Friday, May 09, 2008

Blogging For Quick SEO Benefits

Realizing SEO Benefits Quickly Through Blogging

by Ambar Shrivastava , Friday, May 9, 2008

QUICK RESULTS IN SEARCH MARKETING are only possible with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, right? Wrong. The advent of blogging, as well as recent advances to search engine algorithms, has narrowed the gap between PPC and search engine optimization (SEO) to mere hours. With PPC, there is instant gratification as your advertisement will appear in search results almost immediately after your campaign is activated. However, this same advantage can now be seen in SEO.

First, let's take a look at some common reasons why SEO projects have not been carried out in the past.

- Companies don't want to abandon tech investments (e.g. content management systems and Web publishing tools)

- Lack of budget dedicated to SEO

- May take a while to demonstrate ROI

Blogging addresses each of these problems.

- SEO best practices are already in place. Blogging software by default includes a few basic but important SEO practices by using proper Titles, headlines, URLs, and internal linking structure. Search engines also like sites that have fresh content, which can give blogs great influence over search results.

- Recent search engine algorithm changes boost the visibility of blogs. An experiment by Ryan Durk took advantage of temporary changes in Google's logo linking to the search results page for "January 1 TCP/IP". It shows two things: the speed by which a new blog is indexed and the short time between your blog getting indexed and it appearing high in search results.

- Blogs are inexpensive and easy to setup. A new blog can be created in a matter of minutes with little technical knowledge. Blog creation is free in many cases, often with a nominal monthly fee for additional features.

Blogging is great for companies that are not ready to make the larger SEO investment or are worried about abandoning a CMS in which they have already invested. Blogging can be used as a proof of concept that shows that SEO can deliver results. Use of blogging software delays the larger discussion of SEO projects that are potentially more time-consuming and require a larger investment that reap longer term benefits. Setting up a blog is inexpensive and doesn't force you to abandon or modify your existing IT investments.

Then get people to notice your blog.

- Conduct keyword research Creating a blog is just the first step. Keyword research can be the difference between a highly popular, authoritative blog and a blog that no one knows exists.

Since everyone competes on the most popular words, try blogging about slightly less-competitive topics, so your site has the ability to rank for those terms. There are some great tools out there that help facilitate this process of identifying writing topics that other sites aren't necessarily targeting, yet will drive traffic.

If you're just getting started with blogging, write about a subject where you have expertise that you feel will interest your audience. Once you reach a critical mass of blog posts, take a step back and analyze how people are finding your blog and use that information to guide your editorial calendar.

- Utilize social media and pinging. In addition to keyword research, it is important to promote the blog using social media tools that increase the visibility of your blog and generate inbound links to your domain. Be sure to utilize pinging services to notify aggregation services of new content on your blog.

- Customize the blog template. It is also important to link to your new blog from the Homepage of your main Web site to make it easier for search engine spiders to discover it. Often times, the default template needs to be tweaked slightly for maximum SEO benefit. For instance, make sure your blog Permalink uses meaningful anchor text and not www.yourdomain.com/blog/?p=456

Blogging may not be the long-term solution for fixing a broken site, but it will get your foot in the door for SEO, deliver results in the short term, and facilitate the process of getting buy-in for full-scale, long-term SEO projects for the rest of your Web site.


Post your response to the public Search Insider blog.
See what others are saying on the Search Insider blog.

Ambar Shrivastava is product manager of Connors Communications, the developer of HitTail. 
 
Search Insider for Friday, May 9, 2008:
http://blogs.mediapost.com/search_insider/?p=784

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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Senior Care Professional Online Education Upgrades Affiliate Program

EasyCEU.com Upgrades Affiliate Program for Online Education

Published on: May 7th, 2008 04:23pm by: SKBrothers

EasyCEU.com, specialists in online training for senior care professionals, launched an upgraded affiliate program today. EasyCEU's program provides nationally accredited continuing education courses for senior care administrators, managers and nurses and other licensed senior care professionals.

Oregon City, OR (OPENPRESS) May 8, 2008 -- The upgraded affiliate program offers very generous commissions for referrals to continuing education courses on a per sale basis. Affiliates can now not only have easy access to custom links for their sites, but with this upgrade they can promote specific and individual courses or even develop a virtual course catalog.

