Brand names and Tag Titles

It is definitely advisable to include your company / brand name in the title tag. Note that we have used the word ‘include’, meaning that it should be accompanied by phrases that enhance your name, products/services and will provide a boost to traffic directed to your website by Search Engines. This will serve the dual purpose of having your website located by search engines both when users search for your website by name and when they search for it by using keywords that describe the products and services you sell. Your brand name should be included either at the beginning or the end of the title tag as it will show users where they are going and will encourage return visits.

Include Keywords

If you have been following our newsletter articles explaining Search Engine Optimisation features accompanied by tips to enhance your search engine rankings, you will have noticed that not one article goes by without the mention of keywords. As in every other part of the website content, keywords are essential in tag titles too. They are what describes your company and its products and services and what pulls your customers towards clicking on your link in the first place. Include in the title tag any keyword phrases that you feel make the web page description more accurate and informative and that are much more likely to catch users’ eye.

Unique Title Tags

Each page should have a unique title tag so do not copy title tags across website pages. Additionally, do not pull out verbatim sentences from the website content to use as your tag as this will defeat your original purpose of attracting higher search engine ranking and will work against you. Keep the titles page-specific.

Let Your Website Content Help You

Once you have written your Search Engine Optimized Website content, you can go on to create your title tags. If your content has been properly written, with optimal keyword/text integration, selecting relevant keywords on which to base your title tag should be relatively simple.

Dividers in title Tags

When including the brand in the title tag, separate it from the description with a pipe bar symbol, an arrow “>”, or hyphen “-”.

Keep Users in Mind

When writing web page title tags keep the search engine users in mind as you want to include terms that they will most likely use in their searches and that will help push your ranking higher and make your website more prominent and attractive to click on.

It can also serve as your sales point. Your initial goal is to attract viewers to your site and to them keep them coming back for more. To start off tackling the achievement of your first target we are listing a number of web design tips to keep in mind when discussing the setting up, design or re-design of your website with your design company.

1. Fast Loading Time – you might have the snazziest design, the fact is, if your website takes ages to load, people will not wait around long enough to check it out.

2. Compatible with Net Browsers – even though a large number of internet users might use Internet Explorer, there are many other internet browsers in existence and before launching the new site compatibility with the major browsers should be ensured, otherwise your website will have limited viewership.

3. Successful Viewing in Any Resolution – Internet users do not utilize the same screen resolutions across the board. Some might use the 640×480 resolution and others the 1024×768 resolution, while others still might use an even higher one. Websites should be designed keeping in mind the importance of making them look good on any resolution internet users employ.

4. Clear and Uncluttered – the utilization of white spaces, clear backgrounds and the absence of complicated graphics and colorful fonts will give your website a clean, uncluttered, neat and organized look.

5. Clear Navigation – once users have accessed your front page, your next intent will be to direct them towards the other pages within your site. For this reason, you will need to make sure that links to other pages within the website are clearly visible with prominence given to important links. Make use of menus and try to link or make available from anywhere within the site as many pages as possible as you do not want users to get, literally, lost in your website.

6. Readability – utilize text fonts that are common to most users and that give your website a professional mien. Avoid font colors that are too bright and make reading the text irritatingly difficult.

7. Balance Content and Design – do not clutter the website with large images that take ages to upload. Snappy content accompanied by relevant images in easily-loadable sizes will make your website interesting, informative and attractive.

8. Check for Broken Links – make sure that every link you have on your website works. Besides appearing unprofessional, broken links can prove frustrating for Internet users.

While Web Directories are solely operated by human input, search engines operate algorithmically or through a mixture of algorithmic and human input.

• Web Crawling and Indexing

Search Engines make use of a number of web crawlers, often also called spiders, to retrieve information about web pages, for storage. These crawlers are automated software agents that visit websites, read through the information presented therein, read the meta tags provided, and follow the links that the website connects to. Data is extracted from titles, headings and also meta tags. All the information collected by the spider is relayed to a central depository where the data is indexed. From time to time, the crawler will return to sites it has already been to collect any information that has changed from its last run-through. The frequency of this is different between each search engine and is decided by the search engine’s administrator.

