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Every online business needs traffic, which comes with increased visibility on the web. One great way to get noticed is to get listed in the major directories. Links from good directories increases your site’s visibility many fold. There are thousands of web directories on the net and selecting the good ones to submit your site can be a time consuming task. Also there are free directories and paid directories. You need to submit to both types of directories. The following checklist is for paid directory submission only. This checklist will help you choose the best and worthwhile paid directories on the net.

Submission Check List:

1. Check out if the directory is indexed in major search engines.
2. Check the robots.txt file. Make sure that search engine bots are allowed to crawl the pages where you intend to put your listing. Check the Meta tags to make sure that search engine spiders are not prevented from following links in it. A Meta tag with noindex/nofollow will not be indexed or spidered and links in that page are not followed by bots.
3. Check if the directory is being maintained regularly. Visit the directory from time to time to see if errors are getting corrected, site information is getting updated and the like. In short, look for positive activity on the directory.
4. Check if the listings in category pages match in theme and content or not. Directories with tight focus on relevant grouping of web sites are useful for visitors and tend to show up frequently in SERPs for keyword searches.
5. Check out the age of the directory. Do a whois search (http://www.whois.net) to get this information. Many new directories vanish after a few months due to lack of maintenance and promotion. With older directories you can at least be sure that your listing will remain visible for a reasonable period.
6. Check if the directory consists of too many empty categories – it is not useful for visitors and also does not send a too good signal to the SEs about the directory. Think twice before submitting to such directories.
7. Check if the contact information is available on the site. Proper businesses will provide you with some kind of contact information.
8. Check the Alexa rank of the directory – it is not accurate, yet you can get an idea of traffic the directory receives. Look for directories with decreasing Alexa Rank as it indicates that the directory is getting popular.
9. Check if the directory provides SE friendly urls. No JavaScript link or redirection. Also watch out for dynamic urls. Sometimes search engines find it difficult indexing or recognizing dynamic urls with parameters like http://www.&;lt;examplesite>.com/index.html?cat=1&p=12…
   An example of SE friendly URL is http://www.hedir.com/business.html
10. Check whether category pages have too many outgoing links. If your link is one of 100 links on a page, visitors will find it difficult to locate your site.

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Lakhya Phukan is the webmaster of Hedir Web Directory. You can submit your site at hedir www.hedir.com.

Getting your website listed in Search Engines (SE) can sometime be a monumental task in itself, here are my top ten tips to get you started.

1. Page Title
Forget using ‘Welcome to my website’ as your page title, if you really want to attract target media specify your keywords and list your product keywords separated by an | (hold Shift + backslash key) symbol (eg: Digital Cameras | Video Cameras) will boost the strength of your chosen keywords, in this case Digital and Video Cameras.

2. Page Filenames
Still naming your page filenames as products.htm or aboutus.php, why not add some weight to your website and help the SE distinguish from the multitude of pages with generic names and again utilise your keywords into your filenames (eg: paper_back_novels.htm) for a Book selling site with this link to the list of Paper Back Novels.

3. ALT Tags
Again keywords play a huge part in the design of your site and another area to include these words is in your image ‘ALT” tags.

4. Header Tags
Getting back to your Page Title, there is no point in making the heading text “Welcome to my Website” especially if you are selling Garden Tools. Using , and tags to emphasize your Products and Services in order of importance, lets the SE’s.

5. Bold Text
Got something to say?, say it in Bold Text, this tells the SE that this text is important and relates strongly to your content and keywords and should be taken notice of.

6. Keywords
Some say they aren’t that important anymore to getting results in the SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages) but using them correctly can add to your sites overall effectiveness. Concentrate on 3 – 4 keyword phrases (eg: “custom website design” or “web site design” for web site designers) and make sure they are used in the first and last paragraphs of your home page content.

7. Google Toolbar
Not only a search tool the Google Toolbar displays each sites Page Rank according to Google on it popularity and web presence.

8. Alexa Toolbar
Download the Alexa Toolbar from Amazon and sign up to their affiliate program, the toolbar is an essential tool in gauging the popularity and hit results of how your website ranks in the www..

9. RSS Feeds
Want to increase traffic? well consider starting a RSS Feed on your website with important news items relating to your business and your chosen profession then link these to your articles.

10. Article Writing
Article writing is another way to cross promote your site with helpful information for others and with links back to your site.

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There are many facets to search engine optimisation of websites and these 10 tips are merely just a few and a good starting point to get your website promoted in the www. Craig Bucknall is the owner and managing director of the Sydney based website design studio Bullie Graphics. You can view his website at www.bulliegraphics.com.au.

When it comes to search engine optimization, the single most important sentence that you will write for your website is the title tag of your main page. If you write it properly then you will have taken a big step towards getting your site well placed in search engine queries for your important keywords.

Before I give you a step-by-step guide to writing title tags, let’s define what they actually are and see why they are important. When you look at a web page in your browser, the writing in the blue strip above browser’s commands (file, edit, view, etc.) is the title tag. On your actual html document the title tag is in the head portion between the notation <title> and </title> .

