Archive for January, 2010

The Magic Keyword Density Formula in SEO

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

A major success of any website or online advertising campaign is your search engine optimization (SEO). By researching the best keywords and ensuring you haven’t used them too much or too little is worked out by an easy, yet very effective formula:

Step 1: Firsty, count how many words you have on your page.
Step 2: Then, count up how many times you have used your keyword

Step 3: And then apply the following formula:

Your Keyword Density = ([key word count]) * 100 / (total word count]

So, for example if you have a 400 or so page or blog post about holiday accommodation, and you are optimizing it for ‘hotel’, then the total keyword count is 400, and the example of the word ‘hotel’ is 14, then:

Density of the word ‘hotel’ would equal (14 * 100) /400
So the keyword density for ‘hotel’ on that particular page is 3.5

Too much density and you can be caught out for spamming and be blacklisted from the search engines, and too little will get you nowhere at all to start with.

Now, depending on how you set up your navigation and internal page text links (this is linking from particular words or phrases which link to a related page) you can increase your overall density by using the same method throughout the entire website, which is more powerful than the density of just one single page of the site.

If your mathematics isn’t that great, and you really want to fine tune it perfectly, then I recommend using an SEO software package such as Web CEO to do the hard work for you. This easy to use software reviews your entire website and shows you exactly where you need to fine tune your site for the best results. Easy!

Keyword Density doesn’t just cover the visual text keywords. You can actually use the same principle mentioned above for your Alt Tags on your images, which appear in Google Images and a few other major search engines.

Try out this technique for yourself. You will be amazed how a quick optimization of your density followed by a resubmission to the search engines will quickly change your listing on the search engines.

And as I mentioned in a previous post on keyword density, make sure if you decide to link your website to another website in any way, that you either set up your page to tell the search engines not to follow other pages, or fully test the keyword density of the site you are linking to first. If their website does not relate directly to your keywords or they already have a poor density, or for that matter, a density that is too high, they may damage your own website. It is well worth spending the few minutes to check.

Article by Chris Bourke: Devision Design and Web SEO Coach

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Posted in SEO | No Comments »

The Importance of a Sitemap for your Website

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

So, you’ve had a great looking website designed, and hopefully your web developer has search engine optimised the website for the best possible results on the search engines. After all, what is the point in spending a pile of dollars on a nice looking site if no one can find it, right?

But sadly, while many websites have a lot of effort put into the look and functionality of the website, many website developers fail to finish it off with the essentials that play the most important role in ensuring you can be found easily on the search engines, and one of the most important (and often overlooking) is the HTML and XML Sitemaps.

There are a few types of sitemap:

HTML Sitemaps – This is usually just a link on the footer of every webpage that will point you to a page with all pages of the website listed, with links to these pages. The advantage of this is for people to find your pages easily, which is important especially in larger websites. It also plays a key role in helping search engines to trawl through your website quicker.

XML Sitemaps – The XML Sitemap cannot be seen through the main website through a browser, however hopefully your web developer or webmaster has created and uploaded this for your website as it is even more relevant than the standard HTML sitemap. The XML sitemap can be easily generated using specific software designed for this purpose.
Once the XML sitemap is created it should be uploaded to Google through their Google Webmaster Tools, which you will need to create an account for. You should also do the same for Bing Webmaster Center and Yahoo Siteexplorer for the best results on all the major search engines.

If you are making frequent changes to your website, or run an online shopping cart or directory, then it is important to ensure the sitemap is recreated every time these changes take place, and then your XML sitemap is resubmitted to Google, Bing and Yahoo to ensure your new pages or changes are updated.

At Devision Design, large websites have a special automatic Sitemap Generator added which allows the site owner or the team at Devision to simply push a button and the new HTML, XML and ROR Sitemaps be recreated and submitted to all the mentioned search engine Webmaster accounts, not only saving you a heap of time-consuming work, but also generating an immediate response from the search engines, so you can often see the new pages appear in the search engines in a matter of minutes.

