Creating A #1 Rank in Google

Impossible, right? Not really worth the time, right? Wrong on both accounts.

Many times while entering phrases into Google, I find a lot of somewhat related sites, but hardly ever anything exact. So why bother on getting these supposedly un-searched terms?

Because there is a perception that having your site in the #1 spot in Google means that your site is an authority on that particular subject. As any experienced user knows, this is most often not the case, but perception is reality.

Granted, some of the phrases that you can get ranked on may not be very popular, but you never know what a user is going to enter into the search box, or do we ever know at what point of information gathering they are at.

One of the most common traits of searching is that when a user firsts begins a search, they use a broad term, but as they get further along into their search, the phrases become more precise as they themselves filter out the un-related sites.

This is the same concept of which a successful PPC campaign can be run. While it may be great to get tons of traffic for the keyword "shoes", if a user is really looking for "Nike running shoes", the site has wasted money on that search.

Another curious stat that web analytics reveal is that a consumer that comes to a site through PPC is not a life-time customer. They are usually interested in the quick fix, or easy solution. Compared to a user who arrives through organic search engine optimization, they are more likely to be lifetime consumers since they tend to trust a company that has "earned" it's way to the top of the rankings.

By the time a user has a four to five keyword phrase entered in for their search query, chances are that they have already eliminated the "noise" and are focused on the "signal" i.e. the product or service that your site is offering.

One final item to remember is that if you have an exact phrase that is not common to a search engine query, once it gets indexed, it will most like appear in the number one position since the search engines always try to find an exact match when other factors aren't available.

SEO for Blogs

While there are many reasons to blog, there are two primary uses that are becoming more widespread with blogging: To game Google Adsense, and to also game the search engines for better rankings.

Since Blogs are known to the search engines as daily snippets of information that are updated on a frequent basis, they get a lot of preference in the search results.

So from this, how do you optimize your blog?

Depending on the service you utilize, there are still some basics that you can apply. The two biggest blogging sites are WordPress and Blogger. If you are looking for an advantage with SEO, you should use Blogger since they are owned by Google, and you'll be indexed quicker.

Blogs aren't all that much different than a site. The power of a blog is from the frequency of the posting. If the search engines see a pattern of 3 postings per day, they will be very active on spidering that site. Depending on the topic of the blog, you may be able to boost your blog in the rankings if it's related to a hot topic on the Internet.

Now, to the actual optimization.

Since blogs are typically a few pages long, you only need to establish a few rules that will be applied sitewide:

• Use an interesting title - Also known as linkbaiting - your title should captivate the user to read more


• Try to use your blog keywords in the title - while it may be hard to always do this, by keeping the title related to the topic, your blog will always be relevant


• Use the H1 tags - All blog editors allow for custom templates, so be sure to stylize your blog title in the H1 tags


• Link to other blogs - Find other related blogs that your readers might find interesting, and ask for a link in return


• Don't forget about your archives - You may post a topic that isn't hot at the moment, but comes up later - make sure your readers can find that posting

As stated above, the key to a successful blog is frequent postings. You don't need to write up an article everytime, two paragraphs and maybe some resource links is what a typical posting should be comprised of.

Search Engine Optimization for Google

With the recent Jagger update settling, many people find their sites no longer have the high rankings they had for so long enjoyed prior to the latest Google update.

So, the sites that lost these rankings are scrambling to find some answers as to why their site dropped. While it's my business to know the intricacies of how this particular update impacted the search algorithm, there are some common ground starting points that if you apply these to all of your sites, you should be able to survive any update intact.

• Proper naming structure


• Name your page titles with your keywords if possible


• Always have a sitemap


• Always include a robots.txt file


• If you must use a re-direct, be sure it's server side, not with a meta refresh tag


• Don't use hidden text


• Make sure your keyword phrase is included in your H1 tags


• Don't optimize for more than 2 keywords per page


• Use text links where possible


• In any product image, be sure to use the alt tag


• Use hyphens, not underscores when you name a page file


• Make sure your site has an error handling page


• Create a Google Sitemap and submit it to them (This is in addition to a typical sitemap)


• Offload all your js and css code


• Don't forget about meta tags

Be sure to follow these simple guidelines and you won't need to worry too much anytime Google has an update - your site will not be impacted by any filters that are checking for spamming, hidden text, or anything that resembles cloaking.

Six Steps to Easily Monetize Blog Traffic Exchange Visitors

The emphasis here for both new and established blogs is to ONLY start using blog traffic exchanges immediately after one has publish an article that promotes a specific affiliate program or website.

