Online Marketing and Its Concept

Social Bookmarking List

2009-05-26T22:35:00.000-07:00

Social Bookmarking is the coolest media tool where you can store your favorite sites, share with your friends or to the public and organize your lists.

Below are list of social bookmarking sites:
Download List of Social Bookmarking Sites.

100zakladok.ru
2collab.com
30daytags.com
3te.de
a1-webmarks.com
Actualtopics.com
adoppt.com
adveracio.us
affiliated-business.com
allmyfavorites.net
alltagz.de
ambedo.com
artnews.allpaintings.org
askza.com
atalhovirtual.com
blogg-buzz.com
blogmark.ru
Blogmarks.net
blogmemes.fr

blogmemes.net
blogreporter.biz
bluedot.us
Blummy.com
bmaccess.net
bobrdobr.ru
backflip.com
bakerlayouts.com
barksbookmarks.com
beemylink.de
Bestofindya.com/news/
bibsonomy.org
biginternetdirectory.com
blinkbits.com
blinklist.com
blipoo.com
blogbookmark.com
booki.at
more...

List of HTML Codes

2009-05-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

Basic codes needed in on-page optimization

As a search engine marketing authority, you should know the basic HTML codes because you will need them in most optimization campaigns such as link building, blog posting, directory submissions, press release submissions, forum posting, social bookmarkings and many others. At least, you should be able to read and interpret the codes. There are some the important and commonly used HTML codes we should learn in the process. A basic web page should contain the following contents:
Header is where you can place the doctype, page title, and Meta tags such as description, keywords, copyright, author, robots and many others. Elements allowed inside headers are base, link, Meta, script, style, title and isindex.

Title contains the Page Title of the document, visible in the Title bar of your browser and this is displayed by search engines as an anchor text when you make queries.

Body is where you start your document and place HTML codes.

Commonly used HTML Tags:

Anchor
Bold, Italic, Emphasis
Center
Underline
Font style, size and color
Image
Paragraph, Line Break
List (Ordered and Unordered)
Tables

View samples of List of HTML codes commonly used in the Body.

How to Submit to Social Bookmarking Sites?

2009-05-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

The 1-2-3 Steps to Complete the Process

Social Bookmarking is merely like bookmarking a book except that this is done online and it has lot of features like storing your favorite sites, organizing your list categorically, sharing and recommending it with your friends or opt to save it privately, searching other bookmarked sites and make comments or even vote for your favorite ones. This is also an effective way of getting backlinks naturally, a possible increase in link popularity which is good in optimizing a site and this could also lead and drive qualified web traffic. Also, social bookmarking can help your site’s visibility online and opens opportunity to promote products, services, businesses or affiliate marketing programs over the net in a cheaper way to a wider range of audience with various interests.

The Process

Submission is as simple and easy as 1-2-3 steps:

Step 1

You must have a valid email account to register. Fill-up the forms provided and confirm or validate your registration.

Step 2

Install the add-on buttons on your computer. (Other sites are optional, others don’t require this step.)

Step 3

Start Bookmarking. Submit the URL of the site you wish to bookmark and fill-up the details needed such as title, description, tags and category. (Be very careful in filling up this form. Make sure your keywords are properly utilized and placed as this will be one of the basis used to pull up your site on search queries.)

Recommended Social Bookmarking Sites:

You don’t need to register to all bookmarking sites online. Choose the ones that are most popular, with good Page Rank Value and Alexa Ranking, most likely your target audience would visit (can give you quality web traffic), has volume of registered users and can easily be managed and maintained. Below are some of the hundreds of social bookmarking sites you can start with.

List of 300 and more Social Bookmarking Sites Compiled

Which Separator to Use for SEO Purposes: Hyphen or Underscore?

2009-05-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Search engines, especially Google, care for keywords used in the URL name. Before creating domain names, we usually ask questions whether separators affect the meaning of two separate words and which one is better to replace the other. Certainly, a simple hyphen or underscore changes the way search engines read the words.

