SEO Best Practices often refer to the rule of optimizing for “One Keyword Phrase Per Page” and this is very good advice.   This rule first applies to the most important on-page ranking factor – the or even better would be .

This second title is optimized for both ‘Valentines Gifts’ as well as ‘Gifts for Valentines’.   With our available space of 65 characters, this title is also optimized for ‘Best Valentines Gifts’, ‘Valentines Day Gifts’, and the long tail of ‘Best Valentines Day Gifts’.   Some people would argue that this page is now attempting to optimize for more than one keyword phrase.  Our strategy, in this example, is to primarily optimize for ‘Valentines Gifts’ and then to find the best keyword phrases to use for our variations.

This strategy is extended to the content of the page with use of the primary keyword in the H1 of the page as well as 1-2 times in the first 100 words of the content.  If the page contains 500 words, we feel that you should use the primary keyword 2 -3 times and can use the variations up to 6 – 8 times on the page.  Using our ‘valentines gift’ example, you can use the secondary variations each 1 time on the page.  This thematic variety of the keyword not only provides a wider range of keywords for SEO, but minimizes the keyword stuffing effect that many SEO pages seem unable to avoid.

One last note, be sure to use these different variations as you build links to the page, both internally and externally.  Most analytical programs also let you see which keywords generated traffic to a particular page;  you might be surprised how successful this approach can be if you have a popular page and can monitor the results in your analytics program.

When thinking about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), people often overlook the importance of file names. Read on to learn about how you can implement SEO friendly file names on your web site…

When a web page’s file name is oriented to SEO, it will have a better chance of gaining high rankings in search results – especially if other efforts are made to optimize it. To be SEO friendly, a file name should do each of the following:

1. Contain keywords that people search for (the words must also be relevant to the page’s content)

2. Separate the keywords, preferably with hyphens (-); see the example below.

3. Avoid repeating words in the rest of the URL, like domain or directory names.

This is not really all that difficult to implement. Here are some examples of SEO friendly web page file names:

pascal-programming-books.htm

used-motorcycles-los-angeles.htm

get-better-tv-reception.shtml

charlotte-nc-weather-report.asp

easy-microwave-recipes.php

Hyphens separate the words so that search engines can individually recognize them, rather than seeing them as one long, unintelligible word. Some sites use other punctuation, but hyphens are the most SEO friendly.

If your web site already has dozens or hundreds of pages, it is probably best to start using these file names on new pages, but to leave the existing pages as they are.

On the other hand, if your site only has a few pages, it might be worthwhile to change their file names. However, the old pages ought to be removed and your site should be set to redirect users from the old URLs to the new. Search engines don’t look favorably on duplicate pages, and you also don’t want users who have “bookmarked” the pages not to be able to return.

Putting in a little extra time to make your file names SEO friendly should eventually help increase your search engine based traffic without much difficulty.

Google’s Insight for Search program is closely related to their Google Trends product. With Insights for Search you can compare and contrast search volume patterns across specified regions (like USA or Japan), categories (such as health or sports) and time ranges (last 30 days, for example).

No matter what business you’re in – small business owner, marketing/advertising agency or even a giant corporation – Google Insights for Search can help you determine the interest in different search terms. The reason is that Insight for Search shows you A/B comparison between keywords so that you can choose the best keywords for your needs. It also shows you the top related keywords as well as which keywords are on the rise in your market. Additionally, you can see which cites, states and even countries in which a keyword is popular.

A note of caution, Google Insights for Search works much like Google Trends in that it defaults to the broad matched version of a keyword. This means that a word like credit will show more volume than credit cards, event though credit cards gets more search volume. The reason is that the term credit card counts towards the search volume for the word credit. Also good to know, keywords are weighted so that their top volume day is anchored at 100 and other days represent a relative percentage of that search volume.

All in all, this is another powerful tool in Google’s toolbox that is well worth taking a look at to determine how it can fit into your marketing plan.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, offers great potential for targeted lead generation. Unlike some of the other promotional methods, it is easy to independently target several different types of customers with SEO. Read on to learn more about how to use SEO for lead generation.

