By Lena Morrish and Dima Nikolayenko

Grab these AdWords tips for added success in Google's advertising system.

1. Be Persistent And Remain Patient

It is important to be patient with your campaigns and also to be prepared to see slow-results until you have figured out to how best adjust and customize your Google AdWords to target your key audience.

2. Track Your Traffic

A key tip to successfully using Google AdWords is to ensure that you are carefully tracking your click through traffic so that you can gain an understanding as to your return on investment (ROI). This is fairly simple to accomplish by simply viewing the number of click throughs from your pay per click advertising and comparing them with the number of fresh new sales or sales leads that you have received since starting up your Google AdWords campaign.

3. Convert The Traffic

Your marketing strategies need to extend beyond paying Google AdWords to drive positive traffic towards your business, they need to extend on to your landing page and the content that you provide. If your landing page, and the rest of your website, cannot provide site visitors with information that is immediately useful to them you will not be able to convert the click into a sale.

4. Exact Match Keywords

Exact match keywords will ensure that your advertisement appears only to those searchers who have entered in the exact keywords that you have specified in your Google AdWords campaign. This will help you to quickly eliminate the searchers who are using more general search phrases and target your ads to those who are more likely to click through and make a purchase.

5. Position #1 Is Not Always Best

If your advertisement is listed in the number one spot on the page it does not necessarily mean that your ad will be the first one that is clicked; what it does mean is that you have paid more for that position. If your ad is in the top five results then you have just as much of an opportunity for a positive resulting click than if yours was in the number one spot.

6. Ignore Your Competitors

Try not to focus on what your competitors are doing and what they are paying per click. Keep your focus on the keywords and campaign strategies that provide you with the best ROI; even if the end result is your ad being listed in the 30th place on the page! Your focus should always be on the positive results that your ad is garnering, regardless of its listed position.

7. A Higher Click-Thru Rate Results In Less Per Click

It may seem counterproductive, but Google AdWords actually will lower your per-click amount if your advertisement has a higher click through rate (CTR) than your higher ranked competitor as they are, in effect, earning more money from your CTR’s.

8. Weed Out The Non-Sale CTR’s

To help maximize your ROI you should take steps to ensure that the wording on your advertisement will help you to weed out the casual clicker who may not find anything remotely interesting in your product lineup. Target your ad copy to those who are more likely to click-thru and purchase.

9. Content Is Key

In this world of instant gratification, the average attention span of a web browser is somewhat limited. It is important that you make every word in your advertisement and on your website count. Informative and to the point.

10. Spelling Matters

Words that are incorrectly spelled can help to bring you a higher rate of CRT’s and positive sales at a fraction of the cost of a correctly spelled word or phrase. For example: baby powder vs. babypowder or baby podwer. A simple and affordable trick that can prove to have a great ROI.

This article is an original post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Top 10 Google AdWords Secrets To Achieving Success is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Michael Jenkins

Google offers the Website Optimizer to help test variables and increase conversions.

Most everyone starting a new e-business struggles with their website. Either they pick an awkward web design, are unfamiliar with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), know little about rankings, or fall victim to other mistakes that will make their grand entry into the exciting world of e-commerce difficult.

It is true! Some websites are horrible and their performance underwhelming. This makes you wonder what they are doing wrong as their competitors, who launched their websites at the same time are accelerating just fine.

The web would be boring if all websites were alike and fortunately for us, many offer variety and differentiate themselves well in their industry. Unfortunately for those who don’t seem to get the hang of it, many bad websites have been observed over the years and still exist today. Some have been designed by small businesses, while others belong to large corporations – this shows you that generous funds, as well as the expertise of designers and developers, does not always guarantee an incredible conversion rate. Take, for instance, online computer sales giant Gateway and electronics favourite Radioshack. Gateway averages a 0.25% conversion rate, while Radioshack is not doing much better with 0.75%. That means that this major electronics retailer receives only about 7 orders per 1000 website visitors. Ouch!

Low conversion rates can be worrying but are certainly not the end of the world, as they can be turned around with the right action. It will require some of your spare time, but with dedication, the tips offered here, and a bit of extra work, you too can create a well performing website.

Can you explain what a conversion rate is?

Conversion rates play a vital role in Internet marketing, as they are used to measure marketing performance. In simple terms, conversion rates represent the percentage of shoppers that visited your website, and actually ordered something during a specific time frame. This means that if you received 100,000 visitors per month, and 1000 of them placed an order, your conversion rate would equal 1% (1000/100,000). Is one percent acceptable? Certainly not! Your start-up goal should be at least 10 %!

