Sierra Echo Oscar : My New Blog

This might be a good new for some of you. I have started a new blog on SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

I always wanted to write about it and share my ideas, but The Chronicles of R was something very different. So I did not want to taint it's image and created a new blog name Sierra Echo Oscar (which is the short form of SEO, in case you have missed the whole point).

For those who are interested in the same, you can visit my blog, post your comments, steal orginial contents (which I am sure many would do), share new ideas and so on and so forth.

Hope to see you there soon!

Google Site Clinic : Tried It Yet?

No, this is not a new Google product, so you haven't missed anything. At the beginning of the year the Google Search Quality team has announced that anyone can get their site's checked for quality and best practices by the Google team free of cost! The team would actually go through your site and offer constructive advice on accessibility and improvements that can lead to better visibility for your website in Google's search results.

To submit your site at Google Site Clinic, click here and fill in all the information requested. Just a note though, by submitting your site you agree to the use of your website as an example in their future blog posts under the Google Site Clinic banner.

Also, here are a few important guidelines that you need to follow:

1) To participate, your site must be registered on the Google Webmaster tools. This is to ensure that the submitter is the owner of the site and thus they have the owner's permission to use the site for Google Site Clinic. If you don't have a webmaster tools account yet, it's pretty simple to obtain. You can get one here.

2) Your website should meet the Google quality guidelines. This is because they will be using the same guidelines as criteria to select the websites for analysis. You can review the webmaster guidelines for any clarification.

The Site Clinic would be accepting submissions till the 20th of Jan, 2010. To know more you can click here.

Please Note: Not all sites will make it to their analysis list. From those that do, a few representative websites will be chosen as examples for the follow-up posts to share best practices.

33 Points To Get A PR 4

All of the following are old-school tricks, but some of us have stopped believing in them. And then there are some who don't remember most of them. So here is a comprehensive list of things you need to do to promote your blog/site and get a PR 4 in the shortest possible time. Hope you would find them useful.

1. Do a press release for your blog.
2. Hire a good SEO expert.
3. Develop a particular tone of writing.
4. Hire a professional writer if necessary.
5. Make sure your contents are unique.
6. Make sure you do not spam.
7. Write on a particular topic.
8. Design your site properly.
9. Target your audience geographically.
10. Target the social networking and article submission sites in accordance to your topic of choice.
11. Create a healthy set of followers and/friends in those sites.
12. Remove the date-time stamp from your articles unless absolutely necessary.
13. Add widgets for popular articles and recent posts.
14. Read what others are writing.
15. Comment on other blogs, but once again, DO NOT SPAM.
16. Help people online with your knowledge.
17. Once you have a good Technorati authority, flaunt it.
18. Do not display your number of subscribers until you reach the 1K mark.
19. Share a full-feed of your site.
20. Make it easy for your subscribers.
21. Educate your subscribers about RSS.
22. Do offline promotion as well as online.
23. Create a Google Webmasters account.
24. Study the stats of your site and try to find the trends. Numbers can be fun and helpful.
25. Find out your niche keywords.
26. Create an account in Twitter.
27. Hold contests and distribute relevant freebies on your site.
28. Try and develop a viral campaign.
29. Get some good backlinks by doing link exchanges.
30. Try to get in touch with Pro Bloggers from your city and interact with them, both online and offline if possible.
31. Be very very patient. Success does not come easily, and certainly not too fast.
32. Respect your readers.
33. Subscribe to the feed of The Chronicles of R to keep yourself updated.

Of course this list is incomplete, I know I have missed out many points, some of which may be very vital. So do join in the conversation and put in your valuable comments. If you found this article useful, a Digg and/or a Stumble would be highly appreciated.

Bobette Kyle's Resources on Online Marketing and SEO

Here are some resources from the stable of Bobette Kyle who has 15+ years of experience in online marketing and web strategy.

1. Write and distribute articles available for free republication -- Provides a "sample” of your writing or knowledge and creates inbound links to your Website.

2. Write and publish your own ezine -- Develops a list of interested prospects and provides a way to communicate directly with subscribers.

3. Distribute Website or newsletter content via RSS (xml) feeds -- Provides a way to reach prospects without email and creates more ways for potential prospects to find your Website.

