What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?Search engine optimization (SEO) is a host of techniques, approaches and strategies to prepare your website to be found by major search engines. It is often compared to alchemy. Everyone knows what SEO experts do, but very few know how they do it. In fact, many SEO gurus fiercely disagree on the how part. Many tactics are available, but SEO is not a cheap endeavor, so one has to be careful when allocating valuable advertising dollars to it.First, you have to be clear on what you are trying to accomplish on the business side-focus, focus, focus!
Second, you have to reign in your zeal and prepare yourself for a grueling multi-month commitment that will require time, discipline, and money-be ready to spend time in the trenches.
Finally, you have to decide which tools and techniques will produce the best return on investment (ROI). If you spread your resources too thin, you will fail.If you’re looking to get yourself on the first page of Google’s search results immediately, this SEO guide isn’t for you. Don’t believe people who claim they can get you on the first page overnight in an ethical way. Even if you manage to cheat the system for a short time, Google’s wrath will land upon you swiftly and never go away. If you are serious about SEO, prepare yourself for the long haul and do it right-your patience and diligence will pay off. There is truly nothing complex about SEO. It rests on three principles:Valuable, relevant, unique, timely content will rank well on search engines.
The content must be machine-readable in order to be found.
SEO work takes time to produce results.Valuable ContentLet’s start with valuable content. Before you even mention the term “SEO,” ask yourself, what do I have to offer the world, why is it unique, and why would anybody want it? Do you have a digital strategy covering all your digital communications channels? Remember that you are competing with millions of other websites. Theoretically, you could spend lots of time on SEO and get to that coveted first page just to learn that customers don’t find your content, products, or services appealing. Conversely, don’t give up too fast. Many business owners that have great products and services never get through to their audiences because they don’t bother with SEO. The axiom “If you build it, they will come” stands eternally false on Google. The onus is on you, and if you don’t make a compelling case to Google, it will ignore you unless you are the only one in the universe offering that superhot product (e.g., you have a monopoly). So, produce content that stands out. Make sure you provide value. Sometimes it is a sacrifice. You may choose to share valuable information that your competitors may use against you. You may choose to take unique perspectives that may incite a debate or even draw criticism. Be yourself, be unique, and be interesting-you need to give in order to get. Provide more than a sales pitch. Do a cost-benefit analysis that includes the value of brand recognition. Remember that it takes time to see results, usually one to two months, sometimes longer. Your ultimate goal is to find your competitive niche and establish yourself as an authority in your area of expertise so you can influence buying patterns. People will remember you and come to you when the need arises. With respect to content, make sure everything you write is well structured, clean, and free of factual and grammatical errors. Write using plain language. There are multiple resources on this. It is generally recommended that website content be written at the grade six reading level. Sometimes it may not be possible for all industries, but do your best. Another helpful metric is the Flesch-Kincaid readability index. It’s recommended to keep it above 60 (you can use this free tool). Be friendly, approachable, and lighthearted. Use humor, but be careful not to offend and cross boundaries. Always keep your audience in mind. Make sure the most important information is at the top of the page so it can be easily located. Web users don’t read; they skim. Use headings and bulleted lists. Make information digestible, and avoid jargon, clichés, and colloquialisms as much as possible. Make sure that your navigation structure is task oriented and user friendly. Your user experience must always take people through the happy path.Help Google Find YouYou have valuable content, and now you’re ready to move on to the next step-showing search engines and humans how to find it. In this SEO guide, we focus on Google, since it has the biggest search market share, but this is equally applicable to other search engines. It’s probably safe to say that if you rank well on Google, you will rank well on other search engines. There are numerous SEO techniques, but we prefer to focus on a few that have been tested and proven in action:Organically maximize the number of inbound links from websites with high domain and page authority.