The title tag is important because it “tells” the search engine what the page is about, and in the case of your main page, what your website is all about. I remember back in my school days that we used to take standardized examinations in which we had to read a story and then answer the question: “What would be the best title for this essay?” Choosing a title tag is something like answering this kind of question. You’ve got to pick out the gist of your enterprise and highlight it in a sentence. So, take a look at your web page and get ready to begin, following these steps:

Make sure your three or four most important keywords or keyword phrases appear in the title tag. The most important words should appear near the beginning of the sentence, and they can be repeated within the sentence for added emphasis. For example, if I am offering low-cost web design, then my title tag might look like this: <title>Web Design: Affordable, Low Cost Web Design from the Acme Web Design Company</title>

Leave your branding and sales pitch for another part of the web page. Although it is a natural tendency to want to put your company name at the beginning of the title tag, you should remember that unless you are very famous like Coca Cola, people are not searching for you. So, put your most important keywords at the front of the title tag, and establish your brand name with your logo and other elements of the web page. If your company name includes your keywords, like our hypothetical Acme Web Design Company, then put it in the title tag, but not necessarily at the beginning.Similarly, the title tag is no place for your sales pitch, so keep out flowery or extraneous adjectives, unless they are actual terms used in searches for your product or service.

Place your geographical or niche-defining term in your title tag. If you are trying for a top ten or top twenty position for a term such as “web design,” then you are really in for a difficult struggle. However, suppose the Acme Web Design Company is located in Columbus, Ohio. Then instead of attempting the almost impossible task of getting the top rankings for the term “web design,” it would be far better to get a high ranking in the geographical niche using a title tag such “Web Design, Columbus, Ohio: Low Cost Web Design in Columbus, Ohio by The Acme Web Design Company”.

The title tag can be longer than you think. Some guidelines say that the title tag should be no longer than 70 characters. It is true that only the first 70 characters will show in the top bar of the browser, but search engine robots will read the rest of the tag and the search engines will not penalize you for going over the 70 character mark. Take a look at highly ranked sites in heavily competitive categories and you will see examples of long title tags. Write the tag according to your need to get your important words and phrases included in a sentence that best describes what your product or service is about.

Vary the title tags on the inner pages of your website. Even with a long title tag, it is not possible to highlight all the possible terms which someone might use to find your website. This is not a problem if you make use of the other pages of your website. Instead of simply having a title tag that says “services” our web design firm could highlight “low cost, web design services” on that page. The “contact” page could be used to emphasize the geographical location once again, and so on. Many websites make the mistake of repeating the same title tag on each of the inner pages of the site. Avoid this and use each of your page’s titles to target important keywords and keyword phrases.

So, take a look at your website’s title tags, and see if you can improve them. The effort that you make will be well rewarded.

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Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He has been working on the Internet since 1995, and is currently the director of A1-Optimization (www.a1-optimization.com), a firm providing low cost search engine optimization, submission and web promotion services.

Most of the people looking for products and services on the net, hunt for websites via major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Optimizing your website for higher search engine positioning is to allure mass to drive towards your website that is the likely to be your prospective buyer. To generate considerable traffic to your website it requires higher positioning in initial pages of search engines.

Here, I have given some key tips to dip you in the technical aspects available on the net to assist how to optimize your website.

The Title:
Whatever text you put in the title will reviewed in the reverse bar of browser when people view the web page. So, place suitable title according to your business and products.
<TITLE>Your title</TITLE>

Meta Tags:
You might be aware of Meta tags or using this on your current website. We will talk on the description tag.

Description tag:
Major search engines that support Meta tags will usually depict the description tag with the title in the results. Search engines many times hold entire Meta tag of the description field. The webmasters should keep in mind that that the description tags must be short to grab the attention of a user.
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”Your description”>

Keyword:
You should research deeply before finalizing keywords, as it is the most important factor in website optimization. Each keyword’s weight, rate, size, status and proximity all have an effect on the ranking. You should optimize all these key factors cautiously. Examining the top ten ranking website’s content and ranking factors will assist you to optimize your website. To find keywords, log on www.wordtracker.com and inventory.overture.com.
<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”Your Keywords”>

Content:
The content of your website should be informative that provides people come to acknowledged about new things or be interested in. This will result revisiting of the mass at your website. Try to make your content keywords rich to drive search engines to pick up your site. Use appropriate keywords according to your business or services you offer.

Create website sitemap:
Make complete site map of your website, contain all the links of main pages of your website. So the search engine robots could explore your entire website. To see example follow this link: http://www.adidas.com/in/performance/sitemap.asp

Publish articles and newsletter/press releases:
Writing and publishing is one of the best ways of marketing your website on internet. It helps to generate substantial traffics to your website. You can submit articles to e-zines, article directories, web sites and magazines that offer article submissions. Don’t forget to include your business information and contact address at the bottom of the article.

Article Directories
www.shvoong.com, goarticles.com, www.uniterra.com, www.allfreelancework.com, ezinearticles.com etc. Use keyword ‘article submission’ in your search.