4. Rewrite sales page(s) -- Increases conversion rates for your product.

5. Start an ongoing SEO campaign -- Improves organic search engine rankings and increases number of visitors.

6. Test different Website configurations -- Improves conversion rates and profit.

7. Send postcards or notes to Website customers/visitors via "snail mail” -- Additional point of contact improves conversions and recall.

8. Add a signature to your email -- Increases exposure to your site and communicates your marketing message.

9. Spend one hour each day on prospecting new customers or visitors -- Spreads the word about your product/service/Website and improves awareness.

10. Offer a podcast -- Recipients can listen to the mp3 file while away from their computers. A way to verbally communicate with prospects.

11. Blog -- You can easily share thoughts and resources up to several times a day.

12. Audio message on Website (With start and stop under visitor control) -- An additional way to verbally communicate your message.

13. Online radio show -- Attracts visitors to your Website on a regular basis and is a way for visitors/listeners to know the "personality" behind your Website.

14. Survey visitors as a research method -- Helps you understand the needs and problems of your visitors.

15. Include a daily (weekly, monthly) interactive survey for visitors -- A way to make your Website "stickier” and is a reason for repeat visits.

16. Provide a discount coupon, available only online, and advertise it offline -- Pulls new and repeat visitors to your Website.

17. Offer a free ebook that you wrote/developed and allow reprints -- Creates a viral marketing effect and provides a sample of your work.

18. Show others’ advertisements on your Website (examples: AdSense or Yahoo! Publisher Network) -- Adds a source of revenue for you and more research options for your visitors.

19. Implement a customer loyalty program -- Increases repeat purchases and builds a more loyal customer base.

20. Offer a gift with certain orders over a certain amount -- Increases average order size.

21. Write press releases to announce important news -- Spreads the word about your business and creates additional avenues of contact with those interested in your industry.

22. Hold an online chat -- Interactive way to communicate with prospects and draws visitors to the site.

23. Launch a direct-mail campaign, sending 3 to 6 postcards - spaced a week or so apart - to prospects - Draws new visitors to your Website.

24. Partner with other online businesses by mentioning each other's products/services in your ezine Websites -- Opportunity for synergies between businesses.

25. Launch an affiliate program -- Creates a sales force for your product.

26. Offer different versions of your product -- Provides a "tiered” choice for customers.

27. Participate in others’ affiliate programs -- Develops an additional source of revenue and expands your product offerings.

28. Open a merchant or third party processor account -- Increases your ability to take payments online and improves customer service.

29. Offer free shipping -- Improves customer service.

30. Have a limited-time offer -- Encourages customers to buy now rather than later (or never).

31. Conduct a workshop or class -- Builds credibility and attracts prospects.

32. Add testimonials to your Website -- Helps establish credibility and shows experience.

33. Participate in interviews -- Displays your expertise and attracts new customers.

34. Study your competition -- Helps you understand what is happening in your industry and better address important issues and needs.

35. Launch a pay per click advertising campaign -- Attracts new prospects to the Website pages you want.

36. Hold a teleseminar -- Provides a way to attract potential prospects and customers get to know you better.

37. Put a "refer-a-friend” link on every page -- Reminds people to tell others about your site and encourages viral marketing.

38. Set up an autoresponder course -- Is a value-added service to visitors and increases exposure to your product and Website.

39. Continually split-test your sales page(s). Change a single element (headline color, for example) and test against the current version. Replace anytime you get a page that converts better than the current - Over time, this dramatically improves profit.

40. Develop a mailing list of "hot prospects” and send them a brochure about your Website -- Improves awareness and attracts new customers.

41. Communicate your URL and tag line at every point of contact with customers and prospects -- Increases awareness and interest; improves recall; and attracts new customers.

42. List your Website in appropriate directories -- Provides more points of contact with potential customers, helps search engine rankings.

43. Install a "bookmark this page” script on each page -- Encourages repeat visits.

44. Improve a marginal product -- Increases sales and provides an additional opportunity to communicate with customers.

45. Provide a "co-branded” product or service -- By partnering with another Website to create a new product, improves both businesses .

