Lord Rahl's Writings and thoughts

Search Engine Keywords Selection

LordRahl — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:58:00 +0000

The search engines like Google,Yahoo and MSN are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position that your website appears in search results is an important factor. But in order for visitors to reach their target site (your website)need to provide them with specific and effective signs that will direct them right to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen the Best KEYWORDS!

Find the exactly right words or phrases, and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in developing your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think that you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's hard to focus when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers' understanding is significantly different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you gather from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keyword to the list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By "quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements:
1. Popularity
2. Specificity
3. Motivation

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher the number that the software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you.

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between "Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in between beer parties. You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to you site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you determine the effectiveness of your keywords by individual search engines. There is currently a software that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work - and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your business' revenues.

How Health Savings Accounts Reduce Medical Expenses And Help You Avoid Metabolic Syndrome

LordRahl — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:56:00 +0000

The most common set of diseases facing Americans moving into their 40's and beyond has been termed "metabolic syndrome". Metabolic syndrome is a collection of disease symptoms that tend to occur together. These are excess body fat around your waist, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, elevated triglyceride levels, and high fasting blood sugar.

As more Americans are carrying high-deductible health plans along with health savings accounts, many say they are beginning to pay more attention to their health. Health savings accounts (HSAs) allow you to put aside pre-tax money to be used for future medical expenses. Because deposits grow tax-deferred and are not taxed for medical withdrawals, if you fund your account and stay healthy, you could have hundreds of thousands of dollars in your HSA by the time you retire.

The fundamental metabolic disturbance that seems to be common in almost all people who have metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone that your body uses to move the carbohydrate that you eat into your cells. If you are insulin resistant, your cells don't respond well to insulin, and your pancreas has to produce higher amounts in order to keep your blood sugar from going too high. (Once your pancreas is no longer able to keep up with this increased demand, you become diabetic.) If you are insulin sensitive, your body is responding well to smaller amounts of insulin.

Fortunately, metabolic syndrome is almost entirely preventable. Avoid it, and you'll greatly increase your chances of also avoiding cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, stroke, and many other serious conditions. Though all the mechanisms behind the metabolic syndrome have not been worked out, the evidence is strong that combinations of several lifestyle strategies are very effective in preventing this condition.

Exercise

Exercising does more than just burn calories or build muscle. One of the most profound benefits of exercise is its effect on insulin sensitivity. When insulin is released in response to carbohydrate ingestion, glucose transporters come to the surface of the cell in order to carry the glucose into the cell. In muscles and fat cells this transporter is called Glut-4. Exercise itself helps Glut-4 to move through the cell membrane to the surface of your muscle cell, causing these cells to be much more insulin sensitive. Even a single bout of exercise will cause your muscles to respond more effectively to insulin.

Eat Low-Glycemic Foods

The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly a food raises our blood sugar. The high-glycemic carbohydrates in the American diet are primarily the "white foods" (bread, pasta, rice, white potatoes, and sugar). These foods cause many of the changes associated with metabolic syndrome, including lower HDL levels, and higher triglycerides. When a person eats these foods year after year, insulin levels remain chronically high. The result is that eventually the cells become less responsive to the insulin, in turn leading to increased risk of obesity, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and premature death. Low-glycemic carbohydrates include most fruits and vegetables. Eating a diet that limits or avoids high-glycemic grains, potatoes, and sugars, and includes more low-glycemic fruits and vegetables, fish, and lean meat can dramatically improve your insulin sensitivity.

Eat the Right Fat

We've talked in previous issues about the seemingly miraculous health benefits of fish oil. Fish oil improves insulin sensitivity. Eskimos, who consume high quantities of fish oil, rarely experience diabetes, even though they are often overweight. Though the mechanism by which fish oil works isn't yet understood, many researchers believe that fish oil makes the cell membrane more "fluid", enabling the Glut-4 transporters to more easily move to the surface of the cell in response to insulin. Everyone who does not eat fish on a regular basis should consider taking a high-quality fish oil.

Saturated fats and trans-fats, in contrast, make the cell membrane more stiff and inflexible, and also reduce insulin sensitivity. Saturated fats are found primarily in beef, pork, and dairy products and trans-fats are found in processed foods. Saturated fats should be minimized, and trans-fats should ideally be completely eliminated from your diet.

