Directory Backlinks: Tips For Generating Back-links When Using Directories

Although directory submissions are probably the most popular method of generating back-links within a short period of time, there are some tips you need to keep in mind when using directories to create your back-link campaigns.

The search engines have become more and more sophisticated since their inception and will immediately flag unnatural pattern changes to your website.

For this reason it's a good idea to increase back-links to your website gradually instead of creating an instant flood of links with back-link generating software that you often see recommended online.

Google and the other search engines will penalize your site and potentially cause you to lose your current position with the search engines if they detect such unnatural behavior.

The best approach for generating back-links when using directories is to do it gradually over time.

Instead of mass submitting your website into hundreds of directories, just focus on submitting your website to about 100 at the most. 

When you gradually increase the number of back-links that are featured within each category, the search engines consider the increase in traffic as a "real" popularity indicator and will improve your rank accordingly.

Choosing relevant categories to place your website listing in is also something that Google and the other search engines look at under a microscope.

Getting back-links to your health and fitness website from a site dedicated to coin collecting will not do you any favors or increase your page rank with the search engines.

When submitting your website into online directories, it is extremely important that you ALWAYS select the category or sub category that is closest to the main directory that represents what your site is all about. 

The closer the category is to the main directory, the more exposure your website will receive

For this reason it's a good idea to manually submit your website to the directories to ensure that it is placed in the correct relevant category.

Using targeted keywords in both your listing title and web site description when manually submitting to the directories will also increase your chances of acquiring quality back-links.

Because posting your website to the directories is a tedious, time consuming process, many webmasters use software programs that allow customization of the item description, title, anchor text used in the item description and keywords.

Customizable software programs save webmasters a considerable amount of time and manpower and do a great job when used properly.

Businesses should focus on generating only one way back-links when submitting to the directories.

Businesses in particular should always have more inbound links to their site than outbound links.

As a general rule, Internal links should always be greater than the amount of external links for any website.

These tips for generating back-links when using directories are simple to implement and will improve your company's bottom line.

Some Reasons to Consider Event Marketing

Event marketing is simply an easy affordable method of initiating an online event where you can promote and manage your business ideas to like minded individuals.

Originally, social media revolved around events of some nature where people congregated to discuss their common interests.

Regardless of the topic, people would congregate in restaurants, stores, seminars (now webinars), classrooms, churches, etc. to learn about and discuss ideas that benefited them in some way.

The Internet for the most part, now replaces these historic gathering locations where people once congregated and makes it easier for Internet marketers to promote their products and services.

Event marketing is an easy, affordable way to manage and promote your online business events however, planning, promoting and hosting a successful event requires a good deal of energy, time and effort.

When implemented properly, event marketing will save you time and promote your on or offline business events efficiently.

Several Internet business marketing solutions are available to make promoting, online registration, tracking, and follow up of attendees easier for your event marketing.

Two great web based tools that can help you make better use of your time for event marketing is the auto-responder and social media sites like Facebook.

Although auto-responders are primarily used as an email marketing tool, auto-responders such as Constant Contact, AWeber and others used with Facebook and other social media will substantially reduce the amount of energy you need to expend to create the best event possible.

Regardless of the location or format, small businesses host events to increase customer participation, attract new members, and improve loyalty among their current customer base.

Event marketing should be a one stop shopping experience that not only promotes your event but also collects registrations and follows up with visitors who attend your event.

Auto-responders make online small business registration easier and more professional looking and event marketing can make your life easier using handy social media tools to help you fill seats at your events.

Using Article Marketing To Attract Back Links

Article marketing is still an exceptional technique for generating a flood of high quality back links to your website.

All you need to get started is around 10-20 well written 300 to 400 word articles.

When I say well written, I mean original high quality articles that have your primary keywords included in the titles of each article, as well as in the content.

Some article marketing revolves around re-writing private label content.

This practice is acceptable providing that the articles are indeed totally re-written.

