Tag Archives: Online PR, SEO

Jul 06

How to increase your website traffic

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The purpose of this article is to show some ways of raising your website popularity. Making your website popular maximizes traffic to it which automatically converts your visitors into buyers or at least makes them your dedicated followers.

The following topics will be covered:

  • Search engine optimization
  • Social networks submissions
  • Paid advertisement methods
  • Other methods

Search Engine Optimization

The process of a real Search Engine Optimization can be really long and complicated one. Still, we will mention some essential tips that should help you to attract more traffic to your website from organic search queries.

First, you should make sure that your website is well indexed by the search engines. You can “help” them by creating a SiteMap of your website and submit your website via different search engines. To create a sitemap you can use some free services available on the Internet. For example, the following website provides a free SiteMap generator which will include up to 500 pages of your website — http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

As soon as you have your SiteMap generated, you should place it under the root of your domain name in order to be accessible via http://your-domain.tld/sitemap.xml. It is a good idea to submit your website to different search engines. You can use the following links to submit your website:

You may also register your website to the Google WebMaster tools (http://google.com/webmastertools) where you will be able to submit your SiteMap as well.

Additionally, you can order a SiteMap generation and submission as an extra professional service via your TMDHosting Customer area -> extra professional services.

Every website, which is running for a good search engine ranking should have a good sitemap, in addition to its search engine optimization. By purchasing this service, you ensure that all crawling search engines (including Google, Yahoo, etc.) will be informed of your website’s content in terms of links and other hierarchy. You also will be allowed to include additional information about each URL, such as when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to other URLs in the site. This allows search engines to crawl the site much more intelligently, which automatically improves your search engine rankings. The better rankings, the bigger revenue and more visitors you get to your website.

Another thing that you should consider is to create SEO-friendly content for your website. For example, you should do your best to title your articles as close as possible to the natural (organic) terms that a person would use if it is looking for your content. Additionally, you should make sure that your pages have title tag, meta description tags and meta keywords tags which will definitely increase your content visibility in the search engines.

For more detailed and additional information you may refer to the Google Webmasters section where different aspects of website optimization are explained.

You can also take advantage of our professional SEO optimization services which includes:

  • Meta tags optimization
  • Meta description optimization
  • Manual Submission to the biggest Search Engines(Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc)
  • Manual Social Networks Submission
  • 500 USA Targeted Visits
  • Traffic Boost Program
  • Sitemap attachment
  • Googlebot one time invitation

With this exclusive service, you will have the opportunity to allow our search engine optimization specialists to analyze your website’s content and advise the most appropriate solution for boosting your website’s search engines ranking. The better ranking, the more visitors you will be getting to your website. This service can be ordered via your customer area with TMDHosting -> extra professional services.

Social networks submissions

Different social networks can be a great source of referral traffic to your website. You can both provide a way for your visitors to submit your articles and products to different social networks and submit your content on your own.

One of the most popular way to provide your visitors with the option to submit your website through different social networks is the Bookmark This button. It provides a huge list of different websites where your website can be submitted. You can obtain your AddThis/BookMark button from the following website: http://www.addtoany.com/

On the other hand, you can submit your articles and products to networks such as:

http://www.digg.com

http://www.stumbleupon.com

and many others which are available in the Bookmark This tool. Furthermore, you can create pages of your website or submit it in different social networks. Create social profile pages at squidoo, hubpages, bumpzee, twitter, facebook, etc. on which you put the same content or links to your website. Creating such profiles takes a couple of minutes and so is updating them with links to your website. You may refer to the following list for example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Paid advertisement methods

Paid advertisement is another method to increase your website traffic. One of the most popular ways to advertise your website is the Google pay-per-click program. You can read more about the Google AdWords advertisement programs on their official website.

Additionally, you can use banner advertisement method. You can find different websites which has relevant content to your topics and contact the webmaster for any opportunities to place a banner on their website. Most websites usually have an advertisement section where you can check the fees and the expected traffic referral rate based on the website statistics.

