Thursday, April 30, 2009

Monitoring Search Engine Positions

Part 2

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of the hat. If you are unaware of these changes-many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking-your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch " the market" closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that the formula does not become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition-a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor's position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your
monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top may change from month to month.

This means that you must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users. Check out
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current list of website favorites.

Please leave your comments. We would love to hear from you.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Monitoring Your Search Engine Positions

Part 1

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods and services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engines positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of the stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch out and prepare to act on immediately.

More to come tomorrow. We would love to hear your comments.

copyright Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Keeping Your Search Engine Ranking High

Sometimes webmasters use evil tricks that artificially boost their link popularity is the of hidden text. Search engines usually use the words on web pages as a factor in forming their rankings, which means that if the text on your page contains your keywords, you have more of an opportunity to increase your search engine ranking than a page that does not contain text inclusive of keywords.

Some webmasters have gotten around this formula by hiding their keywords in such a way so that they are invisible to any visitors to their site. For example, they have used the keywords but made them the same color as the background color of the page, such as a plethora of white keywords on a white background. You cannot see these words with the human eye-but the eye of search engine spider can spot them easily! A spider is the program search engines use to index web pages, and when it sees these invisible words, it goes back and boosts that page's link ranking.

Webmasters may be brilliant and sometimes devious, but search engines have figured these tricks out. As soon as a search engine perceives the use of hidden text-splat! The page is penalized.

The downside of this is that sometimes the spider is a bit overzealous and will penalize a page by mistake. For example, if the background color of your page is gray, and you have placed gray text inside a black box, the spider will only take note of the gray text and assume you are employing hidden text. To avoid any risk of false penalty, simply direct your webmaster not to assign the some color to text as the background color of the page-ever!

Another potential problem that can result in a penalty is called "keyword stuffing." It is important to have your keywords appear in the text on your page, but sometimes you can go a little overboard in your enthusiasm to please the spiders. A search engine uses what is called "Keyword Density" to determine if a site is trying to artificially boost their ranking. This is the ratio of keywords to the rest of the words on the page. Search engines assign a limit to the number of times you can use a keyword before it decides you have overdone it and penalizes your site.

This ratio is quite high, so it is difficult to surpass without sounding as if you are stuttering-unless your keyword is part of your company name. If this is the case, it is easy for keyword density to soar. So, if your keyword is "renters insurance," be sure you don't use this phrase in every sentence. Carefully edit the text on your site so that the copy flows naturally and the keyword is not repeated incessantly. A good rule of thumb is your keyword should never appear in more than half the sentences on the page.

The final potential risk factor is known as "cloaking." To those of you who are diligent Trekkies, this concept should be easy to understand. For the rest of you? Cloaking is when the server directs a visitor to one page and a search engine spider to a different page. The page the spider sees is "cloaked" because it is invisible to regular traffic, and deliberately set-up to raise the site's search engine ranking. A cloaked page tries to feed the spider everything it needs to rocket that page's ranking to the top of the list.

It is natural that search engines have responded to this act of deception with extreme enmity, imposing steep penalties on these sites. The problem on your end is that sometimes pages are cloaked for legitimate reasons, such as prevention against the theft of code, often referred to as "pagejacking." This kind of shielding is unnecessary these days due to the use of "off page" elements, such as link popularity, that cannot be stolen.

To be on the safe side, be sure that your webmaster is aware that absolutely no cloaking is acceptable. Make sure the webmaster understands that cloaking of any kind will put your website at great risk.

Just as you must be diligent in increasing your link popularity and your ranking, you must be equally diligent to avoid being unfairly penalized. So be sure to monitor your site closely and avoid any appearance of artificially boosting your rankings.

Thank you for reading and we would love to have your comments.

copyright Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

Monday, April 27, 2009

How Can You Keep Your Search Engine Ranking High

Your website's ranking on search engines is a vital element of your overall marketing campaign, and there are ways to improve your link popularity through legitimate methods. Unfortunately, the Internet is populated by brands of dishonest webmaters seeking to improve their link popularity by faking out search engines.

The good news is that search engines have figured this out, and are now on guard for "spam" pages and sites that have increased their rankings by artificial methods. When a search engines tracks down such a site, that site is demoted in ranking or completely removed from the search engine's index.

