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SEO Guide – Benefits of On-page and Off-page
As citizens of the twenty-first century, we all depend on the internet for our day-to-day professional and social lives. We all are aware about the role the search engine plays in providing us information on a variety of topics. Owners of websites try out some tweaking activities to have their sites listed towards the top of a search list. This set of tweaking activities that allow a site to gain higher search rank is known as search engine optimization (SEO). The basic intent is to first identify a set of keywords that correspond to the product/service the website highlights, and modify the site according to some rules considered legal by the search engines.
Research suggests that 42% of the search engine users find their desired results by clicking the links in the first page of the search results. Only 11% turn to the second page links, and this percentage deteriorates drastically for the later pages. In this article, we will explore two important aspects of SEO - the on-page and off-page SEO.
On-Page Optimization
The on-page optimization activities involve modifications in various components of a web page. Some of these activities include—ensuring the presence of identified keyword(s) in the page title, Meta description, Meta keywords, header tags, anchor tags, body text (the actual page content) and so forth. The keywords should also be present in in-bound and out-bound links and Alt tags of images. The search engine spiders view websites differently than humans do. The search engine tries to find out the essence of a site by analyzing its underlying HTML code. If it identifies a string of words (keywords) spread across various HTML elements of the page, it attaches due importance to the page with respect to these keywords.
Off-Page Optimization
The off-page optimization involves a set of activities that promotes the site from behind the scenes. Stated simply, SEO professionals promote a site by back-linking to the site from various other relevant sites. If more links point to your site, higher importance is attached during calculation of the search results. It is to be borne in mind that both the number and quality of back-links matter. For instance, the back-links generated by link firms to a site can ruin the site's SEO prospects. Even, the site can be blacklisted by leading search engines for practicing illegal SEO activities. SEO practitioners always try to provide back-links from quality sources (with good, relevant content) to the site being optimized.
Both On-Page and Off-Page Optimizations are important
In this age of competition, both on-page and off-page optimization are needed one after the other. If the competition for a keyword is weak, we can do away with the later; but such cases are extremely rare nowadays. With the continually changing algorithms of the search engines, both these techniques carry high importance. However, the on-page SEO activities need to be completed first.
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Targeted Website Traffic – Discover the Secrets
If you are the owner of a business website, then you must learn Internet marketing strategies to get the most out of your web presence. If you have a site up and running, then you need steady web traffic to your site and maximum possible conversion of this "interested" web-traffic to "actual" sales closure. You need to have the right strategies in place to get people interested in your products/services offered through your site. In this article, we will explore a few of these strategies.
Common Pitfalls that Dissipate Web Traffic
At the outset, let's have a look at some of the common mistakes that website owners commit that have a negative impact on web traffic generation.
• Some sites are loaded with jazzy banner ads that lack aesthetic sense.
• The content is sometimes written in corporate style that laymen often fail to interpret.
• The sales pitch is often made too quickly.
• Sometimes the enterprise owners remain anonymous, which raises the eyebrows of the visitors. After all, we engage ourselves in business transactions with people whom we know.
• Too many products and too many cross-links leave a negative impression on the visitors.
Steps to Improve the Impression of your Site
Here are some of the tips that can increase your site's (and hence your products & services) acceptance to the visitors.
• Keep your paragraphs and sentences short, because people do not want to read long online.
• Write the content lucidly, so that every visitor is clear about your offers.
• Impart an attractive headline (if applicable, sub-headings too) within the page content.
• Do not use a small font size that readers find difficult to read.
• Stress on proper layout of the web page. Every element on the page should be properly spaced.
• Place the sign-in form link at a conspicuous place so that people can sign up easily.
Determine your Target Audience
It is surprising but true that many website owners do not have a clear understanding about the site's target audience. One of the first things you need to determine is your site's target audience. Determine the demographic aspects such as age, sex, race, and hobbies etc. Try to frame the idea of a person who is a probable candidate to buy the product. Once you frame your target audience, you are in a better position to position your site accordingly.
Targeted Advertising through Social Networking Sites and PPC Advertising
Today's Internet activities are dominated by surfing popular social networking sites. People, mostly surfers of the younger generation, visit these sites to build and maintain social networks. They get benefited by a lot of stuff - from friendship to jobs. These social media sites offer targeted advertising facilities. By investing in this scheme, you can narrow down fruitless web traffic to focused visitors.
Another method of getting targeted web traffic is investment in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. It doesn't involve a huge financial outlay, but helps you to reach your target audience quicker. It is in fact one of the most traceable forms of online marketing. People who are interested in your line of products will find the positioning of the PPC links highly relevant and would want to explore the sites.
At the end, we can conclude that getting web traffic is not as important as getting targeted web traffic. You need to do your basic homework first to identify your target audience, design your site accordingly, and invest in online marketing to pull targeted web traffic to your site with the potential of increased sales.
