Google Analytics is a Free Service

Friday, March 7, 2008

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. It is specifically useful for optimization of AdWords advertisements and marketing campaigns. Here is the site,http://www.google.com/analytics/ Google Analytics had been redesigned to include better features and is free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners. Recently, Google Analytics has integrated the Google Audio Ads also into the program.

And the official Google Analytics blog is,http://analytics.blogspot.com/

Features include,

• Fast Implementation
• Keyword and Campaign Comparison
• Custom Dashboards
• AdWords Integration
• Trend and Date Slider
• Ecommerce Tracking
• Funnel Visualization
• Site Overlay
• Email reports
• GeoTargeting

Industry benchmarking is a newly added feature with Google Analytics. Sharing of google analytics data with Google is yet another option that we can choose. Here is an FAQ on that option;http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=87515&topic=13910#0.1.1_1

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and more to clients in the US and also globally... ...

Labels: GA links, Google analytics, google analytics data, Search Engine Optimization, web analytics

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 11:28 PM Go to Google Analytics is a Free Service

SEO and Deep Link Ratio (DLR)

SEO or search engine optimization has always been mostly about developing good links. Getting more links means getting more people to get into the site and increasing the website's popularity. This is directly related to business success as it gets us more sales and fulfills business objectives. However developing links has to be gradual process and every link should be useful with a purpose.

Ok now what is DLR or deep link ratio? Well, first let us define a deep link. Deep links are incoming back-links to any specific page within the website other than the home page or root links. And DLR or deep link ratio is the ratio of deep-links to website root links. Thus the deep links divided by the total number of incoming links will give us the DLR that is expressed as a percentage. There are many free online DLR calculator tools on the web to calculate any website's DLR.

Here is a DLR calculator that you can try,
http://ekstreme.com/deeplinkratio/?domain=www.outsourcestrategies.com/

There is no defined standard for DLR. But websites can have a high or a low DLR ratio depending on the type of content that they have. However generally speaking a higher deep link ratio is considered to be better especially if you have an SEO based link development program. Yes make it look natural and blend it well.

There are many websites that are like a just online store where everyone just gets into the home page and find their way to all other categories and departments. Probably such sites have a lower DLR as it does not have any great content on deeper pages and so maybe not having a high DLR does not matter much for such sites. However a high DLR has been known to be associated with a higher page rank and thus is a major factor for search engine optimization.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers highly professional services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and more for clients globally.

Labels: Deep Link Ratio, DLR, DLR calculator, DLR tool, link building, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 6:44 PM Go to SEO and Deep Link Ratio (DLR)

Website Assessment Questions

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Every website is created with an objective in mind. There are thousands of websites on the Internet. If one is not competitive with regards to the quality of our website we could just get lost among the zillions of sites. The website's web visibility can become so poor with almost trickling or zero traffic. Therefore care must be taken to properly design and maintain the website well, right from the beginning. And at every stage the website should be assessed. Web assessment is an art and good experience only can make one to judge and assess well a website.

What are the different things that we assess in a website? What are the different questions that we may have to ask during the web assessment of a website? Here are some of the questions:

• Is it easy to navigate the website?
• Is the website enough useful for the business
• Is the web site appealing to the eye?
• How good is the content of the website?
• Do the web pages load soon?
• Is the content relevant to your target audience?
• Can the visitors easily contact the site authorities?
• Is everything functional? (forms /animation etc)
• Is the website search friendly?
• Is it easy to find information on the site?
• Does the site appear on the top listings on a SERP?
• Is the site ready to face other online competition?
• Is the site built according to the SE /W3C guidelines?
• What is the conversion rate for the site?

If satisfactory answers are not received for any of the above questions one must work to improve the situation. The process starts with a proper assessment by professionals. Problem areas have to be first identified before recommendations are made.

This can also be done using many different types of online tools and web analytics like Google analytics. Only when all the different parameters like site's performance like reports of phone leads, unique visitors, conversion ratios, search engine referral trends and details on incoming traffic etc have been looked into can we be sure that the initial web assessment is complete. Successive assessments are made periodically after the recommendations have been implemented.

OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is a US based company that offers professional services like web assessment SEO, SEM and PPC advertising to clients in all the States.

Labels: Search Engine Optimization, web analytics, web assessment, website assessment

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:02 PM Go to Website Assessment Questions

Gold Mine of SEO Blogs (Links to the Best)

Monday, March 3, 2008

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Blogs are indeed a gold mine of SEO/SEM knowledge. Both professionals and aspirants can learn all they want by just making it a point to read the blog posts regularily. It will not only help to keep in touch with what is happening but also learn a lot. It is specifically a must for those who don't get to attend the various SEO/SEM Summits and Conferences. Please find below links to few of the best SEO blogs available on the Internet.

• http://www.seroundtable.com/
• http://www.seobythesea.com/
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog
• http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
• http://searchengineland.com/
• http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
• http://www.seopedia.org/
• http://www.seobook.com/blog
• http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog
• http://www.stuntdubl.com/
• http://www.seochat.com/
• http://www.toprankblog.com/
• http://www.searchengineguide.com/
• http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/
• http://www.martinibuster.net/
• http://videos.webpronews.com/
• http://blog.seoptimise.com/
• http://www.pagetrafficblog.com/

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO company that offers various outsourcing solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, content development and much more.

Labels: Image Search engine optimization, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search marketing Blogs, SEM blogs, SEO Blogs

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:51 PM Go to Gold Mine of SEO Blogs (Links to the Best)

SEO and Keyword Research

SEO or search engine optimization of a website must start with a proper keyword research. Keyword here refers to the words or phrases that a web searcher types into the Google or any other search engine box. What has to be researched here? Well keyword research is defined as the act of determining those keywords/phrases by which people search for a topic of interest on the Internet. SEO professionals have to thus develop the art of choosing the apt keyword that will be used by the potential customer and then optimize the website/ webpage for such a search. When a particular keyword is used to search our website must be ranked high on the SERP (search engine results page).

Keyword research is a technique that one can master by experience. There are many free and paid keyword research tools available online that can be used. Here are some important points during keyword research that must be kept in mind:

• Get familiar with the target audience
• Select keywords that have high search volume
• Familiarize with the specific industry terms
• General terms are more competitive
• Low volume but very specific keyword can get quality traffic
• Reach a balance with regards to volume and quality
• Better to focus on the specific long tail keyword (those with more than three words)

Labels: keyword suggestion tool, keyword tool, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Keyword research, SEO/SEM

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:32 PM Go to SEO and Keyword Research

SEO/SEM and Bounce Rates

A website needs to be optimized for the search engines and hence online business website owners always get services from professional SEO/SEM (search engine optimization/marketing) companies. An ongoing SEM campaign will definitely bring in a lot of traffic, but it must be useful traffic. One must be very clear of the objective of a web page or website. If you have a PPC advertisement program then only when the required click or conversion happens can one can say that our SEO/SEM effort has been successful. This is when the importance of measuring bounce rate has to be recognized. So What is a bounce rate?

