Basically, Search Engine Optimization involves 3 steps.

• Keyword Research
• On Page Optimization
• Off Page Optimization

Just three, you ask? Yes, there are only 3 steps in basic SEO. Now lets take a closer look at each of them.

Search Engine Optimization Step One – Keyword Research

This is perhaps the most important step. If you want to improve search engine ranking, before you even think about search engine optimisation, you must first think about keyword phrases.

What are keyword phrases? They are the words and phrases people use in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Put on your consumer cap and figure out the phrases people use to search for the information, products and services you provide on your web pages.

Lets say that you have a website on cat food. You would then obviously use the phrase “cat food” as the base of your keyword research. A few other phrases you could use are:

• what is in cat food
• food cat
• food for cat
• cat food
• catfood
• feline food
• feline cat food
• cat care

What to do with these key phrases? Insert them into a Keyword Research Tool. The tool will then provide you with the numbers which you can then use for your keyword analysis. These numbers include keyword competitiveness level, Ads Cost Per Click and many more. Analyze the stats and find a keyword that gives high demand (a lot of searches) and low competition.

There are many keyword research tools out there. Among the ones I use and also recommend are Google Adwords External Keyword Tool, Market Samurai and SEOBook. Of course, you are free to try out all the other Keyword Search Tools out there. Don’t listen and follow me blindly. What works for me may not be suitable for you.

In this first step, all you have to do is brainstorm for 5 – 10 possible phrases relevant to your market. Then enter those seed keyword phrases into any of the Keyword Research programs. They will then churn out more relevant keywords that you can use in your web pages, as shown in the image above.

Which Keyword Phrases do you choose? At this stage, just pick the ones with Low Competition and with at least a few hundred searches a month. These are the keyword phrases you will be optimizing for in the articles you will be writing in your web pages.

Search Engine Optimization Step Two – On Page SEO

On page SEO is how you integrate the keywords you searched for into your web pages. I’ve got just the video that will enlighten you to how On Page Optimization is done on your fan pages.

As shown in the video, once you have a specific keyword you want to optimize a page for, you then include the key phrase into specific locations in your internet page.

• Page Title (<title>key phrase</title> area at the beginning of your page.)
• Page Meta Description (<meta name=”description” content=”..”>)
• Page Headers (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>)
• Page Content (in the article body itself)

Now, there are really more things that you should do in terms of a complete On Page Optimization. I am not going to cover them all here today. I’ll cover them in upcoming posts. Nevertheless, I’ll mention a few of them such as:

• Internal Linking
• Sitemaps
• Compressions
• Images

For starters, just focus on getting your basic On Page Optimization right first as shown in the video. You can always learn more about the rest as you go along.

Search Engine Optimization Step Three – Off Page SEO

Off Page SEO is your optimization efforts to get Backlinks from other websites. These links should also be using your key phrases as the Anchor Texts. Backlinks? Anchor Text?

A Backlink is a link to a page in your website from an external website. Let me show you what a backlink is. This is a backlink to Wikipedia’s What Is A Backlink definition.

An Anchor Text is the phrase used in a link to a web page. In the previous backlink example, the phrase “What Is a Backlink” is the Anchor Text.

In the past (actually, even today), many webmasters use “Click Here” as an anchor text in a link. Webmasters and editors should use descriptive phrases an anchor text. The phrase “Click Here” doesn’t provide information to what your readers will get when they click on it.

Take my “What Is A Backlink” above as an example. Looking at it, you are informed that you would be directed to Wikipedia’s Backlink Definition page. A descriptive anchor text serves both readers and search engines information about the page you are linking to.

You need to get Search Engine Optimized Backlinks to your web pages. As many as possible. That’s what Off Page SEO is. You want other web pages to link back to your pages with your targeted key phrase.

The simplest way to get Optimized Backlinks is by first giving out backlinks to other web pages with relevant content. When you do this, the receiving website owner will be informed that they have received a Trackback from your page. Most webmasters (if they are not too busy), will come over to verify that your site is not a spam site. If they see that your content actually adds value to their site, they will gladly approve the trackback.

