If your website does not rank high, here’s what you can do to improve search engine rankings, engage visitors and convert more sales.

1. Align the site with your objectives

Have your business objectives and goals changed since you launched your website? If so, then you need to revisit your website’s content to ensure it supports your current business needs.

2. Remove useless items

Every item on your website competes for your visitors’ attention, reducing the impact of your key message. Is that welcome message necessary? Are some of those buttons redundant? Scrutinize every element to help deliver a strong message and eliminate distractions.

3. Update your information

Keep time-sensitive information on your website up to date. If you don’t have adequate resources, keep time-sensitive information to a minimum.

4. Edit your web copy for consistency

Businesses often have different people adding web copy at different times, which leads to inconsistencies. Review your copy from start to finish with a keen eye on spelling, format, style, narration, tense, flow and so on.

5. Split text blocks into scannable chunks

Massive blocks of text discourage visitors from exploring your website. Break up web copy with relevant headlines, subheads, bullet points and short, one-topic paragraphs. Your visitors will thank you by spending more time on your site.

6. Review fonts

Check your fonts to ensure consistent size, style and spacing. Consider using a style sheet. Fonts optimal for the Web include Arial, Courier, Georgia, Time New Roman and Verdana.

7. Add new web copy

Add relevant web copy frequently to satisfy visitors and search engines alike. Improve search engine rankings and give your visitors a reason to keep coming back.

8. Refresh your graphics

Renew your image with new graphics, charts and photos. Many are royalty free. Type in terms like “clip art,” “graphics,” and “free photos” into your favorite search engine and you’re on your way.

9. Make your graphics search engine friendly

Give your images tags with keywords to help improve search engine rankings.

10. Consider your color theme

Go over your colors to ensure they are a part of or at least complement your logo and brand. Dump backgrounds that make it difficult to read web copy.

11. Extinguish flashing content

Flashing content irritates visitors and turns them away. It’s one step away from announcing, “Congratulations! You’re the 1,000,000th visitor! Click here to claim prize!” If you want it to make a point, do so with compelling web copy, placement, font size or color.

12. Speed it up

Your pages should load fast. Don’t make your visitors wait 30 seconds or so just to watch your logo spin around. How many times have you retreated from a site while waiting for its intro to load? Relevant web copy is much more likely to grab the attention of a potential client.

13. Re-evaluate PDFs

Are you guilty of throwing PDFs onto your website to save time? PDFs are designed for print, not the Web. Unless it’s an e-book or a form, offer the information as a webpage and give your visitor the option of viewing it as a PDF.

14. Leave music to the DJs

Don’t blast music at your visitors. It slows access to your site and can cheapen your presentation. If music is required, hand over the controls to your visitor by making it optional.

15. Repair or delete broken links

Check all your links and be quick to repair or delete any that bring your visitors to the ‘404 file not found’ message. If a section is under construction, take it offline.

Blog posts and articles (with a lot of SEO) are sure to be noticed and read by the online community, much more so nowadays because of the influence the blogosphere and article marketing has on online businesses. It’s not just the blog posts and articles. The same goes to press releases, blog comments and reviews, ratings, etc.

In any case, business professionals have to keep something in mind — keep their written words grammatically correct while a little personal.

In this age where spam posts and comments are looked down upon and the Web is more personal than before, the online community has clearly implied that posts, articles, reviews, comments, etc. are much more welcomed when they are true to the writer’s opinions and feelings. The rising surge of social sites is proof that personal and unique content are more interesting for the readers.

Let’s not forget, though, that while posts and articles may carry puns and cliché remarks, grammar and sentence structure is also a plus. Wrong grammars and improper English usage can sometimes be annoying. Some will consider it funny, and that would be a small tarnish — still a tarnish — to a professional businessman’s reputation in establishing good communication.

While this may not be a big thing for many, remember that interaction among the many users of the online community. The online community has especially become witty and critical of the written words they see online. Blog posts, articles, comments, and others are under their watchful eyes.

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It is correct to assume that people go online to search for information and read content. This is what the majority really do when going online. The internet has become a haven for people who seek information and ideas. This would naturally bring about challenges for online writers. While writing online may seem simple, getting the articles and posts to be read by the online community is not. That is why there are certain SEO techniques being observed in writing online.