A bounce rate refers to the rate at which people "reject" a web page on which they have landed. If we use any web analytical software or Google Analytics (GA) it becomes our website. Generally speaking if the visitor sees only one page of the website it is said to be a bounce. Some web analytics go by the time factor. Spending less than 10 seconds on a web page is enough reason to call it a reject. A bounce rate information can be very useful for us to study and improve our online marketing efforts. Bounce rates can be measured for the different keywords and we can identify and isolate those keyword searches that end up with a high bounce rate. This type of bouncing is sure to make us ask questions! Is this not what the visitor or searcher wanted? What can you do on that content/page to retain the search visitor's presence?

Bounce rates can also be monitored such that we can identify those websites that are sending us traffic that is not of quality. Thus if we have traffic inflow into our website from 4 different websites and identify that visitors that came in from one particular website immediately leave, then we will come to know that something needs to be changed at that source. Here are some of the different factors that determine the bounce rate.

• Search engine ranking of the page
• Type of Audience
• Advertisements
• Survey requests
• Landing Page Design
• Ad and Landing Page
• Messages Emails and Newsletters
• Load time of the web page
• Links to external sites

Online marketing efforts are often directly measured by the conversion rates. If by modifying or changing the webpage content there is a significant change in the percentage of bounce rate and we are able to get more clicks and conversions then we have succeeded. It just shows how well our website visitors are reading our content based on keywords delivering traffic to the website. Online marketing sites must use good and effective web analysis tools and keep their bounce rates at a minimum percentage level.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO company that offers services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising for clients across the US.

Labels: bounce rates, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO SEM, web analytics, web metrics

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:36 PM Go to SEO/SEM and Bounce Rates

SEO and the HTML Source Code

Sunday, March 2, 2008

If you have a business and most of your business comes from your website, chances are that you have been investing in an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign for your website and have been getting good and effective professional SEO advice. Now if you have other business competitors who also have their websites but you are not sure if they also have an SEO campaign going on, this ignorance will keep you anxious. But there is a quick solution!

Ok if you want to find out if your competitors are also optimizing their website how do you find out? There is no need for you send some one to spy on your competitors. It will only take a minute for you to get and confirm this information online. All one needs to do is open the competitor's website and check on its HTML source Code!

Here is how to go about it. Go to the concerned site's homepage on the browser and click on "view" and choose "Source" and the HTML source code page opens up. If using Internet Explorer 2.x, right-click the Web page, and then click View Source. To view the HTML source code for a Web page that contains frames, right- click the Web page in a frame, and then click View Source.

Now if the page is being optimized you will have to just see if they are using their main keywords in the header tags, the title tags , and in the image alt tags. These are always located near the top of the source code. Also you will find that the text on the web page contains a minimal repeated use of the keyword. These must be more than enough clue to confirm the fact that your competitor is also smart enough to go for website optimization.

There are many free online tools that can be used to get the HTML source code for any website. Here is one such tool;http://www.submitexpress.com/snooper/

It is also a good practice to validate your site's HTML code. W3C compliance should be implemented for the users, to improve accessibility and usability of the website. Here is the tool;http://validator.w3.org/

Call OSI (Outsource Strategies International) the Oklahoma based company that offers professional services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and more for clients globally.

Labels: HTML source code, HTML tool, HTML validation, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO SEM, W3C

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:23 PM Go to SEO and the HTML Source Code

Web Content Development and SEO

Most SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals are good web content developers. So what is web content development? It is the process of publishing of any kind of information on the Internet. Website content can be made up of a combination of text, pictures, audio and video recordings. It consists of these basic different processes.

• Researching of material
• Writing of content
• Collecting/ accumulating content
• Organization of content
• Editing of content

One of the foremost questions the content developer asks is about the details of the target audience and the purpose of the audience. He must also plan and find how and what the audience can gain from the website's content. How is he going to get this accomplished? Actual details about the site's visitors, audience, their concerns, needs and requirements etc have to be collected and this data must grow over time. One should not start with a broad group of target audience but stick to a smaller group and then gradually expand.

Once we are sure of our website's objectives and its target audience, we have to make a list of specific objectives, or goals, for the website to accomplish. Thus if we have products to sell one must make available details and articles about the different products that will be searched by prospective clients. Titles with the right keywords is a very crucial aspect of SEO based article publishing on the website. Content should include photographs of the product/services, its prices, and a detailed product specification along with information about how to order and pay for the product. Needless to say a good web design and a good navigation on the website is a mandatory. One must also be able to attract the visitors with a variety of visual cues.

Every web page must also have hyper text links to other pages of allied interests that the visitor may want to read. A good SEO based web development that avoids spamming and regularly publish web content along with linking to similar website communities will take the site a long way on the road of success.

OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is an Oklahoma based company that offers professional services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, content writing and more to clients across the USA and globally.

Labels: search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, web content development, web content writing

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:54 PM Go to Web Content Development and SEO

Blogging and RSS for Search Engine Optimization

Thursday, February 28, 2008

If you have a website that needs SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but don't yet have a blog, then you have a great option open and an advantage that you have not yet explored. Having a blog is in itself a great reason for more traffic to get in to your site and increase your overall visibility on the web. Another important strategy can be RSS or Really Simple Syndication or including web feeds.

Here are a few tips on optimizing your RSS feeds and blogs:

• Let the feeds be not just excerpts but full length articles
• Have around 10 items in the feed
• Have more than one feeds under different category headings
• Include keyword in titles
• Incorporate a favicon (favorite Icon)
• Have a good description on the blog
• Specify tag clouds
• Link all related pages on blog
• Use anchor text
• Assign title tag for each blog post
• Build up the inbound linksHave “next and previous “ posts
• Have a feed image beside text
• Add technorati tags
• Have a good plug-in
• Include keyword in URL of the feed
• Have a good sitemap
• Include “show notes” if u have podcasts
• Enable Autodiscovery for the feeds
• Add content more often
• Include social media tagging

Contact OSI (Outsource Strategies International) the Oklahoma based BPO pioneer SEO company that offers affordable yet affective solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, Blog Marketing, Viral marketing and more.

Labels: Blog SEO, feeds optimization, RSS SEO, Search Engine Optimization

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:01 PM Go to Blogging and RSS for Search Engine Optimization

Firefox Extensions Developed for Search Engine Optimization

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

SEO professionals and Web masters are forever searching for extra data about websites, links, their competitor website data and more to stay ahead. Many SEO professionals today are using the Mozilla /Firefox web browser and have installed the "SEO for Firefox" extension (from Aaron Wall of SEObook.com) as they find it to be quite useful while doing their basic SEO search work. Though there are many free online SEO tools that we can use instantly, most of the good ones now require a subscription/password. Of course professional SEOs have access to hundreds of SEO tools but the process can often take more time than we may have. With the "SEO for Firefox" type of extension we can easily get the required information directly on Google and Yahoo even as we browse the web. So for some really quick basic information this one is often good enough.

