Title tags

For those unfamiliar with the term “title tag,” it describes the text that appears in the top line of a user’s Web browser. It is also used by search engines as the actual title of a search listing.
If you run an SEO campaign, then you should be very interested in how title tags are currently used — and how they can be improved — on your site. If you run an SEO campaign and are a savvy SEO, you’ll also notice how competitors use title tags on their Web properties.
Writing descriptive title tags is a vitally important aspect of optimizing a site to rank well with the search engines and getting clicked on by visitors on search results pages.
A well-crafted title tag can stand on its own, generating interest from users who know nothing of your website or company, pulling them into the conversion funnel. That is the expectation an SEO department should set when making title tag modifications.
Any effort to modify title tags site-wide should not be entered into lightly. Among the considerations that should be made are the sales and marketing strategies of the Web enterprise or the business running the website.
It is also imperative that the SEOs working on the behalf of a company benchmark the competition as well as those outside the industry to understand how the most popular websites leverage their title tags.
Presence of Keywords
Experienced SEOs know plenty from years of title tag tweaks — such as to include at least one targeted keyword or phrase. That certainly makes sense, but you might be surprised at how few of them actually make the effort, opting instead for using generic terms that do not distinguish a page much less excite users — particularly on long tail keyword phrases.
Still other SEOs realize the importance of using the title tag as an opportunity to achieve rankings through keyword association, as in the case of CouponMom.com below
Prominence of Keywords
It is also relatively well known that, whenever possible, keywords should be used early in the title — it is most common to have the keyword or key phrase used in the first half of the full title. This helps search engines and the visitors they send identify the main subject of the page quickly, not to mention to ensure that page titles do not get cut off by search engines.
Brand Inclusion
You might also notice the inclusion of brand elements on a high percentage of competitive search results pages. CouponCabin.com for example, even includes its name (without the dot com), and even Coupon Divas (image below) includes its registered trademark. If the brand is strong and provides clarity as to what a user might find, using brand elements should be considered for inclusion in title tags.
Special Character Omission
The verdict is out on the role that special characters may play in ranking and clickthrough rate (which many believe are inextricably connected). For now, it is best practice to avoid many special characters in page titles — doing so will put your site at least in line with the vast majority of Web properties.
It’s compelling (and, some would argue, attractive) to include colons, hash marks, dollar signs and ampersands — but the top sites typically do not and you shouldn’t, either.
That being said, there may just be something to being different — as might be the case with wow-coupons.com
Length of Title Tag
Finally, but perhaps most importantly, understand that search engines have limits as to how many characters are used from the title tag and can display up to 70 characters.
There is little in the way of statistical data about the role that title tag length may play in generating clicks (is longer or shorter better?), but focusing on readability and establishing expectations for users should be the primary objective anyway.

Press Releases

Press releases tend to rank quickly in organic search and news results. That is, if they are optimized and distributed following established SEO.

With instant publishing and search engines to filter information, individuals can filter and find the news that is useful to them. Publishing effective news releases online requires a three pronged optimization approach that consists of search engine optimization (SEO), conversion optimization and editorial optimization. When all three aspects are balanced, press releases can have a dramatic impact on your online visibility.

Press release Optimization: SEO
In order for news to be effective, it must be discoverable by those who are interested. Optimizing your news so that it can be found in search engines for strategic keywords provides a powerful way to reach targeted customers and influencers.

---Title Optimization : The most heavily weighted factor that determines for which keywords a press release will rank is its title. Placing you primary keyword phrase towards the beginning of the title tends to have the strongest impact on ranking for those keywords. However, the title needs to reflect the news angle and be written with clickthrough in mind, and not only keywords.

---Summary Optimization: The second most heavily weighted SEO factor is the summary. The summary is the ideal place to introduce one or two additional keyword phrases while elaborating on the news angle introduced in the title. Within a well-optimized press release distribution site or news site, the title becomes the title tag and the summary becomes the meta description. The same technical rules apply to optimizing a title tag and a meta description in terms of keywords as they do when optimizing a press release title and summary.

