If you're like most online webmasters, then you have probably read one article after the other about search engine optimization.
Most of them rehash the same old information and you end up wading through tons of fluff.
However, this isn't one of those articles. Listed below are 7 advanced SEO tips that you won't find on every digital corner.
1. Syndicating Articles that Link to Your Sitemap
As you probably know, syndicating articles is one of the best methods for obtaining one-way backlinks.
They are also valuable pieces of search engine bait because search engine crawlers are frequent visitors to many high-profile
article directories. If you want to get the spiders quickly crawling your site, simply submit an informative article to a site
like EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com,
or ArticleCity.com.
However, there's another article marketing strategy that isn't mentioned much in marketing circles. This tactic can get the
crawlers searching deeper into your site and indexing more of your pages. Simply link to your sitemap within the resource box.
This will send the spiders straight to a content buffet where they can quickly slurp up all of your pages.
2. Translating Your Website Into Other Languages
Are you marketing in just one language? If so, you are missing out on 64.8% of your marketing potential. This is because 64.8% of
the world is surfing the internet in a language other than English. By becoming a multilingual marketer, you immediately open up
a stream of new markets. Google alone crawls web pages in 35 different languages.
One of the best ways to attract worldwide traffic is to translate your site and register it with both English and foreign-language
search engines and directories. If you are a seasoned SEO, you'll be happy to hear that the competition in foreign search engines
is much less than in those of the United States.
In addition, online foreign language markets are currently growing at a much faster rate than English speaking markets.
You have the opportunity to tap into this market while it's in an exponential growth phase.
3. ROR Sitemaps
As you probably know, sitemaps are important for making sure your site can be completely spidered and indexed by the search
engines. Unfortunately, many of these sitemaps are specific to one search engine or another. For this reason, there have been a
number of Google and Yahoo site map generators produced in recent years.
However, there is an alternative that is even more exciting. These are ROR sitemaps and they are readable by all search engines,
not just by Google or Yahoo.
ROR is an exciting new sitemap tool that uses XML feeds to describe your website. These sitemaps are structured feeds that enable
search engines to complement text search with structured information to better interpret the meaning of your site. With a ROR
sitemap, search engines can better understand your products, services, images, newsletters, articles, podcasts, and anything else
that you want to describe.
For example, if you are selling products, a ROR file enables you to document your product names, descriptions, prices, images,
availability, affiliate programs, and any other relevant information. Search engine crawlers like the Googlebot have an enormous
job to do. It's time we start helping them to better understand our content.
To start generating your own ROR sitemap, go to Rorweb.com.
4. Keyword Phrases that Convert
Selecting the right keyword phrases is the single most important aspect of any SEO campaign. Unfortunately, many webmasters target
the wrong keywords. Too many of us target very general keywords like "real estate" or "internet marketing". Although these terms
get lots of visitors, it is unlikely that you will be able to rank highly for them. Then, even if you do, this type of traffic
produces very low conversion rates because it does not target prospects.
You will be much more successful, if you target keyword phrases that are 3-4 words long. These terms are much less competitive and
have been proven to convert much better than keywords that are 1 to 2 words long.
Who do you think is more likely to buy; someone who goes to Google and searches for "ipod" or someone who searches for "4gb black
ipod nano"? Obviously, the person who searches for a more specific phrase is much closer to making a buying decision.
The Independent Search Engine & Directory Network paid inclusion program can't be
matched by Google, Yahoo! or MSN. We offer:
5. GoogSpy
Would you like to get an in-depth view of how your competitors run their business? Well, you can do exactly that with an online
service known as GoogSpy. GoogSpy is a free research tool that will tell you what keywords your competitors are bidding on.
This tool tracks over 500,000 keywords every day from Google and then loads this goldmine of information into the GoogSpy.com
database. Using this tool, you can browse by company or by search term.
This tool is extremely powerful. Unfortunately, many people take it for granted. This service basically hands you a business
strategy on a silver platter. Maybe we should just keep this one to ourselves and enjoy the benefits of being one step ahead of
our competition.
For example, let's say you wanted to do some in-depth research on Overstock.com, one of the largest companies online. You would
simply go to googspy.com and type in overstock.com. You will then be shown thousands of words that this company bids on. These
keywords are proven profit generators. Research like this would normally cost thousands of dollars, but they are providing it
free of charge.
If you want to find keywords with high conversion rates, simply type in words such as buy and purchase. You will be shown keyword
phrases that are bid on that include the words buy or purchase. These are very lucrative keyword phrases because the person who
types in "buy sony playstation 2" knows exactly what they want. They're not just looking around, they are in buying mode. These
are the type of keywords you want to bid on. Using GoogSpy, you can uncover these hidden gems in seconds.
Other high-converting keyword phrases include brand names and product names. Type in the keyword "camera" and you will find
thousands of different brands and product names for cameras. These keywords are some of the best keywords because of their high
conversion rate.
To uncover your own profit-producing keywords, go to http://www.googspy.com.
6. Internal Links Within Content
The navigation of your site is a crucial element of your search engine optimization campaign. Each link within your navigational
structure should correlate with a keyphrase that you are trying to rank for.
However, you can also include internal links within your content. For example, let's say you have written an article about online
marketing. Within the article are a number of keyword phrases. Some of these phrases include "link popularity" and "web site
traffic". If you have other articles within your site that pertain to these topics, then you should definitely link those keyword
phrases to those articles. By doing this, you can increase the link popularity of other pages within the same site.
There are very few sites that take advantage of this optimization technique. By doing this, you enable the search engines to find
and index much more of your site. These internal links also contribute to a higher ranking because of the anchor text that is
used.
Many people only think of inbound links from outside websites when trying to raise their link popularity. However, the internal
link structure is also a major ranking factor.
7. Using Your Log Files for SEO
Your server logs reveal very important information about your site. If you learn to use them properly, they can quickly help to
maximize your site's traffic and conversion rates.
One of the most valuable pieces of information found in your log files are search phrases. The log files will tell you exactly
which keywords people are using to find your website.
Once you have optimized a page, the log files will tell you how people are finding that page and what keywords they are searching
for to get there. If you find that people are using keywords that you hadn't thought of to get to a certain page, it would probably
be in your best interest to further optimize that page for those keywords.
You might also want to create a new page optimized for that particular term. This is especially true if a new page would enable
you to serve better information on the phrase being searched for.
In addition, by looking at how your site is found organically, you can determine whether the same keyword phrases belong in your
paid search campaigns. Only choose the ones that are highly relevant. You will find that these keyword phrases have the best
conversion rate.
About The Author
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and
SEO-News newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim @ seo-news.com .
This article may be freely distributed without modification and provided that the copyright notice and author information
remain intact.