Remember when VW launched the New Beetle in 1998? The hype was huge, everyone went out and got one, people were putting flowers in that little spot on the dash and people were even counting how many Beetles they would see a day on the street. They even managed to get Motor Trend’s Import of the Year in 1999. Then mysteriously, in 1999 and 2000, they started breaking down. People kept sending them in for repairs.

Well here we are in 2008 and bam, we’ve got a shinny (every pun intended) product in Chrome with probably the best viral campaign since the iphone and people are very quick to run and love it and install it on all their multiple computers (I was guilty of having it installed on 2 computers inside of 15 minutes of its release and even twittering about it).

I don’t know if Google was bitter with Microsoft getting to Facebook first, or peeved that the inked that search deal, but I have to admit that Google leaving out proper Ajax support for Chrome puzzles me. Facebook (Alexa rank 5, Compete.com rank 15), as well all know and have some to love, is heavily dependent on Ajax. It makes everything wonderful, fun and easy. Google believes Facebook is important giving it a Pagerank of 9 out of 10. I ran a search of people within my network of Israel to see how many people have Google listed as an employer and I got over 500… So you would think that one of the developers, at least, tried checking out his profile on Facebook before the release right?

You would also think that Google being partnered with Mozilla would have led to them taking a page out of their incredible development by releasing a developers edition to get the apps and the add-ons on board.. But no. Google knows best!

The big question is will people now come back to Chrome, or will the next Mini come out to put them away as our oh so beloved Mini did to the VW bug?

The first aim is to choose 1-2 main keywords for that page that we will try to promote that will reach the search results you’re aiming for. If we will choose more than 1-2 main keywords per page, the focus becomes diluted, and we probably won’t make it to where we’re really trying to get. You can choose more than one keyword if you insist, but the rest of the keyword should be variations, synonyms or phrases including the main keyword (this will definitely help since Google knows which keywords are related to others).

1. Keyword Research

The first thing you have to do is review the page and prepare a list of related keywords. From this list we will start to work. From here you will have to choose your favorite keyword analysis tool or several tools (my recommendation is the Adwords Keyword Tool or the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool by Aaron Wall).
After choosing the tool, examine the keywords, compare competition, length etc. The best keywords will be chosen according to the criteria defined by you or by your client. It is important that in this part your client will be involved, so his needs and experience will be taken into consideration and to be frank, his experience in what’s relevant to his business trumps yours.

SEO Keyword Optimization

2. Look at your competitors

What are your competitors doing? What keywords are they targeting? You might want to target to the same keywords as they are. Competition may be fierce and you may want to build some authority for your page before you. That’s the reason you should use a tool like the Adwords keyword tool or Aaron Walls tool, because it gives you new keyword suggestions and the estimates search traffic for them in the country/area you defined. With this tool, you can also analyze a specific site’s content and conclude what the main keywords are that the site is targeting.

3. Maybe you’re already a success…

Check what your current positions are for past targeted keywords. If you’re located second for a well-searched term/keyword, don’t try too hard – you’re already there. In this case, you’d better create a new page for similar keywords and not change the current one. The website SEODigger can help you find the keywords that your site has rankings for.

4. Start optimizing!

Start inserting h tags, writing keyword targeted content (watch the density!!), insert alt-text tags to your images and so on. If you have many related keywords that you’re interested in promoting, consider changing the page that you’re working on into gate page. One that links to many different sub-pages, each targeted to one of the keyword variations.

5. Did you think that we wouldn’t mention social media??

Submit your newly SEO optimized page to a bunch of web 2.0 and social media sites – create virtual presence to this page. This process will not be whole without some bookmarking.

6. Internal linking

Whether it’s a new page or an old one, review your site’s internal linking. Add suitable links to your footer/sitemap. By doing so you’re not only making sure that it will be easy for Google to reach this page and index it, but also letting Google know that these are the most important pages on your site. Just don’t overdo it. Too many pages in your footer and Google thinks you’re trying to mess with it and then it might penalize you accordingly.

7. Follow, review and analyze

This is crucial to measure exactly how the changes that you have made affect the search results. Prepare a special sheet describing the changes that have been made in the site and include the original location in the search results. This way, in case you harm the page (which can happen if you over-optimize), you can always undo what you did.

You may also want to take a look at a great post for Keyword discovery by Rishil on SEOmoz which is called Building Bricks: Keyword Discovery Process for Small Businesses

And another great hubpage I wrote in the same topic: http://hubpages.com/hub/10-First-SEO-Steps

Now, let’s assume you won the seo gold medal and are sitting on the top position in Google for your most important keywords, the same question can be asked “What now?”…

Michael Phelps actually answered this question in one interview he gave after his last win and said that he might now compete in different swimming styles. So basically “Try New Things”

In the wonderful world of SEO, winning the Gold doesn’t mean you can rest. Unlike swimming, in web marketing there are no limits to the number of gold medals you can have. There are an endless number of keywords (long and short tail) that are out there and every single one represents its own podium finish. Moreover, web marketing is a constantly growing and changing field which means that the gold you hold right now might not even carry you through the end of the day.