Some article directories will not allow PLR content submissions.

When your articles are available, you can start submitting them to the various article directories.

Begin with EzineArticles.com and when the article is published, submit the same article to the other directories.

Each of your articles should have an author's resource box tagged with a back link to your website or business blog at the end of the article.

Although some article directories allow anchor text back links in the body of your articles, EzineArticles.com and a few others only permit back links in the resource box.

As long as your articles are compelling enough to hold your reader's attention until they get to read your resource box at the end of your article, you should have no problem acquiring a sufficient number of back links to increase traffic to your site.

When using article marketing to attract back links, the more articles you have in circulation, the more exposure you will get from both your article's resource box and your directory profile.

The major article directories provide the "link juice" necessary for your site because of the authority and weight that the search engines give to these directories.

Google in particular ranks EzineArticles.com at the top of their search engine results and once your keyword rich article is published by them, it will rank high in the results page for that keyword.

When you create articles that have your primary keywords integrated into them, you will be able to rank effectively for some of the most competitive keywords and phrases in your market niche.

When webmasters reprint your articles, they must retain your author's resource box along with any included back links to your website.

This can generate a flood of targeted traffic from every website that publishes your original content and is the primary reason why using article marketing to attract backlinks is so effective.

How Safe Is Your Online Shopping?

How safe is your online shopping compared to your purchasing of goods from storefront vendors?

Although the attitudes for shopping online have changed dramatically, many website visitors refrain from purchasing products online because of security issues.

Every day we hear about people having their identities stolen by unscrupulous individuals however is online shopping any less safe than buying from the local Wal-Mart?

The issue seems to be whether current technology can be counted on to protect credit card information from being stolen.

The answer in almost every case is a definite YES.

The most common secure shopping sites online use Netscape's Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to keep their users information secure..

SSL utilizes encryption technology that sends a digital certificate with a public key which can only be decrypted with a corresponding private key.

Depending on the level of encryption that is being used (40 bit, 56 bit or 128 bit encryption), breaking the code can be next to impossible. 

The additional fact that online credit card transactions can be sent directly to the credit card company and never be seen by the merchant, makes your credit card transactions much more secure online than when you purchase your products from a store, a bar, a restaurant or over the telephone.

The most likely risks for stolen information does not come not from decryption technology but from elaborate scams, misdirections and basic theft conducted by hackers and other online mischief makers.

How safe is your online shopping depends on your "detect" level.

Obvious schemes such as get rich quick business opportunities, pyramid schemes, lottery winnings from other countries you need to pay for before cashing in, etc. are relatively easy to detect.

However, when you think you're buying from a bona fide business you are familiar with and discover that you are purchasing from a "clone" website; you can be taken in by clever misdirections.

You can avoid these schemes by using some "due diligence" before transmitting any information about yourself online.

Deal only with businesses you are certain about and make sure they are who they say they are by confirming their website URL. 

Imposter websites will have a different URL than the original site and are usually redirects from fake site directories or banner advertisements

Unsolicited deceptive spam emails are often the cause of shopping problems online.

Never respond to unsolicited e-mails.  The sender probably obtained your email through an illegal source so if you don't recognize the sender, don't bother replying to the email.

To make your online shopping safer, make your payments with a Visa, Amex or MasterCard.  These cards limit your liability to $50.00 and the issuers will promptly notify you when unusually large purchases, or purchases that are outside your normal buying patterns are made.

You should also make sure that you are using a secure connection.

Your web browser will tell you when you enter a secure site by displaying a closed lock or an unbroken key icon in the lower left corner of the browser.

Look for secure URLs when giving any personal information online.  Never provide any personal information unless it is over a https:// URL.

There are well established laws governing commerce in the United States and the same laws that govern mail and telephone orders apply to online shopping.

Fortunately, most internet shoppers purchase good products online at fair prices and receive decent customer service.

The majority of online buyers are happy with their purchasing experiences because of the variety of products and services that are available online.

