What is better: SEO or PPC?

SEO or PPC

Many webmasters are unsure whether they should advertise their website with SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay per click advertising).

Actually, most commercial websites work best if you use both SEO and PPC. The exact mix depends on your goals.

Pay per click advertising (PPC)

Advantages:

• You get instant results. If you advertise your website on pay per click search engines, then you will get traffic now and not several months later.
• PPC ads are perfect for time limited offers such as holiday sales.
• You can stop PPC ads at any time.
• PPC ads make it easy to test different keywords and landing pages.
• PPC ads also work with websites that are not very well designed and wouldn’t get good search engine rankings.
• PPC ads allow you to bid on a large amount of keywords, including misspellings and other keyword variations that you cannot put on your web pages.

Disadvantages:

• PPC advertising can become very expensive if you bid on the wrong keywords or if you don’t calculate the maximum bid price correctly.
• Click fraud can be a problem. Not all clickers are potential customers.

If you advertise your website with PPC ads then you should use a ROI tracking tool to make sure that you don’t waste your money.

Search engine optimization (SEO):

Advantages:

• Traffic through organic search engine results is almost free if the up-front work has been done.
• After optimizing your website you can use your money for different things and the optimized site will still run.
• A larger number of visitors and search result clickers is not a problem.
• Search engine optimization delivers long term results that don’t require permanent financial input.

Disadvantages:

• SEO can be relatively time-consuming up-front.
• SEO can require a redesign of your web pages to make your website search engine friendly. However, this usually also results in a better user experience.

Search engine optimization delivers lasting results and it costs considerably less in the long term. However, you must make sure that you optimize your website correctly, if your want to get high search engine rankings.

Pay per click advertising and search engine optimization both contribute to the success of your website. If you use both wisely, you can get many new visitors and customers without spending a fortune. See the recommended resources below for PPC and SEO software tips.

Source – free-seo-news.com

What is Robots Text File?

The robots.txt  file is a set of instructions for visiting robots (spiders) that index the content of your web site pages. For those spiders that obey the file, it provides a map for what they can, and cannot index. The file must reside in the root directory of your web. The URL path (web address) of your robots.txt file should look like this.

http://www.seoconsultants.com/robots.txt

The Robots text file open in Notepad might look like this:

This is a screen shot of an empty (not recommended) robots.txt file

Definition of the above robots.txt file:

User-agent: *

The asterisk (*) or wildcard represents a special value and means any robot.

Disallow:

The Disallow: line without a / (forward slash) tells the robots that they can index the entire site. Any empty value indicates that all URLs can be retrieved. At least one Disallow field needs to be present in a record without the / (forward slash) as shown above.

The presence of an empty "/robots.txt" file has no explicit associated semantics, it will be treated as if it was not present, i.e. all robots will consider themselves welcome.

The Disallow: line without the trailing slash (/) tells all robots to index everything. If you have a line that looks like this:

Disallow: /private/

It tells the robot that it cannot index the contents of that /private/ directory.

Summarizing the Robots Exclusion Protocol - robots.txt file

To allow all robots complete access:

User-agent: *

Disallow:

Important Note:

The above format is the common and acceptable standard for allowing all spiders' access to the site. We've recently learned (2002-06-09), that the practice of having just a User-agent: * and Disallow: without a trailing forward slash (empty robots.txt file) may not be recommended. Some spiders may incorrectly interpret this as blocking all content. You'll notice that we disallow the _private, css, and JavaScript folders in the below example and do not recommend an empty file.

2003-05-13 - Do not disallow your /css/ directory. Recent issues with Google may suggest that disallowing your css directory could be a flag for a manual review to see if you are using css to deceive the indexing robots (spiders).

This is a screen shot of a robots.txt file

To exclude all robots from the server:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

To exclude all robots from parts of a server:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /private/

Disallow: /images-saved/

Disallow: /images-working/

To exclude a single robot from the server:

User-agent: Named Bot

Disallow: /

To exclude a single robot from parts of a server:

User-agent: Named Bot

Disallow: /private/

Disallow: /images-saved/

Disallow: /images-working/

Note:

The asterisk (*) or wildcard in the User-agent field is a special value meaning "any Robot" and therefore is the only one needed until you fully understand how to set up different User-agents.

If you want to Disallow: a particular file within the directory, your Disallow: line might look like this one:

Disallow: /private/top-secret-stuff.htm

Keep in mind that using the above example excludes that specified page (top-secret-stuff.htm) but will not exclude the entire /private/ directory. If you have files that you do not want indexed, then you should put them in a private folder and Disallow: the entire directory, or put them in a password protected directory, or don't put them on the web at all!

You should validate your robots.txt file. Enter the full URI to the robots.txt file on your server. The robots.txt file always resides at the root level of your web.

