The Lonely Marketer

[…] There are probably quite a few more extensions that I could have written about. But the fact is, these are the ones that I use. In fact, Patrick Schaber beat me to the punch and has posted a list with several extensions that I’ve not tried. Give them all a look and watch in wonder as your simple web browser transforms itself into a lean, mean SEO and website building machine. SEOAcronym for Search Engine Optimization: SEO involves fine-tuning a website so that search engines and crawlers know exactly what kind of content a website is offering. SEO also helps websites rank higher for the keywords associated with that site. For example, a website may use very specific wording in hopes that the crawler will detect and rank the site accordingly. SEO also involves adding targeted meta tags that are only visible to the search engine crawler. These meta tags help ensure the website ranks for certain keywords. SE(Search Engine): Search engines are the websites we use to find information on the internet. A search engine visitor enters keywords, questions, or phrases based on what they’re looking for and the search engine displays a list of websites with those keywords, questions, or phrases in them. The major search engines use a computer program called a crawler to find and categorize new websites automattically. Examples: Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com DirectoryA directory is a set listing of websites, usually grouped into categories or topics. As opposed to a search engine (which often finds new sites using a computer-based crawler), directories are usually fixed with a certain set of websites. New sites are most commonly added by directory editors or web-based URL submission forms in which website owners designate the category that most reflects the product or service they offer. Examples: The Open Directory (Dmoz.org), Yahoo! Directory CrawlerA computer-based program that scans, or “crawls”, through websites and compiles keywords from the content found at the site. Crawlers also follow outbound links to other sites. The major search engines utilize crawlers to fan out across the internet in search of new sites to add to their databases with little or no human intervention required. Sometimes called a ’spider’ or ‘bot’. SEM(Search Engine Marketing) - SEM is an umbrella term for a group of techniques used to increase a website’s accessibility to search engines. Often times, these techniques are implemented in an attempt to direct search engine crawlers to specific information or to help increase a website’s location within a search engine’s results page. Search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC) and paid or sponsored listings are the main techniques used. Meta TagMeta tags are hidden bits of informatio about your website that tell web browsers, search engines, and crawlers how to display or categorize your site. Meta tags can tell your web browser what language the site is in, what the title of the site is, or, in some cases, what type of content a website includes. Meta tags can also be used to tell search engine crawlers what keywords should be associated with your site and generally what the website is about. Many website owners use meta tags as part of their SEO techniques to increase the position of their website within the search engine’s results. PPC(Pay Per Click) - A marketing technique in which advertisers bid on keywords or phrases that they believe visitors to their website will search for. The more an advertisers bids on a particular keyword, the higher their ad appears in the search results. Bidding usually falls between .02 cents and .50 cents per keyword (but can go much higher). When someone searches for a specific keyword, the advertisement for the website with the highest bid on that keyword is displayed within or alongside the search engine results. The advertiser pays the amount they bid on the keyword only when an ad is clicked. CPM(Cost Per Thousand Impressions) - CPM is a different approach to paid search engine advertising. Advertisers create ads that are displayed with search engine users search for something related to their business. The advertiser agrees to pay a certain amount of money to the search engine for every one thousand times their ad is displayed within the search engine results. Each time an ad is displayed it is referred to as an impression. CPC(Cost Per Click) - A measurement of the cost associated with each click of an advertiser’s ad. If an advertiser is using a PPC style of advertising, the CPC would be whatever amount they bid for that keyword. If an advertiser is using a CPM model of advertising, the CPC would be the amount they pay for each one thousand impressions divided by the number of clicks their ad receives. CPC is sometimes used interchangeably with PPC, although the two terms are not necessarily the same thing. CPA(Cost Per Action) - CPA involves assigning a fee to different “actions” that users might perform on a website. For example, advertisers might agree to pay .50 for every one of their ads that is clicked on. Another advertiser might agree to pay a percentage of their sales to another website that agrees to display their products. Actions can include subscriptions, online purchases, advertising clicks, or any other terms that the advertiser might agree to. Sponsored AdSometimes advertisers pay search engines to display their ads or website more prominently than the other search engine results. When a user searches for keywords that the advertiser has “sponsored”, their website or products are displayed first, usually above or alongside the natural results. Sponsored LinkSometimes advertisers pay search engines to display their ads or website more prominently than the other search engine results. When a user searches for keywords that the advertiser has “sponsored”, their website or products are displayed first, usually above or alongside the natural results. Natural Search ResultsAny search engine results that are not sponsored or paid for are called natural search results. The majority of the results that search engines display are natural results. The results are usually displayed based on keyword relevance or the overall rank that the search engine has assigned to a specified website. Sometimes called Organic Search Results. […]