Ways to cut back your time spend on SEO and increase natural search performance
SEO is very critical to attract quality web traffic and it also needs time to implement the correct strategies for increasing natural search performance. It is important to use the white hat techniques so as to rank well in search engines. If you are looking for the ways to speed up your SEO process in a way you follow SEO rules as well. In this article it is discussed about ways that will save your time spend in SEO and will help you in increasing natural search performance.
Let’s look at effective internet marketing tactics to improve your business and speed up the SEO process:
- Get the ideas for keywords from your internal search data: When people search inside your website using your search bar (present in your website), then it shows that, they are doing so as they are not able to get the content immediately they are looking for. By tracking these searches, you will get fresh new keywords that you know your customers are already interested in. Now building the content around these keywords will pay you off automatically both in terms of SEO and will satisfy both search engines and visitors.
- Find suggestions for keywords using Google Adwords Keyword Planner: Since most of Google Analytics has turned into not provided, you have to get a bit clever when it comes to get the information about keyword from search giant. Here are the steps to find keywords using Google Adwords Keyword Planner:
- Sign into Google Adwords Keyword Planner
- Select the option “ search for keyword and ad group ideas”
- Enter the URL of your website into “your Landing Page” field.
- Choose the targeting option to your country
- Run your search
The keyword ideas tab will provide you a series of phrases that Google believes to be related to your website.
- Add Google Authorship code to the header of your site: There are various ways to set up and claim authorship. For instance, if you have a WordPress site, then do not worry about plugins or email confirmations. Instead use the following code into the header.php file of your website.
"<link rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/+guneetsinghseo-expert/posts" />"
Doing so, ensures that your profile code is propagated to all pages of your site, which Google can find it easily and give you the credit for your efforts.
- Submitting all domains to disavow Links tool: When this tool came, SEO’s were very cautious about submitting only individual links. It was right to be cautious at that time so as to know exactly what impact the tool would have on the performance of the site. If the tool devalued any links submitted immediately, and then would have a widespread impact- taking down both good and bad links. If in the analysis of back links of your site inbound links leads to few negative issues, then don’t worry about being selective in request for disavowal. Submitting all domains is a good SEO practice and helps you to save time.
- Use Google tag Manager and combine JavaScript tags with it: Twitter, Google Analytics and Google+ are the few sites that request you to install JavaScript code on your website so as to power up the functionalities. But unfortunately these snippets that you install slow down your site’s speed and we all know that the slow sites are bad for SEO. To save the time required to fire the each snippet individually, use Google’s Tag Manager Tool. You just have to enter the code pieces into tools tag generator, this will provide you with a site wide tag that will fire each JavaScript file as per the rules you specify. This tag helps in increasing the site’s speed.
Summary: Aforesaid are some of the simple and effective ways to speed up your SEO process and get the natural rankings in search engines.
6 Steps for Getting Your Small Business Online and In Front of Customers
Are you a startup taking your rst steps into the online space? Do you have a small business that’s been operating without a website? Or do you have a website that isn’t driving the sales you want?
Then this is for you. We’ll take you through the basics of getting online and in front of customers with a site that will:
- Help customers, prospects and potential employees and partners nd your business
- Provide clear information about your products and services
- Persuade people to do business with you
- Generate sales
Step 1 – Naming the Baby: Choosing & Registering Your Domain Name
You’ve conceived and developed your business idea and committed the time and resources to start making it a reality. Now it’s time to give your business its online name – a name that will be spoken, linked to, searched for, printed and displayed in a variety of ways throughout the life of your business. Choose wisely.
Make Your Domain Simple and Memorable Keeping your domain name simple will help people remember it and make it easier to nd.
- Try for your exact business name or a shortened variation.
- Make sure it’s easy to spell, but also register a few potential misspellings (for example, www.gogle.com or www.amizon.com).
Take Advantage of Longer Registrations
Register your domain name for 2, 5 or even 10 years.
- Longer registrations usually mean better pricing.
- Save yourself the headache of dealing with an expired domain every year.
