Now, my first question is, Do you understand what the difference between searches and traffic is?

I can bet that not more people think about this term when they optimize their site. However, for a most successful SEO campaign this is one of the most important things to start with. It’s a part that has to be considered with you do a keyword research.

So, what is the basic difference between Searches and Traffic?

Searches: It is the total number of people searching on internet for particular piece of information.

Traffic: It is the total number of people that comes to your site after searching a particular piece of information.

Sounds like same; however, that’s not the case. There is a thin line of difference between both.

Traffic is the exact thing that you are looking for and not the searches. Even when you are top ranking you cannot expect all searches coming to your site.

A recent survey has proved that the website ranking #1 for any keyword, get 42% of the clicks. So, even if you are on top ranking for your keyword, you still will receive only 42% of traffic.

Website with #2 receive 12% of the traffic, #3 receive 8%, #4 receive 6%, #5 receive 5%, #6 receive 4%, #7 receive 3% and rest is then accumulated with other results.

So, next time when you see that even your keywords has 1000 of searches per day and you still not getting the right traffic. You know the reason. It’s not to panic. The solution is to optimize your other pages for other keywords. This way you will receive more traffic.

If you have any query please leave a comment and I will surely try to answer it. You can request a personal quote for Search Engine Optimization by contacting on creatiefpartners@gmail.com.

Always remember that the time taken by successful business is same as time taken by unsuccessful business. So, plan your time properly and invest it first into keyword research. A recent study has revealed that 80% of webmaster fails in this process and 90% of online business doesn’t get success due to bad keyword research. So, what is the factor which has to be taken care while you research your keywords?

There are many such factors that have to be taken care, however, there are few fundamental things that has to be taken care of first hand.
1. Selecting the Niche: Many webmaster and people misunderstand the meaning between market and niche. If you consider Gaming as the Market than Doll Games will be considered as Niche. Market and Niche are two different entities and should be differentiated first before you begin any campaign.

2. Relevancy: Keyword Relevancy is utmost important. The keyword set you select has to be highly relevant to your business. Most webmaster chooses keyword looking at the Traffic, but always remembers, high visitor not always means business. High traffic from relevant keyword only will give you more business. So first look for Relevancy of keywords.

3. Traffic: The factor after relevancy is traffic. You need relevant keywords having with high traffic, this way you will get more business. Do’t get confuse with traffic and relevancy, keywords with relevancy will also have traffic. Search for them, do repeated keyword research. Always remember, your initial keyword research will decide your success. So, be careful while you select them

4. Competition: Another factor that many webmaster think is ok to deal with. However, it’s not ok. If your website is brand new you need to take keywords, with minimum number of competition, as for a new website it’s difficult to rank good on search engines. So, long tail keywords are always advisable. If your domain already with links and pages cached by search engine. You can think of targeting high competitive set of keywords.

5. Commercial Intention: Let take an example of this factor, I think this factor has 25% of weight-age from all the factors. Let’s say, we got a keyword called Doll Games Help, this keyword has good Relevancy as per the niche, huge traffic and competition. However, this keyword may not have commercial keyword. People will look this keyword just to gain information but not to buy anything. So, it will not be a good keyword for your search campaign.

I hope you understand the importance of Keyword Research in your online campaign. If you have any query or feedback, please feel free to ask or say in the comment box. Thank you for reading this article, your feedback will be much appreciated.

This is very common questions that I hear from most of my client when we have discussion about there SEO strategies and when due to changes in search engine algorithm there ranking dips down. The search engine works on a very basic strategy and their common goal is to provide information to their searchers, the exact information. The competition comes between them, is how effective, accurate and quick result they show to their searcher. Google is one of the giant or if I am not wrong than it’s the only giant among this race. It holds more than 75% of the search market score and then there come other thousands of search engine, which were there before google.

So, let’s come on the topic of how google works and how it shows accurate results for every search term?

I will tell you to listen it from Matt Cutt itself from Google from this video, however, I will give you a brief description of how it works?

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How Search Works – Matt Cutt
The basic component that Google has is servers for storing copies of web pages and Google Bot. The important invention of this era.

Now, this Google Bot, is also called as spider, this spider comprises of “crawler” and “Indexer”.

