How To Rank On YouTube?

In today’s post, I am going to share with you How To Rank On YouTube with your videos. I will first start with why it is important to get ranked on the First Page of Youtube?

Then I will share with you some of the videos that I have already ranked on First Page of YouTube. Just a few of the many videos that I have ranked because if I showcased them all, this will be a very long post.

Tell you what, in case there are readers interested to see all the videos that I have ranked, I will add them to my Portfolio soon. That way, after you read this post, and if you want to see more of my case studies, you can refer to them there.

The last part of this article will be about How To Get Your Video Ranked on The First Page of YouTube? If you read some of my earlier posts, you will be in for a pleasant surprise to see how it all ties in.

Will not give more details at this point as I do not want to ruin the surprise. Let’s start, shall we?

Why Is It Important to Get Ranked On First Page of YouTube?

Video is the future. I have said this often. It is the future of marketing. It was the big success story of 2016, and so far in 2017 it is still the star. And it will be for a long while.

Here we present what research has found out so far about video marketing:

By 2019, video will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic (SmallBizTrends)
64% to 85% of consumers are likely to buy a product after watching a video about that product (Hubspot)
76% of businesses say that video provides good return on investment (wyzowl)
92 percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others (Source: RendrFx)
More than 60% SMB owners and marketers plan to increase investment in video (animoto)

And why YouTube? Why is it important to get ranked on First Page of YouTube?

YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of total internet users. (YouTube)
More than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day (WordStream)
45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week. (WordStream)
YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year (Hubspot)

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots more data and statistics that prove video is now the media that people prefer to consume from the Internet.

And if that is the case, when you promote your business, your products and services using videos on YouTube, you gain higher online visibility. Also, the opportunity to convert viewers into customers.

Videos That I have Ranked On First Page of YouTube

I have ranked many videos on the First Page of YouTube. As I mentioned earlier, it will be too many to add to this article. And will result in a really long post, which I have heard from some people that they prefer shorter posts.

So here are some of the videos that I have Ranked on First Page of YouTube:

Keyword Phrase: Baby Bath Tub

Rank on YouTube: Number 3

This is an amazing achievement. For a generic keyword phrase like Baby Bath Tub, the video is ranked Number Three out of 4,050,000 videos!

You can imagine how competitive this generic keyword phrase is. Those selling Baby Bath Tubs should talk to me about doing Video SEO for them! (And not just them. Anyone selling anything online should talk to me about this.)

Additional note: This video is also ranking on First Page for many other keyword phrases like Outdoor Pond, Recycle Baby Bath Tub, and more.

How To Rank On YouTube - Baby Bath Tub - small — Click On Image above for Larger Image

Keyword Phrase: Things To Do In Changi Airport

Rank on YouTube: Number 6

This video used to rank higher. Over time, new videos took its place, and it is now steady at Number 6. It is also ranking on first page for other keyword phrases; such as Things To Do In Singapore Changi Airport.

It is fantastic when a video ranks for many different keyword phrases. This means people are finding the video with a healthy variety of keywords, and it is getting traffic from all the various keyword phrases.

How To Rank On YouTube - Things To Do In Changi Airport - small — Click On Image above for Larger Image

Keyword Phrase: Malay Wedding

Rank on YouTube: Number 1 !!!

Another video ranking well with a very competitive keyword phrase. It took some time, and now it is Number One !!!

Like the videos above, it is also ranking for other keyword phrases such as Malay Wedding Drummers and Malay Wedding in Singapore.

Do you have an event? Or are you an event planner? You need to get your videos on First Page of YouTube too!

How To Rank On YouTube - Malay Wedding - small — Click On Image above for Larger Image

Keyword: Petronas Twin Towers Kuala Lumpur

Rank on YouTube: Number 4

Travel sites can benefit from having their videos on First Page of YouTube. The amount of organic traffic is great for business. This is one of the many videos we do for travel website – Asia Travel Gems.

And many of them are on First Page of YouTube. We even have their playlists on the First Page!

How To Rank On YouTube - Petronas Twin Towers - small — Click On Image above for Larger Image

Keyword: The Face Suites Kuala Lumpur

Rank on YouTube: Number 2

Here’s another one for Asia Travel Gems. Number Two on YouTube. Sweet!

This time it is for a hotel. Any hotel will benefit from being on the First Page of YouTube. It is an opportunity to showcase the rooms, the facilities, cafes, restaurants, and all that a hotel has to offer.

How To Rank On YouTube - The Face Suites Kuala Lumpur - small — Click On Image above for Larger Image

Again, I have lots more videos ranked on First Page of YouTube. Will update my Portfolio soon. Watch for it!

How To Get Your Video Ranked On First Page of YouTube?

The first and most important element is Keywords!

Keywords are words that people use on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and even YouTube to search for what they want or need. And it is critical to know what keywords people are using to search for products and services like yours.

With the right keywords, you can apply Video SEO tactics to get your video ranked on First Page of YouTube. But first, you must know how to find the right keywords. Read my article – How To Find Keywords For A Website The Right Way – for more info.

To Find Right Keywords, Use This Free Keywords Tool

After you have read that article, proceed to this other article – Get Ranked On First Page With 7 Video SEO Tips. It will provide you some tips and tactics to get your video ranked on the First Page of YouTube, just like what I achieved for my videos. The tips include keywords (of course), titles, tags, social media, video marketing, and more.

If you have ANY questions about this post, ANY at all, please submit your questions as comments below. I will be happy to help you out.

Thank you for reading this.

Best wishes to All!

Timotheus

October 19, 2017October 26, 2017

How To Find Keywords For A Website The Right Way

Over the years, as I consult for businesses or when I deliver presentations at conferences, forums and seminars, I met many business owners, marketers, digital marketing specialists, and even experts from agencies who are doing their keyword research completely wrong. Some do not even know what is keyword research, the importance of it and How To Find Keywords For A Website The Right Way.

At the same time, I cannot really fault them for that. They had been led astray by a lot of the noise out there, all that bits of misinformation. Most of which hardly share the essentials of keyword research. In this post, I will share those with you.

As a website owner, I am sure you want search engine success. You want your website to Get Ranked on First Page of Google, and other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo. If this is true for you, then it is imperative that you must understand the importance of keywords, how to do keyword research, how to find the right and high quality keywords for your website.

But first things first. Let us discuss the basics such as What Are Keywords? How to Do Keyword Research? And finally, I will share with you the THREE Key Pillars of Effective Keyword Research.

* Tip: Don’t Miss Free Keyword Tool at end of article

What Are Keywords?

So, what are keywords?

It starts with a person goes looking for a product or service such as the one your business provides. This person does not know your brand, your product, your service or anything about your business.

Then goes to Google and other search engines to find websites providing information of the product or service as well as selling them. The same person types in words to do a search; for example, How To Find Keywords For A Website The Right Way.

Search engines like Google returns pages of search results with listings. Each listing is a link to a website or web page. The words that the person enters for search are Keywords.

Why Are Keywords Important?

Google and other search engines are in the business of providing quality and relevant search results for their users. Imagine if Google or other search engines show a listing of cake stores when the user is searching for affordable and good hotels?

Very soon, users will abandon using that search engine because the results have no relevance, and no quality. So, can you see how important it is for search engines to show good search results?

On the website owner side, that is you, it is important for you to find the right keywords that reflect accurately what product or service you are providing. With high quality keywords and relevance, your website can reach 1st Page of search results such as those of Google.

Another very important point is that there has been a report by Chitika that 91.5% of users choose a business that is on the first page of search results. This means that websites on first page get more traffic that they can convert into customers, buying customers!

How to do Keyword Research?

In a very short time, I will show you how to do effective keyword research using a very powerful tool. It is the same keywords tool that I use to get my website and all my clients’ websites to first page of Google and other search engines.

It is also the same keywords tool that I use for content marketing, where content created are ranked high on search results too. And the same keywords tool can be used for your online advertising campaigns.

I will keep the process very simple. It does not need to be complicated. All you have to do is take action on what I teach you.

Deal? Are you ready?

Here we go.

The 3 Main Pillars of Effective Keyword Research

When doing keyword research, there are THREE things that I always check and make sure of. I will show you what are these THREE things that I call the 3 Main Pillars of Effective Keyword Research.

1. LOW COMPETITION

When I start with keyword research, whether for a website, blog post, online video or online advertising campaign, I focus on this metric. When a keyword is shown to have too much competition, also referred to as high competition, I will not consider using it.

The reason is that with high competition, it is harder to rank a website for those keywords. It will take longer, and most times will not even reach 1st Page. Without the online visibility of being on 1st Page, there will be no traffic. With no traffic, there will be no one visiting your website, no one to convert as a customer.

* Important! – No ranking = No Point!

The metric to look for, that reveals to you about the amount of competition, is a metric called QSR. It means Quote Search Results. This is a valuable metric, and as far as I am aware of, there is only one keywords tool that offers this piece of data efficiently.

And that is Jaaxy.

This is the same keywords tool I used to Get My Website On 1st Page of Google as well my clients’ websites too. QSR tells you the EXACT number of web pages in Google that are competing for high search ranking with those keywords. This number is your REAL Competition!

* Tip: Make sure the QSR is less than 300
(this means 300 competing pages in Google).

The lower the number of QSR, the closer to ZERO, the better. But not too close to ZERO and make sure there is traffic, which comes to my next point.

This is the First Keyword Pillar – Under 300 QSR!

2. Must Have Traffic!

In all the presentations I deliver at conferences, business forums and seminars, I always highlight that having traffic for the selected keywords is Very Important!

There is no point in choosing the keywords that have ZERO traffic. Sure you can rank high faster. Maybe even reach Page 1 of search results. But what is the point of being on 1st Page if there is no one using those keywords to search?

ZERO traffic for keywords = ZERO traffic to your website

So how much traffic is ideal?

Most people will say as high as possible. But take note, keywords with high amount of traffic usually have high competition. This means that it will be harder to rank high or on 1st Page of search results.

Again, lack of online visibility = less or no traffic = no point!

One rule of thumb I follow and use is that as long as the search term has over 50 searches per month, it is a candidate for use as keywords. Again, balance this with competition. If competition is still high for 50 or slightly over 50 searches, try to find other keywords that has better results.

Some of you will say that 50 searches is so low. That is true. But you are not going to just use one keyword phrase. For every page of content you create for your website, you can use keywords.

Each page with keywords get ranked high, and you add up the traffic of all to get substantial traffic. Also, with lower competition, these moderate traffic keywords usually are more relevant and can convert better.

Second Keyword Pillar – Over 50 searches per month

3. Must Make Sense

There are keywords that can have high traffic and low or moderate competition. These are tempting to use. But watch for those that syntactically do not make sense.

For example, the title of this article is How To Find Keywords For A Website The Right Way. The title makes sense because the target keywords fit naturally within the title. It also works and is natural when writing it into the main body of the article.

See this – How To Find Keywords For A Website The Right Way vs How Find Keywords Website Right Way

You can see the latter will be hard to to use in the main body text. Also, as a title it really does not make sense.

Just as important, Google and other search engines now notice keywords and content that are natural. What this means is they give preference to text written in a natural way. Not words awkwardly forced into content just for ranking.

The reason is the content is for people. It should make sense to people.

* Tip: Write content for people, not search engines
Third Keyword Pillar – Must Make Sense To A Human Being!

So, are you ready to try some keyword research?

Consider the topic or theme of your website. Think of keywords people will use to find products or services like what you are offering.

Type it in to the FREE Keywords Tool below.

Remember to follow the THREE Pillars of Keyword Research!

When you do, you will be super successful going forward. I can assure you of that!

If you have any questions about keyword research or how to find quality keywords to use on your website, just ask. I have 25 years of digital marketing experience, and I will be more than happy to help you out.

Best wishes,

Timotheus

September 20, 2017October 26, 2017

Get Ranked On First Page With 7 Video SEO Tips

What is Video SEO? What is its importance in making your Video Marketing strategy a success?

Here, we present 7 Video SEO Tips that will get you ranked on first page of YouTube, and even Google and other search engines.

There are several ways of making a successful digital marketing strategy. Yearly, digital marketing trends differ on many aspects, but there are strategies that stand firm and are used effectively by many businesses, big and small.

One of these persisting and effective type of digital marketing strategy is Video Marketing. But Video Marketing alone is not enough. Video SEO needs to be done in order for it to be successful.

The effectiveness of Video SEO have slowly paved its way to be one of the most used digital marketing strategy for any business. Video SEO created opportunities for small and large companies to penetrate markets and create engaging videos that result to higher sales rate.

As easy as some companies are able to grasp the advantages of Video SEO, other companies still seem to lag on this amazing digital marketing strategy. To make things easier to understand, you must first know the difference between Video Marketing and Video SEO.

Yes, these are two different things but are still part of digital marketing. By definition, Video Marketing is the use of videos or video contents to endorse a company, product, service, brand, promotions, etc.

Video SEO on the other hand, is improving the online visibility of the video content of a company on search engine result pages by improving the video’s ranking.

Video Marketing, in other words, is the “whole” strategy, and Video SEO is part of it. Although Video SEO is part of video marketing, it plays a big part on making the strategy effective and rank better on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

This is why Video SEO is not to be ignored or given little effort. Without the right amount of effort on Video SEO, the video marketing strategy of a company may find it hard to keep up with the competition.

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Why Online Video is the Future of Content Marketing?

Many businesses have taken advantage of online videos in order to reach their target audience and customers. There are many success stories of videos that have gone viral.

For example, the campaign by Volkswagen that had its trio of videos collectively viewed 155 million times. Watch one of the three videos below. This case study demonstrated the video’s inherent power of shareability.

Videos can capture the viewers’ attention because of easy consumption. The striking images, soundtrack, dialogue or voiceover and storyline appeal to the senses and engage the emotions of the audience. This can lead to them sharing the video with their friends and family.

In addition, this drives traffic to your website, they will spend more time on the website and interacting with your brand. Online videos can affirm credibility, expertise and branding that leads to higher sales conversions.

Online Videos Brings You Closer To Your Customers

Words can be good way of communicating to customers, but a picture can tell a thousand words, and a video is even better.

Articles can be great in introducing facts, but there are instances where it can be misunderstood or may seem a little more complicated for customers. Explaining things and facts to customers may seem boring when presented in paragraph form.

Videos on the other hand can explain the information you want to convey easily without taking too much of their time. It also creates a better “human” feel to the video since customers will view it as another person talking to them and not just another advertisement.

More Engaging and Educational

If you can make a customer to stop whatever he/she is doing to watch your video until the end, then you have made the content engaging. The attention span of a normal person can be very short, and not catching a customer’s attention immediately will make your brand less interesting.

Audiences seek videos that answer their questions directly and covers most, if not all, the important issues that they may have for a business, product or service. When gathering information and creating content, be sure to create videos that are engaging and educational at the same time.

Online Videos Brings Your Branding To Another Level

Introducing a product or service and making sure it stays on a person’s mind can be tricky. Without a particular thing that can interest them, customers will eventually forget your brand.

Videos can close the gap on this especially when the video clearly shows the advantage they can get from your brand compared to others. Online videos allows your brand to be recognized with the help of the information you include in the video.

Brings Higher Click Through Rates

Videos encourages most customers to check a website and eventually click on other items, contents and videos that your website offers. And making your videos shareable will enable your customers to share and let others check your site. Higher click through means higher ranking, and higher ranking means you have better video contents compared to other sites.

As your video goes viral and is spread by more people, you are able to build links without much effort. Your customers build links for you by sharing your video/s through social media, personal blogs and other sites. Anything that they feel comfortable with and they see interesting or educational will be shared, and videos are not an exemption.

Online Videos Can Encourage Sales

Videos can be very encouraging even to the point of making customers buy the products or services you bring to their table. TV commercials act almost the same as the videos you include for your digital marketing. Only this time, you can have better control the target market you want to watch your videos and you can have a competitive edge over other businesses online.

What is Video SEO?

As you can see, Video Marketing is a very important and powerful part of a digital marketing strategy. But without an exceptional Video SEO strategy, the Video Marketing has lower chances of being a success. In order to use Video SEO effectively, it is a must to know what it is first.

To put it simply, Video SEO is the use of videos containing information or description that are often searched by users of search engines. Google, the most used search engine, started to recognize Video Marketing as a SEO tool in May 2007 together with the release of their Universal Search.

Videos are ranked mostly by their descriptions and SEO keywords. The more relevant the keywords are for the video description or title, the greater the chances that the videos of a business are ranked higher.

What Are The 7 Video SEO Tips to Get Ranked On First Page?

Video SEO has been proven to play a big part on successful digital marketing strategies. And most businesses who do it right rank well on search engine result pages, allowing them to have a better chance of being successful in terms of digital marketing.

Still, there are businesses who use Video SEO as part of their Video Marketing strategies yet fail to see its effect on their progress.

But how can you utilize it successfully?

To make it easier for your company to accomplish your goals for an effective Video SEO, you should be aware of some tricks that big and small companies do. Here are seven tips you can use for your Video SEO and have your videos ranking in no time.

1. Gain Attention Through Engaging And Spot On Titles

Titles are very important and have been part of SEO ranking for SERPs, and this includes Video SEO. As search bots are still unable to scan and rank the contents of the videos, Video SEO allows a video to rank on the topics that it is most related to.

Having titles that will be on organic searches will definitely grab a consumer’s attention and will also increase the chance of being ranked higher.

Being ranked with your choice of keywords in the title is one thing, but making it interesting for consumers is another. Although SERPs most likely will show videos with keywords most searched for by consumers, the value of the video will be judged and are mostly made viral by the consumers.

Your video will lose credibility if you use false or misleading titles. This will make your consumers start to lose interest on your site no matter how interesting your other videos are.

2. Check On The Tags You Will Use For Your Videos

Tags play a big role in keeping any of your contents on high ranks or SERPs. Tags determine the relevance of your keywords and make your video more visible on SERPs.

To refresh your tags 101, there are four common types of tags: Specific, Compound, Generic and Misspellings. Each tags can be used but should not be abused in your Video SEO.

Use words that are either common or are currently being used often. Uncommon and extravagant words can be great on your ears, but not for your consumers. Common words still hit higher results than over the top words.

3. Include Relevant and Most Searched Keywords

Keywords play a big part in SEO and this is true even in Video SEO. The richer and more relevant the keywords used in both the title and the description, the better chance for your video to be on top ranks of SERPs.

As mentioned above, search bots are still incapable of skimming through videos’ contents. Thus, search engines rely mostly on the keywords used in the titles and the descriptions.

Make sure you use the hit keywords as your Video SEO strategy in order to be ranked on the SERPs higher. It won’t hurt to do some research on search engines on most popular videos that comes up in the results from the keywords that you want to use.

This will help you assess the ranking that you might get should you use a keyword or two and which keywords would likely give your video a hit.

Need to Find the Right Keywords?
Take a Look at this Free Keywords Tool

4. Live Up To Your Title

In the race to being on higher ranks for videos, having a full description that lives up to the title and the content of the video is a must. Most video contents include having a full and well-constructed content’s description as an effective Video SEO strategy.

This means having descriptions with tags and keywords that will encourage a viewer or consumer to watch the video. Take note, however that there is a limit to your Video SEO strategy that focuses on the keywords.

Yes, Video SEO may rely a good percentage on keywords, but it does not mean you need to drown your description with all the keywords that you think are great. Overuse of keywords and tags or also called “keyword stuffing” will be noticed by search engines and will eventually get banned or ranked low on SERPs. Creating descriptions with a good density of keywords must not be overlooked to make your Video SEO a success.

5. Take It To The Media; In This Case, The Social Media

Social media is a phenomenon that can be used for your Video SEO. Not convinced? According to a study made by pewinternet.org, in 2014 the 52% of adults who go online uses two or more social media sites. This alone will tell you the significant turn of events should you allow your videos to be shared by millions using social media.

When you include social media in your Video SEO strategy, it means you will allow consumers and viewers to share your videos. Sharing your videos mean more click through.

The higher the click through that you generate, the higher the percentage of sale. Using social media for our Video SEO strategy hits two birds in one stone: brand recognition and trust, and a generating higher sales.

6. Encourage Visitor to Subscribe to your Video Channels

Video channels like YouTube places a lot of emphasis on user experience. Two of the most important user experience signals are subscriptions and likes.

When a visitor subscribes and/or likes your video and video channel, a strong signal is sent to the video platform that your video or video channel is popular.

Increase subscriptions and likes by asking and encouraging visitors to do exactly that. You can do that at the start of the video or at the end (preferably) of your video using the call to action messages; for example the call-to-action overlays on YouTube.

7. Mention Your Video on Other Sites

Point 5 suggested having social media links for your viewers to share your video. Conversely, you should also mention your video on other sites including social media sites. This will drive traffic to your video.

But be careful not to place your video link all over the place. This is a sure-fire way to get banned. Remember that search engines also value quality and relevant links. So mention your video at sites that are related to the information provided in your video.

Conclusion

Video SEO is an amazing tool in achieving great ranking for your business in search engine results and also allows you to see better results for your ROIs. It is a part of Video Marketing that should not be ignored or give the least attention.

These approaches may come as a challenge at first, but will definitely put your Video SEO strategies on high standards. Not only will this put your videos on high ranks, but also generate sales and better brand recognition among your competitors.

With your engaging videos added with outstanding Video SEO strategies, your Video Marketing will surpass all your other digital marketing strategies in terms of efficiency and delivering great results for your company.

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If you have ANY questions about this post, ANY at all, please submit your questions as comments below. I will be happy to help you out.

Thank you for reading this.

Best wishes to All!

Timotheus

July 18, 2017October 18, 2017

Get Your Website Ranked First Page On Google – Just Like Mine

My website, this website – timotheuslee.com – has reached Page One on Google and other search engines. Wouldn’t you like to Get Your Website Ranked First Page on Google and other search engines too?

This is not the first website that I ranked on 1st Page of search engines. In the past I ranked for other clients’ sites and my digital marketing agency – OOJO – which is still ranking on 1st page for many keywords. For example, I managed to get OOJO on First Page of Google, and till today, they are still on that much sought after position. Speaking of positions, in fact, OOJO now ranks for multiple keywords and many are not only on the first page, they are also ranking at number one.

So what happens after your website achieves 1st Page? How will it benefit your business? What will this coveted space mean for your brand? This will all be discussed further down the article.

But before that, let me show you some of the screen shots of the winning ranking position my website has gained.

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Rank on First Page on Google

Here is a screen shot of getting Ranked on First Page on Google. The screen shot was taken on 18 July 2017.

Get Your Website Ranked First Page on Google - thumbnail — Click on image for larger view

I will be honest with you. It took eight months for my website to reach first page on Google. On Yahoo and Bing, it was a little faster. It took only three months.

It would have been faster on Google, but I was busy with training, delivering talks at seminars and conferences as well as doing digital marketing projects for clients. Despite a very heavy work schedule, I did manage to spend as much free time as I can doing SEO for my website. So, achieving first page in eight months is quite good, don’t you agree?

A lot of effort was put into getting this website to the 1st page. There was, of course, On Page SEO, which includes title tags, headers and more.

And of course, let us not forget Off Page SEO that included Social Media Marketing to create Social Signals, back links from directory listings and other sites, and many other Off Page tactics.

Not to forget the important strategy to keep creating content. Google and other search engines love fresh content. And this post is just another fresh content for them to relish.

In case you prefer not to click on the above image to see a larger version of the screen shot, here is a close up of the top of it. I grabbed this portion of the screen shot to show that the search engine is Google, and also to show the keyword phrase I have competed and ranked for.

Below is another grab of the lower part of the screen shot to highlight that my website is really listed on the first page.

Totally Worth The Journey

I started doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on this website in November 2016. As with any website that I am working on, I started with Keyword Research. And chose the best keyword phrase that has good amount of traffic and medium competition. This is the same that I will do for all my clients.

After selection of the keyword phrase, next was On Page SEO. Careful placement of the keywords at the right places, in the right amounts was required. We do not want to be doing Keyword Stuffing, right?

* Tip: Do not do Keyword Stuffing; i.e. excessively placing your keywords all over any page on your website or the entire website. Google will penalize!

Next was Off Page SEO that took a longer time. As mentioned above, one of the tactics was to get back links. One way was to find relevant directories and get listed on them.

* Tip: Directories must be RELEVANT. For example, my website is about Digital Marketing. I get this website listed on either marketing or digital marketing sub categories of directories.

Back links, in itself, is quite extensive. It is not just about getting listed on directories. There are many ways to get back links. For example, guest blogging on other sites and getting a back link from that, participating in forums and crediting your participation with a back link, and many more.

* Tip: Always remember that wherever you place your back link, it must be Relevant to your website’s main topic.

Then there is Social Media where you can generate Social Signals that will indicate to the search bots that your website or brand is relevant and popular. Plus many more other Off Page SEO strategies.

There are a lot more Off Page strategies, and it would take a whole article or many articles to write about them all. I have written some on my blog. And will write and share more. So do remember to subscribe to my newsletter to get updates.

Rewards of Ranking on First Page

Throughout this website, especially on topics about SEO and Online Visibility, I would reiterate the many Rewards of Ranking on First Page. For one, there will definitely be an increase in traffic. A live example here is my website reaching the first page, and the traffic has grown significantly, and is still growing.

When there is higher traffic to your website, it means more people are finding your website and visiting it. This is an opportunity to get them to leave behind a contact, usually an email address.

As you collect more email addresses, you are growing your list of subscribers. This list is very valuable. Take time to nurture your followers. And eventually, you can convert them to customers. This means increase in sales.

Isn’t that great? This is what your business needs to get more revenue.

Rank First Page on Bing

According to a report on April 2017 by Smart Insights, Google now has 77.43% of the search engine market share.

That’s huge, right?

But let us not forget the other search engines that are taking the rest of the 22.57% search engine market share. The percentage might not seem like a lot. But do not forget that the market share is in the billions.

That same insights reported that there were 6,586,013,574 searches a day worldwide! For that month, Bing had 873,964,000 searches per day. And Yahoo had 536,101,505 searches per day.

To me, seems silly to ignore that huge number of searches. After all, a visitor is a visitor, a lead is a lead. And each can be converted to be a customer.

As such, I don’t ignore the other search engines. And here is a screen shot of my website getting ranked on first page of Bing.

Rank First Page Bing — Click on image for larger view of result page

First Page on Yahoo

As mentioned above, Yahoo too has a substantial amount of searches. So do get your website ranked on first page there too. Here is a screen shot of my website ranked on first page of Yahoo.

First Page Yahoo — Click on image for larger view of result page

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We have come to the end of this sort of ‘press release’. To all my friends, fans and followers who congratulated me when timotheuslee.com reached first page of Google – My heartfelt thanks!

If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help you out. Or if you simply wish to connect and leave a comment, it will be most welcome. I would love to hear from you.

Do remember to subscribe to my newsletter.

Best wishes,

Timotheus

December 5, 2016October 18, 2017

7 REASONS WHY BUSINESSES SHOULD INVEST IN SEO

SEO & Digital Marketing Consultant Singapore's 7 Reasons Why Your Business Should Invest in SEO

7 REASONS WHY BUSINESSES SHOULD INVEST IN SEO

Once, at a meeting with a business partner, one of the executives raised a question – Is SEO dying? His question was born from few articles he read that claim SEO is on its deathbed. My answer to him was that this is not true, and chances are SEO will be around for a long time.

The reason? People are constantly scouring the World Wide Web for information and things that are relevant and pertinent to them. And it is in the interest of search engines to provide these search results to them.

I had a look at those articles the executive read, and had a good laugh. They were written as articles of sensationalism. The authors were trying to get viewers and used this tactic to capture an audience. And the funniest part? They were using SEO to do that!

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In the past years while working in agencies, I have met many business owners who have heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but seem to have vague ideas on why SEO should be part of their digital marketing strategies. Some even have a wrong or limited idea of what it is all about.

Search Engine Optimization is more than just being on top of search engine results. Many businesses fail to realize this, and hence, do not invest in it.

But before we go to the benefits most companies with great SEO strategy enjoy, you should be aware of what SEO is. This can be an entire topic and article. As such, I will just give a broad concept of what is SEO? SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of analyzing how search engines work, what people search for, the most common keywords used and how each search affects the visibility of a website. SEO allows a business to have strategies on how to carefully influence the ranking of their websites in search engines results pages.

The goal is to rank on the first page of search engine results pages like Google. This is because findings by Chitika have shown that 91.5% of people searching online chose sites that are listed on Page 1.

91.5% Choose Businesses on 1st Page on Google. img src: Chitika

This means a higher chance of searchers clicking on your website (if it is on Page 1), and higher chances of acquiring sales leads that you can convert to customers. But as I mentioned, this is not all. There are more reasons to why businesses should invest in SEO, and here I present 7 of them.

Builds Your Brand Reputation

SEO gets your website on the First Page of Google and other search engines. This means your website gets high online visibility. As mentioned above, chances of people clicking on your website then becomes higher. And this drives more traffic to your website.

As more traffic goes to your website, trust in your brand builds. Brand Trust can be a very powerful thing. In the World Wide Web there are millions of businesses competing, creating stiff competition for many businesses. As more searchers visit your website, it shows that people trust your brand. A definite major plus for your brand.

Building your reputation will result in satisfied clients, who can act as your brand ambassadors. They will share about your brand and products or services to their network who are your potential customers. The word-of-mouth is a powerful tool for most sites.

For example, someone once told me he heard about Lazada, an online marketplace, from a friend. He did not visit the site or make any purchase immediately. But when the time came for him to buy something he needed, he visited the site, and bought some furniture. Imagine that! Furniture!

Not something you would buy online usually. All this happened because he trusted his friend who mentioned a site that the friend trusted.

Adding to the above, in this day and age where anyone can write glowing reviews or criticisms on any online platforms, make sure you have an effective Reputation Monitoring Strategy that can help you improve your approach for SEO. Building your reputation in the industry does not just mean being recognized by clients and other companies. It also means you are respected and you have set a standard in your SEO efforts which other companies need to exceed.

Low Cost Part of Digital Marketing

Working your way up to the rankings of search engines through organic search will ensure more traffic that can bring new and repeat sales for your business without costing too much. At least not as much as other digital marketing strategies.

Already, many digital marketing experts predicted that in 2016 as the competition in the digital world increased, so would the Cost of Online Advertising. And this has happened already. If your business already has a limited budget for digital marketing, particularly Online Paid Advertising, be ready to either struggle or buck up and increase the budget. Especially if you desire better ROI (Return on Investment). Alternatively, consider the lower-costing SEO.

Successful SEO strategy includes On Page SEO and Off Page SEO. While the latter can cost a bit more, of course depending on the amount of Off Page SEO you require, the former can be done at a much lower cost.

You need not have high end SEO applications; there are SEO applications that are free or has trial versions that you can choose from. These applications are relatively cheaper than other applications or subscriptions that you may have for your other digital marketing strategies.

Drives Better and More Traffic

Search engine results pages show significant and relevant content to keywords that consumers search for. The more relevant the keywords, the more chances that your content and site will be featured and ranked in the first pages of search engines. This will make the possibility of consumers checking out your site higher and drive more and better traffic in your site.

But wait! What do I mean by Better Traffic?

It is better traffic because the people who click and visit your website would be those who are already searching for the product or service you are offering. Not some random stumble upon your website. This means that the person already has an interest in what you are selling.

For example, if you are a hairdresser in Seoul, Korea. And you chose the keywords – Award Winning Hair Salon in Seoul Korea – and you managed to rank it on First Page of Google and other search engines.

So when someone is searching for an award winning hairdresser, they may type the exact keywords. They find your website on the First Page, they click on it, and if they like what they see, they may make an appointment. Voila! You get sales from a very targeted audience! Better Traffic!

For a website to survive the competition, generating the right type and amount of traffic is a must. Not only will it increase the ranking of the website, it will also ensure a high possibility of sales, new and repeat sales, and return on investment will be much faster. The number of click throughs will reflect on your ranking and you will be able to determine the type of traffic your site gets using analytics.

Makes Your Business More Visible

As I mentioned earlier, being on the First Page of Google and other search engines is equal to having Online Visibility.

Imagine opening a store and not advertising or marketing about it. Worse, what if the store is at an area with low human traffic? You would open your new store, and find that no one steps into your shop. It is the same in the World Wide Web.

Online Visibility is having your website seen by millions in a web space that is filled with millions of websites. Being visible allows potential clients to notice your website, check on it and have easy access to your products or services when needed.

It will give you a head start against your competitors when it comes to reaching your customers and potential customers because they can Recall Your Brand instead of others. This Online Visibility also increases Brand Awareness and Brand Recognition.

There can be opportunities to merge, affiliate or even acquire investment from larger companies when your SEO strategies make your company visible. You never know who may be on the lookout for a business to invest in.

There may be large companies who are in the same industry or have an interest in the industry you are in, who will definitely be able to find your site because of SEO efforts, and consider if your business is worth their investment. Something that you might consider.

ROI on SEO Can Be At Par With Other Strategies

In order to measure how much a business have progressed and how effective the strategy is, ROI or Return On Investment is measured and scrutinized.

ROI can help you determine which of your marketing efforts are working, which strategy looks promising and may lead to further sales, and which strategy is not working. The reason why I advocate SEO so much is because it is relatively low cost (compared to other strategies) and brings a significant result on ROI.

SEO allows your company to have a direct impact on your customers’ will and need to purchase. With content that will convince them of your company’s authenticity and effectiveness in terms or answering their needs, direct purchase will definitely happen. With more purchases made, your return will visibly show how operational your SEO effort is.

Ongoing and Long Term Strategy

As long as you have the right keywords and continuously provide quality content on your site, your ranking and visibility to clients will not decline. SEO is a long term strategy that you can use in order to achieve more than just your current goals. SEO can be used in whatever season and trend that may appear over time.

Maintaining a strategy for a long time can cost effort and money. But in the long run it can be one of your most cost effective strategies. Keeping SEO on check on the other hand is relatively easier than other strategies.

You will definitely notice any decline or improvement of your ranking in Search Engine Results Pages (also known as SERP). The ranking can change dramatically overnight; for example when any of your content gets viral on the web, you may find your site’s ranking rise drastically. And that is a very good thing to happen.

Most Businesses are Doing SEO

Yes, this is true. If you have been having your head in the sand, it is time to face the truth.

You may not be doing SEO, but your competitors are doing it. And they are getting to the First Page of Google and other search engines, capturing more of the same target market as well as new market, and getting more and more sales every day.

So if other businesses and your competitors are doing SEO, why aren’t you? Nowadays, you will barely see companies without SEO in their Digital Marketing Strategies.

It is an indispensable strategy that companies closely monitor. And keep as a closely guarded secret. Most companies, if not all, want to stay on top of any field against their competitors, and SEO is no exemption to help them achieve that goal.

Conclusion

People are constantly searching for products or services like yours. And they do it through search engines, whether on the desktop or mobile devices. If you have a business and want to improve your ranking on search engines, then finding a digital marketing firm or an SEO Consultant Singapore and expert that offers a flexible rate and holistic approach for your SEO and digital marketing needs is a must.

Investing on SEO provides a better solution together with other approaches that you already have. Many companies have experienced the power of SEO and recognized its importance as they personally witnessed the growth of the business through it. Isn’t it time your business invests in SEO?

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If you have ANY questions about this article, ANY at all, please submit your questions as comments below. I will be happy to help you out.

Thank you for reading this.

Best wishes to all!

Timotheus

November 22, 2016October 18, 2017

SEO Tips – List of More Than 100 Directories For You to Promote Your Blog or Website for FREE

SEO Tactic on how to get Backlinks by SEO & Digital Marketing Consultant in Singapore

SEO TIP – List of More Than 100 Directories to Promote Your Blog or Website for FREE

Do you want to drive more traffic to your website?

Do you like to see your website appear on the 1st Page of SERPs (search engine result pages)?

Having your website on the 1st Page of SERPs for popular keywords or phrases that people frequently use to search for similar products or services like yours can increase the chances of visitors to your website or blog as well as be a long-term sustainable source of visitors. And to get to the 1st Page, you need to do SEO (search engine optimization).

And not just the type of SEO on your website or blog, which is also known as On Page SEO. You need to do Off Page SEO, which includes having social media accounts, online mentions, and creating backlinks for your website or blog. Just to name a few of the Off Page SEO tactics.

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What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks are simply links that point back to your website or blog that is from another website on the world wide web. It is sometimes referred to as Inbound Links. Backlinks is one of the major factors toward gaining higher rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs).

The more Backlinks your website or blog has, the more you are telling search bots that your website or blog is popular or important. This is because when another website features a link to your website or blog, it is essentially a vote for your website. It is like a “thumbs up” from another source, and tells their audience that they think your website or blog is worth visiting.

Search engines, such as Google, will then give “plus points” to your website or blog, and when there is a search query relevant to your website or blog, it will appear in the list of search results. When you have a good number of quality Backlinks , there is a chance your website or blog will appear higher in ranking within that list.

Of course, technically there is more to it than just this surface level information I just wrote above. There are other things about Backlinks to consider; for example quality of Backlinks , relevance, PageRank of sites that Backlink to your website or blog, etc.

Also, please note that Backlinks are not the single determining factor for search ranking. There are many more factors to consider. But because this is a blog post about Backlinks, and specifically the purpose is to share a long list of directories for you to create the Backlinks, I will not go into all that here. Maybe in a later post?

How To Get Backlinks For Your Website or Blog?

Simple. But time consuming. I know because I too constantly add Backlinks to websites that I do SEO for.

See the long list of more than 100 directories featured below that you can access to promote your website or blog for FREE? Go to each individual link, and try submitting the url and required details of your website or blog to the directory or listing.

As mentioned above, I too frequently add Backlinks to the websites that I do SEO for, and I use this same list too. As such, I will constantly come back and review the list here. So do visit often to check out any new listing, or you can Email Me. I will add your email to my list, and send you updates. Comments welcome, too.

List of More Than 100 Directories to Promote Your Blog or Website for FREE

* Kindly note – The directories and listings here are Free at point of time of posting. Should the site change its free listing policy, that is up to the site’s discretion. Timotheus is not responsible for the external site’s policy changes and charges.

1ABC
247 Web Directory
9sites
10 Directory
A1 Web Directory
A Funny Directory
A List Sites
A People Directory
Abstract Directory
Activ Directory
Active Search Results
Ad Brite Directory
Add Directory
Add Good Sites
Add your blog
Adsnity
Alltop
Amfibi
Angloinfo
Anoj – Business Internet Directory
Anoox
Aweb List
AxxaSearch
Bedwan – Web Directory
Beeg Directory
Best Business Web Directory
Best Buy Directory
Best Free Websites
Bizz – Business Directory
Bloggapedia
Blogarama
Blog Directory
Blogflux
Bloggernity
Bloggernow
Blog Hints
Bloghub
Blog Listing
Blogs Rater
Blog Roll Center
Blogs-collection
Blog-Search.com
Blog Search
Blogswirl
Blog Top List
Blog Top Sites
Blogville
Bocaiw Directory
Business Free Directory
Business Seek
Chordata
Cipinet
Ckalari
Clicks or Directory
Craigslist Directory 1
Craigslist Directory 2
Cluboo
Conseillemoi
Crayon
Dir4UK – SEO friendly UK Web Directory
Directory Analytic
Directory-Free
Directory Seo
Dmoz.in.net
Domain Names SEO
EBay List
Eguide
Elite Sites Directory
Entireweb.com
Exactseek
Example Directory
News & Media – FreeDirectorySubmit.com, a Social-aware, SEO-friendly web directory submission service.
Facebook List
Family Directory
Free Website Directory
FreeWebSubmission.com
Gain Web
Geona
Hot Directory
Hotfrog
Hottest Blogs
Hulu Directory
Ice Rocket
Info-listings
Insing
Inteligentd
Jayde
Kompass
LDM Studio
Link Centre
LinkedIn Directory
Linkpedia
Local Success
LS Blogs
Mediafire Direct Link
Nipao
Nexus Directory
One Sublime Directory
On Top List
Pi Series
PR3 Plus
Pro Link Directory
Read A Blog
Reddit Directory
Regator
Royal Link Up
Scoobe Biz
Search Domain Here
So Much
SonicRun
Sports Blogs
Subjex
Sublime Directory
Submission 4u
Submit Biz
Suggest URL
Synergy Directory
Target Directory
The Net Directory
The SEO King
Top Blogging
Top Sites Web Directory
UK Listingz
URL Moz
Vie Search
Vision Web Directory
Vision Web SEO
Weblogs
Websquash
Wikid Web
WordPress
Wwwi
Xysyst
Yelu
Zipleaf

That’s all for now folks!

As I discover more FREE Backlinks, I will add them here. So do visit this page often to see updated links. I will indicate them by a note such as *Updated link with a date.

Or if you have a FREE Backlink you would like to share, send me an email.

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If you have ANY questions about this article, ANY at all, please submit your questions as comments below. I will be happy to help you out.

Thank you for reading this.

Best wishes to all!
Timotheus

November 12, 2016October 18, 2017

How SEO Consultant Singapore Ranked Digital Marketing Agency on Google’s First Page?

oojo ranked on Google's 1st Page by SEO & Digital Marketing Consultant Singapore, Timotheus Lee

How SEO Consultant Singapore Ranked Digital Marketing Agency on Google’s First Page?

Back in 2014, I co-founded OOJO, a Digital Marketing Agency in Singapore. One of the first things I set in motion was to do SEO and rank the Digital Marketing Singapore agency’s website on the 1st Page of Google and other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, etc. It took a lot of time and effort. And my team and I managed to achieve it within 3 months only!

That is quite a feat considering our major keyword phrase is a highly competitive one, and most SEO experts will tell you that it would usually take 6 months to a year, sometimes more, to make that happen. We attributed our success due to our deep and strong knowledge of SEO, which is Search Engine Optimization.

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SEO Tactics to Rank a Website on 1st Page of Google

In the early days of Internet, when I started designing and developing websites, I kind of already did SEO. But back then, I had no idea I was doing it. I did it as part of a logical way to identify the websites. For example, the title tag was to identify the name of the website and the type of products or services the brand provides.

SEO has come a long way since then. Today, there is On Page SEO where you did everything on your website to enable the search bots to find your website and know what your website is all about. And then there is Off Page SEO where it involves stuff like backlinks and social signals, all of which are to inform the search bots that the online community outside of your website thinks your website is important, too.

And then there are the basic techniques, which may rank your website somewhere but most probably not on the 1st Page of Google and other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, etc. Advanced techniques do really deep SEO, and these are the ones that can really help rank your website on the 1st Page of Google and other search engines. Naturally, my team and I did both.

Keyword Research

SEO starts with the all-important Keyword Research. This is research to find out what keywords that people are using to find businesses, products or services like yours. There are many tools that you can use to find keywords. My team and I use Google Keyword Planner.

The results of the research showed a long list of keywords and phrases for businesses like OOJO, and the services provided by OOJO. Our team analyzed the long list, and selected our main keyword phrase – Digital Marketing Agency Singapore. We then proceeded to start On Page SEO.

On Page SEO

On OOJO’s homepage, we added the main keyword phrase – Digital Marketing Agency Singapore – into the Title Tags, Headers, Alt Tags, and Meta Descriptions. Of course, all written in a natural way. We did the same for the content. One thing to be careful is not to over-stuff the content with the main keyword phrase. Google does not like that, and will penalize a site for it.

The same is done for the other web pages for the entire website. But not every page would be using the same main keyword phrase. Depending on what the page is about, we would choose another keyword or keyword phrase, and repeat this first step of On Page SEO for that particular page.

Another On Page SEO tactic I used was to interlink the pages. This is very powerful as it indicates to the search bots that certain pages on a website are important. The importance can help with the ranking.

Index Your Site with Google, Bing and Other Search Engines

You can choose to do this step after you started on some Off Page SEO. But I prefer to get the sites I work on to be indexed by search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo as soon as possible.

An XML sitemap informs the search engines about the URLs on a website that are available for crawling and indexing. It allows webmasters to include additional information about each web page, when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to the other web pages on that site. This makes the search engines crawl the site more intelligently.

These days, it is very simple to submit an XML sitemap for indexing, especially with WordPress sites. OOJO is designed with a WordPress theme. So all I did was install a plugin that helped me create the XML sitemap. After that, I submitted the XML Sitemap link to all the search engines.

Off Page SEO

Following that, we started on Off Page SEO. That includes Link Building (such as Web 2.0, Social bookmarking, directory submission, article submission, and more), getting listed on Local Business Directories, sending Social Media Signals via Social Media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Google+, etc.

I am a believer that the future of Content Marketing is using Videos. Hence, I am a firm believer that every digital marketing strategy must include Video Marketing, and that includes doing Video SEO. For OOJO, we applied this digital marketing tactic and ranked OOJO’s videos on 1st Pages of YouTube Search.

Off Page SEO can be very extensive, and requires a lot of time and effort. It can and will include Crosslinking, Photo Sharing, Local Listing, Blogging and Blog Promotion. This is not an exhaustive list as there can and will be more Off Page SEO tactics. I share more about this in the courses I conduct.

OOJO Ranked on 1st Page of Google with 3 Months!

It took a lot of time and effort. My team and I worked daily, even on weekends, and extensively. And it all paid off!

In slightly less than 3 months, OOJO’s website reached the 1st Page of Google and other search engines. It has been 2 years, and our ranking still remained on the 1st Page of Google. Below you can see the screen capture of search result done on 11 November 2016.

Before reaching Page 1, OOJO depended mostly on offline promotional activities, word of mouth marketing and referrals to get leads and sales. Since reaching Page 1, OOJO has seen an increase in sales leads, many that have led to confirmed sales.

Since then, I have helped many websites reach 1st Page of Google and other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, etc. If you like to see the same happen on your website, please do contact me and let’s discuss.

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If you have ANY questions about this article, ANY at all, please submit your questions as comments below. I will be happy to help you out.

Thank you for reading this.

Best wishes to all!
Timotheus