How can Google Website Optimizer (GWO) help?

In 2006, Google released ‘Google Website Optimizer,’ a user-friendly tool for testing website content, and determining which sections and design elements of your pages deliver the most actionable results. This program is quite useful, as it allows you to test various versions of your web pages. Soon you will know exactly which elements of your web design are underperforming in terms of conversion, and which ones can persuade your visitors to convert.

What do you need to know when setting up a GWO test?

Anyone can set up a test in GWO. It is simple, as long as you have all your ducks in a row.

1. Set your test scenario: Before you start:

• Think about what your business goals are;
• What the best test strategy is to achieve those objectives;
• Decide what pages you want to test (e.g. home page, product and category pages, or the checkout process)

The more details you put into your test design, the more informative your results will be. Keep in mind that poorly planned experiments always run longer, do not generate compelling results, and will be less than helpful, as they will confuse you even more.

2. Know your visitor count and your conversion rate: Without this data it will be tough to estimate the length of the test. The more visitors you have, the quicker you will compile test results; the fewer goals you have set up for your visitors (conversions), the longer the test will run.

Put a fair amount of time aside for your first experiment, which can take up to 8 hours depending on the size of your business.

3. Figure out which elements can impact your conversion rate:

• The page (website) layout
• Your headlines
• The images & videos
• The text
• Your offers/prices
• The call to action buttons

Your site may also lack surveys, contests, a comment page, or other sources you can use to communicate with your audience.

4. Conversions are important for all websites – not just dynamic e-commerce stores:

• For blog sites/pages, a conversion might be a comment from a reader, an RSS subscription, or a link.
• For content sites (news, health care, ecological information, etc.), conversions can generate from page views, requests to forward a particular story to a friend, etc.
• For lead generation sites, conversions increase when people fill out a contact form.

5. Carefully pick your tests: The more conversion-influencing factors you incorporate into your experiments, the longer they will run. Select tests you can control as a delay in acquiring results means that you will not be updating your website soon. Keep in mind that without improvements to your website, your conversions will probably not increase.

Of course, you cannot control external factors, such as discount sales your competitors organise, or fluctuations in the economy. If things such as this do happen, you may have to run more tests.

6. Conversion optimisation rules to live by:

• Your audience is always right – if they do not like your site they will leave and not come back.
• Nice website pages do not always lead to conversions – aesthetics, though important, are not all that you need to consider for your website.
• Know how your visitors will react – be aware that what you want may be completely different from what your visitors want, try and see their point of view. Swallow your pride and adapt if you want your business to succeed. As always, the customer is king!

How can you find out what customers like best? By simply designing a page where visitors can post comments and testimonials, you can collect some great quality feedback. Of course, you will have to read those notes and, if necessary, make changes to your site!

7.  Know your problem areas: Take a closer look at your analytics to see what your audience dislikes, and fix that first. Problem areas could be:

• A checkout abandonment rate of more than 60% (is it too difficult?)
• A website abandonment rate higher than 70%, (concentrate on your categories and website navigation)
• A home page desertion of 50% (check your design, content, photos, load time, etc. That first impression is very important)

You may also have to consider revising your product selection. Nobody likes to buy outdated, unfashionable goods. Although many people like to be cool, creative and stylish, they may not necessarily like a website with main pages that are over the top. If a page is too complicated, has a confusing layout, incorporates too many flash images, or takes too long to download, your design may backfire!

8. Test both Micro & Macro conversion: Conversions from home, catalogue and product pages are considered micro conversions. Those conversions taking place when visitors roam your site, adding to their shopping cart before finalising their order, are considered macro conversions. Both conversion types are crucial to your success, so test them both.

9. Double up: Whenever you can, run your same test scenario several times, but with different conversion pages. The results may surprise you, as what works fine for a micro conversion may perform poorly for a macro conversion, and vice versa.

10. Analyze your results: The true art of conversion optimisation is not in running the test, but the analysis that follows as soon as the results are in. Find out why some pages are more successful than others so that you can incorporate their characteristics into your other pages.

11. SEO goes a long way: Thriving marketing strategies include Search Engine Optimisation in everything they do online. However, over-crowded keyword titles, footers and headers are not only unappealing to the search engines, but also to your website visitors. Be select about the articles, blogs, and images you offer, and be careful about how you present them.