Since you now know the basic terms of Google, lets start how it work. I will exaplain this with an example.
Let say, Google has decided that this 200 websites are most important from its point of view. A very fixed and small but famous websites, like CNN or BBC.com. It will then send it’s spider on this 200 websites. This crawler(Spider component) will make a note of all other links present on that web page and the indexer(another spider component) will make a copy of it and will store it on their server i.e. it indexes the page.
The crawler then crawl to every other link that it find on that page and start indexing it one by one. Each spider indexes thousands of webpages per second. And Google believes that this way, they can index the entire web and it’s working for them and for all search engine.

So, now the next question comes to my mind is what is the difference between Google and Other Search Engine? Why the result for any particular keywords differs in every search engine. And why Google is in top if all search engine works in the same fashion?

The answer is simple. It’s the Google Pagerank. The invention by Sergey Brain and Larry Page (Please forgive me to misspell their name, but I guess it’s correct). It’s a top secret algorithm, which both this partner invented and which rules the market. This is the technology by which they rank each webpage for any search query.

So, basically how it works is, Google indexes every page on internet. However, depending on some query or protocols, it rearrange it in format to save it. So, it has categories and sub-categories to store the data. Now, when you search any keyword, say flower shop florida, it searches the florist or whatever named category for it, which Google thinks is the best, and then sets the pages as per few other algorithm query in order and show as a result. It does it every time when people search on Google. And Google has come out accurate every time. There are more then 1 billion searches every day on Google.

So, the Search Engine Optimization or SEO comes into picture where a webmaster needs to understand thoroughly what factors effects the algorithm to give ranking to a particular web-page and based on that they start charging their client. But beware, as there is no degree or proof or institute which can certify for SEO Experts many people with little or no information starts acquiring clients. I will explain in my next article, what you need to take care before you choose an SEO Company.

Wrong Projection: People tend to project wrong about their product and services. They try to bluff people about what they don’t have or what they cannot provide, but still says that we do. I hate such people, be sure of what you are projecting. If you sell only flowers, then don’t project as if you sell boutiques and Flowers. Be Exact. Say Florida Flower Shop, do not mention Florida Florist.

Keyword Missing: Try to put your keyword in your username which you use to project your visitor to get to. It will help you gain more traffic from search engine and from facebook. Facebook allow you to change username only once. So make a proper use of it.

Don’t Write Anything: Think before you post anything to your wall. It’s just about Quantity, it’s about Quality. Think from a reader’s point of view before you put anything on your post. It should not sound more of sales pitch, rather keep it informative. If they want to try your service, they will surely go ahead with it, without your sales pitch, and that is what you want.

Do not redirect: This is the most frustrating and most common mistake people do. They keep tinyurls, bit.ly and other stuff, even they redirect their visitor from one website to another. They say fill this form or give us email and then take the freebies, and after a visitor go through all this mess. He gets frustrated. Keep it simple. People do not like redirect much. At the most keep it one step solution.

Facebook has now become the major mode of promotion in Social Media Optimization. As chief executive of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg says on 21st July 2010, “We have reached 500 million active users monthly”. It is but obvious that how much impact facebook has once internet life. It is observed that user spend more time on Facebook than on Google. So, for an Internet Marketing Company it is utmost important to know how exactly they can use facebook to monetize their product or to create brand.
Now, I am going to discuss few things that Facebook can do for your business.

Branding: Facebook has many age-graphics and geo-graphics options. You can target people from different Age group or rather by profession. A brand knows exactly what type of people uses their product or service. So, they can connect to them directly and know their thoughts, either to provide more service/product or to improve their service/product. It can be inception point between end-user and the brand.

Lead Generation: As Brand Management technique, since product/service get in direct touch with end users. They can provide offers/Opt-in Form and other services which can be utilized by user directly and can increase the lead. I prefer, to create another Landing Page for your facebook profile, so that you can measure the earnings from it or a different URL structure redirecting to your main website.

Client Retention: In any niche, it’s one of the most important factor that contribute to the success of a brand. People spend thousands of dollars just to retain their client and at the end due to lack of support or service, they lose clients. Loosing client is very much same as losing Business. So, as you have your facebook page setup, install a application called as Static FBML and create a new section called as “complaints and Support”, take initiative to tell people upfront any defect or issues you facing, before they tell you. This is one of the best practices and it gives an impression that you care your end users. Keep updating your facebook profile and answering those horrible complaints. It will help you for long run.