- Expired domains are eventually re-opened to the public for purchase – don’t lose your name!
Step 2 – Creating the Experience: Writing & Building Your Website
So now you have a domain name, but what will people find when they visit it? Creating a clear, user-friendly website sounds easy, but it takes planning. Make sure your goals for the site are clear as you begin writing your content and creating the design.
Decide What Type of Site You Need
- Informational: Do you want a website that simply allows customers to nd you and learn more about your business? If so, all you’ll need is a few web pages with content and graphics.
- Ecommerce: Do you want people to be able to purchase from your website? You’ll need content that drives people toward a shopping cart function.
Decide What Extras You Want
There are several general pages that most websites include (see common website pages, right), but do you want any extras?
- Blog
- Event Calendar
- Support Info
Common Website Pages
Informational
• Home page – the main entryway to your website
• Services page – what are you selling or o ering?
• About page – who are you?
• Contact page – how do customers reach you?
Ecommerce
• Home page – the main entryway to your website
• Product page – what are you selling?
• Consider adding multiple pages per product or an overview page if you have more than 10
• Reviews/testimonials page – what do people say about your products?
• About page – who are you?
• Contact page – how do customers reach you?
Step 3 – Getting Found: Making Your Site Google-Friendly
No matter how much time you spend creating a beautiful, functional website, it’s of no value if it can’t be found. Search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo! act like customized online directories, pointing the user to
websites matching the terms the users used in their search.
How Google and Other Search Engines
Work Using software robots called spiders, search engines “crawl” through websites to analyze content and determine what the site is about and how valuable its information is. Among other things, the spiders note:
- What keywords are used within the web pages and where – see Choosing Your Keywords for more information
- What other sites link to the website – links to your site from reputable or well-established websites can help improve your ranking
- How recently the site’s content has been updated –spiders like content to be fresh and constantly updated
Submitting to Search Engines
First things, first. To get your website on the list you have to tell the search engines that it’s there. You can do this yourself, or use a search engine submission service. Submission services will take care of submitting your site to each major search engine and can also provide you with reports, tips for increasing search engine rankings, and a keyword suggestion tool.
Choosing Your Keywords
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are words used within the content of your site that help search engines identify what the site is about. They usually relate to your industry, your products and services, your location and anything else a customer might search for when trying to nd a business like yours.
Identifying Keywords
Google o ers a free keyword tool at www.google.com/adwords where you can enter words related to your company to see how often they’re searched.
- Create a list of often-searched terms and work them into your website content where you can (these are called “short-tail search terms”).
- Then, create a list of more specific terms or phrases related to your company and work them in as well (these less-searched, but more specific terms are called “long-tail search terms”).
Step 4 – Engaging in the Conversation: Building Your Community with Social Media Your site is up and running, you’re creating content, you’re marketing online to your customers – do you REALLY need to spend time on social media? Yes. The reality of today’s culture is that whether you choose to participate in social media or not, customers and prospects WILL talk about you online. Being part of the conversation gives you the opportunity to change perceptions, create loyalty and win sales.
Monitoring the Conversation
Before you begin posting on social media, it’s vital that you have tools in place to monitor what’s being said about your business.
- Positive feedback helps you identify which products and services your customers value.
- Negative feedback can be key in identifying areas that need improvement.
- In addition, customers often post customer service complaints online – monitoring social media for mentions of your company gives you an opportunity to respond to these and resolve situations you might not know about otherwise.
To set up a monitoring program:
- Sign up for a social media monitoring tool, such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or one of the other available online.
- To get started, just enter the terms you want to monitor on Twitter and Facebook, making sure to include your company name, industry key words, competitor names, etc.
- The monitoring service will then send you noti cations anytime those terms are used.
Which Social Media Platforms Should I Use?
Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters, so most businesses use Twitter for sharing links to company news and announcements, “retweeting” (sharing) other announcements from the industry, responding to customer mentions and support questions.
Facebook has good tools in place for running contests, posting photos or videos and writing longer posts.
LinkedIn is great for connecting with other businesses, joining educational groups related to your industry and posting job openings.
FourSquare is good for restaurants, stores, and other businesses with physical locations. Customers can “check in” on FourSquare to tell their friends/followers where they are at the moment. You can create a FourSquare profile for your business so anyone seeing that check in can learn more about you. Some businesses also o er customers rewards for
having the most check-ins, etc.
Whichever platorm you choose, be sure to add buttons on your website encouraging people to follow you, like you, or connect with you. You can download these free from AddThis.com.
Strategize Before Clicking ‘Post’
Now that you’re monitoring conversations about your business and industry, you can consider what type of information you want to post on your social media accounts. Unlike direct marketing, social media is a two-way conversation between you and your customers/prospects about your brand. While on the surface social media platforms can seem informal, remember that you are representing your business brand, so post carefully.
- What to Post: Social media is a very ‘in the moment’ platform. Write content that is timely and current. Make posts about new product launches and important company news but also current events outside your company.
- Just Say Hello: Let conversations happen – if you post something and someone responds, feel free to respond back. Not only is it polite, you are building connections with your readers.
- Responding to Problems: For better or for worse, these days businesses are expected to provide support and assistance through their social media platforms. Be sure you have a plan in place to address customers who bring support concerns to you – do not ignore them and do not delete them, except in the instance of profanity or other blatant abuse.
- When to Post: The timing is all up to you. A good rule of thumb is to be consistent, so if you post once a day, try to maintain that momentum. No one wants to interact with a stagnant brand.
Other Quick Tips for Promoting Your Site Through Social Media
- Announce a referral program. Provide prizes and /or discounts for customers who mentioned they were referred through social media.
- Create a brand ambassador program. Get your customers promoting your brand for you.
- Provide incentives for customers who post reviews via social media.
- Create a loyalty program. Hold special promotions for customers based on their buying habits and referral frequency.
- Reward your followers. Offer special promotion codes, discounts or other rewards only available to your fans and followers.
Step 5 – Taking It to the Next Level: Engaging with Your Community
Now you have your site up and running and are ready to begin driving people to it. Because of the way search engines find information (see How Google and Other Search Engines Work on page 14), the more updated, relevant content you have on your site, the more your site will show up in search results.
Share Ideas & News with a Blog
Blogging is an informal and personal way to attract visitors to your website and promote your industry expertise.
- Set up a blog using an online blogging service, such as Blogger, Joomla, or WordPress. Add a link to your blog on your homepage. You also have the options of “mapping” the blog to your website so it appears as a part of your site — ask your blogging service provider about how to do this and whether there’s an extra charge.
- Assign time for yourself to create posts about product features, business news and commentary on what’s happening in your industry.
- Sort your posts by category, so visitors can easily find the topics that interest them the most.
Bring the Content to Your Audience with a Newsletter
As you add customers, collect their email addresses so you can drive tra c back to your website with a monthly email newsletter. As your newsletter list grows, so will your ability to attract new visitors—just remember that the goal is always to include links to your web pages within your content to drive leads and sales on your site.
Newsletters can highlight:
- New products/services
- Interesting industry news
- Educational tips for your customers
- Sales and special promotions
- Change in hours of location
- Custom testimonials or success stories
- Survey or request for feedback
Step 6 – Trying New Things: Analyzing & Improving Your Website
You have your domain name, you’ve established your web presence, your social media is up and running, and you’re seeing traffic – now what? Find out what you’re doing right and what you can do better by using a statistics and analytics package to identify, track and help you learn more about who is visiting your website.
Identify the Source
Using your statistics and/or analytics software to figure out where your visitors are coming from can give you a good idea of which marketing e orts are working:
- Direct entry (they typed your domain name into their browser address bar)
- Inbound links (clicking a link to your website from another website)
- Search results (finding your website via a search engine)
Make Improvements
Analytics can tell you a great deal about features and pages of your site that are and aren’t working.
