While search engines no longer care as much about keyword meta tags, it is still important to make yours are well-written and relevant – or your site could get penalized. Keyword meta tags are used to quickly and easily identify the relevance of your site. These days, Google's algorithm, which is used to figure out where to rank pages on the search results, is much more complex due to years of dealing with people trying to cheat the system. Google’s algorithm will not respond to outdated tricks such as typing keywords multiple times or using “invisible” keywords (white text on a white background). If you attempt these tricks, your site will not only be frowned upon, but may get banned from Google altogether.

Another big mistake is including keywords that are irrelevant to your site to attract more traffic. By including a hot-topic article on your website that is irrelevant to your subject matter, you will loose your credibility and your audience. Once a visitor to your site realizes your trick; they’ll leave immediately. Why would anyone bother visiting your site if it is filled with incohesive, random content?

Since navigating the internet for quality information is already difficult, it’s important to stand out from the sites that are created for no other reason than to get better rankings. You can do this by providing useful content and keep from making typical mistakes such as trying to trick search engines via the methods mentioned above.

Tips on choosing relevant keywords

So you have determined what your site’s content will be about but now you are at a loss as to what keywords to choose and begin using. A good place to start is Google’s keyword tool. There, you can simply type in the keyword (or search term) that you think the people who you want to visit your site would theoretically be searching for. Then, this useful tool will tell you how many searches people make per month on that particular keyword, what the competition is for that keyword, and will even provide similar keywords which may be more effective and that you hadn’t thought of. For example, say you are trying to make a website all about old outlaw ballads. Well, according to the Google Keyword tool, people rarely search for the keyword “outlaw ballads.” However, it will tell you that the keywords “outlaw songs” and “outlaw music” are far more popular and will show roughly how many others are trying to use those same keywords to market their sites.

For more on how to use the Google keyword tool, I recommend checking out this handy video on how to use articles to build SEO found at IdeaMarketers.com. There is a section of this 20-minute video devoted to the topic of using Google’s keyword tool – I recommend you check it out for more tips on using it and finding the right keywords for your site.

Fortunately, most of these popular social media websites are free to use and are a sure way to help you increase your traffic, get a better search engine ranking, build a name for yourself, and promote interactivity while maintaining customer relations.

I compiled a list of 7 popular social media sites that I suggest you look into if you want to market your business on the web more effectively. I have used these to market my own law practice, and the benefits are hard to ignore.

1) Facebook – Facebook is the world's biggest social networking site. The best way to market your business on Facebook is to create a “Fan Page” and encourage your customers to join. This way you can easily notify them when you have updates to share such as specials or important news about your business.

2) Yelp – Yelp is one of the most popular review sites for local businesses written by customers. It is important to have your local business reviewed on Yelp, as these reviews are used by customers to make decisions on what businesses are the best for them.

3) Twitter – Twitter is a “micro-blogging” social networking site where members send each other short messages and status updates. It is gaining popularity by the minute. Members can see what other members are “tweeting about,” follow these other members if they find their “tweets” interesting, and share their own messages on this micro-blogging platform.

4) YouTube – YouTube is the number one video-sharing website where members can share and comment on each other’s videos. You Tube can be used to establish yourself as an expert in your industry by creating “how-to” videos that show your specialization. To direct traffic to your website, you can even link the videos you upload to your website.

5) LinkedIn – LinkedIn is the most popular business-oriented social networking site with over 400,000 registered users. This is a great website to find potential business partners as well as customers who may be interested in what your business has to offer.

6) Digg – Digg is a popular news-sharing website where members post links to their favorite news article and make comments. If you receive a good rating on an article that includes a link to your site, it will result in a large increase in your traffic.

7) Delicious – Delicious is a popular bookmarking site in which members save links to their favorite websites or articles and share them with other people. When members write comments, it links to their personal profile where they can include a link to their website. The more comments you write, the more you promote your site, resulting in increased traffic.

By joining these sites, you will be able to introduce yourself to new customers and learn more about what consumers are looking for. You can also potentially build a network of loyal customers who may be likely spread the word about your business in various locations all over the Internet. As you may know, word-of-mouth advertising from a trusted source is the most effective type of advertising.

For those not familiar with the concept, a wiki is a web site that may be edited by anyone.  The most well known wiki on the Internet is Wikipedia, but there are numerous other wikis using the same type of technology.

Because Wikipedia is so big and pervasive, it is very hard to edit.  In addition, Wikipedia editors frown on any text that appears self-serving in any way.  Wikipedia bills itself as the world's largest encylopedia and its focus remains on providing extensive information.

AboutUs.org encourages web site owners to describe and promote their web sites.  While it is too early to tell whether AboutUs will have any marketing value, it is a good place to learn how to use a wiki and it may very well provide a good promotional outlet for your web site.

[tags] Wikipedia, AboutUs, wiki, web site promotion [/tags]

For those not familiar with the concept, a wiki is a web site that may be edited by anyone.  The most well known wiki on the Internet is Wikipedia, but there are numerous other wikis using the same type of technology.

Because Wikipedia is so big and pervasive, it is very hard to edit.  In addition, Wikipedia editors frown on any text that appears self-serving in any way.  Wikipedia bills itself as the world's largest encylopedia and its focus remains on providing extensive information.

AboutUs.org encourages web site owners to describe and promote their web sites.  While it is too early to tell whether AboutUs will have any marketing value, it is a good place to learn how to use a wiki and it may very well provide a good promotional outlet for your web site.

[tags] Wikipedia, AboutUs, wiki, web site promotion [/tags]

Basically, the message of Influence is that human behavior (such as buying behavior) is subject to various triggers. Dr. Cialdini is a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona and a few years ago he set out to study the psychology of influence. As part of his research, Dr. Cialdini traveled around the country applying for and working at various sales jobs – everything from telemarketing, in-store sales, and door to door. His goal was to identify the reasons people comply with requests in business settings.

Dr. Cialdini describes how you can use (ethically) this applied psychology to frame your message to customers and potential customers.

I would strongly advise that you visit Dr. Cialdini's web site – Inside Influence and subscribe to his free email newsletter.

The current issue describes talks about one of the principles of influence called "social proof" – that is, people tend to follow what they perceive to be the most popular course of action. He describes an experiment conducted at a national park that was attempting to discourage visitors from taking pieces of petrified wood.

In one experiment, Dr. Cialdini and his associates posted signs at one exit signifying disapproval about visitors taking the petrified wood. In another exit location, they posted signs saying "Many past visitors have removed the petrified wood from the park, changing the natural state of the Petrified Forest."

Cialdini and his students discovered that theft of petrified wood actually increased in the area where the second sign was posted. Why? Because the second sign suggested that a large number of people were engaging in the behavior of stealing petrified wood thus giving "social proof" to that (undesirable behavior).

This is an interesting example of how the wrong approach to a business request can result in actions opposite from those desired. How many of your marketing messages fail this test.

Another quick example of how this principle of influence works. Earlier this week, my associate sat through a legal marketing tele-seminar for bankruptcy lawyers. One of the speaker's main points was to encourage bankruptcy lawyers to use terms like "taking the bankruptcy route" or "choosing bankruptcy protection" instead of "filing for bankruptcy." He also compared bankruptcy marketing to weight loss marketing, where the most effective marketing messages put the blame for obesity on restaurants (for serving large portions), for sodas (for putting too much sugar in the drinks), etc. In other words, never put the blame on the consumer.

The point here is that you need to know the psychological triggers that cause your customers to take actions and build those triggers into your web sites and all of your marketing messages. Robert Cialdini's book Influence: Science and Practice is a must read and an essential tool in your marketing arsenal.