Make your pages machine-readable by applying consistent on-page optimization for your key pages.Building Inbound LinksThis technique causes lots of confusion and debate in SEO circles but for no valid reason. It’s very straightforward and is based on the following assumption-counting quality links pointing back to your website is the most effective way for Google to determine the value of your website. Backlinks are very much like Facebook “Likes”-a vote of social confidence. Google’s logic here is utterly simple-if reputable and relevant websites link to you, your content must be valuable. One important caveat here is that the link building must be organic. If you have a very rapid increase in backlinks over a short period of time, Google may perceive this as spam, even if your efforts are legitimate. Spread your efforts over a few months. There is nothing wrong with doing link exchanges with your industry peers. Just make sure you avoid link farms and spammy techniques.Spammy comments. Don’t post a comment on someone’s website just to add your link. Comment with a link only if what you have to say is relevant to the conversation and the link can be truly helpful to the audience.
Avoid link farms. These are sites purely created for link building purposes. Adding your website to relevant web directories and local listings is fine, but make sure you only work with reputable websites. Our benchmark is DA 50.Earned and Unearned LinksEarned links are the cream of the crop in the SEO world and will generate more SEO juice (ranking power) than any other medium. An earned link is simply a link created by a third party without your involvement or persuasion. Google has complex algorithms to figure out which links are earned. In our experience, high-quality earned links are challenging to get, but that’s the gold standard. The next best thing to earned links is high-quality unearned links, which are placed on web directories, articles, blog posts, and other shared media resources. It’s absolutely essential that the primary purpose of the backlinks you add to your posts is to provide supplementary content that helps readers delve deeper into your content and access various thematically related components. Link quality is very important in the process. Link quality is influenced by two factors:Reputation of the link host (domain)-the website where your link resides.
Link text (anchor) relevance.Google has its own proprietary method for determining the reputation of a domain. It uses a 1 to 10 scale to determine a website’s rank. We rely on the domain authority (DA) metric developed by Moz as it is more granular. It marks all websites on a 100-point, logarithmic scale (the higher you climb, the harder it gets). We use the Mozbar Chrome plugin to determine DA for our sites. The metric’s value can change over time, so make sure you check it right when you need it. With respect to SEO, we prefer not to place links on any website that has a domain authority below 50. We believe this is where cost and benefit intersect. This certainly poses some challenges and makes our SEO work more expensive; however, it gives our clients peace of mind and ensures their links bring in high-quality SEO juice (ranking power). In the SEO world, quality always trumps quantity. You will have to make your own determination on what you consider a reputable website, as this surely will affect your SEO costs, but we recommend that you not use anything with a DA below your own, and we recommend anything you use be at least above 25 (especially if you pay for it). Be very selective of where you post your links. If the host website has been penalized by Google for questionable SEO tactics, this may affect you. Another important consideration is the anchor composition. An anchor is a text link that links back to your web page. It is extremely important that the link text is in sync with the keyword and meta data on your landing page. That’s how Google determines link relevance. For example, a link named “all about hamsters” pointing to a web page about “disco music” will surely not rank well in organic search results.How do you get high-quality inbound links from reputable websites?Content marketingContent is truly king and even more so with the recent Google Hummingbird algorithm revolution. Google’s ingenuity became even more evident in the simplicity of the approach-provide valuable, engaging, timely content and you will rank well. Just a few years ago, Google could not afford the luxury of humanizing content analysis due to the lack of computing power, but with the advance of technology and the decrease in hardware prices, Google can now afford to analyze content deeper and build logical, intelligent connections between various web elements. Gone are the days of keyword stuffing. Content marketing is simply an ongoing effort to promote and syndicate your content via various publishing channels. Of course, the content-value and