The bad news is that some high quality, completely above-board sites are being mistaken for these web page criminals. Your page may be in danger of being caught up in the "spam" net and tossed from a search engine's index,even though you have done nothing to deserve harsh treatment. But there are things you can do-and things you should be sure not to do-which will prevent this kind of misperception.

Link popularity is mostly based on the quality of sites you are linked to. Google pioneered this criteria for assigning website ranking, and virtually all search engines on the Internet now use it. There are legitimate ways to go about increasing your link popularity, but at the same time, you must be scrupulously careful about which sites you choose to link to. Google frequently imposes penalties on sites that have linked to other sites solely for the purpose of artificially boosting their link popularity. They have actually labeled these links "bad neighborhoods."

You can raise a toast to the fact that you cannot be penalized when a bad neighborhood links to your site; penalty happens only when you are the one sending out the link to a bad neighborhood. But you must check, and double-check, all the links that are active on your links page to make sure you haven't linked to a bad neighborhood.

The first thing to check out is whether or not the pages you have linked to have been penalized. The most direct way to do this is to download the Google toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com . You will then see that most pages are given a "Pagerank" which is represented by a sliding green scale on the Google toolbar.

Do not link to any site that shows no green at all on the scale. This is especially important when the scale is completely gray. It is more than likely that these pages have been penalized. If you are linked to these pages, you may catch their penalty, and like the flu, it may be difficult to recover from the infection.

There is no need to be afraid of linking to sites whose scale shows only a tiny sliver of green on their scale. These sites have not been penalized, and their links may grow in value and popularity. However, do make sure that you closely monitor these kind of links to ascertain that at some point they do not sustain a penalty once you have linked up to them from your link page.

We would like to hear your comments. Thank you.

copyright Dan and Deanna "Marketing unscramble"

Friday, April 24, 2009

Give Your Support To Our Friend Hilary

This is a little different for this blog, but it is to important to not add it to this blog as well as our other blog. Our friend Hilary writes a beautiful blog. It is in tribute to her mother. This is one that must be enjoyed by all. We are just trying to help spread the word. Visit and see for yourself. A visitor to her blog wrote a letter to Hilary on her own blog. Both of these things are so touching and wonderful. We just had to share it here. We hope that you go and enjoy these two blogs. You can get to Daphne's blog from a link on Hilary's blog. Go and enjoy. We did.
copyright Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

How To Get Your Search Engine Ranking Higher?

Part 2

It is now time to put the content of your website under the microscope. Search engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than on the great graphics. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords -the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to your desugn, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in order to increase your search engine rankings.

Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know this sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta name="keywords" content=. If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your search engine rankings, but any little boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a factor that is extremely important in terms of search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your links page.

If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular search engine, the search engine will then show you what sites are linked to your site. In case that there aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can't boost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the higher your search engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.

We welcome your comments.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Thursday, April 23, 2009

How Do You Increase Your Search Engine Ranking?

The method to increase your search engine rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell you-the time has come to face your website! A high search engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the Internet find websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That's what search engines optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should examine is the title bar on your homepage.

The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on your home page's title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your company name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping the, to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.

More to come tomorrow. Let us know what you find with your websites. This is how you can do this better, for better rankings.

Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A Blog Post To Ckeck Out If You Want To Succeed Online

This blog is from our friend Jacques, he makes some very interesting points in his blog about what needs to be done to succeed online. He has done such a good job with this post that we had to say something here about it, that others can check it out for themselves. Here is the link to his blog, go see it here. Enjoy, we did.

Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Search Engine's And The Right Keywords To Help You Get To The Top Of Them

You have now chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines. There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work-and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign is ultimately generate your business' rewards.

Here is to more profits from your keywords. We would like to hear from you. Leave your comments. How are your keywords working for you?

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Finding The Right Keywords To Get The Best Search Engines Spots

Having popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you.

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword " automobile companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between "Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific jobs, which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually tyring to figure out what to do with his or her life in between parties. You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until you find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to your site.

Please leave your comments, we would love to read them. Have a good day.

Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Monday, April 20, 2009

Finding The Right Keywords To Use For Search Engines

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination-your website-you need to provide them with specific and effective signs that will direct them right to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the Internet. Find exactly the right words or phrases, and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site-or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive-decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers' understanding is significantly different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside trenches of your business

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keywords to the list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of word and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By "quality Visitors" I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. the more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which will than bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Software such as wordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Please leave your comments. They are always welcome. Have a great day.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Friday, April 17, 2009

Good Customer Service Can Make Or Break A Business!

We got this business card. On the front was the things that you would expect to see-name of the company, the person representing the company ( in this case the owner), address, phone number, website, something about what the company does.

It was the back side of the card that got my attention. It looks like this:















How would your customers feel when getting a card like this one? What guarantees do you give to your customers? What kind of service do you give? You can find them here. They have great before and after photos. If you are wanting a "kitchen tune up." They are all over the country.

How can you do something like this in your business? Have you done something like this in your business? Think about what you can do. It can help to grow your business.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Try This SEO Contest.

Here is a contest for anyone interested. Money is being given away. I will let him introduce himself to you. This is from his blog. All the rules and everything are in it. Take a look for your self. You have to leave a message on his blog if you are interested in doing this. Here is the information.

Hi everyone, I am Rusty Squire, a former nationally ranked cyclist, triathlete, and a World Record holder for the most vertical feet ever skied in 12 hours. I run real estate development and diet program companies. I’m sure most of you Internet enthusiasts are familiar with Search Engine Optimization competitions, so I am going to run one for $700 U.S.D. in total prize money.

The rules and the mechanics of this competition are very common but I want to enumerate them for better understanding and would suggest that all competitors read them carefully:

1. Simply create an article and post it on your site or blog. Optimize the key phrase so that it becomes the top position in a Google search result for the contest key phrase target.

2. The contest will start on 12:00 noon April 14, 2009 Philippine Time.

3. It will end on 12:00 noon of May 29, 2009 Philippine Time.

4. Your website or Blog’s DOMAIN or SUB-DOMAIN used for the entries should not contain any part of the key phrase.

5. The entries should have a visible link back to Spires at Red Lodge http://www.spiresatredlodge.com and Heart Rate Watch Company http://www.heartratewatchcompany.com You can use the code below if you want.

Heart Rate Watch Company and Spires at Red Lodge

6. There is NO LIMIT to the numbers of entries and posts you may create but only articles created on, or after 12:00 noon April 14, 2009 are valid. Remember that the post must contain the link code specified in the rules.

7. Please, no pornography, no discrimination and no illegal behavior are permitted.

8. Required links should be on the entry post all through out the competition and should not be removed. The organizer and the host of the competition have the rights to disqualify a participant if they find the links removed or tagged by the entrants as NO FOLLOW during the competition.

9. Checking of current ranking can be verified in this data center. http://72.14.221.99/search?hl=en&q=eriuqs+spires+healthy+recreation

10. There is no registration, we will check the validity of the winners according to our contest rules. The validity of your entries will be verified at the end of the competition. If Top 1 is invalid then Top 2 will receive the first prize same thing applied to 2nd and 3rd prizes. So please check your site validity seriously.

11. Prizes will be sent via PAYPAL to the winners. We will talk to the winners via SKYPE individual to ensure they receive their prize properly. Screen shots of PAYPAL payments will be posted here and winners will do the same thing individually.

12. The prizes for the said competition are as follows:

1st Prize = $400

2nd Prize = $200

3rd Prize = $100

The Key Phrase is:

<span class=keyphrase" width="510" height="100">
ATTENTION: The competition article will focus on the activities done on Spires at Red Lodge (i.e. mountain biking, skiing, fishing and etc.). Please be informed that only email addresses gathered through your comments here will receive our email regarding the keyword phrase and start date. We will also post the details here so please be guided accordingly. Good Luck!!!



These are the rules and things from his blog. This is a link to his blog if you are interested in doing this: http://heartratewatchcompany.com/blog/ this is his website: http://spiresatredlodge.com/ go to the blog and add a comments so that they have your email address.

Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Search Engine Optimization Company's And How To Find The One For You?

Your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a search engine optimization company is crucial to the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.

If you have to find a company and can't wait for your finances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordable company that will also be able to supply quality, reliable work, such as a fairly new company. Just remember that there are risks involved with using a company without a proven track record-and that risk is your money! Don't take that leap unless the company can supply you with a least a few references.

