Fast Fit SEO

Overoptimization And The Google Sandbox

2009-03-03T18:00:00.002-08:00

Writen by Joel Carson

So you put a lot of work into creating a really great website only to find that noone can find it and Google doesnt rank your site very highly. You hear about a thing called "search engine optimization" and decide to give it a try. Before you go adding your keywords to every element of your pages and building links any way you can, take a step back and remind yourself of the old saying, "sometimes less is more".

Search engine optimization, or SEO, has really taken off over the last five years as more and more fledgling webmasters have created websites, only to find that noone comes to visit. As they search around for ways to get more visitors, most of them quickly find resources on how to optimize a web page for the search engines and go right to work sprinkling keywords everywhere and building links from any place they can get them.

This causes problems for a search engine because, lets face it, you are trying to manipulate the search results and they are trying to avoid being manipulated. After all, just because YOU think your site is a great resource on a topic doesnt mean that it is. Google has already adjusted for the webmaster that is over-optimizing their website, and its called the Google "sandbox". The sandbox is a name that disgruntled webmasters have given to the situation where a new site that should rank well for a keyword is nowhere to be found in the rankings, only to suddenly appear one day several months down the road. What is this sandbox effect and what could cause it?

My theory is that the "sandbox" is actually more of a "trustbox", meaning that Google looks at many attributes of your site to determine if you are attempting to manipulate the search rankings. The most obvious, and the twp traps that most beginning webmasters fall into, I believe, is over-optimizing your on-page content and building too many low quality links too fast.

I believe that the newer your domain is, the less tolerance Google has for over-optimization of pages, or suspiciously fast link building. Once you trip the filter, youre placed in the holding cell ("sandbox"), because Google suspects you of trying to manipulate the results. I also believe that the tolerance for over-optimization varies based on the industry, so spammy industries such as pharmaceutical drugs are far more sensitive to over-optimization than most. That can cause some discouragement by many who are hoping to find fast success, since those industries are already competitive enough that you NEED highly optimized content and lots of links to possibly compete for top rankings, but you cant do it too quickly or you will be sandboxed.

At a recent WebmasterWorld conference, Matt Cutts from Google stated that there really wasn't a "sandbox", but "the algorithm might affect some sites, under some circumstances, in a way that a webmaster would perceive as being sandboxed." This means that avoiding the sandbox is merely a matter of optimizing your site without tripping the filters in Googles algorithm.

Ask yourself these questions to avoid over-optimization penalties:

- Is your title a single target keyword phrase and nothing else?

- Is your keyword phrase found in several of the following locations:
title, header, subheaders, bold or italicized words?

- Does the page read differently that you would normally speak?

- Are you in a competitive industry that is frequented by spammers?

- Have you acquired a large number of low PageRank links quickly?

- Do you have very few high PageRank (6+) links pointing to your site?

In summary, the current theory about Googles "sandbox" is that it is actually more like a holding cell where the Google "police" keep your website when it is suspected of possibly trying to manipulate the search results. As the domain ages, most sites eventually gain enough "trust" to escape the sandbox and immediately start ranking where they normally would. Remember that Google is not manually ranking every website - in the end it is simply a computer algorithm and those who are able to score well in Googles algorithm WITHOUT tripping any filters will achieve top rankings and profit the most.

Joel Carlson works for Bitwise Logic, Inc. - a professional web development company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota which provides web site optimization services that help companies of all sizes acquire free targeted leads through top search engine rankings.

Optimize For A High Ranking Seo Tips To Your Webpage

2009-03-03T18:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kenneth Wmy

Search engine optimization (SEO) is very important to websites. If you rank high in search engines, your website are shown to a huge number of target users.

To start with, you have to pick a list of target keywords. Try the overtune keyword tool provided by www.SEOChat.com

Dont try to crack into competition of over 1million results. Narrow down your target keyword which yields a relatively high number of searches, and relatively low number of search results.

WebCEO is a free software which provides a full SEO toolkit includes the keyword tool and other meaningful. You can try it at http://www.webceo.com/

Go to google.com, search on the target keyword your website has planned to work on. Then check the top ranking website, learn from it, and do better.

How to do better? Here's some basic practices...

1. place keyword in

<h1> tag in very top of the page (maybe hidden cell)

2. place keyword phases as the first word in only, and contain no more than 3 keywords3. On your webpage, set your first graphic with ALT set to your target keyword4. build a text based sitemap, add ALT if it is an image5. OPML / RSS site map6. bold or underline keyword (1 or 2 times only)7. The key word/phrase should be used again very near the end of the page.8. try to register a good domain name with keyword (I guess keyword in subdirectory is ok)9. navigation menu on the right, since googlebot looks from top and leftYou can find more of my articles at my SEO tips website.You can find more SEO tips to make money online here <a target="_new" href="http://make-money-online.softbath.net">http://make-money-online.softbath.net</a>My Homepage <a target="_new" href="http://www.softbath.net">http://www.softbath.net</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>New Website Checklist Remember The Basics</h1> 2009-03-02T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Jacob Madison A client recently asked me about creating a website. As I started to explain the process to him, I realized there are a lot of small details that many designers overlook and forget about.I sat down and made a list of some of the basic rules to remember when it comes to creating a website. Here it is:1. DEFINE A PURPOSE What is the purpose of your website? Jot down a statement, it may be as simple as "to sell 7 products" or as complex as "manage employee calendars through a password protected area". Whatever your purpose, write it down to stay focused.2. DEFINE YOUR KEYWORD Without keywords, your website will suffer an identity crisis. Know the targeted keywords for your website and keep them in mind as you create your site and write your content. Use your keywords frequently but naturally. Additionally, using the same keyword, for example, if you are trying to get listed for "website", use the keyword as one word, not "web site".3. YOUR DOMAIN Make sure your domain includes your keyword, this will give you better search engine rankings for your website's keyword. Also, make sure your domain is not too long. Long domains are easier to mistype and are easily forgotten.4. PAGE TITLE Make sure your keyword is listed in your website title. This will also help your search engine rankings, as well as give your visitor a better idea of what your website is about.5. DESCRIPTION TAG The description tag should include your keywords as well. Are you beginning to see a pattern? Keywords are critical to let search engines and human visitor know what your site is about.6. KEYWORD TAG Your keyword tag should list your keywords in order of importance and relevance. Always place your most important keywords at the beginning and never include irrelevant keywords. This will only cause your site to decrease in search engine rankings for all of your listed keywords.7. USE THE ALT TAG The "Alt Tag" is one of the most overlooked tags in website design. Since images are not readable by search engine bots, it is important to add an "alt"ernitive tag so that they know what the image is. Remember to include your keywords in the alt tag.8. BODY TEXT The content of your website will have a huge affect on your search engine rankings, this is where you can use your keyword freely (and naturally) to let the visitor know what the purpose of your website is. Keep these points in mind when writing your body:- Does your body text contain an appropriate amount of content? - Is your body text readable by humans and does it make sense? - Does your page have excess HTML that can be removed?9. LINKING All of your pages should link together, this allows both your visitors and search engine bots to find all of your content. Use a sitemap to "map" your website pages and allow for easy navigation throughout your website.Remember these basic steps and you will be well on your way to having a growing and well optimized website.Jacob Madison is an internet marketing professional specializing in high-return growth and advanced marketing tactics. Find out more about him at <a target="_new" href="http://www.jacobmadison.com/">http://www.jacobmadison.com</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Getting Fresh Content For Your Website</h1> 2009-03-02T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Sergio Roth You find yourself in the need to add content to your website. You know that search engines like useful sites, sites that change periodically and add more value for visitors. So how can you add content to your site without having to write it yourself? Well, one answer to this question is provided by hiring someone to do the writing for you. You find a writer and pay him/her to generate content for your website. This is an alternative you should always consider, because it is good to have some unique content in your site, content that visitors will not find somewhere else. If you cannot generate some unique content yourself, then you should find someone to do it for you. There are ghost writers, people who write articles for you, and don't include their name as the article authors but your name.There are also articles you can get free of charge to include in your site. These are free reprint articles, and you find them at article directory sites. Article directories are organized in categories, so you can easily find which are the articles on subjects appropriate for your website. If you're wondering where these articles come from, the answer is quite simple: people write them, either to promote their website, brand or name, and post them at the article directory sites. These articles can be used in websites without asking for permission from the writer, provided you keep the resource box and byline intact. You should read the Publisher Guidelines in the article directory of your choice to know the exact rules you should follow to use the articles. At most directories you can subscribe to ezine notifications or rss feeds to be notified when new articles are posted in the categories you need.You can also add dynamic content to your website from RSS feeds. There are many sites offering syndicated content in the form of RSS Feeds, and there are also RSS feeds directories where you can search for feeds on given categories. Just do a search for "rss feeds directory" at a search engine, and you will get plenty of results.It is a good idea to have a mix of unique content and free content in your site.As you see, there are several alternatives to finding fresh content for your website. Some of them are free, some of them are paid. Which ones you will use depends on your budget, your website theme and your preference.Sergio Roth is the owner of <a target="_new" href="http://www.articlesengine.com">http://www.articlesengine.com</a>, an articles directory where you can get free content for your website. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Top 5 Ways To Get Inbound Links</h1> 2009-03-01T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Florin Costache I've listed the methods below in the order you should use them: from the beginning (things you should do when you first start out a site) to the advanced methods, the ones you should use when your site is a little bit older and you're already getting a fair amount of visitors.Before we get down to business, I have to tell you this very important detail: don't start promoting your site until it has some content - it's unlikely that you'll get good results when you promote an empty site!1. Directory submissions - this is a very important step for a new site, because this is probably how search engines will first find you. What you will need:* 5 different versions (except for the site URL) for each of the following: site URL, title, description, list of keywords.* an email address, specially created for directory submissions. This email should be on the domain of the site you are submitting or else it will be rejected by some directories.* a list of seo-friendly directories - http://info.vilesilencer.com/main.php?rock=seo-friendly.php has one of the best lists of seo-friendly directories.Now here comes the hard part: take that directory list, visit each directory and submit your site cycling your titles and description on each submission. This is the hardest part mainly because of the amount of workload - don't worry, this can be made bearable by using 2 utilities: Roboform (www.roboform.com - which you can use with Internet Explorer and Firefox that has free and paid versions) and Informenter (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/673/ - a Firefox only plugin).2. Reciprocal links (link exchanges) - I personally don't use this method anymore because it's too much work and there are not enough rewards! Link exchanges used to be a very powerful method in the beginning of Google and PageRank, but not anymore. This doesn't mean that reciprocal links don't work anymore, it's just that they're not that important anymore.However this is one step you could follow when you have little competition, somewhere in the range of 300 000 or 400 000 results for your search word or phrase.3. Reprint rights articles (submitting articles to article directories) - this is one of my favorite methods of obtaining backlinks: it requires little time, it's free and you can (possibly) get a lot of return on your investment!Writing articles gives you perfect control over the environment your links are in, and even a little control over the site where your article resides (considering the fact that webmasters usually post only articles that have the same topic as their site). Writing articles of high quality will ensure that your articles will be posted on many sites - a good article will get you a good number of backlinks!One last thing about article writing: never, and I mean never post the article that you'll distribute on your own site! Considering the article could appear on very important sites, Google may apply a duplicate content filter on your site, thus possibly burring it in the SERPs. Your site should be as clean as a whistle, with as much original content as possible.4. Buying links - in my opinion, if you are not an expert in search engine optimization you should not try buying links to improve your rankings. There are a lot of factors to take into account when looking to buy links: theme of the site, the traffic that the page or site gets, whether that traffic is from natural and sustained (not from PPC, traffic exchanges or such methods), PR, anchor text and many more!However, if you decide on buying text links on other sites, do the following:* choose well established sites that have the same theme as yours. * the link should be spiderable: check the robots.txt file, nofollow metatags and the rel="nofollow" link attribute. * make the link look as different as possible from a bought link: surround it with text and avoid placement in the site's footer or in an "Advertisements" or "Partners" box.5. Link baiting is one of the most powerful method of online promotion, but this should be used only when your site is a little bit older and stable - getting a lot of links in a short time span can actually hurt your site.There are a few hooks that you can use to attract links:* news: get an important story first and you could be the focus of your industry sector, even if for only a few hours! People are always on the look-out for fresh stuff, and if it's good you could end up with a lot of backlinks.* resource: gathering a list of useful pages in your industry, or maybe offering a new viewpoint on a certain research paper.* controversy: this kind of link baiting can actually get you on the wrong side of some people because it requires contradicting a popular point of view or an authority figure. So tread carefully!Florin Costache writes on the seo blog <a target="_new" href="http://www.greentwinkie.com/">Optimizare</a> (<a target="_new" href="http://www.greentwinkie.com/index.php/servicii-optimizare/">Servicii optimizare</a>). <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Is New Msn Search More Precise Just Ask Google</h1> 2009-03-01T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Lisa Melvin MSN finally unleashed its new search technology to the world on Monday. The official announcement coming from Bill Gates introduced the New MSN Search engine, ending with a personal invitation to visit www.msn.com and âtype in your question.âHere at WebAdvantage.net, we consider ourselves to be veteran internet searchers, often able to easily find the information we're after. Considering we spend all day every day online, we should be. Even so, we rarely venture to type search queries in the form of questions on search engines, except for the handful of times we visit AskJeeves.The thought of being invited to type in a question at MSN's new search engine intrigued us. We decided to follow the trail of links to learn more about what they were offering. We were, at first, impressed with the pages singing the praises of the new "more precise, more powerful" MSN Search service. We were impressed, that is, until around page five of the "learn more" series of MSN's site pages. That's when we started to get tired of clicking "next."Turns out there were ten pages devoted to learning more about what MSN Search offers (which perhaps could have been explained less painfully). But at WebAdvantage.net, we're dedicated <a href="http://www.webadvantage.net" title="Online Marketing" target="_blank">online marketing</a> professionals, so we hung in there.We were informed that MSN's search results would now be drawn from their encyclopedia, MSN Encarta, enabling it to function effectively as a reference tool for finding things like definitions, conversions, geographic capitals and historical events. And that it could also now perform news and image searches and would draw music related results from its own MSN Music, placing artist information and sample song clips at the top of any music related search results.MSN was also offering search functions for your own desktop or Outlook email (if you're so inclined to download those). Throughout the "learn more" pages, they gave search examples. The first search examples given were in the form of questions; questions with specific answers like "Who is LeBron James?" and "What is the mass of Jupiter?"MSN Search, they said, would give you more control over your searches, with filters to refine and a "near me" button to instantly localize results. Sounded good and well, but we were still more intrigued with that initial invitation to "visit and type in your question."So we tried it. We visited http://search.msn.com and decided to use one of their examples, typing in the question, "What is the mass of Jupiter?" To our shock and pleasure, there it was--an answer, right at the top and separated from the actual web results. It said, "Answer: Jupiter: mass: 318 Earth Masses."Inquisitive and competitive by nature, we wondered what would happen if we typed in the very same question at Google. So we asked Google, "What is the mass of Jupiter?" Amazingly enough, Google spat out an answer right at the top of their results page as well. But Google's answer was, "mass of Jupiter = 8987 Ã 10 to the 27th power kilograms." Now, we're Internet marketing experts, not rocket scientists, but it appeared that Google actually provided the more precise answer.Good humored sports that we are, we went promptly back to MSN Search to give it another try. Since their first result at least taught us that Jupiter's mass is 318 times that of the Earth's mass, we typed in the next logical question, "What is the mass of the Earth?," thinking that we could then arrive at our own conclusion by multiplying that answer by 318 to arrive at the answer Google had already provided.Unfortunately, MSN's answer to "What is the mass of the Earth?" was "Answer: World: mass: 1 Earth masses"You'd think that the folks over at MSN would have tested their examples on MSN Search as well as testing the same queries on other major competitors before selecting them for the final cut. Well, maybe not.We then spent the better part of the afternoon periodically asking MSN Search and Google questions to see how they'd fare. If you're ever bored, try asking them, "How hot is the sun?", "How many eggs are in a bakers dozen?" or "How far is it from New York to Utah?"Here's what we learned from our afternoon of follies.1. If you're looking for encyclopedia-type answers to questions like "What is a marsupial?" ask MSN Search (or visit encyclopedia.com or Britannica.com)2. If youâre looking for a black and white photo of daisies, use MSN Search because the image search is nicely arranged and you can filter results by size as well as by color or black and white.3. If youâre looking for results ânear me,â stick with Googleâs automatically localized results by including the city and state in your query.4. If youâre looking for the most precise answer, perhaps you should stick with Google (at least for now).Lisa Melvin is the Search Engine Optimization Copywriter at <a href="http://www.webadvantage.net">WebAdvantage.net</a>, the Traffic Optimization Company, Maximizing the visibility of their clientsâ sites, driving targeted traffic and increasing sales with their Search Engine Optimization, Media Buying and <a href="http://www.webadvantage.net/marketing.cfm" target="_blank">Online Marketing Services</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Seo And Your Targeted Market</h1> 2009-02-28T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Vickie Scanlon SEO is a continuing process and one that should not be ignored. As you know, or will soon realize, is that the search engines are the main entry point at which your customers will find your website. But there are other issues you must be aware of to get the targeted customers that you want.KeywordsYou may have optimized your webpages and people are coming -- but not many. Why? It could be the keywords you are choosing.Choosing the right keywords take time and effort, and it is an important factor to consider. When choosing keywords you should be asking yourself -1.) What are the exact words people are using to find the product or service that you are offering. For example: Is it refurbished tools, cheap tools, free tools, red, ugly tools -- you get my meaning.2.) Are my keywords too general, or overused. If the keywords are too general, you may receive visitors that are not buyers, just browsers. If the keywords are overused, you may be so far down in the search engine rankings that your site will never be seen.3.) Do you have your keywords or keyword phases in your "Title Tag". Your keywords in the Title Page should be relevant to what your web copy relates too. If it doesn't, you've just wasted an important keyword tool that the Search Engines utilize.4. Meta Keywords Tag -- Some people use the meta keywords Tag and others say that the search engines no longer use them. And still others, claim that it gives their competition an unfair advantage. I personally will continue to use them, because I don't believe all the search engines ignore this tag.Finding the correct keywords is no easy task. However, did you think of asking the people around you what keywords or phases they would use to get to one of your web pages. You might be surprised -- it may not have been a keyword or phase that you even considered.PopularityEven though a keyword may be popular to the masses, you also must consider if it is targeting your specific market. Why? You may begin to get the traffic, but not the specific target market that will buy your products. And that is the bottom line, not so much the popularity of the word, as the quality of the traffic that the keyword brings.And if the keyword is popular, you may find your web page competing with established websites -- which translates into poor positioning. Thus, you could consider other smaller niche words, and still get the ranking you seek.ExperimentYou will have to experiment with the keywords that you use on your webpage/website, to determine if the keywords you are using is giving you the sales you want.I have found testing, evaluating and re-evaluating is the name of the game of SEO. If you keep that in mind, you will begin to see the results you want.However, once you are in the top ten of the search engines, do not think your job is done. You must continue to monitor -- because the Internet is not a static environment -- and people can come online that can slide your web page or website down the line in the search engines.Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site at: <a target="_new" href="http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz">http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz</a> for free tools, articles, ebooks, how to info, affiliate opportunities, security software and computers -- for the business person or individual. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Google And Webmasters A True Lovehate Relationship</h1> 2009-02-28T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Matt Jackson Any SEO fact finding mission will inevitably lead to reports from webmasters on how Google doomed or saved their website. True to human nature, those who feel hard done by are most often the loudest of the talkers. For every report of how Google has lavished a website with tens of thousands of visitors there are probably ten, a hundred or even more reports of how Google have doomed sites to failure.Persuading Google To Respect Your SiteIn all honesty, a webmaster that is looking for search engine success must gently persuade Google to love them. The rewards for doing so are far greater than any other form of advertising or marketing. Conversely, the punishment for sites left out in the cold by Google really is enough to break the soul of any webmaster.The Google EffectAccording to statistics, Google received 91 million American searches per day in the month of March 2006. Their closest rival, Yahoo, managed 60 million and MSN, in third place racked up only 28 million searches per day in the same period. It would be foolhardy to ignore other search engines but to ignore the 43% Google market share is outright online suicide and persuading Google that your site offers everything their visitors want will inevitably give you advantage with the remaining search engines too.The Most Important PointOK, so this is hardly breaking news after all, every SEO site on the Internet harps on about Google being the be all and end all of online marketing but it is a vitally important point that you must pay attention to. One of the major contributing factors for Google's success is trust. So many billions of people regularly use Google to search because they trust the results will be as close to relevant as is virtually possible. There is no way to financially hammer your way to the top of the listings and even the sponsored listings at the side of the page are quite clearly listed as exactly that. Remember this point:Google has become successful by providing relevant results to their visitors and they reward websites for doing the same.Understanding Google AlgorithmsThe exact science behind Google algorithms are as much of a mystery as the whereabouts of your missing socks but there are certain factors that all good SEOs and webmasters know.The right amount of relevant content and a clean design indicates a useful website.Tricks and underhand SEO tactics are a thing of the past. They are best left to webmasters who know no better. That's not to say there aren't guidelines you should follows to ensure a greater success for your site. However, SEO guidelines are beginning to merge with visitor optimization tactics.Love Your VisitorsIncluding "keywords" is still vital but not to set percentages. The inclusion of keywords makes the reading of your content easier for your visitors and has the added benefit that it also signifies a topic for your website making it easier for Google to assess it's relevance. Similarly, a clean and simple website design is easy on the eye and quick to navigate for visitors and Google spiders can easily crawl your website.So, in order to optimize your website for Google you should primarily optimize for visitors.Give It A Little TimeThis neatly brings us to the question of the Google sandbox. This name has been given to the phenomenon that Google essentially ignore websites for the first few weeks of their inception. Clearly, this is an irritant to many webmasters and one of the least understandable parts of their algorithms.The principle behind the action is to ensure that brand new sites don't pay for thousands of inbound links and propel themselves to the top of the rankings illegitimately. Google have always strived to ensure that links are gained organically based on the relevance and strength of a website and its content. Purchasing links completely bypasses this and, in Google's opinion, degrades the value of linking.What To DoThe next time you sit down to promote a website with the view of increasing your standings within the search engine results remember that ignoring Google because you've read bad press from other webmasters is a dangerous choice. Google is, by far, the most widely used search engine on the web and "optimizing" your site to climb the ranks is easier than many would have you believe. Among the key ingredients is fresh, original content that is useful to your visitors. In order to build up links to your website, the submission of articles to article directories is one tactic that shows positive results.Matt Jackson, founder and operator of WebWiseWords, is a professional copywriter offering many services including those of an SEO copywriter, advertising copywriter and more. For more information visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.webwisewords.com">http://www.webwisewords.com</a> or email <a href="mailto:info@webwisewords.com">info@webwisewords.com</a>. Please mention where you saw this article in any communication with WebWiseWords. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>The Madonna Approach To Sem</h1> 2009-02-27T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Dana Wallert What in the world does Madonna have to do with Search Engine Marketing? Well, at first glance, probably not much. Stay with me for a few moments, and I think the analogy will become clear.For those new to marketing websites, the amount of information out there on SEO, SEM and the like can be quite overwhelming. How can you possibly keep up with all of it or know who to listen to?Well, in my own experience, I tried to do as much research as possible on the so-called proven tactics, as well as the trends of the day. I decided to try to do all of the grunt work myself. I wanted to try as many of the different techniques I had seen without spending any cash! I know, it sounds extremely naïve, but I felt that if I could at least try to implement these strategies and get a feel for what works, I'd have a better idea as to whether I needed help or not!Thus far, those strategies seem to paying off extremely well for me.So, back to the whole Madonna approach, it's my number one piece of advice to anyone just starting their site. Madonna's career and success have been based on her ability to constantly re-invent herself and her image. She is constantly marketing that new image and "new content." Things seem to be going fairly well for her, so I think it's a viable strategy to implement with your site.Now, in the world of the internet marketing, your best bet is Search Engine Results Page/Positioning (SERP) or in English, getting your site to show up immediately when a potential customer searches for keywords that relate to your product.So, to apply the Madonna approach here is quite simple. You must constantly be "re-inventing" your site to entice the mighty spiders of the search engines to come to your site and come back often. If you keep on top of this, it really won't be a huge task. All you've got to do is be committed to making your site the best it can be. I know that sounds cheesy, but it is true. All that you do to entice the spiders to come index are the same things that will bring your customers and visitors back time and time again. Content really is king.Make a simple goal and find new ways of fulfilling it. Maybe you'll plan to add one new page of content a week. Maybe you'll add new features to it once a month. And, obviously, you should constantly be updating any "News or Time Specific" information.Of course there are many other methods to SEM, but try implementing my Madonna approach and you'll be well on your way to increasing your rankings in those search results.Dana Wallert is the owner of <A target="_new" href="http://www.dwofficesolutions.com/">an online virtual assistance company</A>. She has many years experience in sales and marketing, as well as office management. Find more about Dana and sign up to receive her free monthly newsletter at <A target="_new" href="http://www.dwofficesolutions.com/">DW Office Solutions - Virtual Assistant Services</A>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Link Popularity How To Boost Your Rankings</h1> 2009-02-26T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Marty Pukstys So, after hard and time consuming process you got your web site on the internet, optimized it for certain keywords and can't wait to see it at No.1 position on Google, Yahoo and MSN? Not so fast. First of all, you'll need 3 things to be taken care of: on-site optimization, search engine submission and some major work on link popularity building. There's plenty of information about internal web page optimization on the internet, and it's not a secret how to submit all your web pages to Google or Yahoo through their new feed systems. If it is you should educate yourself about the first two elements first, and then worry about link popularity.The first thing you should do is to listen to what search engines have to say about search engine optimization. It's not a secret that they hate web pages artificially stuffed with keywords or bought incoming links. Such techniques give them a hard time to deliver relevant results to their users. In fact, current search engine ranking algorithms are so advanced that in a lot of cases they can distinguish between natural and bought incoming links.So, what do search engines have to say about their rankings? Never try artificially boosting your rankings. Don't participate in link farms. Don't buy links. Don't stuff your text with keywords just to get higher rankings. In conclusion do not interfere with their function to deliver relevant and useful information to the user.Well, it's not a bad idea to listen to them for a change. The techniques of getting links that I am going to tell you about are both search engine "legal" and "not so legal". The choice is yours.The first thing that everyone should do is make the content of their web site useful and informative to people. Doesn't matter what kind of website you have, try to give something useful to your visitors. This can be useful information, some attractions, free service, or anything you may come up with. This may sound banal, but this strategy eventually will pay off. Other web sites will notice that you have something useful and original, and will start linking to you. This is the best and most "legal" link building strategy anyone can come up with, although it takes the most time and patience.Second "legal" choice for building link popularity is through articles. Try to write an interesting article about something you are good at and know a lot. Then find thousands of article submission and publishing web sites that are available on the internet. Use your best friend and enemy at the same time Google to find them. The most important part of the article is the Resources box, where you can use HTML code and place links to your web site.The next perfectly "legal" and effective area to build your link popularity is forums. You can find millions of forums on the internet take advantage of them. Post your answers to relevant topics, and don't forget to use HTML and links to your site. It can't get any easier than that, and at the same time, it might help your rankings a lot.I bet you heard about reciprocal links when you link to some web page, which in exchange places a link to your web page on their site. This strategy may be not as effective as couple of years ago, but it still works. Search engines simply can't ignore links to your webpage. The most important thing to remember about reciprocal linking, as with all other links, is that links from related websites will have much higher impact on your rankings than those from unrelated ones. Also, don't forget the importance of keywords and rephrases in the anchor text without it, your links are close to useless.Do some research and find websites similar to yours. They don't have to offer exactly same services or information something broad as computers or internet if you are offering web design services is good enough. E-mail their administrators with a request to exchange links. How to persuade them to place a link to you, especially if their web site has good rankings on the search engines that's another subject. Offer something useful in exchange for example, suggest placing a link to them on your home page, while they put the reciprocal link on their partners or resources page.Find millions of directories where you can submit your web site. Some of them offer free inclusion, some of them ask for a reciprocal link, while others require to be paid for the listing. Whether to pay or not, that's totally up to you, but from my experience, some of their links are worth several dollars that they are usually asking for. Make sure they have substantial Page Rank, and sacrifice several dollars. It will pay off eventually. But to start, try to find countless free directories and submit you web site there.Finally, time has come for the most controversial and dangerous link building strategy link buying. I don't recommend anyone to use it, but a lot of search engine optimization specialists are utilizing this unfair tactics, placing honest optimizers in serious disadvantage. If you decide to go ahead and buy some links, make sure of two things: the page you are buying a link from has a high Page Rank, and find the links for sale in search engine optimization forums never buy links from the websites that specialize in this. Otherwise, Google will weed your web site out from their index faster than your eyes blink.In conclusion, I would recommend staying away from unethical link building strategies, and concentrate on long-time goals versus short-term ones. Keep in mind, that if everyone starts buying links and using other unethical search engine optimization techniques, search engines will not be able to deliver relevant results, and eventually come up with new and smarter algorithm to kick such websites out from their indexes. With all the ethical search engine optimization methods I told you about, everyone can build substantial link popularity and get good rankings.If you liked what you read - visit our <a target="_new" href="http://www.search-engine-marketing-service.com/index.htm">Search Engine Marketing Service</a> LLC website and find out more about <a target="_new" href="http://www.search-engine-marketing-service.com/index.htm">search engine positioning services</a> and <a target="_new" href="http://www.search-engine-marketing-service.com/seo.htm">improved search engine rankings</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Yahoo Ranking Tips</h1> 2009-02-26T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Tay Weiliang Title The most important thing you can do to your ranking is to include the keyword in the title you submit to Yahoo. If your title does not contain any keywords, you'll never rise high enough to collect a large amount of clicks. Is including the keyword once in your title enough, or should you risk it and try to repeat the word? I didn't see a single site that had two or more instances of the same keyword in its title. That doesn't mean there aren't any, but I don't believe that having two keywords will give you a big advantage over having one. Also, trying to repeat the keyword might get your title edited or your submission rejected, so I wouldn't try it.Description This really surprised me. I started the experiment with the belief that having the keyword in the description is absolutely vital in order to gain a high ranking. However, the data seemed to prove otherwise. The top ten sites actually had less keywords in their descriptions than those listed after them. Still, I don't believe that including keywords in your description will actually hurt you. It is likely to boost you upwards a bit, but I think the boost will be significantly smaller than what it has generally been claimed to be.URL No clear data here, so I won't make too strong conclusions either. Some words are in order, though. My current position is that having the keyword in your URL is worth something, but less than having the keyword in any of the other places (description, title, category). Is it necessary to get a keyword rich domain name if you're desperate to reach the top ten? Not in my opinion, unless it will give you a valid reason to include your keyword in your title.Category Being listed in a category that has a keyword in its name definitely increases your ranking for that keyword. More than having the keyword in the URL and more than having the keyword in your description, but less than having the keyword in your title. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>What Can Seo Do For Me</h1> 2009-02-25T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Apisith Chawla Your search engine optimization strategy should focus on two fundamental goals: - deliver as targeted as possible visitor traffic; - acquire high conversion rates (visitors taking the desired type of action on your web site).This is what SEO can do for you and your business: ultimately bring you customers and/or partners.These goals are most likely to be attained when the following conditions take place: - search engines index the site; - search engines crawl the site frequently; - high ranking among SERPs for your web site's keywords; - high link popularity; - high page rank.For every query performed on search engines there is a human being at the end of the keyboard looking for information, products, or services. You have to direct your focus towards grabbing as much search engine traffic as possible with your most important keywords while keeping the objectives of the search engine optimization in clear focus.Before you get too excited about attaining a top 10 ranking on the search engines, you should be clear on the objectives behind bringing visitors to your website.It's not a good idea to go from 1,000 visitors to 10,000 visitors over a month if your website is not relevant to your visitors' search terms. Having "forced visitors" onto your web site will simply eat your resources (bandwidth, for one) but for sure these visitors will not become your customers if the topic of your web site is of no interest to them.Such an accomplishment, like a major increase in traffic stats, may make you SEO hero of the day, but if your web site visitors are not interested in your products or services you will have just squandered your efforts.Your goal is to help the search engines return the most relevant pages from your web site in response to user queries. Using tricks and tactics to get your pages to show up under search terms that are irrelevant and have nothing to do with your site only annoys web surfers, and can get you banned from the search engines.Ultimately, the number of hits measured in your web server logs will make no difference if your visitors are not taking action on your website to sign up for a newsletter, download your software, submit a quote request, or buy your products and services online.Most of the web sites in the top positions for even moderately competitive keywords got there because:- they used highly targeted keywords effectively throughout their website; - they gained substantial link popularity from relevant websites and directories.Although simplistic in terms of today's very complex search engine algorithms used to return relevant search engine results, the two above key points lay the foundations for all our future discussions about how to gain top rankings on today's search engines.Apisith Chawla is an author, consultant, and SEO Trainee. His eBook is available at <a target="_new" href="http://www.equalseo.com/ebook">http://www.equalseo.com/ebook</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Optimization Not Search Engine Domination</h1> 2009-02-24T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Joe Borowy In a quest for high rankings among increasingly competitive markets, webmasters generally have an ongoing mission to achieve and maintain high rankings for popular search terms. Since smaller companies and websites have limited advertising budgets, search engine optimization is recognized the best way of gaining long term exposure and driving targeted traffic to a website.A problem often arises when webmasters, particularly newer and less experienced ones, start researching ways of obtaining high rankings. Most websites that offer resources on optimizing pages for search engines still lean towards writing efficient Meta tags and selecting the best keywords. Although this helps, it's a known fact that Meta tags have become less important over the years. In fact, Inktomi is the only search engine that still uses them for ranking websites. Yahoo!, Google, and all other main search engines have abandoned the Meta system. The keyword tags no longer impact rankings. The description tag is still important, but it won't have a tremendous impact on rankings like it once would have.Webmasters often become very disappointed when they see that much of the work put forth to optimize a website was unnecessary. It's even more devastating to see that all the work put into optimizing pages will not gain you high rankings. Many start to wonder what they did wrong. One important factor is almost always initially overlooked- more credible websites will always have higher rankings, regardless of how optimized a smaller website may be. Keyword densities and title tags are still important in categorizing a website for the engines, but link popularity has become the main factor in ranking websites. That's not to say that optimizing websites isn't important.The point here is that optimizing a website means no more than exactly what it says- optimizing. It means that a website is fit to be considered relevant for the selected keywords when indexed for placement. It does not mean that a website will automatically achieve high rankings in those keywords. It can mean potentially pulling ahead of a competitor with more link popularity but less relevance. But don't be fooled- even if a website with 100 good back links in Google is optimized perfectly, it won't outweigh a less relevant competitor with 10,000 back links and a higher PageRank when competing for a popular keyword. Most webmasters are baffled when they don't get the rankings they have worked for. The solution is gaining link popularity; this can be achieved by trading links with relevant websites and submitting to popular directories. It will build up over time and a website will gain the credibility it deserves when it has many websites linking to it.Finding a good source for continually submitting to the search engines and keeping track of rankings and link popularity is a very important factor in having long term success with search engine optimization. MDTrafficBuilder is a website that has proven to be very effective and cost-efficient in continually submitting to search engines and monitoring progress. The link to this website can be found in the author resource box. They have a free 5 day trial, so there's no risk at all. It's a good way of keeping track of competition and monitoring link popularity.Regardless of which way you choose to gain higher rankings for your website, remember the real meaning of Search Engine Optimization, and think realistically of how your website compares with the competition. Achieving high rankings is a long term project, not a quick fix for low traffic websites. If you think realistically and work hard for higher link popularity, high search engine rankings will eventually find you.Joe Borowy is the Owner of <a target="_new" href="http://www.SuccessForFreedom.com">http://www.SuccessForFreedom.com</a> where they work hard to maintain an honest and reliable source for honest work at home internet business opportunities.If you need to contact Joe please email him at <a href="mailto:Ravenfan3888@gmail.com">Ravenfan3888@gmail.com</a> Thank you!MDTrafficBuilder can be found at <a target="_new" href="http://www.mdtrafficbuilder.com">http://www.mdtrafficbuilder.com</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Link Building Nightmare</h1> 2009-02-24T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Darren Dunner Link building is one of the best ways to get more performance from your web site. No matter how many times the search engines changes, this does not.Some of the most talented people on the web will spend 8 hours a day on this and get little results.There are many programs on the net you can use to gather potential links, request links from other members of paid link site, etc. The biggest problem with these is that you still spend hours and hours filtering through links, requesting trades from members and much more.Here are a few things you can do to help in this painful process. Go to yahoo.com. Type in the search box: site:yourdomain.com and hit enter. This will tell you how many pages are indexed into yahoo. You can do this on your site or a potential link trade site.Then in yahoo type: links:yourdomain.com and see how many link backs a site has.Compare this information to your site and determine if this is a compatible site or not.NOTE: you can do this on google and several other search engines.Also, on the links pages of a site that you want to trade on, make sure that there links pages are indexed into the search engines. Make sure they are SEO friendly URL's and even check the page rank on them.Hope this helps in your long search for Link Building. We are currenlty research link building sites and hope to have some articles soon on them.Internetzone I has been in business for over 5 years, has a very good reputation for producing results. We are not here to make a fast buck, but want to educate our clients on what is best measures to take on the web. You can visit us at: <a target="_new" href="http://www.internetzonei.com">http://www.internetzonei.com</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Optimization What To Avoid</h1> 2009-02-23T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Margo Courtney While there are many strategies to use for Search Engine Optimisation, there are some things you shouldn't do. Your site can be penalized by the search engines for some of these. Or while you think a strategy is helping to raise your rankings, it may not.TEXT IN GRAPHICS Most search engines don't read pictures or graphics, so use as much text as possible and make sure it's relevant text. Good information and solid content that focuses on your product and services will allow the search engines to identify your site and give you a better positioning within those search results. Sites that use an image full of text, instead of text, can appear as an empty page to a search engine. This is specially relevant on a home page.MOVING A PAGE THAT ALREADY HAS A PR If you move a page, it will lose its PR until the next time Google indexes it. So set up the page's original URL to direct people to the new page, and tell them whether the move is permanent or temporaryDEAD ENDS All page should have a way out or exit via a link.ARTIFICIALLY INCREASE A PAGE'S KEYWORD DENSITY Loading pages with irrelevant words in an attempt to increase a page's keyword density will penalise your site. This includes stuffing ALT tags that users are unlikely to view.USING HIDDEN TEXT OR LINKS You should use only text and links that are visible to users.LINKS FROM LINK FARMS AND NON-RELEVANT SITES Make sure they are from other relevant sites, not link farms or FFA sites. Best is links from pages without many other links, from sites whose content/theme is similar to or complementary to yours.UNNATURAL LINKS The search engines prefer your linking to be 'natural', to appear as if they were placed in the normal course of your business dealings. Not too many at a time, not all coming from link pages, not all reciprocal links, and not all coming from only PR 5 or above sites (looks like you bought them).USING THE SAME TEXT IN INCOMING LINKS It isn't natural to have every website that links to you have the same text on the link description. The natural tendency would be to have a certain percent be the site's name, but after that it should be a wide variety of description. Your link text description is a key factor for how your site/page will rank, so make sure that you keep that in mind as you specify your preferred link text description on your website.Register for our free SEO tutorial at <a target="_new" href="http://www.free-web-site-marketing.com">http://www.free-web-site-marketing.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>The Google Strategy</h1> 2009-02-22T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Diane Thomas Webmasters across the Internet were totally floored by what happened to their Google ranking recently. Those whose pages were ranked on top seemed to totally disappear, and many who had been ranked at the bottom were suddenly in the top 10.So what caused this phenomenon? Simply put, Google spent a lot of time (and probably money) coming up with new ranking guidelines. In Webmaster speak, "Google changed their algorithm".Why? you ask...Google, from the beginning has been more in tune with what people are searching for than any of the other search engines or directories. They have always seemed to be more in sync with the average surfer - in other words when you search you actually find what your looking for.Well, apparently they just weren't satisfied. So they decided to make it even better.On first glance I thought they had made a huge mistake, but as Webmasters began reworking their websites and pages to get back to the top ranking positions, it appears to me that their idea was right.In case your wondering, I was one of the Webmasters whose site seemed to disappear! And let me tell you it was scary. I lost 700-800 visitors a day - and a lot of income.I went to the Google site to try and figure out what they were looking for, and frankly didn't find much that I didn't already know, so I set about reworking my pages and website so that this couldn't happen to me again.In record time, after evaluating and reworking and submitting my pages, they went back to the top. In fact, some that I could never get to the top are there now.What I found was that although keywords are still a prominent factor and linking was important, that the relativity of the pages became very important.In other words, the keywords and links really have to be relevant to the entire page - and to the site as well. Google likes everything linked internally. I'm sure the idea being that this ensures the "search results" will indeed provide what the surfer is really after - and that's their bread and butter.The bottom line is that after going thru a very harrowing experience, my website and my profit line are all the better for it. In other words, I ended up with a better website, a better idea of what my visitors are really after, and long term I don't think this could ever happen to me again.Google seems to really have come up with what people are looking for and is offering good web sites with rich content as their top ranking sites. This is good news for the serious webmaster.I know that everyone is out there giving advice and speculating, not to mention the new products that have risen up to get you listed fast!My advice - save your money, and put the elbow grease to work - you'll be all the better for it. And if your really thinking, it won't take long.©2005Diane Thomas is the editor of <a target="_new" href="http://www.ebookcrossroads.com">eBook Crossroads.com</a> specializing in resources for writers, publishers and promoters of eBooks and Audio Books. She publishes a monthly ezine, the eBook Crossroads Insider, offering articles, tips, contests, free downloads and much more!Subscribe to the <a target="_new" href="http://www.ebookcrossroads.com/newsletter.html">eBook Crossroads Insider</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Optimization Seo An Overview</h1> 2009-02-22T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by William King Run a search on any of the 200 major search engines, and the results will come up in similar orders on quite a few of them. How a website owner/operator gets their website to the top of a list is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. Optimizing a website involves many of the same techniques, whether the aim is to optimize for Google adwords, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves or others. There is a list of what not to do as well, and that list is applicable to all engines, as it mostly refers to tricks and hacks unscrupulous designers use to try to trick the engines. These kind of pages generally get removed by automated tools and don't generally last very long, so they are not recommended to bother with.Website optimization starts with content. If the content is irrelevant, the website will not last long in the rankings, no matter how many keywords are included. The best way to get relevant content is to get an expert to write the content. General content may be more friendly to beginners, but in the search optimization arena, content is what is going to keep readers coming back and webmasters linking to the page. Many search engines use link counters to rank sites. If enough people like and value the site, they will link to it from their own site as an example of expert help for visitors seeking more detailed information than they can provide, or are willing to provide. Often, general-interest sites will link to expert sites, thereby also driving their own traffic up as the initial portal to those expert sites and improving their own rankings in the optimization listings. The quality of the sites linked is also a major factor in the rankings, as quality sites such as Microsoft and Google are going to be more effective "heavy hitters" than a link to Bob's House of Website Optimizing.When the content is being created, keywords are the "anchors" that search engines hook onto, but just filling your content with keywords risks being dismissed as a spam site, as many spammers merely fill a page with keywords, hoping to hook anyone searching for anything. These kind of pages are usually removed quickly, but they exist nonetheless. Specific keywords are the key--instead of Search Engine, use Search Engine Optimization for Google, or combinations of the key words or phrases. Optimization for Search Engines in one area, then Optimizing for higher Search Engine rankings in another increases the chances of an engine ranking your website content a little higher than it may have otherwise.The guidelines for content also go for Meta tags such as the title. Title is very important, as it is one of the bigger spots for an engine to catch, as well as the hook that draws a surfer in once the rankings have been displayed. A recommended length is 50-80 characters (including spaces), with keywords located near the beginning in case the window is resized on the screen. A good example would be "Search Engine Optimization tips and tricks for Google", instead of "How to do important SEO for websites."Search Engine Optimization--what to avoid: Don't use huge strings of keywords without relevant content--you may be labeled as a spammer and blacklisted off the engine(s) you're trying to climb. Stay away from pop-ups, excessive load times (by keeping the page clean and using fast hosting servers), and lots of flash animation, as this takes time to load and also detracts from the readability of the site.More specific information can be found by typing "Search Engine Optimization" into any major search engine like Google or Yahoo and following the links. Good luck!William King is the director of <a target="_new" href="http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk">Wholesale Pages</a>, <a target="_new" href="http://www.wholesale-canada.com" >Wholesale-Canada</a> and <a target="_new" href="http://www.aidandtrade.com" >Dropshipping Directory</a>. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How To Boost Your Wisconsin Sites Search Engine Ranking Part 3</h1> 2009-02-21T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Johnny Smith When choosing your Wisconsin search engine ranking optimization strategy, there are a few things you would like to consider in order getting a high ranking in the search engines for your site.In this article you will find a few top tips about off-page factors that can help you Wisconsin site to rank high in the search engines.When you read below you will learn about the importance of inbound links and how to get those top sites linking to you.Here are a few basic tips that can help you in your Wisconsin search engine ranking optimization efforts: 1. Do not engage in excessive link exchange programs. That means, do not trade links with sites that bury your link along with a hundred others on a link page, because the search engines do not like that. 2. Improve your site by writing high quality optimized content that other webmasters find useful. This way you will get natural inbound links to your site. 3. Write useful articles with top content and submit them to article directories with your link in the resource box. Since these articles are free to use for others to publish on their sites, you will get a great number of top inbound links that will help the improvement of your Wisconsin site. 4. Finally a tip that I have not tried myself yet. As a part of your Wisconsin search engine ranking optimization strategy, you also could buy text links on other high traffic Wisconsin sites. Implement the above four steps and you will see that your Wisconsin search engine ranking optimization efforts will bear fruit.Johnny is an author who thinks Wisconsin is the best place on earth. He also writes about <a target="_new" href="http://hockeytribute.com/ice-hockey-equipment.shtml">ice hockey equipment and the NHL</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Are You Using Roboform</h1> 2009-02-21T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Brian Shoemaker Why not? Maybe you have not heard of it. Well, it's a program that can store the titles, URLs, descriptions and anything else you need for listing your websites into directories. It can also store the information for your articles including the titles, article bodies, signatures, keywords and whatever else you like.It does more than just store all of this information. Having already entered all your websites' directory listing information or information for your articles, just go to the directory's web page with the submission form and with the press of one button, it can fill and submit the form for you. No more copying and pasting all your directory listings and articles. With the amount of time it takes you to copy and paste just one directory listing or article, you can submit all your directory listings or articles using RoboForm.Since using RoboForm, I have upgraded to RoboForm Pro. RoboForm Pro allows you to enter an unlimited amount of websites and articles. RoboForm Pro also offers an unlimited amount of custom fields for each website and article. Using <a target="_new" target="_new" href=http://www.find-a-web-host.com/software/RoboForm.php>RoboForm Pro</a>, I can submit 10 different articles to around 200 article directories in just one day. Without the program, it could take me a week or longer.Brian Shoemaker is the owner of <a target="_new" href="http://www.find-a-web-host.com">cheap web hosting</a> directory Find-A-Web-Host.com. Find <a target="_new" href="http://www.find-a-web-host.com">web hosts</a> for your websites and/or articles. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Expert Help From Google Answers</h1> 2009-02-20T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Jakob Jelling Web users turn to search engines for answers to their questions. This is usually done through various levels of searching the engine's database. Sometimes though, no matter how hard they try, searchers can't find the information they need. Maybe they're not familiar with how to narrow and focus searches, or they may not have enough background in the subject they're researching to recognize the answer they need. Google Answers offers a solution.With Google Answers, you hire an experienced researcher or specialist in your field of inquiry to provide answers to your questions. In a sense, this process works much like bidding on an item at eBay or hiring work done through a freelancer web site. You will create a Google Answers profile, a nickname, enter your credit card information, and when you post your questions, you specify how much you're willing to pay for answers and an expiration date for replies.There is a 50 cent per question listing fee, and your payment offer for an answer can range from $2.00 to $200.00 currently. Your offered price needs to be high enough to justify and compensate the time a Google researcher will spend finding an answer. Researchers receive 75% of your offered fee, and Google receives the remainder to help support the Google Answers service. Once you receive an answer, your credit card will be charged the offer amount you made for that answer.Previously asked questions and answers are posted, searchable, and freely available at the Google Answers site. Other users may make comments on the questions and answers, to help clarify the information you receive.Google Answers isn't magic. They can't answer unanswerable questions, and they won't provide medical, legal, or financial advice. But for other tough questions that you just can't find an answer for on your own, Google Answers may be, well, the answer!About The AuthorJakob Jelling is the founder of <a href="http://www.sitetube.com" target="_new">http://www.sitetube.com</a>. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Winning The Search Engine Wars</h1> 2009-02-19T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Lee Traupel Creating and building effective Search Engine marketing campaigns is like trying to nail jello to the wall! The challenge can be daunting to many, requiring very specialized knowledge of process that must be blended with unique and disparate technology. Here is some insight gained from years of experience providing these services to clients.<ul><li>SE marketing is very effective in driving qualified traffic to a web site. Over 85% of global surfers utilize Search Engines to find goods and services.<li>What can you expect for Search Engine ranking via back-end conversions or desired responses? There is no "silver bullet" answer to this question; we've seen results vary from a low of 1.4% to a high of 22%. You'll make a dangerous assumption if you measure results purely by focusing solely on SE marketing. Your back-end response mechanisms (sales rep interaction, e-commerce fulfillment, newsletter signup, web site, etc.) will greatly affect the ROI. Assess and critique from a holistic perspective.<li>It's a zero sum game if you use any of the low cost "we submit to thousands" of search engines service companies. These submissions do very little to drive viable rankings. If you aren't achieving rankings in the top 20-30 (page 1-3) listings then you're wasting marketing resources.<li>Don't make the mistake of focusing solely on Search Engine marketing to drive market awareness (online branding) and revenue. Develop mutually reinforcing processes that are synergistic by utilizing Directory submissions, Usenet/Newsgroup seeding, Newsletter sponsorships, Opt-in e-mail, PR and other offline marketing processes.<li>Stringent keyword analysis for HTML text is one of the underlying foundations of a successful Search Engine Ranking campaign. It's analogous to the importance of ad copy for a conventional print campaign. Most good SE firms use a commercial database service like WordTracker which enable them to analyze the relative popularity of keywords and then build a submissions and optimization process around the selected keywords.<li>The actual Title for your Index and Interior pages will also have a significant impact on whether or not a campaign works. It needs to be the right length, typically 10-20 words, have no hyperbole and pique a searcher's curiosity.<li>Contrary to endless marketing hype, there are no quick solutions in this form of interactive marketing. It will take at least 1-2 months before you see any immediate results. And for significant results; i.e., page 1-3 listings via top tier engines add another 2-3 months on top of this on average.<li>Web site content development impacts good SE rankings - the more the better. Develop content which is relevant to keywords. We use linguistic analysis software for our clients and then build a standalone "stealth web site" which has content expressly designed for SE spiders (bots). This level of sophistication and proprietary process is expensive and time-consuming but very effective.<li>Remember the Armand Hammer quote about Russia? "An enigma wrapped inside a box buried deep in the ocean." This is apropos to the Search Engine world, as the top tier SE's all change their submission rules and algorithms on a regular basis. So hire a SE firm that understands the market - or be prepared to invest a great deal of time to achieve tangible results.</ul>About The AuthorLee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., <a href="http://www.intelective.com," target="_new">http://www.intelective.com,</a> a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies. Lee@intelective.com<a href="mailto:Lee@intelective.com">Lee@intelective.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Selecting The Title Of Your Link Exchanges</h1> 2009-02-19T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Martin Lemieux I want to touch base with selecting the title of the links that are added to other sites. Adding your link on another site is very important for your search engine saturation and rankings.More importantly, what title do you chose?Many seo firms our there now believe that web sites are getting penalized from link swapping. Even today, I had an seo company that wanted my company to link to his site #1 but he would link to my site from his site #2. I don't think so.For those of you who think that getting people to link to site #1 and then you link to them with site #2 is going to get great responses, your wrong.That's a whole other topic but I felt it should be addressed.So here you are, you're about to add your link onto another site, but what do you write for the title?Well you have to ask yourself a couple of questions 1st.<ul><li>Have you checked your site for key words?<li>Did you create proper meta tags?<li>Are your meta tags reflecting your content?<li>Do you realize that inbound links bring traffic?</ul>So let's address these important issues...1) Have you checked your pages for key word density?One of my larger clients came to me trying to get back some of his crucial key phrases within google that he just recently lost. I added his site to my "key word" density program and realized that the key phrases he was attacking didn't leave a single trace within his site.Here is a great key phrase density checker for those of you who don't have a personal script to help:<a href="http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html" target="_new">http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html</a>When your looking at your page results within the key word analizer, make sure to select one paragraph that best describes that page.For instance, here are the results for my main page:<dir> web (28) / design (16) / marketing (11) / search (10) tips (10) / advertising (10) / affordable (10) web design (8) / business (8) / articles (7) / site (7) marketing tips (6) / smartads (6) online (6) newsletter ... etc</dir>These results have been somewhat filtered and made smaller for this example. So taking a look at that, you can start to see what search engines are going to see. There are 2 key phrases that I want to have great search placements with so I chose these two phrases from those words to best fit the title of my main page..."Affordable Web Design & Internet Marketing Tips"Notice that I DIDN'T use all the most important words, I only used exactly what I am trying to get when it comes to search terms online.So now that I have that, I now have a title that I can add on other sites. Depending on whether the link category is about web design or internet marketing, I create the appropriate link.If I add my site to a web design category, I submit this title...Affordable Web Design - and link it to my main page.If I add my site to a web promotion category, I submit this link title...Either: Internet Marketing / Web Advertising / Marketing Tips / or Internet Marketing TipsIf you take a good look at the results from above, all these title's are perfect for that page.Here is something you shouldn't do... Don't take ALL the key words from the results above and make them your title like so...Affordable web design, web design, internet, internet marketing, internet marketing tips.Read that whole paragraph out loud, sounds stupid doesn't it? I think so 2 and so do search engines.Don't forget that inbound links bring you A LOT of traffic! It's a fact that inbound links usually give your web site a lot more traffic than search engines do! That's why it's so important not only to select the right title for search engines but to also consider the visitor who will read your title. Make it simple and easy to understand.Now that you've selected the right title for your main page, get a little more creative and select your most important pages from your site so that you can also analize and select a number of titles for your site. Doing this work before hand will improve your daily marketing arsenal.I wish you much success with this article!About The AuthorMartin Lemieux Founder & President Affordable Web Design & Internet Marketing<a href="http://www.smartads.info" target="_new">http://www.smartads.info</a> & <a href="http://www.smartads.ca" target="_new">http://www.smartads.ca</a>OASES - Online Advertising Search Engine Services<a href="http://www.flyinggelatingames.com" target="_new">http://www.flyinggelatingames.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Its All Very Well Having A Website That Gets Lots Of Traffic But Sales Are Its Life Blood</h1> 2009-02-18T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Neil Swift You have optimised your website, found the keywords that get lots of traffic and don't have much competition. All the keywords are added to your site (Title, Meta tags etc) and you have done some excellent flowing writing with your keywords peppering your homepage.Great, you now have a website, it is fairly well optimised, you are getting lots of traffic and guess what there is still something else needed in the mix.You need to juggle all of the above with excellent copywriting.What is copywriting? Well it's the text that appears on your website, the bits that sell. And yes that's mainly what websites are for, they are your representative, they sell you places that you wouldn't have dreamed of looking or find people you just wouldn't have talked to.For starters whatever is above the 'fold' of your page i.e. before you start scrolling is THE most critical area, you literally have about 8 seconds to grab the 'surfers' attention before they're gone to the next site.What is said to your visitor when they arrive at your site is just as or even more important than getting them there in the first place! What would you prefer, 1,000 visitors a day with 2 sales or 100 visitors a day with 2 sales? Personally I would prefer the 100 visitors, at least then I would know my copy was working and could easily ramp up the visits.So, what makes for great copywriting and a great landing page? There is lots of information out there and I can recommend a few people, just search for them on the web; Chris Cardell and Alan Forest Smith (Orange Beetle)Some of the main fundamentals: Tell your customers the benefits of your service & what problem it is going to solve in their lives Talk about your customer (don't talk about you, your company etc blah, blah, blah). Everyone likes talking about themselves, your customers are no different. Include YOU and YOUR as much as you can in your copy. Start building a relationship with your customer, give something away for free, ask them to join your mailing list in exchange for something free. Break the text up and use bullets (bullets draw attention to areas of text) If you can, give your product away on a 30 day trail, with customers agreeing to return or pay on xxxx date. You need to write with some level of energy and passion. Test and Measure EVERYTHINGWell there are a few bits to start with. And remember test and measure, once you have got your new page up, ruthlessly test all the results and tweak your copy until you have something that just reels them in.You can get something called Google analytics that measures all your traffic and where people go, where they leave your site etc and it's free. You will need to apply and there may be a waiting list, but well worth it.Wishing you all the sales you deserve. Neil SwiftThe views expressed in this article are those of the author and any changes you make to your website are done at your own risk. Neil Swift cannot be held responsible for any outcomes, unless you make millions and you want to say thanks=) You may use this article for anything you want as long as no changes are made to any part including this footer.Enjoy life and prosper. Regards Neil Swift owner of <a target="_new" href="http://www.canvasimagery.co.uk">http://www.canvasimagery.co.uk</a> Canvas Art and Photos on Canvas, <a target="_new" href="http://www.makeamoneytree.co.uk">http://www.makeamoneytree.co.uk</a> Froogle Resource Guide, <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Most Overlooked Search Engine Optimization Technique</h1> 2009-02-17T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Scott Fish Some of the basics when it comes to SEO and getting high ranking in search engines starts with using a keyword and then placing it strategically throughout the website in content, title, headline, etc. Using the keyword multiple times in your content is great, but lets look at something that a lot of websites completely overlook.Simply put...Take your keywords and current links within your site and USE them!What I mean by this is, you have certain keywords that are spread across your website. You also have links going to other websites, affiliates, advertising, resources, etc. Combine your links with * Relevant * keywords and you will see an increase in page rank and traffic due to the increase in PR. Just take a few minutes scan through your site find links that may be the name of a company, anything that says "partner" or "affiliate" -- Change them! Make them say anything related to your main keywords.Follow this strategy, it takes just a few minutes and this plus other simple strategies will add up to a good increase when your key words are searched for in search engines.Some of the basics when it comes to SEO and getting high ranking in search engines starts with using a keyword and then placing it strategically throughout the website in content, title, headline, etc. Using the keyword multiple times in your content is great, but lets look at something that a lot of websites completely overlook.Scott Fish President, <a target="_new" href="http://www.TopSatelliteRadio.com">http://www.TopSatelliteRadio.com</a> Personal Blog: <a target="_new" href="http://www.ScottFish.BlogSpot.com">http://www.ScottFish.BlogSpot.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Marketing Ethics Dont Believe The Hype</h1> 2009-02-16T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Mark Hochhaus Getting to the top of the search engines, and staying there, is an ongoing process. This does not mean it is expensive to stay at the top. In fact, in most cases, it's rather affordable. But beware, there are pitfalls along the way to search engine Zen.The old adage, "If it sounds too good to be true", applies to SEO (search engine optimization). There are many companies that will promise top results using less than ethical methods. Including slick salesmen that will convince you that all the top sites cheat the search engines in order to stay on top. You will run into web site owners that mask keywords to get top positions making it sound very tempting to follow in their foot steps.Don't be fooled by such hype. These are short term solutions that can lead to a permanent ban in the top engines. Once you are banned in Google, Yahoo, MSN or ASK, you may as well dump your site and start over. If you're looking for long term success on the internet, don't cheat the search engines.One of the cheats I have been seeing lately is masking content with "noscript tags". The noscript tags are used to define an alternate content (text) if a script is NOT executed. People have been taking advantage of this and filling it with content that visitors don't see, but the search engines do. While this does work, it is short term and believe me when I say, you will be caught. You will have no warning, no second chances. You will wake up one day and your site will not be found.There is no phone number to call, your emails go unanswered, and traffic to your site drops off overnight. Your income dries up and it's all over. It can take six months or more to undo the damage and, in some cases, it's permanent. The major search engines are always on the lookout for new cheats. When found, they will program the search engines to drop the sites using these methods. Without warning, you're gone. Also, don't forget, your competition watches your site and is looking for ways to rank higher than you. Your competition may report your unethical methods to the search engines.If you're planning to be around for the long haul and want some success on the internet, then you need to be ethical in your promotion. Unless you have daily time dedicated to studying SEO and making the needed changes, you should contract with a reputable SEO company. You need a company that studies the SEO industry on a daily basis to keep on top of what it takes to rank at the top for the long run. A company that is above cheats and quick fixes. A company that offers solid optimization that can keep you on top of the search engine results. A company that will take the time to target your specific audience to get you visitors that are interested in your product or service.Many SEO companies will promise thousands of visitors a day. Unless those visitors are interested in what you have to offer or ended up at your site and did not find what they searched for, they will remember you. They will remember that you did not have what they wanted. They may leave disappointed and your good name will have a black mark next to it. Don't get sucked into damaging your image by slick salesmen.When looking for a company to handle your SEO, first and foremost, be comfortable with the people you will be directly working with. They will need total access to your web site and server to make the needed changes. At times, the verbiage of your site may need minor changes. A word or two may need to be changed to improve keyword density. You need a company you can trust with your company's image.In today's business world, you must have a web site. After all, your competition does. Your site must be marketed ethically and monitored daily. Changes must be made ASAP when conditions change. Hire a professional to handle SEO. When your business is booming, it's too easy to put SEO on the back burner. Before you know it, your rankings will have dropped from top to bottom, as well as your bottom line.About the Author:Mark Hochhaus co-owner of <a href="http://www.increased-online-traffic.com" target="_blank">Technet Internet Marketing</a> has been developing web sites and optimizing for search engines since the early days of the Internet. To keep abreast of his latest articles, visit: <a href="http://www.increased-online-traffic.com/seo-news.asp" target="_blank">Technet's SEO News Blog: The Optimizer</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>A Quick Introduction To Search Engine Optimisation Seo</h1> 2009-02-15T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Peter Smith SEO is currently a buzz word across the Internet but many normal people do not know what it is let alone how to do it. This is the massively growing trend of Search Engine Optimisation or SEO for short. SEO essentially is a way of altering websites in order to appear higher on a search engines for specific key words or key phrases. Now the theory behind this is relatively simple and the following list will cover the basics of how to achieve a higher ranking page (these basics follow white hat principles).1. Chose one to three key phrases per webpage you create. Key phrases can be researched using Wordtracker or Overture in order to find the optimum key phrase for you. These 2 resources will basically help you find a phrase that hundreds or thousands of people search for, rather than just a few dozen if you choose the keyword off the top of your head.2. When you have defined your key phrase create a relevant title for your webpage, and make sure your keyword/phrase is in it.3. Write some content based around your key phrase, making sure you repeat your key phrase within the content. It is good practise to have between 6 12% of your content being the key phrase; however you need to try and make the content as readable as possible.4. Create valid HTML or XHTML for your page and any ALT attributes used in images that are used should be specific to the image itself. If the image is relevant to your key phrase make sure you try and use the key phrase in the explanation. Images that have no meaning add the Alt attribute but set it to "".5. Add your keywords into the Meta keywords and also create a description about the page and include the keywords within the description. Now these 2 Meta tags are not taken into consideration by many Search Engines now-a-days but it is generally good practice to have them in place.6. Any links within your document make sure you use relevant text as the link for example instead of having "Learn about SEO click here" with click here as the link just use "Learn about SEO" and have the sentence as the link. This is known as anchor text.Steps 1-6 cover the on page optimisation briefly. A webmaster can then look into building up their link popularity. This is where web pages link back to your page, and arguably is one of the more important parts of SEO. When a search engine spider visits your page it will look at how many other pages link to your page, it will also look at them pages and see what the pages are about. The more pages linking to your site then the more likely the search engine will think your webpage is important. However it is not quite so simple as that, the Search Engine will also look at the site that has linked to your page and if that page is based on the subject you have written about it will regard the link as more useful to lets say a poker site linking to a cricket site.Finally the SE will also look at how well the linking page is rated itself if no one has linked to the linking page then it will not be classed as that important so the weight of the link will not be that great to your site. However let's say apple.com linked to the linking page along with hundreds of other sites and the page was based on the same subject as yours then the link would be very valuable indeed. Now if we look at Google they have a way of ranking how important pages are, called Page Rank (PR) the higher the PR the more important the site. 1 Way linking, this is the best form of linking and normally mean the content on your site is a useful resource or just generally interesting to the linking website and they have decided to link to you. 2 way linking. This is the more common way for SEO experts to get links; they literally swap links with websites. 3 way linking. This is less common but is an attempt to make search engines think your website has 1 way links not 2 way links. For example Site A will link to Site B, then Site B will link to Site C and finally Site C will link back to Site A.If these strategies are put in place then a website will be well on the way to achieving better results in the search engines. Unfortunately because websites can be optimised to appear higher in search engines it has tempted a lot of people to find devious ways to improve a sites ranking in search engines.If you are serious about getting the best SEO for your site why not hire a dedicated company to perform White Hat SEO then look no further than <a target="_new" href="http://www.blueecho.co.uk/">Blue Echo</a>I currently work for Blue Echo UK Ltd as the online promotions manager. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Has Google Destroyed Surfing On The Web</h1> 2009-02-14T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by James Newton <blockquote>Because that is what we used to do! We used to ride the waves of information and see where it took us. Remember those day's? We would type in a key word or phrase in our favorite search engine and start clickin'. Each site would have a link leading us to another site, and as you went you would always see something else cool, and click that. You started out looking for apples and ended up with zebras. </blockquote> <blockquote>You could start with same word as many times as you wanted and never end up in the same place twice. It was the information highway, and you went on a road trip. It was an ocean of information, and you went surfin'. We didn't care what it was we were looking for at first, because we found all this other cool stuff we would have never known about. </blockquote> <blockquote>Times have changed. Google pushed relevancy to the extreme. Or have they? Let's face it, search engines are nothing more than word searchers, and add posters. Any good word processing program has a way for you to search a document for key words. That is what Google, Yahoo, MSN, and all the others do. It used to be the words would link to other words in ways you would have never dreamed. You would just follow those paths. Now these word search programs have become more and more advanced. Google has led the industry by taking good idea's and making them better. </blockquote> <blockquote>They took search engine's to new level. They grew to such power that they are now shaping the world wide web into their vision. To not be indexed by Google is almost certain obscurity. So, you have to play by their rules. Yet, they keep changing the rules. </blockquote> <blockquote>Google said content is king. Quantity of links determined popularity. And key words were aptly named because they were the keys to the indexing. Webmasters and Search Engine Optimization companies scrambled to meet Google's demands. Google had become the most popular search engine because it promised relevancy to it's users. Link farms, and link trading sites sprung up over night. SEO companies made huge profits giving advise that many never followed. Some found loop holes and used them to their advantage. To get to the top of Google required money, and/or, innovation. Google saw it's rules were being bent, so, it changed the rules. </blockquote> <blockquote>They have apparently decided that too much emphasis was on the links, at least the link trading. They still wanted content to be king, however bloggs were doing their share of bending that rule too. Just before the biggest shopping week of the year, they mixed it all up again. Many of those that were at the front, are now in obscurity. Some that were doomed into obscurity are now scrambling to meet the demands that they suddenly face. Everyone is in a rush to get their sites to meet the new Google standards. We now write articles, or use others, with key words used in very specific positions in hopes that the word search program we know as Google will find our site relevant to their users. They have launched new beta programs that will build new ways to determine relevancy. </blockquote> <blockquote>One of those, allows Google to pier deeper into web sites than ever before. Google site maps beta. Good news is webmasters now have the Google ruler in front of them, and can now, instantly see how they measure up. They can now tweak their sites to conform to the Google mold. Bad news is, this is a stepping stone to a bigger shake up, and a mold made of concrete. They want to see what your users are doing on your site to help determine popularity, and relevancy. </blockquote> <blockquote>This could lead to dead locks. A site will have to be popular to be at the front of Google. How do you get to be popular without being at the front of Google? If Google doesn't send you traffic, then how do you get your site in front of everyone. The sites that get to the front will grow in popularity, while those at the back are forever doomed. Or, will they be?</blockquote> <blockquote>Google is all about making money. How do they make money? With click through adds. The links Google says have the most relevancy are one way text links. Like an add. If your site is in obscurity, then you will have no choice, but to create good content and purchase adds. And, of course, one way to make money is to put Google adds on your article pages. Google is creating a money machine. Hey, I have no problem with that. I believe in free enterprise. The problem is in the content and relevancy. Remember Google got to the top by providing that to it's users. When you typed in apples, you got apples. Do you really?</blockquote> <blockquote>If content is king, then those with the most articles about a given subject will be at the forefront of a key word. I wanted to know how to make a motorcycle helmet. I typed in "How motorcycle helmets are made". What I got back, was a bunch of sites trying to sell helmets. None of them had articles on how a helmet is made. I looked through page after page of Google listing and could not find the information I was looking for. </blockquote> <blockquote>On the flip side, if I want to purchase some lingerie for my wife, and I type in lingerie, I don't want to read about it. I want to see some lingerie, and make my selection at a safe, cheap, and secure web site. I don't care about the history of lingerie, I just want my gal to look sexy. How do I know if the site at the front of Google is going to offer me the best deal? Granted Google, and other search engines have come up with shopping links. You can compare prices on the same item listed at many different sites. Cool, that is what I want when I shop. Then why is a shopping site listed in front of information sites when I type in lingerie? What happened to all the cool sites I used to find when I typed in apple?</blockquote> <blockquote> I don't think the relevancy problems are going to be fixed any time soon. Not until someone splits the web. At least two sections. Shopping, and information. If I have lingerie for sale, should not my site be indexed on shopping experience. If I am a search engine, and someone wants to shop, I should want to provide them with the best possible shopping experience, at the best possible prices, and the best possible selection. All the shopping sites are trying to fit the Google mold so creativity is lost. </blockquote> <blockquote>For instance, Google frowns on javascript. I can't have fun javascript pages and get to the front of Google. I thought it would be cool if I could create a virtual reality mall. The shoppers walk into the front door (mouse manipulation) and tour the mall and look at the various shops. Will never be indexed. I want to create a super clothing store where shoppers can but shoes, purses, clubwear, lingerie, sportingwear, and accessories. Too many departments depletes your relevancy in any one department and destroys your indexing power. Google has destroyed web surfin'. Web users and web builders are now conforming to what Google says is relevant. Will this ever change? They greatest thing about the web is, it is ever changing. </blockquote> <blockquote>The industry started with Apple computers and is now at Google. Bill gates started making a program with a bunch of guy's that eventually formed Apple Computers. Bill Gates went on to form Microsoft. The leaders of Google came from Microsoft. Who knows what, or who will sprout off next. It started with Apple, and may end in Zebra.</blockquote>James Newton ownes and operates a retail store and a web site called <a target="_new" href="http://www.sweetdeal4u.biz"> Hot Stuff Leather and Lace</a>, where he hopes to be at the top of Google one day. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>A Good Headline Is Always Needed For Your Seo Content Provider To Succeed</h1> 2009-02-14T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Christopher Kyalo A good headline is so badly needed that without it your SEO content provider is doomed to fail. It matters little how good their writing is or even how good they are in finding the best keyword phrases.Good keyword phrases will give you a good position in search engine results, but if you have a poor headline, readers will ignore your site listed at number one on the page. Instead they will eagerly click on the site listed at number ten and right at the bottom of the page, simply because it has a more catchy interesting headline.You do this yourself all the time. Just try and remember the times you have clicked on the site that is listed right at the top of the results from your search? Not many I can assure you. This is precisely why without a needed catchy headline, a lot of the other good wok from your SEO content provider will be wasted.There is something else that is very important once you've gotten somebody to your site. Everybody knows that the longer you can keep them there, the higher a chance you have of making some money from them. The only way to keep them there is with good content packaged in the sort of headlines that grab them by the scruff of their necks and drag them to read your content. That's what is needed from a SEO content provider to succeed at your site.Are you considering hiring a ghost writer? If so don't do anything until you've read a few more articles at the author's <a target="_new" href="http://webcontentprovider.blogspot.com/2006/03/most-popular-hire-ghost-writer.html">hire a ghost writer</a> blog. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>3 Key Offpage Search Engine Optimization Methods</h1> 2009-02-13T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Portia David On-page search engine optimization is definitely one of the key methods if a website owner would like to improve the results for his or her website's searchability. However, on-page SEO often entails technical skills. Why? Not a lot of people are HTML enthusiasts. This is often what needs to be tweaked to do an excellent job in optimizing web pages.What if a geek friend already did the on-page optimization and now you want to know how you can contribute to the "search engine goodness" of your website? Off-page optimization is the next step. And the results you will have to pine for are one-way backlinks. Why? This is how many of the major search engines such Google, Yahoo! and MSN rank websites. The more backlinks from relevant sites with good page rank, the merrier.So how exactly do you gather backlinks? It's not an easy task but it's definitely less nerve-wracking than HTML if you are not the techie type. Here are some off-page SEO tips:1. Article MarketingQuality content has been discovered to be real king. Everyone is hungry for fresh and quality info and providing it will make backlinks go pouring in. It helps a lot to be a keen writer to be successful on this endeavor. Also, practise the proper way of using a resource box. It should only include a website that contains information relevant to the article you submit to article directories.2. Forum ParticipationLook for forums that are relevant to your website's content and keep on sharing information that will be indispensable for the members of the forums. Your signature or that tag-along message at the last part of each of your posts is what will work for your off-page SEO campaign. Keep it simple and make sure that it conveys something about your website. Learn how to hyperlink to make it easy for the people who want to visit your site.3. BloggingBlogs or web logs are now the most popular weapons of SEO experts. Aside from being easy-to-update, they don't require a too formal tone, which is what many readers are into. Informal dialog which can be accomplished through readers leaving comments and the blog author replying to the comments is what also keeps blogs fresh and search engine friendly. Maintaining a blog that's again relevant to your website's content will keep the search engines in touch with your site. Don't forget to have a link on your main website from your blog.The secret to be successful in carrying out these off-page SEO methods is to be consistent. Submitting quality articles to websites at least two to three times a week and regularly producing content for your personalized blog is a surefire way to make your website stand out. Forum participation should also be something done more frequently since it will not only help you up your website's popularity with the search engines but also make you learn new stuff from other forum members' participation. Also, if you discover that you don't enjoy these stuff, there's always a plan B - hire someone to do them for you!Note: This article may be freely reproduced as long as the AUTHOR'S resource box at the bottom of this article is included and all links must be Active/Linkable with no syntax changes.-------------------------Informal SEO is the way to go: <a target="_new" href=http://alfamercado.com/blog/2006/06/02/isulong-seoph-contest-entry-of-a-woman/>Isulong SEOPH</a>------------------------- <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Secret Internet Marketing Tactic Lets You Dominate The Search Engines</h1> 2009-02-13T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Michael Senoff If you want to get a LOT more Internet traffic than you are now, without having to do a lot of complicated key word and SEO tricks, then this article will show you how.Listen to this:The key to getting a lot of traffic to your website...is audio.Why?Because search engines are now starting to pick up what is called ID3 tags.What are ID3 tags?Well, you know how when you put a CD in your CD Rom, or if you have a car CD player, and you put it in there and you see the little title of what you're putting in there flash across?That's an ID3 tag. There's code embedded in the actual mp3 file, and also when people download digital files onto an iPod.This allows people to sort their music by title, artist and other criteria.And, when you have an mp3 file up on your website, the search engines start picking it up that information like they do HTML text.So, imagine if you have twenty or thirty audio recordings on your site, and you've got millions of people searching for whatever it is you sell.By using audio, in addition to your regular web page content you have now, you have an extra "layer" of content being picked up by the search engines at the same time.And by having those ID3 tags, and the keywords within, it's going to be easier to dominate your market because the websites can't search the actual audio portion.All they can go by is what's on the ID3 tags on your files. This is the strategy I do with my own websites with phenomenal results. And it will work for you, too.The whole key to this is to simply get that audio content up there on your site with the ID3 tags and then let the search engines do the rest.Michael Senoff is a sought-after Internet marketer, interviewer and business coach with more than 50,000 students on four continents. For a limited time he is giving away free over 120 hours of in-depth audio interviews with some of the richest and most successful marketers, copywriters and business experts in the world at his famous website <a target="_new" href="http://hardtofindseminars.com">http://hardtofindseminars.com</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How To Build A Site To Get Search Engine Rankings Part 1 Of 2</h1> 2009-02-12T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by David Wells There are many ways to get visitors to your website but none are as desirable as search engine traffic. It's highly targeted (provided you build your site correctly), has the potential to drive large numbers of visitors to your site and, best of all, it's free.Trouble is, there are only five major search engines and each one has ten spaces on the first page of results for any given keyword phrase. That makes only 50 front page spaces for your keyword. The competition can be fierce.The internet is mature enough that you probably aren't going to be able to target a top-level general keyword and have any hope of getting top rankings. There are just too many established players to compete with and they have a huge head start on you.The key is to start small and focus on a very narrow sub-niche. The process of selecting your niche is half the battle. Many people are eager to get the building part and rush past the all-important planning phase. This is a mistake.You wouldn't build a house without a complete blueprint. A website should be treated the same. Take your time and develop a careful plan before you start posting pages. It will save you time in the long run and your odds of success will be much better.The analysis and design of a website should follow a series of logical steps. Pick your topic, identify your keywords, determine the competitive landscape and then build your site.The first item of business is to select the general topic your site will be about. It's important to recognize that your final topic selection will be driven by market forces and competitive pressures. Your goal is to achieve high rankings in the search engines after all and you aren't likely to achieve that if you choose a topic in a well-defined and highly competitive market. So this process is essentially one of narrowing your focus until you have a niche that you can effectively compete in.You will do better in every way if you pick a topic that interests you. First, your passion, or lack thereof, for the topic will come through in your writing. Passion and enthusiasm for a subject are necessary ingredients for writing content that people actually want to read. Second, you are far more likely to stick to it if you have a genuine interest in the subject matter.To begin your topic selection process you should brainstorm general topic ideas for at least 30 minutes. During the first few minutes the ideas will come fast and furious, but then you will have to start thinking about it deeply and intently. This is the point where most people quit and take the list they have and run with it. That's a mistake.Your topic selection is the most important determining factor to your success or failure on the internet. Take your time and do it right the first time. Spend the entire 30 minutes focusing intently on listing every topic that interests you, even if it sounds silly. The first benefit of staying on task is that you will create a much larger initial list than you would if you quit after the ideas stopped flowing freely.The second benefit, and the real power of this technique, is the message you are sending to your subconscious. When you focus intently on a question for a full 30 minutes your subconscious gets the message that you want an answer, so for the next few days your subconscious will provide answers to your brainstorm question. And many of these ideas will be the best you'll get from your brainstorming session. Be sure to capture these ideas and add them to your list.You now have your general topic list. This list will form the basis of your research for this site and the next so be sure to keep it safe and back it up with a hard copy.Go through your list and select the top five topics based on the sole criteria of how excited you are about writing content on this topic for the foreseeable future. Your topic must interest you or your writing won't interest your visitors.Now you have your short list and step one of your website analysis and design is finished.Step two is much more involved. During this step you will narrow your topic down into a set of competitive niche keywords to build your site pages around. These keywords will form the foundation of your website promotion efforts. I can't stress enough how important it is to do a thorough analysis of your niche market before you start building pages.Take the first topic term from your short list. This will be your first research project. It may seem like a lot of work but you should go through this market analysis process for each of your five short list topics. Only by doing all five will you have a clear picture where your best opportunities for success lay.This works best if you create a spreadsheet or a chart to help you organize the data you collect for each topic. Start by labeling your columns from left to right with the following:1. Keyword 2. Searches 3. Results 4. Results / Searches 5. # of Google AdWords Campaigns 6. 1st AdWords bid 7. 2nd AdWords bid 8. 3rd AdWords bid 9. # of Yahoo Search Campaigns 10. 1st Yahoo bid 11. 2nd Yahoo bid 12. 3rd Yahoo bid 13. 1st site 14. 2nd site 15. 3rd siteCollecting the data and filling in this spreadsheet will take some time and effort but it will prove worth it in the long run.The data for columns 1 & 2 can be obtained by using Overture's free search tool. Go to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ and enter your topic into the search box. You will get a long list of keywords that include variations on your topic along with the number of searches performed for that keyword during the last month. Go down the list and enter your keywords in column 1 and their corresponding search volume in column 2.You should have quite a list here. Remember, this is the process of narrowing your niche so it's ok to have lots of potential terms to pick from. At this stage it's good to have a big list.For column #3 go to Google or Alta Vista and do a search for each term on your list. Be sure to put quotes around your search term to narrow the results to a more targeted subset.The results page for your search will provide you with the data you need to fill in columns #3, #13, #14 and #15. Column #3 is simply the number of results returned. This will be listed at the top of the page. For columns 13, 14, and 15 simply enter the URL's for the top three sites listed in the order listed on the search results page. These sites are your primary competitors for this keyword. You will come back to these sites later to determine how well optimized they are and to help you develop your site promotion strategy but more on that later.At this point you have a list of keywords related to your topic, search volume (demand), search results (supply), and the top 3 sites for each keyword. Column #4 can be calculated by dividing the search results by the search volume. This will give you a number you can easily use to compare the supply vs. demand of each keyword. The lower the number the less competitive the market is with regard to searches verses websites targeting that niche.Columns #5 through column #12 will tell you how expensive the pay-per-click market is for this keyword. You can get a good feel for how competitive a market is and how profitable it is by how many other marketers are paying to advertise for those keywords and how much they are spending for a click.Another important reason for collecting this information is to reveal arbitrage opportunities. Often there will be an imbalance between the cost per click for Yahoo and Google. You can take advantage of this imbalance.In simplest terms you add content that has a high PPC cost in one engine. Add page display ads (AdWords etc) to the same page for the high cost PPC engine. Then drive traffic to that page with the same keywords using the low-priced PPC engine. This isn't necessary for site rankings but it can earn you some extra revenue.To fill these fields you will need to go to Google AdWords and sign up for an account (https://adwords.google.com/select/). It costs $5 to get started and is well worth the price. Use your AdWords account to go through each keyword and determine the number of campaigns and the top three bids for each keyword.The process for Yahoo search is basically the same. Although Yahoo does require a $50 initial deposit, you can use this money towards click costs. Sign up here http://www.content.overture.com/d/.The process has been tedious to be sure but you now have a valuable collection of data for your first topic idea. Now it's time to begin narrowing the field. Print off your spreadsheet so you can cross off keywords. This way you won't lose any of the data you've collected it may be of value in the future.This concludes Part 1 of "How to Build a Site to get Search Engine Rankings"Go to Part 2 - <a target="_new" href="http://EzineArticles.com/?id=200407">http://EzineArticles.com/?id=200407</a>. Learn even more about SEO at <a href="http://search-engine--marketing.blogspot.com">Search Engine Marketing</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How To Manage Seo</h1> 2009-02-12T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Michael Murray Whether you launch a search engine optimization program in-house or outsource the program, you should keep the following training opportunities and skill sets in mind: Advanced SEO techniques, including page titles, META descriptions, META keyword sets, internal page cross-linking, search engine submissions, robots.txt files and domain name management; Comprehends keyword weighting, proximity, density and related factors; Search term ranking analysis; Link popularity building research, management and strategy; Online forum and industry newsletter monitoring; National SEO conferences; HTML and advanced programming languages; Web site content writing; Essential Web site usability practices; Keyword research, including a firm understanding of language and the way people search; Web analytics, including understanding common and complex metrics associated with visitors, unique visitors, page views, online sales, profitability and more; Ability to see the big picture and not go so overboard with SEO practices that the web site gets banned from major search engines; Appreciation for ethical standards (i.e. should know about cloaking, keyword stuffing and the differences and nuances associated with "black hat" and "white hat"); Marketing and branding experience; Project management, including ability to effectively communicate needs and foster cooperation from appropriate stakeholders; Familiarity with pay per click (PPC) programs and how their performance directly relates to natural SEO results; Management of paid inclusion (72-hour rapid indexing programs); How to adjust to the changing algorithms of search engines.The search engine optimization field is complex and ever-changing. To keep pace, you should have plenty of skills on hand. Overall, the SEO program process should be simple: set goals, choose the best keywords, optimize pages, submit to search engines and refine efforts in light of rankings and web analytics.Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO, a Cleveland, Ohio-based <a target="_new" href="http://www.fathomseo.com">SEO firm</a>. He authored the "U.S. Manufacturers Resist Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Online Sales Leads" study and a white paper, "Search Engine Marketing: Get in the Game." <a target="_new" href="mailto:michael@fathomseo.com">michael@fathomseo.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Ignoring Google</h1> 2009-02-11T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Sangam Mulmi Google is the lord of websites, there is no any doubt about it. Every one is running behind Google for an opportunity for Google to turn back and look at them. This is the evil going on in the web world. Building a website must have an objective to satisfy the website viewers rather than Google. If your website is liked by all then Google cannot ignore it. After all Google is also running behind visitors to satisfy them.If your website has good content as the desire of your website viewers then Google cannot neglect your website, since Google itself wants to satisfy its website viewers so how can Google hate your website if it is liked by all. So while building a website always give first priority to your visitors and market you are looking for.Google is nothing but only the medium to pull visitors to your website which you can do by simply writing your website URL in the wall of your house with a pencil, stamping a website URL in Paper notes, wearing T-shirt after printing a website URL in it, and there are many other Techniques how you can promote your website very cheaply and shortly. Saying this I am not suggesting you to avoid Google but I am saying you to stop running behind Google. Google is an excellent destination for all but why don't you try to make your own website the destination for Google.Many webmasters are wasting their valuable time just to see one more green bar in the PageRank box of Google Toolbar and for getting listed in first page of Google Search Page but most of them are unsuccessful for doing so. If that time was spent for the modification of their website then there would be something more they could contribute to the world. Your intension of running behind Google always keeps you backward but if you think of running your website yourself individually then the day will come when Google runs after you to get inside the frame of your eyes for a single sight of yours.Up to today, Google is successful because it is running independently. It didn't pray any one for its website's promotion, that's why Google is at the top today. Be careful, promoting a website with dirty tricks may cause a demotion of the website which can never be promoted again. You must not promote your website for getting Google's eye but for dragging more visitors to your website. Aren't you being blind by running foolishly behind Google? Think once, are you correctly knowing the value of website promotion and the value of website search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN.Author is a student studying at high school in Nepal. He is also involved in building a website. Some of his websites are <a target="_new" href="http://www.abroadeducation.com.np/">Guide for Abroad Studies</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Top Position In Google Tips For Ranking High</h1> 2009-02-11T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Sunny Hoggard SEO Firms Websites that gets found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc. is not hard to do, But most people are confused where to begin.I can offer some search engine optimization tips as per my knowledge.Try not to purchase a new domain unless you have to. Google's aging delay is trouble for all new domains, it is better to use your existing domain/website if at all possible. If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines The content should ne relevent. The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those "someones"(http://www.kvcindia.com) are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet their needs. If you don't know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another. Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This is crucial information to your website design, keyword research, and copywriting.Do Research on your keyword phrases . The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as Wordtracker, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Never shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research. Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let's say your site sells toys. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child's stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.") Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching. Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.Program your site to be "crawler-friendly." The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages. You'll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site. From those pages, you'll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links. There's nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard < a href > tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible. Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "click here" or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see." This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly.Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag. Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.Make sure your site is "link-worthy." Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.Dont overemphasise any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings. If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. It certainly won't hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something. It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a diatribe on the history of your products. Neither your site visitors nor the engines really give a hoot!Seo Consultant working for improvement of the ranking of websites in various search engines like google, yahoo & msn by using different SEO techniques. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Optimization Back To Basics</h1> 2009-02-10T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Paul Callis An organic search engine ranking is the more cost effective method. There is a lot of time and work that goes into making a website search engine friendly to get good rankings and even longer to build up good quality links.The only downside to organic search engine placement is the time required to get your website to the top, but once it is, you will reap the long term benefits for ever. Do not expect search engine optimization to work miracles overnight, it takes time, hard work and a lot of patience. The average time for a new domain name to rank well on Google is around 6-8 months now a days, as a new site do not get placed well until they have been up and running several months, so that Google know the site is genuine.Building Link Popularity is a very important aspect of any effective <a target="_New" href="http://www.seogeek.co.uk">Search Engine Optimization</a> campaign today. The off page factors such as link popularity, Page Rank and Anchor Text in incoming links play a major role in your site's ranking in the search engine results pages. More and more major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves, AltaVista etc. rely on off page factors such as 'Link Popularity' to establish the importance of your site in order to give it a high ranking. Now website optimization is not enough to get you good search engine rankings. A large number of good incoming links help your website beat competition to rank high in Search Engines.There are two types of links you can establish on the web. One way is to trade links with other website's, you give a link from your links Page on your site to the partner sites in return for their site linking to you. The second method is to establish one-way links, which are very hard to obtain and can be very costly. Both are extremely beneficial in gaining higher search engine rankings. Building Link Popularity is a very long and time consuming process, hence why many website owners employ the services of us to help them spend more time on other time consuming aspects of their business, such as running a shop etc.More information on Search Engine Optimization can be found at the author's website at <a target="_new" href="http://www.seogeek.co.uk">http://www.seogeek.co.uk</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Choosing A Search Engine Marketing Firm For Your Business</h1> 2009-02-09T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Darryl DeLong Each day more companies are turning to the Internet to provide a targeted way to market their product/services and generate leads and sales. Marketing on the Internet provides a greater return on investment and is more cost effective then most traditional marketing avenues. It can be incorporated with conventional offline marketing to result in lower cost, expanded reach, better measurement and accountability.For companies to be successful they need to concentrate first on the foundation of their business their products, services and customers. A combination of specialized technology and skills is required for Internet marketing due to the ever changing markets.Any search engine marketing firm that you choose should concentrate on two key areas that have a direct impact on your business and have access to the latest commercial seo tools. The first area of concern should be helping your business increase the number of relevant visitors to your website. This can be done thru optimizing your site for the search engines or pay-per-click advertising on Google Adwords for example. Sponsored or paid advertising on such sites as Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing can provide an immediate flow of targeted website traffic provided one has properly chosen the right keywords for your business offering. The second area of focus should then be on what I call "conversion optimization". This is basically increasing the percentage of those visitors that respond to your business offering before leaving your website.Here's a list of questions a search engine marketing company should be able to help you withWhich search terms really matter when it comes to attracting the maximum number of relevant visitors to your website?How does your company's website stack up against your competitors for those terms?What specific type of action do you want your website visitors to do? Examples: Sign-up for newsletter, download company brochure, schedule a live demo, etc.Where is your company dominant and where do you have opportunities to grow?If you choose the paid advertising route in the beginning to generate immediate targeted traffic then a good search engine marketing firm should be able to help you streamline the process from the impression of your ads to conversion, testing the offer that is presented at each step, and boosting overall conversion rates. A Web Analytic tool is absolutely essential in helping you better understand visitor behavior, identify user experience issues, time spent on your site, and overall campaign conversion tracking. Be sure a web analytics tool is part of the seo services you decide to invest in.<a target="_new" href="http://www.market-vantage.com">Market-Vantage LLC - A Search Engine Marketing Firm </a> - specializes in Integrated web marketing, helping B2B and B2C companies develop and implement effective Internet marketing strategies for positive impact on business. Please call us at 978-448-4333 or email us at <a href="mailto:drd@market-vantage.com">drd@market-vantage.com</a> for a free initial consultation to discuss your specific situation in confidence. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Seo Best Practices</h1> 2009-02-09T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by John Sylvester A few nights ago I was asked by a regular in a bar I frequent: 'what is this pub doing with a website? Somewhat bemused, I replied that it receives substantial hits to its website and that it is listed on all the Bangkok portals. More importantly, they have consistently remained at #1 on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and the other major search engines for well over a year. Visitors the site, although not verifiable, must convert into a lot of money.' He looked slightly bemused, shrugged his shoulders and muttered something about not knowing much about search engines.That is where we stand on building websites: our philosophy is based on making the web work for our clients; in providing them with a new revenue source. We don't just deliver tastefully designed websites, we also provide detailed research which we convert into accurately anticipated keywords likely to be used by potential visitors when searching for a source of information.With this knowledge, we optimise our clients' web pages and register it with sites we know will boost its rankings. This strategy has been successfully employed on sites based in Thailand, the UK, Germany, Australia, France, Austria and France.But there is another option to be seriously considered: commercial search. It is by far the most dynamic and fast-growing industry segment now, estimated to extend beyond $5billion by 2006. Pioneered by Overture (now Yahoo!), pay-per-click was created in response to three fundamental issues concerning internet search: poor quality results; random ordering of listings; and a weak advertising revenue model. It solved these problems by creating a real-time market for keyword bidding.Recently, however, it has spawned a series of bidding wars among a growing number of marketers wanting their ads displayed alongside the top search results, and the demand for placement now seems to have reached an almost critical level. Highly popular search terms can easily get you involved in a cost escalation dynamic: extend your bid to the top spot and there's a good chance that, within hours, #2 will outbid you. This process can go on indefinitely until the actual 'market space' for these search terms is inflated beyond reach, which can take several weeks to stabilise and return to some kind of equilibrium.Also, whilst pay-per-click can be the best marketing tool on the web if 'conversion rates' are high, there are four fundamental objectives to be recognised: 1. The content of your site must exactly match the keywords you intend to bid on; 2. All of your keywords stand no chance whatsoever of being listed in the top ten positions on the major search engines; 3. The cost of bidding will be more than recovered, as visits to your web pages will convert into quality leads or actual sales; 4. The more popular the search term, the more expensive. If you think it's worth the investment, then take the plunge.In the main, robots index websites, and few people look beyond the first 20 results. This has driven Google, Yahoo! and now MSN to devise a more specific search trend: e-marketing driven by localised search advertising, personalisation and increased specialisation. When fully operative, these initiatives will narrow the scope of the problems inherent in generic search results.In the meantime, V9 will continue to provide our clients with optimum results: we have the expertise and proven credentials in providing Thai- and foreign-based businesses the opportunity of profitable expansion.Media Director of V9 Design & Build, providing both local and outsourcing web and SEO services: we provide both brochureware and custom-designed websites, with tasteful design and branding, professional design and build, proven and successful SEO and e-marketing, e-commerce-driven database integration and content management systems. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>All Myths About Reciprocal Linking</h1> 2009-02-08T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Jas Virk I've been reading a lot of nonsense on various SEO forums about reciprocal linking being dead. People screaming and crying because their sites no longer rank well after Google's big Jagger update. I thought it would be timely for me to write an article about what REALLY happened, and what you can do about it.First of all, reciprocal links aren't dead, not by a long shot. It would be foolish of any search engine to ignore links from one authority site to another just because that other site points back to it. That, in fact, reinforces the value of both sites!What really happened is that Google got smarter about reciprocal links. They are harder on link farms now, and bogus "directories" of links. So the people who are crying foul probably had most or all of their links coming from these kinds of shady sources.From my own experience with my many sites, however, it seems clear that reciprocal links have been devalued by Google. All that means is that they don't count quite as much as they used to, but they are still very valuable.If you follow the philosophy of optimizing for keywords that are not super competitive, though, then you will find that your sites are not affected much, since most of your "competition" isn't really competing for the keywords you are targeting anyway.Remember Reciprocal Links Have Always Been A Short-Term Solution Besides, reciprocal links should ALWAYS be looked on as a short-term boost to get a site going. You want to get those reciprocal links so that you can get ranked for some less competitive keywords. Once you're getting some traffic, if you're offering high quality content to your visitors, you'll get more links into your site naturally.Jas Virk is the owner of <a target="_new" href="http://www.toponlineresources.com">http://www.toponlineresources.com</a> where you can find lot of information on Internet marketing <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>What Is Search Engine Marketing</h1> 2009-02-08T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by James Burchill It's in our genes, we're driven to seek. We 'hunt' for food, homes, partners, jobs and lately with the advent of the Internet information.Even in the early years of the Internet, before it evolved to include Web browsers, there were text based search engines. Back then they had funny names like Archie, and Gopher. It was only later, when the graphical browser was invented, that searching became much easier and accessible for the rest of us.The concept behind Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is quite simple: when a consumer or business person searches the Web through either a text box or by clicking through a directory hierarchy, they are in "hunt mode." This mode is unique because it indicates that the person is looking for information. Marketers understand this "hunt mode" means the searcher is probably somewhere in the buying cycle, researching a product or service to fill an immediate or future need.It's this 'timeliness' that makes search engine results some of the best sources of targeted traffic, whether that traffic originates from "organic" unpaid search listings or paid (sponsor) advertising listings.To leverage the power of targeted traffic, marketers must understand how to effectively use both paid and organic SEM and what they can expect each methodology to achieve.Search engine traffic is unique because: Presenting your message within the search engine traffic is non-intrusive. The searching is not interrupted and your message "arrives" just when the searcher is seeking knowledge or a solution. Search engine traffic results from a fixed inventory of searches. To truly qualify as search engine traffic, the search must be one that the searcher initiated as a search, either by clicking a search link or by entering a search query. Search engine traffic originates from a voluntary, audience-driven search. This means the visitors arriving from a search have selected your listing and chosen the words that match.Natural or "Organic" search engine marketing combines the best practices of technology, usability, copy/linguistics and online PR. This is because many search engines base their relevancy algorithms on a combination of the text they see on a page or site, combined with external elements such as links and user behaviours/preferences.These days, Marketers can buy text-link search results on all of the top search sites. The popularity of paid search results advertising can be attributed to the search engines' need for alternative revenue sources, marketers' increasing requests for search results traffic, and the high value of the traffic generated through search results.Unpaid (otherwise known as organic or algorithmic) search engine traffic was once fairly easy to get but this was before there were more than 3 billion documents competing for attention of the search engine databases!Some marketers believe there are "tricks" which will improve the relevancy of their indexed sites. Using tricks to fool the search engines is dangerous because many of these 'tricks' result in negative relevance penalties (they actually lower your ranking score!) as the engines take measures to punish search marketers who try and manipulate their systems. Remember, site and IP Blacklists do exist and 'tricks' are one sure-fire way to get yourself added.The good news is there are many compelling and legitimate organic search engine optimizations. Some of the best ones focus on content the mainstay of the Internet. Particular efforts should be focused on copy (the words), the site design (it's an artful balance between what the computerized search engine needs and what the human searcher wants), HTML formatting, and other technical considerations.Online marketing is a proven and valuable part of an overall integrated marketing campaign. And it all begins by understanding the precise keywords and search terms your ideal prospect is using to search the Internet. Find these and you unlock the potential of the Internet.Happy huntingkeyword hunting that is!JAMES C. BURCHILL is a 20-year veteran entrepreneur and information technology executive who now provides strategic marketing consulting services to a select group of clients. He is a published author, a passionate advocate of technology and the Internet, as well as an avid study of classical advertising and marketing strategies (which he uses during 'Internet alchemy' experiments.) James is an expert in information and data management, Internet marketing and online networking. A self confessed 'information and technology enthusiast', James brings a wide range of valuable skills to any venture. Of singular note is James' ability to assimilate complex subject matter and produce clean clear 'easy-to-understand' messages. James has been interviewed many times and caused quite the media buzz when a client 'double-dog-dared' him to prove you can get front page coverage for $0. The details and that 'dumb stunt' are now part of EBay legend. Currently James lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife and family, their Siamese cat and one very nervous fish.Visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.JamesBurchill.com">http://www.JamesBurchill.com</a> for details. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>The Secret Benefit Of Search Engine Optimisation Increased Usability</h1> 2009-02-07T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Trenton Moss A higher search ranking is what many website owners dream of. What they don't realise is that by optimising their site for the search engines, if done correctly, they can also optimise it for their site visitors.Ultimately this means more people finding your website and increased sales and lead generation. But are search engine optimisation and usability compatible? Aren't there trade-offs that need to be made between giving search engines what they want and giving people what they want? Read on and find out (although I'm sure you can guess the answer!)...1. Keyword research carried outBefore you even begin building your website, you should carry out keyword research to identify which keyword phrases your site should target. Using publicly available tools such as Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com), you can discover which keywords are searched for the most frequently and then specifically target those phrases.Doing keyword research is also crucial for your site's usability. By using the same keywords in your website that web users are searching for in search engines, you'll literally be speaking the same language as your site visitors.For example, you might decide to target the phrase, "sell toys", as your website does in fact sell toys. Keyword research would undoubtedly show you that web users are actually searching for, "buy toys" (think about it - have you ever searched using the word, "sell", when you want to buy something?). By placing the phrase, "buy toys" on to the pages on your website, you'll be using the same words as your site visitors and they'll be able to find what they're looking for more easily.2. 200 word minimum per pageQuite simply, search engines love content - the more content there is on a page the easier it is for search engines to work out what the page is actually about. Search engines may struggle to work out the point of a web page with less than 200 words, ultimately penalising that page in the search rankings.In terms of usability, it's also good to avoid pages with very little content. A page with less than 200 words is unlikely to contain a large amount of information, so site visitors will undoubtedly need to click elsewhere to find more detailed information. Don't be afraid to put a reasonably large amount of information on to a page. Web users generally don't mind scrolling down anymore, and provided the page provides mechanisms to aid scanning (such as employing sub-headings - see point 6 below) it shouldn't be too difficult for site visitors to locate the information that they're after.3. 100kb maximum HMTL sizeIf 200 words is the minimum page content size, then 100kb is the maximum, at least in terms of HMTL file size. Anything more than this and search engines may give up on the page as it's simply too big for them.A 100kb HMTL file will take 20 seconds to download on a 56k dial up modem, used by three in four UK web users as of March 2004 (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/intc0504.pdf). Add on the time it takes for all the other parts of the page to download, such as images and JavaScript files, and you're looking at a highly un-user-friendly download time!4. CSS used for layoutThe website of Juicy Studios (http://www.juicystudio.com) saw a six-fold increase in site visitors after switching from a table-based layout to a CSS layout. Search prefer CSS-based sites and are likely to score them higher in the search rankings because:- The code is cleaner and therefore more accessible to search engines- Important content can be placed at the top of the HTML document- There is a greater density of content compared to codingUsing CSS for layout is also highly advantageous for usability, as it leads to significantly faster download times.5. Meaningful page titleIf you know anything about search engine optimisation you'll know that search engines place more importance on the page title than any other attribute on the page. If the title adequately describes the content of that page then search engines will be able to more accurately guess what that page is about.A meaningful page title also helps site visitors work out where they are, both within the site and the web as a whole. The page title is the first thing that loads up, often quite a few seconds before the content, so a descriptive, keyword-rich page title can be a real aid to help users orientate themselves.6. Headings and sub-headings usedSearch engines assume that the text contained in heading tags is more important than the rest of the document text, as headings (in theory at least) summarise the content immediately below them.Headings are also incredibly useful for your human site visitors, as they greatly aid scanning. Generally speaking, we don't read on the web, we scan, looking for the information that we're after. By breaking up page sections with sub-headings that effectively describe the content beneath them, scanning becomes significantly easier.Do be sure not to abuse heading tags though. The more text you have contained in heading tags within the page, the less importance search engines assign to them.7. Opening paragraph describes page contentWe've already established that search engines love content, but they especially love the first 25 words or so on each page. By providing an opening paragraph that adequately describes the content of the rest of the page (or the site if it's the homepage), you should be able to include your important keyword phrases in this crucial area.As web users, whenever we arrive at a web page the first thing we need to know is whether this page has the information that we're after. A great way to find this out is to scan through the first paragraph, which, if it sufficiently describes the page content, should help us out.8. Descriptive link textSearch engines place a lot of importance on link text. They assume that link text will be descriptive of its destination and as such examine link text for all links pointing to any page. If all the links pointing to a page about widgets say 'click here', search engines can't gain any information about that page without visiting it. If on the other hand, all the links say, 'widgets' then search engines can easily guess what that page is about.One of the best examples of this in action is for the search term, 'miserable failure'. So many people have linked to George Bush's bio using this phrase as the link text, that now when miserable failure is searched for in Google, George Bush's bio appears top of the search rankings!As web users, we don't generally read web pages word-for-word - we scan them looking for the information that we're after. When you scan through text you can't take any meaning from the word 'click here'. Link text that effectively describes its destination is far easier to scan and you can understand the destination of the link without having to read its surrounding words.9. Frames avoidedFrames are quite an old-school technique, and although aren't as commonplace as they once were, do still rear up their ugly head from time to time. Using frames is one of the worst possible things you could do for your search engine ranking, as most search engines can't follow links between frames.Even if a search engine does index your pages and web users find you through a search engine, they'll be taken to one of the pages within the frame. This page will probably be a content page with no navigation (navigation is normally contained in a separate frame) and therefore no way to navigate to any other page on the site!Frames are also disadvantageous for usability as they can cause problems with the back button, printing, history and bookmarking. Put simply, say no to frames!10. Quality content providedThis may seem like a strange characteristic of a search engine optimised website, but it's actually crucial. Search engines, in addition to looking at page content, look at the number of links pointing in to web pages. The more inbound links a website has, all other things being equal, the higher in the search rankings it will appear.By providing creative, unique and regularly updated content on your website, webmasters will want to link to you as doing so will add value to their site visitors. You will also be adding value to your site visitors.ConclusionOptimising your website for both search engines and people needn't be a trade-off. With this much overlap between the two areas, you should easily be able to have a website that web users can find in the search engines, and when they do find it, they can find what they're looking for quickly and efficiently.This article was written by Trenton Moss. He's crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - <a target="_new" href="http://www.webcredible.co.uk">http://www.webcredible.co.uk</a> ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>10 Practical Ways Search Engine Optimization Companies And Clients Can Get Along</h1> 2009-02-06T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Michael Murray Even the best of intentions can go awry without careful attention to details and expectations. We've tested these methods out and they work.1. Get it in writing. Define the service scope in detail (i.e. we'll research keywords and optimize these pages with approved search phrases for this long).2. Return phone calls. That goes both ways. If the consultant needs some feedback, don't wait three days. If the client calls, don't wait three hours. It doesn't sound fair, but it makes sense. Consultants need help, but clients deserve more attention (prompt responses).3. Don't overwrite changes. SEO consultants can easily overwrite source code if they're not careful. Web site owners sometimes overwrite the very optimization steps a consultant put in place. Talk to each other and work out protocols to avoid these problems.4. Return e-mail messages. Like phone calls, e-mail messages deserve a quick response. Hitting "reply" is easier than picking up a phone and dialing a bunch of numbers. Clients and consultants shouldn't let a day go by without a response.5. Own up to mistakes. Painful and embarrassing as it is, admit mistakes. They can include failing to return a phone call and poor communication in a written report. If you mess up whether it's getting some data columns in the wrong place or placing the SEO consultants META data in the wrong spot, just acknowledge the mistake and move on. We're human. Things happen.6. Don't switch domain names. If you sign up with an SEO consultant, don't start with one domain and then get a notion about introducing a new one. It throws the whole program off track.7. Don't change your page names. If you have a page called newproducts.asp, don't change it to new-products.html after the SEO program begins. The change will just confuse search engine spiders and hinder or delay high rankings.8. Don't insert "alt" tags after the SEO program begins. "Alt" tags with images are for search engine consultants to manage. They're in the best position to know when "alt" tags might be appropriate. If you add them on your own, you may ruin the delicate balancing act SEO consultants perform with many page factors.9. Avoid altering page title tags. If an SEO consultant has a title tag strategy you approve, don't go back in a week and change it. Some pages can work with a company name in the title tag, others won't.10. Keep an open mind. Clients and consultants both need an open mind as creative ideas and approaches are expressed. A client may suggest something unethical, but the consultant should gently steer them away from the tactic. If a consultant finds a useful way of introducing a links directory on the Web site, give it some thought. Just because your Web site lacks a directory doesn't mean it can't support one. How can you have reciprocal links without one?Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO, an Ohio-based <a target="_new" href="http://www.fathomseo.com">search engine optimization firm</a>. We are members of SEMPO, SEO Consultants and SEOPros. Visit our site for our SEO white papers and recent SEO studies on the manufacturing and health care industries. <a target="_new" href="mailto:michael@fathomseo.com">michael@fathomseo.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How Keyword Research Can Help You Find Amp Dominate Niches</h1> 2009-02-05T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Carole Nickerson eBooks, articles and infoproducts are some of the hottest selling and most requested products online. eBooks are one of the easiest things to sell because they require no shipping & can be accessed within minutes of placing an order. When the ebook boom hit it's peak, they started popping up everywhere and now that marketers have perfected their selling & design tactics, there's no stopping them.But just as the dust began to settle on the ebook bonanza and pay-per-click search engines bubbled to the surface with keyword data, the word "niche" started infiltrating the internet marketing collective. As more tools became available for researching the search patterns and requests of web surfers, marketers took notice and saw one golden opportunity after another. We now know exactly what people want, and how many people want it.With laser precision, we can now easily dominate some of the most profitable yet overlooked markets on the web - and there are thousands if not millions. This insight has fueled all kinds of infoproducts and the rush is on to get those ebooks and articles published before someone else steals your thunder!But if you're still not sure what to write about or haven't been able to figure out the whole niche writing concept yet, then you don't need to look any further than keywords.Step 1 - Keyword ResearchThe best tool for this is Wordtracker. I've yet to find another tool which offers such excellent search data. This service will let you see exactly what people are searching for, as well as helping you determine how much competition you might have for a product in the search engines. You can start with an existing topic, or you can go fishing! Since I like to write about all kinds of topics, I enjoy the challenge of locating niches with no competition and then dominating those searches. But how do you "fish" for low-competing keywords?You have to think in terms of the types of searches performed for information. Here is a list of a few keyword combinations which work well:- How To- Learn How- Learn About- Information on- Find info on- Find info aboutThese are basic terms you would enter into Wordtracker's "Comprehensive" Search feature which is located in "Keyword Universe". You will end up with numerous results displaying things like "how to make a cool xanga", "how to tie a tie", "how to make paper snowflakes", etc. What is happening is that Wordtracker is using your base keyphrase and filling in the results.To take this one step further, you can use wildcards to get more unique results, such as:- How To * New- Learn * Online- Info * DogsWordtracker will fill in the * with any number of keyword strings that people are searching for, such as "How to Write a Newspaper Column" and "Info on northern inuit dogs".Don't assume the results are no good just because the keyword or phrase shows a low count for how many searches are performed. The Wordtracker database uses information from search engines which get peanut traffic compared to Google or MSN. You might be surprised when you take the keyphrase, plug it into Overture and see that while Wordtracker displays only 10 searches within a 120-day period, Overture reports 300 searches every month. It's about percentages and this is probably what a lot of people overlook.Here's another way of looking at it:If search engine A gets 2% of all internet traffic, and a keyword in it's database reports 10 requests in a month, but search engine B gets 50% of all internet traffic, then you can assume that the same keyword is actually getting more requests than just 10 searches per month. So with that said, it's important to put keyword reports into perspective by looking at the numbers behind the numbers.Step 2 - Competition ResearchWordtracker has a great feature which allows you to see which keywords have high and low competition in the search engines. Obviously, you want the low competing phrases for faster, more tangible visibility. It is important to learn how to use this research so that you can use it effectively. Wordtracker offers great tutorials you'll be able to digest in just minutes.For example, the keyphrase "headache remedy news and information" has only 38 sites competing in Google's index. I would see this as an excellent target because it has many requests and would be easy to dominate. Immediately I see potential for products such as:- An ebook about headache remedies- An article about headache remedies (Easy Adsense Revenue)- A forum, newsletter subscription (Easy Adsense Revenue)- An intro page to an affiliate program- All of the above!Step 3 - Get Busy!Now that you know how to use basic keyword research to locate niche ideas and dominate search engine results, you gotta get busy and start writing those ebooks and articles. You can choose to do one or both, offer ebooks for free or for sale. It really all depends on the topic you are focusing on. The obvious way to know which format is best is to look at how much content can be realistically written on a topic.One interesting strategy to consider is writing an ebook or group of articles where your keyphrase and keyword research determines most of the categories. For example, let's say you find 10 great low-competing keyphrases like:- "How to teach my hamster to fetch"- "How to get my hamster potty-trained"- "How to train my hamster to speak Spanish"- "How to train my hamster to do my taxes"- etc.You get the point, right? You're basically just creating categories based on what people want. This way you're reaching a larger audience and getting even more search engine exposure.Carole Nickerson has been a web developer and internet marketer since 1998. Visit <a target="_new" href="http://web.thenetter.com">http://www.thenetter.com</a> for more free articles, tips and software. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Rankings For Beginners</h1> 2009-02-05T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Niall Roche Search engine optimization is best left in the mystical land of the Intenet Marketing Guru right? Good Search engine rankings are tough to achieve. Understanding search engine marketing takes years of studying and only people with true insider knowledge and secret tools rank well in Google right? WRONG. Pure crap as a matter of fact.Ranking well in the search engines is not difficult. In fact search engine optimization is relatively easy. What stops most people from ranking well in search engines is misinformation. Every week there's yet another quick fix to ranking well in search engines and people jump from one quick fix to the next hoping for that Top 10 position in Google and never achieving it.There are 6 key areas of search engine optimization that you need to know about. These are the basics. Getting these right will help you achieve the Google rankings that you've always wanted.Domain Name - The jury is still out on the how relevant a keyword rich domain name is. What I mean by keyword rich domain name is say for example your site was going to be about money making ideas then an idea domain name could be either www.moneymakingideas.com or www.money-making-ideas.com. My own personal preference is with the hyphenated approach e.g. www.money-making-ideas.com simply because I believe that search engines can read it more easily. To registed your domain name I would suggest using either 000Domains.com or GoDaddy.comContent - Useful content. Not keyword stuffed, spammy pages. Write something useful for your visitors. If you can't write then you'll need to learn. Turn Words Into Traffic is a great resource for learning how to write content and is a resource that I use personally. Turn Words Into Traffic gives you an A-Z on article writing - from a writers perspective. If you don't want to learn how to write content then you could always use Create Website Content Fast to help you speed the process up.Keywords - Keywords are the words or phrases that you expect people to search for your site/service/content with. There are two distinct factors to consider when choosing keywords for your site.1. You need to target specific keywords. For example if you have a website about dating then you'll probably find it quite difficult to achieve high search engine rankings initially with that single term. However if you were to refine an area of your site to target say Gay & Lesbian Dating that's more specific. You could also regionalize your keywords or key phrases e.g. Gay & Lesbian dating in Toronto. This refining process is often referred to as niche (pronounced neech) marketing.2. You need to choose the keywords that you want people to find your site with. Put yourself in your visitors shoes - think about what they might use to find you in the search engines. What keywords or key phrases would you type into a search engine to find your site? What keywords or key phrases would your potential visitor use to search for you? Always, always think like a typical websurfer.If you're interested in seeing what people are searching for on the web and how profitable that might be for you I would recommened that you check out Good Keywords. It's free and does a wonderful job of helping you find good keywords :-)I would also suggest that you try Wordtracker also. It's a brilliant service for tracking down specific, popular keywords.Keyword density - This is how often your keyword is used on the the page itself. For example if you have 100 words of text on a single page and you mention your keyword 5 times then you have 5% keyword density.Opinions vary on this but anywhere from 1% - 7% is considered ideal. If this doesn't make sense to you then it's ok. The simple rule is this: less is more. Do not alter the text on your webpages to include your keyword over and over again because.........well.... it looks stupid, won't instill any confidence in your prospective customer and might also get you penalized or removed from the search engines.Page title - Your tag is critical to your page being ranked well. Stuffing your tag with keywords in the hope of ranking well is pointless. Your tag, once constructed properly, will see you moving up the search engine rankings quickly. Bear this simple fact in mind when building your websites and it will serve you well.Links - Having good links pointing to your site and good links within your site (an often overlooked aspect of search engine optimization) is pretty important as far as search engine ranking goes. Having other sites linking to yours proves the importance of your site to the search engines i.e. if the content on your site is so valuable that other site owners want to link to it then it must be important.META Tags - Meta tags are dead baby. Well not quite dead but they are only used as a point of reference for search engines. It's a shame to see websites that have their META tags still stuffed with keywords. It's pointless. Put your primary keywords in the Meta Keyword part of your webpage but apart from that don't lose any sleep or waste any energy on them.There's not enough space in this article to explain all of the above in the detail that I'd love to. Also I'm not a search engine expert so some of the explanation is best left to those that I learned from (Sean Burns and Jay Stockwell take a bow please :-)Having learned the basics of search engine optimization and submission I have achieved Top 10 Rankings for all of my websites. It's not hard to do this. It just takes work, a little patience and a little common sense.Recommended reading:Rankings RevealedMicrosite MiraclesThis article was provided courtesy of Affiliate Advocate.com where you'll find tons of information on <A target="_new" HREF="http://www.affiliate-advocate.com/seotraining/">seo training</A> and search engine optimimzation. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>The Search Engines Lost My Websitewhat Can I Do</h1> 2009-02-04T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Todd Mintz There is a strong experimental element to search engine optimization research and failure is a frequent byproduct of testing out new ideas and techniques. An SEO will try something new on a "research site" and might realize that the experiment hasn't succeeded when the site disappears from the search engines. Losing a test website in a laboratory environment isn't a big deal to an SEOit is part of an ongoing educational process that insures clients receive the best possible results for their investment (since ethical SEO's NEVER use client sites for such experiments).On the other hand, having your corporate website vanish from the search engines is an extremely serious event that could have major ramifications on your revenues. If this happens to you, don't grieve take immediate action. As bad at it seems initially, it need not be the end of the world--- over the long term, many businesses have gained strength and versatility after dealing with such a catastrophe.What should you do reestablish your Internet presence if your company's website swan dives out of cyberspace?1) Make sure you know what caused the calamity.Sometimes, your site will disappear from the search engines due a technical issue such as an improper robots.txt file or a problem with your web host. If you determine that the cause of your problems is one of the above, consider yourself luckyyour website isn't penalized and you should be able to regain your search engine momentum shortly.If your problems aren't IT related, it is possible that improper site optimization has triggered a search engine penalty. When such a problem strikes, it is very important that you work with an SEO expert to diagnose what occurred and formulate a strategy to bring back your online presence.Were your playing "SEO Cowboy" with your own site? Did you push the envelope too far? Many search engine experts are able to perform "Lazarus SEO" whereby they take a site seemingly ruined by faulty optimization and bring it back to prominence through application of "SEO Best Practices". You will need to decide if the business case exists for engaging such an expert or whether you should cut your losses and start over.Were you working with a SEO when your site vanished? If your SEO has been using safe and ethical optimization techniques, there aren't too many scenarios where your website should crash and burn. Should such a situation occur, demand accountability from your contractor. Don't just take any explanation at face valueask him/her to provide you with a thorough accounting of the techniques used on your site supported by detailed web analytics. Excuses and platitudes aren't acceptable for such a catastrophic occurrenceif you aren't comfortable with the explanations given to you, bring aboard a new specialist.Fortunately, search engines have been known to show sympathy for business owners who have been penalized due to reckless techniques done by rogue SEO's. Google's Director of Search Quality Matt Cutts has posted helpful advice in his blog about how to get your site reincluded in Google if you are victimized by bad SEO advice. Overall, the prevailing search engine attitude towards penalties is that websites get one "mulligan" for being caught breaking the rules so long as the site owner comes clean about what has occurred and fixes the problem. If you must appeal a search engine ban, it is strongly advised that you seek professional advice on how to successfully get your site reincluded in Google / Yahoo / MSN.2) Alternate online lead generation methodsPay-Per-Click (PPC). You don't need organic search to bring targeted traffic to your websiteyou can purchase your traffic instead. Many penalized websites rely upon PPC to keep them afloat while they are taking steps to get out from under the weight of their search engine penalty. Note that generating leads from PPC is an art form all its ownif you wish to create a new PPC Campaign, I recommend you read my article about creating specialized PPC landing pages.Start from scratch. It might not be worth the time and expense to try to eradicate the penalty. If branding isn't a huge concern for you, you can move your site to another domain. Make sure your new website is hosted on a different C class from your old website. You should know that it might take 6-12 months for a new domain to gain search engine traction (especially in Google). Using an older domain name might be more advantageous to resurrecting your organic search traffic more quicklythough be sure to research the history of any old domain name before you transfer your site to it.Focus on offline efforts. Direct mail, telesales, and channel development are excellent ways to drive revenue to your business. If you neglected these methods of lead generation when putting all your efforts online, you might want to revisit them. By generating offline sales momentum while rebuilding your Internet presence, your business will be much less vulnerable to the whims of the search engines.If you are generating a lot of leads through organic search, there is a tendency to neglect other forms of lead generation where the ROI is much lower. However, smart web entrepreneurs know that lead generation diversification is the key to long-term success. It is always better to create your contingency plan before you actually need it.About Cube ManagementCube Management delivers sales acceleration services to emerging growth and mid-market companies. The experts at Cube Management work across the entire spectrum of <a target="_new" href="http://www.cubemanagement.com">marketing, sales and business development to provide customized solutions (whether recruiting, interim management or consulting)</a> that drive revenue and profit growth. Cube Management combines Strategy, Process & People to produce winning results. Download the <a target="_new" href="http://www.cubemanagement.com/resources/downloads/accelerateinsidesales.asp">Cube Management Inside Sales Guide</a> and the <a target="_new" href="http://www.cubemanagement.com/resources/downloads/seoguide.asp">Cube Management Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Guide</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Google Ranking Keeps Website Owners On Their Toes</h1> 2009-02-04T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Howard Keith Google for the longest time maintains the standards which website owners need to maintain in order to achieve maximum exposure though the search engines.I have often wondered how a website could be number one on MSN search but could not be found on Google search.I have asked myself the following questions in relationship to where my website stands:1) Is it due to content rich pages? 2) Is it due to the number of one way links to the website? 3) Is my website not showing up because I pay for Google Adwords? 4) Has my website been sandboxed due to exchange links? 5) Is my subject content unacceptable to Google? 6) How come my website isn't showing up and it's a Google Ranked four where other websites are showing up on page one and two of the search engine results and these websites are ranked a three?The questions go on and on with no resolution. I have tested the system by creating two new sites. Both are based on the same content but presented differently. The websites were created; the subject matter was the same. The first website was given a Google ranking of three the other was given a two. This only confused me some more. How a three page website could be given a three where the other website had twelve pages and was give a two. I compared the links to the sites and every aspect. I could not find a reasonable solution. The number of hits to the website was similar. They both had minimal.I decided to create another site. Once again I use similar subject matter and combined techniques from the previous two sites and added related subject matter links one way. This site was also given a Google ranking of three. Once again I could find no real justification. Three months later it went to a four where the other two sites stayed the same.It's my belief that by October this year my site will be increased to a five. I found new ways to get my sites ranked higher. Since October is right around the corner I should know the results shortly.I believe the way for my sites to increase is to submit articles on my subject matter to informational sites. These sites are highly favored by the ranking system. These websites not lonely help to increase your ranking, but they also offer more exposure by ranking higher on the search results.Taking the time to understand your websites complexity and over all relationship to similar sites will help to ensure a proper ranking among the search engines.Mr. Howard Keith over the past couple of years has discovered various ways to help your website get ranked.Mr. Howard Keith has an extensive background in website marketing and promotion. Through his trial and error phase he has been able to successfully market his sites.Mr. Keith believes there are many alternatives to increase your website ranking. He continues to study the ranking system and it's affects on small to large websitesFor more information on you can check out his latest marketing site Take Flight with Reliable Marketing <a target="_new" href="http://www.reliable-marketing.com/">http://www.reliable-marketing.com/</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Affordable Small Business Seo Know What Your Money Buys</h1> 2009-02-03T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Tomer Harel Background Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings. SEO primarily handles what is known as organic search results, also known as the results the search engines present users, excluding paid advertisement.The main reason people seek high rankings in the organic search results is to increase targeted traffic to their websites. SEO offers a very cost effective alternative to obtain that traffic. Other means such as pay per click advertisement or banner advertising can potentially be expensive, particularly with competitive terms where the cost per click can be several dollars.Targeting the Right Keywords As a small business this is particularly important. Traffic for itself is not necessarily the ultimate goal. Targeted traffic is. Selecting common generic search phrases can be a poor marketing strategy for a small business because it can generate a large volume of low-quality inquiries that cost money to handle, yet result in little revenue.A small business will probably obtain much better results when targeting highly specific keywords that indicate a prospective customer who is ready to buy their product. Moreover, the more specific a keyword is, the lower competition it has, therefore the higher chance to 'win' that keyword for a relatively low cost.Result Driven Approach Let's leave all the marketing pitch aside for a moment and really get down to the facts. What really makes an SEO firm affordable? Well, we can start by looking at what is NOT affordable. Paying thousands of dollars upfront certainly does not make sense for a small business, where every dollar spent has to provide a clear return on investment (ROI), especially since the marketing budget is not too high to begin with.That leads us to next big question how should we measure the ROI for SEO? SEO has one objective that is to generate targeted traffic to your website, period. The good news is that traffic can easily be measured. Every web hosting company provides visual server log files that record and analyze the website's traffic across time. So SEO effectiveness can be easily measured.Affordable SEO is first and foremost based on a result-driven approach, meaning you should only pay when you see results. Results can be measured in various ways, for instance top page placement in the major search engines or a certain increase (%) in your website traffic. Think of it as placing an ad in a newspaper, it serves exactly the same purpose as SEO that is generating targeted traffic to your business. So why should it be any different?If an SEO firm is as good as they claim to be, let them bite their own bullet and guarantee your money back if they fail to deliver top page results within a reasonable time frame (usually 4-6 months). It is only fair.How Much Should You Pay? So things are starting to feel right. Your website finally appears on the first page of Google when you type in your search phrases and you are starting to experience a significant increase in your website's traffic. How much should you pay?This is a tricky question. My belief is that every keyword has a price tag. It consists of two main factors: keyword popularity and keyword competitiveness. Obviously, you should strive for keywords with the highest popularity (number of searches per day or per month) and the lowest competition (number of web pages competing for the same keyword, knowingly or unknowingly).Keyword pricing is not a straightforward task. It takes into account multiple data sources that measure popularity and numerous elements to evaluate the competitiveness in the major search engines. At my company, we have developed a mathematical formula that takes all the relevant elements into account and set the right price tag per every chosen keyword. Bottom line, it has to make sense to you, the customer, in terms of ROI. For example, if you pay $300 a month for a specific keyword you want this keyword to generate revenue higher than $300 a month.As a small business, this method offers you a modular approach that can be expanded over time. You can start with a single keyword, and pay as low as $100 per month. Then gradually, upon success, add additional keywords to increase your traffic and your income. This way, you decide what is affordable to your business at every point in time.To conclude: SEO can genuinely take your business to the next level if done right. Keep it simple, make sure you understand what your money buys and make sure you can measure the results before and after.Written by Tomer Harel, SEO specialist and founder of Key Scouts, a search engine optimization company providing <a target="_new" href="http://www.keyscouts.com">affordable small business SEO</a> services and result-driven programs, focusing primarily on the needs of small businesses.Please feel free to republish this article provided this resource box remains together with a working hyperlink. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Microsofts New Search Engine</h1> 2009-02-03T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Robert McCourty I tried out Microsoft's new search engine (beta version) the other day. They have been working on it quite secretly now for almost a year. It has been rumored to be a Google killer once in full public release. They say its accuracy and ability to return relevant results will far surpass any other search engine on the Internet. That remains to be seen. I tried various combinations of single, double, and triple word/phrased searches to inspect the results.To the casual observer I suppose a certain percentage of the results would seem to be accurate, but upon closer inspection and with a trained eye, the results for the most part ranged from poor to outright terrible.I then attempted a series of searches on the same combination of words. "custom designed screen printed t-shirts" I was attempting to determine how much the results and rankings changed (or did not change) within the same set of query words. I searched with a variety of spellings on a particular keyword In this case, I selected the word "T shirts" then t-shirts (with a dash) and finally "tshirts" (no dash, all one word)One web site had very consistent results across all three spelling methods. This intrigued me so I clicked on the link to analyze the site. i.e. Why was this one so well optimized or more specifically why did this new Microsoft beta search engine find this web site so tasty.The site was completely broken. None of the graphics loaded properly. (in Internet Explorer) It was devoid of any contextual content on the home page and scarcely little throughout the rest of the pages. Some scrolling Java script overlapped the button for a drop down menu. No outside links. Nothing. Excuse the pun but this was not a pretty site. How then could Microsoft possibly rank this site one, two and three for completely different keyword phrasings and spellings on a soon to be major release for a search engine?The answer revealed itself as soon as I took a look at the web site's HTML source code.Guess what folks, meta tags are back! At least as far as the Beta version of Microsoft's new search engine is concerned, especially the keyword Meta Tag. Above all, this tag seemed to account for the heaviest weight in determining the aforementioned rankings. I will err on the side of caution here and assume that Microsoft has not finalized all their algorithm parameters yet, but the keyword tag was definitely what their spider had been eating.The problem However, (beside the horrible site) was that this particular keyword tag, by all SEO standards, was an abomination! Nearly every rule and guideline we've come to know and love ALL thrown out the window! It looked like a tag from 1995. Multiple repetition. Too many characters, way too many words, broken lines, poorly weighted keywords, bad spacing, and completely useless keywords. What's a "rinsger" anyway?Have a look for yourself. Here it is. (Without formatting changes)KEYWORDS CONTENT="tshirts, tees, tee shirts, tee-shirts, printed t-shirts, blank t-shirts, eshirts, ishirts, short sleeves, sweatshirts, long sleeve, v-necks, tank tops, jerseys, screenprintings, screen-printings, custom t-shirts, custom designs, custom printing, custom embroidery, michigan, fraternitys, sororitys, sportswear, artwork, typesetting, imprints, engraves, emboss, stamps, pocket tís, ts, rinsger tiís, ringers, ladieís tís, designs, designing, apparel, clothing, clothes, screens, printers, silkscree embroidery, embroidered, customs, fraternities, sororities, golf, towels, logos, promotional, fundraisers, personalized, company, tailgates, formals, footballs, blocks, carnivals, circus, pledges, bid, day, rush, halloween, christmas, easter, thanksgiving, halloween t-shirts, christmas t-shirts, easter t-shirts, thanksgiving t-shirts, floors, dormitory, churches, clubs, sports, sport teams, choirs, schools, businesses, fundraisers, intramural, hanes, jerseys, fruit of the looms, universities, michigan state university, MSU, msu, university of michigan, U of M, UofM, u of m, eastern michigan university, EMU, emu, western michigan university, WMU, wmu, central michigan university, CMU, cmu, colleges, universitys, universities, shrits, tshrits, t-shrits, desings, te-shirts, teshirts, sirts, shits, shitts, custums, screan"Yup, pretty darn ugly, but the Microsoft Beta search engine seems to be eating it up. Granted this engine is still in beta version but let's review. Broken, useless site. Broken useless tags. Number one ranking! What's wrong with this picture?Most search engine users will try a new search engine only a few times. When they do not get the search result accuracy and relevance they expect, they will soon dismiss it and move along. Beta version or no beta version, one thing is for certain. The Microsoft coders have plenty of additional work to do before releasing this search engine to the general public. Google coders, take the weekend off.About The AuthorRobert McCourty is a founding partner and the Marketing Director of Metamend Software and Design Ltd., a cutting edge search engine optimization (SEO) and web site promotion and marketing company. <a href="http://www.metamend.com/" target="_new">http://www.metamend.com/</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Optimization Tip Dont Buy Anything Before You Learn More</h1> 2009-02-02T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Paul Flyer Thinking about purchasing that premium SEO software that will hyper-optimize a website in under 2 minutes and 2 seconds?Ask the following question first: What do I know about SEO?If the answer is "nothing", then don't buy it.Marketers are banking on the lack of knowledge among consumers. It is no different whether it is the SEO world or the automobile world or the cell phone world. The best search engine optimization tip I can provide is this: educate yourself.Search engine optimization help often comes in two forms:1) The Big Sell 2) The Complex and MysteriousAttempts to "sell" search engine optimization software are really of no true help. These marketers are trying to sell something, not necessarily trying to help. When it comes to SEO, learn more about it before buying the latest SEO gizmo. Though it is true that we all need tools and services to complete tasks more efficiently and quickly, it is also true that we can better use those tools if we understand and learn the underlying processes. Let me state unequivocally that there is no need to go out and blindly purchase search engine optimization software that will cost $100 plus (sometimes much higher!). Just like anything else that someone will try to sell, take a step back, relax, review, reconsider and learn more.Some articles on search engine optimization are written for those "in the know". Replete with complexity and mystery for those of us whose days are not filled reading the latest industry inside scoop. It takes a lot of reading and searching to discover the best, sound search engine optimization advice.Has the SEO Fog lifted from around your head?Has the "I MUST buy that cool SEO software" syndrome been cleansed from your system?The urge to go out and buy these "cool tools" is based on the fact that SEO is hard work. It takes time, energy and education to do it right. However, it is in persevering and taking the time to learn that will ultimately lead to success.How much education does one need?At the very least, the ability to answer the following basic questions:How does search engine optimization fit into an overall marketing strategy? What are onpage and offpage optimization? What are the steps for fulfilling each? Which are the main search engines? What three are truly important?Don't spend big bucks on anything until answers to these questions can be found.If you are simply looking for a search engine optimization tip that will make life on the web a little easier, then my recommendation is of no use. But you will find, as many have, that you will jump from one SEO tool to another continually searching for that magic bullet. Save the pain (and money) and get educated first.Paul Flyer writes and maintains <a target="_new" href="http://www.recommendedwebtools.com/">Recommended Web Tools</a> - An online resource for web development beginners. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Link Reputation How To Improve Search Engine Rankings</h1> 2009-02-01T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Herman Drost One of the most overlooked strategies to improve search engine rankings is building your link reputation. This link popularity strategy is just as important or equal to creating keyword rich content pages.What is link reputation?This is defined as the anchor text or link text of a backward link. Anchor text is the text contained within the link and backward links (inbound links) are web sites that contain a link to your web site.1. For example many folks would use "click here" in their link text i.e.<.a href=http://www.isitebuild.com>click here<./a> (remove periods before the a)2. instead of using "Affordable Web Site Design" i.e.<.a href=http://www.isitebuild.com>Affordable Web Site Design<./a> (remove periods before the a)The format in No 2 will more quickly improve your search engine ranking.How does it work?The number of links pointing to your site (link popularity) WILL increase your search engine rankings. However the quality of the links make a larger difference. A fast way to improve search engine rankings is to use keyword rich text for links within your site and for links pointing to your site (backward links). Therefore when contacting other web site owners, specify what targeted keyword phrase you want them to use in your link text.How to boost link reputation for your web site1. Create a list of targeted keyword phrases for any of your web pages. Research keywords or keyword phrases that are the most relevant to the theme of your site. Use tools such as wordtracker.com or the overture suggestion tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion) to find the most popular keywords that people are entering into the search engines.2. Enter these keywords into a popular search engine such as Google to see how many competing sites there are. If it's a popular keyword you probably will find millions of web sites. Therefore, while researching you need to drill down a little deeper to find keywords that are not so popular. Ideally you want to select keywords that are in high demand (receive a lot of searches) but have low supply (few competing sites).3. Compare the number of back links - use a link popularity tool (i.e. marketleap.com) to compare the number of back links for those competing sites you found based on your keyword research.You can also use this tool to find out how many back links there are to your own site and how popular your competition is.4. Research the sites that are linked to your competition - use a back link tool, such as on the Google tool bar, to find out which sites are linking to your site and to your competition.5. Contact other sites - web sites that are already linking to your competition may be open to linking to your site. Write them a polite email, asking them for a link to your site. You should already include a link to their site. This will help them want to link to yours. You can easily retract it if a link is not reciprocated. Include the exact link text they should use. This should include the targeted keywords based on your above research.6. Use other methods - not all web site owners will reciprocate a link. Therefore use other methods such as writing articles or e-books that contain your links. Then distribute these freely to online publications. This will result in many high quality links to your site.If you design or maintain your site based on link reputation, your search engine rankings will increase faster than if you had just focused on link popularity.Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of <a target="_new" href="http://www.iSiteBuild.com">http://www.iSiteBuild.com</a>Choose a Search Engine Optimization Plan or SEO Maintenance Plan that fits your web site. Visit: <a target="_new" href="http://www.isitebuild.com/sitepromotion">http://www.isitebuild.com/sitepromotion</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>5 Simple Search Engine Optimization Seo Techniques</h1> 2009-02-01T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Noah Ulrich The lifeblood of any website/ecommerce business is traffic, and every webmaster knows the best type of traffic is natural, organic search engine traffic. There are two very important reasons for this: (1) it is extremely targeted, and (2) It is FREE! The hard part is getting top ranking for your sites keywords... or is it? The purpose of this article is to provide a few simple, effective, and most important, search engine friendly strategies to help boost your websites' ranking and ultimately your traffic.1. We will start with the Meta Tags. I know you have already heard of, and are probably currently using meta tags on your site. This is great. I just want to make sure you are using them effectively. We will only go over 2 tags: the "title" tag, and the "description" tag. We will not go over the "keywords" tag, as the major search engines have placed less and less weight on this one, and some would argue this tag has no weight at all. I still use this tag however, as I feel there is some merit and no drawbacks to using this tag.I have found it effective to use similar text in the "title" and "description" tags, and to place your keywords prominently in these tags (near the beginning and more than once). I have seen sites with "sitename.com", "New Page 1", or "Welcome to my site" in the "title" tag, which really does not help in their quest for higher rankings for their particular keyword. Also, try not to use words such as "and", "or", or "the" in these tags.**Important note about your keywords. Search engines evaluate keyword prominence, keyword weight, and keyword density when determining a site's ranking. All three are calculated individually for the page, the title tag, the description tag, as well as other areas on a page. Keyword prominence means how close the keyword is to the beginning of your page. Keyword weight refers to how many times a particular keyword or phrase can be found on the page. Keyword density is the ratio of the keyword to the other words on the page. You do not want the keyword weight or density to be too high, as this can appear to the search engine as "keyword stuffing" and most search engines penalize sites that stuff their keywords.2. Place your navigational links (and JavaScript) at the right or at the bottom, but not on the left, of the page. When the search engines "read" your site, they read from the top left to the bottom right. Search engines place an emphasis on the first 100 words or text on the site. You do not want these words to be navigational links or Javascript. Ideally, you want to have your "heading" tags with your keywords in the beginning of your page. This being said, placing your links/JavaScript on the right or bottom of your page ensures the search engine spiders get to the text first, giving more weight to what's important on your page.3. Place alt tags on all of your images. Search engine spiders cannot "read" pictures or images. The only way a spider knows what an image is about is by reading the alt tag. This is also another chance to place more of your keywords in your HTML, improving your page's keyword weight/density. Alt tags are easy to make and they can make a big difference in your sites keyword ranking. A simple alt tag looks like this: alt="put your keyword phrase here." Search engines separately calculate keyword prominence, density, and weight in alt tags as well, so optimize your tags.4. Place your keywords at the bottom of your page. Just as search engines place more weight on the first words of your page, they also do the same to the last words. The general thinking is this, if your site is about a certain subject, then the main points, or keywords, should, appear at the beginning, be spread throughout the page, and be prominent at the conclusion. But if you have all of your navigational links and JavaScript at the bottom, your relevant page text could end well before the HTML does. An easy way to have your keywords at the bottom of your page is to include them in the copyright information. For example, if you have a dog food website, you could have something like this at the very bottom of the page:copyright 2005 yoursite.com World's best dog foodSearch engines are not (as of this writing), penalizing sites using this technique, and it wouldn't really make much sense for them to do so.5. The Anchor Text of your links. Anchor text is the actual linking text on a site. It is what the user clicks on to navigate to that particular site or page. If a search engine finds many links to your site using the term "dog food", then the search engine concludes your site is about "dog food". This is overlooked quite often, but it seems to have a very large impact on your search engine rankings for a particular keyword. Your anchor text needs to be the keyword or phrase you are trying to target. Try to avoid anchor text such as "Click Here" or "www.yoursite.com"Also, if you're running a reciprocal link campaign, be sure to use variations of your text. If an engine notices every link to your site is identical, it could place less weight on these links or potentially penalize your site. This is because search engines generally give more weight to "naturally occurring" links, and less to "reciprocal link exchange campaigns". Using different, but relevant anchor text can dramatically affect your targeted keyword rankings, by making your links appear more natural.Effective SEO may seem difficult at first, but as you have read above, little tricks that require little or no programming knowledge, can make a huge impact on your website's keyword ranking.Noah Ulrich is a successful internet marketer, and webmaster of Informativeresources.com. His site maintains top rankings in all major search engines. He has owned and maintained an online presence since 2001. His site provides top quality <a target="_new" href="http://www.informativeresources.com">resale rights</a>, <a target="_new" href="http://www.informativeresources.com/internationalsignups.htm">guaranteed signups</a>, and <a target="_new" href="http://www.informativeresources.com/webtraffic.htm">guaranteed web traffic</a> to businesses all over the world. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Getting Links From Business And Trade Organizations</h1> 2009-01-31T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Gary Mitchell Are you looking for a quick and easy way to get links and for your companies website? Chances are you have link opportunities that are already available to you that you aren't taking advantage of. Do you belong to any local, regional, national or international trade organization or groups? Most of these organizations have and maintain websites. When you become a member having your website listed is usually just a matter of asking and submitting the proper information. Do you belong to your local Rotary, Kiwanis or chamber of commerce? If so chances are they have a website and you're entitled to link on the website as part of your membership. Does your business sponsor local youth sports teams, charity events or school functions? If you do be sure to ask if a link is included as part of your support. These types of links are so easy to get it's surprising how many businesses and organizations aren't taking advantage of them.Another easy linking opportunity is local businesses you know or deal with. Does you lawyer have a website where they list names of their clients? If they do ask if they can make your company name a link back to you. If the florist next door to you has a website ask them about putting up a link to you on his website. Of course you should be willing to reciprocate the offer on your website. It's important that you only link to reputable people you trust, and not anyone who asks.© Copyright www.AtlasWebGroup.com, All Rights Reserved.This article was written by Gary Mitchell of <a target="_new" href="http://www.atlaswebgroup.com">http://www.atlaswebgroup.com</a> Atlas Web Group Inc. an internet development firm that can help you develop and promote your business online. Atlas Web Group can develop a custom tailored spam free <a target="_new" href="http://www.atlaswebgroup.com/web-services/link-building/">http://www.atlaswebgroup.com/web-services/link-building/</a>link development strategy for your firm or organization. They strive for quality over quantity and can develop a custom tailored solution for you contact them at <a target="_new" href="http://www.atlaswebgroup.com">http://www.atlaswebgroup.com</a> for a no fee consultation. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How To Search Google For Country Specific Results</h1> 2009-01-30T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Yaro Starak Running an international online business with the capability to service people from any country means that you want your site to perform well not only in local country specific results but also global results. You may not realise this but doing a standard Google search and leaving the "full web" option selected doesn't necessarily give you your website's true location in the Google global results. It gives you the global results given your location.For example, the results of doing a full web search in my home city of Brisbane Australia will be different to a full web search from Toronto Canada.Google gives results based on your location even when you are not stipulating a local result. You can click your local country only result button and get sites that are from your home country, usually determined by the domain name extension, for example .com.au for Australia, .ca for Canada, etc. or the IP address of your web hosting server, or you can click the web option and get global Internet results that vary depending on your computer's location in the world (based on the IP address of the computer you are using to access the Internet).Think GlobalIf your business can service the world then you really can't ignore the American marketplace, or if you are in the USA don't forget about Europe, Asia and the rest. Hence you need to know how well your site is performing in Google global search results and unfortunately simply ticking the "the web" option in Google when searching can be misleading because your ranking will be different if it was someone in a different country doing the exact same search.What you want to know is when someone in the the UK does a Google search for one of your terms, how high is your website up in the search results? With this little trick you can figure it out.The CodeAll you need to do is add &gl=uk to the URL at the end of the Google search query.For example:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sample+query&meta=&gl=ukThis tells Google to spit out the results for the query based on UK servers.I can't guarantee 100% conclusively that this works as I expect it does, but it definitely does something and you should try it yourself and see if your site shows up in a different place in the results. The "gl" stands for Geographic Location and of course you can interchange the last letters to test different country results around the world.By Yaro Starak <a target="_new" href="http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com">http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com</a>Are you interested in online marketing, Internet business, blogs and podcasts? Are you sick of "gurus" trying to sell you the latest get rich quick online deal?<stong>Get educated, it's the key to real online wealth.Download and read quality how-to articles and listen to podcast audio files in mp3 - Visit my blog: <a target="_new" href="http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com">Entrepreneur's Journey</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Turn The Internet Into A Profitmaking Machine With Search Engines</h1> 2009-01-29T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Alastair Hayward Everywhere you turn, there are offers for you to make thousands of dollars a month and what all these offers have in common is that each claims theirs is the best, fastest, and easiest way to get rich. Affiliate programs are one of these offers and like the real estate schemes and door to door sales companies of the past, they simply don't work. Today, affiliate programs are the Internet version of telemarketing and pyramid schemes. The best way to make money with an affiliate program is to avoid it completely and invest your time in your own business, your own domain, and your own website.Once you've registered your own personal domain name and built your website to your satisfaction that is, it uploads quickly; there are no errors in grammar or spelling or price; and it represents your business, products, and services accurately then and only then is it time to register your website with the search engines.Registering your personal domain with the search engines is how you draw traffic to your website from across the globe. People who type in search words that are associated with what you have to offer (your business; services and products) should be able to find your website among the listings that the search engine returns. For this to happen, you must register your site with each search engine.All of the search engines have a similar system for new sites to sign up. Here is an example for Google. First, go online, open your browser, and head to the Google website (www.google.com). Click the 'About Google' link. There are four major sections of links; one of them is listed as being for 'Site Owners.' That's you! The last link on the list is 'Submit Your Content to Google.' That's the link you want. The first link on that page is 'Add Your URL to Google's Index.' Click on this link. From here, there are full directions on how to list your domain name or URL so that it will be included in searches that Google does.It may take a few days to go into effect. Give it about 5-7 days and enter in a variety of terms into the search engine that you've signed up with, including the exact name of your website, to see how high up on the list your site shows up. Do you see it at all? Is it on page 20? Many business and website owners obsess about their rankings on search engines. They want their site to be the first one on the list. Don't put this pressure on yourself. There are bound to be a variety of businesses that combine words that are in your business name and services. Your first priority should be to build a solid business and begin to generate traffic to your website. Worry about your rankings later.Holden, Greg. Starting an Online Business for Dummies, 2nd Edition. IDG Worldwide Books, Inc. Foster City, CA: 2000. p. 227-28.To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit: <a target="_new" href="http://www.Traffic24Hours.com">http://www.Traffic24Hours.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Content Is Superior But What Content</h1> 2009-01-29T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Jim Trivolette In a previous article titled "?Google's new look on links?" I explained to you what Google thought was good inbound links. Having these links are critical, but just having these types of links is not a guarantee that you will receive rankings. Now is the time to talk about what your site is about and it's content along with those links from my previous article.Content, content and more content, this is the best way to better your rankings. Not just any content. If you have a web site that you want to sell widjits on, then talk about widjits and what they do and why we need to buy them as a customer. Do not try to sell widjits on your site if you are also going to talk about gadgets.If on one of your pages you are trying to show off your widjets for sell but you also throw in stuff about your gadgets it will dilute your content with other keywords and keep widjets from ever getting ranked. If you sell products other than widjets then hopefully it is a product that goes hand in hand with your widjets. This way you can use the same keywords trying to sell both products.If you are trying to sell many products on your site and none are similar enough to try to sell hand in hand then what you will have to do is target the entire page at one product. On the widjets page only talk about widjets and on the gadgets page, talk solely about gadgets. You must have a big enough site with enough keyword rich content pages to support each of your products.If you apply this above information to your inbound links you will be on your way to learning your first steps of SEO. If you are selling widjets, why would an inbound link about politics help your site? Even if it was from a Google trusted site.If you apply this information with the info from my last article you have a stong base to start optimizing your web site. Remember that SEO will not happen for you over night and trying to code a site to revolve around a particular keyword can be a nightmare. Many webmasters at this point hire an SEO firm to ensure high quality work that is both pleasing to the search engines and visitors alike.About the AuthorJames Trivolette Lives in the West Virginia Mountains and works at <a target="_new" href="http://www.searchengine-doctor.com">http://www.searchengine-doctor.com</a> a Blackwood productions company as office manager/technical support. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Local Customers Know Where To Find Local Businesses The Internet</h1> 2009-01-28T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Alyssa Duvall Through search engines and directories, the Internet provides a quick and easy place to choose a local merchant or business.Just because the Internet is worldwide doesn't mean local businesses can't benefit from having a website and a presence in the search engines. Realizing the benefits of local searches Google recently launched "Google Local." This feature allows searchers to enter in their zip code and search using keywords. When the results are returned they provide the address and phone number of the businesses. Google and MapQuest have partnered to provide maps and directions to the locations that are returned in the search. Yahoo, AOL and MSN also have local capabilities.The Kelsey Group and ConStat have found that 70% of US households use the internet to shop for local products and services. http://www.imediaconnection.com/news/5319.aspMore and more people are turning to search engines and online yellow pages to search for local companies. A website allows for business owners to provide more information about their products and services than a full-page ad ever could.An important update to make for your site is adding your physical address to your site pages, in the footer perhaps. This will ensure that the search engine's indexing spider or bot pick up the address for inclusion in the search engine. Search engine optimization (SEO) is also important so that not only is your address being pulled for inclusion in local results, but your site is found for the correct terms that describe your business. SEO can be performed on an existing site or as part of the development of a site.Alyssa Duvall is an <a target="_new" href="http://www.bigoakinc.com">Internet marketing and a Search Engine Marketing Specialist</a>. She provides proven results for Website promotion. More articles can be found at <a target="_new" href="http://www.bigoakinc.com/seo-articles/seo-articles.php">http://bigoakinc.com/seo-articles/seo-articles.php</a>This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>2006 New York City Search Engine Strategies Event</h1> 2009-01-28T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Wayne Messick The Search Engine Strategies event provided us with fodder for a series of articles to help business owners increase their market share, extend their marketing reach, and dramatically expand their geographical reach into new sources and new markets. Search engine optimization allows a company's web site to defeat time and distance to maximize the company's potential.Why we went: The last time we sent anyone to the Search Engine Strategies conference was in 2001 - I think. Not because we were really interested in that technical stuff, but because we thought our readers might be.Only two of us went and found very little that seemed relevant. At the time our readers, established successful mainstream companies, were just getting serious about their Internet presence. What would we find for them? Not much.The focus in 2001 was on the big companies with IT staffs and (relatively) unlimited resources, huge web sites and bulging budgets. We did come across a few things, the only one I remember was the session by Heather-Lloyd Martin and Jill Whalen, called "Writing For Search Engines". I was actually interested in that session for us, not our readers.This year, 2006, we decided to return. After all it was here in NYC and they were kind enough to provide me with press credentials. All I had to lose was cab fare and a few hours time.Halfway through the first session I attended, hosted by Danny Sullivan the editor of SearchEngineWatch.com - I knew I had made the right decision.In his warm-up Danny (I don't know him but you feel like you do after listening to him for a few minutes) asked the audience (probably more people attended that session - one of several at that moment, than attended the entire event in '01), How many of you are web marketers? How many of you are here for the first time? etc. etc.After listening to him for 45 minutes it was clear to me that, we're all web marketers or we'd better be! Our serious competitors are and they will be taking our business right out from under our noses unless we begin to pay real attention to our search engine strategies.Our readers, and probably too, want to grow their market share. They want to do more business with each of their customers, and they want to expand their reach (geographically). And they want to do it 24/7/365 as cost effectively as possible. How is that possible? That's what we were there to find out - and we did.What we found: Sessions for people like us (and our readers). Search engine optimization is not just for Internet entrepreneurs and giant companies anymore. It is for Main Street companies too.There were three program tracks from introductory to expert. I found some very useful information in each - which I'll be describing in future articles. What I came up with were ideas and strategies our D.I.Y. (do it yourself) readers can use to maximize what they already have in place.There were ideas that caused me to say to myself, "why didn't I think of that" and others that we'd started using but then lost interest in when there was no instant jump in our traffic. You know, those, "if I knew then what I know now" sort of things. And we learned how we and our readers can be better buyers of the services they can't or don't want to do themselves.There's an SES event coming to a city near you: That is not literally true - but there are several upcoming during 2006 and I met people from all over the country at the one here in NYC.At lunch the first day (more about this in a future article) I met two guys from a family owned company in California. Their boss had attended the Search Engine Strategies event in Chicago (I think) and she told them to come to this one.Their company is as non-Internet as any you can imagine and they were already busy making notes for what to do when they go back to the plant.I called 3 of my colleagues and they attended just the "exhibit only" area the next two days. Time and (very little) money well spent!This article will be posted on our web site complete with links to SES resources. There will be 6-12 additional articles described there. The articles will be posted as soon as they are written.The bottom line: "We are ALL web marketers or we had better be, because our competitors are!"Our objective is to shine a light into the ways that each of you - no matter where you are in the process, can put your business (via your web site) to work more effectively - to realize your company's potential.Wayne Messick at <a target="_new" href="http://www.iBizResources.com">http://www.iBizResources.com</a> and is the author of dozens of articles for mainstream businesses & Publisher of "Doing It Right" realizing your company's potential. His search engine strategies series can be found at <a target="_new" href="http://www.ibizresources.com/seo_articles.html">http://www.ibizresources.com/seo_articles.html</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Spam</h1> 2009-01-27T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Niall Roche Running an online business relies to a greater or lesser extent on search engine traffic. Be this free search engine traffic or pay per click traffic your business still relies on the search engines to profit and survive.There's a problem. Actually let me rephrase that and say there's always been a problem. Abusers. Some people have to take shortcuts to profit. No matter how straightforward it might be to actually do some work and then profit from this work they simply can't accept that as a business model. They need the easy, quick, fastbuck way. The model where they don't have to think or research. Just push a button and hey presto instant business.Who are these people? Search engine spammers. You've never heard of it called search engine spam but you've seen it time and time again. You do a Google search for something and you find a page full of links to casino and holiday sites. Or the site redirects you immediately to another site to buy something. Or even worse the entire website it made up of bits and pieces of text from other websites all muddled together on a page.Do you enjoy reaching these sites? I didn't think so. Why do those sites exist? For the profit of the owner. The people who design these sites call themselves entrepreneurs and online business people. I hate to burst their bubble but they're spammers.You don't agree? Ok well are the people who send out junk email spammers? By definition they are because they send useless information to us day in and day out in the hope of making a sale.Search engine spammers are doing the exact same thing except they're far worse. They're polluting entire search engines with their auto-generated pages of rubbish. Actually finding useful information online now is getting harder because these guys are so deseparate to make a buck they don't mind ruining the online experience of millions of web surfers.So if you are running an online business or intend starting one then do the entire search engine world and Internet users in general a favor. Do not use these automated content generators. Be creative. Have an original thought. Have an opinion. Write about it with passion. Put it online. Profit will come.This article was provided courtesy of Search Engine Fuel where you'll find tons of information on <A HREF="http://www.affiliate-advocate.com/seotraining/" target="_new">affordable search engine optimization</A>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Easy And Simple Steps To Get Listed In Search Engines</h1> 2009-01-26T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Radhika Venkata Search engines are one of THE best resource for free advertising. Better your web site's search engine position better be the traffic generation. 85% of internet users go to search engines and find the information they want.So you better huury to follow these simple tips to get guaranteed listing and good positioning in search engines.1. Put a link to your new web site from already indexed web site(s). If you don't have a web site that already indexed then propose a joint venture with other web site owners for link exchanges. Needless to say that the web site you are going to exchange links must be indexed already.Search engine crawlers love to follow the links from one web site to other. So there will be more chances of your site crawled thru these links.2. Put some content on every page. Minimize graphics. Search engines can not read graphics. Only ALT tags (not all search engines). So if there is graphic don't forget to put ALT tag.Try to sprinkle some important keywords that pertaining to your web site all through the content. Search engines give weight to the pages where the keyword appears more often. Again DON'T spam the search engines.3. Links: Put links from every page to other important sections of your web site. Your home page may not contain details about your products. But make sure to insert links to other product pages.Most people keep buttons and graphics to links. Instead put text links. Though they don't look attractive to human eyes, but gives weight to your pages. For example instead of a button with 'search engine tips', you can keep a text link 'search engine tips' and link to that page. Certainly it is a very important keyword for a web site that sells an ebook on search engine optimization.4. Metatags: Title tag is very important. Especially for Google. If you get a good position in Google means, your web site traffic will be really staggering. It is really worth it.Go to <a href="http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/" target="_new">http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/</a>Search for your web site related keywords and use them for title, keywords and to keep them in your content.5. Update Your web site: Most webmasters neglect this part of search engine optimization. Do it on a regular basis like every 3 - 6 months.Add some content, change keywords according to popularity and update the present content etc. will do the job. My best way of updating my web site content is adding my articles to my web site.About The AuthorRadhika Venkata - Subscribe to 'EbookBiz Magazine' which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!<a href="http://www.ebooks-world.com/freetosell.shtml" target="_new">http://www.ebooks-world.com/freetosell.shtml</a>Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! <a href="http://www.webmasters-central.com/" target="_new">http://www.webmasters-central.com/</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Want To Recover Your Investments Enhance Website Positions</h1> 2009-01-25T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Paras Yadav Whenever we invest, it's our basic nature to research on that particular business isn't it? Yes that's what I want to summarize you. Well, I was not an expert but practice made me.I am talking about your web-site, on which you have invest hundreds of human hours and thousands of dollars to make it presentable, but what if it doesn't returns profit? Now this I would call a real BIG problem.It requires substantial efforts and research, to bring your website in initial pages of search-engine. Why first, second and third page? Now you tell me keeping hand on your heart, have you ever gone beyond initial few pages to search your product?To drag your website on top positions, search engine's robots look for many things like keywords, content, internal and external links, quality of website etc.Let's take little tour to make you known, what requires and what not to make your website reviewed in top positions in search engines.Keywords: Your keywords must be focused and specific, precise to what your product is. For example: Using a key phrase like "Jeans" will result in an innumerable flow of different searches like women's jeans, kids jeans, men's jeans, stone washed jeans, gun shot jeans and many more. It will make you confused where to go, but instead if you use "LEE mens regular fit jeans" would target only mass, interested in buying regular fit jeans.Hence, there is a huge possibility of converting that aimed mass to a sale. Your keywords are your sales power; you can call them "Magic Box". They must be selected rightly.Compare with top sites: Evaluate your first page with the top sites on the search engine, study them as well. Look for their style, keywords and key phrase. It requires a deep research to find out the similarities and difference between your page and their.Try to make out dissimilarity in keyword bulk, number of times your phrase and each word in your phrase appears compared to the text around URL address, page title, meta description, meta keywords, first paragraph on the page, body copy, bold or emphasized phrases, header or other tags, Alt tags, navigation system.You might feel it hectic job to compare all these, you can use spreadsheet or commercial products that makes ease this repellent task. Uphold habit to keep looking for other new patterns and differences.If you want to imitate that style in your own page, please do not duplicate or steal, just follow in your own words but without moving out from the patternLinks can do miracle: Links are one of the most important factor to raise your site to top positioning (i.e. your web page deals with links to, from and within a web page, both internal and external).In this evaluation, as you must compare and differentiate your page against the top contenders.What you should look for: Total no. of internal links on that page; total no. of external links; and Number of links pointing to that page like the link/anchor text- which keywords are used and where, Google page rank value of incoming links, Alexa rank of incoming links.Content: Its an key factor for constant expansion of your website is to add new content on incessant foundation since the most thing search engines are after is good quality websites with relevant content.Google Sitemap : Google Sitemaps is a new tool for website owners and publishers released by Google themselves. It facilitates to submit a sitemap (a map containing links to every page of your site) from your own homepage in .XML or in plain .TXT format that will support robots to spider your pages. This will result in a rapid indexing process of your site and could therefore even result in better search engine placements.Have Patience: Though this process is not a one shot task, but continuously ongoing. Remember to verify your key phrases in short interval of time.You would be thinking that how one can do all this with a single hand, don't worry there are software programs that can help doing some of the digging and mathematical computations, outlining densities and organizing information for you.Beware of dishonest SEOs: There are many SEOs out there to help you, but beware of untruthful ones. If someone says that he can raise your web-site positioning in a days or in a short duration, don't trust him because its an long process to do. However, you can take help of someone knowledgeable and truthful.Paras Yadav - I am freelance Content/Article writer. I have experience of editing over 3500 news/articles.You can contact me at: <a href="mailto:reach2paras@gmail.com">reach2paras@gmail.com</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Why Top Search Engine Placements Never Move</h1> 2009-01-24T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Martin Lemieux #1 question when it comes to web advertising is how do I get top 10 search engine placements for the terms I wish to aquire?Without getting into how to aquire #1 placements (Since there are virtually 100's of articles explaining these techniques), let's instead look into how companies who do end up aquiring them, never seem to loose them...1st you must understand that search engines all over the world are battleing what seems like a never ending war to be able to provide the ultimate best results for a search.So since this is true, search engines are consistently upgraded in order to improve their results. With upgrades come new content, with upgrades come loss of placements as well.We all are consistently updating our sites to better fit search enignes results but at the same time, the top search engines are telling us to simply provide great relative content for your visitors. So why then do we ignore their wishes?See what I've found through many up's and down's is that I had the ability to get the top placements all along. It was right under my nose the whole time.Here it is... are you ready?...Create your content for what you're after and foget it! Move on, attack something else.See, the reason why so many top companies never lose their precious placements is because they create very good content and then leave it up to search engines to find it, re-find and again re-find the same content.Here's what happens. The 1st time a search engine finds your content, they archive your information and keep going. Now that they have it archived, they come back time and time again to see if they can still provide viewers with that information.If by chance you changed it in any way, search engines will ultimately have to re-archive the information again and start all over. This in turn is like "loosing interest" in your information at that time.So a good rule of thumb is to leave your content the way it is in order to let search engines to have the opportunity to archive, double check and maybe tripple check your content relavance.I guarantee you if you create it and forget it, create more and forget it and stick to that strategy, your bound to hit your target.Keep up the good work!About The AuthorMartin LemieuxFounder and President of Smartads.<a href="http://www.smartads.ca" target="_new">http://www.smartads.ca</a> - Here to provide you with effective web design & web advdertising services.OASES - Online Advertising Search Engine ServicesTo read more of Martin's articles and get these weekly tips: Sign up here: <a href="http://www.smartads.info/newsletter" target="_new">http://www.smartads.info/newsletter</a>Download Martin's Articles For Re-Print Here: <a href="http://www.smartads.info/top-10/download" target="_new">http://www.smartads.info/top-10/download</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Why Does The Link Page Have A Pr Zero</h1> 2009-01-24T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Andrew Williams For beginners, link exchange campaigns can be a minefield of problems. For example, here is a question I was asked:"Hi Andy, I have noticed that a lot of sites that request a link exchange from me may have a PR 5 or 6 on their home page and when I click through to the links page there is a PR 0. This is very disappointing and I don't exchange with them. Should I reconsider this practice or am I right in thinking they are doing something to prevent PR from passing to their links pages? Best Regards, Troy"There are many things to consider when exchanging links.The above question asks whether you should consider linking to a PR 5 site when the links page is a PR 0.What are your thoughts on that?The question you should ask yourself is "Why does the homepage have a PR5 and the links page a PR0?".There can be a few different reasons for this.Reason #1 - the links page is new and has not had a PR assigned to it in the Google toolbar (that does not mean it has no PR, just that the toolbar has not been updated to reflect its PR).This case is easy to spot. Look at the URL of the links page. Then go to the homepage and View the source of the homepage in a text editor (from the View Menu in Explorer, select Source).Do a search of the source for the links page filename. e.g. if the links page is called links.html, search the source code for links.html.If you find a link on the homepage to the links page, chances are the links page is new and has not had time to be assigned a PR in the toolbar yet. In this case, I would consider the link to this site.You could also go to the Way Back Machine: http://www.archive.org/ ..and type in the links page URL. If the Way Back Machine has no record of it, it may be new (though it is possible to prevent the WBM from caching your site).Now, before we move on, check that link to the links page in the source again. Make sure that there is no dynamic linking going on. While it is not always easy to spot, the introduction of the "nofollow" tag in recent months, has meant that many non-techie webmasters have been able to create dynamic links, quickly, easily, and without much technical knowledge. If you see the word "nofollow" in the link HTML pointing to the links page, then this webmaster is not passing PR to the links page. In fact, worse than that is the fact that the search engines wont even find and index the links page.This is a case of one webmaster trying to cheat you out of PR. Don't link to them.Reason #2 - Links page is not being linked to, or is linked to using a dynamic link.If you do not find a link to the links page on the homepage of the site, or the link uses one of the forms of dynamic linking, then I would not recommend you link to that site. The links page will get no PR, and wont even be found by the search engines, so you get no benefit. It is possible the links page does have a link pointing to it from another page, but let's look at that as a separate issue.Reason #3 - links page is buried deep in the navigation of the website. Some webmasters bury the link to their links page deep within their site, so that the only way a search engine spider will find the links page is by following 3 or 4 links from the homepage. When this is done, very little (if any) PR flows to the links page. Again, I would not link to a site like this. You wont get much benefit.Reason #4 - Multiple links pages bury the page your link is found on.On some websites, there are so many reciprocal partners, that links are often split across 10s (or even 100s) of pages. For a search engine spider to find the page you are on, it would require following link after link on these links pages until it reaches yours. Again, by the time it gets there, very little (if any) PR will have flowed to the page your link is one.For points #3 & #4, my advice is simple. Start at the homepage, and see how many clicks it takes you to navigate to the page your link is on. If it is more than 2 clicks away, think carefully about exchanging links. You may not get much out of the deal.Reason #5 - a sneaky one here. Check for a robots.txt file on the site that is requesting the link exchange. If there is one, make sure that there is no command that disallows the spiders from accessing the links page. This is a technique that will prevent the search engines spiders from visiting the links page, so no PR, and no benefit, is passed to your site. This is a definite one to avoid.Andy Williams is author of the free, ezSEO <a target="_new" href="http://ezseonews.com/search-engine-optimization-newsletter.htm">internet marketing newsletter</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Html And Search Engine Optimization What You Dont Know Can Kill You</h1> 2009-01-23T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Michael Turner When it comes to search engine optimization there is a lot of information available, some accurate, some not. If you really want to know what is going on regarding your website and how to best optimize it for good results with the search engines, you need to do some SEO research. Review the following suggestions and above all get your information verified from a variety of sites, don't just take one site's information as the truth and run with it because you could be running in the wrong direction.-Frames Equal DeathIf you are using frames on your website then your website is dead in the water when it comes to search engines. Frames cannot be indexed by the majority of search engines. Obviously this is bad because you want to be indexed by the search engines so eliminating frames from your website or building a new website without frames should be one of your major goals.-No HTML LinksIf you do not have HTML links on your site, but rather are using an image map from your homepage to your other pages then you might simply be asking the search engines to ignore these other web pages and these more than likely have some of your website's most important information. If you are not using HTML links, start doing so, and bring your web page rankings in the search engines back to life.-URLYour URL is important and it is what will direct people to your website. However, if you include a "?" in your URL you are causing problems for many search engines. By using "?" in your URL formatting, you may be ignored and not indexed by the search engines. Do your best to keep the "?" symbol out of your URL and use keywords instead.-No LinksIf you do not have links to your website throughout the Internet, you are not maximizing your website's true potential. To solve this problem, all you have to do is simply get other websites to link to your site. This can easily be done through reciprocal linking and the search engines will pick up your webpages and index them.-No KeywordsIf you do not optimize your website with keywords you will have some major problems when it comes to getting targeted search engine traffic. Search engines use keywords as a method to weigh your website against others so be sure to know your important keywords and include them in the content of your website.Now that you have some information on search engine optimization and what you need to do to increase your targeted search engine traffic, get started optimizing you website so you can enjoy being ranked higher in the search results and ultimately boost your income.Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can <a target="_new" href="http://www.powertraffictactics.com/">increase search engine traffic</a> in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at <a target="_new" href="http://www.powertraffictactics.com/">http://www.powertraffictactics.com/</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Is Submitting To Yahoos Directory Worth The Price</h1> 2009-01-23T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Craig Rowe There are many different web directories available to website owners these days. Some web directories cost money to post one's website link on it while others provide free access for website owners to list their site. One web directory in particular which is quite popular these days is Yahoo. Yahoo is one of the paid web directories and is in fact one of the more expensive paid web directories when compared with the rest. The cost for using Yahoo web directory to post one's link to their website is approximately $299/year. In general, submitting to Yahoo's directory is really worth the price and this is so for the reasons that follow.The PageRank of Yahoo's Directory is 9The PageRank is a way a web page gets votes from other webpages. On a scale from 1 to 10, the PageRank for Yahoo's web directory is a 9, which is extremely impressive. This means that it is a popular web directory and receives a lot of hits which is great for individuals who post their link on it.Yahoo is an Established NameAnother reason why paying $299/year to submit to Yahoo's web directory is probably a good idea is that Yahoo is an established name in the computer world. The directory itself has been around since 1995 which shows that it has a good amount of years under its belt and does not plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Also, due to the fact that Yahoo is so well known, individuals who need to use a web directory to find links will most often choose web directories that they are familiar with which is another reason to choose Yahoo's directory.The Yahoo Web Directory is Set Up in a User Friendly MannerIt is also wise to point out that the Yahoo web directory is set up in such a way that it promotes user-friendliness. Individuals who utilize the Yahoo web directory do so because they can maneuver around easily enough and tend to revisit it quite a bit as they have the web directory user technique down perfectly. With that said, one who is comfortable using a particular web directory like Yahoo will be most likely to return to the same web directory time and time again which ultimately brings the web traffic to an individual's website.ConclusionIn conclusion, if an individual has the money to spend on an annual fee for Yahoo's web directory and they are looking to gain quite a bit of website traffic, then submitting one's link to the Yahoo web directory is definitely worth the money.Build incoming links to your web site by submitting to the Net-Guild web directory at <a target="_new" href="http://www.net-guild.com">http://www.net-guild.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>12 Free Seo Tools You Must Use</h1> 2009-01-22T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Christos Varsamis Effective SEO strategies require a lot of effort and time. Although in the search engines market exist very advanced tools that cost a lot, there are many free SEO tools which can help the novice and advanced SEO marketer to save valuable time. Here is a list of free and proven for their effectiveness SEO online instruments:1) http://www.alexaranking.com - It displays multiple domains instead of one. Therefore, you can have instant traffic results from Alexa Rankings instead of typing and search each time separately.2) http://www.xml-sitemaps.com - Sitemaps are extremely important for websites because they help search engines crawl and index them. This is a free xml sitemap generator.3) http://www.123promotion.co.uk/directorymanager - You can track your submissions to various web directories and you can also visit regularly to see new directories added to the list. You just tick the appropriate submission boxes when you submitted your website. It's very easy to use it.4) http://www.123promotion.co.uk/ppc/index.php - This is a very powerful tool. It displays, based on the Overture and Wordtracker keyword search tools, similar data, including search figures from the previous month. It also adds statistics for average searches per hour, day, week, projected figures for the next 12 months and then also a figure to see how searches may look in 3 years from now.5) http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density - This keyword density tool is useful for helping webmasters/SEO's achieve their optimum keyword density for a set of key terms/keywords. This tool will analyze your chosen URL and return a table of keyword density values for one, two, or three word key terms.6) http://www.mcdar.net/KeywordTool/keyWait.asp - This is another Excellent Resource. When you enter the appropriate URL and keyword, it will display Pagerank and Back links pages for the Top 10 websites.7)http://www.123promotion.co.uk/tools/robotstxtgenerator.php You can create a free robots.txt file with this resource. So, you will be able to direct the search engines to follow the pages structure of your website and also direct the search engines not to follow and crawl specific web pages of your website you don't want to be crawled. All you have to do is filling the fields and when the robots.txt file is created you upload it to your root of your web server.8) http://www.nichebot.com . This website displays keyword data using Wordtracker and Google search results. You just enter the keyword and press the button.9) http://www.webconfs.com/domain-stats.php . You Enter the domain and get: domain age, number of pages indexed, and number of backlinks. The statistics include Alexa Taffic Rank, Age of the domains, Yahoo WebRank, Dmoz listings, count of backlinks and number of pages indexed in Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Msn etc. It will help you figure out why some of your competitors are ranking better than you.10) http://comparesearchengines.dogpile.com . Shows top results from 3 search engines. This tool helps you get all kind of statistics of your competitor's domains.11) http://www.marketleap.com/verify/default.htm . This verification tool checks to see if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword. You enter your URL/Keyword and it displays top 30 for 11 Search Engines.12) http://www.related-pages.com/adWordsKeywords.aspx. This tool generates a list of possible keyword combinations based on lists of keywords that you provide. You enter a list of terms, one per line or separated by commas. This is very effective for Google Adwords and Overture.Christos Varsamis is Internet & Affiliate Marketing Specialist. Get your Free Reports "Internet Marketing Myths Exposed" & "How to Generate Revenue from Your Sites" <a target="_new" href="http://www.fastprofitbiz.com/Reports/Report.html">http://www.fastprofitbiz.com/Reports/Report.html</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Surviving The Search Wars Local Directories</h1> 2009-01-21T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Peter Scott The pursuit of online information has become an increasingly dynamic and competitive marketplace during the past three years. Global heavyweights such as www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, and www.msn.com are backed by massive resources, making it nearly impossible for new companies to even attempt to compete. It would seem for new start directories it is almost impossible to aim for the "catch all" approach, as there are simply bigger companies out there with larger budgets who are going to dominate the market for years to come. However, there are still a number of innovative directories evolving which are capable of surviving in this ultra-competitive landscape. The key to this survival is undoubtedly focusing upon a niche and making sure your site stands out from others.When performing a web search, users have the choice between search engines and directories. Directories tend to be categorised by webmasters or a group of subject experts such as the directory http://dmoz.com. When using such a directory, the user has the option to either type in a word to facilitate a search through the directory listings, or they can choose a subject heading, for example "travel". After clicking on this category, users are faced with lists of several subtopics such as "hotels" which would then be further split into geographic regions, then the individual hotel names.In contrast, a search engine uses automated programs called robots or spiders to search through its database of websites. The user types a query into a provided dialog box in the form of a keyword, or string of keywords. The search engine then uses the robots to follow links and indexes of various websites in order to form an organised list of results in the user's browser. The world's most popular search engine, Google, currently has a database of 8,058,044,651 web pages.With this colossal searching power, it is amazing that any directories are capable of surviving against the heavyweight search engines. The solution is perhaps to avoid trying to compete in the first place. For example, if a local directory run by people familiar with an area is marketed properly, then it can offer a real service for users, as one of the main problems people have with search engines is the difficulty in finding local services relevant to them.Usually this problem stems from a lack of understanding of how to use search engines correctly. The majority of surfers searching the web for products/services will expect to find a local supplier just by typing a generalised term, and then cannot understand why they are faced with 300,000 results many of which are based in a foreign country. This is where a regional directory can offer more relevant results, without the searching knowledge required to make best use of the larger directories, and hopefully provide the information the person was looking for. Instead of performing a basic search, users are guided step by step through the categories.One new directory which is taking a very innovative approach to the market place is the-best-of.com ( <a target="_new" href="http://www.thebestof.co.uk/">http://www.thebestof.co.uk/</a> ) which promotes itself as a "UK directory run by local people for local people". The idea is that individual people will take control of a geographical area which they know well and provide users with their "local knowledge" on local businesses and services. Although still in its early stages, this is an example of a directory which has found a niche in terms of the service it offers and isn't trying to tackle the big global players a strategy which has destroyed many directories before they have even started.It is perhaps as a result of this market gap that Google has recently launched the beta version of "Google Local". Google Local's results are a combination of using business-directory information from third-party providers and integrating it with information about individual businesses from Google's existing database of website information.When using this new service, users type both the product they are looking for and their geographic location. Results are then displayed in three columns, including business name, address, and URL (if relevant). Clicking on the link to a business name displays a business reference page with details about the business, a map, a button to get driving directions, and Web pages related to the business found in Google's main index. The new service also offers a degree of personalisation, allowing users to specify a home location, which is stored on a cookie set by Google.Overall, it seems that that the ways and means we search for information on the web is set to continuously evolve over the coming years. This landscape is almost certainly going to be dominated by the big players such as Google and Yahoo. However, it is clear that as long as you have a quality, comprehensive directory that doesn't cast its net too wide then it is possible to survive and even compete in this dynamic marketplace.Resources:http://www.thebestof.co.uk/ (Regional entertainment and information in the UK)About Peter:Peter Scott is a researcher for the internet marketing company Optimiser and a regular contributor to discussions on search engine marketing and directory building.<a target="_new" href="http://www.optimiser.co.uk/about.html">About Optimiser</a>For further information contact: Peter Scott E-mail: <a href="mailto:press@optimiser.co.uk">press@optimiser.co.uk</a> Phone: 0845 130 0022 <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How To Build A Google Sitemap</h1> 2009-01-20T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Lawrence Andrews Google has implemented a cutting edge method of crawling web site for its search engine index. This unprecedented method of indexing web pages is known as Google Sitemaps, and it is quickly growing in popularity among webmasters and SEO agents and managers due to its ability to get entire web site indexed quickly and to pick up errors in the links coming into and out of these web site.Google Sitemaps consists of placing the URLs of your pages along with important information regarding how Google should index them into an XML document. This information is then read by the Google Spider and the pages are normally indexed quite quickly assuming that they are coherent to Google's standards for indexing pages (and also assuming that the sitemaps conform to Googles Sitemap Criteria which will be explained a little later).There are two primary types of Google Sitemaps. The first is a list of pages in a website and the second is a list of sitemaps in the website. Google has limited the number of URLs in its sitemaps to fifty thousand URLs. This may sound like a lot, but for some of the more intricate web site, fifty thousand URLs may not even make a dent in what they want indexed.This led to the advent of the Google Sitemap index file which can index up to one thousand sitemaps. If you do the math, this means that you could have one thousand sitemaps with up to fifty thousand URLs in each sitemap which allows for fifty million URLs to be placed in your Google Sitemap scheme. But wait, there's more. Who ever said that you can't have an index of indexes? You could actually make an index of a thousand index files which are all indexes of a thousand index files. Basically, there is no limit to the number of URLs that you can hold in your Google sitemaps.Now that you understand the power of the Google Sitemap you're probably asking yourself how to create and implement a Google Sitemap. The first step is to simply create your sitemaps. Here are the templates which are also available at http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/For a sitemap file use the following format:<xmp><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?></xmp> <xmp><urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84"></xmp> <xmp><url></xmp> <xmp><loc>http://www.example.com/</loc></xmp> <xmp><lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod></xmp> <xmp><changefreq>monthly</changefreq></xmp> <xmp><priority>0.8</priority></xmp> <xmp></url></xmp> <xmp><url></xmp> <xmp><loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=12&desc=vacation_hawaii</loc></xmp> <xmp><changefreq>weekly</changefreq></xmp> <xmp></url></xmp> <xmp><url></xmp> <xmp><loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=73&desc=vacation_new_zealand</loc></xmp> <xmp><lastmod>2004-12-23</lastmod></xmp> <xmp><changefreq>weekly</changefreq></xmp> <xmp></url></xmp> <xmp><url></xmp> <xmp><loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=74&desc=vacation_newfoundland</loc></xmp> <xmp><lastmod>2004-12-23T18:00:15+00:00</lastmod></xmp> <xmp><priority>0.3</priority></xmp> <xmp></url></xmp> <xmp><url></xmp> <xmp><loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=83&desc=vacation_usa</loc></xmp> <xmp><lastmod>2004-11-23</lastmod></xmp> <xmp></url></xmp> <xmp></urlset></xmp>Everything here is pretty self-explanatory with the exception of the changefreq and the priority aspects. The changefreq asks how often you think the page will change on average. The possible values for the changefreq option are: always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and never. The priority aspect basically just asks how important the particular page is in your website. The value can be anywhere between 0.0 and 1.0. If you decide not to specify a priority it will default to 0.5.To create a sitemap index file follow the following format:<xmp><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?></xmp> <xmp><sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84"></xmp> <xmp><sitemap></xmp> <xmp><loc>http://www.example.com/sitemap1.xml.gz</loc></xmp> <xmp><lastmod>2004-10-01T18:23:17+00:00</lastmod></xmp> <xmp></sitemap></xmp> <xmp><sitemap></xmp> <xmp><loc>http://www.example.com/sitemap2.xml.gz</loc></xmp> <xmp><lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod></xmp> <xmp></sitemap></xmp> <xmp></sitemapindex></xmp>This is all pretty straight forward but it leads me to my next point. You notice that the file names all end in .gz. Google allows you to compress your sitemaps so that they take up less of your disk space when you place them on your site and less of your band width when Google downloads them (which it seems to do approximately once every 9 hours or so). You may only use .gz compression. If you try .zip, it won't work.Now all that you really have to do is submit your sitemap to google. In order to do this you must go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login and log into your Google account. If you don't have a Google account, you can create one. Once you log in you will be allowed to submit your sitemap into the google index. At some point within about 24 hours of your submission, Google will give you the option to place a small HTML file onto your website so that it can confirm that you do, indeed, have access to editing the site. Once you have done this it will begin to provide you with statistics regarding your google sitemap. (Note that even without this feature you can see when google downloaded the sitemap last and what the status of the sitemap was at that time.)How Google Sitemaps Fits Into Search Engine Optimization.According to Google, the Sitemaps utility is free and will continue to be yet it's almost as good as the paid inclusion service offered by rival search engines. So how can you take advantage of this great service?First of all, you should create a Google Account. Although you can still use Google Sitemaps without an account, you need one before you can use Google's tools to check your site submissions. Once you do that and go to sitemaps.google.com, you'll be guided through the process.Google Sitemaps has a very helpful question and answer page that will give you the help you need the answers to most questions people have can be found right there. Good luck!About The Author:Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at <a target="_new" href="http://www.lmamedia.com">http://www.lmamedia.com</a> for more information about SEO and PRL.You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>The Duplicate Content Argument</h1> 2009-01-20T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Laura Wheeler Search engines DO penalize for duplicate content. But it isn't as simple as using the words "duplicate content" because there are "acceptable uses" and "unacceptable uses".Now, some of the sellers of Replicated sites will tell you that there is nothing to be concerned about. They quote a Google official who stated that "honest" website owners did not need to be concerned about duplicate content. They try to use this as a means of justifying the sale of multiple copies of identical sites.Here's the problem the buyer of a replicated website may be an honest person trying to earn an honest buck. But the person who sold them a replicated site without warning them about the real issues with duplicate content is NOT honest. And their dishonesty means the buyer will get the blame, and the consequences!Google and other search engines penalize duplicate content to prevent three situations:1.Something called "scraping", where someone uses a computer to spider the web and actually duplicate website content from the ground up. They may actually replicate your entire site. This is a violation of copyrights, so Google bans sites that do this, giving the search engine traffic to the site that is the oldest.2.Precisely to prevent people from using replicated sites. You see, a replicated site does not just have identical content, it has identical EVERYTHING. Filenames, page tags, colors, layout, content, everything! Top to bottom the page code is identical. And when Google talks about not having to worry too much about duplicate content, this is NOT what they are telling you not to worry about. This is EXACTLY what they are trying to prevent! This is a shortcut, it provides nothing new to the information archives online, and they will penalize you and ban the site, if they even index it in the first place. Anyone who has used one will confirm this (except those who are selling them, who insist on touting them as a shortcut that will take all the work out of it). I actually sell some of these, but they have FULL instructions for customizing them, and I NEVER tell a client that they are not work because they ARE.3.Use of unaltered PLR articles for lazy site content. Again, they add nothing new to the substance of the web, except copyright confusion.So, what are the legitimate uses of duplicate content that Google IS telling you not to worry about?1.Printer friendly and standard site pages for the same item. 2.Similar product listings on two different sites that you own that overlap in content. 3.Reprinting items that you have the rights to reprint with author credits. 4.The odd duplicated page in your site that happens for unusual reasons. 5.A replicated site that has been well customized, so that it has "value added" features on each page. This DOES add something new to the information online. 6.Honest reasons for duplicate content, or honest mistakes in having duplicate content. This is not the same as deliberate use of duplicate content, which replicate sites are classed as.So, when they tell you to go ahead and buy their site and upload it and don't worry about duplicate content, they are lying. And yes, there is no other conclusion but that they are doing so knowingly, because they have heard the complaints, and seen it first hand.It is NOT dishonest to sell a replicated site, but to do so while telling you that it will work without problems IS dishonest. Replicated Sites require a systematic and consistent step-by-step process to take them from duplicate, to completely original. It CAN be done, and in less time that it would take you to build the site from scratch, BUT, you really need instructions to do it, and you need to know which things matter. You can find more details on that at http://www.tiredofhype.com/.Taking the lazy way out won't help you earn money, it will just kill your chances of earning. So if your intent is to upload a site that will work to earn you money over the long term, then you'll want to avoid the duplicate content trap, and get started right.Written by Laura Wheeler, mom to eight, and owner of Tired of Hype - <a target="_new" href="http://www.tiredofhype.com">http://www.tiredofhype.com</a>, where you can find a wide variety of honest business resources and quality tested resale rights items. Laura is an experienced web designer with many corporate and small business clients, and a specialist in shoestring startup business issues. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Technologies</h1> 2009-01-19T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Max Maglias Each of us has been faced with the problem of searching for information more than once. Irregardless of the data source we are using (Internet, file system on our hard drive, data base or a global information system of a big company) the problems can be multiple and include the physical volume of the data base searched, the information being unstructured, different file types and also the complexity of accurately wording the search query. We have already reached the stage when the amount of data on one single PC is comparable to the amount of text data stored in a proper library. And as to the unstructured data flows, in future they are only going to increase, and at a very rapid tempo. If for an average user this might be just a minor misfortune, for a big company absence of control over information can mean significant problems. So the necessity to create search systems and technologies simplifying and accelerating access to the necessary information, originated long ago. Such systems are numerous and moreover not every one of them is based on a unique technology. And the task of choosing the right one depends directly on the specific tasks to be solved in the future. While the demand for the perfect data searching and processing tools is steadily growing let's consider the state of affairs with the supply side.Not going deeply into the various peculiarities of the technology, all the searching programs and systems can be divided into three groups. These are: global Internet systems, turnkey business solutions (corporate data searching and processing technologies) and simple phrasal or file search on a local computer. Different directions presumably mean different solutions.Local searchEverything is clear about search on a local PC. It's not remarkable for any particular functionality features accept for the choice of file type (media, text etc.) and the search destination. Just enter the name of the searched file (or part of text, for example in the Word format) and that's it. The speed and result depend fully on the text entered into the query line. There is zero intellectuality in this: simply looking through the available files to define their relevance. This is in its sense explicable: what's the use of creating a sophisticated system for such uncomplicated needs.Global search technologiesMatters stand totally different with the search systems operating in the global network. One can't rely simply on looking through the available data. Huge volume (Yandex for instance can boast the indexing capacity of more than 11 terabyte of data) of the global chaos of unstructured information will make the simple search not only ineffective but also long and labor-consuming. That's why lately the focus has shifted towards optimizing and improving quality characteristics of search. But the scheme is still very simple (except for the secret innovations of every separate system) - the phrasal search through the indexed data base with proper consideration for morphology and synonyms. Undoubtedly, such an approach works but doesn't solve the problem completely. Reading dozens of various articles dedicated to improving search with the help of Google or Yandex, one can drive at the conclusion that without knowing the hidden opportunities of these systems finding a relevant document by the query is a matter of more than a minute, and sometimes more than an hour. The problem is that such a realization of search is very dependent on the query word or phrase, entered by the user. The more indistinct the query the worse is the search. This has become an axiom, or dogma, whichever you prefer.Of course, intelligently using the key functions of the search systems and properly defining the phrase by which the documents and sites are searched, it is possible to get acceptable results. But this would be the result of painstaking mental work and time wasted on looking through irrelevant information with a hope to at least find some clues on how to upgrade the search query. In general, the scheme is the following: enter the phrase, look through several results, making sure that the query was not the right one, enter a new phrase and the stages are repeated till the relevancy of results achieves the highest possible level. But even in that case the chances to find the right document are still few. No average user will voluntary go for the sophistication of "advanced search" (although it is equipped with a number of very useful functions such as the choice of language, file format etc.). The best would be to simply insert the word or phrase and get a ready answer, without particular concern for the means of getting it. Let the horse think it has a big head. Maybe this is not exactly up to the point, but one of the Google search functions is called "I am feeling lucky!" characterizes very well the existent searching technologies. Nevertheless, the technology works, not ideally and not always justifying the hopes, but if you allow for the complexity of searching through the chaos of Internet data volume, it could be acceptable.Corporate systemsThe third on the list are the turnkey solutions based on the searching technologies. They are meant for serious companies and corporations, possessing really large data bases and staffed with all sorts of information systems and documents. In principle, the technologies themselves can also be used for home needs. For example, a programmer working remotely from the office will make good use of the search to access randomly located on his hard drive program source codes. But these are particulars. The main application of the technology is still solving the problem of quickly and accurately searching through large data volumes and working with various information sources. Such systems usually operate by a very simple scheme (although there are undoubtedly numerous unique methods of indexing and processing queries underneath the surface): phrasal search, with proper consideration for all the stem forms, synonyms etc. which once again leads us to the problem of human resource. When using such technology the user should first word the query phrases which are going to be the search criteria and presumably met in the necessary documents to be retrieved. But there is no guarantee that the user will be able to independently choose or remember the correct phrase and furthermore, that the search by this phrase will be satisfactory.One more key moment is the speed of processing a query. Of course, when using the whole document instead of a couple of words, the accuracy of search increases manifold. But up to date, such an opportunity has not been used because of the high capacity drain of such a process. The point is that search by words or phrases will not provide us with a highly relevant similarity of results. And the search by phrase equal in its length the whole document consumes much time and computer resources. Here is an example: while processing the query by one word there is no considerable difference in speed: whether it's 0,1 or 0,001 second is not of crucial importance to the user. But when you take an average size document which contains about 2000 unique words, then the search with consideration for morphology (stem forms) and thesaurus (synonyms), as well as generating a relevant list of results in case of search by key words will take several dozens of minutes (which is unacceptable for a user).The interim summaryAs we can see, currently existing systems and search technologies, although properly functioning, don't solve the problem of search completely. Where speed is acceptable the relevancy leaves more to be desired. If the search is accurate and adequate, it consumes lots of time and resources. It is of course possible to solve the problem by a very obvious manner by increasing the computer capacity. But equipping the office with dozens of ultra-fast computers which will continuously process phrasal queries consisting of thousands of unique words, struggling through gigabytes of incoming correspondence, technical literature, final reports and other information is more than irrational and disadvantageous. There is a better way.The unique similar content searchAt present many companies are intensively working on developing full text search. The calculation speeds allow creating technologies that enable queries in different exponents and wide array of supplementary conditions. The experience in creating phrasal search provides these companies with an expertise to further develop and perfect the search technology. In particular, one of the most popular searches is the Google, and namely one of its functions called the "similar pages". Using this function enables the user to view the pages of maximum similarity in their content to the sample one. Functioning in principle, this function does not yet allow getting relevant results they are mostly vague and of low relevancy and furthermore, sometimes utilizing this function shows complete absence of similar pages as a result. Most probably, this is the result of the chaotic and unstructured nature of information in the Internet. But once the precedent has been created, the advent of the perfect search without a hitch is just a matter of time.What concerns the corporate data processing and knowledge retrieval systems, here the matters stand much worse. The functioning (not existing on paper) technologies are very few. And no giant or the so called search technology guru has so far succeeded in creating a real similar content search. Maybe, the reason is that it's not desperately needed, maybe too hard to implement. But there is a functioning one though.SoftInform Search Technology, developed by SoftInform, is the technology of searching for documents similar in their content to the sample. It enables fast and accurate search for documents of similar content in any volume of data. The technology is based on the mathematical model of analyzing the document structure and selecting the words, word combinations and text arrays, which results in forming a list of documents of maximum similarity the sample text abstract with the relevancy percent defined. In contrast to the standard phrasal search by the similar content search there is no need to determine the key words beforehand the search is conducted through the whole document. The technology works with several sources of information that can be stored both in text files of txt, doc, rtf, pdf, htm, html formats, and the information systems of the most popular data bases (Access, MS SQL, Oracle, as well as any SQL-supporting data bases). It also additionally supports the synonyms and important words functions that enable to carry out a more specific search.The similar search technology enables to significantly cut time wasted on searching and reviewing the same or very similar documents, diminish the processing time at the stage of entering data into the archive by avoiding the duplicate documents and forming sets of data by a certain subject. Another advantage of the SoftInform technology is that it's not so sensitive to the computer capacity and allows processing data at a very high speed even on ordinary office computers.This technology is not just a theoretic development. It has been tested and successfully implemented in a project of giving legal advice via phone, where the speed of information retrieval is of crucial importance. And it will undoubtedly be more than useful in any knowledge base, analytical service and support department of any large firm. Universality and effectiveness of the SoftInform Search Technology allows solving a wide spectrum of problems, arising while processing information. These include the fuzziness of information (at the document entering stage it is possible to immediately define whether such a document already belongs to the data base or not) and the similarity analysis of the documents which are already entered into the data base, and the search for semantically similar documents which saves time spent on selecting the appropriate key words and viewing the irrelevant documents.PerspectivesBesides its primary assignment (fast and high quality search for information in huge volume such as texts, archives, data bases) an Internet direction could also be defined. For example, it is possible to work out an expert system to process incoming correspondence and news which will become an important tool for analysts from different companies. Mainly, this will be possible due to the unique similar content search technology, absent from any of the existent systems so far except for the SearchInform. The problem of spamming search engines with the so called doorways (hidden pages with key words redirecting to the site's main pages and used to increase the page rating with the search engines) and the e-mail spam problem (a more intellectual analysis would ensure higher level of security) would also be solved with the help of this technology. But the most interesting perspective of the SoftInform Search technology is creating a new Internet search engine, the main competitive advantage of which would be ability to search not just by key words, but also for similar web pages, which will add to the flexibility of search making it more comfortable and efficient.To draw a conclusion, it could be stated with confidence that the future belongs to the full text search technologies, both in the Internet and the corporate search systems. Unlimited development potential, adequacy of the results and processing speed of any size of query make this technology much more comfortable and in high demand. SoftInform Search technology might not be the pioneer, but it's a functioning, stable and unique one with no existent analogues (which can be proved by the active Eurasian patent). To my mind, even with the help of the "similar search" it will be difficult to find a similar technology.About The Author Max Maglias [Phone] 2197964 [Fax] [Email] [Web-site] <a href="http://www.searchinform.com" target="_new">http://www.searchinform.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Google Wireless Search Away From Home</h1> 2009-01-19T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Jakob Jelling For so many web surfers, it's almost automatic to type Google.com in to our address bar when we want to search. So big and well-known is Google that many browsers have a built-in search box or typed shortcut for Google searches. In fact, we tend to associate Google with search so much now that the word itself is commonly used as a verb, as in "let me Google that". It's much the same as Band-Aid, Kleenex, and Xerox, where the brand name is so pervasive that it's very often substituted for the generic function of the item the brand is applied to.We're used to searching from home, where we've had Internet access for years now. But Google Wireless search is also available for use from Internet-ready cell phones and some wireless PDA devices such as PalmOne and Palm VII.To search from Google Wireless, you will need access to the Internet through your wireless device. This can usually be arranged through your cellular carrier if you don't already have it. You can search the "mobile web", which is a collection of web pages that have been designed specifically for wireless devices. With Google Wireless search, you can also search all of Google, and the search results will be translated into a type of display language that your mobile device can interpret.On a cell phone, searches are performed using the keypad on the phone and GNS, or Google Number Search. This is a form of search input that Google has developed to help make your wireless searches easier and faster. On PDAs, you can use the built-in keyboard or touch-screen keyboard. For the Palm VII, you will need to download special software to access Google Wireless search.About The AuthorJakob Jelling is the founder of <a href="http://www.sitetube.com" target="_new">http://www.sitetube.com</a>. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Googles New Seo Rules</h1> 2009-01-18T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by John Metzler Google has recently made some pretty significant changes in its ranking algorithm. The latest update, dubbed by Google forum users as "Allegra", has left some web sites in the dust and catapulted others to top positions. Major updates like this can happen a few times a year at Google, which is why picking the right search engine optimization company can be the difference between online success and failure. However, it becomes an increasingly difficult decision when SEO firms themselves are suffering from the Allegra update.Over-optimization may have played the biggest part in the dropping of seo- guy.com from the top 50 Google results. Filtering out web sites that have had readability sacrificed for optimization is a growing trend at Google. It started with the Sandbox Effect in late 2004, where relatively new sites were not being seen at all in the Google results even with good keyword placement in content and incoming links. Many thought it was a deliberate effort by Google to penalize sites that had SEO work done. It's a few months later and we see many of the 'sandboxed' web sites finally appearing well for their targeted keywords.With 44 occurrences of 'SEO' on the relatively short home page of seo-guy.com, and many of them in close proximity to each other, the content reads like a page designed for search engine robots, not the visitor. This ranking shift should come as no surprise to SEO professionals as people have been saying it for years now: Sites should be designed for visitors, not search engine robots. Alas, some of us don't listen and this is what happens when search engines finally make their move.One aspect of search engine optimization that is also affected in a roundabout way is link popularity development. After observing the effects of strictly relevant link exchanges on many of our client's sites recently, we've noticed incredibly fast #1 rankings on Google. It seems Google may be looking out for links pages designed for the sole purpose of raising link popularity and devalues the relevance of the site. After all, if a links page on a real estate site has 100 outgoing links to pharmacy sites, there has to be a lot of content on that page completely unrelated to real estate. Not until now has that been so detrimental to a site's overall relevance to search terms. It goes back to the old rule of thumb: Make your visitors the top priority. Create a resources page that actually contains useful links for your site users. If you need to do reciprocal linking then keep it relevant and work those sites in with other good resources.Keeping up with the online search world can be overwhelming for the average small business owner or corporate marketing department. Constant Google changes, MSN coming on the scene in a big way, and all the hype around the new Become.com shopping search function can make heads spin. But just keep things simple and follow the main rules that have been around for years. Google, as well as other search engines, won't ever be able to ignore informative, well written content along with good quality votes from other web sites.An expert at organic SEO, John Metzler has held executive positions in the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.freshpromo.ca/">search engine marketing</a> industry since 2001. He is the President of FreshPromo, a Canadian-based company, and services American clients through the <a target="_new" href="http://www.seotampa.com/">SEO firm</a>, SEOTampa.com. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How To Feed The Spiders And Grab The Top Spots</h1> 2009-01-17T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Jim Green Over the years I have created 24 fully operational websites and as an experiment this evening (30 November 2005) I did a progress check on the very first site I ever launched.5 years on and here is how this site is ranking today on the top six major search enginesGoogle No.1 Yahoo! No.2 MSN No.1 AOL No.1 AltaVista No.2 AllTheWeb No.2Using the keyword phrase 'writing for profit' check out for yourself the veracity of these rankings.Do it now; prove the power of feeding the spiders and grabbing the top spots.How do I manage to do that? How do I manage to sustain top rankings for a 5 year-old website when almost every other site fails to achieve even ONE Top 30 ranking after years of trying? How do I not only achieve Rankings 1 & 2 on the major search engines but also manage to maintain these top spots 5 years on?The secret lies in researching what the spiders want to see and gobble up when they visit your website.And that is exactly what this system does; feeds the spiders and snares them into grabbing the top spots for my sites.It did not happen overnight; it took hundreds of hours of burning the midnight oil before this system was perfected and converted into a technique that works irrespective of the ever-changing search engine vagaries.It works for me because it not only feeds the spiders; it feeds them with precisely what they like to eat and the proof of the pudding is that ALL of my 24 websites have Top 10 rankings for their core keywords.Is this system easy to understand?Yes.Is implementation just as easy?No.There are no free rides on the cyberspace roller coaster and if you want to succeed, you have to work at it.This is a complete turnkey system, not optimization software, and it is not for everyone.It works for me because I work for it, consistently, contentedly, and in the process reap the rewards of top rankings for all of my websites.If you would like to learn more about the system I use to feed the spiders you might want to visit the website address featured in the resource box below.Jim Green is an online entrepreneur and established author with an ever-growing string of niche bestselling non-fiction titles to his credit. <a target="_new" href="http://websiteoptimization.howtoproducts-xl.com">http://websiteoptimization.howtoproducts-xl.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Are Your Keywords Making Money For You</h1> 2009-01-17T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Michael Murdock I built my website, it's perfect. My chosen subject of the website is Computer Support Services. Of course this is an example, but moving along, what should my keywords be?Keywords are what people type into a search engine to find something on the internet. These words are what drive user requests.Words to live by I like to call them. Why? Because on the internet your website will live and die by the words you use, or the words I use when you hire me to optimize your site.How many words should I use? What should they say? How many phrases should there be? What's a phrase?First off, let's cover what a keyword is. A keyword is a word or collection of words used to describe your website. For those doing their own website design these words are applied in what is called a meta tag such as the following:meta name="keywords" content="these words, would describe, your site"keywords should say something about your website. They should also directly reflect the content of your site. They should not be random words that have nothing to do with your site, or you. If they are, you can expect that your page ranking will fall rather than rise. Of course, you will still have to submit or resubmit your website to keep your page in the eyes of the various search engines.The number of words and phrases should be no more than 21-22, or a combination of the two. I have seen sites that had over 780 keywords, but no content to support them. Even if there was content there to support that large number of words, it's fruitless to have that many words. Most search engines will ignore anything over the 22 words limit.A phrase is defined as more than one word. "Real Estate Sales" is a phrase. "Real, Estate, Sales" is a collection of keywords. Both of these if used in a search would render completely different results.Short, to the point, and using some of the keywords that describe your service or product. Here it's Auto Repair Service, it's New, and it's Terrific.Description - The second most important item on the page. Make this relevant to the content (typing) that you have on your webpage:Bob's New Terrific Auto Repair Service is the most experienced auto repair shop on the coast. Servicing All types of autos from 9am - 5pm 7 days a week. We offer early bird service on Fridays and Free Car Washes to all customers who pay by cash.KEYWORDS - Select about 22 words/phrases that descibe your product or service, and separate them with a comma. This line would look like: auto, automobile, service, terrific, new, free car wash, pay with cash.How do I find these keywords? Use the following tools:http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/This tool known as the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool is one of the most widely used methods of finding out what subjects people are searching for. What products they are searching for, what services they search for.Enter your words like this: star wars or use something like business plan sample and when you click the button, you will be presented with a listing of how many times that word or words was searched for in the past month. Picking the higher ranked ones will be good for your site.How does keyword selection help sales? It helps in the sense that by selecting the correct keywords, your site will be more visible, found more often in searches, and as a result of more visitors, eventually you will get more sales. Please make sure that the BUY IT NOW message on your website is clear. If not, all the optimization in the world will not help your sales increase.Michael Murdock - former Macintosh Systems Engineer for PIXAR now owns/runs DocMurdock - A website optimization & Internet Marketing company. Helping websites move higher on the right search engines, and helping clients products move out the door and into the hands of the ideal clients. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Optimization Of Your Blog</h1> 2009-01-16T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Rakesh Kumar Now-a-days installing blogging softwares are just few minutes of click and run jobs. In few minutes you can install a nice looking blog ready to be published. Until this stage, everything seems simple, but when it comes to promoting something as complex as blogging softwares or CMS (Content Management System) applications for that mater, on which blogging softwares are based, can be quite tricky and painful. It is as much painfully easy to install blog software, as it is painfully hard to promote it on search engines if you do not know the correct direction to make headway.Even though Wordpress comes with features which will help you to make your blog search engine optimized, but these are too basic features to be relied on and you will still need to make changes yourself to better it.Mata TagsMeta tags which are important for search engine optimizing your blog, doesn't come bundled with your Wordpress, when you install it. You will need to install a plugins to have your meta tags displayed on your blog head. Meta tags can be added in the header.php file of your blog. A list of popular Mata tags plugins can be found at <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Meta" target="_blank">http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Meta</a>.Permalink TagEvery blog has a Permalink feature; it is the permanent link (URL) to a post or page on your blog. Having keyword rich URLs will surely help your blog being pulled for important keywords. You can customize your permalink structure to have more keywords instead of default /category/year/date/time/hour/minute/second/post_title as your post URL. For instance, you can remove %seconds%, %hour% or %post_id% in your parmalink tag. These are not necessary and having them as your URIs will only make it look longer. Also you can do away with %date% tag altogether to just have %category% in the URIs.Category namesBe careful while making categories. You can always have the category names as keywords so that your final URIs will be full of keywords.TaggingYou can have tags especially Technorati Tag plugin installed for your blog posts. Tags are basically names of categories or subjects. With tags in your post, you can categorize your posts based on these tags. While tagging will increases traffic to your blog, it will also make it search engine friendly.Making above changes to your blog will definitely make it look more search engine optimized and will help you increase its online visibility in Search engine result pages (SERPs).Happy SEO Blogging!!Rakesh Ojha is a SEO specialist and Online Marketing Consultant with over 5 Years in SEM Industry. Contact him at <a href="mailto:rakesh@searchengineoptimization4u.com">rakesh@searchengineoptimization4u.com</a> or visit his website at <a target="_new" href="http://www.searchengineoptimization4u.com">http://www.searchengineoptimization4u.com</a>.Read latest SEM and SEO articles on his blog at <a target="_new" href="http://semblog.searchengineoptimization4u.com">http://semblog.searchengineoptimization4u.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Seo The Simplified Version</h1> 2009-01-15T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by D. Patel Lets get things straight. SEO is a very competitive market. If you have the time to promote your site and have the energy to work hard to get a good PR then this is for you. I have read many books on SEO and tried to get the best tactics to use. If you have already built a website there are two things you need to do. First is ON PAGE optimizing and the second is OFF Page optimizing. On page is basically getting your meta tags and description tags similar to the pages that you have built. One key thing to remember is try to use <alt> tags with the keywords in your content. For example: if you have keywords like "SEO consultant" in you content you should bold it and put alt tags around it. Try to do this to each keyword per paragraph, don't over do it then google will think you're a spammer. Build pages according to you keywords and description tags.Off Page optimizing is the most important. If you don't do this, then you cannot expect to get visitors. This is basically getting other sites to point to your site, with the similar kind of subject of your site. Over the period of time, people are now asking for money to exchange links to higher PR sites. What should you do? Maybe get 1 or 2. Other then that start finding forums that your website is on. Just google it. Then in the forums use your site under the signature box after you become a member. This will take time for you to see visitors, but it will happen. Just make sure you are participating in the forum community by posting good questions or answers. The other ways of off page optimizing is submitting articles to other directories. This is the best way for you to get a high PR on google or any other search engine. But you have to right excellent CONTENT about your specific site. This is called a one way link, meaning no reciprocal links. Just another site that points to you site. Do this and submit to like 50 other free article websites and you should be seeing good PR over a 1 to 2 month period.D. Patel <a href="http://www.vimshop.com">http://www.vimshop.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Search Engine Ranking Optimization And You Four Easy Ways To Get Better Rankings</h1> 2009-01-14T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Bryan Hornung Where your site falls in the search engine rankings can determine your site's success or failure. By using some basic search engine ranking optimization techniques, you can increase the chances of your site being a success.1) Making the site presentable to human eyes. As search engines get more streamlined and more efficient, they look for the same things that people look for: good organization, relevant information, and no errors. As good organization and relevant information is almost assumed, the biggest problem in term of search engine ranking optimization is the number of typographical errors that page have. Always use some from of spellchecker before posting your text.2) Relevant Meta-Tags. Never use more words than you absolutely need to describe your site. Too many sites use too many words, or irrelevant words, in order to sell their sites. To take advantage of search engine ranking optimization, you need to keep in mind that descriptions should be succinct, and that every word used should be useful. You don't need to list every state to sell in the United States; it will only confuse the search engines when they categorize your site.3) Use text. It may sound ridiculous, but a number of web designers use images of text in order have better control of the font used by web browser, especially when personal settings mess with highly specialized lay-outs. However, the problem is that search engines can't read the text in images, and so images can be more of a hindrance than an advantage. Also, don't forget to use "alt" tags on images; that way the images count towards search engine ranking optimization and are something else that the search engines can hook onto.4) Get links back to your site. By them if you need to, but the more sites that link to your site the better. In essence, the more links to a site make it harder for search engines to ignore the site. This is why link building is so important to search engine ranking optimization; the more links to your site, the more important it looks, and therefore the more likely it will receive a good ranking.By following these tips, potential customers should have an easier time finding your site, and by making it easier to find your site, your site will be more prosperous.Get expert answers and more information on how a <a target="_new" href="http://www.marketing-helpers.com/">search engine optimization specialist</a> as well as other expert advice on the latest Internet Marketing topics at <a target="_new" href="http://www.marketing-helpers.com" target="_new">Marketing-Helpers.com</a>.Marketing-Helpers.com is a resource for business owners, managers, and marketers find the answers and services they need to operate a highly successful Web site. Get advice from experts like Bryan Hornung and we'll show you how the best way for you to connect with a search engine optimization specialist or search engine optimization company to increase web site traffic with a managed search engine marketing services. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How To Track Keyword Response Rates</h1> 2009-01-13T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Lawrence Andrews In today's market, it's crucial for every marketer to track keyword response rates. It's simply the only way of tracking advertising results and knowing which of your keywords are working for you.In the online marketing world, it's just as important to track your ad results. Knowing the exact response rate to your advertisement lets you to figure out how well it performed, which can help increase your profits and lower your costs.Don't be afraid to change a poorly responding advertisement to try to make it work better. Pay attention to headlines, ad copy, graphics and layout, and then be sure to re-test the ad. You might also find that where your sites are running is the problem try alternative systems. By the same token, you should test your keywords to make sure that they will work the way you want them to. They're very similar to advertisements in that they either work brilliantly or not at all.Tracking your ad results allows you to be sure that your ad publisher has followed through on their end of the bargain, and the information you gather allows you to prepare better campaigns the next time. The best way to track online ad results is to measure click-through rates (the number of people who clicked on your advertisement). There are other measurements such as conversion ratio (the number of people who click through and buy), but measuring click-through is a fine way to get started. There are two methods of tracking click through rates mentioned below:CGI Scripts.You can download CGI scripts at plenty of websites, and you can place CGI scripts in your CGI directory if your web host supports it. Try to find a small but powerful CGI script that tracks clicks on your site do it invisibly, so your visitors don't know you're tracking them. LinkinLite is one free CGI script you could try, as an example, or you could have one made specially for you. Getting a custom script can be great, as long as you don't pay too much for it.PHP and ASP ScriptsSome CGI scripts are better than others. Basically, CGI seems to be dieing slowly but surely. It is being replaced by ASP and PHP both of which have scripts available to perform these actions. PHP is emerging as the preferred language for server side scripting and is therefore the most accessible of the group. Depending on what your hosting service offers you should be able to find free tracking software simply by Googling for the software in the particular scripting language that you need. If you are unsure as to whether your hosting service allows a particular server-side scripting language, don't hesitate to ask. Most of these providers want all of their services used otherwise they feel as though they have wasted time and/or money implementing the service.Online Tracking Services.Online tracking services count click-throughs using own servers. This is usually free, although most require you to upgrade to paid versions before they'll let you do anything useful with the statistics. The upgrades are worth while, but you should try out the free version before upgrading to make sure that you are comfortable with the user interface. Once you've decided on a software to use, shop around. See if there is a similar interface on something cheaper. Your money can go really far on the internet, and if you're lucky you can take advantage of special offers.If you're interested in a free online click-tracking service, try Hypertracker, Statmuncher, Adminder or Roibot. These services are all relatively straightforward. They are all pretty much equal in quality. The differences between these free services are more or less personal preference. But remember, a comfortable user interface goes a long ways. If you don't like the look and feel of the program, you won't enjoy using it and will eventually stop using it all together.Banner ad click-through rates are usually between 0.5% and 5%, although for e-zines it can go as high as 10%. That's about average compared to offline marketing methods, which average roughly 2%.If you provide a service to a niche market, you are more likely to see higher click through rates. Professionals in the area of online marketing often settle for no less than a 7% click through rate. These rates can be done and should certainly be shot for.Regardless of which tracking methods you use, you need to be tracking your keywords and advertising results somehow it's essential, and it takes you a step further in the SEO marketplace. Every set of statistics lets you get to know your site's market position better and better, and gets you one step closer to where you want to be.About The Author:Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at <a target="_new" href="http://www.lmamedia.com">http://www.lmamedia.com</a> for more information about SEO and PRL.You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>How To Choose The Right Keywords</h1> 2009-01-13T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Lawrence Andrews Many SEO experts will tell you that they have specific ways of choosing the right keywords for a website. Some do it using SEO tools software that compares possible keywords to see which are used the most. Some will give you DIY methods with spreadsheets. We say, however, that you should try every method you can in the search for keywords. Here are some steps that might help:Identify and create a list of keywords from meta tags, research on your competitors, your highest-converting products and biggest current traffic sources. For each term (typically between 30 and 50 terms overall), narrow the field down to about 15 or 20, choosing the terms you feel are most relevant to your website. Your higher ranked competitors are probably up there for a reason so take a look at what they are providing. Make sure that everything is directly relevant and try to stretch yourself out into some unchartered water. The less common that your key words are, the more likely you are to get the search engine results for these key words.We would recommend a piece of software called WordTracker to find out how many searches have been done on a certain term. You can choose to work with this information however you want spreadsheets are good, but you can use anything that will make it easy reasonably easy for you to track these keywords. You're trying to find a popular word that has a low competition rate. Although this is easier said than done, it's very rewarding to find an area where your site can succeed because of the lack of competition. You should remember, though, that these search databases are relatively small, and should be used for comparing keywords against one another rather than for estimating their true 'market sizes'.This keyword selection research should then be compared with client experience of which keywords may be most profitably optimized, as well as any current ranking on the target keywords. Data from PPC campaigns can be helpful for this. The outcome should be a focused list of, say, 15-20 keywords that are both strong performers in terms of search volume, as well as solid candidates for successful optimization.When determining how profitable your key words are you should look into your web sites statistics and see what key words were used for what number of sales. This is called your conversion rate. The more sales that are associated with a certain key word, the more valuable that key word is. It is important to account for all of the variables, however. If ten people come across your site through a certain key word but only one of them buys an item this key word isn't as profitable as a key word that one person finds your site through and still orders a product. It is important to work percentages into your decision of worth of a key word. Your "conversion rate" is the number of sales divided by the number of visitors.You probably know who your competitors are, so go to their site and open the source code of a few of their pages (select 'View Source' from your browser's menu). Look for the <META NAME="keywords"> tag to see which keywords they're aiming for. Their keywords are often garbage, but if you look around at a few sites then you can often find keywords you hadn't thought of. It is not good practice to simply copy and paste a list of key words. It would even be concievable that you would be charged with copyright infringement for such activities. Whether or not you get charged, it is morally wrong. Looking through and coming across a few extra relevant key words is one thing. Steeling an entire list is something else completely.Another approach is to type in the keywords you have in mind and look at the current top results. Analyze their pages for keywords, descriptions and content this will give you some idea of what kind of keyword density you should be looking at for your keywords. If the sites that come up are a different kind of business to you altogether then you've probably chosen a dodgy keyword remember that you're trying to get relevant traffic, not just any traffic.The general rules that you need to keep in mind when selecting key words are:1. Try to select unique key words that your competitors have not thought of.2. Optimize for your most profitable key words. How many sales does the key word generate? How much profit is made for each of these sales?3. Make sure that the key words are very relevant to your site so that people who find your site through your key words will not immediately leave.4. Try to assemble a list of key words that covers your site very will so that you aren't leaving anyone or anything out.About The Author:Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at <a target="_new" href="http://www.lmamedia.com">http://www.lmamedia.com</a> for more information about SEO and PRL.You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Are Articles Enough A Few Words About Web Content</h1> 2009-01-08T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Dina Giolitto So it seems that content is still king, and that RSS article feed does a nice job of streaming in fresh, keyword-loaded content that gets your site indexed fast AND brings Adsense Revenue. That's great, but if you think that articles replace traditional web copy, you're dead wrong.Look at any top corporation's website structure to see that the traditional website model still takes first prize. Even if you've unearthed the absolute best articles on the web from leading experts, an article feed is still no way to greet a customer who's just landed on your homepage.Think about this. How did you feel the last time you clicked and landed and sat there blinking at an article that you weren't planning on reading? If the article managed to suck you in, were you tempted after perusing it, to explore other parts of that website? Or did you just go, "Ahh, good one" and continue on your merry ADD-like web-surfing way?My guess is, you clicked away. So if you're looking to launch a new site or considering making improvements on your existing site, how about putting that RSS feed back where it belongs - on the article page.Remember your visitor. Now that he's there, how can you keep him interested in sticking around? The guests who arrive on your homepage are no different than the guests who come to your home. You work hard to create a home that reflects who you are - your unique style, your hobbies, habits, culture and beliefs. When someone comes into YOUR house, you don't push someone else's stuff on them. Why would you do that on your website?Give your website guests the opportunity to get to know your company and what you stand for. That means including lively, inspiring and sales-driven copy that explains your product and service offerings. That means a company philosophy and a personal bio that tells the story of who you are and builds a case for your trustworthiness and expertise. That means copy that addresses your customers' emotional mindset and sucks them into wanting and even needing what you sell. And let's not forget the hallmarks of a real business - the privacy policy, user agreement, payment policies and "customer-satisfaction guarantee" as each pertains to your profession.Nobody should ever be confused by what they see on your website. Nobody should ever be "lost" on your website. Give your website a "test run" - click from a few different outside links and see where you end up. You MUST have a logo--on every page. Your company name must be clearly labeled on every page, even the "deep content" pages. Your contact information should be easily accessible and at the very least include an email address or comment submission form. Give your customer every opportunity to reach out and get in touch with you.Finally - your website should be strategically linked from page to page, keyword to relevant keyword, with the ultimate purchase end in sight. Sure, it's fun to create websites for the heck of it, but if you're interested in having a real business that reflects true professionalism, then YES you need legitimate, one-of-a-kind web content that tells the story of you and what you do. And above all, it should expertly lead the customer to buy!Hire an experienced designer who knows about Search Engine Optimization. Hire a copywriter who can create sizzling content on all the pages that will remain stationary and even those that will require regular updating. Take care in creating a website that's a marketer's dream come true. Invest in the future of your business.Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the <a href="http://wordfeeder.com/kickstart-signup-priority-1.htm" target="_new">Copywriting and Marketing Ezine</a> from Dina at Wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine friendly web copy and market your web based business for free. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Seo India Tips Amp Techniques</h1> 2009-01-08T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Ravz Dubz SEO is all about "Individualism"According to me SEO is not only getting rank for keywords (Of course that is the primary objective) but apart from ranking your objective should be "Conversion" getting "Sales" (No matter if its personal site or clients site)SEO Steps:1. Understanding Business.# What is your business all about# How is it going to Operate.# Target audience (Global/Local)# Opportunity# Competitor study operating in same business.# "Core competence"2. Target Keywords.# Getting a good list of keywords. (More keywords maximum number of ppl can be targeted)# This is something that will directly reflect your efforts (targeting wrong keyword will get all your efforts in vain)3. WEB Designing.# Navigation# Page size# looks n feel# inter linking# HTML Code validation*4. Meta tags & Content# Title# Description# Keywords# Content*This is something all seo do in their style, some do not emphasis more on 1st point (according to me which is very important) & shoot up with 3rd step then 2nd & 4th.5. Directories# They are the boss (More the submission to directories more the chance to rank top for targeted keyword)6. Link Building# I am very bad at this (This is something which can do wonders for you)I am still in process to transferring my skills & knowledge to a Brand "SEO Expert" or "SEO Specialist"Ravz..!Ravz is into research & analysis of online marketing. SEO India site (<a target="_new" href="http://expertseo.rediffblogs.com">http://expertseo.rediffblogs.com</a>) which offers Search Engine Optimization at affordable prices. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Need More Traffic Optimize Your Website Part Ii</h1> 2009-01-07T18:00:00.003-08:00 Writen by Rick Parrott In part one; we learned that keywords and keyword phrases are an important part of the success of our website. Also, we had a homework assignment.Pull out your list of keywords and keyword phrases, and we will learn what to do with them.Since your keywords have to be spread throughout you website to maximize their effectiveness, let us start with the top of the web page and work our way to the bottom.Title BarOne if the most important places to insert our keywords is the title bar. This is the text you see in the blue line, at the top of your website.If you search different sites, on the web, you will see many websites that have their company name and home in the title bar. It may be something like this.Arabians de Argentina | HOMEChanging the title to include specific keyword phrases will increase the search engine's ability to find your site. Try it this way.Training and History of Arabian Horses in Argentina | Arabians de ArgentinaWhich do you think is more focused?Header TagsWhile spreading keywords and keyword phrases throughout your website, a good place to insert them is in your header tags.Header tags are the bold print section introductions you use to break up your text into smaller more digestible pieces. <ul><li> <xmp><H1>Arabian Horses</H1></xmp></li> <li><xmp><H2>History </H2></xmp></li> <li><xmp><H3>Training</H3></xmp></li></ul>Graphic and Alternative Text TagsHeader tags are not the only place you can imbed keywords. You can use them in alternative text or graphic labels. For graphic labels, open the graphic then save it with the new file name. Therefore, JPG00001.jpg becomes Arabian.jpg or better Argentinean_Arabian_Horse.jpg. Then insert it into your website.Be careful though; make sure you do not over do it and get in trouble with the search engine police.Meta TagsMeta tags are on your website for the purpose of drawing traffic your site. Think of them as invisible text boxes full of keywords and keyword phrases.Other TagsYou can put your keywords and keyword phrases into your navigation page or other text links.What all this does, is increase your website's keyword density. As search engines looks for information, your entry looks appealing because you have more keywords and keyword phrases. This causes it to present your page before other similar pages.Of all the above, a descriptive title bar may be the most important. Experiment with the others and see how it affects your page rankings.In our next installment, we will look at another great way to make your website attract the attention of the big search engines. Do not loose that keyword list!Parrott Writing Services, a San Antonio Texas company specializing in web content, ghostwriting, website optimization, online/offline ad copy and technical writing to small businesses.<a target="_new" href="http://www.rickparrott.com">http://www.rickparrott.com</a>Send an email to <a href="mailto:EBOOK@sasecure.net">EBOOK@sasecure.net</a> for a free copy of the eBook Computer Security for SOHO Networks <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Seo Dos And Donts Revisiting An Old Friend</h1> 2009-01-07T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Christopher Conlan As an SEO guy I find myself waking up in a cold sweat dreaming up creative new ways to maximize my clients search results. "What if I coded it this way" or "If we syndicated the XML feed a different way, we'd blow everyone's mind".In the constantly changing world of algorithms, browser search behaviors, RSS and XML, and simply keeping up with the competition, even the SEO pros sometimes need to take a step back from the "coolness" and speed of technology and revisit our "old friend" the SEO Do's and Don't's!Here's the list of SEO Do's and Dont's I keep posted on the wall in front of my Captain Kirk-esque command center:SEO Do's and Don'tsDo: 1. Adhere to industry best practices and guidelines. www.bruceclay.com is good stuff and pretty much industry standard) 2. Create relevant and useful content for the website using keyword terms 3. Add new content as often as possible 4. Keep website and sitemap up to date 5. Build links in an ongoing, even paced manner 6. Build unique web pages for each keyword term (product or service) 7. Monitor and maintain rankings and competition 8. Remember that every aspect of your website is intertwined with all others (in terms of SEO) 9. Consult your SEO Specialist for recommendations before making any major changes 10. Be patient! SEO is an ongoing process that takes time Don't 1. Try to cheat the system, you will get caught, and the gain is only temporary and the penalties are indefinite 2. Use less than 300 words worth of readable, useful content on each page 3. Link to bad neighborhoods or allow bad neighborhoods to link to you (unless you actually are an online porno casino based in Nigeria that sells Canadian Viagra to underage US customers!) 4. Spam like there is no tomorrow 5. Add tons of links as fast as you can 6. Focus on only one linking strategy 7. Over use keyword terms (keyword spamming) 8. Put text into images. Search engines can't read it and don't care about your images 9. Forget to interlink your own website 10. Drive yourself crazy checking your rankings every hour on the hour! It's great to stay on top of the latest and greatest changes, trends, tools and the ever present "What's Google doing" gossip - there's plenty to be found. What's even greater is achieving long term success on the search engines without letting your core business go to hell in a search term basket! Happy SEOing!Christopher Conlan is Managing Director of Kaboodle Ventures <a target="_new" href="http://www.kaboodleventures.com">http://www.kaboodleventures.com</a> a SEO Specialist located in Scottsdale, Arizona, and proud father of Jack! Visit his website <a target="_new" href="http://www.kaboodleventures.com">http://www.kaboodleventures.com/seo_reports</a> for SEO Tools for Webmasters, SEO Reports, and more. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>To Be Or Not To Bewhat It Takes To Become A Successful Seo Writer</h1> 2009-01-06T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Rakesh Sharma "Jack" Well, "To Be Or Not To Be" can be a general question but here we are discussing it in the context of becoming a good SEO writer (search engine optimization writer). No matter, whether you are looking for some professionals or experts to promote your dream website or just looking for some work to earn that "extra" income; SEO writing has become a buzz word in the online community these days. I have spent many years in content writing, SEO writing and creating eBooks on a variety of subjectsthat's why I can say it affirmatively! SEO writing has become the need of the hour if you want to stay in business.As a human being (with a mix of technical expertise as well as managerial skills), "To Be Or Not To Be" is the question that has always teased me in the past. Not just in the past but even as of today! If we trace back the history then we will find that this famous line was first used by the legend William Shakespeare in Hamlet's Act III. Since then it has been used by many writersmay be I am the first SEO writer who is using it! But, I have a reason for it. Please keep reading to understand why?First thing first, so let's see who can be termed as a true SEO writer. In the simplest words, as per best of my knowledge and conscience, an SEO writer can be anybody (like you and me) who knows what he is writing and why, and eventually does writing, either for self or for others! So that means they aren't aliens (no pun intended, of course!).In other words we can say that an SEO writer is the one who understands the importance of keywords/keyphrases and can write the entire content carefully and articulately woven around those keywords that best fit their business category. An SEO writer actually optimizes the entire site content using various search engine optimization strategies in an attempt to achieve a desirable ranking in search engines.But, it can be easier said than done, as there is no quick fix or permanent solution to understand different search engine optimization strategies or techniques. Every search engine, by and large, has its own different techniques and complex algorithms. And, by the time you are conversant with some particular techniques or strategies, you will find that they have been changed very quickly. Moreover, there is no written guarantee about their results and virtually there is no fixed time period as well to get the results.So, now you may ask, what exactly I should do for better search engine optimization? Now take a deep breath and relax, as you are going to explore a few secrets for better search engine optimization.First of all, you need to bear in your mind that the role of an SEO writer in not just to satisfy the search engines but human visitors as well. A good SEO writer is the one who knows how to please search engines as well as human visitors, and the one who firmly believes that there is no short cut to success. Therefore, entire content should be written in such as way that it uses all the search terms or keywords as natural as possible (remember, it shouldn't be maximization but optimization).So that means, if you don't know how to use those particular keywords or keyphrases optimally (to satisfy search engines as well as human visitors), you are "out-of-focus" immediately. One of the good analogies to use keywords in the text could be to use keywords in the shape of an hourglass i.e. more at the top and bottom and still few ones in the body. The websites that use particular keywords or search terms over and over are sure to be penalized by both, search engines and human visitors. Can you afford it?I think no body can afford it for sure!To become a successful SEO writer you need to master and hone your copywriting skills, because high-quality and unique content is the real king. It should be clear, crispy, attention grabbing and unique that is free from duplication and plagiarism. In the mad race of SEO content, always avoid content that is nothing but Search Engine Spam. But, if you don't have the staff or budget to generate unique, original and never seen content on a regular basis to keep your site updated and fresh, then try some professional copywriter and SEO expert.Admittedly, you can't be Jack-of-all-trades, so for the tasks that you can't do comfortably and skillfully, there is always potential that you could outsource them to providers who specialize in the specific areas. But always be wary about their capabilities and skills unless you have actually tried them.So when it comes become an SEO writer, you will be required to write a lot of good quality content every time. I know that cannot be done quickly, and unfortunately there is no short here too. It may take months, years or sometimes a lifetime to become a good copywriter. It needs a good command over language, passion for writing and a lot of imagination and creativity. To become a successful SEO writer, never fall for short cuts as they are for short periods only.If you want to become an icon in your field, you need to follow a few golden principles, such as:· Write to please your readers and show utmost respect for their time and efforts;· Never do overstuffing with keywords, as overstuffing can't make your pages rank higher;· Think twice before writing even a single sentence; and· Never use jargons and technical words that may go over the heads of common visitors.Remember, being an expert SEO writer doesn't necessarily mean that you totally get trapped in the SEO stuff and complex algorithms; instead write clear, crispy, concise and to the point. Otherwise, at the end of the day you will find that though you have generated traffic but not serious visitors who bring business to your website.Last but not the least; remember "experiment" is the key here. Learn to experiment and experiment to learn. But instead of putting others into fire it is better to get your fingers burnt to experiment, and put others into a safe place to help reach them where they want to be, safely and comfortably.So, if you want to become a true SEO writer, you need to experiment with your own stuff. You need to take the initiative to learn about the importance of various keywords (primary, secondary and tertiary), the required density and placement rules, the nature of search engines etc. Get ready to do a thorough research to find the most suitable keywords based upon number of hits at various search engines when people look for particular information on various search engines. Some very good resources are the paid versions of Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery or Overture.As an SEO writer, you should learn, unlearn, and then relearn different techniques with your own websites to gain practice and experience in search engine optimization. Read from others in the similar field, participate in discussions forums and blogs; and once you are familiar with these techniques then apply and test them on your own website. I think this is the best way to understand the search engines and different techniques, inside out.Rakesh Sharma "Jack" is a freelance copywriter, SEO writer and eBook expert based in India with more than 10 years of experience. He has written dozens of eBooks, hundreds of research reports and thousands of articles on various topics. To know more about him and to use his services, please contact: egzone at hotmail dot com or visit: <a target="_new" href="http://www.egzone.info">http://www.egzone.info</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Why Backlinks Are Important For Your Websites Search Engine Ranking</h1> 2009-01-06T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Kalyan Kumar Like any investment, your website must start turning a profit as early as possible, and pulling the search engines is a critical component. There are several tools your site can use to get these rankings.· Search-engine optimized text · Fresh content frequently · Links to your site from high-profile websites · Traffic to and from your siteThe first two are all about how you put your web site together and subsequently work with it. The last one quality inbound links has nothing at all to do with your site, and if you work it properly, can give you both great rankings and pull in a surprising amount of traffic from sites other than search engines.Once you start building up your traffic, your search engine ratings will stabilize, and your site will slowly grow. It's a lot like starting a car it takes a lot of energy to get it going, but once it's running it only takes maintenance energy.Article Submissions Services: Getting Those Inbound LinksMost people don't know where to start with inbound links. Do you just email webmasters and ask? Buy advertising? Or do you offer your own site up as a link farm, encouraging your hard-won customers to visit someone else?None of these are the best bet (though emailing webmasters, over time, is a good additional strategy). The best way you can get great inbound links is by using an article submission service.These services use article directories, large online repositories of articles donated by webmasters like you, to build backlinks to your site. Each article you donate contains a resource box that points back to your website, in whatever format you desire. And you can donate the same article to hundreds of article directories.You can do this yourself. But article submissions services know how to find the best directories, and have specialists who can enter your information in the often-tedious and time-consuming directories forms. It may be a better expenditure of your time to focus on that great content and building your business in other ways, while leaving the submissions to experts who can do it cheaply, efficiently, and properly.Article submissions services understand the search engines and how they examine links, and can use this knowledge to benefit you. And because you can expect the search engines to change their methodology about every four to six months, with major changes every year and a half to a year, these services will always have the most up-to-date information on the best way to use links to enhance your placement.While you may be able to build your website ranking yourself, it's often better to seek help from people who have done it for years, at least the first few times you submit a site. Article submission services are your perfect ally when you're chasing search engine rankings.Appropriate Linking There are only so many directories you can submit to, of course. Once you have maxed out your directory submissions, you can start looking for webmasters to trade links with. There are a few things you should seek out in this case. Your link partners should be suitable for you, and you should be right for them as well. You should trade up as much as you can; look for pages with good rankings themselves. Don't trade with a competitor; if you sell similar merchandise or if you're both close together using the same keyword phrase, you should trade with someone else.But link trading only works once your site has been built up in the search engines. Few webmasters are willing to trade links with a low-ranking site (would you?). For the quickest rankings boost, and for a great foundation that you can really start to work from, use mass articles submissions. It will set you apart and above your competition.RcpLinks.com provides manual <a target="_new" href="http://www.rcplinks.com/">one way link building</a> through <a target="_new" href="http://www.rcplinks.com/Article_Submission.htm ">article Submission</a> and <a target="_new" href="http://www.rcplinks.com/Directory_Submission.htm">directory submission</a> services. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Which Keyword Research Tool Is Best For You</h1> 2009-01-05T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Andrew Williams Your keyword research will ultimately dictate how (and if) visitors find your site.Your job in this stage of the site building process is to find out the exact phrases that people type into the search engines, when they are looking for information or products relating to your niche.Example. Your website is about fly fishing. On it, you promote fishing tackle, rods, reels etc etc. If I was a fly fisherman looking to buy a reel, what am I going to type into Google to find relevant sites where I might buy a reel? After all, that is what you need to know as the webmaster behind a fly fishing site.I might type in any of the following:fly fishing reel buy fly fishing reel fly fishing reel reviewand so on.However, just because you think of a phrase related to this niche, does not mean that anyone is actually searching for that phrase. That is where keyword research tools come in. Not only will your research highlight phrases that are actually being searched for, it will also find a lot more phrases than you could realistically come up with yourself, and in a fraction of the time.How many "fly fishing reel" related phrases can you think of? 5? 10 at a push?Well, I just checked at Wordtracker, and in seconds, it returned 68 phrases that people are actually looking for. This is pure gold!Wordtracker also provides me with essential data, like how many people are looking for each phrase, and how many competing web pages there are for each term.I have 100% faith in the data returned from Wordtracker based on the results I have seen from various keywords I have targeted over the years. I cannot say the same for other keyword tools which use Overture's Suggestion tool for "demand" data, so before going with a free keyword research tool, read the following true story:."A couple of years ago, I carried out keyword research for a web page I was creating about pheromones. I was going to send my traffic to a merchants site and get commission on any sale generated. Using the Overture tool, I found 4 or 5 terms with reportedly 47000 + searches in recent weeks.... and that is just at Overture.I thought, hey, great. There should be several times this many searches originating from Google. I created a couple of pages and optimized them. I got #1 position on MSN, and later, #1 on Google too for some of my chosen terms.When I saw my rankings, I could see the $$$ signs in front of my eyes. Two days later I had received just 6 visitors to my top ranking pages. My millions were melting away before my eyes.I checked on WordTracker and found that in the last month, there has only been 41 searches for my main keyword according to Wordtracker (1 or 2 searches a day)".Let's just take a quick example - you can try it yourself if you want.Search Overture's tool for "fly fishing reel". Here are the top 3 results that I get:fly fishing reel 5179 fly fishing rods and reel 377 saltwater fly fishing reel 126Overture data is measured over the previous month. To get comparable data at Wordtracker, I found out how many times Wordtracker estimates the phrase is searched for at Google in 24 hours, and multiplied by 30.Here is what Wordtracker returns for those top 3 Overture phrases (Google searches per month):fly fishing reels 390 fly fishing rods and reels 60 saltwater fly fishing reels 120For the phrase "fly fishing reel", Overture says it was searched for 5179 times in January, whereas Wordtracker puts that figure closer to 390.For the phrase "fly fishing rods and reels", Overture says 377, Wordtracker says 60.For the phrase "seawater fly fishing reels", Overture says 126, Wordtracker says 120.Go on, try it yourselfNot convinced? What I suggest you do, is try this experiment with several different phrases.e.g. My old search on Overture for "pheromone" suggests that the phrase pheromone was searched for 54,905 times last month.Wordtracker estimates that at Google pheromone was searched for 5940 times in a month.Which do I rely on? Wordtracker of course.While the two measurements cannot really be directly compared (as they provide search information based on different engines), I have found that the number reported by Wordtracker do correlate very well with the traffic I receive when I get a #1 in Google.So where does this leave all the keyword tools that are available?Here is some advice on Choosing a Keyword Research Tool.If you find a keyword tool that looks promising, ask yourself:1. Does this tool also provide supply and demand figures for each phrase?Without supply and demand, the phrases are useless, because there is no way of choosing the highest demand, lowest competition phrases from the list. Many of the phrases may have hundreds of thousands of competing pages in Google. If you don't have these figures, how can you be accurately target phrases?If supply and demand is supplied, the next question to ask is:2. Where does the demand data come from?You can quickly check this by running a search in the tool, and at Overture, and comparing the numbers. If demand figures are the same, you know the demand was retrieved from Overture.If the data comes from Overture, would you trust it?I have not yet found a tool as good or as accurate as Wordtracker for keyword research.To read more about how you can avoid being labelled as a "thin" affiliate, download your free copy of <a href="http://ezseonews.com/search-engine-optimization-newsletter.htm" target="_blank">"Creating 'Fat' Affiliate Sites"</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Pagerank Or Relevancy</h1> 2009-01-04T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by CY Tang Pagerank has been a thing some webmasters look for in their life. Some people are even willing to pay for it. Some believes that pagerank can get their websites ranked higher on the result page. This article will explain whether Pagerank is more important or relevancy comes first.So, What is Pagerank and how does it work?PageRank is a number that represents how important a web page is online. Google knows it when one page has a link to another, which it casts a vote to the arriving page. The more votes the page get, the more important the page must be. Also, the importance of the page that is casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a page's importance from the votes cast for it. How important each vote is is taken into account when a page's PageRank is calculated.PageRank is calculated based on number of and quality of inbound links. These are links from within the site and links from outside the site. The following is the equation for calculating a page's PageRank. Read more about <a href="http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html">PageRank calculation</a>.PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(t1)/C(t1) + ... + PR(tn)/C(tn))So, if I have a PR6 website and I put a link on the webpage, pointing to a website with PR0, three months later, the latter will have PR4 or PR5, usually PR5. It's that easy. You can download and install Google Toolbar to check on a website's pagerank.Does high pagerank guarantee you good ranking? I would definitely say it has some level of importance or Google will not be updating PageRank every three or four months! The fact is that, PageRank today is a small factor in Google's algorithm. Google has trained its spider stronger and smarter now that a high pagerank site with less related content will rank lower than a high relevancy website with lower pagerank. Let's do a real life analysis. I am querying Google search engine for the keyword "best web host", and these are the top 10 results shown:Here, we see that 100best-free-web-space.com is ranked #1 by Google, with PR6, whereas webhostdir.com with PR7 is ranked at #3! Clear evidence that having higher PR does not guarantee a higher ranking. So, let's analyze which site has relevancy closer to "best web host". Looking at 100best-free-web-space.com, let us try to find some reasons why the site is more related to "best web host". First thing I can see is, it has "Best" and "Web" words in its title. The site has 0 appearance of "best web host", but if we seperate this keyword into three seperated "best", "web" and "host", you will see that the site has them widespread. For the body text, it has 73 "web", 22 "host" and 6 "best" words out from 1076 words, giving a total of 9.4% density. Not only that, the site even has bold text of "web" and "host" in the body. Of course, relevancy of a site cannot be concluded by simply looking at the homepage, there are more factors under it, such as content of its internal pages and outbound sites, etc. But, at least at this stage, it is very clear that, relevancy does stand infront of pagerank when you talk about ranking.In conclusion, PageRank is a good indicator of how long a site has been established (old sites tend to have higher PR than the new ones) and how many sites are actually linking to it. However, it is certainly not worth to overwhelme it. Some webmasters sell text link at a price of $500 per month just because they have PR8 on their site, which is absolutely ridiculous. Take the time and money to do something else more meaningful and effective such as content writing and relevancy building.CY Tang is a search engine profession, helping websites to get ranked higher with better search engine visibility. Visit his seo blog for any <a target="_new" href="http://www.seo-study.com">seo tips</a> and advice. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>One Million Pages Of Webmasterworld Dropped By Google As Forum Bans Bots</h1> 2009-01-04T18:00:00.001-08:00 Writen by Mike Valentine The top internet forum and best known discussion site for website owners, WebmasterWorld has been dropped entirely from Google! A site with over a million pages seeing over 2 million page views a month just disappeared from search engines! How often have you been searching for the answer to issues affecting your web site when you found a thread in WebmasterWorld forums in the top search results?Never again will you see WebmasterWorld in search results until this bot ban is reversed.The following URL actually takes up in the middle of the "FOO" forum discussion that runs over 40 pages (at the time of this writing) But there is a nice recap of issues that leads the page there recapping much of the previous 23 pages of discussion.http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum9/9618-1-10.htmSite owner Brett Tabke is being grilled, toasted and roasted by forum members for requiring logins (and assigning cookies) for all visitors and effectively locking out all search engine spiders. One big issue is lack of effective site search now that you can't use a "site:WebmasterWorld.com" query to find WebMasterWorld info on specific issues with a Google search. Tabke is being slammed for not having an effective site search function in place before getting the site dropped.WebmasterWorld has been entirely removed from Google after Tabke decided to use robots.txt to block all spiders with a universal blocking of all crawlers.User-agent: *Disallow: /He has stated that this is due to rogue bots clogging and slowing site performance, scraping and re-using content and searching for web reputation on individual companies within forum comments. I've a similar problem at my site on a much smaller scale. Crawlers can request pages at excessive rates that slow site performance for visitors. I've instituted a "Crawl-delay" for Yahoo and MSN, but rogue bots don't follow robots.txt instructions. (Google is more polite and requests pages at a more liesurely rate.)Can't say I completely understand the WebmasterWorld action to ban all bots, or if it will achieve what Tabke is after, but it sure is creating a buzz in search engine circles. Lots of new links to WebmasterWorld will be generated by this extreme action and then, when access to search engine spiders is once again allowed from the robots.txt file, the site is likely to get re-indexed by all the engines once again in it's entirety.That will certainly be a heavy crawl schedule to re-index over a million pages by the top search engines, further loading the server and slowing the site for visitors. Perhaps Tabke plans a phased re-crawl by allowing Googlebot to index the site first, then Slurp (Yahoo), then MSN bot, then Teoma. It could be that he's created more work for himself in managing that re-crawl.When this happens, there'll be thousands of new links from all the buzz and many articles discussing the bot ban which will lead to WebmasterWorld becoming even more popular. Many have suggested the extreme move of banning all crawlers was simply a plan to gain public relations value, and links, but somehow I doubt it. Tabke claims the bot ban was done in a moment of frustration after his IP address ban list grew to over 4000 and management of rogue bots became a 10 hour a week job.Barry Schwartz of SEO Roundtable interviewed Tabke after his dramatic decision to ban all bots. That interview clarifies much confusion, but still doesn't fully justify the dramatic move that effectively drops over one million pages from Google. http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002863.htmlWeb reputation crawlers are partially at play here as well. Corporations looking for online commentary, both positive and negative to their company, use web reputation services which crawl the web with reputation bots (crawling mostly blogs and news stories) looking for comments about their clients that may harm or help them. This may be of value to those corporations, but it needlessly slows site performance to no advantage for webmasters. If a site owner has trashed a company on their blog, they certainly don't want the "Web Reputation Police" crawling their content in order to sue them for libel.Rogue bots are a serious problem, but they simply can't be controlled with robots.txt. Tabke said himself that even the cookies and login are useless against serious scraper bots as the bot owner must simply manually enter their bots through the login, which assigns a cookie to it, then let it loose within the forums to automatically continue to scrape away once past the gate. Rogue bots don't follow robots.txt instructions.I've often wondered why anyone would go to such lengths to steal content and re-use it elsewhere, when it is unlikely to help them in any substantial way. Everyone knows that content is freely available at several article marketing archives, but the rogue bot programmers seek out content that ranks highly first - and fail to realize that there are multiple reasons for those high rankings. Off page factors like quality, relevant, inbound, one-way links from highly ranked blogs and industry news sites. The bad boys out there stealing content won't get those inbound links - OR the high rankings on the sites where they've posted that scraped content.Article archives experience scraper bots too. Bot programmers would rather write a bot program that collects content for them (to automatically dump it into another site) than to carefully choose relevant work to post in sensible hierarchies of useful content. Automated scrape and dump laziness. What other reasons would you have for scraping free articles?The other reason for scraping content would be to plaster it up across Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) sites as content to attract advertisements and hope for clickthroughs from visitors seeking valuable keyword phrases that generate contextual ads worth more to those webmasters. This convoluted thinking results in sites that don't end up ranking very well and don't generate much income to those lazy, bot programming, nerds that create those types of sites.There are several software and cloaking packages available to lazy webmasters that claim to gather keyword-phrase-based content from across the web via bots and scrapers, then publish that content to "mini-webs" automatically, with no work on your part required. Those pages are cloaked automatically, against search engine best practices, and then Adsense and YPN ads are plastered over those automatically created pages, yes, you guessed it - automatically. Serious search engine sp*m, cloaked, so search engines don't know.One last reason for content scrapers is to find content to use on blogs in the latest craze used to fill those fake blogs (also known as Spam Blogs or Splogs) with content, then ping the blog search services to notify them of new posts. Constant newly added scraped content is added to the blogs and the pinging suggests that the blog is prolific and should be highly ranked. This is closely related and promoted by the above mentioned article scrapers. This is the latest type of spam that is being combatted by search engines. It seems that search engine sp*m is just as serious as emailed sp*m.Good luck to WebmasterWorld's effort to ban those rogue bots and scrapers!Copyright © December, 2005 by Mike Banks ValentineMike Banks Valentine operates <a target="_new" href="http://WebSite101.com">http://WebSite101.com</a> Free Web Small Business Ecommerce tutorial and Provides SEO content aggregation, press release optimization and custom web content Search Optimization <a target="_new" href="http://seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm">http://seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm</a> Free Content Article distribution site <a target="_new" href="http://Publish101.com">http://Publish101.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Increase Web Site Sales With A Seo Proposal Part 1</h1> 2009-01-03T18:00:00.002-08:00 Writen by Herman Drost You can easily get confused by all the search engine optimization companies and SEO experts that offer SEO services. It's hard to know who to trust or what should be included in a SEO proposal. I will endeavor to clarify some of these points for you in this article, so that you can make the best choice when looking for SEO services. I don't profess to be a search engine optimization expert but have attained top rankings for my own site plus some of my web site design clients.What a SEO proposal should include:SEO objectives Site Analysis Keyword Research Competitive Analysis SEO Copywriting Creation of Meta Information Site Map Creation Link Popularity Building Web Site Load Time and HTML Validation Downloading and Uploading of Web Pages Browser Search Engine and Directory Submissions Compatibility and Resolution CheckingTHE PROCESSThe process will differ for new sites versus established sites. If a new site has been built with SEO in mind, many errors can be avoided. An established web site may already contain SEO or design errors that need to be repaired so it can attract visitors and make sales.SEO objectivesIncrease your search engine presence, rankings, number of visitors and ultimately the sale of your products.Site AnalysisAn overall analysis is first done on your site, to assess what is needed to best optimize it for the search engines. Based on this analysis the proposal is adjusted to include the necessary work to be done. This may include: design, layout, navigation, colors, background, fonts, images, broken links, meta tags, web copy, html validation, browser and resolution compatibility, loading times, search engine rankings, site statistics and creating error pages.All of the factors listed above have some influence in attracting search engine spiders and visitors to your site.These factors are already taken into consideration (which makes it much easier) if I design your site from scratch.An established site already indexed by the search engines will need to be thoroughly analyzed for errors before optimization can begin.Keyword ResearchOne of the basic steps in search engine optimization is keyword research. Here competitive keywords relating to the site and unique to your domain are found. Keyword research is done to maximize the impact of search engine optimization. When your site ranks well, more relevant customers come to the site leading to an increase in conversions and hence income for the site. The accurate identification and careful selection of these important keywords and key phrases can literally make or break any web site or online business.Competitive AnalysisThis is for better search engine ranking performance. I study the sites of all your competitors who have high search engine rankings and find out the keywords for which they are ranked. I analyze your current meta tags and recreate them based on the keywords I have researched. I also analyze your recent web site stats (if you give me access). I can then see how many visitors you are getting, where they are coming from and what keywords they are using.SEO CopywritingSEO copywriting is rewriting the text on your site in such a way that it becomes search engine friendly while remaining appealing to the surfer. Keywords relevant to your site are optimized so that your site ranks high when search engines crawl your site. I direct targeted traffic to your site, ensure they are provided with the specific information and hence increase sales for you. My copywriting services include modifying your site headings, HTML text, layout, design and even images where needed. Some pages may only require a small amount of editing or none at all, whereas others may need a more extensive rewrite.Part 2 of " Increase Web Site Sales with a SEO Proposal " will discuss:Creation of Meta Information Site Map Creation Link Popularity Building Web Site Load Time and HTML Validation Downloading and Uploading of Web Pages Browser Search Engine and Directory Submissions Compatibility and Resolution CheckingResources Increase Web Site Sales with a SEO Proposal - Part 1 & 2 http://www.isitebuild.com/seo-servicesWhy You Need a SEO Maintenance Plan http://www.isitebuild.com/seo-maintenance-servicesHerman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of <a target="_new" href="http://www.iSiteBuild.com">http://www.iSiteBuild.com</a>To choose a Search Engine Optimization Plan or SEO Maintenance Plan that fits your web site, visit: <a target="_new" href="http://www.isitebuild.com/sitepromotion">http://www.isitebuild.com/sitepromotion</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> </main></body></html>