Voila! You now have a backlink from an external web page with your page title as the anchor text. All you did was write an article on your web site.

Do note that Trackback links count very little in terms of SEO value. Nevertheless, they are still backlinks. If you connect to popular sites and provide great value with your contents, you are bound to get natural backlinks and traffic using this method without the need to do too much blog walking.

Keyword Research, On Page SEO and Off Page SEO. That’s the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization that all blog and webmasters can do. I am pretty certain that if you do these three basic steps, you will have quite a number of your web pages on the first page of the search engines. Of course, it will take time. However, if you are not doing this, it will take forever to get on to the first page.

How long will it take to get to first page? 3 months? 6 months? One year? That depends on a lot of factors. Among them, your Keyword Research. Choose a highly competitive keyword, it will take longer. If you are just starting, go for low competition keywords.

Do note that the most important piece of the puzzle is still your content. Yes my dear readers, no matter how good you are at optimizing your web pages, if your content is not up to it, all you will be getting from the search engines are one time visitors who comes in and leaves in less than 15 seconds. What good is that?

I hope this long article has given you plenty of information about how you can optimize your web pages for the search engines. Do share this with your friends should this be of any help to them.

Many people then ask, how do you optimize your pages for the search engines? Perhaps an even more common question would be, how can you make your pages appear on the first page of the search results?

Well, before you even begin to learn about search engine optimization and tweak your pages for the search engines, you really should understand how the search engines work. Do you have any clue at all to how search engines like Google can provide you with the information that you are searching for? Well, if you don’t, then it’s time for you to pick up a few lessons today.

Don’t worry, I am not going to bore you to death with a very long write up on how the search engines work. All I am asking for is just about 3+ minutes of your time. Following is an excellent video by Matt Cutts that will surely bring you up to speed with the inner workings of a search request on the Google Search Engine.

There you go. I really think Matt did a great job at describing how Google works. I’m certain that you now have at least the basic knowledge of how the search results are formulated. Understanding the inner workings of a search is the basis of search engine optimization.

SEO is really just a technique of telling the search engine that your web page is the most relevant page with regards to the keyword that you are targeting. That’s it. Of course, you then have to prove to the search engine that your page really is the most relevant page for that keyword. That’s when Search Engine Optimization Services comes into play.

To help you further comprehend what goes on under the hood of the Google Search Engine, take a look at the following Infographics.

Infographic by the Pay Per Click Blog

Before I explain my reasons, lets first take a brief journey back in time to the early years of the Internet.

The Web Was Once Built By The Techies

Once upon a time, the Internet was a place for the technically inclined. Only those who are well versed with HTML codes are able to put up web pages. Creating a business web page was costly. Let alone an entire business website with multiple pages.

People were saying that the Internet was a level playing field for big and small businesses. However, only the big businesses could afford a decent website. So much for a level playing field.

Personally, I am not too HTML savvy myself. Even today. Thus, I didn’t venture into the realm of domains and web hosting until blogging systems came about.

Blogging And Content Management Systems To The Rescue

Blogging systems are plenty these days. I would say, blogging systems changed how websites are built. Blogging systems allow users to manage websites (better known as webblogs or blogs) with just a little knowledge of HTML.

Content Management Systems, they are called. I’ve played with quite a number of them at one time or another. Among them:

• Xoops
• DotNetNuke
• Mambo
• Joomla
• Bloxsom
• Blogger
• DasBlog
• osCommerce
• ZenCart
• WordPress
• Opencart

Thanks to the people behind these content management systems, the Internet is no longer a place built only by those with technical knowledge.

Now, lets get into the reasons I say WordPress is the best for your business website.

1. Instant WordPress Deployment

How long does it take for you to have a fully functioning website? It used to take months. Then it took probably hours with some of the early CMS mentioned above. Today, with WordPress, you can be up and running with a full featured website in just minutes.

Run the famous 5 minute install and your site is ready in just 5 minutes. How is that for a quick deployment?

2. Low Low Cost Of WordPress Deployment

Deploying WordPress is not only super fast. It is also super low cost. The system software itself has no cost. You can download it from WordPress.org for free.