industry-relevance principles apply here more than ever. One way to promote your content is by publishing articles, blog posts, and news releases on relevant websites. Some are free, and some are paid. We have had great experience with PR Web, MyPRGenie, Social Media Today, and Ezine Articles, all of which have stellar DAs. If you manage to make it on these sites, the SEO-juice quality is truly supreme.WebsiteDomain Authority (May 2014)prweb.com94myprgenie.com65EzineArticles.com91hubpages.com88Another way to do this is via social media. This is more of a challenge because you will have to build a sizable following on multiple social media channels; however, it has huge marketing benefits well beyond just SEO. It is not clear how much SEO juice you will receive from social media though. Google has been shifting its emphasis to Google+, and now even that is in flux. We left social media out of this SEO guide because we believe it stands on its own and should not be used primarily as an SEO tool.Free and paid directoriesPlacing your listings on web directories should be used to help local clients find your business on the web, not to advance your SEO agenda. These directories are usually organized geographically, by sector and by theme. Make sure you list your business correctly. We prefer to work with relevant directories that have a DA above 50. With most quality directories, you may have to wait for months. There is a simple reason for this: competition. Everyone else wants to be there for free. Some directories provide the option to pay for an expedited review process. When we say the word “pay,” we don’t mean paying for placement; we mean paying for a quick review, which is usually two to three business days. Your listing still might be rejected after you pay. Avoid directories that guarantee your placement for a fee. We also highly recommend you focus on the directories specializing in your industry first, as Google will assign these links a higher value. Paid directories range anywhere from $25 to $300 per year. Most offer an annual and a permanent option, with the permanent option being significantly more expensive. Some offer placing several deep links in addition to your main domain. Here is the list of directories offering free and expedited (paid) listings, along with their respective DA scores:DirectoryDomain Authority (May 2014)dir.yahoo.com100dmoz.org94botw.org79joeant.com60jayde.com69ezilon.com66dirjournal.com60webworldindex.com56alivedirectory.com56avivadirectory.com63incrawler.com50hotvsnot.com80familyfriendlysites.com66abilogic.com56goguides.org55gimpsy.com53incrawler.com50jasminedirectory.com57On-page OptimizationSEO is not a science but rather a commitment to certain principles. It’s not the complexity of these principles that makes consistent SEO challenging but rather relentless discipline and a commitment to applying them. For one of our projects- a real estate website -just by properly optimizing key pages, we were able to see a 40% increase across key metrics month-to-month and a 14% increase in year-to-year visits, page views, and time on page. Our regional geometrics also improved by 24%. You should follow these principles relentlessly:1. Try to focus on one relevant keyword (phrase) per page. It must be unique on your website-don’t reuse the same keyword in several places.The keyword you choose for the page must be found in the following areas:Page title and meta title (some systems generate the meta title automatically based on the page title). Ensure your page title is always Heading 1.
Headings.
URL.
Content (at least three times, with the first paragraph being the most important).
Meta description. The meta description should be well written and capture your audience’s attention-it will show up as a search-result snippet and help to convert casual browsers into visitors.
Image file name (it’s recommended you use at least one image).
Image alternative description. Just remember that the primary purpose of the ALT attribute is to describe the image to make it more accessible.2. Use internal links and links to relevant sources, but avoid too many. We consider three of each optimal per 500 words.3. Your copy should contain at least 300 words.4. The title should be limited to 70 characters.5. The meta description should be limited to 156 characters.6. The copy should be written in plain language-the Flesch Reading Ease score should be above 60 if possible.7. Use static URL.ConclusionThere are many more SEO techniques available, but we highlighted the ones we believe provide the best return on investment. Ultimately, you will have to decide for yourself what SEO work is manageable for you in the long run. Don’t turn SEO into your primary activity. Remember that your primary goal is to focus on what you do best-your business. Good business is the foundation of good SEO. Finally, we would be happy to take a look at your website and provide free SEO review and high level recommendations.