After installing this "SEO for Firefox" extension a cute SEO icon appears on the browser's statusbar. Almost 15 parameters are available as a default. These are, Page Rank, Age, Links (Yahoo! linkdomain), .edu Links (Yahoo! .edu linkdomain), .edu Page Links (Yahoo! .edu link), .gov Link (Yahoo! .gov linkdomain), Page Links (Yahoo! link), del.icio.us, Technorati, Alexa, Cached, dmoz, Bloglines, dir.yahoo.com, MSN Links, MSN .edu Links, MSN .gov Links, MSN Page Links, MSN .edu Page Links and Whois.

The SEO for Firefox extension can be downloaded from the SEObook site at;
http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html

Another good alternative Firefox extension called SearchStatus is available at
http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/

For outsourcing solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and viral marketing contact the Oklahoma based BPO pioneer company OSI (Outsource Strategies International).

Labels: Firefox extension, Firefox for SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEO firefox extension, SEO for Firefox, SEO tools

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:34 PM Go to Firefox Extensions Developed for Search Engine Optimization

Advanced Keyword Research for High Performance SEO

Any successful SEO professional will tell you that keyword research has to be the first step when you are optimizing a website for the search engines. However the naive quite often tend to falsely believe that by just getting any #1 ranking keywords they can get good traffic. Yes it may be true that you might get traffic but what about conversions? How relevant was your incoming traffic? Visitors to your website may get out as soon as they got in. This is why keyword research has to be done thoroughly at the outset and preferably advanced keyword research.

It is of utmost importance that one must spend time to first identify the keywords and then selecting the right keyword phrases that have to be to optimized for the and promotion of our website. This can definitely be a time consuming and tedious process but it is always worth it as this will pay in the long run. There are many online keyword research tools available online for free or for a fee including Google, Nichebot and Overture. Make sure to focus mainly on choosing keywords that will help conversion into sales. While investing on keywords you will have to decide between investing and the expected return.

OK, now on to advanced keyword research. Once you have carefully chosen your specific key words one can use advanced research tools for a better judgments and decision. Here are links to the MSN Adlab advanced keyword research tools;

• http://adlab.msn.com/contextSim/default.aspx
• http://adlab.msn.com/searchfunnel/
• http://adlab.msn.com/keyMut/default.aspx
• http://adlab.msn.com/Forecast/ http://adlab.msn.com/DPUI/DPUI.aspx

With the perfect keyword chosen one can go ahead with confidence with the rest of the SEO work for the website. For outsourcing of SEO, SEM, PPC advertising or viral marketing services contact the US based BPO company Outsource Strategies International (OSI).

Labels: keyword research, keyword research tools, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 8:03 PM Go to Advanced Keyword Research for High Performance SEO

SEO and the Benefits of Article Submission

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Search Engine Optimization professionals are expert article writers of a unique kind for they know the art of writing articles that gets read by thousands and are easily picked up by the search engines. There are many websites on the Internet that exclusively publish articles. Usually the articles are listed under different categories. These websites accept good original articles from different websites and provide links back to these related websites. Thus it is a like a regular directory and much more. This online techniques of attracting visitors to our website by submiting good articles related to our business to such article websites will help us to increase our personal or business credibility.

If you have your own brand of product or service that you wish to popularize/advertise the best technique is to write a good article and publish it in your own website and also submit the articles to such exclusive article websites that are visited by large number of visitors. Some of the obvious benefits of article submission are,

• Increased traffic to website
• More unique first time visitors
• More brand awareness
• Leads and prospects directed to our site
• Can get free ads
• Guaranteed incoming traffic for long period
• Can reach a wider audience not accessible before
• Recognition as an expert in the respective field
• Impress the potential customer even before selling
• Chain publishing of articles
• Better sales
• Article integrity guaranteed
• Content is distributed to other online publishers

Most website owners outsource their search engine optimization programs (SEO) and this done with the sole intention of attracting more people into our website so that we get better business and conversion rates. Article directories have known to dramatically increase the visitors to our website. As part of the SEO campaign also submission of articles to article directories are undertaken by the SEO service providers who have professional article writers to write articles on any specific topic for their clients.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers SEO services and includes services like article submission, web analytics, content development, link building, SEM and viral marketing services to clients in the US and also globally.

Labels: article directory, Article submission services, ARTICLE WRITING, Search Engine Optimization, SEO service provider, SEO services

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 6:30 PM Go to SEO and the Benefits of Article Submission

Search Engine Optimization and Usability

Monday, February 25, 2008

SEO is about improving our website's visibility on the web while usability is about giving valuable and useful service to the website visitors. By definition usability is the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. Thus we find that websites have to be primarily useful. Quite often we do come across a website that may be good looking but don't really serve any purpose and the visitors do not find it useful. Such sites do not get repeat visitors. Some times visitors are seen exiting a website as soon as they enter the website. These are sites known to have a high bounce rate.

After being able to attract traffic into your website you should be able to retain the incoming traffic and also motivate the visitor to take the required action (Clicks etc) and thereby fulfill the website's objective of increasing the conversion rates.

Thus we see that websites basically need to be well designed, be usable enough and also be optimized for the major search engines. It is also essentially necessary to make a testing and study its usability. There are many types of websites but how does one measure the usability of our website? One must find out if our site visitors are really happy with the website and do find it useful. Answers for such questions can be had with the help of a professional web analytics software / service. One can also study the traffic log files of the website to know details of visitors and their behavior on the website.

Following are some of the factors that do matter while studying a web site's usability.

• Pages per visit
• Time on the website
• Bounce rate
• Trouble pages
• Exit pages
• Conversion rates

Similar to usability, search engine optimization is another aspect of a website that determines how many incoming visitors or unique visitors enter our website. Without a good SEO campaign the best of usable websites would remain hidden from the majority of the online visitors. An integrated approach with regards to web designing, website/page usability and search engine optimization would really go a long way in achieving the objectives and goals of the website.

Contact OSI (Outsource Strategies International) the Oklahoma based BPO pioneer that offers professional services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertisements, and viral marketing services to clients globally.

Labels: CTR and usability, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO and PPC, SEO and Usability, website usability

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 6:57 PM Go to Search Engine Optimization and Usability

Personalized Search and Search Engine Optimization

Friday, February 22, 2008

• Look at the user's past online history
• Learn more about the user by looking at the past actions
• Look at the user's current context / task
• Users social, geographic and demographic cohorts

With this new generation of search methods, search engine optimization is going to be more challenging for the SEO professional as the potential and possibilities are going to be astounding. Call OSI (Outsource Strategies International) the Oklahoma based company for affordable solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and viral marketing.

Labels: Google search, personalized search, personalized SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:29 PM Go to Personalized Search and Search Engine Optimization

SMX West In California this Month

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Labels: california conference, Search engine expo, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO seach engine marketing, SMX West, summit

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:41 PM Go to SMX West In California this Month

Universal / Blended Search and SEO

Search engine optimization until now was mainly about website owners optimizing their websites and pages for better visibility for the regular organic search that displayed only the web pages. Other searches like image search, blog search etc did exist but were seldom used by the majority of the people as many were not even aware of such options of search being available. So every business website cared only about optimizing their website for the regular searches.

