Our clients increasingly ask us to help improve their website traffic and pay per click results using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) techniques. These techniques can require considerable time to master and not inconsiderable expense to implement.

One way we can help is by sharing the latest information and tips about current SEO and SEM techniques. Recently, we explored some tips from Google and received an email newsletter from PPCSummit containing information that we would like to share with you. Most of this information is written in plain English that even we can understand, so we feel it's worth passing along to our clients. We've summarized these articles below and provided links to the original material for your reading pleasure.

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Google Webmaster Guidelines

This article from Google provides essential guidelines for: Website Design and Content, Technical Tools (for webmasters), and Quality. Implementing these guidelines will help Google do a better job of finding, indexing, and ranking your website. Among the most important are the Quality guidelines, which, if violated, can cause your site to be removed from or penalized in Google's index. >> read the article

Facebook Advertising (You May Want To Try It)

Facebook has nearly 200 million users, of which more than 100 million log on to Facebook at least daily. This article introduces Facebook Advertising, an increasingly effective way to reach Facebook's targeted audiences (which typically make impulse buys) and to increase brand awareness. The article provides helpful ad creation tips that apply to Facebook marketing as well as other contextual advertising such as Google Adsense. >> read the article

How to Train Your Visitors to Improve Your Conversions

Your website's landing page should treat visitors like untrained dogs that need clear guidance to get them to do something, such as buy your product or contact your company. The article explains how to find the competition's successful landing pages on the Internet and how to design landing pages for your own site that get more conversions. The acronym MORE ? which stands for Marketing Effectiveness; Offer Clarity; Readability of the Page; and Engagement with the Visitor ? is used to illustrate key points. The article also stresses the importance of testing and measuring the results. >> read the article

Five Ways to Maximize Your Pay Per Click Conversion Rates

Companies using Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) such as Google Adwords or Yahoo Overture know that every click from a sponsored search costs money that can add up quickly. This article explains five ways to communicate your message so that more visitors will turn into leads for your products or services. (Many of these tips will improve your website overall, whether you use PPC or not.)

1. Clearly understand your target market and the 2-3 messages you want to convey.

2. Make the landing page relevant to the link the user clicked.

3. Make the site design usable and readable, with a clear structure and easy navigation.

4. Include several ways to contact you.

5. Test your ads at least once a month.

>> read the article

Using Social Media to Discover Better Keywords

Social media enables companies to learn what's being said about their products and services in real time. This article discusses social media tools that can help you uncover keywords that can improve your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign results and search engine page rankings. Tools mentioned include TwitterSearch, Collecta, Facebook Lexicon, and Delicious Tags; these can supplement more traditional methods for discovering keywords such as Google's Keyword Tool, WordTracker, and Keyword Discovery. >> read the article

"Killer Insider SEO Tips": How to Create Targeted Web Traffic in a Week

Need tips for getting targeted traffic to your website and converting that traffic to leads? This article includes four mostly free ways to begin, including:

1. Keyword research.

2. Using social media and building links. (Google's page ranking algorithm currently relies heavily on high-quality links!)

3. Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to build content-rich, keyword-rich copy and search-friendly websites.

4. Evaluating your competition.

>> read the article