Pinterest broke unique visit records last month with their fun and interactive image sharing site. Pinterest lets you “pin” photos and videos that you discover on the web to your virtual “board” so the rest of the world can see them. Other users can comment and share the images that you post and you can do the same for them. When you click on the image or video itself, it takes you directly to the website where the user found it. This is a great way to drive traffic to a website in a fun and unpresumptuous way.

Some photos seem to be more popular than others for sharing. On Pinterest, pictures of food and jewelry are the hottest shares, and people click on the photos to get the recipe or craft ideas. For the most part, these foodie blogs and Etsy stores are getting their fair share of business using Pinterest. While most marketers are still trying to figure out how to get traffic from Pinterest with information products, the idea of the “infographic” has caught on.

An infographic is a fun, clever and informative image with all sorts of facts and figures about a particular topic. It's far more engaging than just another written article, not because it has any more content than an article, but simply because it's different and easily shareable. With content marketing and syndication, easily shareable content is more important than the details. If it's not shareable, the ‘syndication' part is stifled, leaving the content lonely on your website unread.

I've included a snapshot of an infographic here on this post. Obviously it's a lot larger than this, but you get the idea. You can create these in photoshop for your own business and post them on your blog and website, then share them on popular sites like Pinterest.

You see ads and claims all of the time of services that can get your website in the first page search results of Google. Since there are only 10 results per search word or phrase that can occupy that space, that can be a tall promise. Taking in consideration of just how many websites there are on the web, can you really get a website on the first page of a search result?

Let's look at how it's done and what alternatives are available for better search engine placement:

Pay Per Click – you can ‘buy' your way to a first page listing with Google Sponsored Ads. Depending how much you're willing to spend per click, you can have your ad appear above anyone else's.

Other listings – Google has alternative search results for videos, images, books and blogs. Using specific keywords for this media, you can have elements of your webpage appear on the first page of these various results.

Niche keywords phrases – competing for general keywords such as “diamond jewelry, public speaking or life coaching' can be tough. Thorough research in other phrases people search for can land you on the first page of results. Try ‘long-tail' phrases such as “how to keep children of off drugs, corporate training for public speakers or handmade sapphire bracelets.” There is less competition for these phrases and you can still reach your target market.

Third party websites – some websites that have been around for a long time have a lot of clout with Google. You can get higher search positioning with articles, Youtube videos or being a guest blogger that will link to your website than you may get with your own website, especially if it's new.

As an Internet marketing professional, working with a business or even creating your own home based business, you'll need to answer the question: “How can I still get a first page listing with Google?” At IMTC, we teach you these various elements to better search engine placement whether you use just one or a combination of all of the above techniques. Being able to answer that question will make you more valuable in the workplace and steer you clear of scam services that promise the moon. Find out if a career in Internet Marketing is right for you.

A Few Factors and Trends of SEO

Factors and Trends of SEO

The world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever changing environment. The purpose of this article is to identify some of the main factors that could in fact alter your SEO strategies, and eventually your search engine rankings. I'll also explain some good points, and a few of the bad points of these changes.

Google Local Search

If you throw together organic and local search results you get Google Places. Since the merge of these search results the layout and the rankings have changed quite a bit. For example, if you typed in “Sushi Bar” you would find several high page ranked websites, as well as local neighborhood listings. The same applies to mobile device search results, Google now uses the mobile user's geographic location.

The positive side: Since Google's merging of local search engine results, many businesses has had the opportunity to reach higher rankings. Also, if you have the taste for Sushi you can read restaurant reviews, view photos and pinpoint locations in one shot!

Social Indicators

Both Google and Bing validate that social indicators are in fact used as part of their ranking system. For some time many believed social media to be just that, but now its a fact that Facebook ‘likes', Google's ‘+1' and such are used to influence rankings and may at some point become equivalent to back links.

Google's Branded Search Results

At one point in time Google would only allow up to 2 search results from any given domain to appear in the search results. But, now Google is recognizing brands and has changed their restrictions allowing multiple results to display from the same domain, if they feel the user's intent is in search of a particular brand specifically.

The positive side: If your a known brand you will benefit greatly because this can in fact affect your rankings in a positive way.

The negative side: If your an affiliate of some sort selling third party products it may be extremely difficult to rank for these keywords any longer.

Speed of Your Website

Back in 2010 Google confirmed that the speed of websites will be a factor in determining their rankings. There are several elements of a page that can actually slow down a website such as, videos, images, audio and maps. Other things such as your server size, page code and errors may also slow down your website quite a bit.

The positive side: This gives you an advantage to outrank your competition if your website speed is optimal. Also, this will force many website to optimize their slow pages giving users faster search results and a better browsing experience.

These are just a few factors and trends that can affect our SEO strategies.

If you would like to learn more SEO factors and strategies I encourage you to visit the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia – http://imtcva.org , and don’t forget to download your FREE career brochure!

What is Link Building

Link Building

Link Building is the process of building incoming links to your website from external web pages on the internet. In other words your looking to point to your website, by way of links, from other existing website on the internet. The reason for doing so is simple, search engines in a sense tallies up these links as substantial “votes” for your website. The more “votes” your website receives from external sites, the higher you website moves up in search positioning. This is by far the most critical part in your SEO strategies when trying to reach the first page of the search engines.

Link Building Using Anchor Text

Getting a back link is just part of the equation of getting good“link juice” from external sources. The most powerful back link you can obtain is called an “anchor text”, not just your website address. An anchor text is actually targeting keywords pertaining to your websites content. For example, if you have a website about dog products and your promoting blue dog collars as one of your items for sale, you would use “blue dog collars” as your anchor text. But be aware that you should use alternative anchor text so that your links seem natural. For example, you may want to use “dog collars”, or maybe, “dog collars in blue” to change your anchor text pattern. To take it a step further you may also want to use “click here”, or “visit site” which is very common and natural to the search engines although they're not keyword driven.