---Keyword Anchor Text Linking: The ability to build strategic anchor text backlinks from trusted sources is one of the SEO’s most exciting reasons for publishing press releases. Because some press release distribution sites push full-page reprints of your press release out to additional partner sites, a single press release can net a significant number of backlinks using your chosen keyword phrases.

Press release Optimization: Clickthrough Optimization
The purpose of the press release is to hook the reader with the news release and then direct traffic to your website. Online press releases are essentially landing pages for your business designed to drive traffic.
Optimizing for clickthrough helps you achieve that conversion goal.

---Make Use of Multimedia Features: Including images, videos, logos, file downloads and links to other web properties and assets allows readers to be immersed in your message through a variety of senses. When given the opportunity, make use of as many multimedia options as your press release distribution site allows.

---Embedded Website Navigation via iFrame: If you have the option to include an iFrame in your release, choose to link to a page that is a natural extension of the message announced in your press release. For example, if announcing a new product, display the product page in the iFrame instead of the sites’ home page.

---Include a Call-To-Action: A press release is a tool to entice readers to visit your site- give them clear direction on how and why to do so. Some ideas are to send them to your website to download a free ebook, or to read full details about the product or to subscribe to your mailing list for tips and information related to the announcement.

Press release Optimization: Editorial Optimization
Press release sites are news sites an they take their role seriously in order to stay in good graces with Google. In order for your press release to pass the human editing process, it should adhere to the following three critical editorial points:

---A Clearly Stated News Angle from Within Your Company: The purpose of a press release is to announce something new and timely such as a new product or service, limited time scale or contest, participation in an upcoming event etc. That news also needs to originate from the company announcing the news. The reader should be able to determine exactly what the press release is announcing by reading the title and summary.

---Written in Third Person: Aside from a direct attributed quote,a press release is written in third person and does not use casual language such as referring to the reader as “you” or th author as “I”.

---Attribution of Claims: Claims that could be interpreted as opinions should be attributed in a press release. For example, instead of opinions like “ the best real estate software in the market,” present attributable facts such as “ deemed the best real estate software on the market by XYZ magazine.”

The press release ranks well with search engines and can rank almost instantly upon publication. Furthermore, optimized backlinks within the release work to build link value for your site for years to come.

Search Engines Optimization

How a website appears to search engines is crucial, irrespective of your website being new or 10 years old. A website gets 61% of its traffic from search engine results, and 41% from google alone. For most businesses ranking high on search engines is a make-or-break proposition. There is no known definite tactics that will maximize search engine rankings. Here are some recommendations.

Optimize Your Keywords
Search engine optimization is useless if one does not know what you are trying to optimize. For some businesses, picking appropriate keywords is straight forward. But on what terms should a online store emphasize if it sells all kinds of products.
To begin with try to find out what people are searching for. To help you out there is this wonderful free online tool. The google keywords tool can help you get an accurate, quick sense of search volumes for any term of your choice and will recommed related terms which you have not thought of. You need to optimize for terms that drive the maximum traffic and are the most relevant to what your site offers. The less competition for the search terms the better.

Titles and URLs
The title tags are the most important to optimizing for SEO. When your website is indexed by search engines, these title text appears on the visitor’s web browser. Load each of your title tags with keywords and make sure they are all unique. Search engines today consider keywords in your URLs as important as keywords on the page itself.

Links
Links to your website are important to boost your website ranking. Links that contain keywords has far more impact on your website. The reason being, search engines look at the anchor text used to link to your site. If you want to increase your website ranking, you need to encourage others to link to your website using keywords in the anchor text.

Spelling KeywordsTry to spell your keywords correctly so that you do not miss out on the searches of keywords. Sometimes keywords may be misspelled by many web searches and these misspelled keywords could be a source of potential traffic to your website. Try to make the best use of such errors.

Content
Fresh content is a favourite of most search engines, the more content your add helps your website’s rankings. Provide as much fresh and unique content, that will drive loads of traffic.