This is because your blog post (with affiliate links) will be right at top in your homepage and this is where most visitors will direct their attention.

Traffic exchanges are time consuming and if you have not written a post which promotes an affiliate program or product, I see no reason to waste your time on them because the monetization potential is just not there.

Remember, don’t use these exchanges everyday for every single new post you write. Only use them extensively after you write a post which contains affiliate/referral links that will allow you to make money through personal recommendations.

The emphasis is on getting visitor to read your post, click through on the links and proceed to either sign up for the recommended website or make a quick purchase.

Here are the six steps you should take:

Write a great post or review about a specific affiliate product or website. Offer an authentic opinion which provides both pros and cons of the program. Do NOT aggressively sell the product. Write naturally in a conversational style.

Remove all other advertising networks on your site. It helps to build a little credibility while centralizing focus on the article. You can always put them back up after you’ve done a few rounds of traffic trades.

Dress up your sidebars and the area after your post by prominently displaying buttons, banners or text links which either lead to a review page on your blog about the affiliate product or an affiliate landing page or original product website through your referral link. This is another net to catch visitors who don’t click through within the article itself.

Start to surf the blog traffic exchanges. Open up two or more exchange websites in separate tabs and start manually surfing. If you don’t mind spending money, an alternative would be to purchase some traffic credits.

Monitor the number of click throughs through basic stats programs like Google Analytics or MyBlogLog. Also check to see the number of signups or purchases through the affiliate center for the programs you’ve promoted.

Repeat the entire process if there is an acceptable number of conversions. A minimum of 5% conversion ratio, i.e. five new signups or purchases per 100 visitors over two days would be considered an appropriate standard.

How to Use Traffic Exchanges to Make Money from your Blog

Before I get into the gritty details on how you can effectively monetize blog traffic exchange visitors, I’ll be very clear on what type of blogs will work best for this.

Your blog should have unique content and should not just be a feed scrapper blog which reposts articles and links. Spam and copyright issues are of some concern to blog traffic exchange networks.

The blog must not be a sales letter or website in disguise. I’m referring to blogs whereby every single article sells a product or contains various affiliate links. Bloggers and exchange network admins can usually identify these sites as spam, not to mention that it might negatively impact the trust level of a new visitor.

Blogs with cookie-cutter templates will not work as well as blogs that have unique and well designed themes. This is a simple fact because you only have less than 30 seconds before the visitor clicks through to the next blog. The design must magnetize and capture the blogger’s attention.

The first blog post on the blog should not use excerpts or the more tag. The blog post should be displayed in full so there is less risk that the visitor will ignore it. Other non-monetized posts without affiliate links should be excerpted.

Disadvantages and Limitations of Blog Traffic Exchanges

Here are some points to take note of, if you are interested in using blog traffic exchanges for your blog. Only after taking these factors into consideration, should you proceed to the six steps that I've outlined in the later part of this article.

• Negative Effects on Publisher Accounts with ad networks
  
  

  Some bloggers have suggested that advertising networks like Adsense do not allow the use of traffic exchanges, because they generate artificial traffic and ad impressions.

• I have used blogs with Adsense on them in the past and have not received any warning. But this was probably because I was not actively using traffic exchanges on a regular basis.

  
  

  I would recommend that you email your ad network to confirm if they allow the use of traffic exchanges. I personally would not run any advertising programs while using these exchanges.

  
  

  If you want to monetize this traffic, I would suggest purely using affiliate programs for products or services.

• Visitor Traffic is Poorly Targeted
  

• Blog traffic exchanges are similar to StumbleUpon in that you'll never really know what to expect. For some exchanges like Blog Explosion, you can choose to surf blogs only in a specific field but I'm not sure how many users actually use this function.

  
  

  Unlike search traffic, visitors coming through traffic exchanges do not require or seek specific information so anything you offer could be hit or miss. I suggest sticking to general topics if you are promoting affiliate programs.

  
  
• Limited Market Scope
  

  The traffic that you are trying to monetize is actually limited only to the users of each Traffic Exchange. This means that after consistently using each exchange for a while, the quality of the traffic as it relates to affiliate programs might decrease.

  
  

  One can only hope that by then, you would have build up a strong enough audience base which you can tap for future monetization efforts.

  
  
• Manual Surfing is Time-consuming
  

  Unless you buy traffic credits, you'll have to manually surf other blogs through the traffic exchanges in return for other bloggers to visit your website. This can be a time consuming process and can also distract you from other tasks at hand.