12. Have an original tagline: Taglines are like branding slogans. They are used in advertising and marketing materials to communicate propositions. Quality taglines will speak to and appeal to the consumer and, therefore, lend their brand and website to more conversions. They also have to be related to your business. If they are not, your audience will be confused.

13. Compose dazzling headlines: Simply placing a couple of images on your main page will not keep your visitors intrigued. They want more, like messages and eye-catching headlines. Set up a few tests to find out which headlines will bring you the most conversions. Catchy headlines should tell your audience what you can do for them, how important they are to you, and why they should pick you over your competitor.

14. Visitors rely on site searches: It happens to all of us. We visit a retailer for a certain product, yet cannot find it because there is no ‘site search’ option. Frustrated, you leave. Do not make that same mistake, especially if you have more than 100 products in your e-shop. When installing a search box, consider the following:

• The location of your search box could be wrong if less than 10% of your visitors use it;
• Make sure your search box design is appealing;
• Offer various filters your visitors can put search results through – e.g. price, brand, new arrivals, sales, size, etc.

15. Establish credibility: Your followers will trust you and your brand even more if they hear nice things about you through positive media coverage, third party reviews, industry certifications, awards, and other entities customers generally recognize as a reliable organisation or source.

A word of caution: Google website optimizer can be quite addictive, especially once your conversion rates start to rise after a few targeted website improvements. Enjoy your progress, but remember that competitors never sleep! So, keep up the good work, and the thrill of success will continue to be yours!

This article is an original post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Google to the Rescue: Top 15 Website Optimizer Tips and Tricks is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Richard V. Burckhardt

My Book Essential 1TB USB External Hard Drive

The drive itself is in an attractive upright storage case with a light indicator (a very BRIGHT one) giving you an indication of how much space you have used on the drive. The case also includes cooling vents (no fan), cable lock port, power and activity lights.

Hooking it up is a breeze, just plug it into a USB port on your computer and then into a power outlet. The WDSmartWare software installs easily, setting itself up as a virtual CD drive (which could become a problem if you use more than one My Book), and is intuitive and easy to use, but basic. You can schedule backups, retrieve backed up files and see the status of your drive in your taskbar.

And, the My Book drive works nicely as a mapped network drive for me.

I did run into a couple of issues that are related to my particular PC setup. I first tried hooking the My Book to my Windows XP media center PC in my media room. Worked flawlessly until a reboot at which time the PC hung before loading Windows. I looked for a bypass in the system bios, but there wasn’t one, so, since I sometimes have to reboot this PC remotely (it’s primarily used for Orb cable TV and media streaming), this wouldn’t work.

I moved it to my Windows 7 desktop, but the WDSmartWare software apparently has issues with my Tritton USB VGA adapter. When I have my second monitor going through the adapter, the WDSmartWare software opens, then disappears from view. I have to disable the adapter to see the drive software on the primary monitor.

Not a deal killer, though, since I basically set the WDSmartWare software and forget it for the most part. I personally plan to use the My Book Essential as a network drive anyway. But, keep in mind, this software is installed whether you want it or not, fine for a beginner with basic backup needs, but advanced users won’t like it at all.

And, the manufacturer states “compatibility may vary depending on user’s hardware configuration and operating system.”

All in all, the My Book Essential External Hard Drive is a nice, basic external storage option. The version I received is Windows XP, Vista and 7 ready. It requires reformatting for Mac.

I’d give it three out of five stars.

This is a post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Review: My Book Essential External Hard Drive is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Richard V. Burckhardt

Top 10 SEO Tips from the BlueGlass LA 2010 online marketing conference in Marina del Rey.

This is The Web Optimist’s Top 10 List of SEO Tips from the recent BlueGrass LA conference held in Marina del Rey. Vanessa Fox and Adam Audette provided incredible search engine optimization presentations and these are what stuck out above everything (at least in my opinion).