The majority of online merchants want satisfied customers in order to get repeat business and will go to great lengths to maintain their credibility.

Unfortunately, scammers and unscrupulous businesses are found everywhere, even on the Internet.

For additional information on  eCommerce privacy and security, visit the FTC websites below:

http://www.ftc.gov/
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/tech/privacy.shtm

As to the question "How safe is your online shopping?"; the truthful answer is, as safe or safer than any other type of shopping, on or offline.

Well Designed Websites Are Important For A Variety Of Reasons

We all know that well designed websites are important for keeping visitors on your site long enough to receive your message and ultimately purchase the product or service you are offering.

Well designed websites are also important for getting visitors to revisit your site.

In order to achieve this, there needs to be a blending of the necessary requirements that every well built website must have.

Your website should incorporate superior technology that will set you apart from your competition.

It should also give you an edge with the search engines so potential buyers can more easily find your goods.

To do this your site needs to incorporate technology that provides a dual service.

• Well designed websites allow easy indexing for the search engines of all web pages.   

• Well designed websites will also help convert visitors that enter your site into loyal customers by implementing opt-in sign-up or squeeze pages.

Well designed websites are easy for visitors to use.

The "back button" is one of your biggest obstacles to a profitable online business.

Well designed websites will give a visitor an understanding of what they will find on your site and show them exactly where to go to find it.

Your website should have a logical "flow" to it and be easy to navigate to prevent your visitors from clicking on the "back button".

Well designed websites that attract repeat customers are usually creative in their design.

It's important that you pay attention to your target niche when you are designing your website. 

If nothing else, the design of your site should add interest and when done correctly, provide a topic of conversation among your visitors.

When designing your websites, always create an interesting design geared to the people in your target market who will be using it.

Content is king and for good reason.

Website content can make or break a website. 

Visitors look for original content that is relevant to their search query and will normally not return to a site if it does not provide what they were searching for.

The fastest way to increased sales, is to be found in local web searches.
        
Well designed websites loaded with content that provides what your visitors are actually looking for and supports their search criteria, will pay off in a higher search engine ranking, increased sales and repeat visits from your customers.

Internet Business Marketing Solutions That Will Make You More Popular On Google

There are a host of Internet business marketing solutions that will make you more popular on Google's search engine, so we will concentrate on why popularity is so important.

If you're not already promoting your business using targeted marketing and value perception concepts, your business is probably not listed on the first page of Google's search results.

It's a well known fact that businesses on the top of the first page of the search engines, get well over 60% of targeted marketing web traffic.

This means that if your business is not listed on the first page of Google, not only do you not exist, your competitors are getting all your clicks.

In general, if your business is not listed in the top three positions of the search engine results for your targeted keyword, you are getting at most only 30% of the total amount of potential web traffic you deserve.

The solution to this is a simple Search Engine Optimization campaign to improve your business's organic search results.

Knowing how your business ranks on the major search engines and what your competitors are doing online is extremely important to any business.

By simply targeting your best potential customers, you can save a ton of time and make your business much more profitable.

Simple implementation of a targeted marketing SEO campaign can eventually have you controlling up to the first 10 pages of Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. with your primary business keyword.

 If you decide not to outsource the Search Engine Optimization of your business website, getting noticed online doesn't have to be a full time job.

The Ultimate Guide To Free Web Traffic For Your Success shows how you can generate massive streams of targeted traffic and get noticed online for free.

Use Conventional Newspaper Advertising To Drive Traffic To Your Website

Conventional newspaper advertising is an often overlooked Internet business marketing solution for driving web traffic to your storefront or website.

In fact of all the marketing tools available to online marketers, conventional newspaper advertising is the most overlooked.

Even though we hear about the drop in readership of many newspapers in the United States; they still enjoy the status of being the largest source of advertising worldwide.

70% of all advertising worldwide is done through newspapers. This means that the majority of literate people on the planet still read a newspaper each and every single day.