SEO is important for online writers as it is important to internet marketers and site owners. Content, posts, and articles have to be exposed, after all, to be read by the users. Online writers, and publishers, need to position themselves in the Web in a way that would deliver their information to the online community in just a matter of clicks. Therefore, in writing online, it is important to keep up with what’s new on SEO and the online community.

In online writing, content is king. The article must be well written and rich with information. Otherwise, it would only be useless to brand the article or post and spread it online. The main point of SEO, after all, is to get uses and visitors into the site and gain their attachment to the site. Making bad content will do the opposite.

The one thing that is different between the newspapers, magazine, and publications offline and the press releases, posts, and articles online is the headline of the publication. With offline publications, you can get readers and subscribers by making titles and headlines that would capture a person’s attention — sometimes to the point wherein the title uses figurative means and sounds far from the story. Online headlines, however, tend to be direct to the point rather than creative. You have to stick to the keyword or keyword phrase of the post.

With offline publications, writer use creative phrases, clever puns, and baffling titles to get the reader to scan and read their articles. This is not the way the Web works, however. In the internet, in order for your article, post, or press release to be noticed and read, you have to get it up to the top search results of the search engines. This would naturally require search engine optimization.

Herein comes the problem with online headlines. Search engine optimization requires the optimum use of the article or page’s keyword or keyword phrase. The headline or title will have to be based on the keyword or phrase to gain some standing in the search results. Being in the top search results will give more exposure to the article or post, and that is what counts on the Web in order to capture readers and subscribers. “Clever” and “imaginative” headlines won’t fare well online unless it has the keyword or phrase on it.

We see here now the difference between a writer for print papers and a writer online. Offline writer can get away with many words in their articles and headlines, but the online writer has to stick to the keyword or phrase.

The evolution unto the Information and Digital Age can be considered a little confusion for the offline writers. Offline writers have made articles that are considered great offline. But when you key it in the Web, it would not be considered top ranking by the search engines unless it has the keyword or phrase. But as the internet is fast becoming a big part of the people’s everyday lives, even offline writers will have to make an impact on the Web.

Many people would consider that going online would be like the deterioration of great headlines. Puns, figures of speech, and other clever lines that are loved by readers is rarely used online. But then, creatively speaking, online headlines don’t have to be too technical. It has to be direct and to the point of the keyword or phrase. But there is that creativity spark that can sometimes combine technicalities with the figurative language. News websites and other publications will have to try harder to capture the attention of the readers online.

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Articles and press releases are two very helpful search engine marketing strategies that a lot of marketers still use today. But unlike in the past wherein the articles and press release can easily be found by the online community, the massive amount of articles and press releases today have made it more difficult for one to be singled out from the rest. It is now close to impossible that a press release about your new product or an article would be read by everyone.

Nevertheless, many companies still send out press releases and articles. Fact of the matter is, there are some articles and some press releases that are read by customers. Despite the heavy competition, there is still a way to reach your customers through the articles and press releases. The key is to create something that will capture their attention and will intrigue them enough to investigate and go to your website, user profile, or information center.

Here are some tips on how to make an article or press release that would stand among the thousands of other articles and press releases:

1. Get to Know Your Target Audience

Press releases and articles also have target audiences. We know that. We don’t write and publish something just for ourselves; we do it for the benefit of others, too. When marketing, press release and articles are meant to be read by your target audience and you keep them in mind when creating that press release or article.

Knowing your target audience will enable you to write in a way as if you’re “speaking in their language.” you would know ho to communicate to your target market and in the process capture their attention. You’ll be able to include facts and information that you know would be beneficial for them and therefore will appeal to them. You will also be able to optimize your press release or article by defining the best keywords, knowing what keywords your target audience would be looking for.

2. Optimize Through Keywords

In knowing who your target audience is, you can research on what keywords to focus on to optimize your article or press release. Once you’ve found the best keyword for the article or press release, make it as a basis when writing. Optimizing through the keywords will help with your rankings in the search engines as the crawlers can read the press releases and articles. If your article or press release is about a certain subject, and you’ve honed on it very well, it can rank very high on the search engines.

3. Be Creative And Stand Out!

Stand out. You know there’s a very fierce competition out there. Thousands of pres releases and articles are sent across the Web through the sites, emails, directories, and feeds. You need to do more than just write correctly… you need to write creatively! You need to think on how your article or press release can be of better help to the customers than the other articles or press releases. You need to give the audience a reason why they should pick your article or press release among the many thousand others.

