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What Does Google Think Your Website is About?
July 28, 2010
How to tell Google that your website is not about toads
You know what you sell and you know the topic of your website. Are you sure that Google puts your website in the right category? If your website is about shoes, Google still might think that it is about frogs and toads.
If Google puts your website in the wrong category, it will be very difficult to get high rankings for your keywords.
How to find out what Google thinks about your website
To find out what Google thinks about your website, perform a “similar” search for your domain. Enter the following in Google’s search box:
related:www.domain.com/ ~domain.com
Replace domain.com with your own domain name and make sure that there is no spacer after the colon. On the result page, Google will show you websites that it finds related to your site.
If the websites on the search result page are related to your website then everything is okay. If the websites are about totally different topics, then you have a problem and Google probably won’t display your website in the search results for the right keywords.
Why does Google put your website in the wrong category?
Suppose your website is about selling shoes. If your site is linked by other websites that link to your website and other websites that are about frogs and toads then Google might think that your website is related to frogs and toads.
It’s important that the other links on the web page that links to you are related to your site. If you’re listed in the “Shoes” category of an Internet directory then all web sites in the same category are usually also about shoes.
When search engines look at this page and check the links to other sites they will think that your web site is related to shoes. That means that it will be much easier to get high rankings for search terms that are about shoes.
Is your website in the right co-citation category?
The other websites to which your link partners link influence the ranking of your website on Google.
Here’s an example: web sites 1, 2, 3 and 4 all link to the web sites A, B, C and D. Although A, B, C and D don’t link to each other, Google thinks that A, B, C and D are related to each other because the same web sites link to them:
If A, B, C and D are all linked from 1, 2, 3 and 4 they might be related to one another, even though they don’t directly link to each other.
If A, B, C and D are all linked by many other web sites, they have a strong relationship. The more web sites they are linked by, the stronger the relationship.
If you are the owner of website A, you should make sure that web sites B, C and D are related to your site.
What does this mean for your website?
When you build links, make sure that the page that links to your site also contains other links that are related to your website topic. The more pages of the other site are about your topic, the better.
If the link to your website is in a good neighborhood then it will be much easier to get high rankings for your keywords.
The backlink tools in IBP will help you to get more related backlinks to your website. Related backlinks and optimized web page content will bring your website on Google’s first result page.
This article is reprinted with permission: copyright Axandra.com – Web site promotion software
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Lead Generation to Sales Conversion
July 27, 2010
If you’re frustrated with sales on your website, you may find this chart representing B2B lead generation to sales to be a real eye-opener. Almost a quarter of the sales in the cycle take 12 months or longer.
An excerpt from Marketing Sherpa’s report:
“One of the most challenging obstacles to marketing is the time span from lead generation to sales conversion. These long sales cycles put pressure on marketers to streamline the lead nurturing process… We also wanted to know what percentage of leads at each stage of the pipeline were likely to advance to the next stage. We found that on average, nearly four in 10 leads move from initial inquiry to being sales-ready and the same ratio advance from sales-ready to qualified prospect.”
This should serve as encouragement to not give up too soon in your marketing efforts, and to put more emphasis on lead nurturing. This report is focused on B2B, however, the same advice would serve for B2C, although the sales cycle should be shorter, depending upon the service or product being offered.
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10 Tips for Researching a Niche for Your Blog
July 13, 2010
There are many things that you should be looking at when you’re considering the development of a niche blog or website. You should be aware of the level of competition as well as have an interest within the field.
Here are some tips and tools to help you discover your niche. Possible niches can be found by using these websites and tips.
1. Magazines There are at least 2000 magazines which are published for niche enthusiasts. There are also trade publications to read and trade organizations to join. Take the time to browse through the magazines, there is surely something which will capture your interest.
2. Amazon Amazon sells absolutely everything and it offers lists of the hottest sellers. Glance at some of the items for which people are searching. Allow yourself to move from topic to topic, since there are some categories which are not as appealing as others. Write down anything that captures your interest, be it a mandolin or a history book.
3. Technorati See what subjects and topics are being offered at Technorati. This site offers a top 100 blog list which will give you a listing of the most popular blogs in the world. You can find out about the possible competition at Technorati.
4. Ebay Pulse Ebay Pulse gives you listings of the hottest topics based on the number of searches done at the site. The Pulse will show you the most watched items in Ebay’s stores. Delve into the numbers and find a niche.
5. Google Trends Google Trends will show you the most popular searches that people are conducting on Google. By inputting your words, you can get an idea of the way that it has trended over time. Are there certain seasons which others are looking for a specific item? This site will inform you.
6. Google Adwords Using your Google account, you can create a Google Adwords account. Google offers many free tools which can help you ascertain the level of competition that you’re facing and get the number of keywords in the field. You can find out how many searches are done on your favorite topics and get an estimate of how much advertisers pay Google per click. Once you have a list of potential niches, here are some things that you should keep in mind.
