I wrote an article about Google AdWords optimization yesterday and you are welcome to read it for more info. In the interest of giving you the information you are looking for as quickly as possible, I will just include the bulleted list of optimization tips in this post.

AdWords Optimization Tips

• Put your targeted keywords in the title. These will be bolded in your ad when a search is done on your particular key word.
• Capitalize the first letter of every word. Your Headline Should Look Like This!
• Capitalize the first letter of your website. For example www.ChildInsure.com. It helps your URL stand out.
• If you need more space for your URL, then drop the “www.”. For example, KansasCitySEO.com.
• State the benefits of your offer. Why would I want to click on your ad?
• Use words that will move people to action. For example, easy, fast, free, cheap, quick, etc.
• Do not waste space with the name of your website. Your website does not sell. It is your website’s benefits that sell.

I have been very focused on search engine optimization techniques across five of my sites over the course of this new year. So far everything is going well. I have seen great increases in traffic, great new exposure in the search engines, and a real boost in the Google PageRanks for all of my sites. This has gotten me very excited and as a result I have set up a bold plan for moving each of my major sites forward.

As I mentioned yesterday, it is essential that you review your web logs to understand your website’s traffic. In reviewing the logs of my own sites I have been able to better determine how and why people are coming to my sites and this has helped me frame my bold plans for moving forward.

I have created a new Excel worksheet to help track my progress. I am logging the previous week’s major traffic stats (visits, page views, etc.) and including those on the weekly plan to help motivate me. I am also noting weekly percentage increases in the major traffic stats. I have a line next to each task that I can use to mark off the task when it is complete. We will see how it goes. If it goes according to plan, the hard work may be worth the effort.

Task: Monday’s SEO blog entry. Check!

One piece of advice that I have for any website owner is to review your web logs.  I have recently switched hosts and now have access to some good reporting tools.  One is AWStats.  The other is Webalizer.  These two tools present my website traffic to me in a way that allows me to learn from my website traffic and make adjustments.  This web log analysis will help you understand where visitors are coming from, which web pages they are looking at, where they are leaving from, which keywords brought them in from the search engines, etc. 

This information can prove invaluable when trying to optimize your website.  It helps you understand your traffic, where it is coming from, what people are looking for, where they are leaving from, etc.  Now you can take this new information and make adjustments to your site.  Highlight the pages that people love.  Fix the pages where people keep leaving.  Optimize your site for the keywords that drive the most traffic.  I realize this is not rocket science, but I think most website owners are missing out on the power of their web logs.

 Jason

Hello everyone and thanks for visiting my blog.  I plan on posting to my blog frequently and will be covering the many topics associated with search engine optimization.  I will also focus on my efforts and findings associated with SEO and my own sites.  When I experiment with something and get results, you will be able to find them here.  I am currently working on five major sites using several SEO tactics.  You are welcome to check them out.  They are ScoutTechnology.com, InfoBriefs.com, ChildInsure.com, Trackshipment.info, and KansasCitySEO.com. 

I look forward to your readership and your feedback.  Here’s to SEO and to the possibilities it provides all of us.

Jason Barrett