References are the most reliable indicator of a good company. Don't use a company that won't show you references because of any reason, confidentiality included. Remember-even doctors will provide references! The firm you choose should provide you with a minimum of two references, one that is from the past, and one that is current.

When you contact these references, be prepared to ask precise, specific questions so that neither of your time is wasted. Ask them what their experience was like with the seo company, such as their availability to answer questions and deal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Ask the reference to rate the overall performance of the seo company.

Find out if the seo company requested that the reference make significant changes to their web pages that affected the visitors coming to their site. You are looking for a search engine optimization company that can balance the needs of both search engines and site visitors without compromising either.

The most essential question to ask is whether the work of the search engine optimization company resulted in higher profits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn't matter whether your positions are at the top of the list or not.

Please leave your comments. How was it to work with a seo company, if you have?

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Choosing A Company To Help With Your Search Engine Optimization

What questions do you ask and how to check out what they tell you? Do your homework. It could cost you a lot later on if you do not do this up front.

* Find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It's easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword "cat leashes" will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it. What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software wordtracker, available at www. wordtracker.com . You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 yer. This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engines use.

* Look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for. You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for. This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.

When you are checking out search engine optimization companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company's results in order to get you to sign on with them. If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their search engine optimization company.

It's important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases. This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should keep it always in the forefront of your marketing strategy.

Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months. Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this , but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.

Since search engine marketing is an on-going process, your positions must be constantly monitored. If you want your search engine optimization company to do this for you, request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential that this report should show rankings for the most popular search engines. Don't be impressed by a report that only shows great results for a limited number of small search engines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Also confirm that the popular search engine results they are showing you are indeed the popular search engines currently.

Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 each month. Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site. This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Monday, April 13, 2009

Choosing A Company That Does Search Engine Optimization To Help You Get Better Rankings.

A Search Engine Optimization Company can be an invaluable asset in your Internet marketing campaign. They specialize in knowing how to raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on a regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in any given month. Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to maintain high search engine positions on your own.

However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.

When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, an in the worst case scenario, will get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine's index.

A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position. Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never, never employ any company that uses this technique!

Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you. Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will sue the success they achieve for your website to sell their service to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.

Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company's track record of results. However, don't take the company's word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you. To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them for a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.

Ask which search engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular search engines, and these are the ones that you want to see good results on. Since the popularity of these search engines can change with the landscape of the overall Internet, check out the Nielsen Netratings page at Search Engine Watch. You can access this at
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451 .

To be continued tomorrow.

We would be glad to hear your comments.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinosn "Marketing Unscrambled"

Happy Easter To All

We hope that everyone has a great Easter Day.

Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Review Of Ebook Compilers # 5

Active Ebook Compiler

This is an easy to use compiler that provides excellent features. This software can support HTML, JPEG, GIF, and all active plug-ins. Features includes password protection, branding, Internet linking, icon customization, assigning unique serial numbers, splash screen, file compression, and start-up massages. It also provides free lifetime upgrades. Additionally, it includes a preprocessor, re-brander, active script, and detailed instructions for using HTML, Power point, and Microsoft word files.

There are several other excellent ebook compilers on the market that are worth looking into. Here are two more.

* Ebook Generator

It features splash screens, password protection, branding, icon customization, and compression control. Additionally, it includes virus prevention that alerts the user to any modifications made to your ebook and offers usage statistics so you can track your ebook's use. With all these advanced features, this is an excellent compiler for the beginner because it is exceptionally easy to run.

* Ebook Creator

It is another excellent compiler, supporting HTML, JPEG, GIF, and PNG graphics, and Javascript, VB script, and Java applets. It also supports all Internet Explorer plug-ins. Standard features include unique serial numbers, direct linking to a form or a page on your website, disabled right clicking, and search functions. The software allows for expiration after a set number of days usages, which allows you to create demo versions. You can create up to 1000 different passwords; every time the ebook is downloaded, a unique password is required to access protected pages. The software provides user-friendly menus and buttons that allows the beginner to the advanced user to easily create their ebook.

Obviously, there are some excellent compilers out there. So figure out EVERYTHING you need in terms of features, and then compare prices and options. Do take advantage of demo versions if they are offered before purchasing. And then, Have fun creating your ebook.

