encourage visits from other sites by Webmasters seeking to learn who is linking to their site and what you have to say
attract future links from other Webmasters and bloggers who find your related content through your links to their site and wish to share your resources with their readers
increase the appeal of your site with readers by offering links to other related resources from across the World Wide Web thus developing your website as a resource for wideranging information on your topic
This is because keywords remain the primary means of sharing the topic of your Website with search engines and in turn with those searching the Net so that they find what they are looking for when they land on your site.
Remember, picking the right keywords isn't about tricking visitors into coming to your site. Quite the contrary.
Visit Google Keyword Tool Box or a similar keyword site and experiment with some of the words and phrases related to the topic of your Website to find out which are receiving the highest searches
Once you've picked your keywords or phrases (two should suffice) be sure to included them in the title of your page, meta-tags, if you plan to use them and as close to the top of your text as you can manage (above any photos or flash video you plan to use on your site, if possible.)
Also choose photos and video for your Website with close attention to your site's topic. If photos and video are from a file sharing site like Flickr or YourTube try to choose content thatg is titled or tagged with related Keywords. If uploading from your PC, make sure to keep your site's topic in mind when writing captions
DON'T overdo it. Yes, you want Google and potential visitors to know what your Web page is about but you don't want to stuff your Website with the same two key phrases over and over again creating an article no one wants to read. Depending on the size of your Web document, use of the keyword or phrase in the title first line and meta-tags is sufficient and search engines may penalize you for such tactics
Adding streaming video to almost any Web page increases interest for the reader and may encourage them to stay longer at your site. Watch the simple overview from the YouTube help center to learn more:
Adding video to your Web site instead of a standard blog is no different:
Visit one of the above mentioned streaming video sites and locate a video fitting the topic of your vsite or page or make and upload one yourself.
Locate the code inside the "embed" window or perhaps revealed by clicking on an "embed" or "get codes" button below the screen window on the video player.
Rebublish the page with the new embedded code then review the updated Website (with video added) in your browser
There's nothing else to it. You will have video embedded and streaming from your Web site within minutes encouraging visitors to stay longer to view your content.
Analytics from Google can help measure the success of your Web site, showing many details about visitors and their behavior.
The free service can be immensely helpful in many ways as this video from Google clearly demonstrates:
Creating a free Google account
Visit the Google Analytics site and click the "sign up now" button. (You'll need to sign up for a Google account first, if you haven't got one.)
Enter a current e-mail address, create a pass word, approve the Google terms of service and continue.
A confirmation e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address you provided. Confirm your e-mail and you will be taken directly to your new Google account.
Creating an account for service from Analytics
First, click on the Analytics button on your main Google Accounts site to take you to the Google Analytics sign up
Then, hit the "sign up" button and travel to the new account signup section where you will be asked for your URL (the address of your Web site), your account name and the country and time zone where you reside.
Fill in additional identification information for your new Analytics account, approve the Analytics terms of service agreement, and paste the Analytics tracking code into your blog or Web site (You'll want to use the code on every page of your Web site and for blogs consult the instructions for your blog platform about the best place for the code.)
Are you using Google Analytics for your Web site? If so, have you found it helpful and can you tell us how? What are the most important features you use to measure your Web site's success? Comments are held for approval.
This is because ultimately, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) determines whether your website is ever even seen by the big search engines, and it begins, as Mark McLaren of McBuzz Communications explains in this video, with proper placement of keywords:
To find the right keywords for your new website, just go to the Google home page and begin to type in a topic you think visitors interested in your page might use for a web search.
For example, in the case of our sister site PostRanger.com, which deals mainly with "professional blogging" the term "professional blogging sites" returns far more results (29,400,000 compared to just 1,560,000 for the two word phrase) so more searchers may use this term.
Once you've chosen your keyword, McLaren suggests placing it in the title and first line of text on your Web site or blog post, even highlighting it for emphasis. You may also want to add it to the meta tags of your site, but don't overdo it.
McLaren and others suggest Google may actually penalize in its ranking for Web sites intentionally stuffed with keywords designed only to attract search engines, and remember stuffing your Web site with meaningless keywords will have another bad effect.
Those who find your site may link to it and share it with others if they find it useful and this will have the effect of boosting your page rank on search engines too because of quality links.
But excessive keywords boost your bounce rate, the measure of visitors who find your site and then leave immediately after realizing it is not what they wanted. In the end, minimal prominantly placed appropriate keywords are helpful but can't replace good quality content.
So websites stuffed with keywords just to attract a search engine simply won't cut it.
Flickr allows users to sign up for a free account, create a profile including a link back to your main Web site and upload images and graphics to share with others in the community.
Remember to register for Flickr's special Creative Commons license allowing users including blogs like this one to share and remix your designs with attribution to you allowing spread of your work virally across the World Wide Web.
Watch this video from Howcast about how to sign up for a free Flicklr account and start uploading files from your PC:
