The Affiliates Center Blog » Seo

What Is SEO And How Does It Work?

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:06:34 +0000

So, what is SEO and how does it work? Why do so many people get hung up on it and literally drive themselves out of their businesses trying to figure it out? How does search optimization make you money?

Lots of questions and the three above are three of the most popular. We see them every day come across our desk and I often wonder whether people over-analyze SEO. For your information, SEO stands for search engine optimization and comprises both on page and off page factors.

So what is SEO? An article at searchenginewatch.com from Mark Jackson has summed it up perfectly in my opinion. I’ve always thought that SEO was a combination of fact and creativeness. Combine the two and you are somewhere in the ball park of understanding what it is and how to use it to your advantage.

In fact, the science is not hard to understand or implement; the people who are able to be creative in testing different stuff are the ones who take their business to the next level.

The science in my opinion is easy; optimize for the right keyword; use a keyword rich title, get back links to your page; and incorporate a user focused aspect and you’re on the right track. That’s just a crash course but you get the picture. But when you start to use a little creative thinking to SEO practices then this is when the magic can start to happen.

I’ve worked with and befriended many incredibly bright SEOs in my years in this business. It is those who manage to blend the scientific skills with the creative thoughts on how to experiment/improve programs are the gems.

Getting creative with SEO is thinking of how a marketing program can encompass social, graphic design, link building, content generation, and PR to drive toward a common goal.

Getting creative with SEO is also about reworking a website’s design/code so that usability and accessibility improve, while maintaining brand guidelines and keeping with “look and feel” requirements, yet improving SEO.

Every day, we must get creative in determining how to best target keywords by determining which method of content generation gives us the best chance at gaining a presence in the search engines and – most importantly – engaging our audience.

Should we write a blog post? Should this be best handled in a press release? How about a video? Infographic? New “corporate” page on the site? There are a multitude of ways that we might determine to target a keyword via content…..

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So, what do you think? Have you been over-analyzing SEO? Is SEO something you get hung up on? What is your biggest query with SEO?

The fourth point we made above; “incorporate a user focus” has been tough for traditional SEO gurus to accept. But it’s the future and with social media such a huge part of our lives right now, it’s fair to say that user focus is a part of the SEO practice that now needs to be taken seriously.

In fact, some experts say that it’s all you need now to get your sites ranking on top. What do you think?

Linking is still a crucial aspect of SEO and one way you can get links at will is with Traffic Launch Pad. The pro version is now available and here’s the crazy part; it’s free.

Click here to download Traffic Launch Pad Pro.

SEO Tips To Rank Faster

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 12:05:57 +0000

In the last post we covered SEO tips for better rankings; today, we have more SEO tips to rank faster. Sometimes, I feel too much is made of SEO and yes, it is important but too many people get hung up on it and want everything to be perfect before they get their sites online. I say put it out there and then tweak and work your site while it’s getting age in the search engines.

Many seem to think there is a magic bullet solution to SEO but the truth is, while there are advanced tips and tricks that can make a difference, unless you master the simple stuff first what’s the point.

One of the biggest lessons I learned very early on with SEO techniques was to not put the cart before the horse. I remember spending thousands on courses that were only meant for advanced marketers and when I got them, I didn’t understand what the heck I was supposed to do. That’s because I didn’t take the time to learn the basics which is the foundation to becoming successful in this business.

Zac Johnson is one marketer we’ve mentioned before on this site and he’s someone I listen to. Zac posted an article on his blog which looks at 10 SEO tips to quickly rank in the search engines. Some of the tips are basic and some are a little more advanced. But this is the stuff you need to know before you go onto more tricky tasks.

Starting a new website or blog can be very exciting and fulfilling. The only downside is waiting for your site to get a pagerank and waiting on those rankings to increase. For some people this is something that happens pretty quickly, while others anxiously and impatiently wait and wait and often end up with disappointing results. What gives? Well, unless you really have a good grasp of SEO, then you’ll end up frustrated and wanting to give up. Don’t give up though because we’re about to give you 10 tips to help improve your rankings more quickly and also boost your motivation.
Scope Out the Competition

It’s good to know as much as possible about your competition so that you can know who you’re up against and what you should strive for. For instance, you may want to start by finding out how many incoming links your competitors have. This way, you have a good idea of how many you need in order to pass them. Also take a look at where they rank in search engines, what keywords they’re using, and what’s in their meta tags. You can’t strive for the top spot unless you know what you’re competing for. So be sure to analyze your competition as an initial plan of action…..

