1. Notice the body language of the listeners as you introduce the story. Suggest that the smallest children sit with an older sibling or adult. Some small children like very scary stories, but it’s kinder to the adults who have to be with the child later on to tell gentler stories to young children.

2. Let the listeners know right away that this will be a funny-scary story, not a scary-scary story.

3. Choose a story with a joke ending. You can find a few of these in Alvin Schwartz’ Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark series, in Simon Bronner’s American Children’s Folklore, or ask a ten-year-old who has been to camp.

4. Err on the side of goofy characters, not scary, for young listeners. Build in a hand movement or repetitive phrase so the audience can join in.

5. Sometimes even a funny story can scare a small child. Reassure the individual child that it will all be fine in the end.

6. For a little shiver, pause just before the punchline. This builds suspense and creates an even bigger laugh at the funny ending.

7. Don’t be surprised if children say “That wasn’t scary!” at the end. This is most likely not a true critique, just an observation.

Once the little ones have gone off to bed, and you’re sure that those who are still around the fire can handle it, if you have time and inclination, tell the truly scary stories.

Now, let’s discuss basic SEO. This is the part where I am going to explain each and every part involved in SEO.

SEO Definition:

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or “organic” search results.

SEO Basics:

I am really excited about sharing these SEO Basics, this is what I do. This is what I know. When I use these basic methods to put your site in the lime light, It gives me a thrill when I plug your keywords into Google, hit enter, and BAM…Your site -all over the front page!!

Before you start SEO for any website we need to ensure that your website is “search friendly”. If your website is not search engine friendly then it’s just a waste of time by simply doing SEO for your site. Verifying “search engine friendliness” means making sure that each individual page is compliant with search engine standards and ready to be indexed correctly. These are the simple steps that need to be taken to make your website search engine friendly.

(1) Keyword Research:

The most important thing which you need to identify is the keywords which suit your niche. By targeting the wrong keywords, you not only put valuable advertising dollars at risk, you are also throwing away all the time and energy you put into getting your site to rank for those terms to begin with. If you want to stay competitive, you can’t afford to do that.

One of the most common misconceptions about conducting keyword research for a search engine optimization campaign, is the belief that you already know which terms a customer would use to find your site. You don’t. Not without first doing some research anyway. You may know what your site is about and how you, the site owner, would find it, but it’s difficult to predict how a paying customer would go about looking for it.

Another misconception: Generic, or “big dollar” terms are the most important for rankings, even if the term you’re going after has nothing to do with your site. Imagine a women’s clothing store trying to rank for the term “Google”. Sure, thousands of searchers probably type that word into their search bar daily, but they’re not doing it looking for you. They’re looking for Google. Being ranked number one for a term that no one would associate with your site is a waste of time and money (and it may get you in trouble!). Your site may see a lot of traffic, but customers won’t stick around.

Making a list and checking it twice:

The initial concepts of keyword research can be daunting, but I am here to help. The first step in this process is to create a list of potential keywords. Brainstorm all the words you think that a customer would type into their search box when trying to find you, your goods or services. This also includes thinking of phrases that are broad and targeted, buying and research oriented, and single and multi-word. What is your site hoping to do or promote? Come up with enough words to cover all the products or services your site offers. Avoid overly generic terms like ‘shoes’ or ‘clothes’. These words are incredibly difficult to rank for and won’t drive qualified traffic to your site. Focus on words that are relevant, but not overly used.

Keyword Research Tools:

We have access to many tools available in the market where we can find out keyword information and stats -with single click.

Overture Keyword Selector Tool: Overture’s Keyword Selector tools show you how many searches have been conducted over the last month for a particular phrase, then lists alternative search terms you may have forgotten about. Our only complaint with Overture is that they lump singular and plural word forms into one phrase. For example, “boots” and “boot” would appear under one category of “boot”. This can sometimes cause problems, but we can deal with that.

Google Ad Words Keyword Tool: Google’s keyword PPC tool doesn’t provide actual search numbers for keywords. Instead, it displays a colored bar, giving users only an approximation. Still, it can be useful.

Finalizing your list

Now that you have your initial list of words and have tested their activity, it’s time to narrow down the field and decide which terms will make it into your coveted, final keyword list.

We create a spreadsheet that will give you a comprehensive “visual aid” that will allow you to easily see each word’s conversion rate, search volume and competition rate (as given to you by the tools mentioned above). These three figures will allow you to calculate how viable that term is for your site and will be a great help as you work on narrowing your focus.

Targeted terms are often easier to rank for and help bring qualified traffic. They also make you a “subject matter expert” to the search engines, since the targeted terms strengthen the theme created with the broader phrases.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat:

Congratulations! Your initial keyword research process is behind you. You’ve created your list, checked it twice, made friends with the keyword research tools and are now off to go plan your attack implement it, and you’re done, right?

Wrong! As your customer’s and your site’s needs change over time, so will your keywords. It’s important to keep monitoring your keywords and make tweaks as necessary. Doing so will allow you to stay ahead of your competition as you continue moving forward. Now -onto the stuff that follows keyword strategy:

(2) Page Title:

The title of the page should be relatively short and it should describe the page content accurately. Wherever possible, try to include your keywords. For example:

<Title> Kevin’s Detox Home Remedy Recipe</title>

(3) Meta Tags:

What are Meta tags? They are information inserted into the “head” area of your web pages. Instead, Meta information in this area is used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what “character set” to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content.

(4) Heading Tags:

Use heading tags. Many search engines place more emphasis on text within heading tags, so make sure they use keywords. Use one <h1> tag per page with the most important keywords. Use other head tags (<h2>, <h3>, etc) to provide variations and support the main heading. But search engines prefer H1 tags most.

(5) Page Text:

Make sure the text of your web pages contain keywords and common phrases which people might search for. But be careful not to stuff keywords, the keyword density needs to be from 2-5%. The idea is to discretely spread keywords around without making it obvious.

These are the basic SEO steps where you can start your SEO by making it search engine friendly.

After completing these basic steps, we need to prepare an Initial Report where all the inbound links, page rank and other stats are compiled in a concise and organized way, for simple review and evaluation.

(6) Inbound Links (Back links):

Having links from other websites to yours is a critical part of search engine optimization. As well as the obvious bonus of having people follow these links to your site, inbound links provide the following benefits:

• Search engine robots follow links between websites. The more inbound links you have, the more often robots will visit your site.
• Many search engines count links to your site as “votes” for you. They assume that if lots of websites link to your site it must be high quality. Page Rank is Google’s system of counting links.

The general rule is that the more inbound links you can get the better. Getting more links should almost certainly be near the top of your priority list when optimizing your site.

Important: Before you start trying to acquire inbound links, read this page and take heed of the following tips and warnings!

Thinking about how to check backlinks to your site? Don’t worry,  I am here to help you:

It’s simple: You can use search engines to find out how many inbound links you have. For example, with Google, enter the word link: followed by url to see a list of all websites which contain a link to your site. Just enter it in the Google search bar link: www.xyz.com

Note: Google only returns a selection of inbound links — it doesn’t show all back links to your site. Other search engines have the same feature and may provide more comprehensive results. Each one works a bit differently — visit any search engine and look for “Advanced Search Options” for more information.

Acceptable Methods of Acquiring Inbound Links

These methods, used sensibly, are all good ways to acquire inbound links. This is a tedious and time consuming process, but as I have said; I am available to help:

• List your website in directories.
• Contact other websites with similar themes to yours and ask for a reciprocal link.
• Use your URL as part of your signature in discussion forums and newsgroups. Don’t overdo this — keep your signature brief and never spam forums. Make sure you are genuinely contributing to any discussions and not just posting for the sake of displaying your signature.

To have any real chance of being noticed by the search engines you need at least a handful of inbound links. Without any links at all you will be at a serious disadvantage. The more genuine inbound links you can acquire, the better your search results will be.

Here are some good SEO tips which can help you to build your business:

Be a “white-hat”:

Just keep your optimization efforts honest. This may take more effort, but it will definitely pay off in the long run. White-hat techniques are considered to be the most useful and long lasting techniques.

Use Analytics tools:

There are some tools that allow you to find out how many visitors your website is getting, where the referrals are coming from and which search keywords were used by them to find the site. By monitoring these statistics you can visually monitor improvement of your website traffic.

Experiment:

It’s a good idea to try different tactics and see what works best. This takes patience – you may have to wait months for your pages to be indexed and build up statistics. After watching your search referrals for a while, change your web pages and see what the effect is. Remember to keep good records of the exact changes and dates so you can compare these to your statistics.

Last but not the least; stay in touch with the latest news and developments in the search engine world. As technologies and companies change you need to change with them. Don’t worry, as part of our working relationship I will keep you in the loop.

I am going to end here…But no, I won’t stop writing more. Come back and see my future blog entries on SEO where I am going to share all my secrets –well, maybe not ALL, but enough to make you dangerous!