It’s worthwhile to read The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, the college thesis paper written by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, the founders of Google. Anyone who’s ever been mystified by SEO can learn a lot from Brin and Page’s treatise on the inner workings of their search engine.
You can read the thesis paper here:
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html
Source: ClickZ
If I am ever asked to simplify what it takes to be successful in search engine optimization, I come back to two simple rules…quality, unique and resourceful content, and gaining quality links, pointing to appropriate pages of your website.
If I am allowed to go a little deeper in my explanation, I’ll get into proper site architecture, coding, internal linking, and all the other fun stuff that we get to consider on a daily basis.
There are some bloggers out there who will argue that “all you need is a bunch of links” and others, still, who say that “all you need to do is set up a WordPress website and generate a bunch of content.”
Source: Sitepoint
Succeeding in a single PPC campaign is quite an accomplishment, but delivering results time and time again is something else entirely. Being able to consistently produce campaigns that achieve results is the difference between an amateur and a professional search engine marketer.
In order to achieve consistent results, you need to follow a systematic process covering the same three core processes of research, implementation, and optimization.
Source: ClickZ.com
Recently, I received an e-mail from a reader who was wondering…”At $2,500 per month budget, is there a rule of thumb for parameters on a dollar return for a retail product site? For example, should the $2,500 generate 10 times that amount on sales? Say, $23,000 to $27,000? Or, 15 times?”
Seems like a reasonable question. And, as with many things related to search engine optimization, the answer is simply not that easy.
If you own an online store or subscription site, you probably run pay-per-click ad campaigns. Whether you use Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or another PPC network, it’s an everyday battle to get a positive return on investment in such a tight economy.
In order to avoid bidding wars and reach interested consumers, you must boost the relevance of your ads and landing pages. How can you do so? Solve a problem for consumers.
I’m sure you’re asking yourself how a Web site can solve a problem. Well, psychologically, the average consumer moves toward pleasure as a way to avoid pain. These days, the number one source of pain involves either fear of losing a job or fear of not being able to get another one.
You must offer consumers an escape from that pain. In fact, you must tell them directly that your site will help them forget their troubles. During the Great Depression, people flocked to movie theaters to escape the despair of the 1930s.
The ad copy in your PPC ads must define your site as an escape, a fantasy world. Your landing page must, too. This will help you garner more interest from consumers and find lower-priced keywords.