However, today we are talking of a new form of SERP (Search Engine Results Page) where the results are displayed that blend all the different searches and displays not just the web pages but also videos, blogs, images, news articles, and other media available online.

Now that we are well into 2008, it is said that online marketers this year are going to focus on optimizing their websites for universal/blended search results. Why? Ever since May 2007 when Google started rolling out their Universal search pages, other search engines have also started working on developing Universal searches. Google's SERP has started showing up Universal search results more often ande we can be sure that very soon we will have more of Universal search results being displayed by all major search engines and this can become a standard practice. Yahoo, MSN, and Ask, as well as several minor search engines are also known to be working on launching their versions.

Here is a list of the different types of blended searches;

• Image Results
• Online Video
• Blog Listings/Results
• Book Listings
• Recipe search
• Local / GEO Search Listings
• Product Search
• Catalog Search
• Movie Search
• Music Search
• Map Search
• PDF files
• Health Search
• Celebrity Search
• Financial / Stock Search
• People Search
• Job search

Labels: Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, SERP, Universal search optimization

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:34 PM Go to Universal / Blended Search and SEO

HTML Validation and SEO

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) involves many different processes to optimize the website for the search engines and HTML validation of a website is one of the established SEO processes that are very essential to make our website friendly to the search engines and appear early during searches.

What is HTML validation? It is the process of analyzing HTML code for its compliance with HTML standards and identifying code errors. One must validate the HTML code of a website if we find that our website does not appear well and in all browsers, or if it takes a long time to load. One must take care to keep our website HTML standard compliant so that one does not loose valuable incoming traffic and business income.

Here is a list of the benefits of HTML validation:

• Minimal loading time
• Access via all different browsers
• Better traffic
• Checks for errors in tags
• Page error elimination
• Better indexing by the search engines
• Better ranking

HTML validation is done with HTML validation tools that are available online and also for free. Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and more to clients globally and in all the US States.

Labels: HTML code, HTML validation, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 5:50 PM Go to HTML Validation and SEO

SEO and the Importance of Sitemap

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Almost every website has a homepage, contact page, an about us page, etc but must every site have a sitemap page? This has been a matter of discussion among the webmasters for long, and there are many websites that still do not have a sitemap page. What really is the Sitemap? Well, it is just as the word suggests a map of the entire site. From a sitemap page you are not far from any of the numerous pages on the site with a single or two clicks. It is a very convenient navigational structure.

The Google webmaster guideline asks us to have a sitemap on the website. It also suggests that with 100 or more links on a sitemap, it is always better to break the site map into separate pages. For websites with thousands of web pages, one must categorize the pages and emphasize links to the core pages throughout the site. One can add a single link to each core page with a descriptive paragraph about the page's content and then link deep into the site from such core pages.

Websites with pages that run into tens of thousands of pages must have sitemap content with multiple layers and hierarchies based on contextual themes and divisions. Some times very huge websites with such contextual top-level site map is accompanied by a type of mapping that consists of a series of links to different websites.

The search engine spiders and bots are often not able to go deep and index web pages. A sitemap will allow the search engine spiders to easily crawl the entire website. That is why having a sitemap is an SEO activity. Many sitemap creation tools are available for a fee or even for free.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers a wide range of services like SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, and viral marketing to clients in all the US states , Canada the UK and Australia.

Labels: Search Engine Optimization, SEO, sitemap and SEO, website optimization

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:12 PM Go to SEO and the Importance of Sitemap

SEO Contests

Monday, January 14, 2008

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Contest is an online activity awarding prizes that challenges SEO professionals and practitioners to rank among themselves among the major search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN using specific keyword(s).

Unfortunately these contests have been greatly criticized because of the massive link spamming and black hat SEO techniques used by the contestants. Another rule that fits well with the 'purpose' of SEO contests today is the obligation to 'link back' to the organizing body, which is often a search engine optimization site.

These are some of the well known online SEO contests;

• Schnitzelmitkartoffelsalat November 2002 (German)
• The nigritude ultramarine / May, 2004 ( held by Search Guild)
• "The four required words" sponsored by http://www.milliondollarscreenshot.com/
• Redscowl Bluesingsky sponsored by SEOlogs
• Hommingberger Gepardenforelle (German)
• SEO World Championship sponsored by : http://www.seoworldchampionship.com/

Do call Outsource Strategies International (OSI) the Oklahoma based company that offers services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, and viral marketing globally.

Labels: contest SEO contest, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO championships

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 11:26 PM Go to SEO Contests

SEO and Web Analytics Parameters

Sunday, January 13, 2008

During any SEO (Search Engine Optimization) program it is essential to first answer the maximum number of questions about the concerned website. Only a web analysis tool can help us track the complete statistics of our website so that we get the answers to questions like which page gets more visitor, how many people see a specific web page or who are the visitors etc.

Once we make a proper study of this data it becomes easier to plan and execute the SEO work depending on what is the objectives of the site and what are the results that we prefer. While some are looking for more clicks conversions/ sales there are other sites that are not for any sales or profit. Before choosing a web analytics tool see if these common parameters found in web analytic software is good enough for you or do you require a deeper search analysis:

• Total Hits/ server load
• Total number of visitors on a page/site
• Unique visitors (different users)
• Location of the visitor
• Browser info of visitor
• Number of Page views by a visitor
• Click path/click tree
• Number of conversion
• Number of registered/logged in users
• Top Landing pages

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers outsourced solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, and content development to clients in all the states of the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

Labels: Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, WEB ANALYSIS PARAMETERS, web analytics

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 11:25 PM Go to SEO and Web Analytics Parameters

Social Media Optimization and SEO

Anyone who is serious about having a good web presence must have heard of SEO (Search engine optimization) but what about SMO? It stands for the term "social media optimization" and is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Social media optimization is actually just a form of search engine marketing. The term SMO was termed by Rohit Bhargava who leads the interactive marketing team at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. According to him the five rules for conducting SMO are,

• Increase your linkability
• Make tagging and bookmarking easy
• Reward inbound links
• Help your content travel
• Encourage the mashup

How do we increase our website's linkability? There are many techniques that include starting of a blog, writing articles, aggregating content and presenting it in a convenient format etc. Tagging and bookmarking can be made quite easy and effective. The best example of tagging is the "add to del.icio.us" buttons that we see so often these days.

If some one linked to your site we can provide clear rewards and acknowledge them by increasing their site visibility. The best way to distribute our content is submitting it to relevant sites. What is a mashup? It is a recent term in this context and is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. These include using an API, incorporating of web feeds like RSS or Atom, web services and screen scraping and more.

Both SEO and SMO have similarities that include having good content, and ability to increase linkability and attract more traffic into the website. But the interaction and the level of participation is more in SMO when compared to SEO because SEO is primarily about search engines.

