5 Marketing Tips for Improving Alexa Ranking

Many people have asked me how they can improve their Alexa rankings - a measure of traffic and site popularity. Here are my top five marketing tips.

Marketing Tips #1
Download the Alexa toolbar and use it every day to visit your own website. Alexa even gives you the ability to co-brand the toolbar with your own logo and give it away. You can download the toolbar here: http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/associatetoolbar.html

Marketing Tips #2
Use Alexa redirection whenever you can. No matter when or where you provide a link to your website, be sure to use the equivalent Alexa redirect URL. For example, when providing a link to my website, I use http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com. If you copy this URL into your browser, it will take you to MarketingScoop.com. To use this technique, simply replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours.

Marketing Tips #3
Encourage your website visitors to add their positive testimonials on Alexa's detailed listings page for your website. This can be done by placing a link to the appropriate Alexa page on your website and asking visitors to "Click here to rate this website". You can find your detailed Alexa page here: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=marketingscoop.com.

Marketing Tips #4
Write your own site reviews on the top 100 rated Alexa sites and include your redirect URL. The top 500 domains, according to Alexa can be found at www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500. When you write a review, be sure to use the redirection URL we discussed in number 2 above specifically for your website http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com

Marketing Tips #5
Download the Alexa ranking button, traffic history graph, info links, and other traffic counters onto the page of your website that receives the most traffic. For example, at the bottom of my home page http://www.marketingscoop.com, I've added the Alexa ranking box. You can do the same for your own site by visiting http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup. You'll notice that I haven't added the traffic history graph. This is because it wouldn't look appropriate on my home page and because Alexa is only providing detailed history on the top 100,000 sites. So if you're not in the top 100,000, site stats would not be available.

These simple Alexa strategies are easy to implement and will make a huge difference in your Alexa ranking. Ultimately you want visitors to do more than visit your home page, you want them to interact with your site. Be sure to optimize your home page for SEO purposes, ease of use, and interaction. Creating a positive user experience will get visitors to return again and again.

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Posted in: alexa

Today's Marketing Tips: 7 Reasons To Start Blogging

Today's marketing tips are all about blogging. Blogs are a great way to promote your products, services, and communicate with current and future customers. Maintaining or posting to a blog is very rewarding a carries a variety of benefits. Let's cover some basic marketing tips and corresponding benefits:

Marketing Tips #1.

Blogs are easy to create. Unlike starting your own website, weblogs can be created in just a few minutes. Sites like Blogger allow you to register and start your own blog for free. All you need is an email and a topic to start blogging about.

Marketing Tips #2.
Blogs provide a dialogue with prospects, customers, and friends. Blogs are now being used as a communication vehicle to share important information with customers. Because blogs can be updated in real time, businesses are finding weblogs to be one of the quickest and most accurate ways to distribute their message.

Marketing Tips #3.
Blogs are here to stay. Blogging gives you the ability to publish your thoughts in real time, whenever and where they like. If you enjoy writing, want to share your ideas, or even learn more about a particular subject, contribute to a blog on a regular basis. Now that blogs have become popular, you can find blog directories that can help you locate weblogs by category. Find one aligned to your interests and post your comments.

Marketing Tips #4
Blogs can drive traffic to your website. Using a blog, associated with a particular topic, can drive additional traffic to your website. This is essential for anyone seeking new leads for their business or interested in generating online sales.

The benefit of using a blog to generate traffic is that weblogs attract a different type of user - one that is very focused on a particular subject. These users are more prone to take interest in what you have to offer and convert into customers.

Marketing Tips #5.
Blogs give you the flexibility to post whenever, wherever, 24/7. When authoring a blog, all you need is an Internet enabled PC to post an entry. This level of flexibility removes many of the barriers associated with traditional forms of communication. Some blogs even allow you to make a post via email. Simply construct an email and send it to the blog address and the result is an instant post to your blog.

Marketing Tips #6.
Establish yourself as an expert. By keeping a blog up-to-date, and contributing in an area where you have experience, you can quickly build your reputation as an expert. Once you've establish yourself as having knowledge in a particular subject area, you can begin contributing to other web sources such as news articles and interviews.

Marketing Tips #7
Generate Ad Revenue. The beauty of a blog is that you can attract those interested in a very specific subject area. This is an ideal market for online pay-per-click advertising like Google Adsense. You can easily integrate Google Adsense into your blog - many blog hosts provide it as a built in option- and generate ad revenue. This is a great way to provide value to your readers while generating revenue for your business.

These are just some of the benefits of creating and contributing to blogs. You will find that weblogs are a great way to share information with others who share similar interests. Its also a great opportunity to learn from others who comment on posts. This is one of the most rewarding aspects of creating your very own blog. So what are you waiting for, start blogging!

Check back daily for more helpful marketing tips. If you have any marketing tips you'd like to share, please comment on this post.

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Posted in: blogging

How Are You Creating Your Links?