HYPHEN (-)
Hyphens are considered dividers by search engines.
Examples:
Keyword1-keyword2.com
domain.com/Keyword1-keyword2.html

Given the examples above, “Keyword1 keyword2” separated by hyphen, it simply informs search engines of the two separate words, Keyword1 and Keyword2. And they are most likely to be found using search queries like: Keyword1, Keyword2, Keyword1 Keyword2, Keyword1 + KeywordX, Keyword2 + KeywordX, or any other phrases where “Keyword1” and “Keyword2” are present.

UNDERSCORE ( _ )
Underscores merge two different words to form as one.
Examples:
Keyword1_keyword2.com
Domain.com/Keyword1_keyword2.html

Base from the examples above, “Keyword1 Keyword2” separated by underscore, it tells search engines that these two words are treated singly. One cannot stand without the other just like the word rainbow. Rain and bow mean two different things and when combined, forms another meaning. Sample URLs above will only show up to search term “Keyword1 Keyword2”.

Which Separator to Recommend?

Personally, both separators can be used strategically. Most SEO experts recommend the use of hyphen as a divider especially when you are targeting numerous keywords and wanted to show up on all those keywords. Given the example hearing aid as part of your URL name, you would want search engines to pull up your site to search terms like hearing aid, hearing devices, hearing amplifiers, hearing support and so on. So you would probably opt to hyphen. On the other hand, underscores can be useful when used to multiple words that would mean another thing when treated as one. The best example would be seven headed dragons. You won’t need each words treated differently and the absence of one word would change its meaning. Thus, this case is handled by underscore.

Where to Place Keywords? The First Crucial Step in Optimizing Your Site

2009-05-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, keyword analysis plays the most essential part in search engine optimization process. It needs careful and thorough study and research as this will later on lure internet users to your site. Prepare a list of keywords or phrases related to your products or services. Analyze every word you have in the list, find out its related terms and compare which is commonly used by users. You will be surprised to see there are lots of terminologies people are using on a specific word that would mean the same thing in your list. It’s better to use different tools available online to know how many are actually searching on a specific keyword or phrase everyday so you would only focus on the popular ones and get rid of the least searchable terms. Ideally, it’s not advisable to have bulks of keywords as it will be hard to maintain and deal with them in the future. Just stick to 3 to 5 best profitable keywords.

Where to place keywords?

Page URL
Web Page Optimization
Off-page Optimization (Inbound Links)

Page URL

Placing keywords in the URL can gain advantage in search engines and can help achieve high ranks in Search engine Results Page (SERP). But this is not advisable to well-established and high-ranked sites. This is only worth considering in creating new page or site. Make sure to make a sensible one by not abusing the keywords. Here’s a good tip in creating a domain name: separate words or phrases by a hyphen (-) or underscores (_) and do not write them as a single word as search engine will understand them as one word.

Web Page Optimization

Keywords properly placed in your web page will definitely pull you up in SERP. Titles are weighed more than any other else in the HTML code. Place the most important keyword at the beginning of the title followed by the support words. But don’t over stuff them. Insert other keywords in your “meta description” and “meta keywords”. Make a unique title, descriptions and keywords in every page to avoid conflict with search engines especially when you check on the Google webmaster tool. Your web content should also include keywords in bold, highlighted, emphasized and placed in headers to inform search engines of their importance. Also use keywords in alt image attributes.

Off-page Optimization (Inbound Links)

Get links from different site! Web page optimization should be supported by LINKS from other sites. Use your keywords as an anchor text. Search engine loves context clues. It helps search engines informed of what your site is all about. The more links you have from reputable and related sites, the faster you will rank in search engines.

Tip from the Author:

In my own personal opinion, supported by my experiences in search engine optimization, Google gives more weight in the Title page, putting your site on top on keywords properly positioned in the Page Title then supported by off-site link factors while Yahoo loves links! Keywords used as anchor text will boost your ranking in Yahoo then on-page optimization comes next.

