What are meta tags and How important are they?

First off what are meta tags? Anyone who has a site or is exploring having one has probably heard this term before. Meta tags are used in html page headers. These tags contain information about specific keywords and descriptions of a web page. The search engines rely on meta tags so that they can properly catalogue your site. This allows users who are doing a search to easily find your site based on the keywords they enter into the search engine.

So, how important are these meta tags anyways?

They’re not as important as they used to be, but they do still have some importance. From a Google perspective – Yahoo, they actually still do work on Yahoo. But I will tell you, it does work better with Yahoo. Meta tags are fairly easy to do. Just go to your website, log in, go to your editor or website editor, whatever you’re using and right-click on the page. A lot of times it’ll pop up and say, “page properties.” Just click on the page properties. You can change your meta tags there. But it’s in that area when you right-click it. Actually, when you right-click on a web page and select page properties, you will see the title tag and a keyword tag. Those are meta-tags.

Meta tags were great back in the day because they helped search engines determine how to rank a certain site. When the engines' databases were small, this meta tag was a quick, easy way to help decide which keywords might be important on a site. However, certain people and especially spammers began to abuse meta tags by putting keywords into their tags that had nothing to do with a site’s content. You may have noticed this in the past when you inadvertently clicked on a link and were redirected to an unrelated site. This is commonly used by porn sites. You have no idea you’re entering one because there were unrelated keywords placed in there that leads to these types of sites. While manipulating the meta tags brought these sites more traffic, it also caused outrage among internet users.

So, in time meta tags lost their popularity and more of the search engines focus was placed on the actual content of a site. Meta tags are still used to index pages today, but more as a supplement to the copy on a page.

However, although they play a very minor role and many people don’t use them at all, it is not going to hurt you to use them on your own site if you so choose.

Warmest regards,

Matt Bacak

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Powerful Promoting Tips yet, then you
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A Good Benchmark on Conversion Rate Percentages

No matter what online business you are involved in you want your visitors to take action by becoming paying customers, subscribing to your newsletter, registering their information for lead generation or simply getting them to your site to promote your brand. All of these endeavours need to be seen in your conversion rate. Conversion rate measures your ability to convince your visitors to take the action that you desire.

The more you can improve your website or ads pulling power through your copywriting and marketing efforts, the more this will be evident in your conversion rates. However, when you are focusing on your Adwords campaign you really want to make sure your ads are targeted to exactly what it is you have to offer. By doing this you eliminate most of the “lookers” and spend your advertising dollars only on the most qualified leads. So, make your ads as descriptive as possible, focused and at the same time attractive.

As always, make sure you test and track to see which pieces of information or configurations work the best to attract qualified leads while reducing your click through rates, costs per click, and improving the amount of conversions you receive.

What is a good conversion rate?

Well, as a general rule, getting anything over 15 or 20 % conversions is really good. If you are hitting 80% you’re doing remarkable! However, even if you are doing 10% you’re still doing quite well. Keep in mind that the average sales letter out there only generates one percent or less, so even at ten percent you are still in good company.

Another thing you want to keep in mind is if someone's paying more than you for a specific keyword(s), it does not mean that your ad won't show up at all, it simply means that you will not get a top position. So, when you’re bidding for your keywords always remember to test. See if your ad shows up on the first page. If it does not, then you know you will probably have to increase your bid. Having ads on other pages other than page one get a lot less impressions and even less clicks. So, before you do any testing and tracking make sure you take care of the positioning of your ad first.

Doing all these things should help you to achieve your desired results while cutting costs and increasing revenues. Remember, a little extra effort on your part can work wonders on your bottom line.

Warmest regards,

Matt Bacak

P.S. If you haven't signed up for myPowerful Promoting Tips yet, then youare really missing out, go here:http://www.promotingtips.com/

P.P.S. Do you want to be updated on the new things I'm doingto market my companies? Then you need to grab a copy of my`Internet Marketing Dirt'. It's now better than ever before!

Go here and get a copy: http://www.internetmarketingdirt.com/

The Importance of Text Links

When we view various websites we see often see various links throughout the pages like product links, home page links and keyword links. But the question is: does the type of link you have to your web pages place any relevance on your page rank? Well, the answer is unequivocally yes! Text links can drive your site to the top of the search engines if you are aware what keyword text should be placed within your links.