The information stored in the indexed databases is utilised to respond to search queries. Some search engines, such as Google, store all or part of a source page (cache) plus information about web pages, while other search engines, such as Alta Vista, store each and every word of every page they visit.

• Querying Search Engines

When searching the web for particular information without having a specific web site in mind, you would generally place your query through a search engine, through the use of phrases or keywords that you envision will result in a list of websites that will provide the information and data you require. The search engine then analyzes its index and provides a list of the best-matching web pages. This list usually includes a short summary with the selected page’s title, and parts of the page’s text that match your search criteria.

• Ranking Search Results

Since web pages run into millions, as do search queries, a search engine will have located a huge amount of web pages containing the search criteria you would have requested. For this reason, search engines employ ranking methods according to which search results are ranked. This is done with the aim of providing relevant results, best link first. Each search engine has its own ways of determining which pages would provide best matches to particular search queries and which order these websites should be ranked in. Same queries placed on different search engines will therefore most probably produce different ranked results. These ranking methods also undergo regular developments and evolutions in line with the ever-changing characteristics of Internet users and technology.

Common ranking methods involve the analysis of web pages for frequency and location of keywords, with those pages with higher frequency of keywords being considered the most relevant. One has to be careful to balance keyword usage with overall text sense to avoid the risk of keyword stuffing and spamdexing that will be penalised by search engines. Another common analysis undertaken by search engine algorithms is the way pages link to other pages in the web. This allows a search engine to determine what web pages are about and whether such pages deserve better results ranking positions. Here too, search engines have become sophisticated enough to locate and overlook artificial links built into sites with the intention of artificially boosting search engine ranking.

• Search Engine Advertising

Since search engines are commercial ventures they must financially support themselves. This is generally achieved through search engine advertising that involves the appearance of adverts alongside the naturally ranked list brought up when users search utilising the same keywords specified by the advertiser. Search Engines earn money each time such an advert is clicked upon.

As always, balance is vital. Abusing keyword usage will end up being counter-productive and will result in the website being blacklisted by Search Engines. Search Engine Optimization involves directing efforts towards improving a website’s ranking in search engine search listings. Your aim should be to place as high as possible in search engine rankings as this will greatly increase your exposure to prospective visitors, and consequently, your potential sales.

Choosing the Right Keywords

Before even inserting keywords in your website text, tags and anchors, you should first identify those keywords that best describe the company’s/website’s products and services while keeping your target visitors in mind – the age group and type of visitors you would like to attract, what search keywords they are most likely to use that fit in with the description of the services and products you are offering.

In a nutshell, when selecting the keywords to utilize throughout your website:

• Choose keywords that best define your products & services

• Choose keywords that would be utilized by potential customers in their search engine searches. This might involve some customer research.

• Take into consideration the keywords utilized by your competitors by examining their keyword tag.

• Identify obvious spelling mistakes.

• Identify synonyms (similar words) that might be used interchangeably.

• Pinpoint geo-specific terms.

• Utilize a keyword tool after having put together a suitable keyword list. This will enable you to discover additional terms that might have escaped you. It also helps you determine which terms are the ones most often used by people who are browsing the Internet for products and services like the ones you offer.

Strategic Placement of Keywords

Having identified the keywords you would like to use does not mean you can now set about inserting them anywhere and everywhere the mood strikes. The text, tags, page titles and page descriptions should make sense and be relevant to the particular product, service or image the text is describing.

If a Search Engine feels that you are overusing keywords it will treat your website as spam and disregard it in search engine results.

The writing up of website content, with its accompanying tags and titles, is the next very important step after the identification of keywords, that will result in a greater flow of traffic to your site.

1. Choosing the wrong keywords
When selecting the keywords to describe your website you have to put yourself into the shoes of your potential clients. Keywords chosen should be the ones that will most probably be utilized in search engine searches, rather than the ones you personally would use to describe your business or website. So, proper keyword selection is key.

2. Overabundance of keywords
As with anything in life, overabundance kills a purpose. So, although keywords are extremely important in SEO, excessive use of them can get a website blacklisted by search engines. So balance keywords usage with meaningful and informative text.

