SEO Blog, Web Hosting & Website Development Guide

Archive for March, 2010

Ranking high in Google’s search results can have a phenomenal impact on the success of your business.
You can either engage the expertise of a Search Engine Optimisation company, or if you have the time, there are some changes you can make to your website yourself.

Step 1: Keyword Research
What keywords do you think your customers would type in to search for your products or services? A keyword can be one word (e.g. “optimisation”), but multiple keywords or keyword phrases are usually preferred, because they are more specific and more likely to be what your customers are looking for (eg. Search Engine Optimisation Australia).

Write down as many as you can think of. Brainstorm with your team. Think of alternative words. Consider geographical phrases if they are important to your customer (e.g. “house cleaning Hornsby”). Also, get some ideas from your competitors’ websites. Try to make a list of 20-30 keyword phrases.

Choose the two keyword phrases you think would be searched for the most. But also remember, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is to achieve top rankings. If you want to rank high in Google for the keyword “insurance”, you have a very long journey ahead. So try your best to select two keyword phrases that are the most relevant to you business but that are not vague nor competitive. It’s a good idea to have 2 or 3 words in each phrase (e.g. “wedding catering services”)

Once you’ve selected your two best keyword phrases the next step shows you how to make some improvements to your home page.

Step 2: Web Copy
Web copy refers to all the words or text on your website. Because content is king in the world of search engines, your keyword phrases need to be placed strategically on your webpage to convince Google that your content is highly relevant to those keywords. The more prominent they are, the better. (Keep in mind that as important as search engines are, customers come first, so make sure your copy also reads well.)

Here’s how you can increase each keyword’s prominence:

• Place your keywords in headings, preferably at the beginning of the heading;

• Include keywords towards the top of the page;

• Bold or italicise keywords where appropriate;

• Instead of having a link to another page that says “Click here to read more “, reword it to include your keywords, e.g. “Read more about our seo copywriting Services.

An important tip is to also include these keywords in your HTML “title tag”. Use your content management system to make these changes yourself, or perhaps ask your web developer to do it if you’re unsure how.

Once you have fine-tuned your home page, consider adding new content, such as detailed descriptions of what you offer, FAQs and informative articles about your products and services. (If you don’t want to write these yourself, they can be located for free on the internet – do a search for “articles directory”).

It’s also good to bear in mind that search engines can only read text, not pictures. Often web developers embed words in images to look better for website visitors or use Flash for animation, but this is a major impediment to search engines.

Step 3: Linking
Each link from another website to your website (not from your website) is considered by search engines as a vote of popularity for your business and will improve your rankings.

But it is the quality, not quantity, of the links that is crucial. The other websites should be relevant to your industry, and preferably highly regarded themselves. Ten quality links count far more than 500 links from arbitrary websites. In the same way your personal business network can have a significant impact on the success of your business, so too the online network you build on the internet.

Brainstorm all the relevant websites that could link to you, such as non-competing companies, and industry bodies and organisations. Write a friendly email to each describing the benefit their visitors would get in knowing about your business, and request them to create a link to your website. Most people will not respond first time round, so a follow-up phone call is usually required.

How do I monitor my results?
Monitor your rankings in Google over the next few months by typing your chosen keywords into the search box, and recording your ranking. Also look at your hosting reports to understand what search terms your visitors are using to find your website.

The above process can be also be repeated for each page of your website. Remember to keep updating your content, and continually increase the number of links to your website.

As you see your rankings climb you should see a corresponding increase in web traffic and a substantial increase in sales enquiries. Be sure to record the source of your customer enquiries, so you can measure the success of your marketing efforts.

Remember, if you measure it, you can improve it.

Reseller web hosting can be low cost way to earn high profits online. Reseller hosting programs will allow users to lease their servers, bandwidth, and connections while branding the goods as their own. Most large hosting companies today resell their products from larger firms because it reduces the cost of equipment and other fees. Resellers act outside of the control of hosting companies, and are not considered to be employees.

