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<![CDATA[The Benefits of outsourcing SEO.

SEO is big business these days. All too often, there is little supply to meet the current demand. With increases in the costs associated with other forms of web marketing, it has become almost a necessity for businesses to incorporate SEO in to their marketing plan. Unfortunately many companies know very little about SEO and assume it will be cheaper for them in the long run to hire someone “in-house”. In some cases, it may very well be. For most, however, overlooking the benefits of outsourcing SEO can be costly.

Why is it better to outsource?

SEO is an ever changing business. One has to know when and how to find new information. An SEO firm is more likely to be aware of changes to search engine optimization protocols than an in-house individual. An individual will likely spend the majority of his or her time developing and implementing your SEO strategies. Outsourced SEO professionals must perform these same functions while constantly studying the industry, staying current with changing trends and familiarizing themselves with the latest SEO techniques. This is a simple necessity SEO companies that wish to survive.

There are few individuals who will be able to successfully perform the many functions associated with SEO well. An SEO firm likely has several individuals on payroll that specialize in one particular function, be it link building, writing , optimizing etc. These individuals are able to perfect their craft and are usually more adept at their position than a single person wearing many hats.

Time is another concern with in-house SEO. Will one individual be able to optimize multiple pages, write content, tags, build links, run reports and perform other SEO tasks in a timely fashion? One person can only do so much. In the online business world, time is money. Most companies can do in a matter of days what might take an individual weeks to do. Many companies who use in-house SEO personnel spend more than necessary to get the same amount of work done in a longer amount of time.

What about cost? Surely the cost of hiring an individual is substantially less than the cost of hiring a company, right? As I stated in the last paragraph, time concerns and individual expertise will make outsourcing cheaper. Having one individual do the job of five is rarely a good idea. You wouldn’t ask your auto mechanic to take a look at your broken television, would you?

In any case, is outsourcing the right move for you or your company? Whether you choose to outsource or not, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Do your research by performing a simple cost/benefit analysis on what outsourcing versus in-house SEO will cost. In some cases, in-house SEO maybe a better option, especially if you require little in the way of SEO and would be hiring an individual who canperform other tasks.

A resume can say a lot and mean nothing. A resume talking about rankings is meaningless unless you have all the information. Top rankings for phrases no one is searching for means little, and shouldn’t be used as a guage of someone’s abilities.

Whether you hire a SEO company or individual…what is their contribution to the SEO society? Do they share their knowledge? Set trends? It is better to do business with someone that shares their ideas and insights than one who simply learns from others. Innovative techniques are only developed by innovative individuals or companies.

What do others say about the company or individual? Ask for references and check them.

For small companies, in-house SEO can be the best option. The company has time to grow into their SEO. They can see how it works for them and then branch out. Large companies, on the other hand, can lose a lot of ground using an individual over a company. Choosing a competant firm would suit them best.

Joe is an SEO

<![CDATA[Getting a new web site page ranked and indexed are two things everyone should take into account. With all the competing web sites out there the importance of this becomes a top priorty so that you can get free traffic and thus make money online. I started my Internet home business venture some 3 months ago and I didn't have a clue as to how I would get visitors. It quickly became apparent that in order to get visitors for free that I would have to take certain steps. The following is what I did to get my site indexed and page ranked in 3 months, maybe my timing was right for the quarterly page rank by google but I did have to do some work to get there.

1. First off in order to get indexed quickly I suggest you put in a tiny classified ad at CraigsList.com, the site is a PR 8 and having a link to your site will get the search engines crawling all over yours. Make sure to only put one ad in and not to spam them because they will close your account. Also make sure to keep an eye on it, sometimes the administration cancels it or it expires.

2. Next I read an e-book call SEO Made Easy by Brad Callen(You can get a FREE copy on my web site listed below). Brad has some wonderful ideas and methods to get to the top of the search engines. I then implemented his ideas and methods.

3. Getting one way links back to your web site is key in getting Page Ranked.

a) Article submission will get you one way links and having lots of them will get your site PRed. So how do you get a link to your site? Well in each article that is submitted you are allowed to put an "About the Author Box", this is where you put your link to your site. Now some of you might find this very time consumming. Well so did I. What I did is got my articles ghost written from JustArticles.com and had them submitted to over 24,000+ publishers at Isnare.com, for about $70.00 US your can get 5 450-600 word ghost written articles from JustArticles.com and 5 distribution credits from Isnare.com which will distribute those 5 articles to the 24,000+ publishers. Now if you don't want to spend the $70.00 on the articles and distribution you CAN do it for FREE. You can of course write your own articles and get article submission software from my website for FREE. But if you do have the money I suggest you do it this way because it is very time consumming. Its very important that you don't submit more than one per week because getting too many links all at once will make the search engines unhappy. Continue to submit one per week for 3 months.

b) Submitting your web site to one way link directories is the other method I used. Again this is time consuming so I bought a piece of software that does this for me. You still have to do it by hand but all the directories are already preloaded in the software. Go here for a copy of the software I'm using: http://www.directorysubmitter.com/
It costs about $97.00 for the software but I'm sure that you will think its money well spent after you see results. If you don't have the money to do this then I guess you'll have to do it the hard way and find the directories and submit by hand.

c) Joining a well known forum is the last thing I did to get one way links to my site. You see most forums have what's called a sig file. A sig file is a perminent signature to every post you make at the forum. I put in a link to my web site and that's it. The only thing left to do is post topics or reply to ones already made. Again make sure you don't spam the forum you join, this will only get your account closed. Make sure you have a relevant topic or reply and you will have no problems.