Whether the gold is getting top positions in Google, raising your traffic by 70% or increasing your online sales, there are many ways you can choose to achieve it.
Today one of the most popular ways to achieve your target is using Social media websites and online communities. Social media generally referred to as Web 2.0, can be a very rewarding way of achieving your online goals. It is however, also a demanding one.

Writing good and interesting titles, descriptions and choosing the most relevant keywords are only one aspect of the equation. The cliché “Content is King” remains true today and without content that will capture your readers attention and imagination, you’re going to be treading water To effectively use social media you need to be web 2.0 active.

As I’m sure we’ve all found out more then once, just posting content and forgetting about it doesn’t work. That’s the main reason many web marketers found Social Media to be disappointing when it didn’t deliver the traffic they thought it should.

A good Web 2.0 strategy must have at its core a well developed social persona. Someone that others can believe is real, relate to and most importantly want to keep in touch with.

For ongoing Web Marketing you need to not only bring in the masses, you also need to keep them coming back and bringing their friends along as well.

According to numerous surveys done over the past 2 years, and out of personal experience (unfortunately) I can say that most web 2.0 users have an instinctive dislike towards spammers and fake users, and to be perfectly honest that’s a good thing. That’s the quality check, spamguard, call it whatever you like.

Spammers are very easy to spot as are most of the fake user profiles. Most social sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Stumbleupon have a few unwritten rules, the first and most important one being “be real”: don’t spam and don’t promote yourself without having anything of value to add.

For example, if you’re watching a video about SEO, and you add a comment, then a link to your site will appear in your signature; which is the correct way of doing it.  Comments along the lines of “I have a great SEO site check it out at:  www.mysite.com” will not be received well and will be marked as spam.

Think before you add content to the social sites. Make sure it is not just self promotion but has real value to your would be site visitors and potential clients. People will respect you more, follow you and probably end up following you, twittering you or digging you.

Once you manage to find the right combination of quality content and marketing, the next important thing is to be consistent and persistent. Unless you want a one time only rise in traffic, you should be active online and let people know you’re out there not just to market yourself but also to interact and listen to others.

As your online community will grow and expand so will your ability to better market yourself and your site. It might take some time and hard work but it’s definitely worth it.
After all, if getting a Gold medal was easy it wouldn’t have any value.

Web 2.0 is defined as a term which describes the trend to enhance information sharing and users’ collaboration all over the web.
You probably already know that everyone today uses web 2.0 sites in order to increase traffic or to try and strengthen their authority. A link on Digg’s first page is every advertiser’s wet dream (and then some). The thing is, that web 2.0 links, as well as web 2.0 sites, are very dynamic and are constantly changing. Therefore, your results will peak like a really high cliff with a 90 degree drop on the other side- very high but for a short period of time.

When starting to build your SEO strategy plan try to follow the following steps:

1 – List the sites that you want to have presence in. These sites have to target your potential consumers/readers. Keep them on hand because it’s important to be able to measure what you do (remember the first rule of marketing, if you can’t measure it, then don’t do it).

2 – Create an entity that leaves its presence on relevant web 2.0 sites. Another option is create a company profile or a real profile. This entity has to be listed with consistent details and even an image, so it will appear real. If the content on each site is creative, interesting and original (no duplicates!!) then the comments, authority and buzz will follow. You’ve heard the cliché “Build them a field and they will come” right? Wrong. In today’s Web 2.0 world, the cliché should read “Build them a field with a winning team and free beer and dogs, and they will come, but then make sure they keep winning and the food and drink is still free”. These “web 2.0 listings” have to be constantly updated and you always have to look for new sites – Remember the peak principle!
Note: there are many web 2.0 specialists around the web that can create a link bait article which can, for example, take you to the first results in Digg.com. These services are pretty expensive (about $3000 a piece), but sometimes the exposure, traffic and links that you can gain by doing so is invaluable.

3 – Link from your website to your web 2.0 profiles so that everyone will see you have a significant presence on the web. Also, this makes all these listings look more reliable. As a marketing person/company, this activity can give you an added value in the eyes of potential costumers. As a B2C company, this presence looks fresh and different to your potential costumers to be.

4 – Follow your “Web 2.0 listings”, analyze them and improve them accordingly. (remember measure, measure, measure)
Web 2.0 presences are crucial to web marketing professionals, but like everything is marketing – you have to measure it and then optimize accordingly. You also have to be unique and original in everything you do, or as Seth Godin likes to say “Be Remarkable” as always.

A great site that lists most of the top web 2.0 sites is Go2Web2.0.com. You can use it as a resource of sites that might be relevant to what you’re trying to do. They’re a great Israeli initiative (and did you see that Page Rank)?

If you are interested in Web 2.0 packages, further details are provided here.