Many resellers are similar to affiliates, and are paid based on how many customers they sign up every month. The difference between affiliate programs and cheap reseller hosting services is that resellers continue to be paid each month for every client they sign up, whereas affiliate programs are generally paid a one time commission. The first thing you will want to do if you plan on becoming a reseller is to decide what products or services you want to sell.

If you are interested in web hosting, most aspects of this service can be resold. Products for web hosting include servers, connections, and e-commerce stores. Most hosting companies like to allow resellers to handle as much as possible so they can concentrate on running the business. Many of these hosting firms will also provide consultation to resellers. Cheap reseller hosting is a profitable business model for those who understand it. Once you’ve decided what products you want to sell, the next thing you want to do is choose the right reseller hosting company.

There are thousands of reseller programs online, and it is best to go with companies which are established. Free Resellers is a forum located at www.freeresellers.com, and has useful information about reseller hosting services. You want to choose a company which has a good track record. Even if the company promises to pay you high commisions, it is better to go with established companies. These firms have experience dealing with products and clients.

Once you’ve setup your reseller program, you will want to attract customers. If you are starting your first reseller hosting business, it may be a good idea to start with clients who are working on a smaller budget. Many of these clients will not require high end services, and your products can be tailored towards them. When you are just starting out, you don’t want to overextend yourself. If you plan on running a larger company, targeting upscale clients would be a good idea.

Cheap reseller hosting services are a good model for those who understand them. They allow you to run a hosting company without the costs which are involved with owning your own server and maintaining an e-commerce account. At the same time, you will be dependent on the hosting company to pay your commission, and it is important to make sure you choose a company with a good track record. If you are interested in running a full hosting company, it is important to realize that more costs will be involved. You will have to deal with running your own server, connections, and other issues.

Free web hosting is a service that stores your website and offers to delivers its web pages to the Internet for free. Thus, free hosting for your website actually offers you to increase your online business opportunities. Just as you want to get your website hosted in Internet, similarly there are customers out there who want to know more about your company. Free hosting suggests web hosting services that are free, and are usually advertisement-supported and of limited functionality.
Features of free web hosting

Free web hosts will start by providing you a sub domain [http://yourname.example.com] or a directory [http://www.example.com/yourname]. Since free hosts allow the use of separately purchased domains so they do not operate as domain name registrar. The free hosts are advantageous because they have a basic package for free and also enhanced packages [obviously with more features] that you have to purchase with a cost. This allows the users to try the services for an initial trial and then upgrade it in their websites, if needed.

The free hosts provide the following extra features:

 File transfer via FTP
 Allows some of the scheduled processes like cronjobs
 A web based control panel
 Free email accounts for subdomains and domain hosted
 Scripting languages like ASP and PHP
 Allows relational databases

When you are searching for a free web host, you should make sure that the hosts have an excellent track record. You should enquire into the storage facilities allowed by the host and see how much the free host can provide you with web control panels and password protected directories for your website.

Methods of free web hosting

There are a few methods of giving out free web hosting to people by web hosts, which are as follows:

- Instant activation – these hosts usually give very little storage space and bandwidth allowances. They require the user’s web page to display their banner ads, or pop-ups, text link ads or the user’s files to be uploaded through a web-based file manager.

- Post for hosting – this is more popular as it allows one to register at Web shots forum, which usually has lots of banner or popup Ads – and post there for Free web hosting. One has to stay active and meet certain requirements almost every month/week to keep up their level of web hosting.

- Posting in forums – some of the free hosts allow posting in a forum. It requires users to either reach a certain amount of posts before getting a free hosting account or be an active contributor in the forum. These forum-based free hosting factors often work on a system of points where posts points to a user and are basically used as credits towards getting a hosting account.

Limitations of free web hosting

But free hosting has the following limitations:

- Prevents hot linking of files
- Fails to provide any type of uptime guarantee
- Do not allow file types like MP3, MPEG and others
- Provides very small bandwidth per month as compared to paid hosting
- Allows very limited size of hosted files