- Find out which pages are the most common “exit points.” If a large number of visitors consistently leave your site when they reach a certain page, examine the content – Is there a clear call to action? Why might visitors be leaving?
- Where are the most common “entry points”? See where the traffic to those pages is coming from, and make sure the pages’ content makes sense to someone entering your site at that page.
Conclusion
While the setup phase will probably be the most consecutive time you spend on your website, the reality is that your site will never be “finished.” Maintaining and updating the content will be necessary as long as your company exists. But your site will also be one of your most cost-e ective sales tools and the rst touchpoint for many customers. So make time to make it good – it’s your company’s home base and face to the world. Good luck!
Install eAccelerator on FreeBSD – High Performance PHP
eAccelerator is a PHP caching system, it caches frequently used portions of PHP files to RAM to increase performance. This is especially great on high traffic websites such as forums. Performance gains of up to 1000% have been seen with eAccelerator. The following tutorial is how to install eAccelerator on FreeBSD using ports.
Using ports, compile and install:
cd /usr/ports/www/eaccelerator
make install clean
Make modifications to php.ini:
If you are using Zend:
vi /usr/local/Zend/etc/php.ini (this is the default location)
Add the following:
zend_extension="/usr/local/lib/php/20020429/eaccelerator.so"
eaccelerator.shm_size="32"
eaccelerator.cache_dir="/tmp/eaccelerator"
eaccelerator.enable="1"
eaccelerator.optimizer="1"
eaccelerator.check_mtime="1"
eaccelerator.debug="0"
eaccelerator.filter=""
eaccelerator.shm_max="0"
eaccelerator.shm_ttl="0"
eaccelerator.shm_prune_period="0"
eaccelerator.shm_only="0"
eaccelerator.compress="1"
Comment out the following lines:
zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-2.5.7
zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-2.5.7
If you are not using Zend optimiser the add the following to your php.ini:
extension="eaccelerator.so"
eaccelerator.shm_size="16"
eaccelerator.cache_dir="/tmp/eaccelerator"
eaccelerator.enable="1"
eaccelerator.optimizer="1"
eaccelerator.check_mtime="1"
eaccelerator.debug="0"
eaccelerator.filter=""
eaccelerator.shm_max="0"
eaccelerator.shm_ttl="0"
eaccelerator.shm_prune_period="0"
eaccelerator.shm_only="0"
eaccelerator.compress="1"
eaccelerator.compress_level="9"
Create the caching directory:
mkdir /tmp/eaccelerator
chmod 0777 /tmp/eaccelerator
look inside /tmp/eaccelerator/ to see if the cache files were created.
PHP MySQL injection
Here is an example of how an SQL injection that was found, monitored, and fixed!
When dealing with a large website with legacy code sometimes it's not possible to check every query after one starts.
One day while reviewing a new clients slow quries via MySQL. I started to notice these types of quries showing up.
# [email protected]: test_db[test_db] @ db.domain.com [12.13.14.15]
# Query_time: 0 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 1 Rows_examined: 48648
select * from serv_main where id = 71261 and 3=8 union select 1,2,3,concat(0x232425,ifnull(`idClient`,0x4E554C4C),char(9),ifnull(`username`,0x4E554C4C),char(9),ifnull(`pass`,0x4E554C4C),char(9),0x252423),5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 from `test_db`.`private` where idClient>2119021 limit 16215,1 --;
# [email protected]: test_db[test_db] @ db.domain.com [12.13.14.15]
# Query_time: 1 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 1 Rows_examined: 48654
select * from serv_main where id = 71261 and 3=8 union select 1,2,3,concat(0x232425,ifnull(`idClient`,0x4E554C4C),char(9),ifnull(`username`,0x4E554C4C),char(9),ifnull(`pass`,0x4E554C4C),char(9),0x252423),5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 from `test_db`.`private` where idClient>2119021 limit 16217,1 --;
Knowing the table serv_main I knew the developer that wrote that code did not use a UNION.
After a few moments of thinking what was going on I tailed Apaches access log and confirmed what I thought.
