There are certain instances in life that involves keen concentration and analysis of good and bad while choosing or selecting best one. Also, at times people regret afterwards with a fact that there was a chance when I could select the best. The best example is that after getting married few guys think that they could have wait and select the best one. When you had bought your first car there might be a thought arose in your mind that what if I had stopped for a while and in the same cost I could got a new modal. There are certain situations in life in which we float in a dilemma that is this perfect one or should I wait, is this the best section or do I look for something else. While reading my post you might be thinking that is this the right blog where I can get what I need or do I move to some other blog. It is a natural phenomenon so not to focus more on this and let’s move on to the topic now.

Selecting a perfect set of key phrases at the very beginning of your SEO campaign is a terrifying act which decides the dynamics of success of your campaign. The keywords that you choose to work on at the beginning and  spend (waste) time and energy ranking for had better deliver the kind of qualified traffic you need on the landing pages of your choice — or else.

There are few moves while doing SEO which may take you down. If you find that you are getting ranks for the keywords you have chosen initially, and you are still not seeing expected visits/traffic things are looking down. If you are getting good visits/traffic for the website but still no sales or those visits are not converting things are looking down. This situation is really bad for everyone involved in the campaign as things are not working out. One possible reason for all this mess is keyword selection. The worst thing about keyword analysis is that you have this list and end up using it over 3-6 months and every time you look at it you get confused. Few questions suddenly dwell in your mind like, is this list of keywords actually working? Do I need to change it now or wait for someone to point out? OMG I had not appended location in the phrases? Are these phrases too specific to drive a decent traffic? Please god help me, can I change these now? and the answer to that last question is always: NO. Slight changes are fine at this stage, but once you have initiated the process that is focused around a core set of keywords, deviating from your path will lead to disappointment for sure.

I know many of us are facing such situation or faced in past so, in order to recover or to improve keyword selection process I have worked on few tips and tricks worth considering while doing research. Have a look below on such points; these might help you as these helped me.

Look for the Relevancy
The relevancy of the keyword with the business or website you are working on is the MOST IMPORTANT factor to consider while researching. I know all of us already about this but I found it worth adding as it is the basis of his research. It is the most basic factor of getting 0 conversions instead of getting great ranks. You are not offering what you are showing to people. So be aware. Even if it means sacrificing search volume, make sure the keywords you’re trying to rank a specific page for match the content on that page.

Searches of the words you are selecting
It is an obvious fact that if a word does not have any searches, it clearly states that no one is searching for that. It is vitally important that you research search volume and make sure your keyword choices will drive traffic. So, now it’s the time to work out. If I didn’t have any knowledge of internet marketing or SEO and if I have a website that sells shoes, I would like to rank on first position for the word shoes. But as I know I work in the field of SEO so I am aware of the fact that ranking great for the word shoes is like doing suicide. I will not at all suggest working on such a generic and difficult keyword no matter how much searches it has or will get great amount of traffic for the website in future. This can be explained logically also that working on such a generic keyword is not at all worthy in terms of conversions. A person searching for the word shoes will not actually searching to buy. This user is just surfing websites. So if you think you are ranking great for such a generic word and not getting any conversions, it is clear that you are going in a wrong way. A person searching with an intention to buy will not search with a word shoes. That user will search with some combination of words like cheap shoes for jogging, shoes for wedding, etc. So, it is a suggestion to not to go completely with searches and give your research a logical move to get the best. Go for something which people will intend to search. Feel yourself as an end user.

Analyze the competition
We are always in search of the competition and want to work more efficiently and effectively as our competitors are doing. Same goes with keyword research also. Always look and analyze your competition for the keyword you are planning to work. The best way to find out who is ranking for keywords of your choice is by doing a Google search for them with personalization turned off and seeing what crops up. This is the easiest and free of cost method to see your competition. If you think that the websites ranking for a particular word can be beaten up with a certain amount of time and work, select that word otherwise move to some other keyword as it will not be beneficial to spend your resources on highly competitive words.