Although not everyone on the globe has their own personal computer; your online advertising efforts can still be facilitated by advertising your website in the newspapers.

Think about it, the same people who surf the web on a daily basis. still read conventional newspaper advertising in their local papers.

Just because you are doing most of your marketing online does not mean that there is no place for conventional newspaper advertising in your business model.

The fact is, thousands of home businesses successfully use classified newspaper advertising to drive additional traffic to their websites and to increase the bottom lines of their businesses.

The cost for advertising space is usually quite reasonable, especially for local newspapers and the benefits can be phenomenal if you take time to write good copy.

And, you can buy advertisements in hundreds of newspapers at significant discounts, sometimes up to 90% off.

The same guides for writing a good PPC ad or Ezine article apply to conventional newspaper advertising copy.   Just remember to include your website URL in your ad.

If you decide to use conventional newspaper advertising to drive traffic to your website, the following resources can help you with the implementation.

Every newspaper currently in print - United States and worldwide
Top 100 newspapers
US News Archives
Google Searchable Newspaper Archives

Business Marketing Solutions For Getting Web Traffic

Here is a simple business marketing solution for getting web traffic to your website or blog.

Every time you add content to your website or post an update to your blog try this little trick.

• First, get the URL of the web page or blog post that you just updated and log into Digg.com.
  
  

Once you access the site,  locate the "Submit Link" button in the header and fill in the URL of your updated web page or blog post.

Once you click on the continue button you will be required to provide a title and a description of the post.

Use the primary keyword of your update in the title and also in the description.

Select a category that is closest to your content and click the "Digg it" button to publish your bookmark.

• Next grab the URL of the Digg bookmark and go to the Pingler.com website.
  
  

You can sign up for free or just scroll down to the "Ping your URL" area.

Fill in the Title section and make sure to insert the primary keyword up front.

Next in the URL area, insert the Digg URL for the web page or blog post that you updated.

Select a category that most closely matches the content of your topic, fill out the captcha code and click the "Ping" button.

• It's important to keep the URL for your Digg bookmark open and don't close the Pingler page until the ping service is completed.

If your are first in line the pinging doesn't take very long, but if you are 11th or 12th in the que sequence, it could take some time for your site to get pinged.  Be patient.

• After your Digg URL is pinged,  you can go back to the web or blog page that you originally updated and use Pingler to ping your original URL page.

Don't ping the same URL more than once!

Although this business marketing solution for getting web traffic is somewhat time consuming, it works like a charm if you only have a few websites to update. 

A Natural Link Building Primer

Natural link building is an essential part of search engine optimization and is critically important for making your website visible to a larger population of the Internet.

When Google reviews a website in order to rank it, one of the most important aspects that they take into account with their algorithms is the number of back links that are attached to the site.

Google's search engines count each link as a vote.

 When a third party links their website to yours without any intervention or encouragement on your part, the process is referred to as natural link building.

This type of back link to your site cannot be purchased without flagging Google's search engine robots and is weighted more than other links.

Natural link building is just that. 

When a visitor discovers your website and the information on your site is so relevant and useful that they willingly create a link to your site, the link is called a "natural link".

This process is the only way that natural link building, also known as relevant link building can be accomplished.

Natural link building obviously cannot be achieved overnight. 

Due to the nature of the process, relevant link building takes a long time to achieve any measurable amount of success. 

Although patience is a requirement, it is possible to speed up the process through the implementation of a viral marketing campaign.

Viral marketing, although not an entirely natural process, can be an enormous benefit to your website and can speed up the natural link building process.

You can create a link building campaign to drive relevant traffic to your site through other means.

One of the best ways to attract natural links to your website is through blogs.

Posting links back to your website in your comments to other relevant websites, forums and blogs will drive traffic to your site and potentially attract natural links.

When combined with other SEO strategies these natural link building techniques will make your website more visible to a larger population of the Internet.