If you have SEO on your mind and are looking for an SEO professional then it is important to ensure that you get the correct solution, the first time. Like any service enquiry, you should a) communicate clearly what you need and b) ensure that you understand what services are being offered, and what the expected results are going to be for the price. In short you should make sure that both parties have the same expectations. “Website top of Google” is a vague comment to be made by either yourself or your supplier. “To rank on the first page of the Google search results for [phrase X]” is much better: it is very clear and can form an excellent objective for the SEO work about to be undertaken. But you need to be careful here too: if your potential SEO professional starts making guarantees about Google rankings, then that is not good. Google itself states that no one can guarantee rankings in the Google search results. Identifying the keywords for which you want your website to rank in the Google search results is essential and this list should be agreed by both parties. It is easier to get a website ranking well on Google for more specific, targeted phrases (e.g. “seo sunshine coast”) than more generic phrases (such as “SEO”). In addition to this there are a number of technical aspects about your website that make your website more “friendly” to Google, and easier for your SEO supplier to optimise. These are things that should be discussed and understood prior to getting started with the search engine optimisation of your website. Here’s what I recommend you consider and discuss with prospective SEO suppliers, during those crucial discussion stages.How you can help your SEO Supplier Do you know what the phrases you need to rank highly on Google for are? Or do you need your SEO professional to find this out for you? Your SEO professional will have a number of specialised tools available which allow him or her to research what keyphrases your target market actually uses on search engines to find your services and products. These phrases often differ from the ones you might intuitively think of, because you are thinking from your own perspective as the seller, you naturally use terminology and jargon related to your industry, and in general it can be difficult for you to really put yourself in the shoes of your potential customer. However your SEO professional will welcome your thoughts on what keyphrases to start with, and will be able to research and develop a pool of keywords for which you need your website to rank well on Google. Also look at your competitors and see what keyphrases they use, or are found to be ranking well on Google for, and generate a list. Provide these lists and ideas to your SEO supplier. Describe your target market to your SEO Professional. Who/what are they (demographics) and where are they (geographic targeting)? This will determine the terminology, grammar and phrases etc to be used on your website and the correct phrases to be included in the SEO (e.g. “optimised” in UK, Vs “optimized” in US). It will also help your SEO professional when he or she comes to formally telling Google where to geographically target your website. Let your SEO professional see your website’s Content Management System (CMS – the area that you login to, to manage your website) so that an assessment can be made as to how SEO (or Google) friendly your website is. If some crucial SEO requirement is not possible with your current CMS then this is best identified early, and sometimes a rebuild of the website might be recommended at this time. Where is your website hosted, and who by? The physical location of the servers upon which your website is hosted can be determined by Google and used to target your website in the country-specific search results (i.e. “pages from [country]“). There are a number of other factors that contribute to this, but it is important information that you should give to your SEO professional. It is also important to ensure that your website is not hosted in a “bad neighbourhood”. This can be with a webhosting provider or on servers that also hosts poor quality, or dodgy websites such as spam sites, or link farms. Being associated with these types of website can be detrimental to your success on Google. What domain names point to your website? Do you have just the one, or are there several domain names pointed to your website? If there are several domain names for your site and the management of these is not done correctly then Google may impose a penalty against one or more of the domain names. This is because Google of course doesn’t want to be displaying multiple copies of the same website or web pages in the search results (called duplicate content). Have any Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) activities been undertaken on your website previously? Importantly have any of those “submit your website to many search engines for cheap/free” – type of things been done for your website by you or anyone else? These are frowned upon by Google and if penalties have been imposed or the website held back on Google because of them, then that makes your SEO Professional’s job much harder, and results more difficult to achieve.What you need to ask your SEO supplier You will want to ensure that you hire an ethical SEO Professional who will undertake only proper and above board SEO work on your website. Unethical or bad SEO work, where efforts are made to unnaturally or falsely increase the success of your website on the Google search results are absolutely frowned upon by Google leading to penalties, or worst-case-scenario, being banned from Google. This is extremely difficult to recover from and in worst cases the domain name has to be abandoned. These practices include buying link, participating in link farms, cloaking domain names, making text on your web pages visible to Google only and creating other content for Google only, and not humans. As with suppliers of any service you should ask your potential SEO supplier for references. Look for SEO testimonials on their website and check them, and actually ring these clients and verify the success of the work that your potential supplier has done. Ask your supplier for a list of activities they will undertake as part of the SEO of your website and check that no unethical activities are included. If in doubt ask me. If they subscribe to an SEO code of ethics of some sort, then that is desirable as well. Discussion along these lines between you and your SEO Professional prior to undertaking SEO work can really help to ensure the smooth running of your SEO programme, and the achievement of agreed goals. Regular progress updates, or questions from your SEO supplier contribute to your understanding of the work achieved and is valuable, as is your considered response to questions and feedback when requested. An effective SEO solution is one where the SEO supplier and the client work together.Written by Ashley Bryan, SEO Sunshine Coast