Are search engines devaluing your links because they consider them spam? One of my most frequently used Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies is keyword focused link text. What I mean by keyword focused is simply that I make sure that links pointing to my website include my keywords. Including keywords in your anchor text (also know as link text) ensures that the search engines know what type of content can be found once the link is followed.

Many search engines - including Google - are starting to evaluate this link text strategy in greater detail. Websites that have thousands of incoming links, all with the same link text, may signal something amiss. Therefore, it's best to vary your link text when engaging in any type of link building campaign.

I recommend that you use keyword variations or add additional phrases to your link text. As an example, see how the link text is modified below:

Webmasters Book of Secrets

The Webmasters Book of Secrets

Improve Search Engine Rankings

All three links point to the same website but with varying link text. As a result, search engines will treat each of these links as unique, improving link popularity and organic search results. Vary your link text on a regular basis but be sure to always include your keywords or keyword phrase.

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Posted in: links

Never Underestimage The Power of Email Marketing

According to a recent survey by Daran Media marketing services company, marketers plan to increase e-mail use in 2008.

Overall, 72% of the marketers surveyed indicated that they plan to use e-mail marketing more in 2008. A sign that email use is on the rise.

The survey, which included 1,500 marketing professionals, focused on marketers' plans to use e-mail marketing in 2008. Firms included in the survey were KPMG International, InfoUSA, QInteractive and Art.com, just to name a few.

It found that 70.5% reported plans to increase spending on e-mail acquisition and 63% to increase spending on retention campaigns.

In addition, 83% of respondents expect e-mail ROI to increase during the New Year. E-mail optimization techniques, including landing pages, subject line testing and triggered messaging, were unanimously ranked as "very important."

Think about possible email marketing campaigns you can reinvigorate or launch in 2008. More importantly, evaluate your email acquisition strategies and develop new ways to capture opt-ins.

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Posted in: email marketing

Search engine optimization techniques for Google and Yahoo are quite different. Many websites rank well in one search engine but not the other. This is the direct result of each search engine having its own unique ranking algorithm. For example, the Google algorithm predominantly values the anchor text of in-bound links.

The primary reason for the difference in ranking algorithms is that Google owns the patent on Page Rank (PR), named after Google’s founder Larry Page. As a result of owning this patent, other search engines need to place more emphasis on different optimization factors including website URL, keyword density and so on.

What are the greatest differences in search engine algorithms?

Google places a significant amount of emphasis on inbound links to your website. The value of these inbound links are measured based on their Google PR. The more links you receive from high Google PR web pages, the better your search result placements will be for a given keyword or search term.

Yahoo places emphasis on website URLs, meta tags, and keyword density. These factors can be analyzed on any website with a limited amount of effort, allowing Yahoo to quickly and easily rank websites properly.

How you can optimize your website for both Google and Yahoo!

The challenge all website owners face is making the most of their optimization efforts. When thinking about search engine optimization, you need to cover all the bases. To do so, pay particular attention to the following guidelines.

1. Keyword Targeted URL. If your website URL doesn’t contain your keywords, consider purchasing a new one or creating a new page off of your root directory (ex: marketingscoop.com/internetmarketing.htm). Having your keywords in the URL helps improve both your Yahoo and Google search results. Yahoo weighs the website address as an important ranking factor. Google values a keyword rich URL when third party websites place a link to your site using nothing but a web address.

2. Meta Tags. Although not as important as they once were, Yahoo still uses meta tags to help align search engine rankings and appropriate website pages. Make sure that your meta tags are complete and include your keyword phrases in the title, description, and keyword tags. Keyword Density Between 6 – 8%. Although much has been written about the importance of keyword density remaining between 2 – 3%, Yahoo looks for sites with keyword densities as high as 8%. Don’t be afraid to include your keywords throughout your webpage content. Make sure however, that your keyword density is not more than 8%.

3. Link Building. This is the most important factor for increasing Google search result placements. Develop a link building campaign and give other sites a reason to link to your site. This may include free downloads, tools, or other valuable resources.

4. Site Map. Publish a sitemap. This makes it easy for search engines to spider your website and access all of your most important web pages. Site maps should be accessible from your home page and kept up-to-date.

Optimizing for both Google and Yahoo can be challenging. Following basic seo principles and working to develop incoming links can help you reach the top of the largest search engines. Apply these techniques regularly to see the greatest results.

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Posted in: search engine optimization

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Today's Marketing Tip: The Webmasters Book of Secrets

Whether you're a small business or major corporation, focusing on improving natural search results on Google, Yahoo!, and MSN is important. Organic search results cost nothing and are chosen 3-to-1 compared to paid placements.

If you're looking to rank on top, for even the most competitive keywords or keyword phrases, I personally recommend the following products. For much less than you'd imagine, you can quickly and easily achieve top placements, resulting in lower online marketing costs (free traffic) and higher revenues. If you haven't acquired these "staples", then click below to learn more.

Improve Search Engine Rankings with the Webmaster's Book of Secrets.

Improve organic search results with SEO Elite.

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