46. Offer a contest -- Provides additional "stickiness” and encourages repeat visits.

47. Become active in online forums and groups -- Establishes you as an authority on your subject, improves credibility, and increases points of contact with potential prospects.

48. Move your primary call-to-action "above the fold” and test different page positions -- Can dramatically improve Website conversions.

49. Install live customer service on site. Staff with knowledgeable people so potential customers can get immediate answers - Improves customer service and conversion rates.

50. Develop different versions of your products (example: print book, audio book, ebook, etc.) -- Meets needs and preferences of customers in more ways.

51. THE MOST IMPORTANT ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUE: First, implement to your greatest ability. Then, persist. Improve upon and tweak implementation of each marketing program until it works for you.

You can also read more about online marketing tips and tricks at Pot Pourri.

Some Latest Trends in SEO

[Posted by Chris Hart]

Other than keyword optimization, SEO requires different optimization techniques some of which includes image optimization, text optimization, flash optimization etc. It is also a part of on-site optimization.

Geographic optimization is another SEO technique which is implemented on-demand basis. It's achieved mainly using a method called geo-tagging. With geographic optimization a webpage or website is included in search engine listings specifically for users who search for services in a purticular geographical region, county, state or area.

Social bookmarking is the latest trend in the SEO market. Today there are thousands of social media sites that would help you to promote your site by providing you with a do-follow backlink, by allowing you to create your own community related to your blog and other similar things. These helps in improving your link popularity and also helps in achieving some quality traffic.

As the search engine algorithms are getting more sophisticated everyday, new SEO techniques are coming in picture. Of course, human brain is there to beat its own algorithms. We just need to do the best and be a part of this race and latest trends. Competition is there to stay and grow. All the best!

Unethical Marketing

[Posted by Chris Hart]

'Stir the water to catch the fish' is the latest buzz in SEO town. Although it's quite unethical yet this method of gaining visitors is quite effective and has already crafted a niche in the marketing world. And there is no harm in twisting the arm of ethics for a good cause. Moreover, this is an already proven strategy and many famous bloggers John Chow have unwittingly used this technique and gotten tremendous result.

When we say stir the water we mean to create a buzz in the blogosphere by doing something unusual. Although this is a golden rule for any corporation in any business, yet it has no doubt has it's effects on the world of blogs. Now the question is how do we stir the water? Well, you must have seen many blogger running contests, that is a part of the stirring water strategy. Make statements that catches the eye, like John Chow said 'Never Put Your All Eggs in Google's basket' which became quite famous in the blogosphere. Write articles that would provoke readers mind, beliefs or thoughts. Run your own polls and contests on your blog or your site. Give away free gifts which sometimes would costs you nothing. For example you can give away free royalty free wallpapers, or maybe codes and scripts which the users can implement on their blogs or websites to add a dash to it. This is free, but it is guaranteed to bring visitors to your site in search of what the latest bling on offer.

Again some of the other things which can help to attract visitors is criticism, deception and controversy. Although this can be a bit tricky so you need to be aware of all the consequences, yet you can Prepare your blog with such ingredients and get visitors i.e. 'catch the fish'. SO start forming new ideas for running your blog, not just for writing a post. Be innovative and you are sure to catch the fish.

Top 10 Secrets of SEO

[Posted by Chris Hart]

In my last post I spoke about how page ranking can affect your online business. Here are some rare tips on how to increase the page rank of your site or blog.

First, directories are still in abundance and are used by numerous people, thus search engines give preference to websites listed in directories. The directories comes in two flavors, free and paid. The free directories usually require link exchange, which is fine but then you should also remember that if you have many links on your web page, search engines can reduce your page ranks or rank on search engine result. So basically too much of anything is not good. Again in case of paid listing make sure that the page rank of the directory is high and it has good traffic.

Secondly, many search engines also provide sponsored links. Therefore you can pay to get listing at the top of the result page. However, you have to pay for every visitor sent to your website. This way you can get traffic very quickly.

Thirdly, you need to submit your articles to different article submission sites like Digg. Write quality articles related to your websites and/or products and then submit those same articles to good article submission websites. You can also have links in the articles thus getting backlinks and traffic at the same time.

Fourth, get as many high ranking links as possible. You can buy backlinks and many websites display links for free also such as classifieds' web page.