3. Utilising wrong, or no, title tags
The title tag to your web pages is extremely important as it is the first item search engines encounter when visiting web pages. This tag should include the most important keywords that describe the web page content. Utilising the wrong title tag, or even ignoring it completely, can prove to be the mistake that kills your SEO campaign. Each page should have a different, exclusive title which should be as clear as possible.

4. Having inadequate content
For Search Engine Optimisation efforts, a website’s content is very important. Rewrite it to include keywords that you have already pinpointed as being essential to search engine searches, and place special emphasis on these keywords, where you deem it appropriate. Each separate web page should have different content. The importance of content lies in the fact that is it what describes your business and the products and services you sell. Without it Search Engines would not have a clue as to what your website is about. On the same lines, the content included in a website has to be relevant and should include the right, targeted keywords.

5. Having an attractive Flash website without an HTML alternative site
Admittedly, flash websites can be gorgeous, eye catching and attention grabbing – but not to search engines. A Spider cannot read a flash site and therefore, as a result, cannot index it. As such, if you would like Search Engines to take note of your site you should provide an HTML version of it that will in fact be picked up in search results.

6. Constant website maintenance
Successful SEO efforts involve regular website content maintenance and optimization. Different market situations and competitor moves will affect your optimization results. To keep at the top of your game you have to be constantly up to date with changes in your particular industry and in web user habits and behaviours. In this way you can adjust your SEO plans to make sure you garner the best results from your online marketing endeavours.

7. Targeting the wrong market
All your Search Engine Optimisation attempts will fail if you do not identify the appropriate target market for your products and services. So first, you need to identify your target market correctly, then you proceed to select the keywords that will reflect the target market you have set your sights upon. Wrong target will be followed by wrong keyword selections and a waste of precious resources on useless visits to your website.

8. Excessive use of graphics and animations
Search Engine crawlers are unable to read graphics, and therefore, even though website with great graphics is attractive and eye catching, it will prove useless for your online marketing campaign. So limit your website animations and concentrate on your content. The usability of a website is also very important. Site structure, logical navigation and descriptive link texts, among others, will prove useful to both your users and search engine spiders.

9. Incorrect Linking
Links are one of the major SEO methods, however, these will prove successful only if they are properly done. You should concentrate your efforts on getting inbound links from websites enjoying good reputations and definitely avoid links to websites that are considered “bad” by search engines, such as porn sites, spamming and scams. Be careful to avoid plastering your website link everywhere you get a chance to as this is considered spamming and not SEO.

10. Ignoring URL Importance
Carefully select your website URL, because although it might still be successful without the presence of any of your target keywords in it, it is still an important factor for initial and repeat customer visits and purchases.

With the number of websites available and internet users numbering into the millions how will you manage to ensure that your website is visited and that it is seen mainly by your targeted purchasers/audience? One method that is very popular and also quite successful is through the use of the Pay Per Click (PPC). PPC is a form of internet advertising used on search engines, advertising networks and content sites (such as blogs). The beauty of PPC is that advertisers pay hosts only when their advert is clicked on and not each and every time it shows. This encourages cost minimization and website visitor targeting as most people who click on the advert will be actually interested in the site information. This pay per click campaign will also indirectly aid your Search Engine Optimization efforts by, hopefully, increasing traffic to your website and thus improving your Search Engine keyword search results ranking.

Websites that utilize PPC advertisements display an ad when a keyword query matches an advertiser\’s keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant, related content. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear next to or above the results lists on search engine results pages, or anywhere else on a content site.

Successful PPC Campaign: Some Tips

* Thorough keyword analysis and careful keyword selection. Your advert will be available for display when one of the keywords you have specified is utilized in a search.

* Launch you PPC campaign with just one provider initially, to test the campaign success and to make amendments where necessary. This is a paid campaign and you do not want to waste your money due to erroneous keywords or skewed PPC strategy.

* Once you have gotten used to the PPC system and gauged visitor reaction as opposed to payments made, you can successfully adjust your strategy and extend it to include other providers.

* Review and refine your PPC strategy from time to time to achieve the best results from money spent.

PPC Providers

Many online PPC providers exist, however, Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter are the largest and most popular network operators.

