Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Tips, Search Engine News

Black Hat SEO You Might Be Using That Can Lower Your Ranking

2009-06-04T05:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people vanish out of the Google index and don't know why. Usually, they come to an search engine optimization (SEO) company like ours when they want to find out. Over the past few years, we have discovered several common inadvertent (or advertant "worked at the time) "black hat" techniques that tripped people up in the search engines.

What is "black hat SEO? For the uninitiated, "black hat" refers to practices that are designed to get rankings in the search engines by using unapproved or unethical methods. The usual goal of this type of optimization is to get high rankings for popular search terms, then monetize the traffic that comes in, regardless of the site's relevance. In the early days of search engines, it was common for webmasters to trick people by placing irrelevant sites into search engine results. Many of the sites presented had adult themes which were not requested by the user. Part of Google's early credibility came from the fact that it presented results that were relevant and screened for such content.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but here are some obvious black hat techniques:

• Doorway pages. This one is an oldie but a goodie. Every once in awhile we still see a series of small dots at the bottom of a page that are linked to little pages with keyword stuffed content. These little pages forward back to landing pages on your site. This technique has been out of favor for several years.

• Keyword stuffing. Also a classic. Once upon a time, people would repeat the name "Britney Spears" several thousand times at the bottom of a website. (As a testament to the popularity of Ms. Spears, she is still a top search term 10 years later.) People also repeat the same keywords in content to the extent that it is obviously meant for search engines.

• Auto-generated content. There are quite a few programs that will scramble or "spin" content from scraped sources or sample paragraphs. This "spun" content then gets placed on hundreds of web pages. There is no substitute for original content. Search engines do not want to waste bandwidth indexing bad sites, so they have an incentive to remove your site from the index if you have a series of sentences with no logical grammatical flow.

• Cloaking. Does your website present different content to a search engine than you present to a viewer? If so, you may be guilty of cloaking. Search engines consider this to be a "trick" so you can get penalized if you get caught. It is possible to get tripped up in this penalty if you are making adjustments for browser usability, so be careful.

• Hidden text. There are different ways of hiding text. One is to use coding tricks to make the text visible to the search engine but completely invisible on the page. This can be done with "noscript" or "noframes" tags, CSS, and other source code machinations that make the text infinitely tiny or "miles away" from the page content. Alternatively, you can make the text color the same color as the background. Search engines are good at detecting this, even if the colors are not exact. Honest site owners can get filtered for hidden text if their content is too close to the color of the background.

Here are some SEO practices that can get you in trouble:

• Link Exchanges (or reciprocation). If you have had a website for any amount of time, you probably get poorly written link exchange emails. There is no point in answering them, as they are automated. This is a practice that went from white hat to grey hat to black hat. It probably won't get you banned, but you won't get any value from the links, which is just as bad when you're buying them.

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Simple SEO Tips To Increase Search Engine Ranking

2008-09-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

Though there are many controversies going on with respect to Page Rank, many of us are interested in increasing the page rank of our website. Tell me who doesn´t want a good PR for his site? It´s a dream to every one of us to increase the Page Rank of the website from 0 to 5.
Let me point out some of the important measures to be taken by the website owner in attaining a decent Page Rank 5. These Search Engine Optimization tips not only help in increasing the PR but also skyrocket your SERPs.
1. Least Competition:
As a budding webmaster, you should first concentrate on the least competitive keywords. Later on, you can shift to the average and high competitive keywords. Identify your keyword competition by putting the keyword in inverted commas " " . This will exactly determine your keyword competition in your favorite search engine.
2. Search For Relevancy:
After preparing the site using the least competitive keywords, search for relevant keywords that exist in your niche. Prepare a list of them using a keyword research tool like Keyword Elite.
3. On Page SEO:
After developing the site, make sure that the site is search engine friendly with on page SEO factors. The on page SEO includes keyword placement at H1, H2, Title, anchor text, and alt tags.
4. Off Page SEO:
This is the most vital part of your SEO as it determines the fate of your website´s Page Rank and SERP. This is also known as Link Building in SEO terms. Of course, there are many techniques followed in link building activities of SEO, I prefer the best among them.
Article Submission: Write some unique content articles and submit it to authority directories like EzineArticles. Do not forget to add your website link in the author bio of your article.
Forum Participation: Participate in relevant forums in your niche and exchange your ideas. Help the needed and get benefited. Use the signature to promote your site but do not overdo it.
Social Netwoking: There are many social networking sites such as Digg, MySpace. Be an active part of the community.
Reciprocal Linking: This is the most important step of all the activities to get a higher Page Rank. As a webmaster, you can participate in reciprocal link building activities. Do not get confined to the higher PR sites. Reciprocate even with low Page Rank sites if it falls under your relevant niche. Always make sure that you do not share links with link farms/gambling/adult/pharmacy sites.

How to catch a ride on a search engine

2008-09-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

Optimizing your Web site to realize more traffic is a noble goal, but it's not easy because the various search engines don't reveal exactly how they go about ranking Web sites. And their systems can change.

Gone are the days when using meta tags were the key to high rankings. Google, fast becoming the only search engine game in town, now marks these meta tags as "negative," instead ranking individually-indexed pages. Some SEO (search engine optimization) is now done through the back door on the index pages that viewers never see.

A content strategist must be on top of things every day, assessing clicking strategies, checking out what's working by trial-and-error, etc. It's a challenging endeavor, and it's nearly a full-time job.

Without hiring a pricey firm to optimize your site (don't think SEO is automatically included with your Web design as in days gone by), there are five basic things you can do or check into right now to help things along:

1. The more your site's content is relevant or unique, the more it is optimized for pickup. Post press releases or news bits on your site and change them frequently. Pack your writings with correctly spelled keywords or phrases relevant to your industry. Offer some unique content within these articles or news posts - words or phrases that are different and therefore stand out in the competitive Web environment. Think of the obvious keywords, then add to these by coming up with related words or phrases.

2. Post articles and e-newsletters you or a staff member writes, or post others' materials, making sure you secure their permission. If you can summarize this material first and add that summary, too, that's even better. For an article you are picking up from another site, summarize it in a few lines on your site, and then add a link to the full article.

3. Add as many related links as possible within your Web content pages. This includes adding them to all your online press releases and news stories.

4. Avoid the seduction of having Flash animated headers on your site that can't be indexed on a search engine because they carry no text. Using Flash on sites today is like showing up at a 2008 school dance dressed like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. A simple, informative site is best, and positions your business as one that is diligent about keeping up with today's changing world.

5. Be sure your site is programmed with title tags that search engines can index. What's really more important than your ranking on any given search engine is how much traffic your site has and where it's coming from. Having this information through Web analytic tools your Webmaster uses (or through services you can subscribe to monthly), will give you insight into such things as the best keywords to use on your site, and what links are doing the best job of bringing people to your site. Of course, you must analyze these things, then apply this information.

Be sure to list your Web site everywhere, including on the rapidly-growing social networking sites. And any business that fails to include its Web site address on a print or broadcast ad anywhere at anytime is, well, eventually doomed.

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Managed Search Engine Optimisation

2008-09-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

With managed search engine optimization, you are generally making yourself more attractive to search engines like Yahoo and Google. When people use these search engine, they enter in useful and common keywords. What if you could be sure that every time they wanted a service like yours, that your site popped up?
There are many techniques that people can use to make sure that their website will beat the others in terms of who ends up on top. One way that is growing in popularity for many online businesses is the use of a glossary or index of information. They write articles or throw up an industry-specific list of terms. This serves two important functions. First, people going to their upholstery cleaning mn will be rewarded with information, causing them to realize that the site itself has a lot to offer. Second, and more important in terms of managed search engine optimization, it can be seen that there are a wide variety of key words that can be put into a glossary. As you can see, many people have realized how useful search engine optimization is, and as you can see, are using it to their advantage!
Part of working with search engine optimization is learning how to make your keywords really pop in terms of getting hits. How do you know what works and what doesn't? There are plenty of things cleaning upholstery in you can try, but the main goal remains the same: you want people who are searching for services like yours to be able to see your website and your information at the top of the list when they search.
Studies show that most people who are using search engines never bother to go past the first page, and if they do, it usually turns out that their search query was flawed in some way. When you run a search on Yahoo upholstery cleaning company you usually turn up what you are looking for in the first ten hits, if not the first five. As you can see, this can be a very competitive thing; you are looking for the best keywords to use that will get you the most hits, but then, so is everyone else!
Learning the ins and outs of search engine optimization can be tricky. One thing that you have to remember is that search engines have become "smarter" in the past few years. A simple technique like putting key words that you think will get hits directly onto your page will no longer work. upholstery cleaning engines working to give people what they want and the ranking you will receive with a an article that has been obviously stuffed with keywords will be worse than one you will get if you use the keywords realistically and naturally.

SEO for Long Term Results

2008-09-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

Both are wrong. Well, search engine optimization in competitive circumstances requires considerable expertise, but in non-competitive circumstances it is just the basic if applied smartly fetches the results. If the business is solely depends on marketing (of products and services) and has plans to grow in future then long-term search engine optimization strategy is a must. And that's no child's play!
Let's discuss what search engine optimization or SEO is and its relationship with web marketing.
Search engine optimization or SEO is a subset of Search Engine Marketing that improves the volume and quality of traffics to a website. It can target specialized searches like, image search, local search and industry specific searches.
Short term SEO is easy and the result can be quick as it looks for temporary search engine algorithms and web practices. But for long term the scenario is quite different. Search engine optimization in a long term basis might involve paid advertising, building quality-rich web pages and addressing memorial stones technical issues of the back-end. Moreover, it’s long-term SEO is a continues. You have to optimize as long as you are in the business, as long as search engines change their criteria and as long as there is the competition. It's imperative to assume SEO as a long-term investment for your site. Here are few tips for long-term Search Engine Optimization.

Select your relevant search keywords and key phrases.
• Give individual attention to each page and allocate the search keywords and phrases to different pages. Split pages, if required.
• Work your best to make the keywords, phrases, meta, title, alt and different heads and subheads contextual. That is they should go with the existing content. If they don't match, ask your copywriter to redraft the content. The idea here is to make the page as much human as possible.
• Build and organize the internal links and link text to suit the target search keywords and their pages.
• Get external links to your website. Organize the links to suit the target search keywords and their pages.
• Organize all the on-page elements to suit each page's target search term.
• Use paid keyword analysis tools for research. Tally the search results with your business. Achieving high rankings for the keywords nobody is looking for is just wastage of your time and effort.
• Don't fill the website only with glitz – graphics, junk scripts and animations ward off the crawlers.
• Use natural, easy-to-understand language and never the abstracts. Ensure your Title tags and link anchor text all are in sync with the visible website content.
• Sit back and watch your ranking improve! It takes a little time to rank.
• Plan a weekly schedule for your search engine optimization activities. To be in business, you need to update your website regularly. The updation includes article and blog posting, link exchanges and forums as well as the web internals.

Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing

2008-09-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is where the famous terms SEO and SEM comes into consideration. SEO simply stands for "search engine optimization" and SEM for "search engine marketing"; a balanced and passive-aggressive implementation of both strategies can certainly sky-rocket a webmaster's advertising or affiliate income.

Besides search engine placement, webmasters gather in a certain community or discussion board to discuss several other topics such as advertising networks, on-page as well as off-page optimization, services, etc.

There are millions of web pages available on the web but only a low percentage makes it to the top of the search engines such as Google or Yahoo for a specific term, and this is often one concept which confuses new webmasters. Ranking high in a search engine in particular doesn't mean ranking for every single imaginable keyword in a niche. It simply means that due to well done on-page and off-page optimization a site or a page within the site, mold cleaning rank high for a single term. Depending on the marketing strategy and link diversity method used the web source will acquire relevant backlinks which use a specific anchor text needed to climb on the SERP (search engine result pages).

Besides optimization, every webmaster also deals with time management issues, content generation difficulties and design. The later causes many controversies because some great designers create incredibly looking sites which hurt on-page optimization, for instance, a great site created in Photoshop can display amazing graphics but each image has its own size/weight upholstery cleaner when loaded from an average dial up connection (56K) it would take several minutes to load in the user's browser, and we all know that if a site doesn't load within 3-10 seconds people tend to leave the site quickly.

Link building and link baiting strategies are important to build high quality and relevant one way links, but it is also misunderstood the effects of obtaining many backlinks in a short period of time. Some link networks offer reciprocal link trading to improve search engine placement and relevancy, the only problem is that all of the links are acquired in a matter of days or a week, all anchor texts are similar if not the same, and the linking network upholstery cleaning indianapolis easily be identified. This particular practice will only hurt a web site because to Google it would seem that the webmaster is trying to manipulate the SERP through aggressive linking methods, and so the sand box effect takes over.

Black Hat Search Engine Optimization Techniques - a risky job.

2008-09-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

Black Hat SEO are those SEO techniques which are deemed to be clever, sneaky, deceptive, underhand and even dishonest and generally practices that are not endorsed by the search engines or to break search engine guidelines, such as misrepresenting content, buying links, spam indexing, cloaking, link baiting, keyword stuffing, data mining, link spamming, doorway pages, content generating, article rewriting, and even page rank hijacking. Black hat SEO webmasters appear because of the nature of search engines. And a known fact is that more than 92% of black hat SEO websites make revenue by Black hat seo.

Black Hats see search engines as the enemy; deceit is the name of the game, seo�s are constantly looking to expose trickery and penalize guilty sites. These black hat seo breaks search engine rules and regulations and unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users. Depending on the competitiveness of a keyword you can see results very quickly. Sometimes within a day - for more competitive terms you can see placement within a few weeks.

These are the few ways to increase your website in the top but your site may banned if are caught. Being banned means your site is removed from the index completely from the search engines and the rank gained by these tactics will be finally reduced.

Cloaking will be technique where a webmaster will have two versions of a given web page, one version which is shown the search engine spiders, and one version is shown to the regular web surfer means showing one page to Googlebot and a completely different page to real human visitors.

Interlinking Setting up multiple websites for certain topic and having them all link to each other in order to increase their relevance and subsequently their rankings in the search engines.

Selling Page Rank if you have a high PR website, you sell links from your site to another for cash. This in turn leads to increase the site rank higher in Google.

Invisible Text is the technique of filling a web page consisting of the text that is same color as the background ex: white text on a white background.

Doorway Page is a process of highly optimized web page whose purpose is to direct traffic to target pages using either a code like redirect method or merely by being full of links that direct you to these other web pages and stays as representative to other pages.

Spam Page This page consists of bunch of ads or listings of other sites as doorway pages that a webmaster makes money off of if someone clicks on them.

Keyword stuffing literally the practice of repeating a keyword or important words over and over again on a given web page. If search engine suspect you are just trying to "stuff" webpage repeated content and keywords in the website, there is a good chance they'll penalize you for it.

Buying Expired Domains buying expired websites that had some decent Page Rank in order to try and keep the sites inbound links.

The above are the few of the black hat seo techniques which in lead in increasing the page rank, traffic and bring the revenue by breaking the rules of optimization. If they are caught will penalized and the sites are banned.

Does Social Media Marketing really help?

2008-09-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

Does Social Media Marketing really help? Is Social Media Marketing worth for your website? Is Social Media Marketing expensive?

There has been a great increase in the popularity of social media websites in the past few years. Social media networking helps a great deal to increase traffic on your website. The term Social Media Optimization or SMO has been very popular these days in the SEO industry. It refers to the art of using social media sites to help boost up your website’s popularity.

Does Social Media Marketing really help?

Yes, Social Media Marketing indeed helps. The frequency at which these social networking sites get crawled by the Search Engines is very high. These sites attract millions of visitors. Your website’s recognition in this site gains you top rankings in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). In social media marketing, you may go with bookmarking your websites into the social bookmarking sites and also participate in relevant discussions or forums, thus passing link-juice to your website through links into your comments. These activities shall help you a lot to get your website on top.

Is Social Media Marketing worth for your website?

You may use Social Media Marketing for any of your website. But only thing that is most important is to check the relevancy and the way you do it. This requires expertise since it is always better to adopt the ethical way and get the results booming high. If your website is related to Business Management softwares, it becomes very important to check what category you select for your website, what links you pass and what tags do you put in for it.

Is Social Media Marketing expensive?

No, Social Media Marketing is not at all expensive. It is taken care of in the normal SEO charges. But, with an increase in limitations in using these sites to market your website, you really need an expert out to work out following the strict standards with an ethical approach. So, get this done before this art gets too expensive!!!

On Page Optimization

2008-09-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Before your webpage is listed in search engines, search engines will send their spiders/crawlers to your website and get all data. The spiders will look for certain data from your webpage.

1) URL

The URL also plays a part in SEO. Let's say if you are writing an article about SEO, and if your URL has "SEO" in it, it will give it some advantage against others.Let's say, I am going to target SEO again. If my URL has "SEO" in it, it will obviously have advantage against the other websites that do not have "SEO" in it.

2) Title Tag

Title is the most important part of your page. It's the attention grabber of your webpage so have it done up good and you will get traffic when your webpage is listed when users search in search engine. So how to optimize your webpage title? Put the keyword you are targeting in your title!Let's say I want to target the keyword, Search Engine Optimization. So I put my title as "Tips on Search Engine Optimization". So, my title is 60% optimized. How do I get the 60%? The formulae upholstery cleaning ct (keywords appearance / total words). And this will result in your Title Optimization. Of course, the best way is to put the whole keyword in. But if you feel it's alright, go ahead please.

3) Description Tag

In a webpage, there is a description tag that you can use it to describe about your webpage. It is like a summary for your webpage. And also, it's the first thing that search engine look into. When users search amp; upholstery cleaners engines, the search page that the search engine display, will have the URL, Title, and the description of the webpage. So it's definitely have weightage on SEO.

4) Keywords Tag

Keywords tag is the place where you tell the search engine which keywords you are targeting. But due to the fact that some affiliates are misusing them, s upholstery cleaning search engine will ignore or skip this tag. But it never hurts to include them. Let's say I put the following as the keywords, "SEO, SEO Tips, SEO Techniques", I will have 33.33% optimization on each keyword. The more keywords, the lower percent you will get.

5) Body

Body text is where your main content is. Try to use the keywords often. But do not abuse them. Remember. Do NOT abuse them. The formulae to calculate the optimization of your body text is slightly difficult and as follows. (Keywords used/total sofa cleaner count in text). If I use "Search Engine Optimization" in my body text for 5 times and my total words count is 1000, then my percentage for body is ( 3 * 5 / 1000) which is 1.5%.

The following 2 are seldomly used. But of course, it does not hurt to include them.

6) Alt Tags

When you put a picture in your webpage, you can also include an alternate tag to it. It is normally used when the user could not display the picture, then the browser will display the alternate tags.

7) Link Tags / Textual Linking

This is the words that you used to link to others. The words that you anchored to hyperlink to other website may also count into the SEO. So you might want to find some websites that are related to your website and link them up. Do a link exchange.