1. The TITLE tag is the most important tag. Ask someone NOT involved with your site to review your title. Is your title what they would be searching for?
2. Build your site based upon what people are looking for, NOT the other way around.
3. Clarify your business goal, brand objective and value proposition. These are extremely difficult to do, but essential to your success. Answer these first!
4. Make sure what is ranking for any given keyword is relevant and not a 404 or non-related page. We’ve all seen these pop up in the serps.
5. Solve a problem for your customer. Make sure the page does this with proper SEO and a call to action. It comes down to answering user questions.
6. Don’t put SEO front and center. Ditch the the huge list of links. Good SEO is unseen and should be an invisible layer. Make the best user experience, then leverage SEO.
7. Give the SEO team the power to do things.
8. Give the SEO team their own development resources (This is my FAVORITE!).
9. Make SEO part of the work flow, but don’t bring it into the development cycle too early. However, make the SEO team aware of product and value development as they progress.
10. Great content + Great User Experience + SEO = Traffic

Thanks to Loren and the whole crew at BlueGlass LA 2010. Fantastic conference!

This is a post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Top 10 SEO Tips from BlueGrass LA is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Richard V. Burckhardt

Does your business have multiple locations? Does each local location want to do its own PPC marketing? Then each local site needs its own domain to do local paid search marketing.

Quick SEO Tip: Domains for Local PPC is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Richard V. Burckhardt

I’m preparing to do a presentation as VP of Search for FramesDirect.com  for the Performance Marketing Expo in Miami this September and would like a local Palm Springs area test audience for “SEO Tips Even Mom Would Love” – a roughly 20-minute Powerpoint show.

Ideally, I’d like to do this for a business or organization group of at least ten people in a conference room. Yes, that’s the catch. You will need to provide the facility. A projector or large monitor that can be connected to a laptop will also be required.

And, of course, I am offering to do this free for the lucky group. I’ll take questions regarding the presentation and general SEO afterwards.

So, these are the requirements to qualify for the free workshop:

• You must be in the Palm Springs area
• Group of at least ten participants
• Conference room or other facility with either a projector or large monitor that can be connected to a laptop.

So, if your Palm Springs area business, organization, bureau or group wants a free primer on search engine optimization from The Web Optimist (me), drop me an e-mail or call me at 760-641-1501. At this time, only ONE free workshop will be made available, but you never know.

For more information about me, check out my SEO Speaker page where you will find links to even more info about yours truly.

Thanks,

Richard V. Burckhardt
The Web Optimist: SEO in The Desert

Free Palm Springs SEO Workshop for One Lucky Business is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Richard V. Burckhardt

WordPress plugins offer great tools for your blog's SEO and Social Media implementation and overall productivity.

WPing.fm - This plugin, as you can probably figure out, works with Ping.fm. Every time you edit or publish a post (you decide to do one or both) it is sent to Ping.fm, which sends it to Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, MySpace and a ton of other social sites (again, you set all of these up). Great for pushing out new posts across the social world.

Raw HTML in WordPress - For those of us blogging about SEO, web design or development, this plugin solves a world of headache. Since WordPress won’t allow you to display raw code in a post without totally borking it, this plugin wraps itself around the HTML so that it displays as, well, raw code in your post. For example, take a look at my post Top 10 SEO Must Do Tips and you’ll see this plugin in action in tip #4.

Page Links To - This one is a must for any blogger’s toolkit. This plugin allows you to redirect a page or post somewhere else. For instance, let’s say you want to create a link to an external site in your main menu where your pages are listed. You can create the page, name it what you like and have this plugin redirect the link to that off site location. The link in your main menu will have whatever text you set up for the page, but when clicked on, the link will 301 redirect to the URL of your choice rather than open the page (a 302 redirect is available, too, for those rare times it is needed).

Canonical URLs - Simple yet powerful. This plugin allows you to override the default canonical tag on a post and set it for the URL of your choice. Great for SEO!

permaLowercase301 - Another great tool for your SEO kit. This plugin will look at the case in URLs pointing to your pages and if the person linking to you has added upper case characters to your all lower case URL, this plugin will 301 redirect to the correct all lower case URL. This can help conserve link equity for SEO. Just set it and forget it.

WP Facebook Like Button - Literally, that’s what it does. Your visitors can “Like” your posts and have that appear on Facebook. If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon with your WordPress blog, this is a quick, easy way to do so.

Add Post Footer - Add a configurable footer to your blog posts. Content can include a paragraph of text, links, HTML, ad code or whatever. I use it to link out to some cool pages (See “Other Cool Stuff Online” at the bottom of this post).

Antivirus for WordPress - This isn’t like a full antivirus tool, but during the recent Godaddy.com attack (where this blog is hosted), it was the first to alert me that something was going on, which allowed me to work on counter measures quicker. I was able to find a tool online that would wipe the malicious code from my hosting account and check it every day from WP admin with this plugin to see if reinfection had occurred. Not exactly an SEO or SMO plugin, but can help you head off problems that could have an impact on them.