Some would then probably think, support must be expensive then. Well, surprise, surprise.. Support is also pretty much, free from the large community of developers and hard core users all over the world. With a quick respond time too as there is always someone ready to answer your questions in the support forum.

3. Search Engine Magnet

This is a rather strange feature of WordPress. Search engines love WordPress sites. Google too. I say strange because, I see more WordPress sites in Google rather than Blogger. Google owns Blogger.

This is perhaps the result of having automatic XML Sitemap generations and search engine optimizations. Yes, with WordPress, all your sites search engine optimization is taken care of automatically by plugins.

All you should really care about when creating content on WordPress is to create high qualtiy content for your readers. Let the engine core and plugins do the optimizing automatically for you.

4. Plugins To Do Almost Anything You Can Think Of

You want automated SEO? Install a plugin.
You want automated backup? Install a plugin.
You want automated stats? Install a plugin.
You want automated posts? Install a plugin.
You want automated cup of coffee? Install a plugin.

WordPress Plugin Directory

There are now more than 16,000 plugins in the official WordPress Plugin Directory. Many more premium plugins are not included in the directory. No matter what functionality you want added into your WordPress site, there is probably a plugin to do it already. Just search for it.

5. Themes That Make You Go Hmmmm

There are only about 1,400+ themes in the Official WordPress Themes Directory. Just like plugins, this number does not include premium themes which are hosted on their respective servers. Still, I’d say that’s already a lot of free themes to choose from.

WordPress Themes Directory

With themes, you really don’t need any technical skills to make your website look professional. All you need is to install that professional looking theme of your choice. Once installed, you then activate and make the required changes using the options page provided by the theme.

The old days of spending huge dollars for website design is long gone now. Today, you would be better off to spend more in getting traffic to your site than on design. The large number of premium and free themes are good enough designs to make your website stand out to your readers.

6. Learning Resources

If ever you are interested in learning about WordPress. There are just way too many resources available on the net. All you have to do is Google for WordPress Video Training and you will find one for sure.

Here’s a sample video tutorial available on Youtube.

7. WordPress Is Too Easy To Master

Through out my years on the Internet (almost 10 years already), I have personally tried various other platforms – blogging, cms and shopping cart. None of them are as easy as WordPress in terms of learning how to use. Well, until I came across Opencart, I would say that WordPress had the smallest learning curve in the market.

Today, if asked about the easiest user interface to learn, I would say that title goes to Opencart. However, WordPress comes as a close second. Since Opencart is specifically a shopping cart, that makes WordPress the best in Blogging and Content Management.

It took me just a few hours to learn WordPress as compared to a few days when I tried the others (except Opencart – took me even less time).

I was introduced to WordPress in 2005 and have liked it ever since.

What’s the best web platform of your choice? Why so?

Services provided by Maaxii:

Domain Management | Google Apps Integration

Jaspal Malaysia is fashion outfit that aims to provide high fashion ready-to-wear (pret-a` porter) clothing to consumers at an affordable price. Today with more than 26 stores located throughout Thailand & 4 stores in Klang Valley, Jaspal has become the first choice of discerning men and women

Another work by the Social Media Marketing Team in Social Team Mates.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube

Jombali serves a wide variety of unique and delicious Malaysian food. Jombali is created to suit the Malaysians taste-bud, Truly Malaysian Favourites!

The team from Social Team Mates (our Social Media Marketing Team), worked on Jombali’s Social Media Marketing campaign.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube

1. You build it. They will come

This is probably the longest running myth in the internet era. Today, a little bit of spice is added to it. Today it goes something like – You build it nice and fancy with moving graphics and they will come.

If you’re confused, the “it” refers to your business website. The “they” refers to your website visitors.

The truth is, if you want to put your business online, yes, you need a web site. However, you do not want a “bling bling” website where you’ve got blinking and moving graphics popping up here and there. And yes, having a website alone will not bring in the money.

The virtual world, is a lot like the real world, in terms of business. In the real world, you need to do marketing. Well, that rule also applies in the virtual world. Without marketing, no one in the Internet will know about your website. So, if no one knows about it, no one will come to visit.