Overview of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2009-05-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

For years, SEO has been proven effective and more and more companies are relying on it in generating higher sales in a practical way. Search Engine optimization is basically optimizing a website to get higher ranks from major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Live and Ask and other vertical search engines. Good positioning in Search Engine Results Page (SERPS) is not what SEO is all about. It covers a wider range and components to make your websites, companies, products or services known and reach its target audience.

2 Kinds of Optimization

On-page optimization
Includes on-the-page factors influencing rankings such as proper insertion of keywords in the source code, correct placement of meta tags, using search engine friendly and readable scripts, alt tags optimization. Basically, this refers to the content management system used.
Off-page optimization
A way of optimizing websites using off-the-page strategy influencing search engine rankings and popularity online through inbound and outbound links. In short, it’s all about LINKS.

Components of On-Page Optimization

Keyword Analysis
Keywords are considered as one of the vital elements in optimization. Choosing the proper and right keywords or key phrases is very important as it will bring targeted web traffic. It should be unique in every page, specific or country-specific and think of words that people will search on to find your business or businesses like yours. There are free software tools you can choose online or download to help you build specific keywords or key phrases.
To gain a serious advantage in search engine rankings, it is best to place your major keyword in your domain name or URL. Consider placing a hyphen (-) [domain/two-words.html] or underscore (_) [domain/two_words.html] rather than writing them as one. Otherwise, search engines will understand it as a single word

Title Tag
Your Title tag should be placed before all other tags to avoid search engines overlooking it and should be unique in each page.
Avoid using too much stop words such as “and, on, a, and other auxiliary words” as search engines don’t take them into consideration. The lesser stop words, the better.
Place your keywords in the Title tag at least once, but don’t make it look like you’re doing keyword stuffing by putting in long lists of keywords. Start with important keyword followed by support words and always use lower case letters as they are found first in the search engine result. Avoid using superlatives. Ideal Page Titles can be 60 characters long inclusive of separators, punctuations and spaces.
Meta Tags
Meta tags are part of the HTML code: Title, Description, Keywords, Robots, copyright, author, etc.
Meta description - The actual words placed within this tag are given some crucial weight with most major search engines today and can really help a page to rank higher in the search results for specific keywords and key phrases. Just as important, the words placed in the meta description tags appear under the title in a search engine's list of results, giving searchers a much better idea of what that page is all about.
Meta keywords - Used to help search engines understand the content of your web page. It is ideal to concentrate on 3 to 5 major keywords or key phrases rather than having bulk of keywords.
Meta Robots – This attribute can specify what certain pages should not be indexed or followed by search engine robots.
Content (keyword emphasis, alts, headers)
Web content are the text from the body area of your code and it is vital to have your web copy keyword-enriched.
Headers – search engines consider text in the headings to be essential and having your keyword there will positively influence your website's overall optimality.
Bolds, Emphasis, Italics - The fact that you put a certain keyword or phrase in bold tells the search engine that you place an emphasis on it. Naturally it considers these words or phrases to be more important than those in regular font.
Image optimization
Search engines cannot read images, only text. So putting an alt attribute will make it readable to search engines. This is also a good way to place keywords in alt tags to optimize images.
Include Pages to your site
Include a separate “About Us” and “Contact Us” pages, and make room for News, Press Release, White Paper, Testimonial, Blog or Articles.
Create a Sitemap
Sitemap helps user to navigate your internal pages easily. Submitting sitemaps to search engines will help in determining which page of your site has a higher priority in terms of indexing than the other. You can also track which pages from your site is not indexed or causes conflicts or problems as read by the search engines.