When submitting articles, press releases, site signatures etc., it’s best to not only place your actual website address domain in your hyperlink for example www.yourdomain.com. However, it’s best to place one of your sites keywords as a text link that leads to your website. For example for my website www.powerfulpromoter.com, instead of me linking to my site by exactly stating my domain as www.powerfulpromoter.com and pointing to my website, it’s best if I use keywords from my niche to help me rank higher in the search engines. For example, take the word “internet marketing strategies”. Basically, if I use these keywords to hyperlink to my site, I’m getting a vote from the search engines for the word “internet marketing strategies”. This vote will help my page rank placement. The more votes I get the better my ranking. By turning “internet marketing strategies” into a hyperlink to my webpage instead of just putting my URL, I’ll be increasing my page rank exponentially. The search engines are seeing the value in my site simply because I used a strong keyword from my niche.

Now you must remember that this is not only done for one search engine and not another. All of the key players use this ranking system for website placement. So, it doesn’t matter whether you are using MSN, Yahoo or Google - even smaller search engines like Excite, MIVA and others use this strategy in their “voting” system.

So, if you are submitting articles and press releases or even marketing materials that you are giving to your affiliates to help promote your products always pay attention to your linking strategies. Use this text link strategy to help increase your own page rank. Use this strategy in all of your promotional efforts and it will feed the search engines and in turn improve your search placement.

Being up to date and aware of what the search engines look for in a good website is essential to growing your business. Doing simple improvements to your website through keyword text linking can mean the difference between a top ranked site and one that doesn’t get noticed at all.
Take the time to be informed and do your due diligence and it will pay off in the end. Your business is worth it!

Warmest regards,

Matt Bacak

P.S. If you haven't signed up for myPowerful Promoting Tips yet, then youare really missing out, go here:http://www.promotingtips.com

P.P.S. Do you want to be updated on the new things I'm doingto market my companies? Then you need to grab a copy of my`Internet Marketing Dirt'. It's now better than ever before!

Go here and get a copy: www.internetmarketingdirt.com

“FAQ about running your Internet business”

Do you have questions about your Autoresponder, articles, and creating your business website? Maybe you don’t have questions today, but these questions could pop up tomorrow. So you need to be aware of these common questions. Knowing the answers to these questions can save you precious time and money. Time, in fact, that could be spent making more money instead of trying to figure out a solution to the problem.

So here’s a list of questions regarding Autoresponders, articles, and your business website:

Autoresponder Question: I am moving an old list that I haven’t followed up with or contacted in awhile. I want to move this old list from the AutoResponse Plus to 1Shopping Cart. Can I just import this list into 1Shopping Cart or do I need to contact each person on the list?

Autoresponder Answer: When you move the list to 1Shopping Cart they will make the list double opt-in. 1Shopping Cart will send your list an email about this. So make sure to send an email to the list ahead of time so you can prepare them for the 1ShoppingCart email.

Note: If you haven’t really talked to these people or followed up then your response rate is probably going to be really low. Still do it, but just note that you might lose a lot of emails during the transition.

Articles Question: I know that submitting articles is a great way of viral marketing. I send out several articles on a consistent basis. I use the article submitter called Article Submitter Pro. Are there any other article submission programs that are faster?

Articles Answer: No, nothing is faster than Article Submitter Pro. If you want to try another article submitter program try Article Announcer.

Business Website Question: How do you select which keywords to put in the HTML code for your business website?

Business Website Answer: It depends. If you don’t use conversion tracking then look at keywords that have the highest click through rate. If you ARE using conversion tracking then look at the words that are converting the most. Put the top 2-3 keywords in your title tag. Don’t have more than 83 characters in your title tag.

Business Website Question: What is conversion tracking?

Business Answer: Login to your Google AdWords account to find conversion tracking. It will give you a code where you can track cost per lead and your lead conversion. It tracks from when people land on your website to getting to your thank you page. The click through rate, on the other hand, tells you the time it takes from somebody searching Google to the time they reach your website.

Warmest regards,

Matt Bacak

P.S. If you haven't signed up for my
Powerful Promoting Tips yet, then you
are really missing out, go here:

http://www.promotingtips.com

P.P.S. Do you want to be updated on the new things I'm doing
to market my companies? Then you need to grab a copy of my
`Internet Marketing Dirt'. It's now better than ever before!