So, if you are unsure about if your website had an XML Sitemap or an XML Sitemap generator, then I advise you to ask your web developer as you could be missing a lot of valuable visitors to your website through a poor search engine listing.

Author: Chris Bourke of Devision Design & Web SEO Coach
We recommend Web Crowd Website Hosting Australia

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Posted in Google SEO & PageRank, Search Engine Marketing, SEO, Site Promotion, Website Design, Website Development | No Comments »

The Top Twitter Tools for promoting your business

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

In my last article I discussed how to start using Twitter as a tool to promote your business.

The steps are very basic, yet very effective and proven to work.

But if you really want to see great results you will need an extra hand from some additional tools.

These tools are specifically designed to really promote Twitter accounts, and believe me they really work. And the best part is they are totally free!!

So here goes…

Twitpic allows you to share photos with your visitors, plus each time you post a photo on Twitpic it not only posts the message to your linked Twitter account, but it also allows any other fellow Twitpic user to see the pic as soon as you submit it, so you instantly attract people. You can also tag each image with particular keywords. So for instance if you were a Ford car dealer, as you post that photo of the vehicle you would add a subject topic that will attract people, such as Perfect used red Ford Coupe, and then add the tags; ford, red car, used cars, coupe, etc…
Works very well to attract a particular follower interested in your services or products.

Twitwall works in a similar style, though it goes one step better and integrates your Twitter account background into your Twitwall account, so make sure you have a nicely branded Twitter background. For an example of this, check out one of my Twitwall sites: http://twitwall.com/view/?who=whitsundayaccom

Tweetdeck is a very handy tool to help speed up the process of adding Tweets. The main TweetDeck website is also a kind of TWitter yellow pages, so you can easily target the specific audience you want to attract. Tweetdeck is actually a bit of software you download which allows live updated of your Twitter account or even multiple accounts, so you can easily post, respond and follow your friends Tweets without having to log in to the actual Twitter website.
For the iPhone users out there, Tweetdeck also has a handy App which works just the same as the the one on your PC, so you can tweet from anywhere!

On the subject of Yellow pages for TWitter, take a look at Twellow. Twellow is exactly that..a yellow pages for TWitter users. Simply sign up a free account and you can then select and follow specific people just by a simple search and click of a button!

Another handy tool for keeping in touch with fellow Twitter users is a handy little piece of software called Digsby. Digsby is an instant messaging software for IM, Email and Social Networks, all in one.
Simple to use and very handy for multi-tasking all your accounts at once. Sorry MAc and Linux users…it’s not available yet, but coming soon, so I will keep you posted!

If you run an RSS feed or a blog and want to easily post messages to your TWitter account or Facebook, then Twitterfeed is the tool for you.
You simply create an account and do a little bit of set up and then Twitterfeed will allow you to track your feeds easily. It really is as simple as it sounds.

for the traveller, Check out Twitwhere. Twitwhere is a cool little bit of software that allows your tweets to appear in a Google map, which can then be added to your website. It works on GPS data embedded into photos that you link to. Probably very handy if you are a tour operator, or travel the country doing motivational coaching or similar.

For those that are interested in searching and following particular tweets posted, a great little application is twhirl. Based on the Adobe Air platform, Twhirl is a smooth sleek running app. Much simpler and less screen room required than Tweetdeck, this handy little app can run all the time while you work.

With the recent arrival of the latest Android phone from Google, Twitter users are also catered for with Twidroid. A very stylish mobile version of Twitter, this handy app is a real winner for Twitter fans.

If you want to search for particular tags (keywords) that people are broadcasting on Twitter, check out Tweetscan. This is an easy way of finding followers interested in similar products or topics that you relate to. It even finds people!

For more Twitter Apps, free and paid, check out Twitdom
It has pretty much every type of Twitter solution available!

Combine a few of these great handy tools and you will quickly learn how easy it is to promote your business and attract new potential customers!

Until next time, Keep Tweeting…!

PS: You can also follow me at twitter.com/webseocoach or twitter.com/devision

Author Chris Bourke @ Devision Design and Web SEO Coach

Posted in Site Promotion, social networking | No Comments »

All aboard the Twitter Express!