Return on investment for a keyword
Ranking well for keywords is not at all enough in present scenario. The days are history now when you achieve great ranks for few key phrases with little work and move proudly saying “Look my website is visible when you put this word in search bar of Google”. All of us want results now, not in terms of ranks but a win/win situation is required. A website owner want to sale the products not just get ranks. For this, your keyword selection must be ROI centric and focus on sales. So, before choosing a set of keywords always ask yourself that Is the keyword I selected is valuable for business? Will the traffic through these words result in the conversion you want on the page you optimized? From my point of view, traffic from long tail keywords converts at a substantially higher rate than traffic from short tale keywords. So, it will be your call in the end to select ROI based key phrases for the website you are working on.

Intention of the keyword selection
It is in your hands to fetch the traffic for your website by targeting a particular set of key phrases. For an Ecommerce website the intention will be to sale the products, no doubt in that. So, for getting potential visits for a website and getting it converted the best practice is to choose the keywords with an intention to fetch actual traffic. And for this as stated above, look out for the phrases which are not completely generic and specific to the product. For promotional websites or websites that provides some sort of information it is suggested to go for generic key phrases and specific to the website.

Always remember at the end of the day traffic is like a rocket that will be launched in a proper way otherwise it may harm your entire process.

By Anurag Sharma

I am running an online store and targeting some local market. In the beginning I was working fine and getting enough visits to my online store. Out of those visits few are converted into sales which helped me to maintain my living standard and secure some extra pennies for future. But now I want more (Great, it’s obvious). So that was a short introduction of an online seller who sell some product (let’s say XYZ). So this XYZ merchant want to increase his sales and earn more money. As he stated that he targets local market so it is really important for him to go for a Google places listing of his store. So, we will discuss some ups and downs, pros and cons, good and bad, this and that, of Google places listing.

But before that I have few questions for you such as, Have you claimed a Google Place page for your business? If you have a Google Place page running, is it showing up at or near the top of local business listings in search results for some keywords or simply words from which you want people to find your store?

If your answer is "NO" to either question, keep reading, otherwise browse to some other blog of mine or find some other blog of advance SEO tactics. I have few tips or tricks for optimizing your small business Google Place page to share with you. Many of these local SEO tips are also applicable for Bing Local Listings and Yahoo Local Listings, which offer free business listing services, too.

But before that it would be beneficial if you read a little background if you are not familiar with Google Places (As you know my blog is for beginners and topics I cover are for normal guys, not marketing GURUS).

Google Places for Local Search

A Google Place page is a free of cost (completely free) marketing medium that businesses can use to describe or showcase their products and services, list their running hours, business details like address, phone number, email address, and website (its optional) . You can (I would say you must) add photos and videos to your Place page and ask your happy (or unhappy too) customers to add reviews or their comments about your service. Here is the link through which you can start creating your place page http://maps.google.com.

Google place page may appear at or near the top of search results for a localized search query (nothing is guaranteed in SEO), like "New Delhi Plumbers" or "gyms in Mumbai". This is the place where you want your business to show up in a local search -- at or near the top of Google Places pages results for your category and location. A result appearing in search results other than Google maps is visible in a 7 pack result or say most of the times 7 places results are visible while someone searches for a location appended word.

A Google Place page appearing in search results contains a red push pin that shows the business's location on a corresponding map. From the search results page, users can click to go right to a business's website, access reviews of the business, or read its Places page (Isn’t it great for your business).

In few cases as I said above, the search results will also show the address and phone number for a Google Places page listing, along with snippets of reviews posted directly to Google or sites such as Yelp and CitySearch (these are called Citation sites). On many mobile phone or tablet web browsers, you can even click the phone number to call a business directly from the search result page that displays the business's Google Places listing.

So now I am hoping that you are aware about the dynamics of Google Places service for your business. Now, let’s move on to the tips to improve and maintain your places listing to generate more traffic (money).

Few tips to improve your Google places listings

1.      Google prefers places pages in its search results with localized queries. If you do not have a Place page for your business, you're destroying great chances of getting to the top of the first page of search results. It needs few minutes only to set up a Google Places page for a business, so I don’t think there's a reason to not to use this free service for a business for your local customers.

2.      In Google Places interface, Google allows you to describe your business in up to 200 characters. It is suggested to use your most important keywords (words that you want your customers to type to find you). Wait, do not just stuff keywords in it, write a useful, compelling description that will appeal to readers first and to Google second.

3.      There is a great utility offered by Google to create a listing for each location you have for your business. You can list local phone number and address, rather than a corporate headquarters address or toll-free phone number. If your business serves many locations but has only one physical address, it's best to simply create one Places page for your actual location and then add the areas you service in your places listing.

