Keywords: they can make or break your site. Having accurate keywords can generate large mounts of traffic to your site. The way to find the best keywords is following these simple steps:

• First, get a full understanding of the site you are building or tuning up. Finding relevant keywords is crucial.
• Use programs such as Google’s Keyword Tool to find out the most searched keywords relevant to your site.
• Relevancy: very important!! Relevancy tests can be conducted very similar by having an unbiased panel look the specified website, and coming up with a description and a list of keywords. If their results match up with yours, then you are accurately categorizing the site.
• Also, look at your site analytics. They can help you determine what keywords and links are generating the most traffic to your site
• One more piece of advice is to check out the competition. Type in the keywords you are using for your site into Google and see what other sites come up. Check out those sites and see what they don’t have that your site does. Take advantage of this and add keywords or site descriptions that would attract people looking for that piece that other sites are missing.

I’m not an expert yet, but following the steps above will greatly benefit your website and your business.

Before taking this course, I was clueless about Google Analytics and what keywords are. Although I learned a few things about these, this clip definitely taught me a few things about maximizing good use of key words. Check it out.

As Digg has grownin popularity so has general awareness of the “Digg effect”. For those of you who were like me and do not know anything about the Digg effect let me explain. Digg effect is “the term given to the phenomenon of a popular website linking to a smaller site, causing the smaller site to slow down or even temporarily close due to the increased traffic.”

The Digg effect occurs when a smaller site makes it to the front page of Digg. The resulting mass increase in traffic overloads the host server and takes all the bandwidth. Sites can be down from anywhere around a few hours up to a couple of days.

Let’s evaluate, however, the pros and cons of being Dugg by Digg. Aside from the obvious risk of the “Digg Effect” in being worse off than before being Dugg, it is interesting to note that the common users of Digg generally do nto click on ads. The users of Digg are not concerned with so much as finding a sweet new site, but rather finding quick and valuable web tools and information. Second, Digg users generally do not return to the webpage, but rather simply move on to the next big Digg.

So, if Digg users are not faithful users for returning to your site and do not click ads what else can they offer… one positive aspect of being Dugg is that Digg users generally offer comments about the site. On One hand these comments can serve as valuable critical criticism for the Dugg website. On the other hand these comments can also be tedious to go through and are often shallow, reflecting a similar single minded perspective.

What about the SEO benefits of Digg? Although being Dugg has shown some results in SEO page rank on google, it more often than not fails to work. In fact, the general trend is that the actual Digg of a website is considered more relevant by google than the actual site being Dugg. To try to use Digg as a SEO tool is difficult and unrewarding.

In conclusion, while Digg is a great site to use and have fun with, from my research, I feel that Digg is merely a parasite doing more harm than good. Sure a smaller site gains more exposure, but it is temporary and comes with the likely potential of huge costs through crashing your server with only a small and unlikely chance for benefit.

For a more positive perspective on Digg as it relates to other websites check out the blog post Digg Effect: Top Ten Things Webmasters Should Know.

Before Web 2.0, it would cost a lot of money to drive traffic to a website. Pay-per-click programs and web banners/ads were the cutting edge and came with a significant investment. Web 2.0, however, introduced a variety of tools to do more with less.

StumbleUpon.com is an online community of user-generated referrals. Just as friends refer one another to trusted businesses/products, StumbleUpon users refer one another to useful, interesting websites. Users refer and rate these websites using two buttons, a “thumbs-up” and “thumbs-down.”

Rather than “word of mouth,” it’s a “click-of-a-mouse.”

For the growing web-business, using StumbleUpon is a free way to not only generate traffic to your site but also to receive relevant feedback. When users comment about your website on StumbleUpon.com, utilize this information to improve your website. Lastly, make sure to thank them by commenting on their StumbleUpon page. Remember, five years ago you would have written a check to receive such feedback.

Don’t dismiss these tools too soon!  Tech Savvy leaders in the business world are maximizing Twitter and StumbleUpon to enhance their businesses and get-head. Here are a few ways that you can benefit from using these internet applications.

TWITTER

Twitter is the “water-cooler” of the internet.  The social networking tool connects individuals that may feel isolated behind a computer screen both professionally and personally.  Tech Savvy leaders are using Twitter to:

• network with other professionals or experts in their field
• make little connections that may lead to big leads (called networking in the business world)
• spread the word – ReTweet allows a message to be spread to millions of users in a relatively short amount of time

StumbleUpon

The best leaders don’t always have all the greatest ideas, but they certainly know where to find them.  StumbleUpon is definitely a tool that they great leaders are turning to more often.  StumbleUpon is a…

• good way to reward people for content on their site (give the site a thumbs-up if you like it!)
• creative way to find solutions for unique problems
• helpful resource tool for SEO (search engine optimization)  – find sites to link to or from
• encourager of best practices for conversion (on websites).  StumbleUpon directs people to a site, but only the best sites will keep a user there and encourage them to take the desired action.

There are many other benefits to these internet tools.  Try picking one today and seeing how it may revolutionize your business or website!