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You can rank fast with new sites and pages. Using these SEO tips to rank faster plus the previous we posted should not just see you place your sites in the index where people are going to find them, but also keep you “in sweet” with Google.

There is no magical solution believe me. I have pages ranking very highly with nothing more than good SEO practice; no tricks no gimmicks. The reason being that they please the search engines; they give Google what it wants to keep it’s searchers happy. Seriously folks, forget the get rich quick stuff.

Meanwhile, we’ve been telling you for sometime about James Martell’s Affiliate Marketer’s Super Boot Camp and I hope some of you have at least checked this out. I’m going to be presenting some other stuff shortly but if you really want to make this a full time occupation learn from James Martell. You’ll thank me for it.

Click here to learn more about James Martell’s Affiliate Marketer’s Boot Camp.

SEO Affiliate Marketing Tips: Importance Of Header Tags

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:43:32 +0000

Let’s continue our SEO affiliate marketing tips series and today I want to touch on header tags. How important are they? Very important.

They are to search engines what a lighthouse was to sailing ships back in the old days. They basically let the search engines know what your site is all about. In fact, header tags along with title tags are the announcement to the search engines like Google that your site is about XYZ.

They come in different sizes too. From H1 to H6. What do they look like and how do you use them? Here’s what they look like when you apply them to your article on a page.

H1 is short for Heading 1. Notice in the image below this the H1 tags are put at the beginning and end of the heading with the second one having the trailing slash to close it off.

The second headline has the H2 tags at either end. H1 is considered more important than H2 and so on. The titles of articles are usually in H1. Sub headlines can range from H2 to H6. One thing you want to avoid is having two H1 titles on the same page.

If you have more than one then you run the risk of upsetting the search engines or your page will look a little ugly. Another important thing to remember is to not keyword stuff between your H1 tags. For example, don’t do this:

“Affiliate Marketing Tips: Affiliate Marketing Tips For Affiliate Marketers”

Just keep it to one key phrase per headline. Make them look as natural as you can. Your sub headlines in the less important header tag source code is the place to add the extra key phrases related to the site. Too many key phrases in your header tags will look spammy and your readers will more than likely not read on any further as it looks unnatural.

You Tube has some excellent training on this topic if you want to know more. I’ve added a video below on how to use WordPress header tags.

SEO Affiliate Marketing Tips: What Are Title Tags & How Important Are They?

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:54:15 +0000

When it comes to SEO affiliate marketing tips regarding on page factors which are important in getting you ranked on Google, title tags immediately come to mind.

Are title tags important when it comes to on page SEO? You bet they are. Unless you are a masochist and not really interested in getting your site found, then leave them out.

But we don’t recommend it.

This post will be short and sweet. We’ll explain what title tags are and how they will help you in your endeavors in getting on the first page of Google.

What Are Title Tags & What Do They Do?

Title tags are the description you see right at the top of a website when you come to a page. Here’s an example:

They basically tell the search engines what your page is about. Why do we say page instead of site? Because search engines rank pages not websites. So having unique title tags on each of your web pages is the way search engines will determine what it’s about and it’s relevancy to what the searcher is looking for.

Make sense.

For example. The page you are on now would have title tags such as:

“SEO Affiliate Marketing Tips: What Are Title Tags & How Important Are They?”

What you don’t want to have is nothing at all or something like this:

“Mysite.com” or “Welcome To My Blog”

Try and keep the length of your title tags to under 70 characters. In fact, Google will display up to 65 characters in the search results.

That’s basically it. Just make sure you include title tags because they are the announcement to the search engines of what your page is about. This is extremely important when trying to get relevancy in Google’s eyes. When promoting different pages, you’ll want to use the main keyword in your title tag as the anchor link.

There are several good SEO plugins you can use to get page title tags listings without having to go in and manually add them. Our long time favorite has been the All In One SEO plugin. It’s easy to install and use.