Other methods

Set up a blog and post articles about your website. With each post you make give a link to your site which you can then submit to social bookmarking sites. Search engines love blogs as they have real content and are very often updated. Moreover, whenever you write for your blog you need to use all the strong keywords you are aware of connected with your website and product/ service. Be very careful with the articles you write as those can be used to demonstrate your knowledge and improve credibility in your area of business. On the other hand, articles can be submitted to optimized article directories. Someone visiting those directories and reading your articles will be impressed by your knowledge and expertise and will click through to your website via a link at the bottom of the article. So, make a blog for your website and give interesting articles to your visitors to read – you can be sure they will be coming back for more raising your website’s traffic.

Comment on other people blogs posting meaningful comments. Be sure you post in blogs which allow links back to your website. Do not forget to read the post correctly before making original comments. Otherwise you could be accused of spamming.

Join forums and discussion sites relevant to your theme. Read the topics that you feel closest to and try to participate in the discussion and don’t do it in a commercial way. At the end of each post place a signature link that will help the concerned people find your site.

Create videos about your company/product and share them on YouTube and other video sharing websites is also a great way to increase your site traffic. As YouTube is a great advertising venue, such videos will help you promote your business and services easily. Once you have your videos and upload them, do not forget to give them correct titles and description. A good title is catchy and interesting or includes keywords that will help people remember it or find it via the search engines. You can also promote your videos on social networks and sites like Stumble upon, Digg and Hubpages which are the best ones to use in this case. Include a link to your site in the description or any other additional information that could catch the attention of ones watching the videos and helps them remember them easily

We hope that the provided information will help you successfully promote your site for free over the cyberspace. Give it a try – your efforts and promotions are most likely to pay off soon.

Jun 09

Is SEO ranking affected by server location?

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As mentioned in our previous post about how to choose a SEO friendly domain name, there are many aspects of site optimization that have to be considered before starting a successful online project. We have already shared some tips on how to choose a SEO-friendly domain name. Now let’s move to another aspect of the website optimization. Throughout today’s article we will concentrate on the SEO effect that a host country has on your domain name/ website. Very often we are asked if a server location matters and if it does, how it can affect SEO rankings. In other words: Does hosting in one country while trying to rank in another affects the search engine presence of your website? Our answer is yes and still depends on the case. Here is what we mean by that.

There are 2 main cases concerning the matter that I would like to focus on:
1) You have already chosen your target market, you have a country specific domain name for that country (i.e. .co.uk for the United Kingdom) but you host it outside that country (i.e. in the USA).

Now here is the good news: If you have a country specific domain name, the location of your host doesn’t matter, it does not affect your ranking. In other words, your country code top level domain name (co.uk) will not be influenced by the IP of the server you are hosted on.

Another thing, it is known that .co.uk domains always rank higher on Google.co.uk, no matter if your business is based in the USA or the UK. The very domain (or its extension/ suffix) determines the geo-location in all the major search engines. The very fact that you use a .co.uk domain name comes to show that your company/ business is based in the UK. This means that if someone located in the USA wants to search for a UK company, they will look in the google.co.uk. Hence, chances of ranking for UK google results are much higher.

On the other hand, if you have business in the UK and wish to expand to the USA, then you need to consider using a .com domain name. To conclude this point, if you have a .co.uk domain name, it will rank better under google.co.uk no matter what you do. So, when trying to expand your business abroad, you should consider purchasing a .com domain name and create a website for your target market in the USA. When doing that, you might also need to change a bit the content of the website, not just copy-paste it. We all know there is a difference in some words in the every day language, as well as, cultural differences. So, be sure you make your second website appropriate for your target market in the country you are expanding your business to. Best will be to use the services of a local Translators Agency.

2) You are located in the UK, you have a .com website and host it in the USA which is your target market.