New Client Generation: Your followers/fans will surely talk about you, or even they don’t talk your updates will surely be visible on your wall, which will help you get more followers indirectly and who knows that they can be your users in near future.

Engage Customer/End-User/Client: Start a discussion and keep your clients or end users engage in activities. It create a perception of your brand and they go away they carry that perception to other people. So, it’s important that you keep them active on your profile/page.

The Viral Effect: Have you ever noticed that a video shared from youtube by one of your friend is viewed by approximately 50% of friends and their friends on facebook. Just imagine that your one good product shared by 10 of your fans out of 1000 can result in bringing more 100 new clients. And yes, this is the fact, people out there are making on it. So why can’t you. It’s a viral effect that spread your words. And you just need to start it up.

Feedback Mechanism: Ask people to leave feedback; don’t worry what they will say. Even if they have negative feedback, you should know it, so that you improve on your service or product or whatever. Tell them to leave a comment on whatever they feel. No matter what, who know, one day you will find a key to introduce a new product just because of feedback (I had a similar experience, so sharing it with you.)

Content Cautious: Social Media is very viral media. If you say something, it can affect your brand both negative and positive. So “Choose your words before you say”, it can lead to losing business.

Include Case study: Be upfront and tell people about the case study of your previous client and let them know how efficient you are in your work or product. Let them know your achievements, the same way you showcase your negative, be upfront and say that “We made 100 million in May 2010!!” This give people a trust that your product are being used by people and if they are using it then there must be something good in it. So, that way you attract more clients. Always remember, “Business Attract More Business”.

Search Engine Optimization: Recently, Facebook pages and profile are getting cached by most of the search engine. This means, your facebook activities will not only bring you traffic from facebook but also will help you get good search engine rankings. If you see at the deeper level of facebook optimization, then you will find that every application or every section of your facebook profile or page is considered as different URL and webpage by google and you get creditability because of it.

Why Choosing wrong keywords can result in failure of SEO campaigns?

It’s just because SEO is a long term strategy. Most of the people (including me at the initial stages of learning) have to face failure after working hard for months to try to get good ranking for particular set of keywords and then they realize that they can’t make it happen. So, the next only option left is, optimizing the site again for another set of keywords and again putting few more months to action and waiting for results. It is therefore important to choose correct keywords at first place.

How to choose right keywords for your SEO?

Who is your target audience?

Keyword research should always have this question’s answer on the first place. Who are your target audience? Is your product local? Can you provide service globally? Depending, on the answer keyword selection has to be performed.

You may also want to consider who your best customers are likely to do. The customers that spend the most and/or stay with you the longest – and what they might search for. For example, someone searching for bulk purchases is more likely to provide a higher profit margin then other. The search volume may be lower here but it may be easier to achieve top rankings and the returns will be greater for each sale provided.

You need to decide which stage of buying process you will target?

You need to decide which buying phase you will target. For example people who are at their early stage of research of product will search with more generic terms which include reviews, videos, images etc. There might not be much conversion at this stage. It might also have more searches but the conversion will be less.

On the other hand, if you target people who are in their later stage of buying. You will see that they have more specific terms in their searches example – Buy, Purchase, Download, etc. These keywords have better ROI and most competition. It will also have much higher conversion rate.

Another way of identifying keywords is looking at the top 10 results on search engine. If the result shows top competitors then it’s likely to be transactional keywords. And if the result shows informational WebPages like Wikipedia then it’s likely that it will be informational keywords.

Check the search volume of the keywords?

Whatever keyword you choose make sure that it has good amount of searches. A search volume of more than 10,000 searches is considered to be a good start of any SEO Campaign.

Also remember for some niche, since the user of that niche is less the searches made is also less. So, one has to understand the niche and its potential users.

Decide Pages of website on which you will target keywords.

It’s ideal to target 1 keyword per page. If you target single keyword per page then chances of your web page getting well ranking for that keyword. So there is no reason to target any keyword unless you have at least page having that keyword as primary or key feature of it.

It is certainly fine to target 2-3 keywords on a single page. However, It is more advisable to target same set of keyword combination for one page. For example, if your web page is about Lose Weight, then you should target”lose weight diet”, “lose weight plans”, “lose weight product” for that particular page.