WP Google Buzz - Nice, easy to configure implementation. Allows your readers to push your content out to Google Buzz. Who doesn’t need more buzz these days?

Google Base Newsfeed - If you want to get informational articles and posts out on Google Base (not Google Merchant Center), this will create an XML file for News and Articles. You’ll need to create it as a custom category in Google Base admin since Google Base only includes categories for Events and Activities, Housing, Jobs and Vehicles these days. Of course, the plugin can be used for these as well, but for my case, the custom News and Articles is appropriate. A datafeed file called googlebasefeed-posts.xml or gbfeed-posts.xml will be created from your most recent posts that Google Base can fetch, so set up a schedule in Google Base to update it on a regular basis. Don’t expect a ton of traffic from it, but it can’t hurt to have your content out there.

This article is an original post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Handy SEO/SMO WordPress Plugins is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Wayne Barker

Bait the link hook with great content for improved SEO.

Essentially link bait is just a form of content that will gently nudge website owners, bloggers and social media acolytes to link to your site. Matt Cutts himself said link bait is “interesting enough to catch people’s attention” – whilst this is true link bait should be something that is interesting enough for people to want to link to it.

How do you go about creating link bait?

The first step is to put yourself in the position of your potential fish (or audience) and ask yourself what it is they want. Usually the best link bait (or at least the link bait that is successful) can fall into a few simple categories:

• The link bait solves a problem
• It is funny (without trying to hard)
• It is controversial
• It is easily digestible (often this is why lists are good link bait)
• It looks great (infographics are good for this – and they are also easy to digest)
• It is topically relevant

Have a think about the kind of content that you have linked to in the past – be it written content, video, infographics and the like – and try and create your link bait with this is mind.

A big issue with link bait can be that a lot of website owners think that what they sell or the service they offer does not lend itself to link bait – which is not true. The most important thing is…

Use creativity when creating link bait

Creativity is key to link bait – people a more likely to go to the trouble of linking to you if you have put the effort into your link bait. So if you think your business won’t lend itself to this tactic sit down with your team and brainstorm some ideas – you may find that the perfect idea pops up when you least expect it.

So link bait is only hampered by a negative attitude and a belief that your business or service isn’t relevant to this tactic. Have a look at this post from SEObook – yes I know it is old but it is a great example of when you start throwing ideas around something will come out of it. In addition to that the general ideas that are discussed still hold relevancy for creating link bait.

How will link bait benefit my site?

If you manage to come up with some great link bait and it takes off on the Internet you will ensure a couple of benefits for your site. Short term you will get the benefit of boost in traffic for your site (and if you site is engaging this traffic can turn into customers). Secondly you will receive the benefit of those fantastic, much needed one way links – which you know are crucial to your overall SEO campaign.

Promoting your link bait

As with most things in life you are going to have to put in a bit effort to make sure your link bait is seen by enough people to get the ball rolling. Promote you link bait through Social Networking and Social Bookmarking – making sure that you are reaching out to the correct audience. For more information on promoting your link bait check out this post on link bait promotion.

So for successful link bait just follow these four rules:

• Make it creative
• Make it link worthy (funny, controversial, catchy, informational, helpful)
• Have fun creating it
• Then promote it (without being spammy)

This article is an original post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Utilising Link Bait As Part Of Your Inbound Linking Strategy is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Nick Lewis

Guest blogging can be a great e-marketing strategy and help establish you an an authority, terrific for SEO and social media campaigns.

A good blog can be the centre of an effective social media marketing strategy, and, particularly if it’s hosted on the website you want to promote; can be an excellent way of driving traffic. Websites are fantastic for pushing your message out there, but blogs allow greater flexibility in staying up to date and demonstrating your specialist knowledge in your particular niche.

Not only that, but a well loved blog can become a platform for guest blogging, which will allow you to spread your genius even further into cyberspace. If you contribute a knowledgeable post to a well-respected blog, traffic will follow you back to yours, which will have earned extra kudos as a destination for decent information by virtue of your guest post.

On the flipside, if you can attract guest bloggers to write on your blog, you not only get the benefit of having fresh content to appease the Google gods, but you are further entrenching your blog’s authoritative reputation. This can be spread throughout other social media channels to drive even more traffic to your blog, which will translate to traffic for your website (if it has been designed effectively).

