Use a text browser, such as Lynx, to get a sense of how most search engine bots see your site. This exercise can help you determine where you may need to make changes for SEO. You can paste your URL in the Lynx viewer to find out how your page would look when viewed with Lynx, without having to download and install the browser.

Make sure that your site does not have duplicate content. Duplicate content can hurt your search engine ranking.

Create a XML sitemap for your web site and submit it to the major search engines; this gives the search engine bots a list of URLs on your site that you want them to index.

Shoppers visit ecommerce web sites to not only make purchases but to gather product information, read or write product reviews etc. It is important that the site design allows the consumers to easily find what they are looking for. For example, if the customer wants to get additional product details or read reviews, there needs to be a clear path. Sites that make it easy for consumers to accomplish their goals build long-term loyalty.

Once the retailer has a well designed site, they need to address how to get visitors to the site. An Internet Retailer Survey reports that 40.2% of the respondents would like the search engines to get them visitors. This is done by a process of search engine optimization (SEO). Moreover, 27.8% of the respondents would like to have more community features, which is done by using social media.

Social media is a major source of information for consumers. A social network presence can help drive traffic back to a retailer’s site. This trend is prompting many retailers to participate in social networks and be part of that information exchange.

More consumers are using mobile devices for the holidays to find deals. According to Deloitte LLC, nearly one in five consumers are expected to use their mobile phones to assist with holiday spending. 55% of consumers planned to find store locations, 45% research prices, 40% find product information, 32% get discounts and coupons while 31% read reviews. More importantly, one in four shoppers expected to make a purchase with a mobile phone. Furthermore, the time time is now to start utilizing mobile ads in your marketing program.

Submitting your web site is a last option because you were unable to get links to your web site or your web site was blocked by the spiders. If you have to submit your web site, only submit your home page. A site map allows spiders to find everything. Many times individuals submit their sites over and over without checking to see if the spiders blocked their site.

You may receive unsolicited e-mails offering to submit your web site to thousands of search engines. These emails reference some statistics of millions of visitors that this will generate by submitting to thousands of search engines. Always avoid automated submissions. These automated submissions are considered spam and your web site can be banned for excessive submissions.

Watch Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp founder explain News Corp Sites May Be Removed From Google click www.youtube.com/watch?v=sewucH3rOPM

This can be monumental if approved. This can lead to other media companies following News Corp’s path. Bing could leverage content access rights to challenge Google.

In the late 90s, hits had no meaning at all. Pages were a more complex combination of multiple text and image files, therefore the hit metric was unable to tell you how many actual pages were viewed.

While the volume of hits is an indicator of Web server traffic, it is not an accurate reflection of how many pages are being looked at. Each time you type in your web address, the browser hits the website’s server for the document. The server sends the web page to the browser. Once the browser begins to display the information, it continues to hit the server for any additional elements needed. For example, a logo will represent one hit as the server returns that image to your browser. Because of how hits are measured, this number is inflated and different from page views or visitor counts. More images in a website leads to a greater number of hits being recorded.

If you are still having difficulties following the steps above try to estimate them.

Ask the customers when they buy if they used your web site prior to buying.
If your company uses warranty cards, update your warranty cards that asks about the use of your web site.
Add a question to a survey. Your business may regularly send surveys to your customers. Add a question regarding whether customers used your web site prior to their last purchase.

You can use estimates to perform trend analysis checking ups and downs from month to month. Furthermore, you can also implement systems which accurately track sales.

If the answer is no, it is time to change your web site to a professional web design. After all, image is everything. You do not go on job interview with ripped jeans and expect to be hired. You dress for the job that you want and those that look the part get the job.

Web site appearance needs to be kept up as well as the web site copy. Every word on your web site needs to be read over. The web site copy needs to be error free and look professional. First impressions do matter and often times your business is judged by how well written the copy and design is. Furthermore, the time is now to update your web site design and copy because your competitor is just one click away.

Email marketing is trackable and cost effective. It is more result oriented for performance. Look at your web statistics when you do an email marketing campaign. This will show an increase in traffic on your web site. There is email marketing software that track whether your email is opened such as E-listmail Click here for e-listmail.

E-mail allows an opportunity to connect to your customers and prospects. There is a limitation if email does not engage in results or users unsubscribe.

Three methods to increase the chance of success in email marketing include:

1. Personalization
2. Branding
3. Call to Action
Click here to watch a video on email marketing

The time is now to utilize email marketing to increase branding and results.

Firefox is a great browser, and one of the things that makes it so great is it’s wide selection of add-ons. Some of these add-ons are great for SEO work. We’ve compiled a list of 5 SEO add ons that you can get for Firefox:

1. RankQuest SEO Toolbar
   RankQuest SEO(Search Engine Optimization) Toolbar provides you quick access to more than 30 intuitive SEO tools. Alexa Rank and Page Rank provided by Alexa and Google respectively ensures the popularity of the site.
2. SEOpen
   SEO services: Track sites placement at Google and Yahoo for any keyword. Watch Google PageRank (PR), Backlinks, Saturation over time. Graph and table presentation of the data.
3. SEOQuake
   Seoquake is a Mozilla Firefox SEO extension aimed primarily at helping web masters who deal with search engine optimization(SEO) and internet promotion of web sites.
4. Foxy SEO Tool
   Foxy SEO Tool offers tools for search engine optimization (SEO), web traffic and page analysis for webmasters and web professionals.
5. Keyword Spy
   KeywordSpy SEO/PPC Plugin – Do your competitive research in SEO & PPC right from your browser! Download the revolutionary plugin which will change the way you do keyword research & competitor tracking, while you browse on Google, Yahoo in Real-time.