"The time has never been better to align yourself as an affiliate with EasyCEU.com as we are experiencing our largest growth rate in history," explains Wendy Finch, VP Business Development. "We have excellent profitable relationships with healthcare associations through our Partnership Program, and upgrading our affiliate program seemed like an obvious next step to help us increase awareness of our courses and products."

"Through this program reputable companies or individuals who work with senior care professionals can quickly and easily provide information about needed continuing education courses, and earn commissions at the same time. Any company with a website who markets to the senior care industry is a candidate." notes Finch. The affiliate program has proven to be especially useful to professionals who provide seminars or classroom-based training to this population, allowing them to enter the e-learning field without expensive course development or delivery costs.

"Distance education, also known as e-learning or online training, is becoming the product of choice for today's busy senior care professionals," says Finch. "Not only are these individuals expected to accomplish more in less time, but they are also feeling the pinch of travel costs as well. Saving time and money by reducing expensive conference, seminars or classroom training is an obvious step for many in senior care."

EasyCEU courses are available in the areas of care for individuals with dementia or Alzheimer's disease, senior care and management, ethics, death and dying, and cultural competencies as well as other topics related to senior care.

Affiliates are screened and accepted into this program from a variety of sites that provide services to this group of professionals.

For more details and an affiliate application visit the EasyCEU website at www.EasyCEU.com and click on the Partner/Affiliate link, or call 877-843-8374.

About
EasyCEU.com is a division of the Institute for Senior Living Education (ISLE-ed.com) a company developed, owned and operated by senior care professionals who have a unique understanding of the training and support needs of individuals who have devoted their careers to senior care. EasyCEU (EasyCEU.com), offers anytime, anywhere web-based courses and continuing education credits for assisted living and nursing home administrators, nurses and managers. All courses are approved by the National Continuing Education Review Services of the National Association of Boards of Examiners of Long Term Care Administrators (NCERS/NAB), as well as by the numerous state licensing boards. Its instructors are professional healthcare and senior care educators and providers. aQuire Training Solutions (aQuireTraining.com) another ISLE-ed product, provides online staff training especially designed to not only meet licensing compliance needs but also to improve quality of care, build stronger staffing teams and reduce staff turnover. ISLE-ed is also launching a new product, Apply2Care (Apply2Care.com) which will help providers utilize internet capabilities for recruitment of new employees.
Release Information

Industry: Education

Country: United States

MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): Portland-Vancouver, OR-WA

Company: aQuire Training & EasyCEU.com

Web site:
Visit our web site

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Chinese Character Internet Domain Names Launched Today

Brand New Chinese Character Domain Names Launched on the Internet Today - Many Other International Languages Also Available

Internet users can now register domain names using almost any language or text imaginable. Included are not only Chinese characters, but also Spanish, French, German, Russian and Japanese - to name but a few. The Internet has evolved and become a lot more universal.

New York, NY  -  April 2, 2008 -- People are now registering domain names as never before using almost all language and texts imaginable. In addition to Chinese, there's also Spanish, French, German, Russian and Japanese - and the list goes on.

Unrivalled in their flexibility, International Domain Names are here to stay. Begin registering your own Multi-Lingual Domain absolutely free as dotWORLDS (www.dotworlds.net) Beta Tests systems.

dotWORLDS offers unlimited possibilities for all those wanting personalization and easy-to-remember options. Dream up a domain, invent your own extension and you too can create your very own TLD - plus you'll even be offered the option to host your new website on dotWORLDS servers free of charge. A new dimension has been added to the Internet that anyone can use virtually without restriction.

dotWORLDS investment in its global structure provides members and visitors on all five continents with secure, managed systems. dotWORLDS is also working on other new advances and Internet users worldwide can expect further announcements soon on the launch of a totally free Multi-Video Conference Centre.

dotWORLDS Ltd is a UK company based in London that specializes in providing fully personalized internet domains, email addresses, hosting, site builders, and ISP services all free through their global infrastructure. Please see website www.dotworlds.net/ for full details.

CONTACT:

Press Office dotWORLDS

Press Contact: PRESS OFFICE
Company Name: dotWORLDS
Phone: 0044 (0)870 749 4178
Website:
www.dotworlds.net