Fifth, join forums and online communities which are related to your websites and/or products. Discuss about your products there, you can also provide links to your website. This way you can traffic as well as backlinks.

Sixth, advertise your website in media such as Television ads, newspapers, magazines etc.

Seventh, have proper content. As I had discussed earlier that Content is King.

Eighth, always have a sitemap for your website. This help the visitors to explore the website more freely and conveniently.

Ninth, you must burn feeds for your websites. This way person get informed when there is some new content on your websites.

How to Make Your Website SEO Friendly

[Posted by Chris Hart]

Today the most important deciding factor in the success of your online business is visibility to search engines. If you have a high ranking on most of the major search engines then almost half your work is done. Although there are millions of websites competing for the ranking positions, the best and only way to achieve it is by opting for the right SEO strategies and use the right Search Engine Optimization tools. I think the following SEO tips would be helpful for you to do the same:

The Sitemap:

The first thing that you should do while creating your website is to add a sitemap of your website. A Sitemap is a page on your website that contains links to all the main pages on your website. It would help in three ways. First, it helps the visitor as a guide or a route chart to your website in finding out the various pages on your website. Second, a sitemap increases the density of internal linking on a website, thereby increasing the SEO friendliness. Third, it helps search engines like Google to crawl your website easily.

Heading Tags:

Do use the primary and secondary keywords related to your site in the h1 and h2 tags respectively. Search engines usually give a lot of value to the keywords in these tags.

Emphasize Keywords:

Use bold and italic tags with the keywords in the content on your pages. This strategy works greatly in improving the visibility of keywords to the search engines. But make sure that you don't overdo it as too many of these tags will nullify their importance.

Meta Tags:

Meta title, meta description, and meta keywords are very important in search engine optimization. Use them wisely and make sure you find the right keywords for your site that have a high search volume and relatively low advertiser competition. I would cover it on a separate article on how to find the right keyword for your website. To know more about it subscribe to The Chronicles of R and I would keep you posted on the same.

Use HTML:

Search engines are very fond of HTML as they don't understand dynamic pages like .asp and .php.

Page Content:

Use a good amount of text on every page. Do NOT make the template intricate with the use of too many images or flash objects. Use few images, and assign the alt tags with keywords whenever you include them.

Content is King

[Posted by Chris Hart]

One of the best ways to increase the SEO ranking of your website or your blog is to publish fresh and relevant and original text regularly. This actually increase the frequency with which your site would be crawled by the search engine spiders. This greatly improves your page ranking. What happens if you do not update your site regularly? Well, it's very simple. An absence of a regular feed of articles a day keeps the spiders away. If you don't update your site regularly then the spiders would search your site infrequently and as a result the page rank of your site would drop drastically.

But the problem is that most websites do not have regular updates. This includes business websites or websites of companies that rarely have any new contents to add to their site. This causes stagnation. A very simple solution to this is to take the help of RSS feeds. For other websites like blogs, one can always resort to various copywriting strategies providing provision for adding testimonials, newsletters, reviews and comments for your website, adding new blog post or in case you are running out of topic, you can always search for sites where you can hire freelance wirters for a bare minimum amount.

But you should always remember that the content of your site must be of some practical value to the visitor and should contain relevant, useful, interesting and original content that the visitor would like to read and would come back to read something similar once again. Plagiarism is a straight no no. Using duplicate content or promotional materials like advertisements and/or brochured are not considered as content in the ideal context and would not help increase your SEO ranking.

Before publishing any content on your site you should make sure that it is not stolen or copied and pasted from some other website. If it so then your site would be marked as "duplicate content" and thus it might be excluded from indexing by the search engines like Google. There are many ways to avoid this issue, you can change the content and rewrite it and then publish it in your site. You should follow the same rule while writing reviews of products because the same would be written on the manufacturers site. So you can add exclusive comments to avoid plagiarism.

So you can say that one of the best ways to increase the raking of your site is by publishing good, relevent, original and interesting content. You can be sure it would increase the number of your site visitors within a very short period of time.

Technology Unplugged

Finally my own Tech blog. Yes, I have started my own Technology blog which would contain all the technical updates that I used to provide over here. It would also contain the posts on SEO by Chris Hart, our guest blogger. You can click on the link below to go the my new blog. I would suggest you to either blogroll it or bookmark it so that you can access the blog with an ease.

