Important SEO lessons

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SEO

This short extract from Traffic Ten will cover Search Engine Optimization, which is the
must know and apply way of driving traffic to your websites. If you don’t know how to do
SEO, forget about making money online 

What it is

SEO is search engine optimization.

Simply put, SEO is structuring your sites and links in the way that search engines such as
Google and Yahoo prefer.

Why is this important? Most people search for information online by first typing words
(known as keywords, or keyword phrases) into search engines like Google.

http://www.trafficten.com

© Justyna Bizdra & Lillea Woodlyns 2010. You cannot sell, give, swap, exchange or claim the credit for the
content in this book or any part thereof. You have personal rights only to this report.

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If you do a decent job with SEO, search engines will record your sites in their databases
under the right category, etc., making them easier for internet users to find.

As you probably know, people are more likely to click on a link to a site if it appears on
page 1 or 2 of their search results. This is part of the reason why good SEO can help to
increase traffic to your websites.

Keyword research (see the How to do it section of this module) and SEO are important
for ALL of the other modules in this guide. They are an essential foundation.

The advantage you have with the SEO information in this guide is that we keep things
simple, thanks to the advice of a SEO expert named Steve Ovens. Steve is a popular,
respected member of SFR.

Above is a screenshot of the top sites listed on page 1 of Google when Lillea searched for
the term SEO.

This shows that the creators of these sites have done a good job with SEO. In other
words, good SEO helped them to rank highly for the term SEO.


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How to do it

There are 3 steps:

Step 1: Keyword Research

This screenshot shows the keyword research results for the term 'keyword research'
using the best tool available (see the information under Tools. Useful Links. Plugins of
this section to learn more about this excellent time saving software).

Keyword research is so important that you should take a bit of extra time to
learn how to do it. Fortunately, the basics aren't hard to master.

By doing keyword research before creating any site or product or service, you can save
yourself a lot of trouble and time.

Why? Keyword research will tell you what people are looking for, in real time, when they
search the web. You'll learn what people want. You then use that information to your
advantage by providing information, products and services that can give people what
they are looking for.

You should, of course, offer something that makes your site or product or service stand
out in some way. But part of the point of this module is to help you avoid the mistake of
creating sites and products that almost no one is interested in.



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Example:

Let's say you would like to sell handmade jewellery.

When you do keyword research, you find out that handmade jewelry is a very
competitive term in the search engines. That means that there are other people selling
handmade jewelry, and lots of people looking for it, so this may be worth pursuing if you
can compete and have a shot at appearing on the first few pages of Google and other
popular search engines.

Your keyword research reveals that there are longtail keywords that you can compete
with more easily than you can for handmade jewelry (the videos in Tools. Useful Links.
Plugins in this module will teach you more about longtail keywords and how to find
them).

For example, you might find that you can compete more easily with 'handmade beaded
jewelry"

Also, to increase the chance that you'll make a sale, look for buying keywords that you
can use.

What are buying keywords?

They are keyword phrases that indicate that someone is looking to buy something, rather
than simply browsing for general or free information.

Examples of buying keywords

product names
author names
product name + review
author name + review
exact product model/make numbers
product name + geographic location



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Step 2: SEO Basics

Do all or most of the 5 following things to help the search engines index your sites
properly for the terms you want to rank for.

There's a lot more to good SEO than this, but according to Steve Ovens, this is the 20%
that can make 80% of the difference.

1. If possible buy a domain name that includes the keywords that you want
to target.

In the handmade jewelry example, that would be:

http://www.handmadejewelry.com

An exact match for your keywords is ideal, but often an exact match domain name isn't
available for a highly competitive term. Someone else likely already bought it.

Instead, you could buy something like:

http://www.besthandmadejewelry.com

or

http://www.handmadejewelrysource.com

As you can see, there is only one additional word before or after the main
keyword, handmade jewelry, in the domain names above. This is the ideal way to
do things if you can't get an exact match – just one extra word before or after the main
keyword.

OR you can use one of the good longtail keywords you found during your keyword
research. For this example, that could be:

http://www.handmadebeadedjewelry.com


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NOTE: Ideally you shouldn't have hyphens in the domain name you buy. If you do, then
only one at most. For example: http://www.handmade-jewelry.com.

Why? More than one hyphen is often seen as spammy. It's also harder for people to type
and remember. And avoid numbers in a domain name if you can.

If you already have a domain name that doesn't include keywords like this, don't worry,
just make sure that you use the other SEO tips below.

Also, avoid buying domain names that include trademarks such as company
names and product names!

You risk getting a notice from company or person who owns the trademark with a threat
of legal action against you unless you take the site down. James Schramko, and other
successful marketers, say that it isn't worth the risk!

2. Put the keywords in URLs.

WordPress makes this very easy to do. First you must change the permalink structure on
your site.
i) Login to your WordPress Dashboard
ii) Install Dean’s Permalink Migration free Wordpress plugin (see the note
below)
iii) Go to Settings and select Permalinks
iv) Select Custom Structure and type /%postname%/, like the screenshot
below shows
v) Save Changes

Important Note: if you already have some content on your website, we recommend
that before changing the permalink structure, you install Dean’s Permalink Migration free
Wordpress plugin to safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old
links to your website. Please note however, that some people reported problems with this
plugin. Test it first before you make changes on your websites.