Today, if your site is of the “bling bling” type, your visitors will more than likely just click on the back button within seconds of landing on your site. All those moving and blinking graphics are all distractions. Seriously, I myself will automatically hit the backspace button every time I stumbled upon such a site.

2. Blog It. They Will Come.

Blogging is probably still a craze right now. Stats from WordPress.com reveals that about 30,000 to 50,000 blogs are created every day at WordPress.com. Now, this is just from one blogging service. What about blogger and the hundreds or perhaps even thousands of other free blog service providers.

While most of these blogs are created purely for blogging, many individuals and businesses are turning to blogs for profit purposes. Most of these business and profit blogs are created with the hope of making money and creating a successful online presence.

However, most of the time, you see these individuals and businesses abandoning the blogs, after a short while, simply because they are not seeing any return from their investment into the blog. So much for making passive income from blogs.

3. Tweet it or Facebook it. They will come.

This is the latest thing on the Internet today. Twitter and Facebook. Some people are even saying that blogger are leaving their blogs behind in favor of the new social craze. Along with the craze, we hear now that businesses must tweet and have a facebook account to become successful online.

So, you and these companies, start to follow people on Twitter. In Facebook, you go on a “Add as friend” frenzy. Pretty soon, you reach the maximum 5000 friends on Facebook. Not enough? You then create a Fanpage because it is not limited to just 5000 friends. Still want more? How about creating a group? Yes, of course..

After a few months of tireless marketing Tweets and Facebook status updates, you then discovered that your online income have yet to change for the better.

So, Are They Really Just Myths?

Lets face it, many businesses today are not doing so well even when the are religiously doing all that has been mentioned above. So, where is the mistake then? Well, the mistake is actually on you. I know, that statement hurts didn’t it?

I consider it your mistake because you did not take the time to study the strategy behind all three above. Website, Blog, Twitter and Facebook are just the tools which you can use. It’s like a knife. A tool used for cutting. However, you need to know how to use a knife properly before you can successfully cut anything. If you use the blunt side of a knife, you will have a hard time cutting anything at all.

There are many many more online business myths. I’ll cover them in another post. Of course, you can also chip in with the legends that you’ve heard about. Lets stop these myths from spreading any further.

In my personal blog, earlier, I posted an entry on why it’s important to own your online business name and not to rely on free web services domain names. That post came about because I saw too many businesses promoting their blogspot domain name in local print media.

Today’s post is also inspired after watching a particular local ISP’s ad on the tele.

The ad depicts a local family business selling satay becoming successful because they have Internet presence. Their domain name – SatayRoslyDanAnak.com. Now, do you think it’s a good domain name? What makes a good Internet domain? Is it important to have a good domain name? Yes, there are so many questions you can ask when it comes about your online business name.

Must My Domain Name Be Catchy?

Is it crucial to have good and catchy name for your online business? No, it is not crucial. What’s crucial is that you own the domain name. Fancy domain names just makes it easier for people to remember. I’m pretty sure that Satay.My (The name is still available at the time of this writing) is easier to remember than SatayRoslyDanAnak.com. It does sound like a law firm doesn’t it?

So, what actually makes for a good name on the Internet? How do you find a good domain name? Well, to tell you the truth, at this moment, 99% of  the possible best names are already taken. The best domain names – those that are made up of just single meaningful words with about 7 characters. Satay.com is good but, of course, it’s taken.

Don’t worry, even if the best names are all taken, it’s really not the end of the world. As I said, it’s not crucial to get the best domain name. Why so? Having a domain name of your own is more important. Still want a catchy name? Head on over to DomainTyper and find out if there are any fancy domain hacks you can use . You could also try out some Web 2.0 domain names,while you’re at it.

How To Find A Good Domain Name?

The very first thing to do when finding a good domain is to do market research. Yes, I would just head on over to Google Adword’s KeywordTool and type in the keyword. Google’s KeywordTool would then provide with all the search terms people are using in their seach engine. That list should supply you with a number of terms which you can use as your domain name.