Providers may adopt PPC cost calculation systems that are either flat-rate based or bid-based. In both cases the advertiser must consider the potential value of a click from a given source. This value is based on the type of individual the advertiser is expecting to receive as a visitor to his or her website, and what the advertiser can gain from that visit, usually revenue, both in the short term as well as in the long term. Successful targeting is the key and this can be refined to define your target visitor interests, their purchasing intents, their locations, and the day and time they are browsing.

Pay Per Click can prove to be an important element in your Internet Marketing and Search Engine Marketing strategy. Reasonably priced online courses are available to help you acquaint yourself with PPC and improve your PPC marketing skills in a way that will increase the traffic to your website with a resultant increase in sales.

Pros and Cons of a PPC Advertising Campaign

Pros

* It can be easily and quickly launched.

* It increases traffic to your website and is particularly effective for highly competitive search phrases.

* PPC statistics are accurately and readily available. In addition, a campaign’s success can be extensively tracked and compared to your other marketing programmes results.

* Allows for experimentation and quick and easy strategy adjustments.

Cons

* Some pay per click keywords are highly competitive and this can result in costly bids.

* Pay per click traffic lasts only for as long as you pay for it.

The Conference Event initiated the launch of the Institute¹s range of new qualifications to the local financial services industry. This event is a combined collaboration with the ifs School of Finance (U.K.) The conference will feature a live video conference call with Mr. John Morewood ¬ – Senior Manager Graduate Recruitment and Development and Mr. David Hill – ¬ Global Relationship Manager of HSBC (UK) and also with Mr. Moiz Chaudhary – Portfolio Manager with RBS (UK)

The conference was attended by top players within the financial sector. the event provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the range of Search Engine Optimisation SEO services offered by Online Marketing Services.

Link Building is a crucial component of any Online Marketing Campaign or SEO effort. It is thus very important that one understands the importance of link building. One can compare links from other sites to your website to scores or vote. In the world of online marketing not all votes carry the same weight.
Some scores are worth significantly more than others. There are various factors which effect the strength of an incoming link in link building.

The strength of the other website linking to your site has a lot of bearing on the value of the link. The more popular the site linking to you the stronger the link. For example; if two news-sites link to you website in an article they carry about your company, but one news site is cnn.com whereas the other is a very low-key local news-portal. The weight given to the link featured in cnn.com would be much much higher than the other link.

Another important factor is the relevance of the site linking to you. Search engines are able to determine if your link is coming from a site with related content. It is thus very important that you choose related sites to link to your site. For example an Online Bookshop would benefit if they manage to get a link from a popular author’s site, or for a stockbrokers to get a link from the nation’s stock exchange website.

The positioning of the link on a page was well as the number of other links of that page impact the value of the link itself. From a Search Engine points of view the more it appears that a site wants a link to be visible or clicked on the more importance is given to that link. Al ink placed at the top of a page has more weight than one placed at the footer, a link in the middle of an article has more weight than one found in the middle of a links page with another 100 links.

An anchor tag is the text used in the actual html link. A link “…..click here for more” is less meaningful than a link saying “…. more on link building techniques” . Your chosen keywords should be part of the anchor tag itself.

We will be posting more about link building in the coming days
Online Marketing Services Ltd Malta

To become well-known you have to be seen and heard as often as possible. This stands true for the Internet too. Hence, the importance of being seen and heard at the IN-Sites visited by literally thousands of users a day, like Face book, and most recently: Twitter.

Twitter users are estimated at several million and counting. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009 with a growth of 1382%.

Since just a few years ago Marketing has seen the expansion of a potential new market to tap: the online market. Internet users have dramatically increased in the last years and have now formed a fully fledged market in its own right. So, where marketing is concerned, online users just cannot be ignored. Internet Marketing involves a learning curve, but the simplest way to start off is by establishing a presence on one of the most popular social networking websites worldwide: Facebook. Social media marketing is very popular nowadays and it is an excellent way for marketers to build brands and increase overall traffic to their websites.

Allocate some time to becoming well-acquainted with Facebook’s diverse facets and wide range of user options. This will help you keep up to date with any new developments added onto the system that will allow you to fully utilize them to your advantage/promotion. Just keep in mind not to flood the Facebookusers with advertising that will end up being considered as spam and will have you ejected from the site. So, acquaint yourself with Facebook and learn to use it diligently and to your advantage.