Eat Enough Protein

If you're avoiding starches, you'll need to replace those calories with something else - that should be lean protein. Protein satisfies your appetite more than any other macronutrient, it increases metabolism, and it will contribute to weight loss. The best proteins are lean meats like turkey breast and chicken breast, lean beef, fish, and eggs. And if you are overweight, nothing will improve your insulin sensitivity faster than losing some weight. In fact, weight loss significantly improves all aspects of metabolic syndrome. Eat the right foods, and your body will tend to normalize at the right weight without you having to count calories or starve yourself.

Take Action

Remember, just reading an article has never made anyone healthier. Though there are drugs available to treat some of the symptoms, doctors have no pharmaceutical cure for metabolic syndrome, and almost all individuals become more insulin resistant as they age. It is the lifestyle choices and the actions that you take today to improve your insulin sensitivity that will have a powerful impact on the length and quality of your life.

The characteristic that many people like about HSAs is that they reward those who take responsibility for themselves. By putting aside money to pay for future medical expenses, you are being a responsible citizen, and deserve the tax benefits that an HSA offers. Make the same investment in your health, and you'll not only have the good health to enjoy your retirement, but you'll also have plenty of money in the bank as well.

link building a Good Strategy .

LordRahl — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:54:00 +0000

link building a Good Strategy .
Link building is not all about search engine optimization, it's not about boosting your Google PageRank, it's not about publishing a link directory and it's not about swapping links with as many other websites as possible. If you've gone through all the hard work of a link building campaign, you expect to be rewarded with some impressive links. The reality is that many people are disappointed with the trickle of links and the trickle of traffic that their efforts produce. If that sounds familiar to you, then you need to step back a bit and re-access your linking strategy. When it comes to the art of linking, Your website traffic reports are an invaluable source of this information. Patience and persistence counts in any link building campaign, as generating quality links from credible sources can take a long time. Writing unique, valuable content about your subject matter for your own site is the most critical piece of on-site SEO. But it can also be a fantastic way to generate quality links from other sites. Avoid the common pitfalls of obtaining PageRank or link popularity. This means staying away from link schemes. Create an outbound links page on your website only if it makes sense for your company or your audience. And don't use hidden links. Blogging is a very effective way to get natural inbound links, and by having a personal blog at your site, you can more easily make commentary at other sites that link back to you. Do not spam blog comments with advertisements; your goal is to create an online reputation you can be proud of.

How to build an easy web site from scratch

LordRahl — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:49:00 +0000

How to build an easy web site from scratch

We all know that in order to really make money on the internet you have to have a website. Build an easy web site from scratch with my top 4 tips to building a website.

Tip #1 - Use discussion boards to find answers to your questions

Discussion boards are the best place to find answers to any questions about website design you have. I have used discussion boards for many of my learning. It is a great way to learn how to spice up your website.

Tip #2 - Find things you like on other websites and view the source

If you are surfing around the net and you find something that you really like on a website you can go to view and then to view source to see what the code is for whatever it is you like. This is how I taught myself to use tables, link lists, create forms, and many other handy website design tips.

Tip #3 - Start with a free website design service and then view the source

Using a free website design service to build a page with things you like is a great way to learn. You can then view the source just like you did above to see how the code works for those specific things.

Tip #4 - Use notepad to play around with different codes

Notepad is great because you can save your files as .htm and view them in your browser window. Use this to play around with different codes and you can see what your changes do to your page. This is a great way to learn different codes and different website secrets.

I know this is not a lot to get you started, but this is where I started. It is a great asset to know how to type out some html code or read java script.

Importance of Good Web Design

LordRahl — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:48:00 +0000

Importance of Good Web Design

The passion of World Wide Web keep growing and growing these days. Business realizes the benefits of being on the web in the present time. If we want to build and expand our business in world wide then its essential for us to make a good web site, so that people can easily visits our website and came to know about our business and our product and our services. It is said that first impression is the last impression and your website is the first impression to your target potential customers. The impression created by your website in visitor mind so its important to make a good website for first impression on our visitor's mind so that they revisit our site in the future. The following rules summarize the work of web design experts who are completely familiar with all the aspects of web design. In designing the web pages for a website you should adhere to following rules:

1. About Pages: Your website must contain following pages: Feedback is necessary to obtain the suggestions of your visitors.

* Contact us is necessary to establish a relation between you and your visitors. You should provide your E-MAIL so as visitors should feel that will be given full support. * About us page should be included in order to publish the information about your organization. This information could be year of setup, country from which you operate etc. * Home page should be included where links to all the other pages should be provided and the link to Home page should also be given from all the other pages.

2. Neat which means that site should not be overcrowded with too many links.

3. Attractive means that the color selection for WebPages should be as such that it should look nice. The background color should be light and the design should be able to catch visitor attention at first look.