SEO Affiliate Marketing Tips: How To Get The Best Domain Names

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:19:58 +0000

Let’s continue our look at SEO affiliate marketing tips and the on page factors which make a difference in you getting top search engine rankings.

Domain names are often overlooked as a serious on page SEO factor but believe me, get this wrong and you will prolong your efforts in getting good rankings for your main key phrase.

The operative statement here is always try and get a keyword rich domain name. If you cannot get the exact key phrase in your domain then look at adding an additional modifier. For example, if you are building an affiliate marketing site on fast black computers then you would look for:

fastblackcomputers.com

If you cannot get this domain with a .com then look for .org and .net in that order. Failing this, we are going to recommend you give serious consideration to .co. They haven’t been around long but from the testing I’m seeing especially from my colleagues, they are starting to get good results with these especially for product targeted sites.

If you miss out on all counts, then look at adding a modifier. For example:

fastblackcomputerssite.com or
buyfastblackcomputers.com

The word site is the modifier. Other modifiers you could add are the, info, tips, sale, buy, review. These are just a shortlist. Look for a modifier that makes sense with your key phrase. Some suited at the start such as the and buy while others will be better suited to the end of the key phrase.

While they won’t be as powerful as an exact match they still carry strong favor so don’t be afraid to use them.

Just a note on why you would look for a .com first – when people type the exact url into a browser they will usually end it with .com. It’s considered the universal domain and everyone knows .com. Most browsers will default to .com.

Things to avoid when buying a domain. Avoid long urls. Try and keep your urls to four to five words in length at the most. Also, avoid excessively hyphenated urls. We don’t mind at least one hyphen in the name but anymore and you’ll be stretching friendships.

That’s it. We’ll look at aged domains and how to buy them later on but there are more on page SEO factors to cover first and we’ll continue with this series in the next post.

SEO Affiliate Marketing Tips: How To Get Top Google Rankings With On Page SEO

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Sun, 08 May 2011 10:32:57 +0000

This is the start of a series of SEO tips designed to get your site ranked highly in the search engines. Experienced internet marketers will also gain great benefit from these SEO tips as it’s always a good idea to refresh yourself with what Google really wants to see on your web pages.

This series will cover both on page and off page SEO factors so let’s get started by first looking at what some of the important on page ranking factors are. Let’s be clear, no one really knows other than Google what they really want and SEO is really speculative but the following factors have been determined from years of testing by successful internet marketers and will give you a great start.

On page SEO affects about 20-25% of the overall SEO strategy and those who tell you it’s not all that important are kidding themselves. It’s where it all starts and just applying the following will get you off to a great start.

Important Ranking Factors

Title tags are extremely important. Make sure you create them and always include your keyword.
Include your keyword in the H1 Header tag.
Meta Description is also extremely important as they get indexed but for ranking, not so.
Meta tags have been a debatable subject and the truth is, they don’t really turn Google on.
Your body text can influence rankings so you need to make sure you have your main keyword clearly mentioned two to three times. But it’s also important to add secondary keywords through the text. Don’t over use keywords though. Make it look as natural as possible. In the title, the first paragraph and the last paragraph.
Keyword linked anchor text is another extremely important ranking factor.
Image alt tags and text.
External links quality is often overlooked but testing proves this is pretty important.
Using your keyword in the url is another hotly debated topic. We say it’s important especially when targeting a particular product or niche but many will say look at some of the biggest and most popular sites on the web such as Google and Yahoo.
The age of the domain can be a big benefit when trying to rank well in the search engines. Google seems to pay more respect to an aged domain than a new one.

What you don’t want to be doing are things such as keyword stuffing, duplicate content and content spinning that doesn’t make sense. Content spinning is fine in our books but you want to make sure the spun article is almost totally unique and reads well. Link farms can be bad and we recommend avoiding them and something you might not be aware of but hidden text can also be risky.

This is just the start and a shortlist. There are other factors we haven’t mentioned but they are things which have little impact. Overall, just do the basics and you will get off to a good start. Don’t over-do it though. With experience, this stuff will become second nature.

Bottom line…there are just a handful of on page SEO requirements you need to be doing. We will look at these in the following posts.