Now you have an idea of ebook compilers that might work for you. Make your choice and get started. We would like to hear your comments.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Review of ebook compilers # 4

* Ebook compiler

This compiler offers a demo version that allows you to compile 10 files. If you don't include graphics, you can create a 10 page ebook that allows printing and copying of the ebook. The catch is that you can't sell any ebook you create in the demo version.

The purchased software is user-friendly with easy-to-follow help files that not only guide you through the steps of compiling your ebook, but also explains what an ebook compiler does. The software provides detailed instructions on how to create source files from Microsoft word 2000 and 1997, PowerPoint 2000 and 1997, and HTML documents. It contains less detailed instructions for creating source files from other programs.

This compiler allows for password protection of you entire ebook or for selected pages. Additionally, you can set a time limit on your ebook. When the time runs out, the customer no longer has assess unless they pay for it. In other words, it allows you to create a demo version of your ebook for marketing purposes.

You can set a single password or multiple passwords. Using multiple passwords assigns each user their own specific password. Online help files guide you through setting up your passwords. You can also create a Sales and Thank-you page for selling a password protected ebook. This is a good choice for the novice, particularly since it includes basic features for password protection and distribution.

The last one will come tomorrow. This gives you 5 to choose from. They all have some good features. Please leave your comments we would like to hear from you.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Review Of Ebook Compiler # 3

* Ebook Edit Pro

This compiler provides a demo version, which allows you to test out its features. The software uses a wizard that leads you step-by-step through the set-up and creation of your ebook. Customization includes text editing that appears on the pop-up starting message window; the ability to allow or prevent resizing of your book and the mouse-click pop-up menu; enabling or disabling the navigation bar and choosing the buttons you want to appear; and customize the ebook's desktop icon and the logo that appears on the navigation bar.

Ebook Edit Pro is loaded with excellent features that allow you to create multi-media ebooks, and includes a wizard that is customized for beginners and for advanced users. The software uses HTML files, downloading them from the directory where they are saved. Edit and resave files in the original software used to create those files, and then with a single click you can re-compile your ebook.

Features include customization of icons, toolbars, and the "about box." This compiler has a particularly useful feature called the rebrander feature. This permits you to enter customized code into your ebook pages and distribute the rebrander software to your affiliates or distributors. They can then customize the links included in the ebook, but they can not alter any link or information that you have not entered a customized code for.

The software includes "eBrand-It" software that allows custom fields for you customer's name, affiliate ID or URL. This feature is a powerful marketing tool because affiliates are much happier giving away your ebook from their own site when they can customize it.

Let us know what you think of any or all of the compilers. How they have worked for you? Leave your comments we would like to hear from you.

Copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Review Of Ebook Compilers # 2

* Desktop Author

This compiler does not require a browser, nor do you have to download software or plug-ins. The program converts exe. files into pages that look like a standard book. You can create and produce ebook pages scaled to fit on your computer screen without any scrolling. Additional features include WYSIWGY ( what you see is what you get ) page editing and creation, the ability to manipulate internal images, cut and paste functions, hotlinks to pages, email, website, or other files. It is an excellent compiler to use for marketing tools, such as creating brochures and manuals in addition to ebooks.

Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Reviewing Different Ebook Compilers

Now that you have a basic understanding of what an ebook compiler does. To help make the decision, this is a review of ebook compilers currently available. One each day.

* E-editor
This software has a demo version that you can download to try out before purchasing. You can't actually use the demo to create an ebook, but you can run the software and test it out thoroughly to see if it does what you need it to do for your particular ebook.

This ebook compiler is one of the easiest to use. The software has a very user-friendly help menu that provides instructions for and explanations of every field on every screen. The program also includes video tutorials demonstrating every step of this compiler with clear explanations of all fields that need to be filled out. There are 7 screens that you use to choose your ebook options.

This compiler requires your files to be in HTML format. You follow simple directions, and the compiler loads your files. If you decide to edit your ebook after it has been complied, make any changes in your original files and click on "Compile, your ebook" and your changes will appear in your compiled ebook.

E-editor allows for some customization of your ebook. You can create a special page that appears when the ebook is opened; create customized icons that appear on the desktop after downloading: use your logo on the task bar of your ebook; customize the task bar's buttons, where the task bar appears in your ebook, and choose the task bar's colors. Additionally, you can choose to have the ebook open to the last page read, which many of your buyers will appreciate.