4. Professional means that unwanted contents should be avoided and all like contents should be placed in proper headings in pages. At first site it should be able to show the visitor their interests for joining your website.

5. Small size of WebPages means that too much flashy content in desire to make webpage look attractive would increase the size which will cause delay in opening at client site. And the visitors will simply avoid surfing these types of websites. So too much unnecessary flashy content should be avoided.

6. Text: Choice of words does not matter what matters is appearance of words in WebPages. Dark texts in light background will be an impressive scheme while dark background unable the visitor to read the text. Those fonts should be chosen which are easily available on every computer. Some of fonts are: Times New Roman, Arial, Courier and Garamond. In the case visitor do not have required font installed on their computer your message will not visible n their computer and which will lose their interest in surfing your website.

7. Grammar: You should be careful in text you write that you should not commit any spelling mistakes that will show your inefficiency. You should check it twice before finalizing the content for your website. You should not make grammatical mistakes as well.

A professional web design company has the design skills and online marketing experience and know-how to create a website that will be an optimum selling tool in the world's biggest sales market.

Sean McGill

The author is Business Head for The Web Design Company www.webdesigningcompany.net, and is into web-design, development and Search Engine optimization.

navjeet@virkasolutions.com

Denver Web Design

LordRahl — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:41:00 +0000

Do you have an Internet business that has had the same look for
years? Do you have a new business and you want to find a
distinctive look? Are you simply tired of the look of your web
site or are you discovering that your site doesn't bring in as
much business as it used to do? It might be time to visit New
Media, the experts in http://www.webdesigncoloradodenver.com/ and see if we can help you.

http://www.newmediadenver.com/" is a ten
year old company with a wide range of customers. We have
experience working with small companies. We have experience
working with large companies. We have experience with companies
that fit somewhere between those extremes. We have enough
experience that we can help you.

Our designers work with our customers to create the look that
the customer wants. New Media's http://www.internetmarketingspecialistdenver.com/
team doesn't just create web images and you need
to take it as we give it to you. We work with our customers to
give them the kind of site that they would design for themselves
if they had the time and or the knowledge to design their own
site.

Regardless of the size of your business, you watch where your
money goes. Are you thinking that you might like to remodel your
website, but you'll get one when you get some increased revenue?
Think about the value it can actually bring to your business!

Attractive web design gets the attention of "web surfers"

Many people might come to your site, accidentally or
deliberately. If they glanced at your site, would they be
enticed to stay and continue reading about your product or
services? You might get a lot of hits on your site, but if those
viewers don't remain to read about your business, you'll never
get a customer out of them. Denver Web Design can help you
attract and keep potential customers.

"New and interesting" can attract a new generation of
customers

Maybe your clients, or potential clients, need or want to be on
the cutting edge of their field. Maybe they want to work with
someone who is "tried and true". The two don't have to be
opposites. New Media, by providing http://www.webdesigncoloradodenver.com/, can help you by designing a site that is new and
updated, without sacrificing the look that your returning
customers have come to trust. Your customers know you don't rely
on a product that was good once upon a time. You stay current
and provide your customers with the best services and product
possible. Let New Media provide a web site that announces that
to all who come to your site.

Interesting and easy to navigate

A site can be beautiful to the eye, but if it becomes a
nightmare to navigate from one place to the next, most customers
will never return. We can help you by creating a site that is
easy to manipulate and intuitive even to customers who are just
learning how to use the Internet to buy what they need.
Customers are more likely to return to your site if it has the
products they want, with services they appreciate and without
needing a guide to tell them how to find what they want. Let us
help you!

This article was written by Sytsma Morris-Reeves. Mr.
Morris-Reeves runs NewMediaDenver,an Internet technology company
located in downtown Denver, Colorado (http://www.NewMediaDenver.com). Mr.Morris-Reeves is a highly respected
http://www.internetmarketingspecialistdenver.com/ since 10 years, and he constantly develops and
stays current with all the latest SEO and
http://www.webdesigncoloradodenver.com/

About the author:
This article was written by Sytsma Morris-Reeves. Mr.
Morris-Reeves runs NewMediaDenver,an Internet technology company
located in downtown Denver, Colorado (http://www.NewMediaDenver.com Mr.Morris-Reeves is a highly respected http://www.internetmarketingspecialistdenver.com since 10 years, and he constantly develops and
stays current

Welcome to the new age

LordRahl — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:26:00 +0000

first post as a test