A single web site selling one product or service can attract customers with varying needs, by emphasizing certain aspects on different pages. For example, perhaps there is a web site which sells a fast, high-capacity battery charger. On one page, it might emphasize how many batteries the unit can simultaneously charge, while stressing how quickly it charges them on another page. Each page should include details on all of the product’s advantages, but focus upon one and begin by describing it. Both pages could have a form for requesting more information, which provides lead generation for the product being advertised and prevents the customer from having to make an immediate decision.

So how is SEO involved? The web site will not receive much search engine traffic if it emphasizes the wrong keywords on the lead generation page. The same holds true if it overuses them or applies words that too many other web sites have emphasized. For example, hardly anyone uses the words “rapid” or “high-speed” when searching for information about charging batteries quickly, whereas some do use “fast” or “quick” in these searches. In some cases, it may be best to repeatedly use two alternative (but correct) spellings of the same SEO keyword. Remember that the pages shouldn’t be too similar to each other; this can be detrimental to SEO, as search engines may see them as duplicates.

The title tag and META description tag are also part of SEO; they must use phrases which attract potential customers who have the interests emphasized on a specific page. Using the right keywords in the URL is important as well. A page emphasizing the quality of a product should use several related keywords in its URL, alongside words indicating the product type. An example would be www.example.com/cell-phone/very-durable-rugged.html; notice that highly competitive words which have been overused by other web sites, like “best” and “quality”, have been left out.

Basically, a web site can use SEO to enhance lead generation by emphasizing different search keywords on each page, creating attractive title/description tags, and using hyphen-separated keywords in the page URLs. This should make possible lead generation on many types of customers.

Many web site owners fail to realize that the URL of an individual page can affect how much search engine traffic it receives. Like titles and keywords, URL structure is an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Read on to learn more about the best practices for creating an SEO based URL structure…

Putting related search keywords in the URL will help improve a page’s ranking. However, it is best to separate these words so that search engine “spiders” (a.k.a. “robots”) can distinguish between them; otherwise, it just looks like one long word. Some people use underscore (_) symbols in between the keywords, but using a hyphen (-) is generally considered preferable for SEO. If the page has content people are likely to revisit regularly – such as updated news or weather – consider creating a page with a short, easy to remember URL (perhaps a subdomain) which redirects to the long URL. Make sure the longer address is linked to from the “Site Map”.

Using a long URL structure generally isn’t a problem with regard to SEO; search engines will still index very long (over 100 letters) URLs, and most web browsers can handle addresses which are thousands of characters long. Nonetheless, excessively long URLs are less appealing for people to use in print or email. There is no need to repeat words already used in the URL; don’t use a word in the filename that repeats the domain, directory, or subdomain name. The same applies to the page’s title and “keywords” META tag, but not the body/text of the page, where SEO keywords should be used several times.

As an example of applying these best practices to the structure of a specific URL, the file name for a page selling portable computers might be cheap-laptop-notebook-computer. The entire address would be something like www.example.com/shopping/cheap-laptop-notebook-computer.htm. Changing the directory name “shopping” to “buy” would best target keywords people are likely to search for. On some search engines, text files (.TXT format) are listed with the URLs as their titles; others use the first line of text for this purpose. The same goes for documents in PDF format.

Basically, the best practices for creating an SEO oriented URL structure include using keywords (or phrases) people search for, separating each word with a hyphen, and avoiding repetitive URLs. Applying these practices isn’t difficult, and has the potential to substantially increase traffic.

When creating a new web page with SEO in mind, choosing the right title becomes important. Good titles attract the interest of searchers while identifying the page’s subject. They also use the right number and type of words to gain better search engine rankings. Here are some tips on creating an SEO based page title.

1. The page title length shouldn’t exceed 65 characters, including spaces. Otherwise, most search engines will cut off part of it in their results and use an ellipsis (…) in place of the remaining text. Titles may also be abbreviated in this fashion on web browsers if they are too long. If a lengthy title must be used, try to put less important words near the end, so that it won’t matter if people can’t see them.