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

As I have previously mentioned in my past articles on the subject of using Twitter as a business tool, Twitter can be a great way to promote your business or services to literally thousands of new potential customers every single day.

Unfortunately I hear plenty of negative feedback from Twitter ‘newbies’ that complain it is a waste of time, or they don’t get enough people following them, or they can’t see a direct result on their website.

Like any tool used to promote your business, Twitter doesn’t just magically start working for your business….you have to make it work.

Think of Twitter as a bus… A bus with no motor running gathers no customers. But start that engine running put some wording where it gets noticed and people are flagging you down to get onboard!

You need to start that ‘Twitter motor’ and drive it forward to attract new people, but once you have the momentum happening you will find it will start driving itself.

Makes sense? Of course it does…but how do you start….

The great thing about Twitter is that the search engine love it. If you use your Twitter Bio section and really spell out what you do it will work like a website description. So say you are selling red widgets, then try and sign up your account as twitter.com/redwidgets and then in your Bio, write something like ‘The best Red Widgets in Australia at the cheapest prices.’

Now, as you start to ‘tweet’ on a regular basis, Google will soon pick up on this and treat your Twitter account like a website, so if you post enough relative tweets about Red Widgets then eventually you will start seeing your Twitter feed showing up in the search engines.
The other advantage of creating a specific Bio and correct wording in each Tweet is that if anyone on Twitter is searching particularly for Red Widgets, then there is a very likely chance you will attract them as followers, and potentially new customers!

But to really speed up the process, amongst your messages add the hash symbol (#) before a particular word as this turns your word into a ‘tag’, and tags become like links for people searching for that word. IF you do a search in Twitter for widgets, then any person that has tagged their text like #widgets will have top priority.

Make sure you also try and add links back to your website from your tweets occasionally. If your tweet is interesting enough or gets some one curious enough to want to know more, they will click that web link!

There are also also plenty of great free online services and tools specifically designed for Twitter promotion, which turn your TWitter bus into a Twitter Rocket! Click here to read on…..

Article by Chris Bourke of Devision Design @ Web SEO Coach

Posted in social networking | No Comments »

Let Google pay your bills for you!

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to worry about your day-to-day bills you simply can’t avoid, such as electricity bills, groceries, phone bills etc….

Wouldn’t it be great if Google would put money in your bank account on a regular basis to put toward your next holiday, that something special you have been trying so hard to save for….

Imagine if Google would pay you money for doing almost nothing, which could cover all these bills to ease your financial pressures….

What if I told you this was all possible and you barely have to barely raise a sweat to earn it!

Now I know right now you are probably thinking this is starting to sound like a sales pitch to buy some incredibly expensive internet related package that you have no idea how to use.
Well, you are actually totally WRONG!!!

Ok..there may be some minor costs…around 0.30 cents a day – (No good investment is free!), and a little hard work on your behalf (we are talking a once-off in single digit hours)…

OK, starting to sound more interested?

I though so!

This easy money earner I am talking about is Google Adsense.

Google Adsense is a service provided by Google, which is totally free to join, allowing you to add their sponsored advertisements into any website, and when someone clicks on the banner ads you make money! Sounds very simple right? Well, it is!

The beauty of Google Adsense is that you can customize the colours, size, fonts and even select the target advertisements that reflect your own website, so they blend in perfectly to the surrounds of your website. As people are all ready on your website for a particular product or service, the advertisements generated will also reflect these, tempting people to click the advertisements.

Depending on how popular the product is and how much the advertiser is paying Google will depend on how much you get paid per click, and of course how many times the ads are clicked will determine your total income generated.

The best way to generate a good income from Google Adsense is to create a simple website that generates plenty of traffic, such as a small business or accommodation directory. (This is where the investment of the domain name and web hosting are required).

This doesn’t need to be a huge directory. In fact, the site only needs to be a single page, and keyworded correctly with the right content to obtain a good ranking on the search engines, and the visitors will flock to your website, with a very good chance that they will click on the Google Ads.

