Google SEO Guide: What Kind of Website Does Google Reward?

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Aaron

Google recently updated their SEO starter guide.  After reading it over I wanted to post some of the more important points here.  If you are looking for long term stable income you need to abide by Google’s rules.

Google’s goal is to provide useful, relevant search results for any given search term.  This alone has significant implications on how to run an online business.  If you want Google to send traffic your way then you need to provide quality, valuable content for the people who are interested in what you offer.  This should be your highest guiding principle when creating content for your website.  If it isn’t useful for the end user then it likely won’t be good for the long term success of your business.

Here are some of the main points you should follow to achieve this goal.

Offer quality content and services

Write content for users, not search engines.  Google’s search algorithm is continually getting more advanced.  It is not possible to fool Google, and even if you did, your visitors would likely pick up on your underhanded tactics and leave your site.  Write for people and Google will reward you.

The easiest way to promote your website is to have other people do it for you.  This can happen if you provide interesting, unique content that others find useful.  If other websites owners like your content they will link to it sending traffic and an SEO boost your way.

When writing your content keep in mind that the people visiting your website will have differing backgrounds on your subject.  If you are writing for an audience with an advanced understanding of your topic you should still keep in mind the casual visitor.

Page titles

You page title conveys what the content on your page is about.  Your title should be unique across your website, accurate, brief, and descriptive.

If you are targeting a specific keyword with your page it can appear in the title but don’t stuff it full of keywords.  The content of the page should always deliver on the title.

The title of your page is displayed in the search results which, if well written, can attract visitors.  Furthermore, the users search terms will be highlighted in the title to further attract their attention.

On a technical note, the title of the page should also appear in the <title> tag of your html file.  Most tools will automatically do this for you (if, for example, you’ve setup your website with WordPress).

Description meta tag

You should provide a description for every page on your website.  This description should be a few sentences long and summarize what is on the page.  This description is important because it can show up in search results.  A good description can compel a person to click on your link.  Also, any search terms the person used to find your page will be highlighted.

Descriptions should be unique and, according to Google, not too short or not too long.  That size is a bit vague but you can use Google’s Webmaster Tools to get feedback about your descriptions (as well as many other useful things).

Descriptions should appear in the <description> tag.  If you are using a tool there may be a place to enter the description information.  WordPress does not have this feature by default but if you install the All in One SEO Pack you will be able to provide a description.

Use heading tags appropriately

When writing your page content make sure you properly think through what you are trying to say and present it in a logical organized manner.

Use headings to separate logical areas of your page so that visitors can quickly grasp the structure of your page.  Do not use too many headings as this can be confusing to people as well as search engines.

Google will use the text in your headings as an indication of what the important information on the page is about.  Because of this, you should put informative text in your headings that gives an idea of what is in the following paragraphs.

URL structure

The format of your URLs can also play an important role in your website’s SEO.  Your URLs should contain human readable words as opposed to some numerical identifier.  The page URL is displayed in search results along with the title and description and search terms occurring in the URL are also bolded.

Each URL on your website should correspond to a single unique page.  If you have the same page content showing up for two different URLs Google regards this as duplicate content.  This can dilute your page importance and decrease the chances it will show up in the search results.

Tip: If you are using WordPress you can choose how it shows URLs.  By default WordPress uses generic URLs with a not very useful page index.  To change this, go under Settings and Permalinks.  On this page you can change how WordPress generates a URL.  For more information you can read about using permalinks.

Anchor text and linking

Links are very important in SEO.  The anchor text used in links is also very important.  When you create a link – either on another site (say, in the form of a comment) or on your own site, try and include text that describes the destination page in as few words as possible.  The anchor text helps people understand where the link goes.  It also helps the search engines get a bit more insight to the page that is being linked to.

When designing your website don’t style your links so they are the same as the surrounding text.  Make your links clearly visible so visitors to your website can easily see them.

You should also understand what ‘nofollow’ is.  When you create a link you can mark it as nofollow.  This informs Google that you don’t want it to follow the link and you definitely don’t want to pass your credibility on to the destination page.  If you link directly to a page that Google deems unsavory it can count against you.  To create a nofollow link you have to edit the HTML code for the link.  A basic link looks like this:

<a href="/link/destination/page/">Link anchor text</a>

To make it a nofollow link, modify it like so:

<a href="/link/destination/page/" rel="nofollow">Link anchor text</a>

Navigation

Your website should be easy to navigate – both for people as well as search engines.  If you have a complex website it is good to have a site map available for visitors in the menu so they can easily find the pages they are interested in.