It is known that due to geo-location the rankings can be affected by the IP address. That is only when your site uses generic top level domains like .com, .org, .net, etc. Additionally, several search engines determine the country to which a web site belongs by the location of the web hosting server (the server IP). All this leads us to the conclusion that, if you are a UK company trying to rank for google.com, you would be listed for sure. Of course, you can not reply only on that – the so desired leading position depends on the whole SEO strategics you follow.

To summarize, if you are trying to boost your Search Engine presence in another country, you must cosider to buy a domain name with an extension that matches the country in question. Furthermore, you should consider the cultural, language and other country specific differences. These are points of concern you should remember especially when trying to grow your business outside your country of origin.

May 30

How to choose a SEO-friendly domain name

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Today’s post is dedicated to providing some tips on how to choose a SEO friendly domain name for your online project. To start with, nowadays, Search Engine optimization’s role has grown so much that it will not be exaggerating to say that ignoring it would be a crime. Knowing there are thousands of websites in the Internet “seeking” visitors’ attention, you must do something to come to the front row and be noticed. You do not want your website to be left alone in cyberspace hardly ever visited by someone that could be a potential customer, right? Moreover, you can’t just rely on random visits, you need to do something about it. We suggest starting your online project with choosing a SEO friendly domain name and here are some guidelines on that matter.

When starting an online project, especially a business oriented one, there are many aspects of site optimization that have to be considered. Choosing and buying a keyword-rich domain will not make or break your PageRank but it may indirectly increase your visitors as Google will see links that use your domain name. So why not get a domain name that not only reaches your audience but lands you a little higher in search results. It is known that Google tends to give weight to keywords in the domain name. That is why you must find out and use the right keyword or keyword combination that best describes your business/website. Let’s say that you wish to create a web design studio site. First thing will be to check for keywords describing that business. Write down key words and phrases that you think your potential clients can associate you with when Googling. Now you want to make sure that the keywords you are optimizing for are a part of the search terms that people actually use when trying to find your product/service on the web. We suggest using the Google’s Search Volume tool – it helps you find out how often those keywords are in fact used in searches.

For example you can check the related key words for “webdesign” here.

Using the Google’s Search Volume tool you can try out different words or phrases connected with your business in order to find out which are the preferred ones – the ones with the highest estimated search volume. What is best is that you can add search criteria by regions, too. If you are an American and wish to focus on the USA market, you can check out the level of interest towards the compared keywords in all states or you can choose only a number of states. So, on the one hand, you have the Totals that shows the result in a graph so that you can clearly see which word is most preferred by users in searches. On the other hand you have Regional Interest – you can check out the interest towards the chosen word by regions. You also have Top Searches where more keywords combinations are offered, again they are listed according to their search strength. And last but not least, you have Rising Searches: you get keyword suggestions  for your market and their estimated search volume. Be advised that you do not need to sign up in order to use this tool.

Play some time with the Google’s Search Volume tool  and we are sure you will enjoy choosing a successful domain name for your online project. This way you will guarantee yourself a well-established presence on the Web and you will know that your domain name works for your SEO.

You can also check the following online video presentation on Google’s Search Volume tool:

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Here are some more guidelines on choosing a SEO catchy domain name:

  1. Avoid choosing hyphenated and multi-term domains like get-best-hosting-now.com (I just made this one up). Such domains have limited SEO value and lack credibility. So if you are planning to do serious business, we will recommend you to not name your website this way.
  2. It is important that you opt for a .COM name whenever possible. There are two main reasons for that: users tend to think in terms of .com, and any other extension will be hard for them to remember; .com names tend to receive higher rankings in Search engines than websites using other extensions.

Get your SEO friendly domain name registered for free by TMDHosting Services! Contact us:

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Mar 19

10 great plugins for your WordPress blog

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I believe that many bloggers will agree that one of the most enjoyable part of blogging is actually creating your blog. Thus, we decided to share a short list of plugins that we believe should be installed on your blog. We can not agree more that the plugins you decide to install depends on a great extent on the results you would like to achieve and the type of blog your are building, still there are some that most probably include in your blog no matter what topics will be discussed on it.