Web Site Design Guidelines

1. Your main page should specifically let your visitors know exactly what you're offering. If your potential customer can't find your product or service, they definitely won't waste a lot of time looking for it. They'll go on to the next site and probably never return. They're visiting your site for a specific purpose. They want something your site offers.

2. Create a page to display your "Privacy Policy" in regard to the personal information you collect from your visitors such as, email address, Internet Service Provider, etc. Explain your reasons for collecting the information and let them know how the information will be used.

3. Create a page about you and/or your company. Include your name, company name, photograph, biography, address, phone number and email contact information.

4. Display your copyright information at the bottom of each page.

5. Keep in mind, your visitors may enter your site from pages other than your main, so make sure you include good navigational links on every page. Place your navigation links together at the top, bottom, left or right side of the page. Use tables to neatly align your links and maintain a nicely organized and uniform appearance throughout. Try to keep the number of clicks required to get from your main page to any other page on your site down to four and place your company logo on each page.

6. Use caution when selecting your background and text colors. Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the attention away from the text. In addition, always be consistent with your background theme on each page of your site. Keep in mind, colors affect your mood and will have an affect on your visitors as well. Bright colors such as yellow and orange, cause you to become more cheerful or happy, while colors such as blue and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors such as brown and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb is to use colors based upon the type of effect you're trying to achieve.

7. ALWAYS check and double-check your site for spelling errors and make sure your images and links are all working properly. If you have several errors, this will make your site appear to be unprofessional. If you are designing your site using an HTML editor, use spell check. Proper grammar is also very important.

8. If you must use frames, use them sparingly. Frames, if not used properly, can make your site look unprofessional. Avoid making your visitors have to scroll from side to side to view your content. This can be very irritating and cause your visitors to leave.

9. If you must use Java on your site, use it sparingly. Java can be slow and has a tendency to crash browsers.

10. If you're using pop-up windows to display special offers or ezine subscription information, try to use a JavaScript that utilizes cookies. This way, the window will only be displayed to your visitors the first time they visit your web site.

11. View your web site through different browsers and screen resolutions so you will see how your visitors will view your site.

Visit:

SiteOwner- Check your web pages for HTML validity and browser compatibility.

Siteinspector Site

NetMechanic - Provides a variety of free services for your web site including; browser compatibility testing, graphic file size reduction, link check, HTML check, load time check, spell check and more.

Net Mechanic Site

12. Continually add new content to your site. Give your visitors a reason to keep coming back.

Web Design Mistakes to Avoid:

• Large fonts
• Large scrolling text across the page
• Large slow loading graphics
• Large Welcome banners
• Multiple banners and buttons
• Multiple colored text
• Multiple use of animated graphics
• Multiple use of different fonts
• No contact information
• No Meta tags
• Over powering music set to AutoPlay
• Over use of Java
• Pages scrolling to oblivion
• Poor browser compatibility
• Poor content
• Poor load time
• Poor navigation
• Poor organization
• Poor overall appearance
• Poor use of frames
• Poor use of mouse over effect
• Poor use of tables
• Pop up messages
• Scrolling text in the status bar
• Spelling/Grammar mistakes
• Text difficult to read
• Too many graphic and/or line dividers
• Too many graphics
• Too much advertising
• Under construction signs
• Animated bullets
• Broken links and graphics
• Busy, distracting backgrounds
• Confusing
• Different backgrounds on each page

If you've never designed a web page, it would be wise to become familiar with HTML. (Hypertext Markup Language.)

A great place to start is NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML: HTML Premier

Take some time to research and plan your web site. Your success depends upon it. The simple, well-designed sites make the sales.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword Research can be defined as choosing the words, which describe your product or service as, seen from the viewpoint of your target market is the most important step in the optimization process.

Keyword Research is the process of defining the right mix of keywords, which are most likely to be used by potential customers at search engines and directories.

This Keyword research consists of a variety of inputs, both qualitative and quantitative, both creative and analytical.

Keyword Research plays a Crucial Role in assuring that your prospective customers will find you when they are looking for your specific products and services.

Following are Most Useful Tools for Keyword Analysis:

Wordtracker

Overture

Google Adwords

Digital Point

Ranks.nl

Advantages of Keyword Research

• Drive traffic to your site by using the words people use when they're searching
• Write great website copy by incorporating terms that people immediately identify with
• Plan profitable pay-per-click campaigns by building up a broad range of keyword phrases that will capture your market
• Develop great content ideas that directly address your customers' needs
• Understand your customers' behavior and concerns by analyzing the words that they use
• Measure the size of a potential online market by the number of searches conducted, and
• Develop new revenue streams by using popular keywords to inspire new product and service ideas.