If your site is structured hierarchically it is good to have a ‘breadcrumb trail’ to help users understand where they are as well as easily navigate up the hierarchy.

Another technique to help the search engines find all your pages is to have a sitemap.xml file.  This is a file that lists all the pages on your website and is used by the search engines to better crawl your pages.  There are tools that can help you make a sitemap.xml file.  If you are using WordPess I recommend the plugin Google XML Sitemaps

In the event a user ends up on a non-existent page you should have a useful 404 error page.  You can read about Google’s suggestions to make your 404 page more useful.

Posted in SEO | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Wealthy Affiliate Article Marketing Club – Insider Secrets Revealed

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Aaron

I am currently finishing off the month long ‘article marketing club’ at Wealthy Affiliate and I want to tell you about some of the things I have learned as well as give away some of the juiciest bits of information to help you in your article marketing efforts.

The article marketing club is one of the many resources available to members of Wealthy Affiliate (included with membership).  This club takes a small group of people through the process of setting up an article marketing campaign over the course of a month in structured daily lessons.  By the end of the month you have the following:

  • A professional looking website with several static pages and blog posts (10 – 15 pages)
  • An understanding of how to do proper keyword research
  • 50 articles written and published online, each targeting a popular keyword with low competition
  • Many back links to both your website and your articles to help them all show up in the search results.  Several back linking techniques are taught.
  • A systematic and repeatable system that you can apply to any online marketing effort you choose in any niche
  • Most importantly, targeted traffic visiting your website looking to buy your product

To help you accomplish all this you are given very detailed instructions on a daily basis.  You also communicate with other club members as well as the instructor on the forums or through personal messages.  This kind of communication was extremely useful as others often provided their own tips and secrets based on their experience.  To top it off Kyle and Carson, the creators of Wealthy Affiliate, also participate in the forum discussions offering their own expertise.

Setting up a website

Wealthy Affiliate offers free web hosting as well as easy website setup using WordPress Express.  This system installs WordPress as well as the five most useful plugins for internet marketers.  Once setup, you can modify the installation however you want – use your own theme, add more plugins, etc.

I already have a post about how to set up a professional looking website with WordPress so I won’t go into any more detail here.

Keyword Research

I’m only going to touch on keyword research here as it is a whole topic on its own which I will cover at another time.  However, I will give you this: you want to find keywords that receive more than 300 searches a month and have less than 5000 competing websites.

You can use the Google keyword tool (it’s free) to find how many searches are done a month as well as find related search terms.

To find competing websites enter your search term into Google with quotes.  Google will tell you approximately how many other websites are targeting the same search term.

Writing Articles and Getting them Published

You can find more information about article marketing in another post but I will add some important points here:

  • Read over ezinearticles’ editorial guidelines.  If you can write an article that ezinearticles will accept then you can write an article that practically any other article directory will accept.
  • Make a big promise in you article title and over deliver in the article body
  • Make sure your keyword is in the title and throughout the article body.  Try and use your keyword about once for every 100 words.
  • Link back to your website in your resource box to a relevant page on your website using the keyword as anchor text.  This will give the reader a sense of continuity.
  • Ezinearticles can get your article to the top of the Google search results so focus your efforts there.  However, you should also try out other directories to see how well they perform for you and to vary the links coming in to your website.  Here are some article directories with high page rank to try:

Now Take Action

Probably the most important thing the article club has to offer is a structured work environment that forces you to take action.  Each day’s task typically took two hours or less and would include activities such as:

  • Keyword research
  • Article writing
  • Creating a website page or blog post
  • Back linking (through social bookmarking or commenting on related blogs)

Not every day was spent writing and work was only assigned six days a week so the overall workload was very manageable (can easily done part time).

The biggest thing I got from this club is an overall blueprint for how to implement a successful marketing campaign which can be implemented in an hour or two a day.

Update: A few days after publishing this post a comment was posted in the forum that reminded me of the importance of the group of people I’ve been learning with.

