window.google_render_aIncreasing online visibility is the goal of most online business owners. After all, without visibility, you have no traffic and thus no business. However, when you start to research how to increase your online visibility, you discover so many options, yet have so little time for research and implementation. Where does an online entrepreneur turn first to get the visibility (and traffic) you seek to help you promote your online venture?

New tricks and gimmicks come out every day, but unfortunately, most of them are like so many recording artists and become one-hit wonders. In my business, I've discovered that there are a handful that are able to stand the test of time. Some have been around for as long as websites have been around, while others are newer kids on the block. Here are my 10 most effective strategies to massively increase your visibility online:

1. Press releases. Press releases are a well-known marketing strategy that has worked for years with print and broadcast media. In recent years they have found new life as an online visibility tool. Just like in the old days, your release should carry some newsworthy angle that has been optimized with a select few keywords by which you want your business to be found. Don't waste your time submitting your release to the free press release sites -- the release simply sits on the site and goes no where else. Instead, invest in a fee-based service (I prefer PRWeb.com), which will ensure your release gets the recognition it deserves.

2. Social Networking. A "johnny come lately" to the online visibility scene, social networking now ranks near the top in terms of attracting much visibility to your business for a very low cost. If you don't yet have accounts on the two most popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter, today is the day to hop on board and begin to network. Choose 1-2 social networking platforms where your target market hangs out, and then begin to work it by making connections, joining groups or networks, sharing resources, and asking questions. Dedicate 15-30 minutes each day to your effort to begin to see results.

3. Article Marketing. Writing and submitting articles to major article directories has definitely stood the test of time for online visibility. Article marketing will drive traffic to your site, establish you as an expert in your target market's eyes, and give you valuable content to repurpose into information products. For maximum effectiveness, your article needs to contain a strong resource box (author's bio) that drives traffic back to your site, needs to contain useful content that solves a problem of your target market, and is written in a tips-based fashion, like this one, as they are the easiest for a website visitor to read and digest.

4. Blogging. Business blogs (a web log or journal), have gained popularity over the last few years as an online visibility tool. Blogs use RSS feed technology to immediately get new posts and updates out to your blog subscribers through a feed reader. Unlike ezines or traditional websites, search engines index blog posts almost immediately, which help you generate traffic to your website. To use effectively as an online visibility tool, you need to post 2-3 times per week to keep your readers interested and coming back.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Optimizing your site or your blog for organic (naturally-occurring) searches has been around from the beginning of Internet marketing. Use a keyword research tool and create a list of keywords applicable to your business. Don't forget to add things like "how to", "tips", or short descriptions of your target market's problems to your research. Then, take a look at your page titles, page descriptions, page headlines, and formatted text on a page (bolding, italicizing, underlining) and include your keywords in those areas, as well as sprinkling 1-2 keywords throughout the content of your page. Make the SEO appear to be natural, not forced, and the search engines as well as your visitors will love you.

6. Email Newsletter (Ezine). Regular publication of an email newsletter (weekly is most effective) will enable your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and have you be top of mind when they are ready to solve the pressing problems that fall within your line of expertise. If you make opting into your ezine list the primary call to action on your website, you continually build your list with prospective customers. Best of all, if they like what you write, they are more likely to pass along the issue to their contacts, thus increasing your visibility yet again.

7. Signature Teleseminar/Speech. Have you created your signature speech or teleseminar that you can present whenever you're asked to speak to any type of group (face-to-face or virtual)? If not, design a signature speech or teleseminar that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise without giving away the store (focus on the what and the why but not the how) that compels your listeners to visit your website or request your client attraction device and get on your list.

Then, begin to research groups that contain your target market both in your geographic area and online. Once you've landed a speaking gig, strategize your best call to action for the group -- do you want participants to sign up for your email list, purchase a product, or book a consultation? Add that call to action to your presentation.

8. Videos. With the popularity of broadband Internet connections, it's much easier for almost anyone to view online video these days. And, with high-quality yet low-cost web cams, video cameras, and screen capture software readily available, anyone can make a video today. You might record a live Q&A session on UStream.com and post it on your site. Or, perhaps you want to record a "how to" tutorial using screenshots from your computer and upload that to your YouTube.com channel. Remember to include your call to action in your video so that you drive traffic back to your site. Just think -- your video may cause you to become the next YouTube star!

9. Expert question sites. Most people conduct online searches to find free information that answers their questions. Many online entrepreneurs are registering as experts on an expert or answers site, like Yahoo Answers or AllExperts.com, in an effort to get visibility online. To be an effective expert on these sites, you need to seek out questions that you can knowledgeably answer as an expert. Your answer needs to be very detailed and as specific as possible. The more thorough your answer, the better chance you'll have of getting chosen as the "favorite" answer, which is the one rated highest on the site and in the search engines.

10. Viral marketing. Viral marketing involves creating a marketing piece (ebook, video, software) that gets passed along free of charge from person to person. Publicity Hound Joan Stewart does this quite effectively each year when she compiles the best tips she's written about in the previous year in a "best of" ebook compilation that she gives away free of charge on her site. She also encourages her list and website visitors to "regift" it.

You've got two options when you try to get online visibility: the "steady and effective over time" method or the "quick and short and probably get banned" method. I prefer to use methods that have stood the test of time and won't result in my site being removed from the search engines. Use one or more of these time-honored strategies to get you the visibility you deserve online.

by Donna Gunter

Of all of the different types of marketing that is available on the Internet, video marketing is one of the newcomers on the scene. Although it is important that you never ignore some of the good old standbys, such as article marketing and search engine optimization, you should make sure that you are not ignoring the newcomers as well. If you want to have the widest diversity of traffic coming to your website, you need to start posting videos on youtube.com and getting them from there. As a matter of fact, you can use this video website in order to build one of the most targeted and profitable lists that you will ever have.

