Many people focus solely on the content on their site, rather than the actual structure of the site itself. When SEO and domain experts talk about on-site optimization, their referring to more than just the articles themselves. On-page optimization consists of the title tag, meta tags, anchor text, image tags and perhaps most importantly the URL of the page itself. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a page is the address that one would see in the address bar of their internet browser. Most webmasters fail to realize the sheer power that URL optimization alone can have on search engine rankings. The following information should help you understand why and how URL optimization works.

Domain Keywords and URL Optimization

One of the ways search engine optimization experts bring their sites to the top of the search engines with minimal efforts is by purchasing domains that contain keywords in them. These domains are extremely powerful, in that they will almost guarantee you a high spot in the search engine result pages. For example, if you are targeting the dog training niche, then the site name: dogtraining.com would be ideal. However, it is very unlikely that such a name will still be available for purchase. It is however likely that the name germanshepherddogtraining.com will be available. While there are not as many people searching for this phrase, there is a certain amount of people that will type that in and come directly to your site. Many SEO experts will buy domain names like this specifically to build a network of sites that can dominate a niche.

Optimizing Page URLs

Once you have your main URL you can then start optimizing your page URLs, which are the web addresses of the pages on your site. The best way to optimize your page URLs for the search engines is to make sure your targeted keywords are in the URL of the page. For example, if your page is about training German Shepherd to sniff, then an optimal page URL would be germanshepherdogtraining.com/Training-German-Shepherd-to-Sniff. This would be the perfect URL to target such a phrase, and you would be almost guaranteed to go straight to the top of the search engine result pages for that phrase. Notice the main domain does not contain dashes, while the page address contains dashes between the words. This is because search engines lend less credence to sites with dashes in their main domain name, where as the page URL needs to have dashes to separate the actual words. Since page URLs can be very long the search engines prefer to read the page URL with hyphens.

Setting up Your URLs to Contain the Post Name in WordPress

One of the best ways to optimize your pages is to have the page title be the same as the page URL. You can do this easily within WordPress by changing the permalink structure to “%postname%”. This will cause any post made to have the same URL as the post name. If you are targeting a specific event or date, then you could also use the “%postdate%” tag as well.

Many fail to find the connection between web hosting and search engine optimization, however there is a very real association between the two. There are various aspects of your web hosting control panel, your web host’s policies, and the overall features of your hosting plan that contribute to the rise and fall of your rankings in the search engines. For example, your robots.txt file (which can be edited from the file manager in your hosting control panel) dictates whether or not search engines and other bots can browse your site. Some web hosts include an  already modified robots.txt file which blocks search engines from visiting your site. Unfortunately, there have been many people who struggled for months on end only to find that their robots.txt file was not allowing search engines to index their site. This is just one example of the way a web hosting plan can affect your search engine ranking.

Site IP Addresses and Link Building

One of the most powerful ways to raise your site’s PR and search engine ranking is through link building, which is the practice of building backlinks to your site online. The more links you have pointing to your site, the more powerful your site appears to be to the search engines. Thus, many webmasters try to build links back to their own sites in a failed attempt to create what are known as link wheels. These are networks of self-owned sites that you have control over, through which you can dictate backlinking and the PR that results from those links.

Link Wheel Anonymity

However, search engines can see which IP address the links are hosted on, and if they are all on the same IP address, then this could negatively impact your site’s ranking. Of course there are other factors that come into play such as the number of outbound links on each page, and the PR of every page that links back to your site. The main issue is having control over sites that are located on different IP addresses.

Hostgator’s SEO Hosting

Luckily Host Gator is no dinosaur when it comes to search engine optimization, and they understand the eds of their clients. Thus, they have established SEO hosting, which gives you access to various C class IP addresses. This means you will be able to have many sites under your control which are hosted on various IP addresses. In other words, you will have control over a network of sites that appear to be unique entities. The plans offered by Host Gator’s SEO hosting are suitable for a wide range of site owners, with plans starting at only $35 per month for 5 C-class IP addresses. Of course each plan also includes a web hosting control panel and all of the other features you have come to know and love with your current hosting plan. If you are looking for a reliable web hosting plan then you can be sure that Host Gator can offer you everything you need with their new hosting company – SEO hosting.

Bing is Microsoft’s version of a search engine, similar to Google. While Google is the industry leader in the market today, Bing is trying to grab a piece of Google’s market share. Search engines primarily generate their money from internet marketers paying the company per click (or impression) to advertise their website by keyword.

Highly clicked keywords tend to cost more per click due to the amount of users that use the keyword in a search. The biggest part of search engine optimization is to create websites that can be found on the search engines within the first few pages. This increases the number of visitors and thus conversions.

This raises an important question: is Bing an effective search engine for generating traffic? If it isn’t then internet marketers shouldn’t spend time and money attempting to target Bing users.

To answer this question: Yes and no. Bing is effective in certain areas of the world and not in others. This all relates to their marketing strategy and advertising. In the United States, there are many more advertisements for Bing than for Google. The difference being that Google has become a household name and doesn’t need to advertise.

A few areas that make Bing an effective search engine are:

• Dominant in some territories
• Brings targeted traffic
• Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The primary advantage of Bing is that it is the dominant search engine in some areas of the world. In turn, this brings in much more targeted traffic. Consequently in an emerging market where Bing dominates, an internet marketer will be quite successful. Another advantage is the easy to use graphical user interface that makes transactions a breeze.

There are two areas that Bing is not effective including:

• Lack of overall traffic
• Slow at indexing pages

These are two extremely important areas. Google holds a huge chunk of the search engine market while others, such as Bing are trying to catch up. With a lack of overall traffic, it can be unprofitable to pump money into advertising nobody will see. Also, with slow indexing of new pages, this costs the web owner money since nobody knows the page is there during the index interval.

In general, Bing is effective when simply targeting a specific geographic area. With a lack of overall traffic, it may not be profitable to invest in Bing just yet. Microsoft is constantly working on this decision engine to improve traffic, so stick around; Bing might give Google a run for their money.

SEO or search engine optimization is the act of increasing the amount of internet traffic to a website. This is one of the most important aspects of internet marketing and web sales. There are search engine optimization consults for hire ranging in price based on experience and portfolio of clients.

There are many website optimization tips available to assist both newcomers and novices alike. As the internet constantly grows and expands, better and more efficient optimization methods are developed. Consequently there are a few basic tips that will remain consistent even as other methods change and grow.

The 20 tips to create a successful search engine optimized website include:

1. Create user-friendly url’s – use dashes between words as opposed to underscores
2. Update content daily and add a few new links weekly
3. Create lean, efficient code that doesn’t clog the website
4. Utilize accurate title pages that describe exactly what the page is about
5. Use clear buttons so clients can easily take action
6. Offer multiple types of payments including PayPal, credit card and e-check
7. While creating the page set obtainable SEO goals
8. Never repeat the name of a page without a serious benefit to do so
9. Always delete obsolete pages from the server so the website is not cluttered
10. Create sites made to pass a human inspection, not just a search engine algorithm
11. Always check for the percent of duplicate content across all pages
12. Keyword research is the most effective method for discovering what users are looking for and typing in the search engin
13. Gather links to quality external sites and resources
14. Eliminate all links to fluff external sites and dead links by checking regularly
15. Plan so the website is scalable and can be expanded for unplanned traffic
16. Adjust the website strategy based on the targeted market
17. Add content that .edu, .gov and .us sites would be interested in linking too; this adds credibility to the site
18. Rationally name folders so they make sense and relate to the product on that page
19. Plan so the website can easily change to new and updated technology
20. Create and maintain a sitemap

These are simple yet insightful tips that can drastically improve a website for better rankings in the major search engines. The main idea is to create a website that is appealing to those customers in that specific market. Creating for the customer will not only improve customer retention, but also improve page rank thus increasing traffic.

Content management systems allow users to increase the productivity of the website creation and maintenance process by offering a user-friendly platform that facilitates the organization, creation, and distribution of various types of content. With a quality content management system, you can streamline countless tasks, thereby increasing the amount of time you have to spend on other aspects of the business such as marketing. However, many people are unaware of the fact that a good content management system will also help them promote their website by optimizing the design and layout of their site for better search engine indexing and popularity.

Simplifying SEO with a CMS

Having a site that will rank well in the search engines is crucial towards the success of any online business. Having a site that is search engine optimized requires the adjustment of various factors within the site. A good content management system will aid you in automating the process of making these adjustments, so that even the most novice webmaster can have a site that is capable of ranking in the search engines. Without a CMS, you’ll find that search engine optimization is a much more time intensive process that requires a lot of trial and error. Using a quality content management system to simplify the process will not only save you time, but will also drastically improve your chances of ranking higher in the search engines. In this sense, a good CMS is a vital tool to have when learning search engine optimization.

Optimizing the Site Layout with a CMS

Creating a memorable URL within the content management system is easy, and many times the URL can be generated automatically by using content located on the page. The content management system will also let users create unique title tags for each page with ease, which will improve the keyword optimization of the site. The CMS simplifies the process of creating meta tags for each web page, which is another crucial aspect of search engine optimization. Perhaps the features that optimize the layout of the website are the most useful, as they build a foundation for successful search engine optimization.

Improving Keyword Usage, Site Design and Traffic Analysis with a CMS

A good CMS will also allow the user to make unique meta keywords for each page with ease. Although it may seem unnecessary to create met keywords when you already have a meta tags, placing your keyword around the site in virtually every aspect of he design is the key to proper keyword usage and density. A good CMS will also let you apply code to the entire site easily. This makes installing certain web applications that help with traffic analysis simple. Analyzing traffic statistics is a crucial part of successful search engine optimization, as you’ll need to know what is working and what is not in order to increase productivity. Another advantageous feature of a good CMS is that it will automatically update site maps and submit them to search engines for more immediate SEO results.