I gotta tell ya! This forum, and the members of it are awsome. I just got bailed out by an active member, who didn’t just answer a question simply, he jumped in with both feet and got me straightened out and on track again. Do you realize how much help that is? Not just because my difficulties are handled, and not just because someone is glad to be a team member and help out a fellow WA member, but because he didn’t just help my technical problem, he helped my self confidence. Never, not for a moment did I feel “I should have known that”, or “Oh how dumb of me”. Rather I feel I got help and I got a new friend. That is special. Why would anyone turn down a chance to belong to such a group? And special thanks to my Mr. D!

Posted in Article Marketing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Quick and Easy Way to Set Up a Professional Looking Website with WordPress

Posted on October 9, 2010 by Aaron

If you are looking to make money part time then you don’t want to spend days setting up a website.  Fortunately, thanks to WordPress, you can have a professional looking website up and running in a few minutes.  One of the other great perks about WordPress is the fact that it is free.

Getting Started

The first thing you need to have when setting up WordPress is a website.  There are a few ways to address this issue.  The easiest way, which is also free, is to go to WordPress.com and register there.  You will be able to set up a WordPress website in a matter of minutes.

There are some drawbacks to this approach which are:

  • You have limited themes to choose from (a theme specifies how your website looks) and you also can’t upload a custom theme.
  • You don’t have access to plug-ins.  Plug-ins are small programs that integrate into WordPress and provide extra functionality and features – some of which are very useful, and some of which can be used to enhance your online business.
  • Your website will be on a subdomain of the WordPress website (i.e. yourwebsitename.wordpress.com)

If you want full access to all WordPress features and functionality then you will need to find a host provider.  For this website I’m using WordPress Express – the free unlimited hosting included with my Wealthy Affiliate membership.  Another good option is GoDaddy.  GoDaddy has easy one click setup of WordPress websites.  By using a host provider you also have full control over your domain name.

Once you have WordPress installed you can log in to your administration area by going to the address /wp-login.php on your website.

Selecting a Theme

A theme defines how your website looks.  There are many, many themes that you can choose from which are free.  There are also themes that you can buy.  To select your theme, click on ‘Appearance’ in the left column menu in the admin area.  You will be able to browse the various available themes until you find one that you like.

Website Structure

WordPress is very flexible and allows you to not only manage a blog but a hierarchy of static pages as well.  When you create your website you will need to decide how you structure your site.  The most common approach is to simply have your home page show your blog posts.  From here people often add an about-me page or FAQ and add it to the menu.

When you first install WordPress this is the default structure.  You can add blog posts in your administration area by clicking on ‘Posts’ in the left column menu.  You can add static pages by clicking on ‘Pages’ in the left column menu.

Setting up a custom home page in WordPress

You will notice that I have things set up a bit differently on this website.  My home page is a static page.  My blog posts appear under my blog page which is accessible from the menu.  I also have a few other static pages which you can access from the menu as well.

If you want a website with this more sophisticated structure you need to follow these steps:

  1. Create a static page called Home and add the content you want to appear on your home page
  2. Create a static page called Blog and leave it empty
  3. In the left column click on ‘Settings’ then ‘Reading’ which will appear a few entries below ‘Settings’
  4. In the area where it says ‘Front page displays’ select ‘A static page’
  5. Select your ‘Home’ page in the first drop down list box
  6. Select your empty ‘Blog’ page in the second drop down list box

When you are finished your reading settings should look like this:

Reading Settings

Now, whenever you make a blog post, it will automatically appear on your blog page.

Conclusion

Now that you have a functional website you can start adding content.  I recommend you keep a schedule and post to it on a regular basis at least once or twice a week. Take a look at this article if you want to know how to make money with your WordPress blog.

You will also need to start driving traffic to your website.  There are many ways to do this such as implementing a PPC campaign, article marketing, back linking, SEO techniques, and more.

The most important thing is that you have fun and enjoy the process.  If you don’t then your website will become a chore and you will resist working with it.  If this is the case consider changing the topic of your website to one that you enjoy talking about.

Posted in Website Development | Tagged | Leave a comment

Online Income Potential: Just How Big Is The Online Market Anyway?

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Aaron

I recently came across an article about online spending in Canada.  According to this article, Canadians spend over $15 billion a year online on goods and services.  I want to take some time to put this number into perspective and give you an idea about what this means for your potential to make some money online.