Go here and get a copy: www.internetmarketingdirt.com

“Fine Tune your Current Strategies to Maximize Profit”

Right now money making ideas on the Internet are fairly quiet. Of course, technology is still constantly changing on the Internet. However, the money making strategies out there are being fine tuned instead of introducing totally new strategies. For example, using video is currently a way to make money on the Internet. How Internet businesses use video is being examined. People want to know exactly how much money they can make by using a video promotion strategy.

When you look at the various promotion strategies make sure to figure out if the strategy drives traffic to your website and converts that traffic to cash. If the strategy is technologically savvy, but doesn’t convert to cash then don’t focus on it. You want a strategy that brings the most traffic to your website and also converts that traffic to cash.

Hone the strategies you are already using by focusing on the following strategies.
1. Look at your keywords:
For example, what top 3-4 keywords drive the most traffic to your website and has the highest conversion rate? Focus on maximizing the use of these keywords. Tracking your traffic and conversion parameters is critically important. You want to track from when the person clicks on your keyword to when the buy a product or service.

2. Look in your control panel.
Look into your c-panel for your website and check out your web stats. These stats will tell the websites where your traffic comes from. The stats data will also show you which keywords have the highest conversion rate.

3. Look at the rest of your current strategies.
Analyze each strategy in depth. Are you using the strategy to its full power? If not, why not? You need to dig deep and track exactly how much money each strategy makes for you.

Tip: It is important to realize that things do go wrong from time to time. You have to be resilient and expect that things will go wrong at some point. You have to learn how to not flinch. You have to learn how to make the best of the situation.

The big Internet gurus, who make millions of dollars, deal with obstacles every day. They have learned how to rise above the problem by solving it and moving on. Problems are not just for beginners. No matter how big you grow, you will face problems. The problems may change as you grow. You have to build your mental and stomach muscles so you can handle these obstacles.

Warmest regards,

Matt Bacak

P.S. If you haven't signed up for my
Powerful Promoting Tips yet, then you
are really missing out, go here:

http://www.promotingtips.com

P.P.S. Do you want to be updated on the new things I'm doing
to market my companies? Then you need to grab a copy of my
`Internet Marketing Dirt'. It's now better than ever before!

Go here and get a copy: www.internetmarketingdirt.com

Problem with Google Adwords? Try these tips.

Google Adwords is an advertising program used by Internet entrepreneurs all over the world. Google Adwords can be an effective way to reach potential subscribers and sell products. However, Google Adwords can sometimes pose obstacles.

For example, let’s say that you are running a Google Adwords campaign. The Google Adwords campaign works well when you set up a pay-per-click campaign using 250 keywords for your website. Initially, the minimum cost-per-click was $0.06 and the maximum cost-per-click was $0.10. You run the campaign for two days and your Google Adwords advertisements place high as #1.

Then a few days later you are stunned by Google’s response. Google says that you now have to pay a cost-per-click of $0.50. It leaves you to wonder how the cost-per-click suddenly sky rocketed. Are other advertisers paying for the same keyword phrase? Why is Google increasing the cost when you have very specific keywords?

Google has various rationales as to why they suddenly up the cost-per-click price. First of all, you may not pay $0.50 per click even though Google raised it to this new level. It depends on who else is bidding for the keyword. Therefore, you may actually end up paying much less per click. So don’t take the number at face value. You can accept the $0.50 per click value and watch it closely. Test it out.

What if you are uncomfortable with the high pay-per-click cost and don’t even want to risk trying it out? There are a few things you can do in this case. You can try switching from a “keyword targeted” strategy to a “site targeted” strategy.

Open up your Google Adwords campaign and “pause” the keyword targeted option. Activate the site targeted option. You can target specific sites regarding your topic. You can pick and choose what sites your advertisements will be on. The site targeted option is a little different from the keyword targeted option in that it does not run on a cost-per-click model. Instead, it is based on a cost-per-impression model. Running a site targeted strategy may be your best bet at combating high cost-per-click levels.

Another suggestion to alleviate Google Adwords problems is to try running a different advertising program called Adbrite at http://www.adbrite.com. Another option is to run a keyword advertising program on http://www.msn.com.

Remember, Google Adwords is a beneficial option, but not the only choice. Don’t give up. Test and tweak. Keep trying.