I will start with one of the most popular WordPress plugins nowadays:

1. All in One SEO Pack

This plugin is fully out-of-the-box. It automatically optimizes your titles for the Search Engines in order to improve your SEO. Additionally, it generates Meta tags based on your post content and avoids the duplication of content which usually occurs in Meta tag and key words listing in most of the blogs. Moreover, you can it is fully customizable and you may edit any data that will be applied to your post. This add-on as most WordPress plugins can be installed just with a few clicks in the admin area of your blog and will automatically include special fields on your post page where you can additionally SEO optimize your posts.

2. Google Analytics for WordPress

Well, you may SEO optimize forever your blog but the only way to see the real results of your work are the traffic statistics. Google Analytics has proved to be a leader in the traffic analyze and statistics. This plugin is of a great help when it comes to adding your Google Analytics tracking code. Just copy the unique ID that will be provided by Google Analytics for your website in the configuration menu of this plugin and it will automatically insert the required code in all of your pages and posts. Again, it is fully customizable and you may exclude certain categories, posts or pages which will not be included in your statistics.

3. Sociable

No matter if you have a personal, business or public organization blog, your goal most probably is to get as many as possible readers on your website. The social networks, such as Digg.com and Stumbleupon.com, can be massive sources of real, natural traffic of readers really interested on your blog topics. This plugis add a button via which your readers may subscribe your posts to about 100 different social networks, search engines and websites such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace.

4. NextGEN Gallery

Even not designed as a gallery, WordPress turned out to be a great platform for building photography blogs. Furthermore, if you are an eager traveler you may would like to share your pictures to spice your stories and experience on the road. NextGEN Gallery is may be the best plugin for creating interactive gallery pages on your WordPress blog. In includes functionalities such as slide show, JavaScript Effect, sortable albums, tag support as well as the great PicLens support.

5. Google XML Sitemaps

Creating your website sitemap may be a very hard time sometimes especially when your blog contains a large amount of articles and pages. This plugin will create a complete sitemap of your website. Furthermore, the format and syntax is fully compatible with all search engines and fully complies with the official sitemap Sitemap Protocol 0.9 as defined by Sitemaps.org. When you generate your sitemap you can simply set a link on your blog page to the sitemap.xml file and you can be sure that all the pages will be crawled by the search engines.

6. Contact Form 7

Simple but so flexible contact form that you can literary achieve any information-submit page possible. The fields of information that will be input by your visitors are fully modified. Furthermore, this plugin provides the functionality to include radio, drop down and multiply choice areas in your form via which you can create even a quiz or poll results of which will be mailed to you. Additionally, it supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA and Akismet spam protection.

7. MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer

Not as popular as the others but still very useful plugin especially when you have a very large list of ping sites which should be “notified” on every post. This plugin saves your blog from getting tagged as ping spammer. If you are not exactly sure how the ping websites and service work you may check our SEO for blogs post.

8. Akismet

Most probably the ultimate spam protection available for blogs and not only. This plugin is even available by default when you install your WordPress blog. In order to activate it will require a WordPress.com API key which can be obtained by a simple registration on the WordPress.com sign up page. It protects your comment forms without even including captcha using a very sophisticated self-improving engine and one of the largest database in the world for spam checking.

9. WP Security Scan

This plugin performs a permissions, ownership and configuration security issues with your WordPress installation. Additionally, it reports password weaknesses and database security issues, providing short guidelines how to resolve the issues as well as lock out/log incorrect login attempts, .htaccess verification and test for XSS vulnerabilities.

10. Google Maps Anywhere

Maybe no all blogs will need this plugin but if your blog is related to geographic locations and you need to pitch point certain locations on the map this is the plugin for you. This easy-to-use plugin allows you to insert Google Maps and Street View into your blog.

If you need step by step guidance on how to install, configure and manage your WordPress blog you may refer to our detailed tutorial here.

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On the other hand, if you are looking for a professional hosting solution for your WordPress website and full support including free WordPress, plugin and templates installation you may check our WordPress hosting plan.