2. Searchers may not bother to read the description if the title doesn’t appeal to them or attract their attention. It should be specific to the content and purpose of the individual page. For example, when creating an SEO title for a page about a specific truck model, make sure it reveals whether it is a review, a promotional advertisement, or a list of details. This way, people won’t have to load and review the web page to find out.

3. When creating SEO titles, make sure the words in the title are repeated in the text of the page. This will help pages gain higher rankings in search results by showing that the content is relevant to the titles. Avoid using the same word repeatedly. Consider including related search keywords if the title remains under forty characters in length, perhaps by adding a “category” word at the beginning (followed by a colon).

4. Don’t use uppercase or lowercase letters for the entire title. It isn’t entirely clear as to whether or not search engines find this important; either way, lack of capitalization makes the site less appealing to people looking at search results. It also looks better if there aren’t too many short (1-3 letters) capitalized words in page titles.

5. Sometimes adding a commonly misspelled word (”keybord”) or an alternative spelling (like “criticize” and “criticise”) can have SEO benefits when creating titles. Certain words are spelled differently by people of particular nationalities, such as “favour” or “favor”. For example, a television sales page targeting British customers might use the phrase “Colour TV” in its title.

Rank Sense is an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) software package. It features tools for researching SEO keywords, creating progress reports, analyzing links, creating sitemaps, and optimizing individual pages or blogs. The developers of Rank Sense emphasize that the software is easy to use and up-to-date.

According to the Rank Sense web site, this software applies methods which follow search engine guidelines, rather than employing “black hat” or otherwise questionable techniques. One method it uses is to analyze other relevant web sites with high rankings, then make suggestions on how the user’s site could be adjusted to improve its rank accordingly. The software can operate in either “Smart” or “Classic” mode; the “Smart” option provides the user with assistance and goes from one step to the next, while the “Classic” mode lets users choose which tool to use. It also includes web site editing tools and support for the major blogging systems, including Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, and LiveJournal.

The software does not concern itself with minor search engines; its tools are designed to improve rankings on the major engines like Yahoo, Google, Live/MSN, and Ask.com. At the same time, Rank Sense encourages users to focus upon individual search engines and keywords separately, rather than trying to simultaneously gain high rankings on every search engine for the same keyword. As part of its aim to be convenient and easy to use, the Rank Sense software stores information from previous sessions so that users don’t have to re-enter details.

Rank Sense software is available on a subscription basis at four different levels, ranging from a free option for bloggers who have a single blog to a professional version with additional features and more support. A fourteen day free trial version of the software can be downloaded as well, either at the Rank Sense site or Download.com. The system requirements are fairly high, so make sure it will work on your computer before downloading or purchasing it. A form including some personal information (telephone, address) must be completed before using the free trial software. It can be easily removed using the “Add or Remove Programs” feature in Control Panel; you will still have to delete its directory/folder manually.

The company which produces Rank Sense, NEMedia S.A., was founded six years ago and is based in the Dominican Republic’s capitol. It has an office in the U.S. state of New Jersey as well.

When you research keywords to use in your web site or blog, it’s important to find words that people really search for, while avoiding keywords that you cannot realistically compete for. Here are some suggestions on how to research keywords more effectively and efficiently.

1. Create a list of potential keywords and phrases related to the subject of your web site. Try using a thesaurus to obtain more related keywords you might find desirable. The keyword research tools referred to in the next step are also useful for finding related keywords. Some sites effectively obtain traffic by creating content centered around commonly misspelled words.

2. Research how many people are searching for these keywords. You can use Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, and various other keyword research tools to easily and effectively obtain this sort of data. Some of these tools are free, others require a subscription fee. If no one is looking for a particular word or phrase on the search engines and you don’t have any reason to believe that will change, it probably isn’t worth producing content on that subject.

3. Use a major search engine to query keywords you are interested in; if all of the first and second page results are supplied by major (high PageRank) web sites, your site will have difficulty surpassing them in this subject (unless the site is already very well known). It is a good sign if there are few results or most listings aren’t specific to the keyword of interest; you may be able to effectively serve this niche.