Technology Unplugged

What is Search Engine Optimization?

[Posted by Chris Hart]

Search Engine Optimization or SEO as of we know it today is the name given to the collective techniques of improving the visibility of a website or a blog on the search engine listings. It refers to a list of marketing tools required to prepare a website in order to increase its rankings in the context of the result of pages of search engines and directories.

There are two main types of factors in search engine optimization:

1. On page Optimization
2. Off Page Optimization

On Page Optimization:

On Page Optimization is a technique which increases the search engine visibility of a web page using factors that are directly related to the content and structure of the website.

Features of On Page Optimization:

Title Tag: This is an area in a web page where the text is placed that shows the title of the website on the very top of the web browser window. Search engines use title tags to make a link in search results.

Meta tag description: A Meta Tag Description is a part of web page coding that gives the basic description about the website. This should focus on the website because Meta tag description plays a very important role in web page ranking.

Meta Tag Keywords: Meta Tag Keywords play the similar role as meta tag description for highlighting the importance of a website.

Keyword Density: A particular percentage of keywords used on a web page are called keyword density. A keyword must be used in a web page from 2% to 8 % for good page ranking. This technique is the backbone of Search Engine Optimization.

URL Structure: If you want your website to rank well then your URL of website must be related to the context of the website.

Now, you must be asking as yo what are the benefits of On Page Optimization. Well, to answer your question I would say that when creating or updating a commercial website two things should be kept in mind. First, the products should be made more attaractive for the viewers and second, how to gain more exposure with a broader target audience which in turn has its own benefits. This is done in order to enhance their business. On Page Optimization allows a higher page ranking based on a specific keyword or phrases. This process identifies those keywords that will benefit a particular website and uses them in such a way that it gets a higher page ranking when those keywords are searched.

Most searchers only views the websites listed on the first page of their searches because this is where the pages with higher page rankings are displayed, which translates into these pages find the highest relevance to their keyword searches. This makes it even more vital that each website comprehends the significance and the knowledge necessary to adapt their websites to benefit from Search Engine Optimization.

An understanding of Search Engine Optimization provides the website a higher ranking in the world of search engines. By taking advantage of optimization techniques, more searchers will gain faster access to the particular website. If the website has something worthwhile to offer then this strategy that should be implemented immediately.

Off Page Optimization:

Off page optimization too plays a major role in getting a higher rankings in most of the well known search engines. Off page optimization essentially refers to one very important factor and that is which other websites are linking to your website. Off page Optimization handle number of things off page to improve your search engine ranking and drive targeted visitor traffic to your website. Off page optimization is the continuous process in web site promotion. It's like making online marketing of your web site. In off page optimization you don't require to change anything in web site design or layout.

Some Important parts in Off Page Optimization:

Link Building: Link building is probably the most important part of off-page optimization.The primary means through which off page optimization is accomplished is through a link building effort.

Directory Submissions: The most important, the most obvious and usually the only one people choose to submit their website to a directory is search engine ranking.

Article: Article can be used to catapult your website into a top 10 listing on the first page of the natural rankings in the search engines.

Press Release: Press release in simple word means an announcement about specific happenings of a company and about the launch of a new product.

I hope you got a fair idea about what SEO is and how can it affect you and your blog or website. Would be publishing my next post soon, till then God bless you all.

Chris Hart : Our New Guest Blogger

I have asked a guest bloggers to join me on this blog. He will no doubt enrich it by bringing in his own perspectives and experiences from a different horizon.

Chris is a currently working as a Manager in Branding with an internet company in the South California region. Before this he was a working with a company known for their website promotional expertise. Chris is regarded as a leading expert in implementing SEO or search engine optimization.

Another ardent follower or should I say a constant reader of The Chronicles of R, he has promised to write about how to promote your blogs or websites and reach out to a larger audience. I hope even I would be able to learn something from him which would help me take The Chronicles of R to new heights. I also hope you too would be able to benefit from this too.

To find his posts on SEO or search engine optimization you need to select SEO from the list of labels.

Thank you all for making The Chronicles of R a success :)