4.      While creating a Google Place page for your business, you can list up to five different categories to describe the products or services you offer to your customers. It is suggested to use all standard categories in the list but if you want you can list 4 custom categories of your choice in the list. But try to find all five from Google’s standard suggestions.

5.      As we all know that Google is smart just like humans and can manipulate things like a person, so there is a factor which you must take care of. It is always suggested to avoid the keyword in your business name as Google may consider it as spam (something illegal in Google’s dictionary) and push your places listing down. It will be beneficial to add your genuine business name in the business name section of your Google places listing. Do not act smart as Google is smarter than us!

6.      Most of your customers must have some thoughts or comments about the service you offered or offering to them. So, why not share their comments or reviews on Google places no matter positive or negative. Always ask your happy (or unhappy) customers to add their thoughts in the form of reviews on your places listing. And you should also reply to their reviews on places. This will improve your credibility and performance on places listing. Try to get as many positive -- and legitimate -- reviews posted to your Google Places, Yelp, CitySearch and other listings (These are Citation sites, will write something about these soon!).

7.      You can add up to 10 photos and up to five videos for free. SEO experts don't uniformly agree that adding photos and videos per se helps boost your Places page ranking. But some believe geo-tagged photos and videos in particular may give you a bump. At a minimum, photos and videos can make your Places page more appealing to potential customers.

8.      Finally, one important tip is to analyze your Google places listing on regular basis. You must be aware of the things going on with your listing. You can learn the top search queries that caused users to see your listing and how many clicks occurred to your website over the past week or month. The information isn't nearly as comprehensive as what you get with Google Analytics, but it's helpful nonetheless. You can have analytics automatically emailed to you as well.

So, now I hope you can setup a Google place listing for your business as you read above the utility this free service that Google offers. Increase your visibility and chances of getting more traffic for your business with Google places listing.

By Anurag Sharma

When I was learning SEO the first advice I got was to avoid any SEO mistake as doing any silly mistake will ruin a website completely. This might be the advice to make me more attentive towards SEO (or might be that person was pretending like an SEO Guru delivering religious sayings). And, I took that advice seriously and tried a lot to avoid any silly mistake. No matter how much I worked I used to do a mistake almost every day. But soon I realized that doing silly mistakes in not something to get obsess about. It’s a normal practice and since then I work freely (although still I commit mistakes). So, let’s come to the point.

It is not possible to have a 100% success rate with every SEO strategy you make with advanced techniques or whatever. You can’t succeed unless you fail, that was I learned since years. Making mistakes is fine… as long as you obey a few critical caveats.

1.       Always  acknowledge mistakes when they happen

Do you invest huge amount into a PPC campaign that produced nothing but a big hole in your pocket? That’s completely fine. As long as you learn the lesson! Analyze your failures and loop holes. Consult people in the SEO industry about what went wrong and the reason. Try to act like a scientist and do experiments with a real hypothesis and generate data to test and prove/disprove that hypothesis.

2.       Remember mistakes are sign of progress

Failure is essential always for learning (that we know). We all know how kids learn how to walk. They don’t just hop on their feet and start running around the room. They pull themselves up and then fall back down. After that, they sit up and then slides off a toy and hit her head against the couch. And so on and so forth. Some sources say newborns fall literally thousands of times before they master the art of walking. So you will too fall hundreds of times as you master the ins and outs of SEO.

3.       Take Notes

The art of noting things on a piece of paper is always critical to success – whether you are SEOing or doing any other kind of stuff. Great data, numbers and observations can help you overcome your inherent moment-to-moment biases and emotions that blind you to your inaccuracies. This will also save you from experimenting the same thing again in the future.

SEO is like launching a rocket in space..!!

Consider your SEO campaign as an attempt to launch a rocket to one of the moon of..lets say Saturn. It is not possible to launch a rocket right from our planet Earth with one blast and get right to the moon. This process needs periodic course corrections on its journey and delicately timed so that the rocket can compensate for dynamic factors it encounters along the way. There is no algorithm or machine that can calculate everything out in advance. You need to have the ability to course-correct to get to your destination. More traffic, more conversions, more sales, more leads, whatever it may be, you’ll get there.

By Anurag Sharma