The Most Effective Search Engine Optimization Modification that you Can do Right Now

If you only had a few minutes, what’s the most effective change you could make to your Website that will give it a big boost in Google’s rankings? Well, if you believe the survey of SEO experts conducted by SEOmoz, it’s the title tag.

The SEO news and information Website recently asked 39 SEO experts to rank what they thought were the most effective search engine optimization tactics. And the simple title tag earned the top spot in level of importance.

The title tag consists of those few words that appear in the top bar on most Web Browsers (usually above the “file, edit, and view” menus). The title tag also acts as that particular Web pages’ title, unsurprisingly enough.

Here’s what some search engine optimization experts had to say about the effective search engine optimization significance of the title tag:

Elisabeth Osmeloski: Not only is it one of your strongest chances to impact rankings, it is undoubtedly your BEST chance to convert a searcher to a visitor within the SERPS (search engine results pages). Get the click, get the conversion.

Christine Churchill: If you have time to do only one SEO action on your site, take the time to create good titles.

Keep in mind that the title tag being the most effective search engine optimization tactic was only consensus, and not unanimous. Still, most SEO experts do consider it a high priority.

7 Ways to Make Press Releases Ready for Optimal Search Engine Placement

Press releases are cost-effective ways of drumming up press coverage and getting attention for a new product or service. It used to be that press releases were mailed or faxed to news organizations and reporters. That cost money. Fortunately, the Web allows for quick and cheap press release distribution. But that also means that a lot more people and companies are jumping on the press release bandwagon. So how do you make sure your press release stands out? By making sure that it’s geared for prime search engine placement. Here are seven easy ways you can do that.

1. Make your press release a jargon-free zone

Chances are, your potential customers and clients aren’t using insider industry jargon when they search for your products or services on Google or Yahoo. So avoid that kind of corporate-speak as much as possible. By keeping the words simple, you keep it effective and more primed for good search engine placement.

2. Use Targeted Keywords

Find targeted keywords and put them in your headlines and in the first paragraph. In fact, put them everywhere, but especially those aforementioned two places. Keyword rich content will get great search engine placement and grab readers.

3. Hotlink Important Words and Phrases

Linking to other sites is one of the greatest advantages of Web-based communication and search engine placement. So use it. Link to your site. Link to other useful sites. Make your keywords link somewhere. But remember to make the links useful. Arbitrary linking will annoy viewers. Make sure that all links offer additional information.

4. Use Anchor Text Links

Anchor text is the text that’s highlighted and clickable. It’s the text that actually takes you to another Website. Anchor links are necessary for good search engine placement. They’re clean, attractive and readable and are useful to drive users to your Website.

5. Engage customers, journalists and bloggers

What’s the best way of getting your message out to the people who will read it and respond? Simple—ask them what they search for. You’ll find that a great way to develop new targeted keywords for search engine placement is by asking existing customers what they search for. It’s a great and easy way to make sure your press release is primed and optimized.

6. Write great Copy

It seems obvious, but many press release writers seem to forget that good copy is absolutely necessary. Optimizing for search engine placement is great, but even the most efficiently optimized releases can suffer in the content-rich Web if the writing is boring, stodgy or clunky.

7. Have a Newsworthy Release

Make sure you have something to say that will interest people. Since press releases are easy to produce and cheap to distribute, it can be tempting to send out a release every week. But your targeted audience will tire of you if you keep sending them press releases are not exactly exciting of newsworthy. Save your releases for the important stuff.

7 Ways to Set up your Blog for Prime Search Engine Optimization and Positioning

Blogging is still one of the best ways to drive traffic toward your site. It’s cheap, easy, and the potential payoff in search engine optimization and positioning is huge. But many blogs flail in obscurity. Why? There are lots of reasons. In just a few short years, blogging has developed into a craft with many dos and don’ts. But all those rules could fill a book (in fact they’ve already filled many books). Right now, we’ll just concentrate on seven easy ways to help your blog get the best search engine optimization and positioning.

1. Submit your blog to DMOZ

DOZ is a gigantic Web-based open directory. That means that it’s kind of like a huge Internet yellow pages, similar to the Yahoo Directory. But unlike Yahoo, DMOZ is free, which makes it a great resource for search engine optimization and positioning. Every day, the human editors at DMOZ review new submissions and put them in their proper listing. That means that you can have your blog listed in the most appropriate category. It’s also a great research tool; you’ll be able to see other blogs like yours, whether they’re competitors or kindred spirits, or both.

If you’re still looking for a category you want to fit in, then scope out what’s listed at DMOZ. But remember, it’s often better for search engine optimization and positioning if you target a little-used niche as opposed to a category that already offers a slew of blogs.

2. Submit your blog to Vertical Search Engines

Sure, Google is great. But believe it or not, there are some search engines that may be better attuned to the product or service that you’re offering. For example, there’s Fizber for real estate and Searchmedica for medical professionals. Making sure you’re included in these targeted search engines is great for search engine optimization and positioning.

3. Optimize your Post Titles

Optimizing your post titles means that every post has a keyword or keyword phrase that will help your search engine optimization and positioning. In other words, every post title has a word or phrase that’s important to your blog. If you have targeted keywords there’s a good chance of Google ranking you higher.

4. Optimize your Blog Title

This is the same principal using post titles for search engine optimization and positioning. Your blog title should not only be descriptive of what you are blogging about, but it should also contain one or two targeted keyword phrases. It may be tempting to string together every keyword you want to rank for in your blog title, but try not to be too long-winded; shorter titles are more effective and titles that are too long may be ignored altogether by search engines.

5. Use the WordPress SEO pack

WordPress is a free blogging service that already comes streamlined for search engine optimization. And the WordPress SEO pack makes it even easier to craft a lean and powerful blog that gets great search engine optimization and positioning. A tool that’s both useful and fun, the SEO pack lets you your home page title and your meta keywords easily—no knowledge of HTML is required. You can also do nifty things like change your 404 titles and insert keywords into every blog post.

6. Use Header Tags

Google really pays attention to the <h1> and <h2> tags, and lucky you, WordPress lets you insert and edit those nifty tags for better search engine optimization and positioning. You can optimize these headers for your targeted keywords. Those bracket-ringed h1s may look intimidating to those unfamiliar with HTML, but they’re pretty easy to learn. <h1> is simply the largest header on the page. In other words, it’s the headline. <h2> is a slightly smaller header, or the subheadline. For more info on <h1>s and <h2>s, go to the free and useful W3 site.

7. Optimize your Images

This is one that a lot of people overlook. It’s easy to forget that Google can “read” images for search engine optimization and positioning, but it can. What it actually does is read the image’s filename and <alt> tag. That means that if you simply keep your image files as something like “1.jpg,” or “DSC109378.jpg,” then you’re wasting a great optimization opportunity. Instead name your files after target keywords. And don’t forget <alt> tags. They’re the little windows that pop up when viewers hover the mouse over an image. They’re another great way to include extra keywords.