4. Optimize On the Title

The title of the article or press release, not just the keywords, also count in optimization. Each article or press release should have a title that revolves around the keywords you chose. This will help in the search engine rankings and for more visibility when the keywords are being searched.

Of course, you should not forget to make the title interesting to hook the readers to read your article or press release. It will help to communicate easily with your customers and can drive traffic to your website.

5. Add an Image To Go With the Article or Press Release

An article or press release with an image or picture is much more enjoyable o read and look at than a plain one. Many readers usually don’t read much at their first glance at an article or press release. Adding an image could lead them to read your article when it captures their attention. It’s another way for your article or press release to stand out!

You can also offer links to the readers who want to download the image. It will not only help promote your press release or article, it will also help obtain image optimization and traffic.

6. Choosing the Distribution Channels

Submitting your press release or article on big PR distribution sites and article directories may NOT always be the best course to take. While the services will work just fine, you might want to take a course wherein you know you’ll get more exposure and quality coverage in your own market.

With the great number of competition among articles and press releases in the press release sites and article directories, it might be hard to get through to your target audience. It is better to focus on exposing yourself in your own market.

Learning how to optimize articles and directories is a little challenging considering how vast the Web is. But with a little push here and there and some creativity and effort, one can find a way to stand out and reach out to his or her target audience.

Step 1: Create an Article That Grabs Readers’ Interest

Once you have uploaded your videos to YouTube, you must heavily promote your videos if you want to sell more books, products and services online. One of the most effective ways to broadcast your message is by writing articles related to your videos and submitting them to the top article directories, websites and ezines that accept articles.

While writing your articles keep in mind that the best result-producing articles are the ones that provide unique, high quality content that solves at least one piece of a problem puzzle. However, to convert readers to buyers, you must not give the reader all of the answers to the “HOW” to solve a particular problem. Instead you want to tease them with some of the how and top it off with the why it’s important.

Step 2: Turn Readers into Prospects With a Strong Call for Action and an Offer They Can’t Refuse

At the end of your article, you can promote yourself and attract visitors to your YouTube video page with a bio box. This is where most article marketers make the fatal mistake of failing to encapsulate the essence of what makes you and your offering unique. For example, they may write something like:

Blah Blah, is a keynote speaker, seminar leader and author. She has spoken in 26 countries on four continents. She is president of Yada Dada, Las Vegas. Check out her YouTube video at___________

Technically there is nothing wrong — except it is BORING.

You need to stimulate people to visit your website immediately. Otherwise, they will forget you are alive five minutes later. Here’s an example bio box for you to model:

Fitness Expert, Craig Ballantyne helps millions of busy moms lose fat while gaining muscle with just 3 short workouts a week. Watch his new YouTube Video at _________ and discover 3 new turbulence training excercises that will help you burn belly fat now! And as a special bonus, you’ll receive a FREE special offer to receive Craig’s Controversial Fat Loss Report revealing the most common exercise myths that are sabotaging your fat loss efforts.

Doesn’t this make you want to go visit Craig’s YouTube video right away?

Step 3: Submit your articles to the top article directories to build links and improve your search engine optimization.

Just like your website, to increase your YouTube Video page’s search ranking on Google, you must increase the number of inbound links to the page. The higher you climb in search results the more unique visitors you will get.

By submitting articles to the top article directories like EzineArticles.com, you will instantly receive a guaranteed link to your YouTube page as long as you follow each directory’s specific editorial guidelines.

Step 4: Submit your articles to the top, targeted websites and ezines that accept article submissions in your niche.

For best results and to climb higher in search engine rankings you can’t just have any link. You must have links on high-trafficked websites with high Google Page Rankings and high Alexa Traffic Rankings. Plus, by placing your articles on highly-competitive, targeted websites like About.com, instead of just second tier article directories that will publish anyone’s articles, you will win trust in the hearts and minds of your targeted audience before they even see your YouTube video.

Follow these tips, and you will drive traffic to your YouTube video pages and create an instant buzz so you can become an Internet celebrity and sell more books, products and services online.

Source: Marketing on YouTube, Eric Gruber, PromotionWorld