The thing to remember here is, you should go for terms with high search numbers and low competition. In the case of satay, I can see that the term “satay” on its own is generating about 90k search every single month. That is a lot of searches. Hmmmm… Did I say satay.my is still available?

Is It Ok To Have Long Domain Names?

How long is long? ihavenottheshortestdomainnameintheworldsoiregisterthelongestone.com? That must really be the longest url at the moment. One complete long sentence as the full website url. Seriously, I’m not going to type that in the address bar, ever. Found it on Google.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.com? Now that’s one long word, indeed. Guess what.. that’s taken too.

The best length of your site name actually depends on your target market. If you are targeting visitors from the search engine (Google,Yahoo, etc) then you don’t  have to worry about the length. As a matter of fact, if search engines will be your major source of traffic, then you really should have long descriptive domain names. The descriptive name will entice searchers to click on your entry in the results page.

Today, many surfers use the search engines to arrive at a web site. I seldom see people typing on the browser address bar anymore. Besides, all browsers today have very smart address field. The address bar provides autocomplete feature that hints at you as you type your url. So, if your site was ever loaded into the browser, it will appear as hints if the surfer types in the address bar.

So, it is actually to your advantage to have a long descriptive domain name rather than short fancy names that don’t mean a thing. Long names will help you out in your Search Engine Marketing later on.

Domain Name Tools To Help You Find The Best Name

DomainTyper, as mentioned earlier, is one of the many tools I have been using to discover domain names which I can use. It is definitely not the only tool to use.  Try a few of the following. However, do not forget to do your research first.

DomainTyper, Domain Tools, Domainr, Dot-O-Mator and DomainsBot.

Now, what do you think about SatayRoslyDanAnak.com? Is it a good domain name? Would you use it as your own website url?

Business Ideas From What You Like The Most

I know I promised to show you how to do online market research in my previous post. However, I feel it is important to get this out first. It is the very first step you should take when you are starting up an online business. Especially if you are still trying to find business ideas that is most suitable for you.

Online market research allows you to determine the exact market to start your business in. It is certainly important for small business startups which I posted about in On Line Market Research: The Importance Of Market Research To Small Businesses.

Seriously, before you even go into the research steps, you should at least have ideas of what business you are going into. Allow me now to show you how to find ideas for a suitable market to start your business in.

Have You An Idea For Your Online Business Yet?

The place to look for a business idea doesn’t even require the Internet or computers. Just take a look at your own self. What are your interests? Your hobbies for example. If you like to go fishing, then fishing is certainly a good market to go into.

Do you spend a lot of time playing games – video games, computer games, online games? That’s a whole range of markets you can venture in.

How about the job you’re doing? Lets say you are a teacher. You can surely enter the Teaching Market. Your personal experience in your job would certainly have prepared you to succeed in this market.

When you really think about it, just by looking at your own interests, personal experiences and knowledge you can find various profitable markets. So, if you don’t know what exactly you want to start your business in, do the following. Tonight before you go to bed, find a pen and paper. Sit down. Take a minute or two, at the most, to list down all your interests, hobbies, jobs you’ve done, the subject of books you like to read, the movies you like, etc.

Don’t think when doing this. Just write whatever that comes to mind. Following is what my list looks like: (This is directly off the top of my head right now)

• x-men
• wolverine
• computer
• soccer
• college football
• american football
• miami hurricanes
• miami dolphins
• money
• jason bourne
• selangor football
• tottenham hotspurs

Why Starting Up A Business With What You Like?

Why use your own self as the source of ideas? Ever of heard of the term “Making money with what you love”? This is how you do it. You surely like those items you’ve listed down. If you can make money out of them, why not? Believe me, with proper research (the next step)and the right actions, you can make money, lots of money, with that short list of things you like to do.

Another reason to go with what you like is the knowledge you already have about those particular markets. Lets take fishing again as an example. If you like fishing, you would certainly have a lot of knowledge about fishing. You would know about the best tools to use. You know of have heard about the best places to go fishing.