For all your requirements in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, link building and more, call the BPO leader OSI (Outsource Strategies International).

Labels: Rohit Bhargava, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SMO, Social media optimization

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:13 PM Go to Social Media Optimization and SEO

SEO Must Love Usability

Friday, January 11, 2008

There has been a lot of talk about "Usability versus SEO". While usability communities think of a sites usability to be beyond just SEO, the SEO professionals want SEO to encompass everything useful for the website's visibility and function. There has to be an overlapping here. Usability is indeed a very general term and it should not be difficult to integrate every thing under it including SEO, web design, and any web technology. By definition usability refers to the elegance and clarity with which the interaction with a computer program or a web site is designed.

According to the usability Guru DR Jacob Neilson the term usefulness consists of,

• Learnability (e.g. intuitive navigation)
• Efficiency of use
• Memorability
• Few and non-catastrophic errors
• Subjective satisfaction

There is an association called the Usability Professionals Association and their objective is to spread usability concepts and techniques worldwide. Their website is http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/

While the usability people are not happy of the search engines ruling the web and growing by the day (the Google giant), we must realize that search engines are a reality today that have helped make the world to get information at our finger tips. There is nothing wrong in optimizing our website and making it easy on the search engines to do their job of indexing our websites. White hat SEO techniques are very gradual and natural processes. Gone are the days when SEO professionals thought only about impressing the search engines. Today SEO/SEM must include work right from planning the web design / user experience and the ability to talk in a language that both humans and machines understand and appreciate. It also takes care of your marketing efforts and enhances customer experience. However with the ever changing technologies one cannot correctly guess what the distant future may have in store on the cyber world.

Call OSI (Outsource Strategies International), the US based BPO pioneer for effective and affordable solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, and content development.

Labels: optimization and usability, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, Usability

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 6:53 PM Go to SEO Must Love Usability

What Is SEO?

Thursday, January 10, 2008

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is defined as the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords.

Whenever one does a web search using Google or any other browser it is quite natural that thousands of page come up and the links or sites that show up higher on the search result page end up getting more visitors and business. So everyone is trying to come on to the first page and if possible right on the top of the page. This process of bringing up your website is accomplished by the SEO people who can actually increase the number of people coming into your site whether you are selling shoes, computers, education or any other thing. SEO can be specifically targeted at either,

• Regular web search
• Image search
• Local search
• Industry specific searches

So what are the things actually done by the SEO guys? Here is a short list of their work

• Coding of the website
• Website structure /presentation
• Enhancing search engine indexing
• Assist in spidering of site
• Adding page content
• Making site more user friendly

It is essential that one must take care to only use white hat SEO techniques and never be tempted by the black hat SEO techniques. What is white hat SEO technique? Just a term to show that you are a fair player. A SEO tactic is considered white hat only if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and does not involve any deception. White hat SEO is actually more than just following guidelines. It is about making sure that one does not trick the search engines so that the web users also see the very same content that the search engine indexes and ranks. Basic SEO is quite simple and all will learn to do it. No wonder it is said that the job prospects for SEO professionals like me will not be so good a few years from now. See this post http://sphinn.com/story/10603

There are many SEO professionals who offer SEO services to companies/website owners. Even though SEO is simple, today going for an SEO program and not going for one can make the difference between night and day for many. Is SEO part of webdesign? Well not necessarily. But yes effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site and thus be incorporated into the web site's development and design program.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers effective solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and more to clients in all the US states.

Labels: basics of SEO, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 8:12 PM Go to What Is SEO?

SEO and PHP Pages

In the earlier days, programmers were always exclusive and never had any need to work on SEO (search engine optimization). But today professional SEO work will need to be done by PHP programmers as well. These days it is difficult to stick to just one work as even roles / duties get shuffled and work can overlap. What is PHP? PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.

It is a well known fact that dynamic scripting languages are good when used for reducing automated tasks on a website, but they are not good when it comes to getting a good search engine rank. Whenever one uses a the dynamic scripting language like PHP, web masters must realize the fact that it is these scripts that usually keeps the web crawlers away from indexing all web pages on the web site.

For more details on the PHP software see http://www.php.net/

There are many dynamic database-driven sites these days and they are relatively quite easy to set up and administer using Content Management Systems (CMS) and PHP server-side scripting. Anyone can quickly make fancy sites with identical content and different URLs automatically, but of course this will harm the SEO of a website.

Search engines are constantly evolving and adapting in response to changes in the way information is presented on the web. Strategies that were once necessary to ensure inclusion of PHP pages are no longer required. Earlier programmers always used to generate a static HTML version of the PHP pages to make sure that everything got indexed. But recent technological advances enable search spiders to identify and record all the content on a PHP page just as is viewed in a browser.

So how do you actually implement SEO for your PHP site? Do remember that in an office it will requires great cooperation among the developer, webmaster, and the web host and will require incorporating the following SEO techniques:

• Provide good content with an attractive design.
• Code should be error-free and standards-compliant.
• Use keywords appropriate to your subject matter
• Encourage repeat visits with frequent updates, interactive features and freebies.
• Encourage others linking to your website using the copy & paste code.
• Always prefer to create a sitemap for your site.
• Educate/update yourself about SEO

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO pioneer that specializes in outsourcing services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and content management for clients globally.

Labels: PHP pages, PHP programming, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 5:57 PM Go to SEO and PHP Pages

Preparing for an SEO Campaign

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

If you run a marketing company, and have a website that is not really efficient, going for an SEO campaign might just be the thing that is required for you to come back into business with a big bang. However, remember that if you are going for an SEO campaign, quite often, it may require direct service contact with the client. If designing of the website is also a part of the deal, then the site must be planned taking into account the short term as well as the long term objectives of the company.

Remember the Internet is growing by the hour with new pages being added on a continuous basis. The different SEO rules are also fast evolving and may change. However there are two basic options in front of you. SEO services can be totally outsourced or may even be done in-house. Total or partial outsourcing of the SEO campaign is a hassle free option but one must ensure that one gets the right professional service provider. If choosing the in-house SEO option here are some things to first remember about search engine optimization so that one always remains aware of one's SEO needs and realize the possibilities in the field. Here are a few general tips before jumping in.

• Start with reading SEO news from reputed SEO sites.
• Choose you key words after good search and analysis
• Decide be prepared for a long term commitment
• Research/read on all SEO related topics
• Appoint a good system administrator / SEO specialist
• Techniques/ technologies can become obsolete quite quickly in this area
• Keep aside a long term budget for the SEO campaign
• Have a dedicated SEO server with IP hosting
• Be ready to change / modify certain tools /software on site
• Access to an online/offline experienced SEO consultant

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers a wide range of domestic as well as offshore outsourcing services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, content development and the like for clients in the UK, Canada, Australia and all the States in the US.

Labels: in-house SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Campaign, SEO outsourcing services, SEO services

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:55 PM Go to Preparing for an SEO Campaign

SEO 2007 Blog Awards: Links to the Winner Sites

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Yes, finally Search Engine Journal has posted all the SEO Industry Blog Winners that have been voted as winners for the year 2007. The entire SEO communities online had been waiting for the results. Here is a summary of the results with links to the relevant sites/page that may be convenient I thought.

