What would happen if…?  I’m a person to always ask that question.  I love testing and tracking to see what factors can improve or worsen a situation.  So, it was only natural for me to track the moves of a little experiment I did involving SEO copywriting recently.  I’ll gladly share my findings with you.

Before I do, however, I want to make a couple of things very clear.  The outcome of this experiment will not be the same for every keyphrase on every page of every site.  There are too many unknown factors at play in the overall SEO equation.  Not to mention, all keyphrases are not the same, and all sites are not the same.  In addition, this experiment takes no account of link popularity, which is a huge factor in achieving high rankings.  With that said, let me show you how I took the home page of one of my sites – that didn’t even rank in the top 50 – and caused it to rank in the top 10.

First of all, I’m not a big fan of checking rankings on a regular basis.  I don’t run ranking reports for all my sites to be sure they are all in the positions I want them in for every given keyphrase.  I’ll do it from time to time just to satisfy my own occasional curiosity.  This experiment began when I noticed the home page of one of my sites was ranking highly for a keyphrase that didn’t seem to appear anywhere in the text.  Upon further investigation, I saw that the keyphrase was included in the ALT tags (a.k.a. image attribute tags) and that it was also included in the title tag.

I knew ALT tags previously carried a lot of weight with the engines, but had been downgraded in importance because site owners had badly abused the tag.  Had ALT tags been reinstated in their level of importance?  I decided to find out.

Keyword #1 was currently in the ALT tags and the title tag, so I decided to eliminate the keyword in the title tag.  This would let me see if the ALT tags alone could hold the position in the search engine results pages (SERPs).  To make things more interesting, I also decided to research and find a keyword that was a little more competitive and insert it into the title tag.  On the same day I removed Keyword #1 from the title tag, I inserted Keyword #2.  My home page was not ranked in the top 50 at that time for Keyword #2.

A few days later, the Googlebot came by and boosted my home page to position #18 for Keyword #2.  Not bad!  The page fell one spot (from #17 to #18) for Keyword #1 since the removal of the phrase from the title tag.

Keep in mind, these are not the most competitive keywords ever known.  They each got between 100 to 200 searches a day.  Also, the home page of this particular site had been (and still is) well ranked for years for other keyphrases and had a positive legacy with Google.

Five days later, Keyword #2 was moved up three notches to a ranking of #14 while Keyword #1 stayed the same.  Things remained in their status quo for roughly 10 days and then began to shift again.  Keyword #1, the original that was previously in both the ALT tags and the title tag, vanished completely.  It was not found in the top 50.  Keyword #2, that was only found in the title tag and nowhere else, dropped to position #25.

Four days later, Keyword #2 was back up in the rankings and was now at #16. To see if I could improve rankings further, I began to make small tweaks to the page attributes.  I added Keyword #2 to the ALT tags (taking the places where Keyword #1 had once been), and I also added Keyword #2 to the body copy.   The keyphrase was added to one, bold sub-headline and at three places within the body copy: none of which were above the fold.  It was not added to any primary headlines that used <H> tags, and no keyword density formula was followed for the body copy.  No other pages on my site used this term as anchor text in links pointing to the home page.  That gave the page keyword placement in the:

·    Title tag

·    ALT tags

·    Body copy

Seven days later, the home page hit the top 10 for Keyword #2!

So, what does all this mean?  Simple.  There is no single primary factor in search engine rankings.  It takes balance, testing and tracking to find out what works for your particular pages.  Your best bet is to do exactly what I did… begin one step at a time and track your progress.  Did something cause a positive movement?  Keep it.  If something causes a negative shift, take it out.

I’m not finished with this page yet.  I’ll keep trying different things from time to time just to see what happens.  Maybe I’ll add anchor text links from the internal pages to the home page.  I might try writing articles with keyword-rich anchor text links to help boost the rankings more.  There are many acceptable practices I can implement for this page (or any page) that will allow me to observe the shifts in ranking.  As the old saying goes, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”  A diversified approach to SEO copywriting that includes tags, copy and links is always a wise start down the road to top 10 rankings.

Rumor has it that press releases are the next big thing in the SEO business, and many companies are spending top dollars trying to write the next big press release announcing the next big balloon breaking technology. But is this really the next big thing?

By definition, a Press Release is a kind of news item released by the company on whom the news is being reported. As such, you will have to compete with all the other press releases and hope that your will get picked up.

Why Will Your Press Release Be Trashed?
1) Unless you are writing a press release about Microsoft, Adobe, Sony or one of the other mega-companies, or at least about a company that is relatively well known, forget about it. Journalists and news editors receive thousands of press releases a day and there is no way that they will waste more than a quick glance. So why should you pay a company seven to eight hundred dollars for them sending your press release to thousands of editors and journalists when they are going to junk it anyway?

2) Unless you are announcing a truly revolutionary product or technology (which I assume you are not since you are only interested in using the professionally paid and written press release to boost your search engine rankings), whatever you make up or announce such as some new free deal or new portal offering something unique, your chances of being picked up are very slim. Yes, the PR companies will tell you that they have vast experience in writing Press Releases that will make yours stand out and get picked up but this is not accurate. The only way your PR is going to get picked up is if it truly is something out of the ordinary or something that no one has ever thought off.

3) Unless you plan to spend millions of dollars and then just by sheer volume your site will go ahead in the search engines, this is not a good option. Why? If you send a large number of press releases then these will be placed on the different PR companies websites main page. Since most of these home pages have a very high page rank, your site will get a boost. The question is whether this boost is worth the large amount of money you will put into the PR companies pocket. No it is not. Use that money to buy (though I do not recommend this) links from high-ranked websites and you will pay less and receive more benefit.