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Now whenever you create a new page or post, you can edit the url to include your
keywords.

Note: by default WordPress will put whatever title you use for your page or post in the
url, so make sure that you edit it if necessary.

In the example below, Lillea edited the permalink to display seo-tips. If she didn't edit
the url, the url would be the full title of her post, Steve Ovens Awesome SEO Tips, which
isn't as good for SEO!

With this in mind, the urls in our handmade jewelry example would look like one of these
examples:

http://www.handmadejewelry.com/handmadebeadedjewelry


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http://www.besthandmadejewelry.com/handmadebeadedjewelry

http://www.handmadejewelrysource.com/handmadebeadedjewelry

Or, if you're creating a non-WordPress site, they would look something like this:

http://www.handmadejewelry.com/handmadebeadedjewelry.html

3. Use the keywords for any filenames

Rename any images, videos, etc. that you upload to your sites. You can name your
Image before uploading them, or change the names after you have uploaded them.
WordPress makes that easy to do.

This is what the url of an image in .jpg format might look like with our example:

http://www.handmadejewelry.com/images/handmadebeadedjewelry.jpg

4. Include the keywords in the title of pages and posts on your site.

WordPress automatically does this with the titles you type for your posts and pages, so
you don't have to do anything except remember to include your keywords. Below is what
the code looks like in HTML:

<title>Handmade Beaded Jewelry</title>

The code is what the search engines will see and record.

Human readers won't see the code, they'll see this:

Handmade Beaded Jewelry



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5. Use the keywords in the anchor text of any links you use to bring traffic
to your sites (we cover this in other modules of this guide).

Here is what the HTML code looks like in an anchor text link:

<ahref="http://www.besthandmadejewelry.com/handmadebeadedjewelry.html">handma
de beaded jewelry</a>

That is what the search engines will see and record.

Human readers won't see the code, they'll see this:

handmade beaded jewelry

Step 3: Monitor your progress

Use the tools and techniques mentioned in the Introduction of Traffic Ten.

Valuable tips

 Putting keywords once or twice on a page or in an article can also help with SEO
even though it won't be linked or have any HTML tags around it.

 You can have more flexibility with titles, etc. if you enhance the SEO on WordPress
sites by using a special free plugin listed in the Tools. Useful Links. Plugins.
section of this module.

 A well-structured WordPress blog that has a good SEO theme can help boost SEO.
See Tools. Useful Links. Plugins in this module for a list of good SEO
WordPress themes.



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 Write articles and create content for people. Don't stuff your pages with keywords
and links - that is spammy and the search engines will not reward you for it!

Tools. Useful Links. Plugins.

1. Tools

Best Keyword Research Tool

Google Adwords has a free keyword research tool, but for better filtering and greater
analysis power, we recommend that you use Market Samurai

Market Samurai runs on PCs and Macs. It will do more than keyword research, but the
keyword research part of the software is always FREE. To access the other modules
in Market Samurai you simply pay a reasonable one-time fee. You can try before you buy,
but, we repeat, the basic keyword research module is always free!



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To learn how to do keyword research properly, watch the excellent video tutorials
here:

http://www.noblesamurai.com/dojo/marketsamurai/7284-introduction-to-keyword-
research,

Best Premium SEO WordPress Themes

We recommend that you invest in the Developer's license/version for these themes so
you can use them on multiple sites.

Thesis is the top choice of many elite marketers. It's highly customizable, but there is a
bit of a learning curve. You can build, however, all types of websites using this theme.

Don't want to create the site yourself? Use the excellent service below to get a
custom site that will be SEO'd to the max. Prices are below industry standard, yet the
quality is higher!

http://www.custombusinesswebsitedesign.com/



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2. Plugins

Free WordPress plugins to enhance SEO

Note: you don't need to use these plugins if you have the premium WordPress themes
listed above.

 Platinum SEO Plugin is an easy to use favorite of many top marketers

 All in One SEO Pack is another easy to use favorite

 Headspace is a great choice for advanced users who need more options than
Platinum SEO and All in One SEO Pack offer

 SEO Friendly Images optimizes any images you use on your WordPress sites

Want more?

The information you have just read is just a small introduction to the topic of successfully
driving traffic to your websites.

To discover how to take full advantage of RSS, Video Marketing, Blog Commenting, Audio
and Article Marketing, Press Releases, Forums, Social Media and Social Bookmarking take
a look at Traffic Ten!



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You will be amazed how much you and your online business will benefit from it!

What others say about Traffic Ten:

“Lillea and Justyna have put together a nice and easy guide for getting traffic to your
website – well done”

James Schramko
Internetmarketingspeed.com



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You can keep up to date with what we are doing by following us on Twitter and reading
our blogs 

Lillea Woodlyns’ Blog and Twitter

Justyna Bizdra’s Blog and Twitter

Big Thanks to Martyna Bizdra for making the e-book cover!



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