Best Affiliate Marketing Blog : http://www.shoemoney.com/ /
Best Link Building Blogs : Shared by http://www.jimboykin.com/index.php AND http://thelinkspiel.blogspot.com/
Best Social Media Optimization Blog : http://www.doshdosh.com/
Best Google Blog Not Owned by Google : http://blogoscoped.com/
Best Search Engine Corporate Blog : http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/
Best Search Industry News Blog : http://searchengineland.com/ /
Best SEO Blog : http://www.seroundtable.com/
Best Contextual Advertising Blog : http://www.shoemoney.com/
Best Search Conference Coverage in Photos : http://sphinn.com/
Best Overall Search Marketing Blog : http://searchengineland.com/
Best Search Blogger on Paid Linking : http://www.mattcutts.com/blog
Breakout Blog : http://www.doshdosh.com/
Most Giving Search Blogger : http://www.seomoz.org/team/randfish
Best Search Conference Coverage : http://www.seroundtable.com/
Best Search Engine Research Blog : http://www.seobythesea.com/
Best SEO Plugin for Wordpress : http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack
Best Search Engine Community/Forum : http://sphinn.com/

Take a look at the chief nominees http://www.searchenginejournal.com/vote-for-the-search-blogs-awards-of-2007/6153/

Contact OSI (Outsource Strategies International) the Oklahoma based BPO leader that offers cost effective solutions in SEO.

Labels: Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO Award Winners, SEO Awards 2007, SEO blog awards 2007

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:50 PM Go to SEO 2007 Blog Awards: Links to the Winner Sites

SEO and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing)

Search engine optimization (SEO) professionals always strive to optimize the websites so that the websites show up early on the SERP (search engine results page). It always helps to know the search engine technology that are used by search engines and that is when we come across the term LSI. LSI stands for Latent Semantic Technology and is the technology that makes it possible for us to search online and get good relevant and the required results from the Internet.

Everyone has certain expectations when they type in keywords on the search text box. With the ever growing volume of content made available on the Internet, one realises that the search engine is a great super librarian and the results that come out are not just at random but always arranged in the best available sequence and manner. There are three essential qualities that any search engine must have to give out a good search result. They are,

• Good recollection
• Good precision
• Good order

Yet from where exactly does the LSI originate? Well actually it is an information retrieval application of the superior LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis) technology. By definition LSA is a technique in natural language processing, in particular in vectorial semantics, of analyzing relationships between a set of documents and the terms they contain by producing a set of concepts related to the documents and terms.

How is LSI different from other technologies? Well this superior LSI can investigate the semantic relationships within a text to decide as to how relevance and consistent it is to the different component parts. It is a precise technique with the power to filter information and prevent spamming.

For availing outsourced services contact Outsource Strategies International (OSI) a US based BPO leader that offers effective and affordable solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, content writing and more.

Labels: Latent Semantic Indexing), LSI, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEM LSI, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:09 PM Go to SEO and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing)

SEO Blogging Tips for the Aspiring Professional

Friday, January 4, 2008

Blogging is a unique and a proactive kind of SEO technique. There are proven SEO blogging techniques that one can apply, so that more and more people enter your website as planned. As more people read your blogs it will help to achieve your objectives and you can also give good value to your site visitors/clients. What are these SEO techniques?

The foremost point to remember is to choose good blog software. (like Blogger / WordPress etc). However some blogs might require exclusive customized blog software which can be built from scratch. With such an option it becomes possible to design functions of user accounts that can suit one's unique business/ service requirements. Here is a small checklist that can help the aspiring bloggers.

• Participate actively in other blogs/ forums within your industry
• Have a clear cut idea and decisions with regards to your brand/business at the outset itself as it is difficult to change.
• Hosting blog on a different domain is a mistake as this will not attract links, attention, and publicity, trust or search rankings.
• Provide links only whenever necessary
• Distribute good content with feeds
• Offering something unique in your blog is a primary requirement to be a premier blog.
• Do a little SEO research before settling for a particular title.
• Edit, edit and EDIT before publishing
• Choose the comment option slowly after gaining some steady traffic
• Update content periodically/weekly
• Try to provide answers and solutions on your blog
• Have a web 2 (open source) mind set that will be appreciated
• Create interest and motivate visitors
• Use podcasts / videos if found convenient
• Put ads sparingly on blog

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers highly competitive and professional outsourcing solutions in Blog Promotion, SEO, viral marketing, PPC campaigns and more for clients globally and within the US.

Labels: blogging professional, blogs, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, SEO blogging

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:14 PM Go to SEO Blogging Tips for the Aspiring Professional

A List of SEO techniques

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Here is a list of few SEO techniques that can be commonly used by, individual website /online business people and also by SEO professional and web masters.

• Translating your website into other languages is a good SEO idea.
• Choosing the right keyword is very important
• Use of ROR sitemap tool that uses XML feeds that allow search engines to interpret the site better. Use online websites to help in making the ROR sitemaps.
• Inter site navigation
• Using information from a website's log files. Looking at the search phrases that are actually used by the visitors will be very useful
• Using online SEO tools for study of website
• Syndicating articles and getting one-way back links from them to the sitemap.
• Keep content and presentation separate
• Have a common website theme
• Maintain keyword density in web content
• Add content frequently to the websiteUse keywords in titles, meta description tags, etc
• Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets ) based design
• Avoid dynamic URLs
• Remove all broken links on website

For availing professional outsourced services in SEO, SEM, viral marketing, and PPC advertising do contact Outsourced Strategies International (OSI) a US based BPO pioneer servicing clients globally.

Labels: Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, seo list, seo techniques

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:10 PM Go to A List of SEO techniques

Choosing between SEO and CPC

In the world of online advertisement, one of the most important terms is (SEO) Search Engine Optimization and the other is PPC (Pay per Click). PPC is also known as CPC (Cost per Click). Pay per click is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites/blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website.

Of late there has been a rise in the investment in SEO. Does it have anything to do with CPC? Yes indeed! Click costs are on the rise and companies that had earlier been investing in PPC campaigns are now focusing their marketing efforts towards Search Engine Optimization. This is mainly because of the trend of rising cost of the CPC and the growing demands for increasing the advertisement budget. Another big problem faced by such companies had been the rising click frauds and so they gave up totally on investments in CPC and replaced it with an active SEO campaign.

What is the main difference between these two types of campaign with regards to effectiveness and the economics of advertisement? Well one must understand that the difference is that while pay per click marketing is more of an advertising investment search engine optimization is an investment in infrastructure. A pay per click marketing campaign has usually a beginning and end, and this makes it easier to determine the return of Investment. (ROI) Remember if any does not show a positive ROI, then the investment should be not be undertaken.

In the case of SEO however it will be a much slower process and results will come only much later but the effects will remain for a longer time. While investing in CPC campaigns the advertisement and the company's exposure ends the very moment the campaign ends. But if a good position is acquired by SEO efforts, the company will keep getting good traffic and exposure on the SERP (search engine results page) every time some one searches with the relevant key words even when the SEO campaign is over.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and viral marketing to clients in all the US States, Canada the UK and Australia.

Labels: cost per click, CPC, PPC, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, viral marketing

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:26 PM Go to Choosing between SEO and CPC

Writing Articles for Search Engine Optimization

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

One comes across of a lot of articles these days on the web that looks very obviously written mainly for the search engines and not for humans. Most of such articles are easy to be identified because they are stuffed with keywords and contain nothing really useful. I accept that writing with the search engine in mind is not bad, but writing only for the search engine sounds very funny in the first place. But probably many have done some thing like that and ranked better in the past. However as technology is fast catching up, I am sure these things will change and quality on the net will be a prerequisite for online success.

Articles are written either for a general audience or specifically for some niche group with some objectives depending on the type of website and business. All SEO professionals/content developers and others who write and publish online articles have certain very common business objectives. These must ideally include,

• Providing information
• Get a higher rank
• Better linking with other sites

If the website does not provide some useful information then the purpose of the article itself is lost. One may be able to attract a good number of people (traffic) into the website and into the webpage, but if the visitors do not find the article useful or interesting, they may immediately click out of the page. Distribution of an article that is not well written will not be appreciated and linked to by other sites. Thus the article must,

• Be relevant
• Be useful to the audience
• Must be Informational
• Simple and well written
• Must retain the reader's interest
• Use variation of the key phrase instead of repeating
• Avoid over repetition of keyword
• Be targeted at the target audience
• Help the reader with info/ otherwise

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO company that offers outsourced services in search engine optimization, SEM, viral marketing and PPC advertisement for clients in the US, Canada the UK and Australia.

Labels: ARTICLE WRITING, ONLINE ARTICLES, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 5:46 PM Go to Writing Articles for Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization and Sitemap Submission

Monday, December 31, 2007

A sitemap is a list of all the pages on a website and a good navigation aid. Creation and submission of a sitemap helps make sure that the search engine gets to know about all the pages on the website, including URLs that may not be discoverable by the normal crawling process. Proper Sitemap submission is an important SEO (Search Engine Optimization) activity.

There are basically two types of Sitemaps.

• Sitemaps for users/readers
• Sitemap for search engines

The first type of Sitemap is a HTML page and lists the pages of the website. It helps the users to find the information they require.

What are XML sitemaps? An XML sitemap is actually the Sitemap made for the search engine. A Sitemap is very important due to the following reasons.

• The website has dynamic content.
• When the website has got web pages that cannot be easily discovered during the crawlers
• Use of Ajax / JavaScript on the website
• A new siteLess linked website
• Big volume archive on site without interlinking

Actually Sitemaps provide additional information about the web site to Google, complementing the regular methods of crawling of the web. The Sitemap will help in crawling more of the site and also in a more timely fashion. However Google cannot guarantee that the URLs from the Sitemap will be added to the Google index.

Sitemap 0.90 is offered under the terms of the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License and has a wide adoption policy that includes support from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Creative Commons licenses are several copyright licenses released on December 16, 2002 by Creative Commons, a U.S. non-profit corporation that was founded in 2001. Creative Commons licenses are currently available in 34 different jurisdictions worldwide.

How is the information given to the crawlers by the search engines? Once we have created the Sitemap file and placed on the server, the search engine can be informed in one of the following ways.

• Submission via the search engine's submission interface
• Specifying the location in the site's robots.txt file
• Sending an HTTP request

After Sitemap submission process the search engines makes the Sitemap available to their search crawlers.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers outsourcing of professional yet cost effective services in SEO, SEM, PPC management, and viral marketing to clients globally.

Labels: Google sitemap submission, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:59 PM Go to Search Engine Optimization and Sitemap Submission

SEO Tips for making Effective Landing Pages

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Landing pages are where the web users get to after having clicked on a link from the search engine or some promotional e-mail advertisement campaign that was used for promotion of some product or service. Hence the landing pages are the most critical places that must finally motivate the prospective client to "accept" the service/product. Only those who commit by either registering or be a part of the mailing list become prospective clients worthy to be called the conversion.

Here area a few tips that must be used to create successful landing pages for promotion of a product:

• Stick to the description of the product without deviation
• Show details of product/photos/audio/ music
• Include maximum information about the product
• Must use persuasive language
• Repeat important messages
• Describe the technology used
• Demonstrate all functions /potentials of product
• Show product as a problem solver
• Use graphics for communication
• Offer time based special offers
• Use clean good content
• Good easy navigation is essential
• Customer must have the minimal risk

During online marketing One must remember that the effectiveness of our offer depends on what the customer's perception of the product than the actual value of the product. Thus freebies are often given as it helps enhance the perceived value of the product/service.

For cost effective outsourcing of domestic and offshore SEO/ SEM services and content development services do contact Outsource Strategies International (OSI) the US based BPO pioneer with representation in all the US States.

Labels: landing page design, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO tips

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 11:39 PM Go to SEO Tips for making Effective Landing Pages

SEO / SEM and the Landing Page

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is today an essential process that cannot be overlooked by any online business website. Having a well designed website which is not optimized for the search engines is not desirable. The webpage / site must be able to attract the required traffic that fulfils the business objectives. If you have an online marketing campaign going on, it is very essential that required potential traffic keeps flowing into the website.

Actually in SEO every page of a site that gets indexed by search engines becomes a potential landing page. Here there may not be a single landing page that demands immediate /instant conversion. The content of the web page and/or links to the page are optimized for very specific, carefully researched keywords.

However in SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and PPC (pay per click) Campaigns, a landing page, also known by the term lead capture page, is the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, which is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines. This landing page is also used for counting and tracking all the arrivals and determines the level of effectiveness of a marketing campaign.

Landing pages may be either,

• Referential
• Transactional

While the referential landing page contains the relevant information as required by the visitor, a transactional landing page seeks to persuade a visitor to complete some transaction. This could be filling up some form/ registration/ or addition to a mailing list etc. Only once the transaction is over, can the vistor be said to be a conversion. But this is a challenging process. How do we motivate a visitor to register? He needs to be comforted, motivated and directed to take action and get converted. A more efficient landing page will mean a better conversion rate.

Needless to say, a lot of effort has to go in designing the right landing page that can enhance a website's conversion rate. One might have to try out different designs and see which one works best.

For all your requirements in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and content development do contact the US based BPO company Outsources Strategies International (OSI) for professional yet affordable services.

Labels: landing page design, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:53 PM Go to SEO / SEM and the Landing Page

Questions to Ask Before SEO Outsourcing

Friday, December 28, 2007

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services have become quite popular these days and outsourcing of SEO can be very convenient. A well selected SEO program for your website will not only boost your business but make popularity on the web seem like a very easy thing. However, the key to successful SEO outsourcing is choosing the right service provider. With access to so many SEO service providers available online there is no shortage of professionals, but getting to them requires some skill, especially if you are new to SEO.