For starters, let’s say you want to make $1 million on the internet.  That is a good amount of money so I’ll use that for this example.  One million dollars is less than 0.007 % of the amount of money being spent online by Canadians – just a tiny fraction.  If that number isn’t small enough for you then think about the population of Canada.  There are more people in the state of California than in all of Canada.  Furthermore, the online marketplace doesn’t just cover North America – it is world wide.  In fact, Canada makes up only about 3% of the number of people who shop online globally.

In case you aren’t following all these numbers, the point I am making is that there is a massive amount of money being spent online worldwide.  This presents a tremendous opportunity for anyone who is willing to step up and take advantage of it.

How does the average person take advantage of this opportunity?

The good new is that you don’t need to be technically savvy, you don’t have to have an MBA, and you don’t need to start 10 years ago.  In fact, you can start right now.

You may be thinking that all this money is being spent on a few big retailers that dominate the marketplace.  Even if this were true there is still a tremendous opportunity through affiliate marketing.  This process involves connecting people looking for a product with the company that is selling the product.  If a sale is made, you get a commission.  Simple, straightforward, and an honest way to make a living.

However, affiliate marketing isn’t the only way to make money online.  You can always sell your own products or services, take your existing business online, sell advertising opportunities to other companies – the online money making opportunities are limitless.

To dip in to the ocean of money online you need to learn a few specific skills and have a willingness to apply them.  How you use those skills is up to you – there are a million different ways you can apply them to start generating wealth.  With a bit of creativity and consistent action you can tap into the billions of dollars being spent online right now.  If you want to find out more about how to start an online business, check out this site – it has everything you need to get you started and keep you going for the long term.

Sources

Just so you don’t think I’m just making up these numbers, here is where I got them from:

Posted in Make money online | Tagged | 1 Comment

Part Time Work – Full Time Income

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Aaron

The power of passive income

I would like to talk about what it means to generate lots of money in your spare time.  For the average employee this idea seems absurd.  You work hard all day for the money you earn – who am I to say you can make more money by putting in less time?

The reason is this: the techniques for making money online work differently than making money as an employee.  It follows a different set of rules.  It is a different kind of game.

I spent about 25 years of my life as an employee.  At some point I felt that there has to be a better way to earn a living.  I was tired of working, tired of not having enough money, and tired of someone else deciding how much time I have to put in and how much I can earn.

So I did some research.

One of the first ideas I learned about was the difference between an asset and liability (I got this from Robert Kiyosaki’s classic book Rich Dad, Poor Dad I highly recommend it if you are interested in changing how you make money).  An asset is something that pays you and a liability is something that costs you.  For example, if you have money invested in a savings account that gives you interest – that is an asset.  If you lease a car that you make monthly payments on – that is a liability.

The goal is to get more assets.  There are many different kinds of assets – such as stocks and bonds, real estate, intellectual property like a copyright or patent, or an online business.

It is important to note that an asset makes you money without you actually putting in any effort – at least not after you put in the effort to acquire or create the asset in the first place.  This kind of income is called passive or residual income.  It is the development of one ore more passive income streams that will ultimately set you free financially.

With the right techniques and strategies, the internet is ideally suited to creating passive income – and creating it in your spare time.  They say the internet levels the playing field and this could not be truer.  Building an online business requires that you invest almost no money and yet has the potential to generate huge amounts of cash.  To build up such an online asset just requires the right knowledge and consistent effort.

Once you are making enough passive income from your part time online business that covers your current income, you are financially free – it is up to you how you spend your time. You can quit your job and put more time into your online business to generate even more money. You can keep working at your current pace to keep growing as you have been, or you can back off your efforts and just maintain your business as it is – it’s up to you.

Compare an online business to buying, say, a fast food franchise.  You need a huge amount of money up front – typically at least a half million dollars and often more.  You then need to work at it full time for a long time before you pay off the loan you took to buy it in the first place.  It is risky and takes a long time before it becomes an asset and there is still no guarantee that you will ever be able to put in less time.

When you consider these kinds of risks and expenses a few dollars in web hosting and a few dollars to learn the necessary skills is nothing compared to what you have to do for other types of businesses.

The possibility of making money online part time is very real.  What is important is that you start, commit to the process, learn the techniques, and work at it consistently on an ongoing basis.  If you follow these steps then one day you can be financially free.

Posted in Part time | Tagged , , | 4 Comments