7. Start with something you enjoy While you were doing research, was there something which stood out? Pick something which fuels your imagination. You will need to put a lot of work into the blog and it is better to be writing about something exciting. Chances are, you also have ties to the community surrounding your interests.
8. Look for the money Look around for potential affiliate programs associated with your niche. Be aware of the rates that advertisers pay. You want to find a lucrative niche.
9. Know about your audience How passionate are the readers within your niche? Do you notice that they congregate at a certain site or forum? Is there anything that you can add to the conversation? Look for an audience who is passionate about their niche.
10. Find the forums There are forums for nearly every niche, but some are more active than others. Join the group in your niche which has the greatest number of members. You want to have more of an understanding about your potential niche as well as use them for marketing.
Finding a great niche takes research and determination. By using all of the tools at your disposal, you will have your blog set up in no time.
During his time as a staff writer for a well know supplier of ink cartridges, James has focused his work to cover news in the design world and reviews of new releases such as the HP 300XL ink cartridge.
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SEO is Very Effective
July 13, 2010
If you ever had doubts about the effectiveness of SEO, this chart should set them at rest.
I’m wondering how SEO didn’t increase traffic for 39% of the websites. Poor quality of optimization would mean a lower amount of traffic, but even so…
Very Effective SEO Objectives by Primary Market
SEO has proven to be an effective tool in achieving a number of important marketing objectives, making it a universally-beneficial marketing tactic for a wide variety of organizations, regardless of their objectives.
As you can see, increased website traffic is rated as the most effective objective for SEO and increased brand or product awareness is also rated extremely well. However, increased website traffic and awareness are soft metrics that lead to an improvement in bottom-line metrics such as increased online and offline sales revenue.
We feel the effectiveness of SEO in these bottom-line metrics is undervalued because of difficulties in achieving closed-loop tracking from website traffic source to online or offline sales revenue, or low efficiencies of conversion optimization of websites.
B2C organizations are the most likely to perceive SEO as an effective tactic in achieving an increase in lead generation and online sales revenue. This is an indication that these types of organizations are more efficient in closed-loop tracking from website visitor source to leads and online sales revenue generated.
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6 Niche Websites to Help Promote Your Blog
July 13, 2010
The internet thrives on niches. In the truly open society of the internet, any common cause, shared interest, or obscure topic can target its fandom and have them congregate directly to it without barriers.
But what do you do when your niche isn’t gaining as many community members as it used to attract? Where can you turn to promote your niche website when you are already the big fish in your small pond? How can you get real results without vainly hoping for a front page link on major pages like Digg?
Before consulting these generic options, be sure to spend some time hunting for the Digg equivalent within your niche. Finance websites have Tip’d and Feed the Bull, sports pages have BallHype and ArmChairGM. A good strategy is to find out what references those sites use, and get yourself posted across them.
If your niche spans multiple niches, such as video games and sports, cross-pollinate your content as much as possible.
1. Metafilter
Metafilter is a great place to start promoting yourself, as long as you do so without crass self-promotion. The community is very active and lively and thrives on finding cool contents related to the subject matter on hand. If you’ve got something truly great to share, the MeFites will become both traffic and signposts to other avenues of publication.
2. Propeller
Propeller is very similar to Digg, with a more serious focus, emphasizing politics, current events, finance, and technology topics. It operates with a system much like Digg’s "digg and bury" system, but the community is smaller and more likely to get your content more traffic.
3. Mixx
Mixx is a multi-topic social news site. Any blogger can find an appropriate category for content. The best part about Mixx is that you can create groups and associate your content with other people in your niche, enabling everyone to share readers from other communities and help find new references for each other. Mixx is also a sort of social media aggregator, providing another means of integrating your content into the mainstream of social media.
4. Shoutwire
Another generic news community. You probably won’t aim to become a regular feature on Shoutwire if your niche is very small, but it is a good place to try to become the favored expert on a subject. The interface is similar to the rest of the social media news sites, and any topic stands a chance of getting strong attention.
5. Linkfilter
Linkfilter is a more free-form publication venue than the aforementioned, but it has major strengths in that your content can be ranked based on clicks, votes, age, and combinations of those points, giving you better ways to target your particular content. An older article with lots of traffic built over time will have higher ranking than a new article that became a flash in the pan, and less-visited pages with a high vote count will show up as choice options.
6. Slashdot
Slashdot is well known among the tech community, and is famous for "the Slashdot effect" of killing webpages with traffic. What it is gaining in recent years is a much broader palette for topics; while it used to be a nerdy hideout for the tech obsessed, it has since expanded into a diverse set of venues for publishing on general science topics, literature, political events, as well as its original core in gadgets and technology.
These are the big names in alternative social media. Once you’ve found your niche’s specialty aggregator, these can be used to grow your audience well beyond your initial core niche.
This post is contributed by James, a tech writer and reviewer who works at an online store offering ink cartridges in the UK. Follow their blog for new posts about design, media and marketing.
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