Where to Get Back Links For Link Building

There are literally millions of web pages on the Internet you can get link juice from. Here we will talk about a few good sources to help you get started.

1. Web 2.0 Sites – there are many web 2.0 sites on the internet that can benefit your business online when it comes to back links. The most popular ones are always a good source because they are ranked high in the search engines, have good page rank, and are visited by the search engines many times daily. Just to name a few you have WordPress, Blogger, Hubpages, and Squidoo amongst a list too long to mention. Websites like these receive lots of search engine “love”, which can help your site to receive not only good back links, but traffic as well.
2. Article Directories – very popular and widely used by readers and authors alike. These sites enable you to create articles regarding your product or services, and in turn you can add links pointing to your website. Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard and Article City are among many.
3. Social Networks – many social networks allow you to leave links such as Twitter and Facebook. Such popular websites can also draw attention of other users who may also link to your website.
4. Social Bookmarking – using bookmarking services for links is another good avenue to help build back links to your website. Although they're found to be, not as strong as they once were, it's still good practice and can help your website with traffic as well. Digg, Reddit and Delicious and just three among many.
5. Press Releases – not only are press releases great for back links, they are also excellent for generating traffic to your website. There a many press release website on the Internet and many of them are free to submit your content. To name a few you have, PRWeb, NPR.org and PRLog.

Creating back links is an ongoing chore if you want to position yourself in the search engines. You should write good content, create keyword rich anchor text, and only submit to websites that are relevant to your websites content.

Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia

What are Keywords

Keywords & Keyword Research

Keywords are words and phrases that Internet users type into the search engines when they are looking for something in particular. As a part of successful Internet Marketing you should always perform a thorough keyword analysis before choosing any keywords to optimize your website. This is the first, and most crucial step when setting up any successful website.

Keyword Research and Choosing Your Domain

Before you begin building your website it is wise to choose a domain name that's keyword rich if possible. Having your target keywords in your domain name, or URL is the 1st step in affective SEO. Some search engines take into account domain names made up of keywords, so it's good practice to have your targeted keywords in place before choosing a domain name.

Building a Website After Keyword Research

Don't even think about building a website without first performing keyword research! Before you decide on building a website it's important to have your keywords chosen carefully. Knowing what keywords you should target is the foundation of creating your website in the first place. I've noticed many novice Internet Marketers with websites related to their personal interest wondering why they're not getting any traffic, or showing up in the search engines. Yea, they may have attractive looking web pages, plenty of articles and content, but when you take a closer look, none of the pages are optimized for any particular keyword. Doing keyword research prior to building your website can save you lots of time and stress.

Keyword Optimized Pages

Having lots of written content on your website is one thing, but having keyword optimized content is what really counts. Keyword optimized content is what tells the search engine spiders what your pages are all about. The search engine spiders can only tell what the content is about by focusing on the words spread out around your pages. So, in order to help with your search engine rankings you must first do keyword research, and use these related keywords throughout you web pages. Be sure to sprinkle these keywords around your pages naturally, and not stuff them every chance you get. This can result to poor readable content, negative rankings, and looked at as spam.

Keyword Density

Although some may say that keyword density is a thing of the past, it's still good practice when creating your content. It's just one of many factors which helps pages to rank high in the search engines. As stated above you don't want your website to be looked at as spam, so keyword density is an important factor that helps the search engines to determine the relevance of your content. Having the right level of keyword density can result in higher search engine positioning. To achieve this you must balance your keywords correctly meaning, if you use too little keywords your page will not benefit. On the other hand, if you use too many keywords your page can become flagged as spamming. There are many numbers floating around on the internet regarding the proper keyword density. Some say 1-7%, while others say anything above 2% is looked at as spam. From my personal experience I generally stay between 1.5-3.5% which gives me the results I'm looking for.

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Article Submissions

If you are trying to build links, do not bother to put one article in hundreds of article directories as I've stated in the past. This is no longer effective as you will only get credit for one. You still should seek out other websites complimentary to yours that are NOT article directories and submit the same article to them. They appear to be treated differently and given more weight because they don't accept any old article on any topic from anyone.

If you are just looking for extra chances to get traffic AND if you have nothing better to do go ahead and submit your article to many article directories. If you're lucky, someone will be at one of those directories and actually read your article and click to your site.

Directory Submissions

If you are trying to build links, do not put your site in the hundreds of crappy article directories on the net. This used to work, but is no longer working. Just stick to well thought of directories like dmoz.org, yahoo (but I'd be reluctant to pay $299 to get in) and maybe “best of the web” and “business.com”

Reciprocal Links and Link Trading

This was good for years, but is now considered a “link scheme” by Google and could get you penalized. I'm talking about trading links with other sites and linking your own sites back and forth between two sites. It's OK to link from one of your sites to another (but don't link back). Immediately delete the many emails you get offering link trades. These are people that don't know what they are doing and people that have purchased software to automatically find link trading partners. Don't participate or waste your time. The only time it makes sense is if their site is much better than yours and people at the top of the game with great sites now know better than to trade with you.

Don't throw a party

After you are out of the mythical “Google Sandbox” you may get an artificially high ranking in Google, then just as you are bragging to all your friends about it, you disappear off the face of the earth. This happens frequently and is nothing to worry about. You just got an artificially high boost because of fresh content and then you fell back to wherever you normally would be based on your search engine optimization and incoming links and competition. Now get to work and start your climb to the top.