How to keep a #1 ranking in the Search Engines?

Hard Work! If anyone tells you different ask them if they are #1 for the keywords that you choose to find them!

Think about that... Some companies pay a lot both in paid placement and SEO to get to the top of the search results. But is this what potential clients are searching for?

Case in Point. I just got back from a meeting with a potential client and he wanted to be #1 in all the search engines on a very limited budget. He had all these technical terms for his business: Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Kick boxing, Dojang etc. But what has been in the news lately that parents maybe searching on?

"Bullying", "self defense" are what's hot now!

So sometimes being #1 in the wrong place is not that great. Being #1 where prospects are looking is what you want...

Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Links the misunderstanding

A client today told me that a vendor would not place a link on their site to my client's because they were told that would hurt their ranking! The vendor said that they were at the top of Google and did not want to jeopardize that.

So a big believer in the pudding as it were, off to Google we went. We searched on the vendor's main field of business and they were nowhere to be found. So we narrowed the search and included the county and then the city they were located in, still nothing. Finally we typed in the exact company name and they were third on the listing in Google. Not exactly the top in their field. I then explained possibly he should not take what the vendor tells him about the web as gospel.

Here's the real scoop. The links to your website are one of the most important factors for high search engine rankings. If you want to get high search engine rankings on Google, Yahoo and other major search engines, then your website must have many good inbound links. In addition to the sheer number of the links, the quality of the links is also important. Plain and simple!

We will talk about what makes a good inbound link at a later date.

Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Why keywords are the most important part of SEO?

A number 1 listing on Google can be totally pointless if it is for the wrong keywords.

If the wrong people search for that keyword then your SEO efforts will be in vain. The keywords that you choose are the most important factor that decides whether you will succeed or not.

Many "wanna be" webmasters think that they already know the best keyword for their clients. If they haven't done some research, they are usually wrong. There are several reasons for that:
-- You know your business better than anybody else. You know the special terms that are used in your industry and you know what you should search for when you're looking for products like yours.
-- Your customers don't know as much as you. They don't know your terminology and they might use totally different keywords. Remember you are not your best client.
-- Did you consider the intention of the searcher? Just because a keyword is used very often on search engines it doesn't mean that you'll get many customers. People who find your website through a special keyword might not be interested in purchasing.

It's very important that you take the time to find the best keywords for your website. The time and effort that you invest in finding the right keywords will pay you back in no time.

Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Keyword Tools provides keyword ideas

Keyword Tools generate keyword and landing page ideas highly relevant and specific to your website. The tools help you identify additional opportunities that aren't currently being used in your SEO campaigns. The tools go one step further by tailoring the keywords and other data (such as the amount of competition for the keyword, the suggested bid, and more). Once such tool is Google's Keyword Tool.

Keeping an eye on the competition is always a good thing and in these uncertain economic times it's even more so. This tool is not only for keeping track of what the competition is doing, it can also be used to expand your own list of keywords. The results give you suggestions on variations of the Keywords (key phrases) as well as insight to the number of global and local searches for each Keyword.

Here at Lone Keep Internet we run these as well as a battery of other reports to support our clients in their search for the ultimate keywords for their business. Email or call our company, ask for Richard M.J. Jarosz, and he will answer any of your questions personally.

Getting the Word Out - Blogs

What is a blog? A blog is a website that allows for posted content or articles.

Blogging is a form of Inbound Marketing
- Blogging helps with SEO
- Blogging is permission centric
- Blogging can be fun
- Bogging is a form of conversation are you taking part?

Step 1: Read
Search for blogs in you industry or you hobby using blogsearch.google.com

Step 2: Comment
Contribute to the conversation by commenting on what you read. Increase the value of your comment by adding a point, add a useful link, ask a question, even disagree.

Step 3: Write
Add your own content and articles usually at least once a week. Write about something you know well. List ideas about your industry, publish a list of useful links, take a recent experience and share it. Answer questions you received recently from you clients and friends. Turn a press release into an article. A neat idea is to trade guest articles with a similar blogger. Promote on social media sites like Facebook and LinkeIn.

Step 4: Measure and Analyze
Track number of blog visitors, SEO rankings and blog rank. Measure real business results such as number of visitors to your website and leads generated.

presented by
Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Internet Marketing - What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is basically a fancy way to say “Doing things to improve your website rank with the search engines”. Technically it is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to your web site from search engines via "organic" search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears on the search engine results page (SERP), the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. The high-level way to describe what SEO includes is On-page vs. Off-page.
On-Page optimization are things that you do to the pages on your website (such as Title, Description and other Meta Tags and Visible Copy)
Off-Page optimization are things that you do externally to your website pages (in-bound links from other websites, Social Networks, etc)

What will make your SEO campaign a success?

To have a successful traffic-generation plan you must completely investigate what your website already has with an internet marketing expert. You must first make sure you have all the appropriate tags, keywords, and coding done correctly on your site before adding anything else. You must optimize this invisible area (the code) of your site so that search engines will find you. Links are also an important aspect of traffic generation. Make sure you are linking to and from other relevant sites and that your internal links have keyword-rich text. Remember, building traffic takes patience and consistent action.

To find out more about SEO and related internet topics join us at my FREE “Branding” and Tea seminar on May 29th, 1 – 4 PM. It will be hosted at the Sixth Avenue House B&B in Asbury Park and the Keynote speaker will be Craig Gunter of INCA Graphic Production.

SEO ‘lingo’ - what do all these terms and abbreviations mean?

• Inbound links: Also know as external links, which occurs when other sites link to your site. It’s generally accepted that a big factor in search engine algorithms (see below) is the number and quality of inbound links pointing to your site.
• Keyword: A word or phrase that is typed into a search engine. Site owners typically want their sites to be visible in the search engines for specific keywords that relate to their product or service.
• Link building: Since inbound (external) links influence a site’s organic rankings (see below); many site owners will undertake the process of link building. This can consist of explicitly asking other sites to link to them, or encouraging inbound links by creating valuable content or tools, posting product reviews or forum comments on other Web sites, or partnering with relevant sites.
• Organic ranking: The position that your Web site appears in the unpaid listings of the search engine results, which typically take up the majority of the page.
• Search engine algorithm: A complex formula that search engines use to compute how to rank site A over sites B to Z. Apparently they are made up of thousands of unique factors, but we will likely never truly know since Search Engines make a habit of not disclosing details.
• SEO: Search engine optimization involves undertaking activities to make your site rank higher in the search engine results. Often it involves attempting to intuit how search engines rank sites and applying industry best practices.
• SERP: Search engine results page, which is the page that comes up after you perform a query in a search engine.
• Sponsored listings/ads: The text ads that typically appear along the periphery of the SERP, such as along the top and the right hand side. Advertisers determine which terms they want their ads to appear for and compete with other advertisers to achieve top positioning