4. Keep in mind that your goal (probably) isn’t just to increase hits to the web site; you want to effectively attract interested visitors who will click advertisements, purchase products, or otherwise benefit the site. For example, if a laser printer dealer were to go to the effort of attaining high rankings for words like “printer” and “printing”, it would needlessly attract many users who are only interested in other types of printers (also wasting bandwidth).

Unfortunately, no matter how effectively you research keywords, not all of them will produce a lot of traffic. Search query data isn’t always accurate, the things people are interested in vary from time to time, and new competitors may appear. Generally, the best strategy is to target niche keyword phrases which specifically relate to your site’s content and aren’t overly competitive.

Some websites use countless pages of poor quality content to attract hits via search engines. Such content is sometimes generated by computer software or created using a template that leaves little difference from one page to the next. Even if these pages are optimized using SEO, they have a number of disadvantages for the website operator, not to mention users. These are some ways of how poor content damages SEO.

1. Links: Other websites are unlikely to add links to poor quality material. No one will comment about the pages on their blogs or post them to social bookmarking systems either. Gaining inbound links is a very important part of SEO, as most search engines give sites and pages better rankings when more links to them exist. Also relevant to SEO is their ability to boost a site’s ranking under keywords used in the link anchor text.

2. Redundancy: This is frequently a problem with poor quality web content. When a site has many pages with almost the same material (aside from a few brief pieces of different information on each page), search engines will detect the redundancy and give preference to more unique/original results from different sites. This consequence worsens if the material has already appeared on other websites.

3. Updating: Many examples of poor website content are never updated. This damages SEO efforts because search engines tend to favor more recently updated material. It can also be a problem for sites with quality content, when they either cannot find new details about a subject or don’t have time to. Allowing users to post comments is one way of enabling a page to “update” without adding new information.

4. Recognition: Regardless of how well a site might rank in search results, more and more people will eventually recognize that it provides poor content, when they see it in search results. This will cause the amount of traffic it receives to decrease over time, and make it harder to recover even if higher quality content is added.

Overall, poor content primarily damages SEO campaigns by having redundancy, being unable to generate inbound links, and/or becoming outdated. Even when SEO efforts successfully attract users to poor quality material, they are liable to find it unsatisfying and become less likely to click ads, make purchases, or return to the same site in the future. It is better to focus upon quality than quantity when creating new content.

After a successful SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign, which has put your web site in a top position for one or more valuable keywords, it remains important to defend these keyword rankings from being lost to other sites. This is especially relevant for desirable keywords which numerous well-optimized sites compete for. Read on for several tips about how to defend your SEO position.

1. Keep track of changing search engine algorithms and policies. It will become harder to defend your site’s position in results if some of the SEO techniques used to promote it become outdated, or if new techniques are not being utilized.

2. Use care when making any changes to your site, taking into account how they might possibly harm its SEO position. Consider adding new pages to hold more information, rather than placing the information on existing pages. Remember to make sure the keyword density isn’t affected by changes.

3. Occasionally check any inbound links to your site on other major web sites, to make sure they still exist. If one is missing, try to gain a link on another equivalently popular site before the next PageRank update from Google. This will defend your level of inbound links from falling behind.

4. Register or purchase similar/related domain names, especially keyword-containing domains which are favorable for SEO purposes. This will help defend your position by preventing other sites from using these domains, and you can also utilize them to benefit your own promotional efforts.

5. Try to match any legitimate SEO oriented marketing techniques competing sites start to engage in, such as social bookmarking promotion. In some cases this may be expensive; a competitor might pay to get listed in the Yahoo Directory, thus gaining a significant advantage in their SEO position.

6. If your site links to any web sites competing for the same keyword position, consider using the “nofollow” attribute in these links. This will prevent such sites from gaining an increased search ranking because of your links to them.

It is imperative to remain vigilant against the potential loss of a favorable ranking for a particular keyword, rather than entirely ignoring such efforts after gaining a good position. If eventually you can no longer defend the SEO position for a particular keyword, try to optimize for a different keyword which is relatively popular but has less competition to defend against.