You can easily promote, say, the fishing rod you’ve used in your fishing trips. People will believe you since you’ll be promoting from your very own experiences. Tell people about that one fishing trip where you reeled in that 20 pound Swordfish using your favorite fishing rod.

Never caught a big fish? How about your fishing friends? They have their stories which you can share with others too.

By going into a business in a market you personally have experience in, you have an added advantage. You already know the market. You know the market lingo. You understand how the market thinks.

You are already in the market yourself. What you want is probably what the market also wants. You know the problems faced by the people in your market. Create a solution or find one from another company and provide them to the market.

I always hear from people who wants to start a business but don’t know in what market they want to start in. Instead of actually starting their business, many are simply wasting their time “Looking for that New Market”. They want to be in a business where they are the first to offer such product to market.

I’m not against such mentality. However, the truth is, when you are really just starting, it’s a whole lot easier to become successful in an existing market. When you have the hang of things, learnt about the challenges in running your own business, then you can think about venturing into the uncharted territories of creating “New Markets”.

You now know that it really is not difficult to find ideas for a business. All it takes is just a couple of minutes. You don’t want to take too long building that initial list. You might end up with a list too long and end up confused instead. That one minute list is basically the things you like the most. They are also the things which you really have vast knowledge in. Hence, they are the most suitable for you to begin your business in.

Oh yes, about the list you’ve created. Keep it in a safe place. You’ll look at it again and use it when we cover in detail about doing On Line Market Research. Remember, tonight, go create the list and discover the best business ideas that truly suits you.

The Importance of Market Research for Small Businesses

I touched about the importance of market research for a successful affiliate marketing earlier. Today, lets uncover why it is pertinent that small businesses do their market research before starting up.

Why is research so crucial for small businesses?

Small businesses are mostly relatively small budget startups. Being new in existence, they tend to have limited resources. It is thus, important that the limited resources are used to their utmost value.

Being new and small, your company certainly cannot and should not try to compete directly with any of the big players in your market. Doing so will obviously be suicidal. The best thing a small startup can do is to go into a market where the big players are not focusing on.

This is where niche study comes in. Before you even begin to think about the products and services your company wants to offer, you must first do a study on the demands and competition.

Tragedy Of Starting Without Market Research

Imagine what will happen if you were to simply jump in and offer a product or service on the Internet, only to finally realize that the market you are after has very little demand. To make things worse, the market is already saturated with competing products and services.

In the above scenario, your company’s products and services will totally be redundant in a market already saturated. What if you further discover that you are offering your products and services at the high end price in the market. With abundance of products at cheaper prices, do you think your company can survive in that market?

Some might say that the Internet marketplace is so huge that anyone can surely make a living even if the market place is saturated with similar products. Yes, to an extent, that statement is true. The Internet is truly a big marketplace and it is expanding rapidly. However, the Internet also allows your potential customers to search for the best offer at a click of a mouse button.

It only takes a surfer a few minutes on the search engines to find the best deal for something he wants to buy. If you are in a highly competitive market, what are your chances of being found in the search engines within that few minutes?

Without a proper market research, you are bound to enter a market filled with highly competitive large corporations. This can really cost you the business for you are not able to compete directly with the big businesses.

Market Research Is Easy and Zero Cost

The only way for you to avoid the above mentioned tragedy of going directly against a big budget large corporation is by doing your market research diligently. Today, on line market research on the Internet is fairly easy to do. Majority of your research will probably be performed in the Internet’s most famous search engine – Google.

Google provides a number of on line research tools. The most widely used of their tolls is the Search Engine itself. Another useful research tool from Google which people use all the time is the Adwords External Keyword Tool.

The best thing for small startups, you can do your research at no cost. Yes, you heard that right. Today, an online market study is going to cost you $0.00. All that is required is your time and energy to actually do it. The tools are free and fairly easy to use. You will not need formal education or training to use the tools.

It simply amazes me why people would want to skip from doing market research. With the excellent tools from Google, one really should at the very least do a keyword research on Google.

So, what are you waiting for? Go and do your on line market research now. Don’t know how to do a market research? Well, you are in luck. The next entry will be on How To Conduct a Market Research.