A few tips to start off your marketing on Facebook:

FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE & ADS

Marketplace is Facebook’s classifieds’ listing service. Here you can post a variety of ads related to promoting your business and your products. The marketplace allows you to upload pictures as well. Just take care not to flood it with your ads, as this will get you deleted from Facebook. There is also the option to buy flyers that can be utilized for promotion purposes in the Facebook marketplace.

Through the Facebook Ads feature you will be able to officially advertise your business services and/or products, and your website. This feature incorporates great marketing tools that you can take advantage of such as the Advanced Targeting feature that allows you to target your market by age, gender, interests, relationship status and location, among other options. Facebook Ads can get you back your money’s worth and help you build your business base, if utilized properly.

By tapping into Facebook as an Internet Marketing tool you will have a wide array of communication tools precious to promoting and marketing your products and services online.

>>back to articles

I’m sure you’ve heard of the white witch and the black witch. They’re both witches, they both practice magic (supposedly) its just that one is good whereas the other is the villain and thus bad. In online marketing the use of bad and black is used to metaphorically represent good and bad SEO. Grey hat SEO is a considered an in between the two ends, and refers to practices which are sometimes good and sometimes bad.

This short article tried to discuss the difference between black hat and white hat SEO.

Search Engine Optimization / SEO is all about influencing how search engines rank your website listings. Some would say that the end justifies the means and so would be ready to use any form of practice that would somehow help their search engine rankings. Others prefer to take a more ethical approach using only legitimate and approved forms of SEO to improve rankings. It is this basic distinction in SEO practices that divides the SEO practitioners into black hat and white hat SEO’s.

Black hat SEO involves practices that webmasters or search marketers use to try to deceive or lie to the search engines. These practices usually include one or more of the following:

Most of what is known as Black hat SEO started off as creative and innovative practices to try to effect how search engines pick up websites to push them higher in their search rankings. Some optimizers went overboard and the excessive use of these “creative” practices and ended up being banned by Search Engines and frowned on by the SEO community in large.

Some Black Hat practices to avoid:

Overuse of Keywords (Keyword stuffing): This practice involves stuffing huge lists of keywords and very little else into websites. Search Engines will find this out and penalize you.

Hidden text: This is a system whereby webmasters “hide” keywords by putting the font color the same color of the background of the page. This creates the impression of invisible text. Search engines are no longer tricked by such a practice and they will end up banning your site rather than improving your ranking.

Face entry pages (Doorway Pages) – These “fake” pages are created for spam indexing by inserting specific results for particular keywords and search phrases. These fake entry pages are also known as bridge pages, portal pages, jump pages, and gateway pages. Such practices are also known as cloaking since they redirect visitors without their knowledge. Whatever online marketing experts, search engines or clients say, Search Engine optimization should put the visitor first!

Examples of White hat SEO include:

Internal Linking:
Search engine spiders navigate your website by following text based hyperlinks on the site. Hyperlinks hidden into image maps, flash menus or fancy drop down navigation are very difficult for search engine spiders to follow. Whilst the visual aspect of the site is very important, having sites which emphasize only on the visual aspect but making it difficult for search engines to index them is self defeating. It is very important for sites to have text links at the bottom of each page as well as an XML site map.

Reciprocal linking
Linking your site with other webmasters is considered very beneficial for improving your website’s link. One must keep in mind that not every kind of link from other sites works. Only links from related sites add value to your link campaign. One should make sure that you never link to any “bad” sites such as those coming from penalized websites.

Content Creation
I cannot stress enough the importance of content in a website. A website is a means of communicating useful and valid information to visitors. If a website lacks this basic principles no matter how much you will try to work on SEO, in the long term the site will never do well with search engines. A “content rich” site is important for visitors and thus important for search engines.

Search Engine Optimization SEO
SEO comprises a holistic approach to improving the website’s friendliness, these include improvements in the sites coding such as more effective page title tags, better keyword and description Meta tags, as well as tweaking content to maximize Search Engine indexing. An effective SEO campaign should not move the website’s focus from the end user. There is no point in increasing traffic to a site which has poor content and cannot do its job of effectively transmitting the desired message.

Online Marketing Services Ltd is based in Malta and offers a wide range of SEO services to Maltese enterprises. If you would like to contact us for a fee quote or review of your site, please do so by sending us an email.

>>back to articles

Search Engine Optimization can be carried out either in-house or through the hiring of Search Engine Optimizers whose expertise it is to carry out optimization projects on behalf of its clients. It can be considered as another internet marketing effort as higher search engine results ranking will increase visibility and website visitors thus increasing the probability of sales.

Although there are a number of Search Engines in use worldwide, the three major ones are: Google, Yahoo and MSN. The most popular one is Google.

>>back to articles

Content Marketing Works! It is being used by multinational companies like Microsoft and Cisco as well as small one-person online businesses. Bombarded by traditional media advertising, customers are simply shutting of traditional advertising. Traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective.

The main difference between effective content marketing and informational garbage dished out by hard selling techniques is that the latter lacks relevant and valuable content… Good content marketing makes a person stop…read…think…behave…differently.
Creative content marketing can help you connect with a prospective client. Content marketing is completely different in concept and style from traditional marketing which is simply a bombardment of sales messages.

The importance of content as far as Search engine optimization is concerned cannot be stressed enough! Content is the king of SEO. It is very important to have search engine friendly content to attract visitors to your website.

Specialized content writers can be engaged by businesses to create Search Engine optimized content. Such content can be posed wither directly within the client’s website such as the news or latest articles section, or into blogs. Another form of content creation is Pod casts – these involve scripting content and then recording it into an mp3 file. Sending regular informative newsletters to you clients is very demanding especially when it comes to create fresh informative and useful content. Content style and format vary depending on the online distribution medium being used.

Remember that the text content on your website is the most important aspect of your website. It is much more than fancy website design or flash animated graphics. Search engines will use your text content on your websiteto understand how to index your website. Professional website content writers compose effective text content that incorporates the foundations of SEO copywriting and deliver persuasive messages that rank and convert.

>>back to articles

Content Marketing:
“Content Marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling directly. Content marketing tools include blogs, forums, articles, social networking participation, press releases and eBooks.”

Search Engine Marketing
“The vast majority of people use search engines like Google to look up websites. Most people would not go past the 2nd or 3rd results page. Making the best of search engine ranking is crucial for traffic to your site. A good understanding of Natural / Organic listings as well as Pay Per Click advertising is essential for a good understanding of SEM”

Email Marketing
“Having a database of existing and prospective customers is a valuable asset to an online marketing campaign. Used in conjunction with content marketing, eMail marketing can have significant impact on your overall site traffic. Specialized server hosted mass emailing software packages exist in order to facilitate eMail Marketing.”

Affiliate Marketing
“Involves getting other businesses to help you market your products and services. Affiliate marketing lets you broadly expand your online marketing reach. Affiliate marketing is relatively new in Malta”

>>back to articles

Lower distribution costs and a global reach are amongst the most important advantages brought about by the internet. Unlike other forms of marketing, online marketing offers interactivity with the end user both in terms of providing instant response as well as eliciting response.

Online Marketing encompasses a wide range of practices and online promotional activities which include: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), PayPer Click Advertising and Email Marketing. Rapid changes in internet technology make online marketing an evolving science. One particular example is the influence that social networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter having on online marketing strategies.

Although the principles of Online Marketing are similar to traditional marketing practice, eMarketing is quickly evolving into a science of its own. Companies wishing to get the maximum benefits from their ebusiness will need to develop a complete online marketing strategy for their company, in order to generate effective income streams.

The amount of content on the internet is increasing exponentially on a daily basis. This also means that it is becoming always harder for your website to be found by potential clients. Anyone thinking that visitors will just flow to their site without an ongoing committed effort in online marketing is fooling himself or misunderstood how the internet works.

A website is like a book. A well written book hidden in a library where no one will find it is very much like a website with no traffic. Understanding what drives online traffic to your site is the key to understanding and implementing an effective Online Marketing Campaign. Since the majority of traffic to a site is directed through search engines, making your website as search engine friendly as possible becomes of utmost importance. Search Engine Optimization is an integral part of any online marketing campaign, though it would be wrong to equate online marketing with SEO alone.

Understanding and embracing Internet Marketing will determine if your eBusiness is successful or not!

>>back to articles