Components of Off-Page Optimization

Link Building
There are three types of building links:
- One Way Links ( Site A points to Site B)
  Also called as incoming links or inbound links, It is a very effective way of building links as it looks natural to search engines thus, telling how important and interesting the site is.
- Reciprocal / Two Way Linking (Site A points to Site B and in return, Site B points back to Site A)
  It is a mutual link between two sites where both benefit web traffic.
- Three Way Links (Site A points to Site B and Site B points to Site C and Site C points to Site A)
  It is a different type of exchanging links that will look more natural than reciprocal links.
Directory Submissions
A good way of building backlinks, but make sure these directories are of good PR value.
Press Release Submissions
Submit press release to PR sites so that readers will know stories, news or updates with what you are up to currently in the market. Make fresh content that is reader friendly giving them reasons to keep coming back to your site, bookmark your page, and they may even provide word-of-mouth advertising.
Blog
Writing quality and interesting content will help attract visitors to your site. By posting them to blog sites, readers will have a chance of visiting your site, bookmark and talk about it on the net, a good way to boost web traffic.
Social Bookmarking and Networking
Bookmarking and Networking sites are good sources of traffic. You will have the chance to share your site to others and have them list in their favorites and share with their friends. The more popular your site is, the better ranking you will get fro search engines.
Comments and Forum Posting
Actively participate in forums using signature linking and comments.

Tips:

Use keywords as your anchor text (known as context clues) rather than using your site’s URL because it helps in telling search engine robots what your site is all about and to gain weight in that particular key phrase. (ie. Online Marketing Concept rather than www.onlinemarketingconcept.com)

Link only to sites with good Page Rank value, relevant sites or categories and sites with good traffic.

Although frameset can now be optimized, avoid using them. It will be hard to optimize site using frames or framesets because search engines will not index pages containing frames, some browsers doesn’t support frames, visitors cannot bookmark pages from frames, it is hard to navigate through pages in frames and difficult to print content of all frames.

Do not link to sites that uses “nofollow” or “noindex” attributes because it has no value at all as they are telling search engine robots not to visit links listed.

Recommended Tools:

Online Marketing Concept

2009-04-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

Also known as internet marketing, web marketing or search engine marketing (SEM).

Online Marketing is a marketing strategy of promoting or advertising organizations, products or services using online media with the goal of increasing sales and profits. In the past, it only refers to digital media such as the wireless media, e-mail and the Internet by having a website or placing banner ads online. Nowadays, the term can mean a variety of things evolving into a broader mix of components and includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer management (ECRM) systems.Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sale.

Why Online Marketing?

It has proven to be cost-effective in distributing information to global market resulting in a growth for your business.
The number of internet users increases everyday, thus, more time and money are spent online by consumers.
People especially shoppers uses search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN and others) and directories to look and buy for products or services. The need of visibility and exposure of a site is important.
Customers trust in the safety of online shopping due to secure systems that fight against fraud.

Components of Internet Marketing:

Web Design and Development

It is important how you appear online. Your website should speak who and what you are, what your products and services are and who your target markets are. It should starts with the right web design and implementation to attract customers, make them stay and revisit your site.

Search Engine Marketing

Internet users uses search engines (both broad-based and vertical search engines) to search, inquire, shop and buy online. Having a website is not enough. You need to visibly expose to let them know you exist.

SEM includes:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Pay per click (PPC)
- Press Release
- Submissions to Directories and Social Bookmarking sites
- Media Optimization:
  - Blog marketing
  - Multivariate testing or optimization
  - Viral marketing (i.e. video clips, interactive Flash games, ebooks)
  - Forums
Email Marketing

As the name implies, it is sending mails via emails to customers or potential customers. Sending letters to thousands of emails is cheaper than sending to thousands of postal addresses. Despite abusive spammers, still it is one of the powerful marketing tools.

Different kinds of E-mail marketing online:
- Direct Email
- Newsletters
- Advertisements from newsletters

Article Marketing

It involves writing articles with topics related to your business and have it published online through syndicated article sites. It is important that links are maintained to boost web traffic and promote your products or services to a wide audience.

Banner Advertising / Web Banner

A form of advertising on the World Wide Web created from an image (JPEG, GIF, PNG), Java Script program or multimedia object such as Silverlight, Shockwave or Flash, Java, utilizing animations, sounds or videos intended to attract traffic and directed to a website advertised once clicked by the user.

Digital Marketing

It is practice of promoting products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner. It is usually hosts through mobile phones, sms/mms, display banner ads and digital outdoor.

Classified Advertising

A textually based advertising common in newspapers, online and other periodicals with little information such business name and contact info.