By implementing these steps I achieved a Page Rank of 5 in 3 months, keep in mind that the search engines are always changing and finding new ways to rank pages. One thing I think will always be important is the amount of one way links back to your web site. I hope these methods will help you achieve your goals and make you money online, I know they have helped my Internet home business immensely.

To Get the Best Internet Home Businesses, Work at Home Ideas and Opportunities visit: http://www.siriusfreehomebiz.com]]>

<![CDATA[Click-to-call is an emerging contextual advertising format that will help spark the growth of localized search. It links online users to offline advertisers by combining Internet telephone capabilities. Although it has yet to hit its stride as a platform or even pierce consumer consciousness, the biggest interactive names, like Google, Yahoo, and eBay, are positioning themselves for a future in click-to-call. Let’s take a closer look.

Click-to-call ads (CTC) are delivered, like pay-per-click, through standard online search results. They mostly resemble standard paid search ads, too. The user sees the familiar text in a box, except there is an icon that can be clicked to connect the interested party with the designated advertiser via telephone. This process is fully online until the user activates the CTC functionality by clicking that icon delivered with the ad.

Next, the user is prompted to enter their telephone number, which may or may not be already stored with the search engine. Once the phone number is entered, the search engine calls the user and connects the advertiser at no cost to the user. It should be noted that search engines will be adamant about protecting the anonymity of user phone numbers in order to placate any understandable fears of being added to telephone marketing lists. It will be imperative for search engines to build user confidence because trust is precious, especially when introducing new products.
Since CTC incorporates phone use through the Internet, VoIP specific companies like Vonage and Fusion will be parlaying their niche of Internet telephony into partnerships with bigger Internet properties, as evidenced by Skype’s sale to eBay. Even an online advertising agency like ICMediaDirect.com has to consider the impact of a “hybrid” service, like click-to-call, will have on search marketing. Isn’t it funny how convergence, the calling card of technological progress, can make the telephone cutting edge?
Experts aren’t expecting great revenue generation straight out of the gate, but click-to-call could be at the forefront of yet another giant tech-based advertising expansion. One area that click-to-call may impact is local search. I believe CTC has enough functionality to ignite the long anticipated surge of localized search as a leading format of small business advertising. For example, if a person finally has had enough of a bad back

<![CDATA[A sitemap of a website is similar to the table of contents of a book. Sitemaps are important because it guides web surfers to the particular part of the website they have a point of interest in. With it they would save time following links and get right to the point instead. Sitemaps are also where search engines look at if somebody is looking for a particular keyword or phrase. If you have a sitemap, you can get found more easily. Having a sitemap is vital to a website. People search the web a lot for something. If your website has what that particular person is looking for, and your sitemap reports it, then you have a new customer looking at your items. Not only that, they will see some other things up for sale that they might be interested in as well.

A sitemap, be it generated by a program automatically or you made it yourself, presents the same purpose. That is to lead your visitors to where they’re likely headed, and for you to be seen on the World Wide Web through search spiders. So with these, make sure your website has a sitemap of its own, lest make one.

Creating a sitemap is easy. You need not be a programming guru. All you need is a notepad, a program editor, and some patience. Here’s how you do it:

Create the listing on a notepad.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a notepad. Any word processing program will do. First off, make sure to type in all the parts and pieces of your website. Include all pages and all links you have. Create it as if you listing the contents of your book. Make a draft first. You’re sure no to miss something out this way.

Create a new page for your sitemap.
You can insert the sitemap on your website on one of its pages or you can create an entirely different page for it. Using your notepad, incorporate all tags necessary to it to make another webpage. Open up your website creator program and tag your sitemap using it. If you have created your website on your own, this will be easy for you.

Create a link for the sitemap.
You won’t be able to view the sitemap if you won’t put a link for it, of course. Create the link on the front page of your website so that visitors can view it right away and be directed appropriately.

Check your work.
It is important to validate the functionality of the links you created on the sitemap. Test each and every one in there and if you get an error, be sure to fix it accurately. Run through every single page to make sure that all are accounted for.

Upload your work.
Place the sitemap now on your live browser and double check it. It should function as smoothly as the dry run. Error should be minimal at this stage since you already have verified it locally.

These steps are the manual way of creating a sitemap. These days, if you search hard enough on the web, you will find online programs that will do all these work for you. All you have to do it type in the URL or the link of your website and they will create the sitemap with click of a button.

Of course that method is generic. All of you who have created their sitemap that way will have an end product that is all the same, plus there’s that possibility that something else will be inserted in there too. Then again, the process is less taxing and way, way simpler.

But if you want a more personalized output, and you are pretty good with computers and programming yourself, better make one of your own. And since you made your website anyway, creating sitemap is just like creating any other page on the website. Other than you’ll know for sure the links are accurate, you can organize the links the way you prefer it to be. Major parts of the site are emphasized compared to less significant. This is important especially if you are selling products or offering services online.

Copyright 2006, by Karl Fisher, a freelance writer and web developer based in Birmingham, UK.
http://www.bargainlister.co.uk

Copyright 2006, by Karl Fisher, a freelance writer and web developer based in Birmingham, UK.
http://www.bargainlister.co.uk
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