120.2.194.136 - - [1/Jan/2010:10:08:40 -0500] "GET /viewAd.php?id=71261%20and%203%3D8%20union%20select%201,2,3,concat%280x232425,ifnull%28%60idClient%60,0x4E554C4C%29,char%289%29,ifnull%28%60username%60,0x4E554C4C%29,char%289%29,ifnull%28%60pass%60,0x4E554C4C%29,char%289%29,0x252423%29,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16%20from%20%60test_db%60.%60private%60%20where%20idClient%3E2119021%20limit%2034642,1%20-- HTTP/1.1" 200 1093 "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20091221 Firefox/3.5.7 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)"
It was an SQL Injection attack. so I did the next logical step (to me at least). Block the offender.
I did this by adding his IP to the .htaccess file along with a bigger subnet block.
Order allow,deny
deny from 120.2.194.136
deny from 120.2.194.
allow from all
Now that the Injections had stopped, the next step was to figure out where it was done, how it was done, and how to fix it.
WHERE was it done)
That was easy to find, it's right there in the access log viewAd.php
How was it done)
$sql = "select * from serv_main where id = " . $_GET['id'];
$result = mysql_query($sql);
Fix)
That was the easy part, and the hard part.
The EASY part was just to just use mysql_real_escape_string.
we have 2 quick options here.
Option 1.
$_GET['id'] = (int) $_GET['id']; //cat whatever is passed into id as an integer.
Option 2.
$sql = "select * from serv_main where id = " . mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']); //escape user input
$result = mysql_query($sql);
The HARD part, fix the whole site...
Not having time to check 1000's of quries, here was what I did in a 30 mintue span.
1) include a function somewhere in a global include that can clean all input (or cast all input)
a good place was in our db_include.php file.
function sanitize_user_input(&$input) {
$int_keys = array ('id', 'item', 'item_id' );
foreach ( $int_keys as $key ) {
if ( isset($input[$key]) ) {
if ( !empty($input[$key]) && !is_numeric($input[$key]) )
$input[$key] = (int) $input[$key];
}
}
}
if (isset($_GET)) sanitize_user_input($_GET);
The hard part was easier than I thought.
But the truly hard part started, going though the 1000's of queries to fix them.
Some interesting points and notes.
#http://www.asciitable.com/
# 0x232425 = #$%
# 0x252423 = %$#
# 0x4E554C4C = NULL
# 0x4E554C4C = NULL
# CHAR(9) = Tab
# CHAR(10) = Line feed
# CHAR(13) = Carriage return
select concat(0x232425,
ifnull(`idClient`,0x4E554C4C),
char(9),
ifnull(`username`,0x4E554C4C),
char(9),
ifnull(`pass`,0x4E554C4C),
char(9),
0x252423)
Online wedding planner
http://ultimateweddingplanner.ca/ that's the new site I've been working on... it's a free online wedding planner software, wedding planning, guests, seating advice, etiquette, budget, vendors, timetable, invitations.
If it helps anyone, it would have been worth the time doing a wedding planner.
SEO Traffic tip #8
Try this page titles experiment.
Here's a good way increase your traffic.
Go to Google and type any phrase into the search box. Look at the titles of the websites in the top 10 rankings.
Which ones catch your eye and tempt you to click on the link? Some are dreadfully stodgy, boring. Some are merely a long list of keywords. Some are good. Some are junk.
Good titles are written for search engines AND humans.
Now look at the titles on your site. Start with your most important pages. Rewrite them to make them more eye-catching.
Now go to Google and do a search of your site like this...
site:example.com
Study the page titles. If you own a large site created over many years, you may be horribly embarrassed at just how BAD some of your page titles are.
Do you want to find some examples of good titles? Simply go to Google and do some more searches. Don't stick to your industry.
Type in all sorts of different phrases and study the titles that appear in the top 10.
You'll soon be brimming with ideas on ways you can improve your page titles.
Checking how enticing the information is in your meta description tag can help, too. Some search engines display this information in their search results.
If you have a well established site, you may have written many of your page titles and meta descriptions years ago when you knew less about marketing than you do now. If so, it's time for another look at them.
Copyright 2006 Allan Gardyne Pty Ltd ATF Allan Gardyne Trust
SEO Traffic tip #7
Do REALLY SERIOUS keyword research.
If you want to get LOTS of traffic from search engines, you need to find out the exact phrases which people are typing into search engines.
There are free tools available for this, but they're not nearly as useful as the more comprehensive paid tools.
For example, if you're using the Overture keyword tool for your research, be warned, its results can't be trusted.
As my Special Projects Manager, Jay Stockwell, likes to point out, the Overture tool shows you the SAME number of searches for all these searches:
bikini girls
girls bikini
bikini girl
girl bikini
bikinis girl
girl bikinis
This is obviously nonsense.
The Overture tool is useful to give you a quick rough guide, but NOT for serious research.
Here's a good tip from "Charlie" on our affiliate forum:
"The harder it is to discover a certain search phrase (getting traffic), the less competition you will have in the SERPs (for that search phrase). If a keyword research tool is free and popular, how many competitors will you have for the phrases you discover there?"
Jay has spent hundreds of hours researching and analyzing keyword research tools. He's built the best site on the Internet reviewing keyword research tools - KeywordWorkshop.com.
You need to visit Jay's site whether you're using search engine optimization (organic SEO) or pay-per-click advertising.
Copyright 2006 Allan Gardyne Pty Ltd ATF Allan Gardyne Trust
SEO Traffic tip #6
Use appropriate keywords in your image file names.
One of my websites gets hundreds of visits a month from people who are searching for images. I'm not sure how valuable those visitors are, but I didn't have to do anything very special to get them.
Google Images - http://images.google.com - makes it easy for people to search for graphics online.
To take advantage of this, when choosing the file name of an image on your site, use an appropriate key phrase, for example, "book-ends.jpg" if you're promoting book ends.
Here's a tip I just discovered...
When I searched in Google Images for "book ends" I discovered that the very first search result was for a page which did NOT contain a graphic of book ends!
Instead, the page contained a "book ends" LINK to a book ends graphic on a second page. It if suits the design of your site, you may want to experiment with this technique.
I'm not sure how much use traffic to images is, but if it's ADDITIONAL traffic you can get simply by choosing image file names carefully, it's worth having.
Copyright 2006 Allan Gardyne Pty Ltd ATF Allan Gardyne Trust
SEO Traffic Tip #5
Make your domain name easy to read - especially if it's a .NET
Which of the following is easier to read and understand?
www.associateprograms.com or www.AssociatePrograms.com
See how using a capital letter at the start of each word makes the second domain name easier to read - and easier to remember.
Whenever you mention your domain name anywhere, ALWAYS present it in its most readable form. A good place to start doing this is in your email signature file.
If you're unfortunate enough to have bought the ".net" version of a domain name because someone raced you to the ".com", help people to remember your site by writing it like this...
Example.NET
Being MEMORABLE helps you get more repeat visitors.
SEO Traffic Tip #4
strong>Buy the wrong domain name, too.
If you think people may confuse your domain name with a similar name, try to buy that name, too.
I noticed that sometimes when newsletters mentioned AssociatePrograms.com they put the "s" in the wrong place and called it "AssociatesProgram.com".
It even happened at an Internet marketing conference I was attending. The speaker kindly mentioned my site, but got the name wrong. Whoops!
So when that wrong domain name became available, I bought it.
Now, if you muddle up the name and type "AssociatesProgram.com" you're automatically redirected to AssociatePrograms.com.
It occurred to me that people in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, who think "programs" is spelled "programmes", might also have trouble getting my domain name right.
So I bought AssociateProgrammes.com, too. It also redirects to the correct domain.
A good domain name registrar will make it very easy for you to redirect one domain name to another. 000Domains.com is one that does.
Copyright 2006 Allan Gardyne Pty Ltd ATF Allan Gardyne Trust