SEO Friendly Web Design

2008-09-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Your window to sure success, the tips to a search engine friendly are quite logical and easy to grasp. To begin with, let us explore vital areas of mutual significance for search engines and users, and build our strategies upon them.
1.Content Obviously! , it is advisable to write informative and original paragraphs of 250-500 words for each top web page, with each paragraph skillfully incorporating a healthy spread of keywords, whilst not disturbing the flow and articulateness of the textual information. Further, furniture cleaners optimized articles and finding incoming compatible links are other indispensable tips to render your web content more sought after for search engines and users. It is essential to keep the text readable and uncluttered.
2.Keywords Next! Before you design your website, research some 100 highly targeted keywords relevant to your website business and zero down to keywords that are often-used but produce lesser number of competing upholstery cleaning nh While too many keywords may squeeze away the meaningfulness and finesse of the information from a user’s point of view, it may well declare the web page(s) as ‘doorway pages’ to the search engines due to excessive optimization for higher ranking.
3.Design third! Look and organization of your website invariably influence the interest and impression of your end users, as well as, help search engine spiders rank your website. While images enhance user experience, they may also slow website’s download time. You must make sure that images are used only when meaningful. Keeping the graphics/ images less and light, with upholstery cleaning code use of alt tag including short descriptions, is advisable. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) aid consistent layout, as well as, overall updating later. Keyword optimized meta and heading tags, with crisp titles and descriptions, also help attract consequential search-engine attention.
4.Navigation not to mention! Fluent and intuitive navigation is vital to satisfactory user browsing experience and fruitful search engine optimization for obvious reasons. It is indispensable to ensure that the organization best upholstery cleaning site is hierarchically logical and consistent. It is advisable to include a site map if your site has more than 10 pages. It is also wise to stick to obvious descriptions/ titles for navigation buttons/ tools. It is an absolute must that all internal web pages sport a link to the homepage. This also increases the number of links pointing to your home page.
Besides, it is a good idea to write concise HTML code and keep the lengthy javascript codes in external files, to upholstery cleaning nh search engine spiders scan content rather than code. It is also advisable to insert the DOC TYPE tag at the top of each web page to keep them compliant with browsers like Mozilla, IE5/Mac and IE6/Win.
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Make Search Engines Love Your Joomla Site

2008-09-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

There are several tutorials that can help to make search engines love your Joomla site. There are also several steps you can take to make sure that unrestricted line addresses used by meta tags are recognized. A SEF Advance program is a search engine component that is friendly with URL coding, and through various steps that rename files and alter configuration settings, the search engine will pay more attention to the information in the meta tag blocks on templates created with Joomla.
There are a number of factors that keep search engines from recognizing Joomla templates and many of these are the type of symbols that are used with the cascading style sheets, HTML codes, or even cleaning upholstery at actual content of the web page. The search engine optimization process is affected by bold and italics, meta tags descriptions, keyword density, the domain name and the web page design.
Joomla Content Management System is comprised of a basic program and numerous extensions that can be further developed by any one with a basic word processing background. The Joomla Content Management System also has a built-in function that improves search engine friendly features considerably.
There have been some problems with being able to control of the parameters of the URL when it is submitted to a search engine. The present ranking of Joomla on Google is favorable because this content management system industrial cleaning of the top software programs that does allow people to expand on the basic code that is open sourced for the entire world to enjoy at their own pace.
Using all of the tools and various resources that are totally devoted to increasing search engine recognition might come down to what operating budget a business has to work with. Whatever the cost, pillar candle of these search engine optimization tools will pay off well when the search engines are better able to bring customers to websites that were designed with the Joomla templates.
Joomla templates have been used for Government applications, small business websites and by non-profit organizations with quite a bit of success. The strict code standards that have outlined by the W3C have also helped with optimizing upholstery fabric cleaning recognition of Joomla web page templates by search engines. Any web content that is arranged in a smooth manner will be well received by a search engine tool.
The search engine friendly source tools are available free on many websites throughout the internet, and people can locate them by using carefully selected search industrial cleaning With these search engines tools in place, developers will be able to hone their keywords to where they will fare better in being recognized by any number of search engines that you might choose to use on the internet.

Search Engine optimization -How Spamdexing Affects the Searcher

2008-09-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

These days when we need information we no longer go to the local library and throw ourselves at the reference librarian. Now when we need information we boot up our personal computers, connect to the internet, and access our favorite search engine and type in the keywords that should access the necessary information. Thrilled, we scan the long list of potential hits, it looks like its going to be an easy research project. Cheerfully, you click on the link for the first website, and then the second, and then the third. Each website is filled with gobbely gook that bears little resemblance to the information you are looking for. Taking a deep breath you return to the search engine's homepage and reenter your keywords, jumbling the order of the words, thinking that maybe this time you'll get a hit. Once again you get nothing but a bunch of gobbely gook. You run search after search after search. You try a variety of search engines, other then a few advertisements you get very little information about what you're looking for. Resisting the urge to throw your computer out the window, you grab your car keys and wallet and head to the local library.

You have just been a victim of spamdexing.

Spamdexing is a problem that drives everyone from the college student trying to write a research paper, to the businessperson trying to make a go of their business related website, to the powers that be at the search engines insane. Spamdexing is the use of various methods that manipulate the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, usually in a manner that is inconsistent with the indexing systems upholstery cleaning raleigh The word spamdexing was first coined by Eric Convey in an article he wrote for The Boston Herald in 1996. The article was called "Porn sneaks way back on Web." Spamdexers are webmasters that take complete advantage of search engines, completely ignoring respected forms of search engine optimization. cleaning service use a variety of techniques to make sure their websites are in the listed in the fertile first two pages of search results, many times the pages bear little if any resemblance to the original search. Search engines powers that be understand the frustration spamdexers bring out in people struggling to run legitimate internet searchers. They know that spamdexing can add hours of time and mind-numbing frustration to what should be a simple internet search. Its cliché but they really do upholstery cleaning tool your pain and are trying to eliminate the problem. On January 25, 2007 Google took an active role in trying to stop the spamdexers on its search engine by going after websites that specialized in Google bombing. Several of the major search engines have rewritten their web crawler's algorithms to make keyword stuffing difficult, rejecting any websites that simply made lists of keywords. http://www.corsavoo.com/seo/0,2577,414882,00.html

Ethical Search Engine Optimization

2008-09-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

Ethical Search Engine Optimization
If you have taken the time to learn a little about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), you will no doubt have come across two odd phrases, White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO, just what are these exactly?
In simple terms, White Hat SEO is used to describe any Search Engine Optimization techniques that are ethically correct, and follow all of the search engine best use guidelines, no short cuts are taken and no "cheating" is involved. Black Hat SEO on the other hand, will use significantly less ethical techniques, many of which are fully capable of seeing a website banned from the major search engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN.
White Hat or Black Hat, which works best?
If you are serious about building a successful website, which will stand the test of time, then White Hat SEO is the only way to go. White Hat techniques are designed to build traffic and Search Engine Ranking Position (SERP) over time, by using a combination of on the page optimization (making sure your website is physically search engine friendly), and off the page optimization (building the link popularity and authority status). The only time that Black Hat techniques should be considered is when you are setting up and promoting a disposable site that is expected to have a short life cycle, Black Hat can help to push as much traffic to the site as possible in the shortest amount of time, the downside is that the site will be banned from every search engine index very quickly, often within hours.
What should I do if I made a mistake and my site is banned?
Some people jump into search engine optimization without doing their homework, and end up committing some kind of offence without knowing it, which finds their site banned from the big three search engines. If this is your situation, then the good news is that you can possibly dig your way out of this hole. First you should work out just what you did to get yourself banned from the likes of Google, and then approach them, explain you have found your mistake, and that you have taken steps to rectify matters, ask if they would re-consider your site for inclusion in their index. For minor infractions this may work. If your offences are more serious, if may make more sense to transfer your website over to a new domain, as the road back from a heavy ban is long and unsure.

On-Page Optimization

2008-09-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

On page optimization is one of the forms of search engine optimization. This acts as the vital requirement which is necessary to improve website rankings in major search engines like Google, yahoo and msn. In this process the elements of website are designed in this way that website is able to qualify for high search engine ranking on the basis of certain specific keywords. These are the basics which are often ignored by webmaster. They try to spend most of their time getting links to their site. If you want to make a successful online web presence, on page optimization is must. In on page optimization you need to have keyword in title tag and should also appear few times on the page. Your website is focused on a theme, service or product. You need to select a unique keyword for it and this is the keyword on the main index page. Rest is secondary keywords associated with the main keyword. So there should be separate pages for secondary and associating keywords. Your web page title tag must contain the keyword. It should be that word which you are targeting on a specific page. Do not use irrelevant words or website name in your keywords. Make two sitemaps for your website. One site map is for a visitor that is in html format and other is for search engine which is in xml form. Put quality content in all the pages of website and interlink on those pages on the basis of keywords used in the content. Put emphasis on the keyword density. Keyword need to be there related with the product, services or the theme of the web page. Only on the basis of these the upholstery cleaners brooklyn are able to search for it in the search engines. Make sure keyword should used for a selected number of times so that keyword stuffing does not occur. So recommended keyword density is 5%. Ensure your target keywords are used in h1 tag and displayed as strong italic and bold text wherever required. Make a practice to use the keyword in your opening paragraph at least once or twice and near to the bottom of page. Every page of the website must have two Meta tags in the head section and other for your web page description and other for your web page main and secondary keywords. Do not build a website with many pages in a short time, the search engines see the steady growth of website with the content and the number of pages they search for. Focus on providing the visitors the relevant information which they require.

Components of SEO Strategy

2008-06-15T11:18:00.001-07:00

SEO – Search Engine Optimization is defined in Wikipedia as "the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines." Most of the businesses which have web pages and participate in online advertising are at least vaguely familiar with this term. Search Engine Optimization is a sophisticated marketing strategy ultimately dedicated to improving site´s visibility to the internet public. SEO strategy takes into consideration what people search for and how search engine algorithms work, and combines various tactics to increase site´s presence on the internet, and consequently, to generate more traffic. Technological landscape changes too rapidly to define the strategy and tactics of Search Engine optimization in certain terms because certain algorithms of search engines are subject to frequent innovations. SEO is more capricious than fashion, that what was a new, blisteringly ´hot´ technique may be no longer useful in a month. Search Engine Optimization experts work around the clock to find the loopholes within the system to push their clients up on the search results page, the staff at the search engines computer labs work twice the time to find and fix the loopholes and to determine and discourage any strategy which might be used by the former to gain momentum. Some of Search Engine Optimization tactics consist of the website´s html code, structure and presentation, unique content which would be interesting to the users and is easily indexed by search engine robots, proper keywords, building external link inventory, and increasing site´s ´stickiness´. Three most consistent ways of increasing one´s ranking within search engines are creating authority by external link development, useful and compelling site content, and finally, by selecting the right keywords. Relevant links to your site greatly help you to increase the ranking of your site. Not just any links, however, the highest is the rank of the other site, the higher authority the link carries. Any links from government websites, or other major, ´reputable´ sites of unions and organizations are recognized by robots as the highest letter of recommendation. Links from personal pages, small business, and small websites with low ranking do play a role to a degree, but are not nearly as influential. It is possible to buy links, but this merely increases the quantity and not the quality; for the purposes of high ranking within search engines one link from a reputable source is weights more than a hundred links from questionable sources. In terms of where it will get If your business is to rank well, the importance of having authoritative links from ´quality´ websites cannot be stressed enough. Whether you are an entertaining site which makes profit from advertisement, a merchant or a service provider you want your visitors to spend as much time browsing your site as possible. As part of ranking the site search engine robots take into consideration the time visitors spend on the site. (Next time you are studying websites of your competitors – try to gather as much information in the smallest amount of time possible. If you have an addictive habit of frequently spending a significant amount of time there, you are increasing their search engine ranking. The more fresh, interesting and relevant your content is – the better. HTLM text copy is considered to be the most search engine friendly. Large images and complicated graphics weight down the site, and make it more difficult for the indexing robots to crawl it properly. To bring your site higher on the organic search listings content rich site is required. Content has to match the your keywords, if you are selling bananas wholesale, content about weather in South America, fruit plantation and history about fruit evolution might be interesting, but is only vaguely related, hence while it might improve the site stickiness, it won´t score high on the relevance scale. Well thought – out content development is a key component of SEO efforts. Keywords selection is as simple or as difficult as figuring out what words searchers are going to use when they search for your product or services. Keywords serve a dual function; they must bring traffic to your site, and they must be specific enough to bring the targeted audience. If you are selling antique cars, keywords like ´car´ and ´auto´ are fairly useless because they are too broad and do not reflect the nature of your business. They also tend to be very busy – in all likelihood there are hundreds of websites, selling new and old cars, but only a few make it to the first page of the search engine results. Statistics show that searchers generally don´t go past page two – which means virtual invisibility, pun intended, to the rest of the sites under these keywords. The ones who are fortunate enough to be displayed on the first pages of search engine results receive vast majority of all traffic – those who are searching for toy cars, pictures of cars, car history etc included. Should you opt to use sponsored search to promote your business, be aware that the same rules apply and at a price. A healthy balance between cheap obscurity and luxurious greatness is highly recommended. Successful SEO may require a continuous improvement and optimization of site´s content, HTML coding and keywords. That much is certain. To know what other strategies will be effective in the near future – stay tuned. Today, no expert can predict it with a complete certainty. http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/58431

Social Media Optimization can help SEO

2008-06-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

Search engine marketing or SEO is a known term in the internet world these days, but SMO or social media optimization is a comparatively newer term. SMO is a bifurcation of the SEO services, but unfortunately not many business owners, know how to use it in order to increase their search popularity. Where Search Engine Optimization works on search engines the social media optimization works on social media sites. The social media sites are not exactly focused on businesses, but are more into social interaction. Some examples of social media optimization sites are blogs, forums, podcasts, video sites and community based websites. The Search Engine Optimization websites, do not really aim at replacing Search Engine Optimization, instead, they only tend to compliment the functionality of SEO services. While SEO provides long term ranking to the websites, the SMOs are famous to create a viral buzz to a business, particularly to a small business. They are like gossip mongers who spread news about your website like wild fire. This helps in building in curiosity and attracting visitors to your website. The drawback of social media optimization (SMO) lies in the fact that the buzz that they create fades away too soon. News is news till no one has heard about it, but once people are aware of it, it is of no use, where as the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has a higher stand here for the simple reason that they are permanent and effective too. Experts believe that both SMO and SEO are partners that compliment each other. A great way to use them is to link the website to some of the SEO quality content pages every time the social media sites name the website. This proves that content is an essential part of both SEO and SMO techniques. There are various content rich websites that work as social media sites. One such social media site is Yahoo! Answers that not only answer various queries raised by the end users but they also indirectly promote the websites. Though social media optimization is helpful in website promotion and visibility, it will never be able to take the position Search Engine Optimization occupies. SEO is much higher in results and efficiency than any other website optimization.

Google's Guidelines

2008-06-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

Google is popular, and popularity means it may be tough to get in initially. Even if you do everything right, it could take months to see results, at least if you use their URL submission page. However, there is hope! There's a method to get indexed in 24 hours, so don't even bother submitting through the URL page.

But before you get to that, you should know about the guidelines you must follow to ensure that your site not only gets listed, but also doesn't get banned. Plus, you should learn about elements of your website that Google won't look at.

How to Get Google to Read Your Keywords First

Google's bots read web pages from the topmost left corner of your site to the bottom right. However, most sites are designed with all of the links on the left side, and the content on the right. In fact, earlier in this book you learned that this is the recommended website design you should use. Yet the problem with this design is instead of seeing your content first, Google sees the links first. Your links may not be seen to be as optimized as your content.

One solution is to use three panes rather than two. Keep the normal left and right panes, but add an extra pane at the top left of the layout. Don't put keywords in this extra pane. With this area "blank" when the Google bots read the site, rather than going for the links as they normally would, the bots see that a portion of where the links are is "blank." This then forces it to read the content first, which is more keyword-rich than the links.

Note that not all search engines read sites this way, which is why this guideline was provided in this special section dedicated to optimizing for Google. You could be on the safe side and use the layout anyway, especially if you do plan to submit to Google, which you should. It doesn't take away from the look of the site, and by using it you ensure that your content gets read first. If you don't use it, you aren't giving yourself the best opportunity to rank highly in Google search engine listings. Making tables isn't very hard to do. Most word processors and even WYSIWYG HTML editors provide them, so take advantage of it.

Things That Google Ignores

There are some HTML attributes that Google pays no attention to when it goes through its crawling process. While you won't get penalized if you use these attributes, why waste your time with them if they're not going to count anyway?

Of course, there are exceptions to these rules, as noted in the numbered list below. There are also some elements listed that you will choose not to include.

1. The keywords and description attributes of the meta tag. The keywords and description attributes are read by other search engines. However, the boost you get from having them isn't as much as if you follow the other techniques, such as proper link building. If you submit to Google only, you may not want to include the keywords attribute, but focus on a smart "upsell" or "positioning," "branding" of your message in the description attribute. Other search engines use them, so you should go on and include them.

2. The comments tag. The comments tag is an optional tag designed more for the website designer than for search engines or browsers. You use it to make personal notes related to what the upcoming coding does. It's especially useful if other webmasters are working on web pages that have been started by someone else. Still, it isn't a necessary tag, so you can omit it if you want.

3. The style tag. This tag has attributes that specify what your site will look like. This deals with styling of your page (CSS). If you're using extensive CSS, include the file as an external reference.

4. The script tag. This tag lets the browser know that a block of JavaScript code is about to be initiated. While Google ignores the information in this tag, it's still useful if you want to take advantage of JavaScript. You would use JavaScript when you want to run applets, special programs that run in a separate browser window. Use of this tag may or may not be optional, depending on what your site is for.

5. Duplicate links. If you have duplicate links to the same page, Google only counts the first one.

6. Interlinking to points on the same page. Interlinking involves picking a point on your web page called an anchor that you want another anchor to link to. This practice is commonly used when websites present very long copy on the same page. Readers can click on links throughout the document to jump to other parts of the document. It's very effective for increasing readability, but it's another optional device. Worst case, you could break up the copy and make more subtopic links.

7. Graphics, animation and video. Google pays no attention to these types of content, but it may notice the descriptive attributes surrounding them and certainly their URLs.

8. Boolean words. We discussed these earlier. They are words like a, an, the, is, etc. If you're optimizing for Google only, don't bother including these keywords.

How Not to Link to Sites That Are in a Bad Neighborhood

Basically, sites that are in a bad neighborhood are those that post on link farms, splogs, or other sites using black hat SEO techniques. Stay away from these types of sites. Do you know that if a person you're linking to posts on these types of sites, you could get in trouble with Google as well? It's unfair, but true. And don't think that because a site has a good page rank today that tomorrow it won't use black hat techniques that would mess up your site. This is why you need to keep your eye on the sites to which you link.

One way you can do this is to read the page rank bar on the Google toolbar. This is better than using linkvendor.com, because it tells you if a site has been banned, whereas linkvendor.com may not. If the page rank bar is gray, that indicates a ban. However, don't confuse being banned with having a page rank of 0. Just because a site has a 0 page rank, that doesn't mean it's linking to sites in a bad neighborhood. It could just mean that not enough time has passed for the webmaster to get the site to rank high enough in search engines to receive a higher page rank. Recently, for example, there was a proxy problem (now fixed) that erroneously returned sites with a page rank of 0 which in fact were ranked higher.

You can use SEO Elite to determine a site's page rank. To do this, you first open the program and select radio button 4. Enter the URL of one of your links, then select "Google PR" from the checkboxes. Click "OK." You're shown a report that displays the page rank for each of the web pages within the site you're linking to. Be on alert for those with a rank of 0.As you already know, this doesn't mean they're linking to bad neighborhoods, so you'll need a method to find out for sure. Now select radio button 6. Through this you can see if the site still appears in Google's search engine listings. Next, select the Google checkbox. If it returns 0, you know the site no longer appears in the search engine listings, and you should stay far away from it.

How to Get Your Site Listed in Google in 24 Hours or Less

Wouldn't it be nice to start seeing your site in Google's search engine results in 24 hours or less? It should be first noted that if a site is crawled but not yet indexed, the results aren't visible to search users. For example, if you enter the full domain of your site with the "http://www." and your site hasn't been listed yet, it won't show up in Google's results. When your site does get indexed, if you enter the full URL, you'll see your site listed. This listing contains the URL, the title of your website, and a description.

To get your site indexed quickly, you won't use Google's submission form (google.com/addurl.html). Using this method may take 2-6 weeks to get your site indexed.

So, what do you need to do to get your website indexed in 24 hours or less? The first step is to visit Google and enter a broad, generic keyword that's relevant to your site. This is the rare time that the broader the keyword, the better. Don't worry about trying to go for niche markets with this step, because you're going to want to have access to sites with the highest level of traffic. Once you enter the keyword, you see the Google listings. Use the "Page Rank" indicator on the Google toolbar to see what the page rank is (or you could use SEO Elite or LinkVendor, but doing it right from the browser is faster).

To refresh your memory, the higher your page rank, the more websites that are linking to you. Keep an eye out for sites that have a page rank of 5 or higher (with the higher ranking being the better one). Visit each of these sites to see if they offer a link exchange. Remember, if they do they'll advertise it in the same way you did yours, through a "Link to Us" web page or something similar. Look for the contact information if it's listed. If it's not listed, use the Whois utility found through domain name services or SEO Elite to find their e-mail address. Use the same methods of e-mail etiquette you learned about before and send them an e-mail asking if they're interested in a link exchange. Remember to post their links on your site first before you send out the e-mail. And don't forget that you can still purchase advertising on the resources given throughout this book.

Just make sure the site you choose has a page rank of over 5. If you advertise your site on a site with a page rank of 5, your site will get indexed in three days or less. If you advertise your site on a site with a page rank of 6, you can get your site indexed in less than 24 hours.