Make sure you shoot the SEO service provider with the following questions before taking a decision:

• Do they have a planned SEO project specifically for the site?
• Can they show proof of their SEO achievements?
• Do they have any professional qualifications to do SEO work?
• What are the hourly charges?
• Is the SEO service totally white hat? (Ethical)
• Will you get a monthly SEO progress reports?
• Is there a website with all their service details/ charges/ address/ telephone/testimonials?
• How many hours of work per day are required for the work?
• What about post-SEO maintenance plans?
• Are there any hidden charges that might come up in the future?
• Can you get references from earlier clients?

Now, if you find any hesitation in getting proper answers for any of these questions, chances are that you are dealing with non professionals and premature freelancer who are always around looking for some short term gains. Do not risk your valuable website or business with non professionals just because you think the services are cheap. In the long run it could do you and your business more harm than good.

Contact Outsource Strategies International (OSI) an Oklahoma based BPO pioneer offering domestic as well as offshore outsourcing services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, link development, content writing, viral marketing and more.

Labels: Outsourcing, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, SEO service provider, SEO services

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:12 PM Go to Questions to Ask Before SEO Outsourcing

SEO Wisdom of Ranking

Thursday, December 27, 2007

In April 2007 the world's top SEO leaders (about forty of the best) got together and voted on what they thought are the factors that affect a web page/ site's page rank. The result of this has been since a great valuable resource for the seo communities. It is available as an article as it appeared then on the seomoz.org website and can be accessed at http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

Remember this is not a document that attempts to reverse-engineer Google's algorithm, nor does it attempt to inform web developers or marketers about how to optimize their sites. But yes, it is SEO wisdom of the highest order indeed.

The contributors rated each factor on a scale of 1 - 5:

• Does Not Influence Ranking
• Fractionally Weighted
• Some Importance
• Moderately Weighted
• Strongly Weighted

For the negative factors, it was:

• Does not inhibit crawling nor harm rankings
• Slightly detrimental to crawling/rankings
• Somewhat detrimental to crawling/rankings
• Moderately detrimental to crawling/rankings
• Strongly detrimental to crawling/rankings

Though many of the 200 + factors have not been included into this study it sure does make up over 90% of the Google's algorithm factors at least for some more time to come. So if you haven't seen it yet, click that link above.

For professional outsourced services in SEO, SEM, content management, viral marketing and PPC advertising do contact OSI (Outsource Strategies International)) the US based BPO pioneer.

Labels: search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, SEO wisdom, web ranking factors

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 11:37 PM Go to SEO Wisdom of Ranking

SEO and the Title Tag

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

One of the main processes in a SEO (search engine optimization) campaign is the proper use of the title tag. What is a title tag? It is a short description of the web page that is being written. What are the different features that should go while writing an SEO effective title tag? Here is a list of things to remember,

• The title tag should always come after the "header" tag
• A good title should not exceed 60 characters
• Title should comprise of keywords and relevant phrases
• Use keywords that are in the body text of the page
• Keep the title unique
• Avoid use of search engine stop words
• Title should make grammatical sense
• Try and place primary keywords at the starting of the tag
• Can sensibly repeat keyword to get more density
• Title tags must be always closed
• Do not change the title tag frequently

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is an Oklahoma based business process outsourcing company offering professional SEO services like, search engine optimization, directory submission services, SEO Marketing, SEO Copywriting Services, Pay Per Click search engine advertising, search engine marketing and link building.

Labels: key words, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO marketing, title tag

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:18 PM Go to SEO and the Title Tag

SEO Solutions to the Sandbox Effect

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Do you think your website is in the Google sandbox? By definition, the sandbox effect is a theory that newly-registered domains or domains with frequent ownership or name server changes are placed in a sandbox in the indexes of Google until it is deemed appropriate for the ranking to starts.

There are still different opinions about the sandbox effect. While some think that the sandbox effect does not exist, others think of it as a result of a mathematical algorithm and not a policy decision from Google. Some feel that the sandbox does not affect results from other search engines like Yahoo or MSN. Anyway it seems that sandboxing is an inevitable process, and every new domain has to go through it in the beginning. It is observed that it can take up to one year or more for a domain to get out of the sandbox even with good SEO techniques.

What are the factors that determine how long a website will stay in the sandbox? They include the following main factors,

• Domain age - Google considers older sites to be more authoritative
• Links- The total number of incoming links that a website gets is crucial aspect of search engine optimization. More links means a more important site, but care must be taken that one does not relate to link farms as this is considered spammy.
• Content volume- A regular and good quality of content is the best
• Duplicate content- The lesser the duplicate content the better for the website.

To get out of the sandbox the best thing to do is to register the website as early as possible and only good original content should be updated on a regular basis. Care should be taken to avoid duplication of content as much as possible. Another SEO technique is to slowly build up the website's incoming links as this will help to increase the website's page rank. But it should be done on a consistent and timely basis. Getting paid back links from cheap link farms can be quite dangerous and can get a website to be blacklisted.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO company that offers services in organic search engine optimization, search engine marketing, Internet marketing consultation and website analytics.

Labels: Internet Marketing, Sandbox, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO solutions

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:50 PM Go to SEO Solutions to the Sandbox Effect

Changing Trends in Maintenance of Search Engine Optimization Campaigns

Monday, November 5, 2007

It is no secret that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the most powerful, cost-effective, and results-yielding website promotion tool, but if your optimization service provider or the webmaster is cutting off the online campaign at SEO set-up only, then it is not meeting the campaign objective fully. SEO has to be followed with well planned on-going maintenance and off-page optimization strategies to continue to improve and/ or retain the top rankings. You could agree with the fact that competition webpages for your every target keyword/ key-phrase has increased multiple folds now. A well planned on-going SEO maintenance and off-page optimization strategies will guarantee that you continue to reap the benefits of top rankings and thus get guaranteed qualified traffic and leads for a long time.

We have seen in the past that a first page Google ranking vanishes in a matter of few months. There could be a lot of reasons for the same, some of which are in our control such as - Lack of proper maintenance in terms of tweaking the Meta tags, Page content, Page Navigation, HTML elements etc., based on the ever changing search engine algorithm and lack of proper off-page optimization strategies to enhance the link popularity continuously (which still plays a very important role in defining top rankings).

Moreover, today's client is not satisfied by simple optimization techniques which were used in yesteryears. It's a competitive world out there and it is but natural that clients nowadays demand add on services which will give them an edge over their competition. In this article, I would like to define the various SEO maintenance and off-page optimization strategies; one could adopt to enjoy the benefits of your top search engine rankings and thus get more traffic and leads on an on-going basis. Please note that the SEO maintenance and the various off-page optimization strategies should be pursued simultaneously to obtain maximum gain.

Labels: optimization techniques, Search Engine Optimization, SEO maintenance, SEO service provider

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:46 PM Go to Changing Trends in Maintenance of Search Engine Optimization Campaigns