The first thing that you need to do is to learn how to make a compelling video. It is not necessary for you to understand the ins and outs of video making as if you were making a Hollywood movie. It is important, however, for you to understand the basics of niche marketing so that you stick with the subject and don't go after the big numbers. Yes, you can pull a thousand visitors to your video overnight if you use pretty girls or cute animals but unless they have something to do with the offer on your webpage, the traffic will be worthless.

Uploading your video to youtube is a relatively simple thing but before you do so, you want to make sure that everything is in place. At the beginning and end of each of your videos, you should make sure that you leave the URL of your website. If necessary, by a short version of the website and redirect it to your actual domain. The last thing that you want is to have some big complicated website address that people will need to type in in order to drop by your website. Make it as easy as possible for the people watching the video to type your website into their browser and you will receive the most amount of traffic.Another mistake that is often made whenever it comes to getting people to your website from youtube is not allowing them to see the URL for long enough. If you're only going to flash your website for a couple of seconds, you might as will not make the video at all. Given a full five seconds at the beginning of the video and then leave it up for half a minute or longer at the end. This will give people the time to type in your URL while it is still playing in the video.

Finally, you want to make sure that you push them into an area of your website with a squeeze page. Don't put them on a page with a lot of content where they will have a hundred different choices of where to go. Put them on a squeeze page where they can either sign up for your newsletter or back out. If you really don't want to lose them from your website, use an exit pop-up but other than that, limit their exits to a minimum.

By Guido Nussbaum

Google put out a nice holiday checklist at the Webmaster Central blog to help Web marketers prepare for the holiday season. Given that the season is nearly over, if you haven’t already done these things, try to remember them for next year.

Well, one supposes this is good advice for those that do business year round, which is everybody, right? To follow are some of the better suggestions:

1.    Verify your site is indexed and returned by Google with the right snippet and page title. Cut down or eliminate on duplicate titles and meta descriptions.

2.    Label your images. Nobody likes (and some distrust) images with only the generic number tag as a description (i.e., 001.jpg). Use alt tags to label your images so that when they show up in Google Images, the text matches the picture. It helps Google identify the images, too.

3.    If you have a brick-and-mortar location, double check and claim your business listing in Google Local.

4.    Make sure your site is compatible with all the different browsers out there.

5.    If Google returns Sitelinks for your site, give those a quick review, ensure the destination pages are functional or remove unwanted sitelinks through Webmaster Tools.
 

the author: Jason Lee Miller is a editor and writer covering business and technology. 

There is so much information floating around out there about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to get some rankings. So much of it is contradictory and confusing. I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about the secrets of top rankings.

So, let's jump right in with the secrets to SEO success....

Search Engine Secret # 1: There are no secrets! The search engines make it all very public and clear what you need to do to get top rankings. The success lies in the details and proper implementation. But there is no top secret, proprietary technique for getting top rankings.

OK, so now we all know there are no secrets, but that doesn't mean there isn't information you need to know, such as:

If you don't optimize your site, you won't get top rankings. It really is that plain and simple. If the engines can't spider your site and you don't have links and strong content, you don't stand a chance against the sites that do have all that in place. So many people don't want to spend money on SEO, or are afraid to take the plunge but then they can't understand why they don't have rankings. So maybe there is a secret - maybe the secret is take action and get your site optimized!

Your site structure matters! I can't tell you how often people have said to me "I know my site is a mess, but I don't want to spend the money fixing it, so can't you just throw up some keywords and Meta tags and get me some rankings?" Ummmm, no, I can't. Your site structure is your foundation. You would never build a house without a solid foundation, why would you build an SEO campaign without a solid foundation?

Don't just focus on small keyword list that is made up of the most popular and competitive keywords. You will be missing out on opportunities for great keyword phrases that convert really well. Expand your list. Include long tail phrases. They may have less traffic but they will convert at a higher rate and if you get enough of these phrases they will likely add up to be better than your original list.

SEO is changing and evolving so staying current on what the engines are looking for is important. Either hire a firm to get you top rankings or find a way to make sure you stay current with information you can trust.

Social media and SEO go hand in hand, so get out there and be social. You can optimize your site without doing social media, and you can do social media without an optimized site. But why would you? The two enhance and compliment each other. The truth is there is a lot of competition out there for website traffic so why not use all the tools at your disposal?

Focusing on SEO without focusing on conversions is a mistake. You are going to work so hard, or pay someone your hard earned money to get you top rankings. You can't afford to ignore marketing issues. Make sure your site is going to convert all that great new traffic you are going to send to your site.

Google Webmaster Tools and your web stats are a goldmine of information. Make sure you take time to see what words people are actually using to find your site and see what people do once they get to your site. See how many people link to you and which of those sources are driving traffic. Find out if there are errors on your site. There is so much information to be analyzed; you just need to make the time to check it out.

Successful SEO requires time, patience, skill, knowledge, persistence, attention to detail, knowledge of HTML, current information and an understanding of marketing helps too - then you can write the best possible text while using the keywords well, and it will also help you write compelling Title and Description tags....OR - the willingness to invest in a professional firm to get those top rankings for you.

Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com. Since 1998 Jennifer's expertise in marketing & Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase rankings, traffic & revenue.