Press release sites
www.free-press-release.com, www.PRweb.com, www.prleap.com, www.pressbox.co.uk etc. Use keyword ‘free press release distribution’ in your search.

Post ads:
You can place your ads on free advertising and classified ad sites, free links sites, newsgroups, which offers ads posting.

Link:
The most effective method to make your pages important for the search engine crawlers, creating links to other sites with yours. It makes your website worthwhile for the search engines. The more links at website the more significant website is considered, and will be rewarded with higher page ranks.

However, not all links are considered valuable by the search engines. The search engine will consider links more valuable if they are from sites that are having higher page ranks and also offers similar area of interest as your website.

Use keyword ‘free link exchange’ in your search.

Submit Website to search Engines:
After optimizing you web site, its time to submit it to all major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN etc, after all for this only you have optimized your web site. There are many web-sites that provide manual free submission to almost all the main search engine. Use keyword ‘website submission’ in your search.

Submit to the directories:
Search engines and directories are different. Do not mix them up. Be very careful while submitting your website to a directory. Read the directory’s submission directions with full presence of mind. You can submit to directories like DMOZ and also paid directories like Yahoo. Use ‘web directory submission’ in search.

Regular inspection of website:
Once you achieve targeted page ranks and positions in search engine, don’t become lousy; after all it is not forever. You should keep an eye on your contenders’ activities. If you are not satisfied with search engine ranking results, you should optimize your website more to attain higher search engines ranking position.

This was brief description for optimizing websites. Very soon I am going to publish an informative series of articles on each of these key factors at seoservices-website-promotion.blogspot.com.

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Allen Brown is a freelance writer for www.1888Articles.com, the premier website to find thousands of free online articles related to various categories like science articles, health articles, feature articles, news articles, technology articles, management articles and more. He also freelances for www.1888PressRelease.com.

The most optimal way for an online real estate agent to succeed is thru rapid lead generation and follow up. And in order to escalate your leads, you must start off with an acceptance of your current traffic and lead conversion ratio.

Ask yourself “How many visitors does it take to get to a lead?”

In fact, when we initially interview a potential client often times the conversion is close to a dismal 200:1. Depending on design features, you should really get at the most 50:1. And probably 30:1 is more like it.

Conversion comes from on page conversion optimization & Keyword representation.

On Page Factors

Most people have heard of search engine optimization. Few talk about on page conversion optimization. First of all, this whole concept pre-supposes that you are starting off with a most wanted action (MWA). Sometimes your MWA is Branding, sometimes it is Leads. And many times it is both lead capture and branding that you are asking your website to do.

If Leads are your goal then your call to action is critical. Other features on your page can distract the viewer from your objectives.

On Page factors that may increase or decrease conversion are:

Asking them to sign up (making your call to action clear)
A Johnson Box (these are those tabled boxes that break up your body copy)
Color can attract or distract
Too many buttons
Animation
Offer Placement. Where are you placing your call to action?
Variety of Call to Action
Frequency of your call to action
These are just a few of the attributes that may help your lead count to go way up.

HappyVille Real Estate

There is a reason that studies have found that Pay per Click search engine results often render poor conversion rates. Specificity.

The reason is that you can only use high volume keywords with pay per click (PPC). These high volume keywords are by their nature generalized. They are also the most profitable for the engine. But what may profit the engine does not always profit you. (Thats not to say that PPC doesn’t have its place in a search marketing campaign)

9 times out 10, I am asked to “make my site #1 for “My City real estate”. While this is a worthy objective, it is at best very short sighted. Words like “City real estate”, “city homes”, city condos”, are all high volume in just about any city you research.

However, a successful marketing campaign must employ search engine click thrus that are made up of general & specific “streams of traffic”. This is because traffic is a comprehensive endeavor. You wouldn’t just rent out 1 or 2 of your penthouse units and leave the rest of your 150 unit apartment complex empty? You couldn’t expect profitability would you?

However, this is exactly what most agents do when they go after a few high volume words. Traffic is made up of the combined visits that come from various inquiries into a search engine. Each inquiry represents a finite amount of possible traffic determined by the placement in the engine, for a particular keyword phrase.

So long story short, a few keywords aren’t going to make your business. You need a Universe of words in order to get monster traffic and lead conversion. Additionally, not all keywords or traffic are created equal. Step out of real estate monetarily and imagine yourself as Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com. What would delite you more?

500 visitors that typed in “Books”? Or 500 visitors that typed in “Harry Potter”? Or better yet, “Harry Potter, Sorcerors Stone”? The more specific you get, conversion goes up and the closer you can get to that elusive 1:1 conversion.

The challenge however, is that the more specific you get with our keywords, the less traffic you get. So you need to represent a large amount of these specific keywords that produce low traffic by themselves. But combined, create a large stream of very convertable traffic.

By optimizing your on page factors and your keywords that drive people to your site, you will take your visitor to conversion ratio down to a respectable number.

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Tim O’Keefe is President of Spider Juice Technologies. His firm specializes in Search Engine Traffic and Lead Optimization strategies. Tim has always started a project with the fastest path to profitability as his objective for his clients. www.spiderjuicetechnologies.com.