The potential benefits to be reaped from keeping a good blog, guest blogging and attracting guest bloggers are obvious, and that is why a blog should be a key part of your web design. An orphaned blog will serve no purpose; you may attract readers but the end-goal is for them to click-through to your actual website. As such it is a good idea to host it on your website so that people are already there, and need merely follow header links to discover your services. Making blog integration a key feature of your web design will allow you to drive traffic to your products or services much more effectively than tacking one on at the end.

The marketing strategy of blogging and guest blogging is simple: become an expert and establish yourself as an authority. As every blog thrives on fresh content, most well reputed blogs will be open to the suggestion, and it is an easy way of showing off your knowledge.

This article is an original post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Guest Blogging as an Effective Marketing Strategy is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Richard V. Burckhardt

Unique, keyword rich content is still the best spider food.

Understand that these are my personal top tips as an in house SEO. Another SEO would probably have a different list. You know how it goes, put two SEOs in a room and there's gonna be an argument! Heck, I even get arguments from my own SEO cronies!

Keep in mind that...

SEO is NOT Rocket Science

BUT, it is complex and an ongoing process that changes almost daily. There is no such thing as a permanent fix to magically send you to the top of the rankings for good. But here are some of the basics to look for when optimizing your site to drive more traffic, prospects and, hopefully, profit.

Absolute MUSTS for SEO:

1. Content is (Still) King - Be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase. Be sure to include keywords in heading tags and in the first paragraph and throughout body copy. This is referred to as spider food! Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.

2. Good Back Links - If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link.
• Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.
• Get links from good, authority sites. The "authority" will rub off on you.
• Avoid link farms and obvious paid links.
• Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for a site to link to you, you don’t want the link.

3. Link Format Consistency - Did you know that...

http://your-site.com
http://your-site.com/
http://your-site.com/index.html
http://www.your-site.com
http://www.your-site.com/
http://www.your-site.com/index.html

...are all technically SIX different URLs even though each will land the site visitor on the same Web page? Stick to one format, otherwise you are splitting your backlinks and link juice.

http://www.your-site.com/ = YES

http://www.your-site.com/index.html = NO

4. Use Absolute Links - Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it. What are absolute links?

Here's an example of an absolute link:

<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/blue-widgets.html">Examples of Blue Widgets</a>

Below is a relative link:

<a href="blue-widgets.html">Examples of Blue Widgets</a>

5. Title Tag - Among the first things the spiders will crawl on your page is the Title Tag at the very top of your HTML code. This is what you see in the blue bar at the top of your browser when you land on a page. Unique text in this tag on each page is essential and the single most important thing you can do for rankings. If you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end unless it contains the page's targeted keywords

6. Don’t be Obsessed with PageRank - PageRank, or that little green bar you see in the Google Toolbar, is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR. In fact, what you see in this toolbar is NOT what Google sees internally for daily rankings.

7. Optimize Your Images:
• Use captions with your images.
• Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page.
• Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.
• Enable “Enhanced image search” in  Google Webmaster Central. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.
• Use keywords for image file names.

8. Social Media - Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, Twitter, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.
• Link to your social media profile pages. Make sure visitors can find your social site pages. Make your very first weighted link to your profile pages a link from your company site.
• Twitter is incredibly powerful for weighting in the search engine results pages, so use it! Just be sure to grab your name before someone else does (this applies to all social sites).

9. Go Viral - Inject viral components into your web site or blog
• Ratings & Reviews (User Generated Content)
• Sharing (E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Comments (More User Generated Content)
• Videos (Upload these to YouTube, etc.)
• Podcasts (Distribute these through iTunes, etc.)
• News (Press releases, news feeds, etc.)
• Free E-Books (Who doesn't like free?)

All of these can help your content be found, linked to and rank better. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.

10. Localize - Local search is getting hot! Create a local listing for all locations if you have more than one. Don’t just create a local listing for the main one. Get them all in there! Start with local listings at Google (through Google Places or Google Maps), Yahoo! and Bing. Include photos, videos, links, web pages and coupons if available. It’s quick, easy, free and gives you one more opportunity to rank.

There you go. Again, these are my personal top 10 SEO tips. If you don't agree, well, eat dirt.

Just kidding. Feel free to comment.

This article is an original post from The Web Optimist - SEO in The Desert.

Top 10 SEO Must Do Tips is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO