subject: Maximizing Seo Value From Social Profiles [print this page] Creating an Internet marketing plan is crucial for any website that wants to attain good rankings in the search engines. The Internet marketing industry uses a variety of principles and tools--such as search engine optimization (SEO)--to accomplish goals of increasing website exposure in search engines and generating more web traffic. Website owners use both free and paid tools when implementing an Internet marketing strategy.
Search Engine Optimization Plug-ins
Search engine optimization (SEO) plug-ins make your site more readable and friendly to search engine crawlers. These SEO plug-ins are often used in conjunction with content management systems such as Wordpress or Joomla, but any site can use them. These plug-ins improve a site's Internet marketing strategy as many of the plug-ins can help influence where a page or site is found in the search engines. Examples of plug-ins that optimize your site include meta-tag plug-ins, that is, "tags" that add text descriptions to the HTML code portion of your site. For example, the "Title" meta tag allows you to create a relevant title for each of your web pages that resides at the very top of your Internet browser. Another example of an SEO plug-in that "tweaks" your site is one that fine-tunes web page URLs to make them more readable for search engine crawlers.
Sitemaps
Sitemaps tell both humans and search engines the different web pages that are available on your website. For internet marketing purposes, a sitemap tells a search engine what URLs are available for crawling that the search engine may not have found otherwise. This type of sitemap typically resides internally on your web hosting server and may be coded in a special language such as XML. This XML sitemap helps all of your Web pages get indexed in search engine results. On the other hand, an organized HTML sitemap allows human visitors to quickly find certain pages of your site. Many free sitemap services exist, such as those provided by Google Sitemap Generator and XML-Sitemaps (see Resources).
Blogs
Blogs not only add content and perceived value to your website and for your visitors, but they are useful tools for an internet marketing Web development plan. First, search engines love to review and crawl frequently updated sites that provide fresh content to search engine users. This search engine attraction helps more of your web pages get indexed. In addition, a blog boosts your authority with most search engines, especially if you provide relevant and valuable content in each of your posts. In turn, this authority increases your website ranking in Google and other major search engines. Second, developing a blog gives your website more exposure to interested individuals. Readers who find your site in the search engines may bookmark it if your site is appealing and they like what they have to say. Over time, your website traffic steadily increases, which adds value to your site and gives you more opportunities for marketing and making money, if desired.
Research Tools
Internet marketing research tools are crucial for the web development and marketing process. Examples of these tools include keyword research tools and competition-research tools. Keyword research tools, such as the free one provided by Google AdWords, tells you approximately how many searches are performed on a monthly or yearly basis for a specific phrase or set of keywords. In addition, some give you a rough approximation of the competition for each of those words. Overall, keyword research tools help you locate potentially profitable keywords that you can target through your site and in your advertising. Competition research tools, on the other hand, give you details about the advertising habits, traffic, and search engine rankings of your competitors. These tools can be free or subscription-based; examples include SpyFu and Softnik's SEOLab. Competition research tools can help you decide what keywords to target on your website and how much marketing you need to do.