Auto Link Juicer: Scam Or The Real Traffic-Getting Solution?

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:39:48 +0000

Okay, this is not a hoax or a plug for one of the crap products flooding the internet marketing world at the moment. This is a serious warning to be on the lookout for quite possibly the launching of this years most innovative and valuable internet and affiliate marketing tool.

Auto Link Juicer will hit the market about mid-may and is already causing great interest. We are all for automation here at The Affiliates Center Blog but only if it’s tried and tested and is a quality product.

The team at Blog Blueprint have been busy in the lab lately; recently they launched Traffic Kaboom and will follow it up wit Auto Link Juicer. It’s a collection of WordPress tools designed to get your blog’s link structure right and in turn, increasing traffic to your site.

Jason Potash and Jason Katzenback are the brains behind this tool and over the past six years, they’ve developed a fearless reputation online for producing quality products and training. Just do a search for them online.

Here’s what Potash has to say about Auto Link Juicer:

“The “auto link juicer system” is designed specifically to help you fully optimize your blogs internal linking structure plus work with (and listen to) the search engines (primarily Google) to automatically adjust your blogs internal link structure as needed to optimize your search engine rankings.

98% of people screw this part up, without even realizing it. Not anymore. Auto link juicer auto-fixes your on-page optimization — placing more emphasis on your “money” pages and forcing more human traffic to hit your “call to actions”. Without doing anything shady or sneaky. Google actually likes this because there are no tricks being used here.

Install the auto link juicer system and it’s like giving yourself and instant traffic, rankings (and pay) raise!

And it gets better… ALJ (aka auto link juicer) also has an extremely powerful and custom “social linking” element built right in that gives all your blog posts a good quality (not spammy) link boost to get you even higher rankings and more traffic.

Best part… all the magic is done in the background without you touching a thing or having to be an SEO hotshot.”

Potash says you can install this tool in a couple of minutes and immediately watch your blog climb up the search engine rankings.

Bold statement I know but as someone who has worked with these guys for several years now you can take it from me that they don’t make bold statements unless they can back them up.

There’s nothing to buy yet and the launch is a good 30 days away. Click on this link and grab your copy today. I’ll definitely keep you posted on the development of Auto Link Juicer.

How To Write An SEO Article

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:14:28 +0000

Time to look at how to write an SEO article and today’s lesson will concentrate on the opener, middle content of the article and the closer.

When I started as an online marketer several years ago one of the skills I brought to the table was writing ability. As a journalist, writing was a big part of my life and at the time, I thought I could simply transfer that ability to marketing online. Search engine optimization was something I learned after several months and didn’t realize how important it was to article writing online. I guess that’s the learning curve you go through.

My articles read well – my friends and family told me but they weren’t getting too much in the way of visitor numbers to my landing pages. I soon realized writing as a journalist and writing as an online marketer are two different things. Journalists report and online marketers offer answers and solutions.

Does that make sense?

So let’s look at how to write SEO articles – articles that keep a visitor reading through to the resource box.

We looked at three aspects of content writing but there’s still more to the equation.How to make an article visually attractive to visitors so you at least get them to the first paragraph is something too many article marketers overlook. We’ll show you why in our next lesson.

How To Write SEO Article Titles

AffiliatesCenterBlog — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:07:10 +0000

In this second training video on how to construct an article that gets attention we are going to be focusing on the article title. How to write SEO article titles is a skill that will take a little practice but the more you do it the easier it gets.

The title is so important it cannot be understated. It’s your shop front window. It’s where your main display is going to be presented and needs to be compelling enough to make the reader want to click through to read your article.

Remember, you’ve written your article around your main keyword phrase. If your reader has come across your term in the search results your title is usually going to be listed in bold. It’s your lead-off batter and if it’s weak, it will get struck out.

Okay, here’s what I do to maximize my title for both the search engines and to peak a reader’s interest in clicking through to the article. The title not only has to be keyword specific but should give the reader some hint of what the article is about.

In the final analysis, it’s not that difficult to SEO optimize an article title. Once you attract them to your article and your content is what they are looking for, then your chances of getting them to click through from your resource box to your landing page increases significantly.

That’s why it’s vital you understand and know how to write SEO article titles.