An even easier way, if you are familiar with Blogs, is to set up an interesting blog on a particular topic which attracts the interest of visitor traffic, and place the ads throughout your blog. A free service is Blogger, which allows you to easily create your own blog with no outlay of domain name or hosting costs. All it requires is for you to provide regular interesting content to your blog and as the readers start flocking to your blog, the Google Ads are clicked, and your income grows!

It really is that simple.

A word of advice…it will help greatly if you use the correct keywords throughout your blog, and have a general idea of how to promote your blog, such as using Twitter, Facebook and other blog directories. The more traffic you can push to your website the bigger the income you will make!

If you are planning on getting serious, search engine ranking and optimization software such as Web CEO will help to keep to find the best keywords, see your density of your website, and keep an eye on your competitors to help your overall performance skyrocket.

Good luck and start enjoying the freedom of extra money for doing nothing!
You gotta to love Google!!

For more information on setting up your own blog to generate income contact Devision Design – www.Devision.com.au

Author: Chris Bourke – Senior Designer and SEO Strategiest at Devision Design Australia @ Web SEO Coach

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Site Promotion | No Comments »

The importance of Keyword Density on search engines

Monday, January 11th, 2010

When it comes to ensuring success on the search engines there are many important ingredients that need to go into the development of your website.

Most people are familiar with ensuring your website is well keyworded, but many do not realise the importance of ‘keyword density‘.

Adding too many keywords can see your website blacklisted for spamming, while not having enough specific keywords may not be strong enough to get you a mention at all.

Often you will notice that the highest ranking websites under most general search terms are the larger directory-based websites, while the smaller individual business websites are often following.

One of the main reasons larger websites outrank sites this way is due to the Keyword Density.

Keyword Density is quite simple to master when you know how it works…
Basically Keyword Density is the density of the priority keywords throughout the entire website. So for instance if you only have a three page website, then to get a high density you would need to use the main priority keywords that you would like to be found in the search engines very heavily throughout those three pages. The problem with this is that if you use the keyword too much you could be blacklisted!

But using the same keywords throughout a website with more pages provides a higher keyword density without overly using those keywords on each page, and the beauty of a larger website is that you can also use additional priority keywords throughout the website as well, so you have a multitude of popular search phrases throughout the website.

Where I live here on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, the main business trade is holiday accommodation. Being a very competitive market it is obviously important to ensure the accommodation websites that make it to the top have the best keyword density.

Having built a large number of Sunshine Coast accommodation websites over the past years, it was always a challenge to ensure they outrank their competitors, but with a good basic knowledge of how to correctly use keywords and keyword density it becomes quite easy once you know the correct technique.

However, there are many Sunshine Coast accommodation websites lately that are integrating the booking systems of other websites into their website’s navigation, which in theory makes it easier for them to accept bookings online. However the negative reaction by the search engines from this is that they are immediately diluting their keyword density of their own website and substituting it with the linked keywords that are found on the other website that is now integrated into their navigation. This means that if the linked website contains unrelated keywords, such as other accommodation locations (for instance, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, etc) then their density for Sunshine Coast accommodation immediately drops greatly, sending them sliding backwards down the search engine rankings ladder. Even worse, if their are replacing their own navigation with links to pages from another website then the results can be catastrophic, as the most important content of most websites, from a search engine’s perspective, is found in the top area of your web pages.

To check your own keyword density of your website I recommend a software package called Web CEO. Web CEO software allows you to review your keyword density yourself (as well as your competitors!) and allows you to change your density live yourself very easily. It will also show you if any websites directly linked into your navigation are damaging your keyword density or search engine listings.
Check out the software online at http://www.webceo.com

Using some basic techniques and knowledge of Keyword Density can get your website to the top spots in the search engines!

For a free Keyword Density report of your own website (or your competitors!) visit http://www.devision.com.au

Author: Chris Bourke of Devision Design Australia – Developers of the best ranking Sunshine Coast accommodation websites!

Posted in Google SEO & PageRank, SEO, Website Development | Comments Off