4) Any press release, even if it has been accepted, will remain on the different pages for just a short time, making the time and effort and even more so the amount of money you paid fruitless.

Conclusion:
A press release is useful if you wish to contact the press and maybe get some free publicity, but it is of no use if you wish to use it as a tool in order to advance your website in the search engines.

The search engines play a major part in online marketing. SEO (search engine optimization) services are provided by marketing companies to help you gain targeted traffic through Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and other major or minor search engines. But are SEO services good or bad for your business? Should you use a marketing company’s SEO services or try to “woo” the search engines into picking you as a leader and an authoritative company all on your own? Here are some things to consider.

SEO Services can be Valuable

Unfortunately as a business owner, you usually are torn between two important aspects of your business – promotion and operation. You’ve probably heard this phrase many times… “You are too busy working in your business to work on your business.” This statement still holds true with Internet business. Whether you are offering services to a small group of clients, have a giant corporation, or own an online retail store, you face the same dilemma.

Using another company’s SEO services can benefit you in several ways. One, it frees your time for other important matters. Two, you are able to receive help from someone who spends all their time analyzing and testing the search engines for results. They already know what it could take you years to learn! Three, you can save time and money for other types of promotions if you’re not spending all your time trying to race your competitors to the top of the listings.

Things to Look for in SEO Services and an SEO Firm

SEO services can include many different types of services such as keyword density help for all your web pages, search engine submission, search engine optimization to target certain areas of the world or your country or state, and/or content writing services. For example, the company may offer UK search engine optimisation if your market generally lives in the U.K. They might write keyword-rich articles for you or provide you with a steady list of new keywords you can add to your site pages to make your site more search engine friendly.

Choose an SEO service that provides the most value for your money. Be sure they have experience in SEO rankings and can provide you with a valid list of company references that you can contact if needed. Check with the Better Business Bureau online to be sure the company doesn’t have excessive customer complaints.

Also, choose a company that offers proof that their system has worked in the past. There are no guarantees that any system will work every time, but having proof of past successes will give you peace of mind that the company really knows its stuff. Talk with the SEO consultant to find out how they plan to improve your search engine rankings ahead of time. Ask them to explain the process to you.

Beware of Scams

If an SEO company makes amazing promises such as those promising to get your site listed at the top of Google under your major keyword within 30 days for only $19.95, this should be a red flag. This promise is unrealistic, especially if your business is brand new. Also, the company cannot actually “guarantee” a top listing. They can only guarantee that your site will get listed under some of your major keywords. You might attract traffic under hundreds of keywords after using legitimate SEO services.

The one thing to remember about SEO services is that it must be an ongoing process. Don’t expect any SEO firm to work miracles overnight. They must analyze your business, study your market, find suitable keywords for your business, and begin a series of changes to optimize your site for the best possible results.

Effective SEO strategies require a lot of effort and time. Although in the search engines market exist very advanced tools that cost a lot, there are many free SEO tools which can help the novice and advanced SEO marketer to save valuable time.
Here is a list of free and proven for their effectiveness SEO online instruments:

1) http://www.alexaranking.com . It displays multiple domains instead of one. Therefore, you can have instant traffic results from Alexa Rankings instead of typing and search each time separately.

2) http://www.xml-sitemaps.com . Sitemaps are extremely important for websites because they help search engines crawl and index them. This is a free xml sitemap generator.

3) http://www.123promotion.co.uk/directorymanager . You can track your submissions to various web directories and you can also visit regularly to see new directories added to the list. You just tick the appropriate submission boxes when you submitted your website. It’s very easy to use it.

4) http://www.123promotion.co.uk/ppc/index.php. This is a very powerful tool. It displays, based on the Overture and Wordtracker keyword search tools, similar data, including search figures from the previous month. It also adds statistics for average searches per hour, day, week, projected figures for the next 12 months and then also a figure to see how searches may look in 3 years from now.

5) http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density . This keyword density tool is useful for helping webmasters/SEO’s achieve their optimum keyword density for a set of key terms/keywords. This tool will analyze your chosen URL and return a table of keyword density values for one, two, or three word key terms.

6) http://www.mcdar.net/KeywordTool/keyWait.asp . This is another Excellent Resource. When you enter the appropriate URL and keyword, it will display Pagerank and Back links pages for the Top 10 websites.

7) http://www.123promotion.co.uk/tools/robotstxtgenerator.php . You can create a free robots.txt file with this resource. So, you will be able to direct the search engines to follow the pages structure of your website and also direct the search engines not to follow and crawl specific web pages of your website you don’t want to be crawled.

All you have to do is filling the fields and when the robots.txt file is created you upload it to your root of your web server.

http://www.nichebot.com . This website displays keyword data using Wordtracker and Google search results. You just enter the keyword and press the button.

9) http://www.webconfs.com/domain-stats.php . You Enter the domain and get: domain age, number of pages indexed, and number of backlinks. The statistics include Alexa Taffic Rank, Age of the domains, Yahoo WebRank, Dmoz listings, count of backlinks and number of pages indexed in Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Msn etc.

It will help you figure out why some of your competitors are ranking better than you.

10) http://comparesearchengines.dogpile.com . Shows top results from 3 search engines. This tool helps you get all kind of statistics of your competitor’s domains.

11) http://www.marketleap.com/verify/default.htm . This verification tool checks to see if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword. You enter your URL/Keyword and it displays top 30 for 11 Search Engines.

12) http://www.related-pages.com/adWordsKeywords.aspx. This tool generates a list of possible keyword combinations based on lists of keywords that you provide.

You enter a list of terms, one per line or separated by commas. This is very effective for Google Adwords and Overture.