An excellent and unique feature of E-editor is the capability to choose a standard Microsoft window or to create your own design for a window to personalize your ebook. The program provides some sample window designs, but you can use any . bmp ( bit map skin) graphic you have stored on your hard drive.

E-editor is a good choice if you are new at producing ebooks because it is easy to use and allows you to customize the appearance of your ebook

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Ebook Compilers, How To Choose One That Is Right For You

Look at the size of the ebook the compiler supports. The best compilers can create ebooks up to 2 GB in size without decompressing the HTML pages or images to your hard disk. Usually, ebooks that are 2GB in size can easily support 6GB of compressed data. The catch here is that only text files will generally be compressible.

You do not want a compiler that decompresses this amount of data when the user attempts to open your ebook. This would mean that anyone who purchases your ebook will have to wait for all the data to decompress before they can access your ebook right after downloading it. So look for compilers that only decompress temporarily files that are not HTML to the local harddisk. Non-HTML files include flash, word, and acrobat files. This type of compiler is more secure and certainly faster.

Make sure the compiler you choose is compatible with your system software. Check out what version of windows it requires, and make sure you have that version before buying your compiler.

Support issues are extremly important. Choose a compiler that includes an installation program. This program allows your user to choose a number of different places on their computer to install the ebook, To place a shortcut on their desktop, and to add the ebook if they choose, to the Start Programs menu.

You also want excellent and accessible vendor support. Make sure you can access quick technical support! At three o'clock in the morning, this factor will be very important. Also, check to see the terms of free technical support offered. Unlimited technical support is obviously the best option.

Check to see if the company that puts out the compiler software offers a service level agreement. This agreement is to assure you of their quality response to your questions or problems.

A good thing to consider is how long the compiler has been on the market. Usually, the version number will give you an ides. The longer the program is on the market, the higher the version number, the more bugs have been worked out.

When choosing an ebook compiler, do not be swayed by incredible promises and dazzling sales copy. Do your homework first, and than consider all the above issues and factors before choosing an ebook compiler.

copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"

Ebook Compiler, How It Can Help You?

Let's look at some of these factors in more detail. First of all, make sure you have the correct browser to run the compiler. The majority of HTML compilers use Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape. Check out the version that the compiler supports. Compilers that require a browser will not run on computer that does not have the required browser installed. However, there are ebook HTML compilers that don't require you to have any browser installed on your computer. These compilers run on any windows system.

If you choose a compiler that requires a browser, check to ascertain that the browser is installed correctly and that it is properly configured to the specifications of the compiler. Check to see if certain functions are turned off or on, and make any adjustments according to the compiler instructions.

Security is an essential element of any compiler, regardless of whether you plan to sell or give away your ebook. One of the main reasons for using a compiler is to prevent the reader from modifying the contents. A secure compiler allows access only to the pages you want the user to access unless they enter a correct password.

To find out how secure an ebook HTML compiler is, open an ebook on it. While it is open, check the temporary directory of your computer. This can usually be accessed by typing in c:\windows|temp. If you see a bunch of files when your ebook is open or running, it means that your computer is decompressing the secure data from your ebook before showing the ebook to the viewer. This method is not secure! It means that anyone with the knowledge of how to access these temporary files can steal the secure data and than they can fiddle with your ebook to their evil heart's desire. Remember, one of the main purposes of buying and using an HTML compiler is to protect your property.

Next, let's discuss passwords. When trying to choose an ebook compiler, check out the type of passwords that the compiler supports. Almost all compilers offer some kind of password protection that insures that the user can only access the contents they have purchased from you. However, the best compilers offer varied ways to generate different types of password. Choose a compiler that gives you the options of secure user-friendly, and open password generation.

Another important factor when it comes to passwords is how the compiler generates them. A compiler that has internal password protection generation built into the software is more secure than compilers that link to live Internet password control systems.

Find out is the compiler generates passwords online. If it has this option, it allows you to choose any payment processing system you want or to do the payment processing yourself.

Even more in depth tomorrow on the ebook compiler. Let us have your comments.


copyright Dan and Deanna Finlinson "Marketing Unscrambled"