Introduction:

When people book a hotel, people are not there and all people can check pictures that people have at our disposal. So after seeing some pictures people can visualize about our hotel and resort. Hotels and resorts are imaginary places where people can relax and fell different. People want to go to hotels and resorts for relaxation and recreation. Therefore, the hotels must make us feel expensive.

People are looking forward to staying somewhere that felt unique. People imagine about a hotel that it will create a memorable experience. Where the things should presented in completely natural way. People creativity about hotels and resorts that these will definitely offer these things

Awesome Facilities at 5 Star Hotel:

People visualized a hotel that will offer a beautiful setting in which tourists enjoys our stay. These hotels will be unique, providing their own character, style, and charm. Tourists imagine first its building, location and its services

People imagine for a hotel where travellors can enjoy amenities like a private garden with its own resident rabbits and huge bar with a lively social vibe. People reviews about the helpful, Emotionally Intelligent and Spirited Staff. People think about standout feature of hotels and resorts that impress us. Tourists need best deals at hotel and resorts after imagining about it a Good hospitality and customer service.

Personalized treatment:

People imagine Luxury hotels that will have a high staff to guest ratio, affording us much more personalized service. Expect desk reception, housekeeping, and other services will be top of the line. When people enter in the lobby, it needs to make us feel impressed. Things should be like real verified art and comfortable furniture. Tourist imagines a great reception desk and check in team. People want Check in should be personalized, quick, genuinely friendly, and thorough, in short people want Focused, Friendly, Fast check In and Out.

If either there is an issue, during check in or once travellors guides has seen the room, the front desk should be willing and eager to solve the problem, no questions asked. Checkout should be as convenient and easy as possible. There should be an express option, and the clerk should be happy to go over our bill with us, discreetly. People want privacy in everything people should address by name appropriately and discreetly.

Service and Amenities:

Hotels should have local connections, and tourist should assured that people are experiencing the best of what the area has to offer. Our first contact with the hotel is the valet, door attendant, and bellman. These staffers must communicate vacationers come, in words, smiles, and body language. They should be happy to serve us, and not angling for a tip or, as in some boutique hotels, silently commenting on us, our clothes, our luggage, our car. As far as bellhops, luggage should deliver to our room within 10 minutes.

People should give full command and not dictated to more from this. Hotel staff should never presume they know our taste. They should ask questions, give options, and let us to decide. Tourist assort the best choices of room amenities and in-room features. These accents should be useful, tasteful, distinctive, and local. People cannot visualize second-rate or corner cutting.

Awesome Room Conditions:

When people are staying in a luxurious hotel, visitors expects our room to be in mint condition. Service should provide on demand. The moment people enter into the room in our new hotel and should wow by what people have seen is the moment tourist should realize that vacationer have chosen the right room and best hotel.

People imagine about the hotels that they must furnish all the luxury travel essentials. These include necessities like ample drawer and closet space; a safe with an interior laptop charger; puffy hangers; free bottled water; robes and slippers that go beyond basic white terry; an iPod dock.

Bath amenities are a particular obsession for us. People do not need to be vast in variety, but carefully chosen, with daily essentials like Q-tips and toothpaste and razor besides the bath stuff. The best toiletries should be a locally made product line; also good is a true luxury brand.

Superb Room services:

Luxury hotels should provide excellent 24-hour room service options. This should give us the perfect opportunity to have a romantic dinner for two or a luxurious breakfast in bed.

Vacationer want on demand service like hotel offer a breakfast so even if vacationer wake up at afternoon, they should offer us a cooked breakfast. People imagine that on our arrival, people get a free drink of choice from their bar.

Vacationer visualized Room service should exquisite, personalized, and perfunctory. Room services menu that accurately describes every dish, no guesswork, and no surprises. Phone personnel trained to take our order accurately and answer any questions. Delivery when promised; and no more than 30 minutes tops for impulse order. The server knocks and asks where to set up, and asks when to return to clear. Housekeeping personnel should rearrange things slightly, but should never move our possessions.

Vacationer wants to look for refined goods and services that show true taste and respect. Little touches that go beyond the usual and that are local. People want Beautiful flowers not just in the room, but also on our room-service tray. A fruit bowl with ripe, edible fruit. The weather report, brought with a handsomely printed poem or goodnight fable. People also look for a variety of dining options; a business center with meeting rooms and gratis printouts; a with-it concierge who knows more than vacationer do; and an honestly pet-friendly policy.