Sunday, August 12, 2007

Easy Way to Adopt Web 2.0 Technologies for Better SEO

Heard and read lot about the Web 2.0 technologies and are just wondering how to adopt for better search engine rankings. Here are the easy steps…

  1. Do not think that the traditional tactics of SEO – optimizing using meta tags, keyword density, prominence of keywords…more has lost the importance. They are still important and one needs to follow these for better rankings.
  2. Have a good CSS for the web pages. Usage of header tags is very important. Use the main keywords in the header tags.
  3. Instead of using java scripts on the web pages use Ajax. Ajax is the best way to display more content on pages. The web page does not look stuffy but gets a professional look. Get the content preloaded in the html via CSS.
  4. Content is KING. But not webmasters but the content written by the visitors. Add blog and discussion board on the website. Educate people of new things through the blog and listen to the visitors through the discussion boards.
  5. Do visit wiki and read what is there and provide your feedback and suggestions. You need to be more clever about how to do this.
  6. Have a short video / audio file on the website. Thanks to YouTube.
  7. Use ALT tags for the images. Do not repeat the same ALT tag description for all images. Use the proper keywords for ALT tags.
  8. Have press releases and articles sections on the website. Provide and submit them to newswires. Have RSS, Del.icio.us, DIGG, Technorati Reddit for the visitors to bookmark the sites.
  9. Use Google widgets for showing driving directions (Google maps), time converters. You have bunch of them on Google. Use which ever you feel is best for your website.

7 Steps To Make A Newsletter As A Tool For More Conversions

Here are the 7 Steps to make email campaigns or newsletters a tool to have more conversions - apart from the regular tips like send to who have subscribed for, provide unsubscribe link and provide a link to view in html, use less images....
  1. The subject line is the MOST important for an email campaign to be successful. Need to have a punchy line - Special Offer..., Invitation for ... - try avoid using the words free and $ in the subject line. You need to avoid ending up in the junk folder.
  2. The best way to know how an email campaign has worked is offer a specific promo code for the readers. You will surely know the no. of opens, clicks. But, to know how many have purchased is through the promo code. Just check - how may have made a purchase using the promo code in the store.
  3. The best media to promote our business is through a customer. If customer tells good about us let people know. Have a customer testimonial of a satisfied customer.
  4. New customers want to know the level of after-sales-service. Have a support phone no. or email in the newsletter.
  5. Make the newsletter interesting. Have a quiz or a survey to know what customer is thinking about you and this is the best to know what needs to done to improve the customer service.
  6. Inform the customer that the shopping process is fast, easy and secure in 3 easy steps – select the product(s), provide billing/shipping address and give credit card details.
  7. Last but not least – have the email campaign on Wednesdays. Wednesday is the best day to send out newsletters as research says it is effective and the no. of opens will be more on this day. YES – On Monday and Tuesday most of the readers are busy and they come back after weekend and they hardly want to spend time on reading it. More chances are that the newsletter will go to the trash folder. On Thursday and Friday people tend to prepare for the long weekend. So, we are left only with Wednesday.