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e_Marketing Blog Traffic: Why Links Are Important Why are links so important to website owners? I haven't spelled out the answer to this question in a very long time. So here goes... Web Traffic: SEO and Links You want people to visit your website, and one of the important ways to get these visits is from the search engines. By some counts, around 70% of all website visitors come from search engines. So obviously getting help from the search engines can make a big difference to the success or failure of your site. Question 1: To score well with the search engines you need to impress them that your site is worth visiting. OK, so how do you do that? Answer: You have to convince them that your site is an important and helpful resource for specific search terms. Question 2: How do the search engines determine what is an important and helpful resource for a specific search terms? Answer: They evaluate each and every web page in terms of its "quality". Question 3: How do the search engines determine quality? Answer: There are two important factors: on-page content, and inbound links. Question 4: What do you mean by "on-page conent"? Answer: The text on every web page is analyzed to determine what that page is about. The search engines look for "keywords". They assume when specific keywords are mentioned in a page then that is what the page is about. Question 5: How is the "quality" of a page's content determined? Answer: This gets a bit trickier. There are many factors considered by the search engines, but the most basic are the amount of text on the page that focuses on specific keywords, and the presence of specific keywords in critical places that the search engines assume are important places (e.g., the title tag, the main headline, the first bit of text on the page, etc.) Question 6: How else is the "quality" of a page's content determined? Answer: In-bound links. When the search engines see a link pointing from an outside site to a page on your site, they assume that means your page is important enough to be considered a resource worth looking at. The more links you have pointing at your page, the more important your page is considered and the higher it will rank when people search for the type of content your page is about. Question 7: So links help the search engines determine the quality of websites? Answer: Yes. In the eyes of the search engines - especially Google - links are like "votes". When someone links to your site the search engines assume that is like saying "this is a worthwhile resource worth looking at." The more "votes" like this you get, the more likely the search engines are to consider your site a worthwhile resource. Question 8: So is that the whole story on links? Answer: No. Not all links are given the same weight by the search engines. And some links never get discovered because they are on pages that are never visited by the search engines. So you don't get credit for those links. I'll say more about linking strategies in the next post. Resources: Goa Villa Rentals Blog Check out my new Goa Vacation Rentals blog. Goa is a small Indian state on the west coast of India. It is notable for its great climate, interesting cultural mix, colonial history, and hospitable tourism industry. Its a perfect place to find a Goa Villa Rental. Free Wordpress Part of Niche Blitz Creating a free Wordpress blog at wordpress.com is a good addition to a niche blitz program. Niche blitz is a concept we are working on at Linknet Promotions which will be released both as a DIY niche building product, and as a service we will be offering selected clients. You can join the Linknet Affiliate program and promote this and other lucrative and in-demand Linknet products. At Linknet Promotions we create Wordpress blogs for clients, to help promote their services. This is done as part of two services we offer: Link Building Level 3, and Niche Blitz. Wordpress blogs are used because Wordpress has high ranking with Google, and gets crawled very quickly and very regularly. A Wordpress blog - whether self-hosted, or hosted at wordpress.com - is an excellent way to build links and begin creating a neighborhood of inter-related resources focusing on specific keywords. |
SBO-Linknet.com is the home of the Linknet Publishing Network. This is a growing network of active websites covering various areas of interest from Online Marketing to Golf to Personal Health and Real Estate. A Basic Advertising Design IdeaMar 31, 2006 - Linknet Business News A Basic Advertising Design Idea Mar 31, 2006 - Linknet Business - by Rick HendershotHere is a basic advertising design idea. I call it the "Photo ID Design Model" and it is a very useful device if you create advertising for your company or organization. It is one of the easiest and most effective ways to create a striking ad, banner or poster. And it will almost always give you a result that gets noticed. == Full Color Brochure Printing - Order brochure printing online == Think about a "photo id" for a minute. Its most dominant feature is the photograph. The other elements on the card "support" the photo -- the person's name, address, or ID number. These things are not necessarily less important than the photo. But the photo is clearly the main element. It is what the photo id is "about", and that is clearly reflected in the graphic design of the card. == Forex and Futures Trades - 100% Rebate Offer == If you are not used to thinking of graphic design as related to function, this may seem like an overstatement -- "Hey, it's just a card with a picture on it." But think about it for a minute. A photo id has the specific job of identifying a person. That makes the photo the most important element on the card. So it stands to reason that the photo should be given the most attention. When you apply the photo id model to a print ad, poster, billboard, banner design, or even a TV ad the result is usually pretty straightforward. You assume the dominant element in the piece will be the image -- the photograph. And you also assume the photograph will be the main "identifier" — the thing that defines the look and even the content or theme of the piece. For instance, you find a photo of a cool looking guy wearing sun glasses. And that image fits the message you are trying to convey in your ad. Serious advertising designers may object that this turns the usual communication process upside down. They might say, "You should always start with your selling message, and find elements that illustrate that message." For instance, if you want to sell "pet care" products, you should begin with the theme you want to communicate, and then find elements that illustrate that theme. Say your theme is something like "Our pet care products make happy pets." This theme would then suggest various ideas for photographs and headlines. Of course this is nice in theory, but in actual fact, advertising is rarely that straightforward. In reality what usually happens is that you start out with a fairly specific idea ("Our pet care products make happy pets.") As you try to develop it you realize it doesn't quite work or you can't find the photograph you had in mind. Then as you're leafing through the pile of available "pet care" photos you see one that evokes an interesting response. So you modify your original concept to fit the available photograph. In other words, the photograph has become the "organizing theme" for the ad. If you still think this distorts or perverts the communication process, think about all those cleavage pictures on the front of women's magazines. The cover designer knows that cleavage sells magazines. So the photo is the starting point. The rest follows. Elements of the Photo ID Model Of course there are no rules about what elements your banner or poster should include, but generally they should be as follows: 1. Product photo or photo collage 2. Main Headline 3. Product Description or sales pitch 4. Company Identifier (Logo, address, etc.) Anything more than this will tend to make it overly busy. This is especially the case with posters, billboards and banners which are usually meant to be viewed from a distance. You should not try to convey detail. Just your primary selling message, and perhaps an overall image. Creativity is always important An important way in which a "photo id" is different from an advertisement is that it lacks the creative mission we normally associate with ads. We don't expect ads to be just a picture of the product, or the store front, or of the company president. We expect them to be persuasive -- to "sell" the product or idea -- and we normally assume that takes some creativity. In fact, one of the problems with the photo id model is that we may end using it as an uninspiring formula for cranking out ads. We may slip into the habit of relying on the format -- dominant photo, major headline, sales pitch, company identifier -- and just assume it is unnecessary to use our imagination. We may think it is not necessary to create an interesting headline, for example, or look for a striking and memorable photo. In other words we settle for the ordinary rather than coming up with something creative. We settle for a boring description of the product rather than an imaginative statement of what it can do for me, what problem it can solve, or how much money I am going to save if I buy it. As a general rule, in advertising creativity is almost always better than the lack of it. Of course, this is difficult to prove. And even worse, many people claim they have no creativity in them, so they think this excuses them from trying a little harder to come up with an interesting headline idea or slogan. But even if you are "creatively challenged" you should still try just a little harder. Because in advertising it really comes down to this: "Do you want your ad, your poster, your billboard, or your banner to be effective or not?" Article source: Trade Show Tips
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