Web Directory Uses to Improve Organic Search

2008-06-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Webmasters work hard to top rankings in search engine results by optimizing their sites for organic searches. They do this to gain additional site traffic and to boost their popularity online to gain recognition on the World Wide Web. An important part of achieving those results is Web Directory Submission. For those of you who may not know what a Web Directory is: They are web sites which contain links to internet resources that have been reviewed for quality by humans and sorted into relevant categories within the Web Directory. The category structure allows sites to be found easier by visitors to the directory and also creates relevancy for the link to the specific sites. There is very little similarity between reciprocal linking and submitting to a web directory. Just about the only common thread is that you are trying to increase the number of inbound links to your site and along with it traffic. A web directory offers a much simpler way to gaining relevant links than reciprocal linking methods. Within the web directory category there are two different types. The first kind of web directory charges a review fee for listing consideration. The benefit to this directory is a speedy review to get your listing added. It also keeps sites of low quality out of the directory so that your site is not listed among spam sites. The other kind of web directory is the free version. These free directories often get hundreds of submissions a day and have backlogs in the thousands. Since there is no fee being charged for review there is little to inspire the directory owner to keep up with reviews. Also it is difficult to conduct good reviews on that number of submissions and many times the spam submissions get through. How do web directories benefit your website? Increased traffic to your site is the chief benefit that web directory links offer. Over time links from directories will boost your link popularity and help you rise in search engine results. For best results submit your site for inclusion to quality directories with authority. Traffic to your site will increase the more popular it becomes through link building. Because search engines use human edited web directories in their evaluations for rankings, submitting to quality web directories can give you a boost in traffic results. They help to increase a websites exposure and recognition around the World Wide Web. There are ways to measure the success of your directory submission campaign. They include watching for increases in traffic via a traffic statistic program or by using Alexa rankings. You can monitor the page rank of your site as Google periodically will update the toolbar page rank based on quality inbound links to your site. To make your search engine optimization more effective, you should keep in mind that web directory submission is one way of doing it. There are also other ways you can incorporate at the same time to increase the effectiveness and popularity of your web site on the internet.

Local Search Engine Optimization

2008-06-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

Learn How Local Search Engine Optimization Tactics Can Help Your Business Roughly a year ago, local search engine optimization was all the rage - the new frontier in search engine marketing. For a while, it seemed that everyone was interested in the local search angle - even multi-national companies. However, for many companies selling products or services to the entire United States, or even globally, it seemed like a non-starter. Companies that counted on people looking for certain products or services that did not require close proximity to the company's location were unaffected. As far as local search engine optimization goes, things have changed a bit since then - at least for some.

Some time ago, Google introduced a "geographic box" at the top of its search results. This is tied in to its mapping feature, and, when it was first introduced, the engine would display three results at the top of its search results whenever somebody entered a geographic modifier into the search box ("Atlanta widgets," for example). The Google algorithm then has the intelligence to determine whether the query calls for results that are primarily local in scope.

Since that initial trial, Google has obviously found that its users appreciate the feature. The engine now displays ten local search results at the top of the listings for certain queries, provided that they have a geographic modifier attached. For example, if you type in "Atlanta gyms" in Google, you will see ten results alongside a map that shows the location of ten gyms in Atlanta.

It should be noted that you will not see local search results for all queries that contain a local modifier. In certain instances, it almost seems as if Google somehow "knows" when a geographic modifier really means that you only offer services in a particular area. Yeah, those guys are pretty good.

There are many resources on the Internet to turn to if you are looking for local search engine optimization for your regional website. However, many companies have client bases that cater primarily to a national or international field. Can they benefit from local search?

Yes, they can - in two ways (with a caveat for the first).

First, many customers prefer to deal with people that are local, even if the business is national, or even global. A businessperson that is looking for, say, marketing consulting, may be inclined to work with someone with an address in close proximity found through local search. It just feels more comfortable - if something goes wrong, he or she can request a meeting, rather than calling an 800 number.

Here's the caveat - you may not want people showing up at your doorstep. Some companies invite people to show up at the headquarters and voice concerns or sing praises, but others would prefer to keep things at a distance. This is not a value judgment by any means. With many companies that deal with thousands, or even millions, of customers, it would be impossible to service every complaint with a human smile.

The second way, which seems more customer friendly (but actually isn't), applies when a large company has many locations. This doesn't mean that your company has "walk-in" locations that are open to the public. If you have locations in many cities, each serving a different function, you can still benefit from local search engine optimization.

Say, for example, you are headquartered in Toledo. You have distribution centers in several cities across the United States. Each of your physical locations is eligible to show up in local search results on Google, provided that you supply the engine with the proper information.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, not all searches with regional modifiers attached will bring up regional results. But based on recent happenings, it's a good idea to make your regional presence known and consider the effects of local search engine optimization. After the years of talk about it, local search might finally turn out to be something that most companies can take advantage of.

Meta Tags - SEO

2008-06-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Every search engine uses it's own, very specific algorithm to index the websites. All major search engines keep updating their search algorithms quite frequently to give their searchers the best searching experience. Your website's place in the search result pages depends on it's calculation from the algorithm it follows. These algorithms are not changing everyday but are evolving into more intelligent and accurate. Yet, the major focus is on the Meta tags of the site.

These Meta tags are not visible when someone browses your web page but the search engines read these Meta tags alone and decide the place of a web page on its search result pages. It does so by finding the relevance of the Meta tags within them and with its contents. The most important Meta tags are the title, description and keywords. The first thing a search engine looks for is to find a relevance in these meta tags by looking at the keywords used in them and secondly it looks the relevance of the keywords used in these meta tags with the contents of the page.

The Title Tag

The title is the most important Meta tag of your website. This is the first thing shown on a web page and this is visible to both your visitor and most importantly to the search engine. That's why it has to be given the utmost importance while search engine optimization is the consideration.

It is always depicted on the left top bar of in the browser window. This tag should include the most relevant keyword about your business. If the most relevant keywords are used in here, your web site will sure get a boost in a search.

Most websites use their company name in the title which in fact, is not something desirable. Because, nobody usually searches for a company name unless it is very well known or some giant multinational.

The perfect title tags should be something between 10-70 characters. It is not so that one can not put a longer title but the search engine would ignore the longer part of the title.

The Title tag should be written for the visitors (people searching for your business or services) first and the search engines second. This should be such as to motivate a click and obviously to favor the search engine indexing too.

Different title tags should be assigned to each page of your website containing its own keywords that relate to that specific page.

Description tag

The description tag should be written in such way that it speaks about the website contents in just one or two sentences. It should be short and clear that your visitors get a close idea about your site by reading this in a short time.

The description tag should be 100 to 200 characters long. The Meta description tag also has a great role in the SEO of your page. This tag displays the information at a search engine result page (SERP) after a search is performed by a user. So, this should be such as this puts the concise summary of your page. Most search engines truncate longer Description. Remember this while writing this tag.

Same as above every page should have a different description tag in accordance with the contents it holds. This tag has quite some effect on the ranking of your site in Search Engine results. The Search Engine will read your description tag and will check if the keywords or search terms match your title tag and content of your web site. My suggestion is to take the first sentence or two of the contents from your web page and use that for the Meta description content.

Include the most relevant sentences matching with the page contents in description tag instead of stuffing the tag with more keywords. Remember that the Meta Description Tag of a web page must not look just a bunch of keywords, but should contain an informative and concise summary of your web page.

Keywords Tag

The most heavily sought technique in Search Engine Optimization process is Keyword optimization. But at the same time if keywords are too often repeated, chances are that the site gets marked out as "spam". However, if your target keyword are not included enough, its ranking will not be optimized. So, with present algorithms which are really smart and intelligent include only those relevant keywords you want to target and make sure that these are included in the contents too.

Use variations of a keyword like watch, watches, wrist watch etc. They are slightly changed keywords and yet don't render any feeling to the search engine for their being repeated in the tag.

Geographical information (name of the country, city or place) may be used in the keywords. Sometimes it plays a great role when a search is made for a location based business. Or, even brand names, model name of a product can be used in this tag. That also helps when a search is made for a specific product model or brand.

Search engines give different weights to the keywords according to their positions in HTML tags used in the content. For example if a keyword is used in this tag which is present in Heading Tag also has more weight particularly when the same is in H1 tag.

Write your Alt tags of the images and the text links being used in the page such that it includes at least one keyword from the keyword tag. But, remember the same should look just relevant with the image or the hyper link for which it has been written.

The content should have included all of your keywords. The aggregate keyword density (all the keywords used in keyword tag) should be between 20% to 30% but not less than 5% to the best optimized results. However, Density for a single keyword should not be less than 2% and higher than 6%. The best is about 5% with the major keywords and 2% with subsequent keywords.

The Meta tags should be fine tuned with the contents and a good relevance is brought about between themselves with a perfect balance between the target audience and the search engines.

These Meta tags have been used really very un-carefully by the spammers, if we commit to use them methodically with the due respect, I hope, we should be able to create ever increasing web traffic on our sites.

Important Factors You Must Know About SEO

2008-06-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has an online business may be quick to jump into several SEO techniques, thinking that these will be a quick opportunity for internet success. If you think however that SEO can be accomplished in a jiffy, you’re bound to be disappointed. There are important factors you must know about search engine optimization. This includes the things to avoid, the things needed to generate a higher page rank, and finally the elements present in most excellent SEO services. First of all, overloading your site with keywords is not always a smart thing to do. Sure, you want to communicate your offering or your service as much as you can, and to drive the targeted traffic back to your site. Who would not want that? However, too many keywords may end up overwhelming your market. Oftentimes, it is not always about keywords but the strategic placement of the keywords as well. Filling your site with second-rate, plagiarized content is another way to sabotage the performance of your efforts. People are quick to recognize clichés and formulaic phrases, and if they don’t get anything fresh and useful from the website content, they will have to look for them from the next site, or the competition. Link farming is another SEO technique that always ends up being abused. This involves a group of websites utilizing hyperlinks on their pages, all pointing back to every other site page within the group, with the goal of engendering more traffic and increased rankings in search engines. While these may work in the beginning, the long-term consequences of this strategy will be anything but beneficial for the websites. Don’t fret, however because there are many ways with which you can increase your ranking consistently and effectively. If you have an easily navigable site that’s filled with high quality content, you are certain to attract a loyal following from your targeted visitors. A website that is too complicated for the average internet user will limit its reach and will be able to provide for a specific niche only. As much as possible, maintain a website that has navigation-friendly features and one that people can easily maneuver. In the same manner, if the site contains relevant and well-researched content, visitors are bound to stick around a bit longer. You can also submit high quality articles to article submission sites, so as to generate increased traffic. Well-written articles have higher chances of being accepted in these submission sites. Once you are able to provide excellent information to the readers through the articles, they will be more inclined to click on the link to your website provided at the bottom of each article. If you want to achieve higher rankings of your web pages, you can avail of the services of excellent SEO service providers. It is always encouraged to go for one that guarantees high rankings for your site and one that has a comprehensive list of available services. Not all SEO services command high prices, so make sure that you are getting what you actually paid for. Finally, a good SEO services company provides round-the-clock support to their clients. This is one of the important factors you must know about search engine optimization. Not all search engine optimization companies are created equal, so look for one that provides you with what need. http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/080530importantfactorsyou.html

Meta-Tag Optimization Tips

2008-06-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

Meta-tag content and relevancy Some commercial web search engines use meta-tag content to determine page relevancy. Some do not. Most of the time on a text-based document, meta-tag descriptions and keywords are not used to determine whether or not a page ranks. Search engines have long evolved to use other on-the-page and off-the-page criteria, as many SEO professionals know. Due to the emergence and ubiquity of blended search results, many SEO professionals need to re-think their meta-tag optimization viewpoints. What file types are appearing in search engine results pages (SERPs) for targeted keyword phrases? Optimization strategies for text files differ slightly from optimization from non-text files. Meta-tag keywords and descriptions become more important when the search engines are not able to determine (or have a difficult time determining) the "aboutness" of a file, such as a video file. In this situation, a keyword-focused meta-tag description can make or break search engine visibility. If I am able to help implement SEO best practices at a company, I try to make metadata optimization for all file types part of a normal process. Once copywriters, graphic designers, video and audio producers, and web developers make it a habit to produce high-quality metadata content, it does not seem like a daunting task. Going back and re-optimizing (or initially optimizing) 2,500 video files can seem like a daunting task. But people have to start somewhere, and one properly optimized video file is better than no optimized video files. I might have ten people optimize ten video files per day, minimum. I always begin with the video files that have the greatest impact on achieving business goals. All too often, management needs to see some relatively fast results before committing staff time to full implementation. If everything goes as planned, within a few weeks, the optimization for those files is complete, and now the optimization procedure has become a habit at the company. If I am working with a company that has a great web analytics package, I always measure the ROI of video optimization. Meta-tag descriptions and search behavior Since some major search engines use meta-tag descriptions when displaying a page's (or file's) listing, it is important to write meta-tag descriptions that accomplish the following: * Encourage searchers to click on the link to your web page * Reinforce content that is already available (and visible to users) on the page * Help to obtain top search engine positioning in the search results that use meta-tags to determine relevance How listings are displayed in search results is very, very important. I often feel as if search engine advertisers have a better grasp of display effectiveness than SEO professionals. Snippet length and term highlighting greatly affect a listing's clickability. For example, for navigational searches where users wish to go to a site's home page or a specific page on your site, smaller snippets are often more effective. On informational searches where searchers desire information irrespective of where the information might be found, longer snippets are more effective (What are you looking for? An eye-tracking study of information usage on web Search - PDF version). With navigational queries, the destination is important, and the URL provides a clear indicator of the final destination. Some Google research showed that 17% of mobile queries were navigational (A Large Scale Study of Wireless Search Behavior: Google Mobile Search - PDF version). With informational queries, however, the URL becomes less important to searchers because the desired information is the main target, not necessarily the URL. Which pages on your site are better pages to display in response to navigational queries? Which pages on your site are better pages to display in response to informational or transactional queries? Understanding your target audience's intent with various keyword phrases will help you create better pages and more effective listings, leading to a more positive user experience. Often, search engines do not take listing descriptions from the meta-tag description. They might take the listing description from other on-the-page content, or use a combination of the two. For this reason, I prefer to have meta-tag content reinforce the most important keyword phrases on the web page. However, if I know that the main searcher goals are navigational, for example, I will try and keep the meta-tag description short to help searchers achieve their goals more easily. Meta tags and site search engines The meta-tag keyword attribute often gets a bad rap because many of the commercial web search engines do not use this content to determine relevancy. Nonetheless, the commercial web search engines are not the only search engines in existence. Many sites utilize their own site search engine. The content in the keywords meta-tag can make site search engine results more accurate, which is exactly what users want.

Search Engine Optimization Tips for Your Website

2008-06-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

One of the most important aspects of web page design is to make your page easy to navigate by the search engines. Search engines heavily favor text over graphics, and HTML over other editing formats.

Use text heavily, especially in your navigation bar.
Avoid placing text in graphic format since the search engines won’t be able to read it.
Search engines have trouble following frames, so it’s best not to use them, and they may index only the framed content page and not the navigation frame.
Avoid Flash and JavaScript: search engines don’t follow either one.
Create a Site Map that includes all the pages in your site, and place a Site Map link close to the top of the homepage. When the search engine follows the site map link, it will find and index all the pages in your site.
If you use a left navigation bar, the search engine will read it before the body of your page. Make sure you include your most important keywords there, too.
Make sure that all your internal pages link to your homepage.
Don’t try to describe all your products or services in one page. It will confuse the search engine and dilute your page’s relevance to your selected keywords. Instead, create different very focused pages, each with its own content and keywords, and optimize them too.

To make sure that your page is optimized for your chosen keywords follow the steps above. The next and final step to increase your site’s ranking is to get as many links to your site as possible, from quality sites that have a topic related to yours.

Keywords and Phrases For Search Engine Optimization

2007-11-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

If you want your website to be successful, search engine optimization (SEO) is essential. Keywords play a Hugh part in SEO strategy if you want to rank high on search engines and directories. Search engines bring most of the traffic to websites and many website owners don't spend the time that is required to optimize their web pages with proper keywords and keyword phrases. The organic, or natural web site optimization process we've developed from delivering many successful search engine marketing programs is the cornerstone of our client's success.

a) Keywords placed in the TITLE of your website as well as in the description & keyword meta tags are extremely important.

b) Keywords placed inside linked text are considered very important by search engines, because this shows that your web pages are really talking about those keywords by giving more references to them.

c) Keywords placed near or at the end of web pages are important because it indicates to the search engines that the web page which started out describing a topic such as â€œonline casino bonusesâ€, and is still talking about that even at the very end of the web page.

On an ongoing basis we monitor our submissions and perform adjustment optimization, re submissions only when necessary and ongoing reporting. Our reports document the positions of your web site on the major search engine using the target phrases. We can also provide detailed site visitor statistics for your website without access to the web server log at your ISP. We provide full online marketing campaign management so you can focus on your business.

Should I Bother With Meta Keyword Tags?

Since the search engines use a wide variety of factors to determine site rankings, optimizing a page to rank high is a cumulative effort. You should use everything available to you that the engines might give some weight, and therefore you should certainly use meta tags (including the meta keyword tag), along with every other legitimate, acceptable technique available. At best, it may help boost your site a bit in those engines that still read them. At worst, it won't hurt your rankings (unless you brazenly keyword stuff them). I still use these meta tags on clients' Web sites, but don't bother with them on my own sites.

That's about all there is to it! If everyone treated these meta tags with the type of respect they deserve and only put relevant keywords into it, perhaps we could get it out of its foster home and back to its rightful place in the family of meta tags! If you are tired of struggling with search engine optimization - and not seeing any results you should seriously consider getting your service of my service.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=43137

Reason Behind - Redesign your website

2007-11-23T21:01:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought about website redesigning? If so, you have come to the right place. Here, through this informative article, we will take a much closer look at some of the reasons that you may want to get a complete website redesign. We will also take a closer look at some of the things that redesigning your website can do for you. Read on to find out more.

Making Your Website Look More Attractive

Have you made yourself a website just for the sake of having a website? Did you just make a dinky website on your own since you have no experience in website designing? If so, then chances are that you may want to redesign your website. If you have a business, you want to get the best results. The key to your success may be how appealing your website looks. A website redesign can help your business a whole lot in the long run.

Organization Can Make All The Difference

One of the main reasons that you may want to consider getting a website redesign is because your website is currently unorganized. Chances are that there is information scattered throughout your entire website, without any rhyme or reason. If this is the case, then chances are that people may not understand your website when they do decide to visit it. By deciding to redesign your website, you could be making a huge difference in the success of your website.

Develop the Right Style For Your Website

There is no doubt that style can be very important for your website. Although there are certain things which you would love to see on your website, there are other things that you need to take into consideration when you go through website designing. This includes, what is the most suitable for your business, as well as what people are interested in seeing. If you decide to get your website redesigned, you will be able to have a website developed for the style which you are looking for. This can lead to the overall success of your website.

Promote Your Website

One of the main keys to your overall company success is website promotion. There are a number of different ways to increase your website promotion, some of which include search engine optimization, email campaigns, directories, and other websites. Of course, before you can experience the best website promotion, you need to make sure that your website is as professional and appealing as it can be. In order to have the most successful website promotion, you should definitely consider a new look for your website.

Get Better Website Optimization For Your Website

Chances are that you probably have your website listed in search engine databases. If so, you probably know the way that search engines work is through website optimization. This is when websites are arranged according to how well keywords match up to what a person is looking for, through keywords. In order to increase the search engine optimization for your website, some new website designing needs to be done. The best keywords will be chosen, to make your website more effective in search engines. For the best search engine optimization strategies and to increase website optimization, you should definitely consider having your website redesigned.

Change the Wording to Make it More Appealing

Are you unsure of whether or not the information on your website sounds appealing enough? Do you also want to make sure that people who view your website can easily understand it? These are both very good reasons to consider website redesigning. The way that your website is worded can make a huge deal to someone that is browsing through it. Making sure that it sounds as appealing as it possibly can be very important to your success, as well as your website optimization.

What Good Graphics Can Do For You

One of the main things which people want to see when they visit a website is graphics. There are a number of different things that graphic design services can do for your website.

* It can make your overall website look more appealing to anyone who visits it. * Graphic designs can also add to the style of your website. * If you have a company website, you may find that your overall success will be increased through graphic design.

Make Sure That Your Website is Easy to Use

One of the main things that people hate about websites is when they are not easy to use. When people use a website that has confusing navigation, chances are that they will not use the website again because they will get frustrated with it. Website redesigning can help you a lot when it comes to making your website easy to use. An understandable website can lead to the overall success of your business, by increasing the sales that you get.

Develop a More Professional Looking Website

One of the most important things that there is to know about website design is the fact that a website is the soul to your company. If you have a company which is very professional, chances are that you will also want your company’s website to be very professional as well.

If a person finds that your website does not seem professional or legitimate enough, they will most likely avoid using your services. If you decide to get your website redesigned, you will feel rest assured to know that your website is as professional-looking as it should be.

Match Your Competition

The truth is that industries are constantly changing. If your website is older, chances are that the content that can be found on it may be out of date. In order to match your competition, you should have a website that is just as good as your competitors. Having your website redesigned can be extremely successful when it comes to this.

Why Is Website Redesign So Beneficial?

* The appearance of your website will be improved through graphics. * Your website promotion will be more successful. * Website optimization will be increased. * The overall success of your company will be increased, through encouraged sales or use of services. http://www.promotionworld.com/articles/internet/webdesign/071123TopReasons.html

Image Optimization

2007-09-26T11:43:00.001-07:00

How will you do image optimization? There are some basic steps for image optimization which will help to get the good ranking.

1 . Use keywords phrase in image file name

For example : custom-pc.jpg

2. Alt Tag - Use keywords in the img alt tag

3. Optimize the page containing images.

Put relevant meta tags and title in the page.

4. Keep the image near supporting keyword rich content

5. Limit the number of image per page.

6. Use photo sharing sites. Apply caption and tags

Keyword Research & Search Engine Optimization

2007-09-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

How to choose the right keyword for your site through proper keyword research and analysis.

We all know that Search Engine Optimization deals with many aspects of a site but while optimizing a site people generally tend to make mistake selecting the right keyword for the site they are trying to optimize

The first basic step in optimizing a site starts with proper selection of keyword. If this goes well then you know that 50 percent of your work is done. I am saying so coz even if you rank in the top ten for your targeted keyword in Google it will not help you gain traffic to your site as chosen keyword is an improper selection. So, your first criteria is to choose the best possible keyword that have an comfortable level of competition and would also fetch good visitors to your site.

Now, the question arises how you would actually choose the right keyword for your site. Well, like other people around I will not beat around the bush and directly come to the point. On the first instance I would suggest you to go through your site and understand the theme of it. Analyze what a normal visitor would type in to find similar sites. List down on the number of keywords that you could possibly find out. Check out with your friends and colleagues to give you suggestions. Once you have a list of keywords try to narrow down on the list by eliminating improper and irrelevant keywords.

Once this is over, now try to figure out from the keyword list how many times each keyword is being searched worldwide per month. Once you are convinced about the search rate list down the top 10 keyword as per the search rate. Do not try to optimize your pages for keywords that have high search rate coz it will apparently have high competition. Try to figure out some keywords that will give you fair enough visitors but will have less competition.

Now, when you have selected three to five keywords try to optimize your page keeping in mind that it’s better to optimize a page with twp key phrases.

So, what are you waiting for start your optimizing work. Oops, probably you are waiting for tools that will help you in searching for the search rate for your keywords. Well, I try a combination of tools. I believe none of the tools available provide accurate data but definitely they will help you to approximately guess on the search rate.

The tools I would recommend are:

1. Good Keywords

2. Overture

3. Wordtracker

4. Google Adword Tool

So, head start with your optimizing techniques and see your pages shoot up for your keyword in no time. http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/070830keywordresearch.html

The website traffic myth

2007-09-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

Where is all my website traffic?

Is this a question that you find yourself often asking when you look at your website statistics? Many people believe that if you have a website, all the millions of web surfers will somehow just find it. They feel that they’ve invested the money to have their fantastic website in place and wonder why no one is visiting it.

It is true that by having a website, the probability increases that potential customers will find you on the Internet. However, it is a myth that just having a website will draw thousands of new clients and double your business overnight. The website by itself is simply a marketing tool. Having a well constructed, easily navigated, professional website is a step in the right direction; however, getting traffic to your website is a multifaceted process. Let’s take a look at the process and some simple, yet effective ways to increase that much-desired traffic to your website.

Since your website is just one of the many tools that you have at your disposal, why not allow your various marketing tactics to reinforce each other?

The first step is to include your website address on all of your other marketing initiatives. This could include business cards, brochures, flyers, newspaper ads, phone directories, TV, radio, direct mail, signage, etc. In the case of most marketing materials, space and time is valuable. Instead of trying to cram in multiple messages and pitches and risking negative ad effectiveness due to clutter and small print, communicate your value proposition (why the customer needs to buy from you) and then point them to the website for more details. This allows you the ability to effectively communicate your message to them without worrying about space constraints. An important thing to keep in mind is that your website should be constantly updated with new and fresh content. This will result in repeat visitors as well as help increase your search engine placements.

This brings us to the next method of acquiring more traffic: search engine marketing. This is a process that is often overlooked by the marketing departments of many Atlantic Canadian businesses. Your website can be targeted specifically to the web surfer that is looking for your expertise in your region. You can’t get any more direct than that.

You can market to a very specific territory, or to a broad region that you would like to generate qualified leads. For example, if you do a search for your industry in a specific location, there will be a list of results that may or may not include your company. If your company is not in the list of results, your website may not be properly optimized.

However, this can be changed. By properly optimising your website for search engine compatibility and having your website submitted to the major search engines on a continuous basis, you will steadily climb in rankings to a much more favourable position. This type of marketing is extremely inexpensive and can be very effective. Proper search engine optimization and marketing techniques can become quite complex, so you may need to enlist the help of a knowledgeable friend or professional web-marketing firm.

So if you are asking yourself, “Where is all my website traffic?” just remember there is lots of web traffic to be tapped into out there, but you have to maximize your website exposure using all the tools at your disposal. By applying these simple basic techniques, you’ll be pleasantly surprised as you watch your website traffic increase.

http://novascotiabusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?sid=58195&sc=107

The Great Link Buying Debate

2007-09-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2007. This is the first time I've gone to the San Jose conference and expo. I don't know what I was waiting for. It was a great show in a great city. I'll definitely be adding it to my yearly tour schedule.

Buying Paid Links

The topic of links was in no short supply – particularly paid links. There is a great deal of discussion raging right now about what was important to take away from SES San Jose 2007 about paid links. Do a search at blogsearch.google.com for a phrase like "ses san jose paid links," and you can read all about it to your heart's content.

Virtually every side of this issue has been beaten to death. And, ultimately, nothing has changed since the beginning of the debate. If you believe in buying links, you are going to continue to buy links. If you don't, you won't.

But, like all topics, buying credibility or exposure in any realm is never as black and white as we would all like to believe. My wife, Rocky, worked in the print publishing world for years. Who do you think got feature stories written about them? The companies that spent the most money with the magazine, of course. I have a friend who does search engine optimization in one specific field. He calls up his blogger friends in that industry and asks them to do a "review" or two of a "new and exciting" company he just happened to get as a client. He's wildly successful in his optimization.

It's all very grey, and the debate itself is meaningless, in my opinion. Everyone is so focused on where the next link is going to come from, they forget why they were supposed to be getting links in the first place. Let me refresh your memory.

Before Google...

Before Google, the big search engine was AltaVista. It still exists, if you want to go check it out for fun. Clients would come to me myopically focused on AltaVista. They just wanted to come up for their major key phrases in AltaVista. If they weren't successful in AltaVista, the whole campaign was a failure.

It's pretty funny thinking about it now. But it was painfully serious at the time. There were two reasons people stopped visiting AltaVista: old results and poor relevancy. AltaVista took forever to update its search index. And, when they did update, the results were not particularly great.

Link Popularity

Along came Google. Why was it successful? When you typed in a search query, the results you got were great. You quickly found what you were looking for. You loved it, and you told your friends about it. Google didn't need to advertise. Google was so great at doing what it did, it changed the face of search by creating the largest viral campaign in history.

You know why Google was so great, right? It was because its algorithm relied heavily on link popularity. The Web sites that linked to you gave Google great insight into what you were about and how important you were in the Web landscape. Google also did a great job of refreshing its index on a regular basis.

So, poof, Google now has between 50 percent and 60 percent of the U.S. search landscape and oftentimes a much greater portion of search share in other countries.

To Buy or Not to Buy

It's easy to see why both sides are so impassioned about the link buying debate. In order for Google to continue to be successful, links need to be organic, deserved, and free. In order for everyone else to be successful on the behemoth, Google, they have to buy links because they aren't creative enough to generate something worth linking to. Clearly we have a love-hate relationship going on here.

Here’s a fun analogy: In an ideal world, Americans would drive less and reduce their global carbon footprint, and businesses would make useful, interesting sites that others would believe were valuable enough to link to. When’s that happening? Only when the pain of status quo practices outweigh the pain of doing something different. In other words, when gas goes to $10 a gallon and when buying links gets you thrown out of the search engines, then you’ll see some change. http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3626870

Various Aspects of Search Engine Marketing Strategy

2007-09-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

Search engine marketing is a combination of many entities such as website designing, search engine optimization, linking, online advertising and effective content writing. Search engine marketing strategy comprises of factors like website marketing, demographic marketing, search keyword marketing, linking stragegies, email campaigns and online advertising campaigns.

Factors to be kept in mind before the start of an online campaign

Put attention to these factors to start a search engine marketing campaign. See that your target audience is appropriate to the business of your website. For your marketing plan, see that your search engine marketing efforts are in the right direction. You can also consult and retain the services of a professional for your search engine marketing efforts. See what programs and techniques of other persons are there who operate online enterprises. Make flexibility in your search engine marketing plan and do not stick to a traditional or repetitive way. Change your plan if it does not serve your purpose and requirements in an optimal manner. See that plan is within the reach of your budget. Do not overspend on it.

Elements of search engine marketing strategy

Search engine marketing strategy consists of various elements. Follow the search engine guidelines for designing your website. Focus on the target audience. And mention the real feature of your products and services in your advertisements. Submit your URL in search engines to make them aware of your website. Use various incentive schemes to attract your customers. Study the competitor ads while making your ad listings. Integrate and include your keywords in ad listings. Use strong and attracting words in your ads. Check your online advertisements from time to time and Monitor your results carefully. All this will assist you to excel in search engine marketing.

Focus on search engine optimization

Search engine marketing strategy focusing on the search engine optimization helps to increase the ranking of the website in search engine results. In fact this is the key for all other strategies. Make strategy that Focus on high search engine placement for actual search words, increase branding opportunities for the company, reduce advertising costs and higher resulting in higher internet visibility. Finally you need to monitor your program carefully and keep aware about the changing trends and generate the right business strategy helping to achieve your online goals and objectives.

http://pr-gb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15201&Itemid=9

Website Creation and the Eye of the Spider

2007-09-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

Picture, if you will, a Rocky-style montage. A team is involved in website creation from the ground up. A driving, inspirational song begins. The first scene is a highly contentious meeting, with a sweating and nervous marketing executive frantically drawing away at a whiteboard in front of a hostile audience. Flash to copywriters, fingers cracked and bleeding, churning away at their keyboards. Jump to web designers, sporting blurred eyes rimmed with dark circles, peering into their monitors in obvious discomfort. Finally, we see signs of it all coming together. A beautiful home page briefly appears. The music ends. A bell rings. And... Nothing happens. The website would seem to have tripped over its own shoelaces and fallen right through the canvas, disappearing into cyberspace. The credits roll, to the eternal shame of those whose names appear.

What went wrong?

The team engaged in website creation without any regard for the role of the search engine spider. You see, there is quite a difference in what is seen by humans on a website and what is seen by a search engine "spider" (a program that routinely combs the Internet indexing websites). There are an untold numbers of expensive websites out there that are beautiful to behold from a human perspective, yet all but invisible to search engine spiders (and thus searchers), just as there are untold numbers of expensive, beautiful yachts silently and pointlessly resting on the ocean bottom in the Bermuda Triangle.

What follows is a small list of common website elements, broken into two categories: what search engines can see, and what they can not.

Three Things a Search Engine Spider Can't See

Graphic text - Most professionals involved in website creation take great pride in their work, which is obviously a desired trait. Occasionally, however, this can present problems. When a web designer decides to use text in a graphic form (meaning that the text is actually an image), the search engine spider can not read what that text says. A common reason for a designer to use text in a graphic is because he or she wants to use a rare font that most visitors won't have on their machines. Another reason is that the designer wants to have absolute control over how the website text renders. When faced with the choice over which kind of text to use, it is important to weigh the aesthetic choice against the potential loss of search engine visibility.

Images - As touched upon above, a search engine spider is not yet able to look at images or pictures and determine what they are (although you can and should attach a tag to them which the spider can read - commonly referred to as an "alt" tag). A spider will skip directly over your logo and masthead, any pictures, and most other graphical elements.

Flash - Search engine spiders will not read through the text in any Flash animation on your site (or any other animation). This does not mean that using Flash elements will render your site invisible; it merely means that you should not count on the text that appears in any Flash animation on your website to be indexed. If the team responsible for your website creation decides to build the entire site in Flash, however, you will encounter unique problems. While some search engines are getting better at trying to index websites built entirely on this platform, it is still an overall rankings killer. If you must have a website created entirely in Flash, it is wise to also have an alternate HTML version for search engines and people who prefer HTML sites.

Three Things a Search Engine Spider Can See

HTML text - A search engine spider relies heavily on HTML text to determine what a web page is about. Spiders, therefore, index HTML text and will even make distinctions between differences in how the text is presented. For example, text that is in a headline or is bolded is assumed to be slightly more important than regular text.

Links - Outgoing links on your pages are easily understood by the spider, especially if they are text links. The wording of these links (or the alt tags attached to them) can, like HTML text, give the spider an idea of what your page is about. However, there are certain types of links that are not easily indexed. If your website creation team embedded your links in a pull-down menu that utilizes JavaScript or other scripting language, most search engine spiders will not see them.

Tags - There are many kinds of tags, but not all are important for search engine optimization. Meta tags include the "keywords" tag, which should list keyphrases that describe the page. Another meta tag is the "description" tag, which should be one or two brief sentences that describe the page. Another tag, which is not actually a meta tag, but which has significant importance to search engine rankings, is the "title" tag. This tag contains the words that you will see in the blue bar at the top of your web page.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=36989

Internet Marketing Principles & Some Basic Tips

2007-09-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

1. Your website.

You need to have your own website to get started with Internet Marketing. The strange thing is that if you want to promote your business through your website, you need to first promote your website itself! This sounds counter intuitive, doesn't it? The problem is that there are literally millions, if not billions of websites out there and you are competing against them for exposure!

But back to your website. There are only four important things that you need to keep in mind for your website:

a) It must be easy to use for your visitors, with all links and menus clearly marked.

b) It must be easy for your visitors to contact you or place an order

c) Your website must not be over-burdened with flashing images and distracting graphics.

Why? Because most people look beyond the pretty graphics and pictures to find the information that they were really looking for. Over-engineering your website from a branding and design perspective might just aversely impact its usability (point a) and the ease with which your visitors can contact you (point b) and the ease in which you can update your website content yourself (point d).

d) You must be able to add new content to your site on a regular basis The reason for this is that search engines love new content and you will definitely attract more visitors if you regularly add new content to your site.

2. SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and can be summarized as the activities that you would perform ON your website to make it perform well in the Search Engines.

These include

a) performing keyword research to find out which keywords people are using to find your type of product and service. You then choose the 2-3 keywords that are used most often, but does not have a lot of competition (the competition is the number of competing websites that come up if you do a search with that keyword).

b) After you've selected your prime keywords, you use these in your website's Title tag, the Description tag as well as the Keywords tag. You then also use these keywords in the headings on your home page, as well as in the content on your home page.

c) You also use some of the other keywords that you have found that are relevant, in other places on your home page and in the rest of your website.

d) Making sure that all your website pages have unique titles and other meta tags (descriptions and keywords)

e) Making sure that you have numerous links internal on your site linking to all the other pages inside your website

3. Internet Marketing

These are the activities that you perform OFF your website to make it perform well on the Internet.

The most important Internet Marketing activity is to get websites to link to you. These are called 'backlinks'. You can use the title, description and keywords that you have selected for your home page (see under 'SEO', above) and start building links using these.

You can build links by doing the following:

a) Submit your website to good quality, SEO friendly directories. (NOT search engines. It is a useless activity to submit your site to search engines). You can find a list of search engine friendly directories here: http://info.vilesilencer.com

b) Write 8 to 15 good articles about your industry. Submit these to highly ranked article directories, such as: (search for these article directories in your favorite search engine):

- Ezinearticles

- Goarticles

- Articledashboard

- Isnare

- Ideamarketers.com

- Articlesfactory

Get the maximum exposure for your articles by signing up for about 200 to 300 smaller article directories. It is worthwhile to sign up for an article distribution service like Article Marketer (www.articlemarketer.com) or use an automated tool such as Article Post Robot to submit your articles. Also try and vary the content of each article slightly so that each of these articles are unique. This will make them stand out more and prevent Google from thinking that they are merely duplicate copies of each other and therefore 'not important'.

c) Build more links by searching for link directories maintained by websites in your target market (although not direct competitors!)

d) Place your website link in your signature and take part in discussion forums.

SEO Your Site in Less Than an Hour

2007-07-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

SEO Your Site in Less Than an Hour

A. Visit the home page of your site.

Does it redirect to some other URL? If so, that’s bad.

Review site navigation:

Format — text or image? image map? javascript? drop-downs? Text is best. Page URLs — look at URL structure, path names, file names. How long are URLs?

How far away from the root are they? Are they separated by dashes or underscores?

Are keywords used appropriately in text links or image alt tags?

Review home page content:

Adequate and appropriate amount of text?

Appropriate keyword usage?

Is there a sitemap?

Do a “command-A” to find any hidden text.

Check PageRank via SearchStatus plugin for Firefox

View source code:

Check meta description (length, keyword usage, relevance).

Check meta keywords (relevance, stuffing).

Look for anything unusual/spammy (keywords in noscript, H1s in javascript, etc.).

If javascript or drop-down navigation, make sure it’s crawlable.

Sometimes cut-and-paste code into Dreamweaver to get better look at code-to-page relationship.

B. Analyze robots.txt file. See what’s being blocked and what’s not. Make sure it’s written correctly.

C. Check for www and non-www domains — i.e., canonicalization issues. Only one should resolve; the other should redirect.

D. Look at the sitemap (if one exists). Check keyword usage in anchor text.

How many links?

Are all important (category, sub-category, etc.) pages listed?

E. Visit two category/1st-level pages. Repeat A1, A2, A3, and A4 - this will be quicker since many objects (header, footer, menus) will be the same. In particular, look for unique page text, unique meta tags, correct use of H1s, H2s to structure content.

Check for appropriate PageRank flow. Also look at how they link back to home page. Is index.html or default.php appended on link? Shouldn’t be.

F. Visit two product/2nd-level pages. Same steps as E.

Also, if the site sells common products, find 2-3 other sites selling same exact items and compare product pages. Are all sites using the same product descriptions? Unique content is best.

G. Do a site:domain.com search in all 3 main engines.

Compare pages indexed between the three. Is pages indexed unusually high or low based on what you saw in the site map and site navigation? This may help identify crawlability issues. Is one engine showing substantially more or less pages than the others? Double-check robots.txt file if needed.

H. Do site:domain.com *** -jdkhfdj search in Google to see supplemental pages. All sites will have some pages in the supplemental index. Compare this number with overall number of pages indexed. A very high percentage of pages in the supplemental index = not good.

I. Use Aaron’s SEO for Firefox extension to look at link counts in Yahoo and MSN. If not in a rush, do the actual link count searches manually on Yahoo Site Explorer and MSN to confirm.

Search Friendly = User Friendly

2007-06-29T06:45:00.000-07:00

TORONTO -- The more things change, the more they stay the same, especially with search engines.

In a series of presentations at Search Engine Strategies Canada conference here, search optimization experts and representatives from the big four search engines emphasized that the basics of search optimization are the same as they always have been. It's about content, relevancy and thinking about the user.

"Is search engine optimization and good search design mutually exclusive? The answer is no," Gord Hotchkiss of search research firm Enquiro said. "Fundamentally, the basics only get truer over the years."

During a presentation about Search Engine Friendly design, Matt Bailey, a consultant with SEO (search engine optimization) firm Sitelogic, asked how many participants had ever actually bothered to visit Google's Webmaster guidelines page. Only half of the audience raised their hands.

Bailey and others reminded users that much of what they need to find out about how to get indexed by search engines is posted on the search engines themselves.

Bailey also urged attendees to follow the W3C accessibility standards, which are about more than just allowing those with physical challenges to experience a site.

"Search engine crawlers cannot see touch or feel and they don't eat cookies. All they can do is download pages, find text and follow links," Bailey said. "They are the most disabled users of your site."

CSS and validation with W3C markup standards are also good for search friendliness, according to Bailey. He explained that CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) (define) help to separate the presentation layout from the actual content, which makes it easier for search engines to see the real content.

Google Search Evangelist Adam Lasnik noted that accessibility, CSS and W3C validation are nice things to have -- but not to expect they would improve search ranking alone. "We don't give brownie points based upon validation," Lasnik said. "A site's got to be badly broken to choke the googlebot."

Lasnik told the audience that naturally good sites get natural links and user-friendliness leads to Google-goodness.

"Design your site for someone who is impatient and goal driven, skeptical and possibly cranky -- on a wonky slow connection -- oh and sight impaired -- and you're likely to please the googlebot too."

http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3683031

Google maintains the search lead

2007-06-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

In the latest report from comScore, Google has maintained its lead on other powerful search engines. According to the report, Google captured just over 50% of U.S. searches in May.

That is a full share point over April numbers. Americans conducted more than 7.6 billion searches in the time period; Google accounted for roughly 4 billion of those searches. Yahoo remained in second place with 26% (2 billion) of total searches, Microsoft ranked third with 10.3% (782 million) of searches and Ask.com remained in fourth with 5% (384 million) of searches. Time Warner Network rounded out the top five with 4.6% (348 million) of May searches.

Google was the only search engine to gain in share (1%). Yahoo fell 0.4% as did Ask.com (down 0.1%) and Time Warner Network (0.4%). Microsoft sites remained steady with no change. Though many users have begun inputting their information directly into address bars, it is clear that most prefer to use their favorite search engines to find needed information. It is clear from these results that paid search is still a good option for online marketers. Paying for higher placement, utilizing search engine optimization to get organic search placements is a good way to increase traffic to websites. To ensure that traffic converts to sales, optimize the landing pages to include interactive features and clear product information.

http://www.bizreport.com/2007/06/google_maintains_the_search_lead.html

Some Search Engine Techniques - Affect the Rankings Or Spaming

2007-04-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

As there are many ways to optimize a web page, Webmasters should always avoid utilizing black hat SEO techniques so as to avoid getting banned from the search engines. This article discusses some of the most common pitfalls that the Webmasters should bear in mind and how using these techniques can lead to disastrous situation. The most commonly seen black hat technique is keyword spamming. Some Webmasters place a whole lot of targeted keywords in their sites just to boost up the keyword density ratio. Stuffing keywords across the page is not recommended as it adds no value to the users. Webmasters should not focus purely on the density ratio but to go for content readability. Another common method is to hide a significant content from the user by utilizing div blocks. This technique often adopted by the Webmasters when they want to hide a repetition of a series of keywords away from users but still indexed by the search engine bots. Again, this is another bad practice that should be avoided at all cost. Doorway pages contain highly relevant content so as to achieve top ranking in Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP). These pages only have one purpose, to direct traffic to another site. This is not recommended as the doorway pages themselves do not contain any valuable content for the Internet users. Some Webmasters prefer a totally flash powered design as it is more interactive and attractive to the Internet users. A fully flash powered site will not be indexed by the search engine and hence, will not appear in the Search Engine Result Page. This is bad especially for those that needs to attract search engine traffic to their sites. Some workarounds can be done to Flash site to increase its visibility on the Net. First, Webmasters can use two version of the site, one in HTML and the other one in Flash. This is common for large sites that cannot forgo both search engine traffic and design. Another fix is to create a partly Flash enabled site rather than a fully powered version. This is another common method as it allows the bots to still index most of the relevant content with some Flash plug ins. In conclusion, Webmasters should follow the guidelines provided by the various search engines to ensure that their sites adhere to the regulations. As long as the content shown to the users is identical to the search engine bots, most sites should not have problems listing in the search engine index.

Blog Optimization

2007-04-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Optimization of Blog Title Tags

One nice thing about blogging platforms is that they're generally very search engine friendly. This is especially true when it comes to indexing: search engines have few problems finding every page in a blog's archive. However, there are a few things that can be done to make blog platforms even more search engine friendly than they are off the shelf.

Optimizing Title TagsEvery page of your blog should have a unique title tag describing what's on that page. This can easily be done by including your blog post's titles in the title tag field. Many blog platforms do this by default now, but they tend to do so in a less than optimal fashion.

Your archives provide lots of great content for search engines. In fact, the majority of the traffic to your blog will likely come through search engine referrals where people click through from a search result to an archived page of your blog rather than to the homepage. However, your rankings and click through rates for each of those archived pages is largely dependent on how your format your title tags.

A high quality title tag describes what's on the page first, then describes the site itself. For example:

Article Headline - Blog Name

Yet many blog platforms lead with the blog's name rather than the the post's name. The blog's name should come second since that's more likely to align with the interests of the searcher. Every page of your blog will look more enticing to searchers when they stumble upon it in search results. Including your blog's name after the page's name helps users determine if your page is relevant to their particular interests.

Below is an example of how to fix this on a Wordpress.org blog. The example may not work for all Wordpress blogs since templates and versions vary, but it may give you some direction on how to straighten this out. There are also plug-ins for Wordpress that can help.

1. Open your current template's header.php file, and look for the section near the top of the page's source code. Find this:

<? bloginfo('name'); php wp_title(); ?>

And change it to this:

<?php wp_title(); bloginfo('name'); ?>

That moved your post's title in front of your blog's name for every post's page of your site. Very easy. There is one more step:

2. Go to wp-includes/general-template.php and search for this line:

$title = $title . $prefix;

and change it to this:

$title = $prefix . $title;

That moves the separator to the middle of the newly rearrainged title tags.

Reload both pages and you're done.

It's worth noting that some companies have policies against optimizing their sites for search engines. Yes, you read that correctly. Some companies have decided that it's more important to put their company name first in their title tags. Personally, I think this is a ridiculous decision that hurts their business and should only be done for one page of the site: the homepage. That way, when people search for the company name, the homepage will look relevant in the results for the topic of the page. Basically the same rule.

http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2007/04/search_engine_optimi.html

SEO Analysis - To get top search engine rankings

2007-04-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

Want to know what it will take to get your website ranked at the top of the search engines? It's all about links. Links are the most fundamental building blocks of the Internet and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

As Google explains on their technology page [google.com/technology/], in-bound links (links pointing to your website from other websites) and Google PageRank are critical to ranking high at the Google search engine. In fact, we've found that inbound links (also called "backlinks") and the keyword optimized text in and around those inbound links account for about 95% of optimizing for the "Big 3" search engines -- Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search.

SEO Gap Analysis:If you want to know what it will take to get top rankings for your keyword phrases do the following 4 steps…1) Identify Your Keyword Phrases - Research and identify what keyword phrases your target market uses to search for products or services like yours. List them out.

2) Analyze Google's Top Sites for Your Keyword Phrases - Simply go to Google, type in the keyword you want to rank for and see which competitor sites rank the highest. Take note of their URLs. For example: competitorsite1.com, competitorsite2.com, etc.

3) Anchor Text Analysis - Now, go to Yahoo.com and run anchor text analysis to see what their in-bound link text says. Look at the exact anchor text they're using by searching Yahoo! like this... link:http://www.competitorsite1.com. This will display a list of the websites that link to your competitor's site. Click the links, look at each web page and take note of the link text that is hyperlinked to your competitor's website. You'll want to use the same (or very similar) anchor text that your competitor’s are using. NOTE: This is time consuming! To speed things up, I highly recommend Brad Callen's "SEO Elite" software. Simply open SEO Elite, type in your keyword phrase you want to analyze, click all 5 Search Engines and have the software find ALL the links.

4) allinanchor Ranking Analysis - Next, go to Google and conduct the following searches to see who ranks highest for these...allinanchor: keyword phraseallintitle: keyword phraseallintext: keyword phrase

For Example:If you're a realtor in Bend Oregon, you'd like your site to rank #1 for "bend oregon realtor" right? Of course, so conduct the following allinanchor searches on Google...allinanchor: bend oregon realtorallintitle: bend oregon realtorallintext: bend oregon realtor

Why Do We Do This?This is how you research to see who has the most…1) in-bound links that say "bend oregon realtor"2) links from pages that say "bend oregon realtor" in the page's title3) links from pages that say "bend oregon realtor" in the page's textBecause...If your website can rank the highest for all 3, you should get top 10 ranking in Google (Usually #1!) This is basically how Search Engine Optimization works.If your site is ranking low for "allinanchor"” you need more backlinks with your keywords in the "anchor text" -- links that include the keyword phrase in the text of the hyperlink.If your site is ranking low for allintext or allintitle you need to get more "relevant links" -- links from web pages that include the keyword phrase in the text and title.

How to get the search engine rankings - Few SEO Steps

2007-04-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Search Engines are built to help the searchers. Search Engines strive to put the best fit/standard websites on top rankings so that searchers get their required info within few clicks.

How do Search Engines know a website’s standard and its relevance with searched keywords? What are the steps you should follow for a complete SEO to improve your website’s rankings?

This article covers Search Engine Optimization in two levels - the first is On-page optimization, and the next is Off-Page Optimization. An effective On-page optimization together with good Off-page optimization will improve your Search Engine Rankings.

On-Page Optimization

1. Define your Business & Target Audience

The first step in any business starts with analysis. Determine what kind of services your website is to provide and what kind of audience you want for your website?

2. Don’t Purchase a New Domain

If you already have a good domain name don’t try to purchase a new one, as some search engines look for the age of the website as a ranking factor.

3. Choosing your Domain Name

If you are planning for a new website, try to get a domain name with keywords included. If you target regional customers, you can have your domain based on the region, say for example .uk or .au or .in

4. Make your Website look Simple

Now you have a domain name and you know whom you want to target. Website design is the key factor which keeps your visitor to stay for a while in your website and navigate your services. Make sure your website design has a good feel & look, clean and simple.

5. Evaluate your Website

If you have an existing website, and now you want to do SEO for it, then evaluate your website:Navigation structure - think in a visitor’s point of view - Can someone navigate and reach the product/services they are looking for? Make your navigation user friendly, no visitor should leave your website due to confused navigation.Check for W3 compatibility of your website.Check for any broken links in your website and fix if any.Your website should load fast so that it doesn’t check on your visitors’ patience.

6. Observe your competitor

Find your competitor websites. Analyze and gain knowledge on their tactics, the keywords they use, the techniques applied. With the help of this analysis you will learn what is working and what is not working, which will help in your SEO process.

7. Research on Keywords

List the Keywords your target audience would search for and the ones used by your competitors. Make use of keyword research tools like Overture to know more on your related search terms. Now refine your list and make your final list of target keywords.

8. Structure File name

If you have control over your file names - modify file names with your keywords included.

9. Search Engine Friendly Sitemap

A well structured search engine friendly sitemap can help Search Engines to index all your pages. With good anchor text for your navigation links you can improve your rankings

10. Write an Attractive Title

Why is your web page title so important? The web page title is displayed in SERPs which in turn help in attracting your visitors. Web searchers do their search with a term and look for titles in the result pages that best fit their search. Hence make your title attractive, with targeted keywords included. Try to incorporate related keywords too. For example you target for Montessori School, you can write title as ‘Montessori School, the Preschool for your Children’. (in this way you add 2 related terms).

11. Meta Description Tag

Description tag is also displayed in snippets of any SERPs. This description helps to motivate searchers to visit your website. Make an effective and optimized description tag. Snippets are also taken from surrounding text of the searched keyword. You may need to edit your content a little to make your description look good.

12. Meta Keyword Tag

Though there is saying that Search Engines like Google doesn’t look for Meta keyword tag, there are some smaller search engines, which still follow the conventional way and spider the keywords tag. So there is no harm in making of the Meta keyword tags. Your meta keyword should contain keywords that appears in your body text.

13. Have Robot tags

If you don’t want any of your files of your website to be indexed, say an image or a text file, you can write your robot file insisting the search engines not to crawl those pages.

14. Alt Tags for images

As the name infers it acts as an alternate text for any image. This tag is both user friendly and search engine friendly. Search engines cannot read images; instead it indexes the alt tag given for any image and assumes it as the description for the image.

Content Rich Creativity

2007-03-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

We have all heard the term content-rich, but what does content rich really mean?

Content rich means different things for different individuals, because what one person finds useful, another may not. Content rich is all about providing information that is considered valuable to your target audience. Information that visitors might find useful could consist of product or industry facts, statistics, reviews, tutorials, or educational information related to a specific industry.

How to Make Your Website Content Rich -

When creating a content rich website, do not be afraid to think outside of the box. Unique ideas will generally garner more attention than the mundane and more common content concepts. Over the years the unique content that has garnered the most attention, the Subservient Chicken and JibJab, may not be appropriate for a business website, there are still lots of "out of the box" things that you can do. Here are some ideas on how you can build content for your website that will attract website visitors.

Forums / Newsgroups

User generated content is a great way to capture the keyword long tail. There is no easier way to facilitate user generated content than through the use of forums and newsgroups. Ex. - NotePage - http://www.notepage.net/forum

Writing Articles / How to Guides

When writing your articles, think about what your website visitors want to know, not what you want to tell them. In other words write for your audience not for yourself. Not only does an article archive gradually expand a site, it gives webmasters the opportunity to optimize for a variety of phrases and to educate their audience. How to articles are always a great website addition. Ex. - Small Business - http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm

Niche Directories / Lists

Topical portals have long been a popular on the web. Authority sites that focus on niche markets generate interest. Niche sites can be comprised of lists of helpful tools, the best niche blogs, popular news stories, industry specific terminology, and industry resources. Ex. - Podcasting Tools - http://www.podcasting-tools.com

Copying or replicating a service or information on another website, while possibly still of value, will not usually generate as much interest as a new concept. Do not be afraid to reach outside the boundaries of your website to provide quality content.

About the Author: Amy Poter is the marketing manager of http://www.promotingwebs.com , a service that helps Search Engine Marketing SEM Services, Search Engine Optimization SEO Services, Search Engine Ranking and Positioning, Link Building Services, Improve Link Popularity, Pay Per Click PPC Services, Article Syndication, Directory Submission, Press Release And other Marketing Services at Affordable Prices. http://www.businessportal24.com/en/Content_Rich_Creativity_141432.html

How to Spend Your SEO Budget

2007-03-18T11:04:00.001-07:00

How to Spend Your SEO Budget

These days, if you would like to have a quality, professional-looking site, you can't neglect the SEO factor. Being friendly to the search engines has become a must. But how do you properly distribute your SEO budget to make sure it won't be wasted? Time has made its corrections to the problem. Advice on spending an SEO budget in 2007 is very different from what the SEO experts might have told you in 2003 or even in 2005.

Invest in design

In the past, the search engines had to work on what was available to them. In search of web pages relevant to a query they often had to rank poorly coded and unfriendly sites highly in the SERPs, and invent different ways to bypass unfriendly design. They can still do it, but on the other hand they can afford to be much pickier now. Unless the query is really very obscure, the chances are there will be a lot of sites available to match it, and the engines can put the highest quality sites at the top.

That brings forward the importance of good quality design. I don't claim to know for sure that the engines already give a boost to the sites with valid HTML code or table-free layouts, and if they do, there is no way to tell how big that boost is. But it's obvious that sites with friendly, static URLs are much easier to get ranked highly than are those with obscure URLs having several parameters in the query. Also, Google shows sites with dynamic URLs as mostly Supplemental Results more often, which is not a good thing, either.

So, here goes the first SEO advice of the year 2007: invest in design. It's worth the money to hire a good web designer who knows how to build search engine friendly sites and can provide a search engine friendly CMS. It might be worth spending a little money in advance to hire an independent SEO consultant to make an assessment of the previous work of the designer you are about to hire. In the long run this investment will pay for itself.

Invest in content

No matter how the rules of the SEO game change, one thing remains: the engines love good content. In most niches (except the most competitive ones) adding a page of properly optimised text with a matching title and meta tags, and incorporating it properly into the structure of a search engine friendly site brings new good rankings fairly soon. Besides, adding good educational content on a regular basis is the only way to build real natural links.

There are a lot of methods of link building, some of them appropriate, others questionable, and many others totally unethical. But the point is that regardless of the method, all links that are built cannot by definition be natural. They can look natural in some cases, but that does not make them natural.

All methods of link building that are known to search engine optimisers are known to search engine engineers as well. And no matter how closely those links resemble natural links, they will sooner or later show a detectable pattern and will be recognised as built links. What to do with this knowledge is for the engines to decide. Lately, they have been known to give a lot more authority to natural links than to links that have been built, which is only logical. Natural links are those that have been earned by a site through its being appreciated by users, and that is what the engines look for.

I'm not saying that it is necessarily a bad thing to build links - it depends entirely on the method. There are a lot of legitimate methods of promoting websites such as press releases and directory submissions. These links bring us visitors, and to some of them the engines still give certain weight. But they are not natural links.

Frankly, I can't see any webmaster giving a natural link from a content page to a page that has purely business-related information (unless it is a review of a business). It's a lot more logical to expect a link from within one article to another that was used as a source or has helped the writer to reinforce a point. But if it is a link to a business site, it seems more logical to place it on a resource page. But...

We all know that resource pages have been utterly devalued by both web surfers and the engines due to heavy abuse over the years with what is known as a "reciprocal link exchange". As a result, Google de-listed most resource pages during 2006, and devalued links coming from most of the remaining pages of this type. Links from content pages are a lot more likely to get clicked and to pass link value to the destination page. This gives us another reason to invest our SEO money in good educational content. Thus we genuinely benefit from giving.

Invest in self-education

If you learn the basics of SEO, you won't have to pay to a consultant for developing titles and meta tags for every page of content you are about to upload. You will be able to do it yourself, along with proper internal linking, validating the code of the new page and other aspects.

You will be able to do directory submissions for your site, which is the best solution anyway because nobody knows all about your site better than you do. You will be able to establish contacts with other practitioners in your field that might bring you fresh opportunities for quality link building that an SEO would surely miss.

However, you need to know how to avoid bad neighbourhoods, and this requires special SEO knowledge that goes far beyond SEO basics. If you invest in developing this knowledge, your self-confidence will grow, and you will feel much better on the web.

Still have some money left?

Submit your site to Yahoo! Directory. Launch a small PPC campaign. If you have time, join one or more paid Business Networking sites, e.g. Ecademy, LinkedIn or Xing. They will give you still more opportunities to publicise your services, as well as some link building opportunities - but paid management teams will make sure you won't be able to abuse them. Free networks too often get abused by spammers, scammers and other weird people.

http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1619/

Search Engine Optimisation: The Pitfalls

2007-02-15T10:06:00.000-08:00

Search engine positioning is a competitive task, and there are certain essential techniques that are required to achieve a good listing. But some of these techniques cross the line between the search engines' good practice guidelines and unfair tricks. The search engines are under no obligation to reveal their listing criteria, and in the main they maintain a significant level of secrecy.

Why All the Secrecy?

The search engine companies play their cards very close to their chests. They can't be blamed for this - they're trying to level the playing field and give their customers the most relevant search results they can. To that end they need to protect themselves against "spammers" - site operators who are looking for any hit, relevant or not. It has to be said that the worst offenders here are still so-called adult sites. Most sites containing potentially offensive material now act fairly responsibly, but there are still a few who make everyone's life difficult.

If all you're trying to do is gain hits to which you're entitled this can be immensely frustrating; it appears that you and the search engine are on opposite sides of a chasm. The search engine operators know about the techniques that are used to improve listings, and by and large they're pretty understanding about the situation.

But there are certain tricks that won't be tolerated. Cross the line on these and you'll find your site actively de-listed. The search engine spiders are constantly updated to recognise the ways that people try to fool them. Get caught and you'll disappear from the charts faster than a one-hit wonder.

Excessive Repetition

Don't expect to get a high listing by simply repeating your keywords. Most of the search engines operate a word counter that calculates the weighting of certain words and phrases. The optimum is a narrow band that differs from one engine to another. Once you exceed the ideal weighting, repetition begins to work against you. As a rule of thumb, if your text looks as if you're repeating yourself, that's probably the way that the search engine spider will view it.

Phoney Pages

Because the requirements of search engine friendliness and attractive presentation often pull in opposite directions, there's a common trick that involves creating search-engine-friendly pages that re-direct to the main site after a few seconds.

These gateway pages are strongly discouraged by the search engines, whose spiders usually ignore any page that re-directs in anything less than thirty seconds or so.

A well laid-out, coherent content page that stays on screen long enough to be read won't cause you a problem, other than the fact that you have to create a new content page for every key phrase. But quick redirection equals ignored pages, so don't risk it.

Fake Keywords

Don't try to grab cheap hits by putting in irrelevant keywords calculated to pull in hits for unrelated topics. This is the essence of search engine spamming, and it won't be tolerated by any of them. Be aware also that using a competitor's name to grab their traffic may be illegal. There have been several successful lawsuits recently in which this practice was exposed and prosecuted.

http://www.xseo.com/pitfalls.htm

The Online Home Based Business Opportunity And Search Engine Optimization

2007-01-14T09:58:00.000-08:00

How to blast the search engines!

One of the main things a new home based business opportunity has to worry about is being seen. If the customer doesn't know your home based business opportunity exists, how can he visit your store? In the "real" world, radio, television, newspaper, and postal mailings all help businesses get attention. On the internet your customer traffic comes from a variety of sources, but one in particular will make an online business more viable and successful.

What other things can you do to reach people who may be new in the area and not have had the opportunity to view or listen to your ads? Signs. By placing signs at your storefront and in other strategic places, you call out to everyone who passes. This is done on your website with an online business. Email has also become a very popular venue.

This is how search engine optimization works for the online home based business opportunity website. You need to have the biggest, most noticeable signs to get discovered. Yes, size does matter. Just like cars flying down the highway, travelers on the Internet need something to catch their attention. The words you use and how you use them to describe what your site offers is the way to bring in consumers.

This is where search engine optimization done properly will help you out. If you can figure out the best set of keywords to portray the home based business opportunity you are portraying, and if you can use those words in the content of your website, then you increase your chances of directing that speeding traffic to your website instead of directing them down the road to your competitor. If the customers don't come to you, they will go to your competition. Not a good thing.

Visit each of your competitor's websites and find out what they are doing with their online business. A little research and you might find something that is working that you had not thought of yet. Look at those who are at the top of the search engines. What is it about their web page design, content, and partners that you like. Can you borrow any of their ideas and improve the look and feel of your web pages? Are their link partners the partners you have been looking for?

Getting your online home based business opportunity to show up well on a search engine's results won't cost you a penny if you pursue search engine tactics properly. Onsite SEO is a matter of learning a little HTML. Article submission to free article directories is, well FREE! Blogging is also free if using Google's Blogger. But it can cause you to lose everything if your site doesn't appear. Most of us look for that one tool, or get one in our email, that looks like the holy grail of internet marketing tools. We open our wallets and purses freely only to find out that it is just more work. The amount of profits you get from your business will be directly related to how well you can use a consistant marketing strategy using no cost or low cost tools. If the customers can't find you, the profits will never arrive and there are times when the tools, if from a reputable source, are necessary.

Internet surfers are a fickle breed. They know what they want and seek out only that item or service. They will search, find, and buy. It doesn't matter to them where they get what they seek, but it could make all the difference to you. So when you consider why effective search engine optimization is important to the online home based business opportunity you are offering to the public, just think of the internet as a large highway with travelers speeding by.

SEO for Writers: The Written Path to Online Visibility

2007-01-04T03:46:00.000-08:00

If you're a decent writer, you have a powerful search engine optimization tool right at your fingertips ... literally. It's the ability to create quality content, and used properly it can dramatically increase your website's visibility.

Search engine optimization and writing skills are inseparable. Whether you're creating new content for your website, drafting a link request, or preparing a press release for syndication, SEO will eventually involve writing.

This is obviously good news if you enjoy writing. But where should you start? How can you get the best return on your writing investment? I've put together a list of writing tasks you can start on right away. The items on this list have two things in common: (1) they all require writing skills, and (2) they can all lead to considerable gains in the SEO department. So without further ado, here are five tips for writing your way to online visibility.

1. Revisit Your Titles

You can use your writing skills to improve the page titles across your entire website. The title element is a line of HTML code within a web page that describes the content of that page. At least, that's what they're supposed to do. But all too often, I see people use non-descriptive titles, copy the same title onto every page, or forget to use titles altogether. These are serious mistakes from both an SEO standpoint and a usability standpoint.

So before you do anything else, make sure your title elements are optimized for people and search engines alike. Incorporate your key phrases into each title. Use a different title on every page, and make sure it reflects the content of that page.

The World Wide Web Consortium (the guys who developed web standards in the first place), put it this way: "Thus, instead of a title such as 'Introduction,' which doesn't provide much contextual background, authors should supply a title such as 'Introduction to Medieval Bee-Keeping' instead."

In addition to being more helpful for people, the revised title in their example will improve search engine visibility for the phrase "medieval bee keeping."

2. Submit a Press Release Online

Online press releases represent another area where you can write your way to better search engine visibility. Using PRWeb.com, you can syndicate a press release online with keyword-rich hyperlinks back to your website. Remember, inbound links to your website with key phrases in them are the brass ring of SEO.

When posting a release at PRWeb.com, pay close attention to the notes in the right column of the submission form. That's where they tell you the rules for the headline, summary, body, etc. It's also where they explain their linking formula.

PRWeb also has a rule about spreading your links out. Here it is verbatim: "To avoid having your release placed on editorial hold, please limit your links to 1 link per 100 words of body text. This policy is in place to protect the link value of the links that you include in your release and the value of links within the PRWeb Network."

3. Publish Articles Online

When you write a solid article related to your products or services, and that article gets reprinted on reputable websites, it helps build your credibility. But we're talking about SEO here, so let's talk about how articles can help with search engine visibility.

When you create an interesting and/or helpful article and syndicate it online, that article can travel a long way. And because it carries your author's note and hyperlink along with it, the article increases your link popularity (and by extension your search engine visibility) as it goes.

I recommend creating two versions of each article -- one for the article directories like EzineArticles.com, plus an alternate version for the niche website of your choice. High-quality niche websites will often require article submissions to be original, unpublished work. That's where that second version comes into play.

Multiply this strategy times 10, 20, 100, or however many articles you can write over time, and you'll begin to see the long-term SEO power of articles.

4. Add 10 Pages of Content to Your Site

Writing new content for your website can help you improve your search engine ranking steadily over time. Why? Because with all other things being equal, a website with more content will appear higher in search engine results than a website with less content.

Just avoid falling into the trap of writing solely for search engines. You should write for people first, while realizing your efforts will also help with search engine visibility.

Try to create authority documents that others in your field would link to and recommend to others. For instance, if your company sells CRM software, you could create a multi-page learning center on how CRM software can streamline communications and improve efficiency. This would give you a lot of keyword-rich content for search engines, while also positioning you as an expert on the topic. If the resource center is truly impressive, others in the industry will link to it (more link popularity).

You see how it all ties together? If you have good writing skills, and you're willing to put in the time and effort, there's nothing stopping you from achieving such success.

5. Blog Regularly

If you're serious about search engine visibility, you really should have a blog. A blog is an ideal tool for a writer, because it gives you an easy way to publish content onto your website. The benefits of blogging are many. It helps you grow your website, acquire inbound links, build your reputation, inform your readers, reinforce your brand ... the list goes on.

Most writers will find it easy to blog several times a week, or even daily. This provides a constant source of new material for search engines and readers alike, and it will keep both of them coming back for more. Blog three times a week for a year, and you'll have more than 150 pages of additional web content!

http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1581/

Search Engine Optimization & Search Engines

2006-12-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

So you have your site optimized for search engines with quality content, navigable links, and keywords specific to your industry. But it has been several months and you still are not showing up on the first or second page of results in Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

There are several things you need to do to get better results in the organic listings. You need to submit your site to the 3 biggest search engines Yahoo, Google, and MSN. You will need to go directly to their site submission pages and submit your site manually. Google and MSN both require a code be typed in for submission. Yahoo requires you have an account with them to submit to their directory. All three are free and only take a few minutes to submit per search engine.

If you can get your website link on a Google PR4 or greater site home page, Yahoo will almost immediately start indexing your information. Msn and Google will follow not much later. Search for free directories that include your business category and submit your information to as many as possible. Make sure you utilize the description section with keywords that are specific to your industry.

Write articles and submit them to the free article directory services. Include a detailed bio of you and what your services are. Use a valid link to your website. The more original your content, the greater your chance for exposure.

Revisit your title, description, and keyword metatags to ensure you are utilizing this information for the best description of your services. Use only keywords in the title; don’t waste valuable character space on your business name unless it is a major keyword. Take advantage of the description tag as it explains what your business offers and will determine who visits your site when it does show up.

If you offer a local service, post your information in Yahoo Local, Yellowpages.com, and Superpages. General listings are free to post; allow a link to your site, and your business phone number.

Keep your website content fresh. Update your page content at least once a month. You don’t have to go over board, just add something new every once in a while.

Create XML sitemaps. There are free sitemap generation tools that will create a sitemap.xml file of indexed pages of your site. You can then upload this file to your server and submit to Google sitemaps for indexing.

Watch your website competition and where they stand in the search engines for current keywords you are using. Look at their title, description, and keyword metatags. When you pull up the free listings you will see a link below the listing titled cache, click on it. It will show you where the keywords show up on your site, how many show up, and when the search engine lasted visited your site.

Get creative, be unique, and have fun. The search engines will reward you for it. Just remember the search engines only want to post relevant information on the keyword being searched. Make sure the keyword you are trying to be listed for is relevant to the information on the webpage you are trying to have indexed by the search engine spiders.

http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=121906_get-better-google-yahoo-search-engine-ranking.htm

Online Home Based Business Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2006-12-22T07:58:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Optimization, or simply SEO, is a life-long procedure that is required if you want your online home based business to get attention and realize a healthy profit. Without SEO, your home based business business may look nice, but it won't go anywhere. As a matter of fact, it is likely to go the way of the 95% of the average home based business opportunities started every year, into failure.

Search engine optimization is the most important way to get site visitors, so it is extremely important for you to learn at least the essential steps to optimize your web site and improve your placing with the search engines. Below are the eight basic steps you will need to put into action to ensure that your online home based business at least stands a chance against the competition.

1. Learn everything you can about those who compete for your customers. Do searches regularly to keep an eye on both yours and their rankings and to check for any new competitors on the scene. There are plenty of search engine optimization software products available today. They will assist in the massive collection of data on your home based business competitors.

2. Get together a list of keywords. The lists are there for the picking, but you have to go after them. Rank your list to reflect the words that best describe your site. Again, there are many products available on the internet that will help you pick your keywords.

3. Find ways to create phrases with the keywords you've listed. The more phrases you are able to include in the content of your site, the higher your results will be.

4. Change the content within your website. Alter everything from headlines to content in your entire site to make your site more likely to attract traffic. The easiest way to provide your home based business website with fresh content is to use RSS. It is also the most popular. Using one of the online feed converters on a popular article directory will bring plenty of new and regular fresh content to your website.

5. Fine-tune your keyword list regularly. Realize that the internet is always changing and you must adjust your words to keep having the same impact. Make adjustments as needed to keep your place at the top.

6. Make sure that your web address is submitted to the best search engines. You don't want to be passed over because you didn't tell the big search engines you are there. Do this submission regularly. Knowing the most popular search engines is essential.

7. Keep a record of your rankings. Just like test results, the rankings you receive will let you know how well you're doing and how far you need to go to reach the top. Use the data to figure out what works and what doesn't and adjust accordingly.

8. Repeat often. You will need to practice these steps for your online home based business on a regular basis. Your competition will. Always search for new ways to get better results. Refusing to change isn't going to get you anywhere.

This is a basically simple view of the procedure you need to follow to optimize your online home based business search engine results. There are definitely other ways to fine-tune your site's rankings. To get you started, however, this list will give you a decent start to higher rankings and more profit.

http://www.promotionworld.com/marketing/online/article/061222OnlineHome.html

Some important sessions for SEO

2006-12-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

Linking Strategies

The Linking Strategies session was moderated by Danny Sullivan. Eric Ward, CEO, EricWard.com; Mike Grehan, International Search Marketing Consultant; Justilien Gaspard, Principal, Justilien Internet Marketing Solutions; Todd Friesen, Director of Search Engine Optimization, Range Online Media were the speakers for this session. At the end of the session, the audience knew how far is too far in optimizing internal link structure, about link spamming, handling affiliate links and much more.

Eric Ward made an announcement that he would be starting a free e-newsletter which will have tips and tricks for linking. Coming on to the session, it is advised that deep and wide linking is better as sites having links throughout the site are ranked higher. Use Blog directories, Podcast directories, audio and video directories. Directories are the foundation for stable links. They ensure visibility. Rely on backlink make up as major quality indicator. Go for good directories that have strong link credibility. Use different words for directory descriptions and keywords in anchor text. There is a lot of link potential. Thanks to blogs, forums, and influential media. Linking with reporters, media directories, radio stations, and other bloggers is a good idea.

Web Analytics & Measuring Success

The panel for this session consisted of Laura Thieme, President and Founder, Bizresearch and Matt Williams, Managing Partner, Prominent Placement. The panelists discussed ways to measure success and importance of conversions and unique monthly visitors. You can check your rank at search engines for particular keywords, analyze log files to see the actual terms people used to reach your web site or make the ultimate jump and close the loop by measuring sales conversions and return-on-investment.

You can track organic, paid as well as referral traffic to ascertain who is increasing or decreasing. It is important to keep a track of new and return traffic rates. Remember a month to month change is not a trend. It is over six months data that constitutes trend. It is a good idea to check if some engines are converting at a higher rate. Keep changing and modifying track with your company and goals. The ranked pages have good and latest information. If people find your site for uncommon terms that you are not targeting you may have high bounce rates. Remember, no analytics software is perfectly accurate. The packages have some scope for error due to server, DNS as well as Javascript errors. So, use more than one analytics package. Analytics would be useless if you do not analyze, report and act on the information you find.

Buying & Selling Links

"Search guru" Danny Sullivan moderated this session. The speakers were Eric Ward, CEO, EricWard.com; Thomas Bindl, SEO Consultant; Patrick Gavin, President, Text Link Ads Inc. Buying ans selling of links holds importance even before search engines started using links to influence rankings. While the links are acquired to improve rankings, some links may lead to search engine losses that is when search engines finds link to be a spamming attempt. The speakers in this session talked about best ways to buy and sell links.

First of all you need to be sure of the theme when buying links from a site. The links you buy must be of same or complementary theme. Google PageRank helps to ascertain real link value and worth of a site. Alexa is also helpful to find if any traffic is going to a site. If you find a site is not on Alexa or has very low rank, you know the site is not worth buying links from. The positioning of link is also important for search engines as well as direct traffic. Google SERO heat maps is another helpful tool. You can find out which area is viewed the most. This helps you to determine where to place the links. A good link must be placed on the top of the page. Eric pointed out blogads.com offers an advertising platform based on blogs with niche and targeted audiences. E-mail, web magazines and newsletters may not help your PR but these help targeting demographic for you. Before you buy links, have a look at robots.txt file to check that it does not allow a section of the site that may contain your link. View Google cache of the page to ensure that meta tags do not change when engines view them.

SMO: Social Media Optimziation

The panel for this session consisted of Andy Hagans, Strategist, Text Link Ads; Neil Patel, co-founder, Advantage Consulting Services; Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz.org; Todd Malicoat, Independent Search Engine Marketing Consultant, Lee Odden, Online Marketing Blog. Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, SearchEngineWatch.com President of Searchwise moderated the session. The speakers examined how community built web sites can be a smart way to tap into links along with search driven traffic.

Neil Patel talked about the benefits of getting associated with Wikipedia. These include authority links, brand recognition, increased traffic and of course great information. Rand pointed that sharing valuable content and displaying your company is helpful. It helps to shape how people view search engine optimization community as a whole. Creating a user profile for your company and using it among different sites helps in creating a 'friendly' image. The social sites recommended for use are Digg, del.icio.us, Flickr, Reddit, Newsvine, StumbleUpon, Technorati, MySpace, Yahoo! Answers, Google Co-Op.

Social media offers several advantages. Andy advised the link bait must be 'bookmark-able' which means there must be a piece of content or tool that would prompt people to bookmark it. Getting your message in front of right people is important. Writing a personalized email to relevant bloggers may be a good idea to get links. Tag your content on del.icio.us. It is important to keep repeating these. You may not get results immediately however repeating these will eventually be beneficial.

Flash & Search Engines

Since search engine crawlers are designed to index html text, it is difficult for content built with Macromedia Flash to appear in search engines. The speakers: Shari Thurow, Webmaster/Marketing Director, GrantasticDesigns.com; Gregory Markel, Founder/President, Infuse Creative, LLC; Massimo Burgio, Co-Chair, Global Committee, SEMPO; Jonathan Hochman , Founder/President, JE Hochman & Associates LLC; Dan Crow, Product Manager, Google, Inc., give tips for sites having flash.

If Flash is important for your site make sure you have proper link development. Create multiple pages with flash in each page. Most flash sites do not have much text. Use appropriate title and content for flash movie. If you must have a flash site do create an HTML version. Flash accessibility is not spam if primary content and visible flash match. W3C recommends using different versions of multimedia content for accessibility. According to Jonathan Hochman, JE Hochman & Associates, "Search engines don't rule the world; do what's right for your users." Flash can be a problem for PPC in quality score as it is difficult to connect the ad keyword to the deep section of the Flash movie.

CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 & Search Engines The session was moderated by Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media. The speakers were: Shari Thurow, Webmaster/Marketing Director, GrantasticDesigns.com; Jim McFadyen, Senior Web Developer, Critical Mass; Scott Orth, Executive Director, Selytics, Inc.; Amit Kumar, Engineering Manager, Yahoo! Inc.; Dan Crow, Product Manager, Google, Inc. The sites are increasingly making more use of CSS, AJAX and other advanced and interactive design techniques. However it is essential to note how are the largely Web 1.0 search engines reacting to these, from an SEO perspective. This session explored the issues and plausible solutions.

CSS is an HTML addition which allows webmasters to control design, placement of elements, etc. It can be used to change the look of a site very quickly and easily. It even decreases the download time of the page. The disadvantages of CSS are that it requires end users to have font installed on their computers else the page does not display. CSS formatted hyperlinks may dominate the content of a web page and may overshadow the content. Other issues with CSS include text formatting, text wrapping, the X, Y, Z coordinates, ways of hiding text and links inside of CSS invisible layers. AJAX is highly desirable for sites. However, many may not even know what it means. It is not a programming language. AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, and allows the browser to communicate with the server without refreshing the page. It is extremely helpful in improving user experience. Search engines can not see AJAX delivered content and AJAX created navigation would not be crawled. Remember every page must be HTML and every page must have its content on the page. All links must already be in the HTML and must be tested by turning off JavaScript in your browser.

Usability & SEO: Two Wins For The Price Of One

The session was quite humorous, thanks to the speakers Shari Thurow, Webmaster/Marketing Director, GrantasticDesigns.com and Matthew Bailey, President, Site Logic Marketing. The moderator for the session was Alex Bennert, Director of Client Services, Beyond Ink. The speakers gave great examples for building a user friendly as well as search engine friendly site.

The session highlighted that if you build up a user friendly site, it is good even for the engines. You need to consider search usability overview, its components and case study. People perceive that usability and SEO do not mix well. Usability homepage must have clear directions. Keywords must be used for naming categories and products. People must find a reason to stay on your site. A site lacking content will not rank well in search engines. Some site would focus on just one product even if they sell many. Usability displays established hierarchy of categories. It is important to know what users look for. Size of text may not be concerned with SEO but it is vital for people. Stuffing product categories on one page is not advisable as it dilutes the page.

Blog & Feed Search SEO

Detlev Johnson, VP, Director of Consulting, Position Technologies moderated the session. The speakers were Amanda Watlington, Ph.D., APR, Searching for Profit; Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts, LLC; Rick Klau, FeedBurner. The session underlined how specialized blog and feed search engines gather content. Speakers provided tips on tapping into growing forms of traffic.

It has been predicted that 2007 will be the year of RSS. This is primarily because of the launch of IE7 which will make RSS accessible to everyone. So much so that people would not even realize that they are using RSS feed. Before you start building your feeds you must know the number of feeds that are appropriate for your company, content needed to keep the feed fresh and attractive, content piece to be included in the feed, whether to include multi-media content, audio and video, ways to propagate the feeds both initially and on update, measuring performance of feeds, and finally how to monetize it.

A powerful keyword rich content can be created by following these steps: Write the post; review keyword research list for relevant keywords; a headline must have a keyword; anchor text must also include keywords. Joining a discussion is one of the best ways to bring traffic to your blog. You can notify other blogs of your existence either by commenting on the blogs or dropping an email. An important tip from the session: Blogs are not the only source for feeds. Feeds can be used for podcasts, video blogs, Web services, retail outlets and other areas.

http://www.searchnewz.com/blog/talk/sn-6-20061207SESChicagoDay3Roundup.html

Back in Time to the Advent of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2006-12-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

As long as the Internet has been around, it has remained a mystery to the mainstream public how Web sites are listed at the top of search engine results. There are many theories of how search engines and search engine optimization (SEO) initially began.

The 1990s

Alan Emtage, a student at the University of McGill, created the first “search” program in 1990 called Archie (still in use today), to archive Web documents. The following year, Gopher started at the University of Minnesota, and this is when the concept of search engines began. In 1993, Matthew Gray created the World Wide Web Wanderer, the earliest known search engine robot that assists with ranking Web sites. But search engines as we use them today were born in 1994. In that same year, Galaxy, Lycos and Yahoo! were all started, two of which are still widely popular search engines today.

Yahoo! was among the first to implement SEO techniques, even though at the time they were unaware of the potential growth the industry would soon have at the turn of the century. Yahoo! Founders David Filo and Jerry Yang were trying to get their site seen by others on the Internet by giving it more exposure. Some excellent structure and tricky hand-coding, their site became more available for new visitors. They were not questioned about ethical business practices because nobody was sure what was considered ethical or unethical – there were simply no standards in place yet.

As the initial search engines were cataloging the early Internet, many business owners soon learned to appreciate the value of their Web site being listed in the search engines, as they first saw increases in visitors to their Web sites. They began submitting their URLs on a continuous basis, and changed their sites to support the needs of search engine robots. SEO companies started showing up, when they began experimenting with the concept of search engine optimization, with the emphasis initially on the submission process alone. Soon afterwards, the first automatic submission software was released, and it was then the notion of Spam came into existence.

The 2000s

SEO professionals have been seen in a negative light over the last five years, due in part because in early 2001, enthusiastic webmasters quickly realized they could overwhelm search engine result pages by over submitting Web sites. Unfortunately, as the Internet industry developed, search engines quickly became cautious of new SEO companies attempting to generate visitors for their clients at any cost, however unfair or unethical. Tactics such as keyword spamming, doorway pages, cloaking, and hidden white text placed on white backgrounds proved too much for the search engines to tolerate. As a result, the search engines replied with numerous countermeasures, created to filter out any techniques considered spam. That is good news, although it forced ethical SEO companies to start using more subtle techniques to assist their clients Web sites with obtaining rankings in the engines.

The “big 3” search engines, Google, MSN and Yahoo!, have recently come to the realization that SEO as an industry is here to stay, and to maintain effective results, they needed to accept the industry, even embrace it, and engines eventually partnered with successful, ethical SEO companies to establish typical standards for fair and ethical optimization. This is important to help keep information relevant and beneficial to visitors while still being unbiased to people who create the content on their Web sites.

The Current State of SEO

Today, there are major differences in how search engines work and how to get ranked in them. With the assistance of proper search engine optimization, Web sites can now have a equal fighting chance of obtaining high rankings. Because SEO is a highly specialized trade that requires both technical skills and business marketing knowledge, it is only through the combination of these two skills that one can properly implement SEO techniques to obtain high search engine rankings. Many SEO specialists have since now realized it is “search engines or bust.”

How to leverage your higher traffic flow for higher profits

2006-11-30T11:09:00.000-08:00

After you have followed the steps in this guide and attained a high ranking in the search engines, you will soon have a large amount of traffic flow to your site. Now is the time to sell, sell, sell!

But the products and services that you offer on your website aren't the only avenues to profit available to you. Your website traffic itself can be an excellent source of revenue. You can use your site to:

· Sell banner or text ads to other businesses.

· Sell advertising in a newsletter or Ezine.

· Earn commissions through affiliate links and banners.

An excellent way to maximize the cash earnings from your website is to sign up with Fastclick. They have lots of options for displaying high-paying ads on your site, including leaderboards, banners, popunders, and several other types of ads.

And best of all, Fastclick pays you, the publisher, 65% of the fees paid by the advertisers. You can't lose with this one!

A new advertising vehicle that works very well for sites with lots of content is Google Adsense. All you have to do is apply for an Adsense account with Google.

They'll review your site, and if accepted, you just add a short snippet of code (provided by Google) to your site where you want the ads to appear.

Google will then spider your page(s) and start serving relevant ads in short order. No keywords to fool with! All you do is add the code to your pages and Google does the rest.

Then when a visitor comes to your site, she'll see the Google ads. If she clicks on one, you'll get a commission. It's really that simple!

If you sign up with Adsense, be sure to read the directions, user agreement, and FAQs carefully so that you can be sure that you're in compliance with their rules. You can even use Fastclick popunders in conjunction with Google AdSense to double your earnings potential!

I'm sure there are many other ways to earn money through your website's traffic. Just use your imagination and Google to find them!

Looking Beyond SEO

2006-11-27T22:43:00.000-08:00

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is one of the most highly talked about topics between Webmasters and marketers. It is probably also the single topic that more webmasters obsess over than any other (in terms of their website anyway!). However, while SEO can be an excellent resource for targeted traffic, all website owners should concentrate their efforts on more than trying to squeeze one more percent out of keyword density, or beg one more PR5 link from an authoritative site. As well as sapping energy, causing breakdowns in family relationships, and being responsible for the onset of male pattern baldness it also causes us to lose sight of our ultimate goal.

You Mean There’s More To Online Life Than SEO? The ultimate goal for the vast majority of websites is to either make money or promote a service that makes money. How the site goes about it is entirely up to the Webmaster. Whether you choose to make money through affiliate links, PPC advertising, product sales, dropshipping, or any other method the single most important aspect of your website is your visitor. Visitors are those people that you attempt to attract to your site and they are the ones that will essentially make you some cash.

Don’t Forget The Real People The biggest problem with concentrating on SEO is that while the search engine spiders might be difficult to please they are a walk in the park, a piece of cake, and an absolute breeze when compared to real-life, living, breathing, walking, talking visitors. Search engines rely on mathematical algorithms to determine the quality of your site whereas the visitor relies solely on personal opinion. The next time you’re attempting to inject 2 or 3 more instances of key phrases like “California Mesothelioma lawyer attorney” into your content try to remember that some poor soul might actually have to try and make sense of what you’re writing.

Some Search Engines Are Complying Fortunately for you and I, of course, some of the mathematical search engines are also coming round to this way of thinking. Google, in particular, want to offer users natural search results. They want to promote natural web pages, with natural content, using natural keywords, gaining natural links. This means that Webmasters are able to start obsessing over a number of other factors now instead:

Optimizing Your Content For Conversions Conversion rates are not a part of SEO but should be a part of your business strategy. Consider how many people visit your site and the percentage of those people that either click through the links on your page or purchase a product. It is virtually impossible to predict with any certainty what your conversion rate SHOULD be but you should always strive to improve it. Your content should convert, your newsletter should convert, your mailing list should convert, and your emails should convert.

Improving Customer Retention Rates Customer retention is also important. Once you sell a product or provide a service, even if you persuade a visitor to click a link and make a purchase you should do everything you can to ensure that you retain your customer base and they return to make purchases again. A big part of every successful business is repeat custom and without it you will always be fighting an uphill struggle to generate new leads and convert those leads into customers.

Ensuring that you offer the best service, the best prices, the best results, or the best information and help can generate good customer retention. However this isn’t all of it. Company or website branding also plays a part, and following up with after sale emails and contact is also vital if you have the relevant information to hand. Use business cards and compliment slips whenever possible and always ensure that you include a company signature in all your email communications.

Generating Sales And Marketing Methods Sales are obviously vital and without sales you will never achieve customer retention. In order to make sales it is important to acquire or generate leads. SEO is obviously a very beneficial way of generating leads but it isn’t the only way. PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, advertising is a good way to instantly drive traffic to your site. SEO can take months to begin to generate results whereas you can truly hit the ground running with an effective PPC campaign. Ensure that you have a compelling advertisement lined up and also ensure that your website content is geared toward the conversion of any visitors you do receive.

Banners And Text Ads Banner advertising and text advertising (I’m trying to ignore the temptation to mention their use in SEO) have taken a back seat to SEO and PPC, but for some sites they still have their uses. Find websites or newsletters that offer information relevant to your product or your service and then try out a small advertising campaign before you inject large amounts of money in a campaign that may not bear any fruit whatsoever.

Offline Advertising Methods Offline advertising is also an option, though it can prove costly. For geographically targeted campaigns it may [rove particularly beneficial. Local radio stations, local newspapers, and even billboards are options that do still generate results. These can cost money though. Bear in mind that some websites have been known to take this a step further with skywriting and other unusual tactics. These are best left to the behemoth sites like Ebay in all honesty.

Conclusion SEO is not the be-all and end-all of a website. It is a powerful online marketing technique that can in time generate large amounts of targeted traffic. However, it is important to remember that once that traffic arrives your site must be optimized for conversions and sales. You should also consider using other forms of advertising in order to gain more site visitors and a more diverse range of traffic.

http://www.promotionworld.com/marketing/online/article/061127LookingBeyond.html

If It Sounds Too Good To Be True - It probably Is

2006-11-27T09:57:00.000-08:00

As e-marketers strive to make it to the top of the search engine optimization heap beware of the fraudsters and charlatans who might promise you the world and end up putting you on a blacklist.

According to Mark Hochhaus, McCleary, WA-based co-owner of Technet Internet Marketing, “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 to stay on top….

“Don’t be fooled by such hype,” Hochhaus continues. “These are short term solutions that can lead to a permanent ban in the top engines. Once you are banned in Google, Yahoo, MSB or ASK, you may as well dump your site and start over. If you are looking for long-term success on the Internet, don’t cheat the search engines.”

The things you shouldn’t do while attempting to boost your search engine ranking,

Keyword stuffing – this is repeating a keyword phrase too many times in the body of your copy, in the html title for the page, etc. 2% to 4% of your copy is the range of keyword density you should aim for.

Hidden links or text – years ago, some webmasters would put lots of white text on a white background, (could be green text on a green background … you get the idea.) Site visitors wouldn’t see this keyword loaded text but search engines would index it. They caught on to this years ago.

Doorway pages – automatically generated or otherwise. A technically sophisticated ploy that still works sometimes … if you don’t get caught. Doorway pages comes in a number of variations. Some are easy to spot because they are computer-generated pages of nonsensical gibberish. Some are more difficult to spot and are highly attractive and blend into the Website. They will have complete sentences, paragraphs and even calls to action. The problem is that these doorway pages or sometimes called “mirror sites,” which are geared to re-direct traffic to your site, are considered “spam” by the search engines.

Cloaking and false redirects – Also known as “stealth,” delivers one page to the search engine for indexing while serving an entirely different page to everyone else. The search engine falsely believes it is selecting a prime match to its request. This can put another highly ranked site within the frames of your site.

Pages loaded with irrelevant words – “Britney Spears” may be very popular and if embedded into your site will draw the search engine spiders. But, what does she have to do with the auto parts business?

Duplicated content on numerous pages – This is sometimes done on a duplicate Web site. It’s another ploy to steer search engine traffic without providing any benefit to the visitor.

Unrelated and centralized link farms – a link from Joe’s Pizza Parlor to your auto parts Website doesn’t make much sense does it? Getting a link from a site that is mostly links to other sites ( a “link farm”), won’t endear you with Google or anyone else.

“You might get short-term results with these techniques,” writes Stocking, “But it’s very likely your site will be banned from search engines if you do. You’ll put your Web business in severe risk if you use one of these methods. Just don’t do it!”

Hochhaus adds: “If you’re planning to be around for the long haul and you want some success on the Internet, you need to be ethical in your promotion. Unless you have daily time dedicated to studying search engine optimizations (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.” http://www.wiglafjournal.com/Articles/2006/06-12-SEO.htm

About Link Page / Resources Page

2006-11-24T09:59:00.000-08:00

- Does your website have a links/resources page?

- Do you exchange reciprocal with other websites to help boost your targeted traffic and search engine rankings?

- Do you believe that a relevant, yet comprehensive resources page provides tangible benefits to your site's visitors?

If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, then you should consider adding an inexpensive (or free!) Yahoo-style Directory to your website. A quality Directory script will add an air of professionalism to your website and provide valuable content for your users.

A quality Directory script:

* Gives your website a professional "look and feel". You can eliminate those bloated, unattractive links pages that might brand your site as a "link farm".

* Allows your visitors to search for sites of interest in your directory using keywords.

* Allows you to display banner ads on your Directory pages (including the search results pages). With the best scripts, the search results pages will even display different banners according to the search terms used. This allows you to sell advertising targeted to specific keywords!

* Encourages other webmasters to exchange links your website. You'll soon have webmasters standing in line to exchange links with you.

* Automates the link exchange process to a large extent without all of the negatives that can get a website banned by the major search engines. A quality Directory script will handle everything related to adding a link to the database, yet still allow you to manually approve the link!

There are many good directory scripts available on the web. Just do a Google search for "CGI scripts". Add a quality Directory script to your site today and you can take your web presence to an entirely new level!

Search Engine Optimization for E-commerce: A Tale of Two Shoppers

2006-11-23T02:23:00.000-08:00

Search engine optimization is a hot marketing technique right now, and companies are utilizing different approaches to ensure that their sites are the ones getting the top results on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. Many e-commerce sites believe that they are already appropriately search engine optimized and do not need to take further action. The engines are indexing the individual product pages, and those pages are appearing at the top of the results lists, so many sites do not expand upon their SEO efforts. The problem is that these sites are likely missing out on an entire category of shoppers.

Take, for example, Amazon.com, a major e-commerce player that has a great SEO strategy in place on its site. One of the thousands of products that Amazon sells is the well-known business book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. A Google search for the book’s title (with the number seven spelled out or written as a numeral) or even for “seven habits book covey” brings up Amazon’s page for that book at the top of the results. This indicates that Amazon’s strategy is working appropriately – for one type of buyer. A buyer that is typing this information into the engine is extremely motivated – he has already done his research about the particular book, and he knows that he wants to purchase it. That makes this strategy valuable – Amazon can catch the targeted buyers who are no longer browsing but are already buying. There’s no way to tell how often a book’s particular title is typed into a search engine. It could be once a month, once a week, or once a year, but it is a phrase that will likely bring in sales.

The problem is that at the search stage the targeted buyer is likely doing price comparisons before making a final purchase. Therefore, he might be going from search engine result to search engine result, checking the price of the book at one site and then backing up to check the price elsewhere. If he does buy his book from Amazon, there is no way to gauge if he is going to return for future purchases. Instead, the next time he wants to buy something, he’ll repeat the process – research, search, compare, and then buy. He might choose Amazon, but he might instead choose another bookseller. Therefore, in order to attract more sales, a business’s optimization strategy needs to be broadened to encompass more than just the targeted buyer.

The other type of buyer, the one who is often ignored by Internet marketers, is the person who is looking for a resource for multiple purchases over time. This person is essentially looking for a partner – a site that can be bookmarked and returned to over and over again. You can tell this type of buyer by the phrases that she uses. For example, she may be an HR manager who needs to buy books every few months to train new employees, or the CEO of a new company who wants to stay on top of the latest trends. And so, she won’t search for a particular book title or author, she’ll search for a general phrase – one like “business books.”

To catch this type of buyer, you need to not only optimize for manufacturer names and model numbers but also for these general types of phrases. You can then take this strategy a crucial step further, by building pages for your site that have essential, relevant information for someone who might become a lifetime buyer. Google “business books” and you find that Amazon has embraced this strategy by creating a page with a sampling of the business books offered at the site, clearly intended to reach the lifetime buyer.

For your company, this type of page might list benefits you provide to your customers, describe awards your site has won, or feature specific products that meet the needs of the searcher. Basically, when trying to reach a potential lifetime buyer, you need to have a page or pages that explain why one should buy from your business today, tomorrow, and well into the future. These buyers are, clearly, the ones who provide a greater value over the long term than the shopper looking for one, and only one, specific product.

Now of course, there are caveats to these rules. Are there buyers who will search on a specific product and then revisit a site many times in the future for additional purchases? Of course. Are there people who are searching on general phrases because they’re not sure what to buy who will then make a single purchase and never return? Naturally. But these are largely exceptions. The fact remains that if a searcher types a general phrase into a search engine, finds you in the results, makes a single purchase, and never returns to your site, that person is still a customer who is spending money with your business. And undecided searchers using your site for research purposes about specific products are more likely to bookmark and return to your site if they have a positive experience, so it’s still important that you make sure to cater to the potential lifetime shoppers at all times. While the trend with e-commerce sites in general is to optimize for the specifics, savvy marketers can expand this strategy to target the lifetime buyers as well. Such an approach can be a simple way to increase both an e-commerce site’s traffic as well as the site’s business.

http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/061123SearchEngine.html

Seven Challenges Of SEM Planning And Execution

2006-11-22T19:27:00.000-08:00

IN EARLY NOVEMBER, I SPOKE at an Ad:Tech NY panel entitled "Planning and Execution of Search Engine Marketing Projects." Outlined in my presentation were some common challenges that I have frequently encountered from the clientside perspective, the Web design agency perspective and from the search firm perspective.

In no particular order, here are elements I've found to be recurring obstacles in the quest for high search performance on Fortune 1000 level Web sites:

1) Integrating search as a business or technical requirement. Setting up search as a business and technical requirement removes 90 percent of the headaches experienced when integrating in the middle or end of the development process. Good designers and developers are experts at solving problems, and even if they don't have a lot of search experience, they can often solve these issues when given the opportunity. If you've started in the middle or end of a design project, performance will ultimately suffer, and an additional toll will be taken out on dev and design teams who may have to rework some of the foundational aspects of the site.

2) Building business cases. This is one of the most difficult nuts to crack, because natural search is so unpredictable, and most marketers don't place monetary values on desired actions such as e-mail subscriptions, Request for Proposals or other actions. Major obstacles for building business cases include scoping potential natural rankings and traffic (no one can guarantee this), lack of accuracy in keyword metrics tools, unpredictability of natural click-through rates, and lack of a dollar value on desired user actions. Although it is still difficult, an attempt should be made at making a case when possible, even if it is directional. More concrete business cases can be made by calculating the potential loss of paving over previous search engine optimization engagements in a redesign (and preserving these investments), and auditing what a client is currently getting from natural search as it relates to existing business goals (leads, sales e-mail subscriptions, etc). Paid search cost-per-click bids also offer a real-world indicator of the value of natural traffic alone.

3) The "search chair" is missing at the table. If search is not recognized as having a major role in the development process, then performance will suffer. This means that search should help drive research, planning, content, marketing messages, development, launch and other stages of Web design and maintenance.

4) Creative adversity. Many designers view search as a threat to creativity. When requirements are laid out for a variety of different audiences, search shouldn't impede the creative process, but rather should create a new framework for a picture to be painted.

5) Search education. A little bit of search engine optimization 101 goes a long way to help meet overall search objectives. I've presented many four- to eight-hour client seminars to audiences ranging from five to 30 people, and the positive impact of education on natural search efforts is nothing short of amazing. Give an educational seminar and invite the whole gang, including senior-level executives, project managers, information architects, content writers, developers and other team members. Increased awareness also helps knock down barriers when approval is needed for a wide variety of search-related tasks. In another section of the presentation, I outlined some of the common mistakes that search firms make when delivering recommendations to Web development and design agencies. The two following views were culled from what I observed of search firms as a search strategist and facilitator acting on behalf of Web design clients:

6) Lack of balance. Search specialists often accuse Flash designers of being one-sided by not considering search as part of their process. Optimizers are often just as guilty of this same type of omission. Consideration must be given to accessibility, creative elements, brand laws and how users will ultimately perceive the page.

7) Not tying search into tangible business goals. Rankings are great; traffic is better, but conversions contributing to defined business goals rule. Unfortunately, while many firms are good at tactical recommendations, some stop short of attributing the value of search to the bottom line (or at least proving that value to the client). To be fair, not all clients and marketers spend their budgets with these ROI goals in mind, and they often have limited offline tracking capabilities needed to attribute search's actual business value to their business.

Search engines vs. directories

2006-11-20T22:40:00.000-08:00

Many people think of search engines and directories as the same thing. In reality there is a big difference between them. While the difference between them is pretty much un-noticeable to a person who is searching the web, understanding the difference is critical to getting your site displayed highly in the search results.

A directory is a searchable database of web pages that are reviewed, selected, and categorized by humans. A search engine "crawls the web" by following links from web page to web page and website to website. You don't even have to submit your site to a search engine in order for it to "find" your site and place it in the index for searching.

Yahoo is the most well known directory on the web. Yahoo searches provide a major source of traffic (visitors) to a website. Submitting your site directly to Yahoo is an option, but for a commercial site there is a $299 fee just for having Yahoo evaluate your site quickly and give you a yes or no answer. Paying the fee in no way guarantees that your site will be accepted for inclusion. It only guarantees that your site will be considered and a decision will be made. Later on you will find out why submitting directly to Yahoo is unnecessary.

Another very important directory is the Open Directory Project (ODP). Getting your site listed in the ODP is almost guaranteed to get your site indexed automatically by Google. The web is packed with tons of directories, but Yahoo and the ODP are by far the most important ones when it comes to attaining website traffic and getting listed in Google.

Google is by far the most used search engine on the web. Getting listed in their massive database is an absolute must for any commercial website. Another very important search engine is Lycos. You may submit your site to Lycos, but they charge a fee of $31 or so. But if you are patient, your site will be crawled and added to their listings automatically after following the instructions in this guide.

http://www.rlrouse.com/

Popular Search Engine Optimization Firm Launches Free Training and Marketing Site

2006-11-19T21:11:00.000-08:00

Saint George, UT - Starting an online business has never been harder, but today www.seoguidelite.com has a given anyone with the desire to earn money online an edge over their competition and they have made it free! The search engines account for the majority of most websites' traffic, so tapping into free knowledge and experience has many SEO firms up in arms.

Just like surreptitious magicians, professional search engine optimization and website marketing experts guard their best kept secrets and implement them at great expense for serious website owners. Large shopping sites, law firms, and a myriad of website genres willingly shell out large sums of cash to anyone that can promise them the best results online, but where does that leave the little guys?

"My SEO Guide", a division of Omni Business Solutions, Inc., has made it possible for beginner webmasters, home based businesses, and those that just refuse to pay extortionate pricing for professional optimization, to learn the skills and strategies. Website owners with the desire to learn and implement what they are taught can now save thousands of dollars on professional consulting and learn a profitable skill.

Fully loaded with weekly lessons, tools, resources, and exhaustive strategies, www.seoguidelite.com unleashes the techniques necessary to achieve online success. Jeremy Cobb, expert internet marketer and writer, has released his knowledge gained by years of experience of one on one mentoring for public use and profitability. Although aimed at beginners, the experienced webmaster will also discover new ways to approach the search engines, adapt to new technology, and dominate their competition.

If you are in need of direction when it comes to internet marketing and search engine optimization, see www.seoguidelite.com for more information on this free learning center. About www.seoguidelite.com and Jeremy Cobb: Jeremy Cobb has personally mentored hundreds of individual and corporate webmasters and published training materials across the World Wide Web. Years of experience coupled with personalized training has made Omni Business Solutions, Inc. and www.seoguidelite.com a raging success.

Big three search firms ally behind SiteMaps

2006-11-17T06:52:00.000-08:00

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have agreed to work together on SiteMaps, the webmaster search engine optimization specification developed by Google.

In a rare show of solidarity, the three fiercely competitive web portals announced SiteMaps.org, a page where the latest version of the spec, and instructions for adhering to it, can be found.

SiteMaps was created by Google about 18 months ago and released under a Creative Commons license. The version announced yesterday is numbered v0.9, indicating it's not quite done yet.

That said, Yahoo and Microsoft supporting it indicates adoption has been broad, as webmasters around the internet seek to improve their Google ranking.

SiteMaps itself does not automatically give your pages a higher ranking. Rather, it tells search engine crawlers what pages you have available for indexing and how frequently they are updated.

In that regard, SiteMaps is much like the inverse of robots.txt, the much older standard for telling search engines and other scripts to keep out of your server.

"You just publish a sitemap, and every engine is instantly able to read and use the data to more effectively index your site," Ken Moss general manager of Microsoft's Live Search wrote on his blog.

A SiteMap is a straightforward XML file that you place in the root directory of your web server. Each URL you include can have up to three values associated with it - the last time it was modified, how frequently it is updated, and the relative priority. The "changefreq" value can be set to "weekly" or "daily" or "never" for examples, indicating how often you would like the search engine to crawl it. The "priority" should be set to a numerical value from 0.0 to 1.0, with a higher number indicating a more important page.

The system is not designed for hacking the search engine, however. The protocol is a one-way channel. You tell the crawler what you would like it to do, but each individual search engine is free to disregard that instruction.

A "daily" updated page that is never updated may not get crawled daily for long, for example. And the "priority" value is relative to only pages on your domain, not to pages at other sites. While the spec calls for search engines to enable SiteMaps to be submitted with a simple HTTP request, each firm is also rolling out sites to streamline the process.

Yahoo has already added SiteMaps support to its search engine. Maps can be uploaded on the same page usually used for adding RSS feeds. Microsoft said that it is still testing the spec internally first.

http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=5C72B80E-DDE2-4044-B2F7-971849300A40

Why should avoid FFA pages ?

2006-11-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

FFAs are basically web pages where anyone can submit the URL for his website for free (hence the term Free-For-All). The web is home to thousands upon thousands of FFA pages.

FFAs may sound like a great way to get lots of free traffic to your site, but you should avoid these pages at all cost.

Why? Several reasons:

1. They are almost useless as a source of traffic. Very few people searching for a topic on the web will use an FFA page. Instead they will use a search engine or directory.

Think about it for a moment. Where do you go when you want to find something on the web? If you're like most web surfers, you use Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL Search, etc.

FFA pages are usually just a long list of unrelated and unorganized URLs which makes finding what you're looking for virtually impossible.

2. Most FFA pages require you to register with your email address before you are allowed to add your link. The owners of the pages then use the email address that you registered with in order to send you loads of Spam.

Even worse, they will often sell your email address to other Spammers. If you choose to use FFA pages, prepare to receive a never-ending flood of SPAM in your email inbox.

3. Using FFAs can lead to your site being banned from Google's search engine index. Many FFA pages require a reciprocal link from your site to theirs before allowing you to place your link.

Google considers most FFA pages to be link farms, and we have already learned what Google thinks of link farms!

How to prevent getting banned from Google ?

2006-11-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

Google places a very strong emphasis on the quality and relevancy of their search results. As the undisputed leader in the world of search engines, they know that in order to stay on top they must make sure that their users are satisfied with the quality of the search results provided. To that end, they do not take kindly to several techniques used by many webmasters and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts. These techniques can and will get a site banned from Google or at the very least result in a Page Rank (PR) penalty. (PR will be discussed in more detail later.) A list of the most common (and dangerous) techniques is below:

Submitting multiple URLs for the same site - An example would be submitting mysite.com and mysite.com/index.html to their database, thereby essentially trying to get two search results for the same page.

Cloaking - Cloaking is having two separate pages, one optimized for the search engines and a different one optimized for the viewer. In other words the search engine sees one page but the user is redirected to a different page when the link is clicked. Cloaking is a big no-no with Google.

Doorway pages - In order to get a good listing in the search engines, some webmasters will load the home page with keywords. But a page filled with keywords comes across as nonsense to a human viewing the page. Therefore the webmaster will do a redirect to another page that is much easier to read (or have the user click a link to get to that page). This is basically cloaking. And as we now know, cloaking is a no-no.

Hidden text - Some webmasters will place hidden keywords on a page and make the font color the same as the background color (for example white text on a white background). This renders the text invisible to the human eye but the search engine spiders can still see it. This results in a higher Page Rank and search engine listing for those keywords. Hidden text is often used on a doorway page. Using hidden text is a sure way to get banned from Google fast!

Hidden links - The number of pages that link to one of your pages has a direct effect on how high your page appears in the search results (and that page's PR). As with hiding text, hiding links will also result in a ban or PR penalty.

Link farms - A link farm is loosely defined as a page that lists links solely or mainly for the purpose of achieving a high Google PR. Free-For-All links pages are often considered link farms by Google. Be careful who you link to! Realistically, you can't control who links to you, so incoming links will not hurt your site's ranking. But you control directly who you link to so Google will ban or penalize your site for linking to a "bad neighborhood".

Spamming - Don't send unsolicited commercial emails (SPAM). Enough said.

Selling PR - Blatantly advertising the fact that your high PR site will sell a link to another site in order to boost that site's PR is another big no-no. Selling advertising in the form of a link on your site is perfectly acceptable. Selling a link for the stated or implied purpose of increasing a site's PR is not.

Multiple identical sites - In order to increase PR, some webmasters will create and interlink multiple pages all with identical or very similar content. This is not allowed.

Multiple domains - Creating multiple domains that redirect to one page is not allowed. Also, creating multiple domains with the same or nearly the same content and then interlinking them is a no-no. If you have multiple sites place unique content on each site. Doing otherwise will result in a ban or penalty.

Excessive links - Google recommends having no more than 100 links on any given page. Having more than 100 links won't result in a ban but it can result in a lower PR.

If you refrain from using any of the above techniques you can avoid a Google penalty. The best way to attain a high PR and placement in the Google listings is to stay on Google's "good side". Now that we have the "don'ts" out of the way, let's get started with the "do's"!

Making Sense of Search Engine Optimization

2006-11-12T07:02:00.000-08:00

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the strategy of using techniques to try to improve the rank a website has among search engine listings. Longtime marketers know that techniques of SEO must adapt to structures of the popular search engines.

There are many methods of SEO that can be used effectively to make money online. Although most SEO strategy can be done online, some is done offline, like adding URLs to direct mail pieces to drive traffic to sites. Mailing postcards to prospects to advertise an online opportunity, via website URL, can be a very effective marketing effort, as it combines traditional marketing by mail to more advanced internet marketing.

Likewise, distributing flyers can be very effective, particularly in urban areas. These are offline methods of traffic-generating which can create traffic, which is one element the search engines are eyeing.

The search engines keep track of a lot of other elements related to your website which tell them, “This is a site of interest and significance”, resulting in a higher ranking for the site in the search results they return to online information seekers.

SEO methods can certainly cover a wide range of website components; including but not limited to domain name, title / heading / HTML tags, file names and directories, frequency of quality terms used, keyword info, image ALT tags, text without frames, photo captions, targeted quality content, regular updating of content, back-links, and overall website popularity.

And SEO strategies that involve manipulation of these various SEO components can be broken down into two main categories - "white hat" or “black hat.” White hat SEO methods are generally those that are approved by search engines, like adding good content and other quality to your site. Black hat SEO methods are referred to as tricks, like using cloaking devices. Some people say all SEO is manipulative. Others say only black hat is.

Some companies offer SEO services. For practically any budget range, you can buy:

- PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns where you try to draw online traffic to your site by bidding on words relating to your niche that you think people will use in search engines to find you.

- Site Submission – There are plenty of companies out there that will allow you to enter your URL into their form and then they will submit it to a group of top search engines for you at no charge, like Submit Express at: http://www.submitexpress.com/list.html . You can also pay them to submit it to many more. Submitting in this manner is generally recommended once a month. You can also purchase products like: WebPosition Gold, a search engine software all-in-one package that optimizes your web pages, submits them to top search engines, then tracks the page rankings and web site visits and visitors.

- Article Marketing – Online marketers write articles that focus on keywords or key content that would attract search engines to them when people search for their key content.

- Links – Not only through article links but other links as well (whether link exchanges or purchased in-bound links), webmasters try to increase their search engine rank by establishing quality linking with top sites or high-traffic sites out there.

- Posting to Opportunity Seeker Message Boards – This is just another method of creating back-links to the website. An e-mail signature with a compelling line of advertising can redirect readers, who have already shown to have an interest in the opportunity market, back to the selling website—more back-links.

- Online Directories and Classified Ad Sites – These are more fine sources of potential back-links to the website. Search engine spiders regularly determine popularity of sites via back-links, and rate them higher accordingly, which creates even more traffic flow.

- Link Exchange – This is a slower way to create back-links, but it can be effective if done regularly. Usually, this type of arrangement must be set up webmaster-to-webmaster per mutual agreement, but there are automated tools such as LinkMachine which greatly speed up this process.

So add some SEO into your Internet marketing. SEO, when done successfully, can bring waves of traffic that you never expected, and that translates into sales success. Even at little or no cost, there are plenty of things you can do to keep the search engines happy, helping to bring internet visitors to your websites!

New Ways for SEO

2006-11-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

The search engine world never rests. As online marketing professionals discover new ways to obtain top rankings the algorithms evolve right along side. There are two primary reasons behind the updating of ranking algorithms. To increase the quality and relevancy of the results, and to decrease the many page of online spam.

As the algorithms are updated, new ways to affect the results are discovered, and the algorithm must then be again adjusted. This is a cycle that has been around since the early days of search, and one that won't be going away any time soon. A lot has changed over the years, and the future is sure to also deliver its plethora of surprises, but there are three main factors that will always have some level of impact on your search results.

SEO, Content and Links

Some people say that the world of search engine optimization is over and that the entire basis behind successful rankings lies in the power of incoming links. While incoming links do play a significant role, and in most cases are a necessity, they are far from the only determining factor.

There are many determining factors behind what will affect the ranking of a site. The three largest contributing factors are SEO, links, and site content. To compete in highly competitive industries a site needs numerous on topic pages of content, relevant incoming links from a variety of sources, and, solid site optimization. While search is always changing, these three factors will remain constant. Each may change in the level of impact they have, but they will always contribute to the top listings.

Site Content and SEO go hand in hand. Content is very important, but without the SEO to add focus, it can go unnoticed. Proper keyword densities, link paths and keyword placement will always play a role in having the content discovered and ranked by the search engines. If the fundamental SEO aspects are not in place, there is a strong chance that the content may never see the light of day. Incoming links add focus and relevance for the site overall, but if the content is not relevant to the desired phrases the odds of obtaining a top ranking are very bleak.

Links play, and will continue to play a strong role in the future of search rankings as they add that important vote of confidence. When site A links to site B, that tells the search engine site B is worth considering. Value is passed based on relevance and the overall authority of site A.

As more and more webmasters develop new linking schemes, the algorithms responsible for displaying top sites have to continually evolve to weed out the ever increasing amounts of SPAM. While Google's current algorithm relies heavily on incoming links, especially for sites in highly competitive markets, this algorithm will have to change and mutate over time as the internet continues to evolve. If rankings were determined 100% by inbound links where would this leave us? Thousands if not millions of valuable websites would go completely unnoticed. We would also see many sites ranking that are not relevant to the actual search term due to issues related to Google bombing.

Political opinions aside, the single world "failure" does not accurately represent the George Bush bio page; however, it continues to rank #1 in Google. This was made possible by the anchor text used in links posted by thousands of bloggers and webmasters. If links were solely responsible for rankings, we would see a lot more examples of Google Bombing as the actual number of links required to 'bomb' would decline.

Where is Search Going?

For us to know the exact future of search we will have to wait and see what happens but some things are certain to grow in popularity.

The future will undoubtedly see more advances in localized search, serving results relevant to the locality of the searcher. Is this the best way? Only time will tell, but even if this is the future, we will still see SEO, links & content dictating the results. The SEO and content will have to be in part geared towards local information such as zip codes, city names, etc, but will be an important contributor.

Links will undoubtedly contribute to rankings long into the future, but quite possibly will have a reduced role with more SEO fundamentals making a comeback. One example is to take a look at MSN Live Search. As reported by Ross Dunn in the SEO BLOG just this past weekend an algorithm update has shown increased value on fundamentals such as title tags and domain names. These two areas were once an incredibly powerful tool in obtaining rankings, and had reduced in value. Now, at least in MSN, they are gaining ground once again.

Still in its infant stages, Mobile Search is growing as more and more people turn to their cell phones and other mobile devices for search. Mobile search will likely have the most benefit for localized type searching. People looking for an address, weather report, local business, entertainment information, etc. As time goes on the number of users using Mobile Search will continue to grow, and optimized sites will be the ones found by these searchers. A whole new level of optimizing mobile websites will likely emerge.

In 10 years time search will certainly look very different. While it has become a staple in the lives of millions, in the big scheme of things the internet is still very young and search even younger.

Why SEO will always be importantSEO will always play an important role in having sites found in the search engines. Regardless of how search algorithms evolve they will always require a level of on site content in order to correctly rank websites. As long as this content is considered, proper keyword placement and frequencies will play a role.

SEO in itself will continue to change. The proper frequencies of keyword placement, linking techniques and URL structure may alter, but will always have an impact.

As we move into the future and as the search engine algorithms continue to evolve SEO will always play an important role in having your websites obtain top rankings. While the small things will always change it is important to have the basic fundamentals in place and doing so will help sustain consistent rankings into the future.

6 Ways To Get Banned By Google

2006-11-09T23:01:00.000-08:00

According to research compiled by search engine optimization expert Mike Banks Valentine, Google drives 74% of traffic to most websites - talk about domination!

That's why it's amazing to me that people still attempt to try and trick Google by using questionable and dishonest search engine optimization techniques to achieve higher rankings. Want to avoid getting banned by Google? Just follow the following 6 tips:

1. Stay Away From Link Farms: A link farm is any group of web pages that all hyperlink to every other page in the group. Although some link farms can be created by hand, most are created through automated programs and services. A link farm is a form of spamming the index of a search engine (sometimes called spamdexing). Joining a link farm will illegally generate hundreds or even thousands of back links to your website in a very short period of time. Also, When submitting your site to web directories, be careful you don't "red flag" Google by adding too many back links at one time.

2. Stay Away From Cloaking: Here's an excerpt taken from an article written by search engine expert, Alan Perkins titled Why Cloaking Is Always A Bad Idea.

"The term "cloaking" is used to describe a website that returns altered Web pages to search engines crawling the site. In other words, the Web server is programmed to return different content to [a search engine] than it returns to regular users, usually in an attempt to distort search engine rankings.

Search engines have a problem with cloaking because it makes a mockery of their ranking algorithms. These algorithms rank pages partly according to what people will see on the page. When this information is deliberately withheld, the algorithm cannot do its job. Cloaking is the ultimate form of invisible text - nobody sees it, not even by viewing the HTML source code."

3. Don't Use Doorway Pages: Doorway pages are web pages that are created for for spamming the index of a search engine by inserting results for particular phrases with the purpose of sending you to a different page. They are also known as landing pages, bridge pages, portal pages, jump pages, gateway pages, entry pages and by other names. Doorway pages that redirect visitors without their knowledge use some form of cloaking.

Doorway pages are designed to increase a web sites ranking in a search engine. The doorway page is usually a replication of the key words and description of web sites. It relies on repetition of related words and phrases to increase search engine ranking.

4. Avoid Excessive Cross-Linking: Cross-linking refers to the linking between related websites – either by owner, as business affiliates, or within the same niche community. Cross-linking may be used for a variety of reasons. For example, to communicate to both search engines and site visitors that a website has important content - to build link popularity which promotes higher page ranks and overall website rankings, and to provide an alternative to calls-to-action in the event site visitors are not yet ready to make a purchase.

When used in excess, however, cross-linking is considered spam and could cause your website to be penalized. That's why it's important to read up on and study how and when to use cross-linking to a website’s advantage, to make sure that the quantity and quality of cross-links are accurate.

5. Don't Submit Multiple URL's From The Same Site: For example, don't submit mywebsite.com and mywebsite.com/index.html to the Google database, essentially trying to get two search results for the same page. While this will give you two or more spots in the search engine's listings, they will be listed together, and the only thing you will have accomplished is knocking other sites down in the rankings, which is unethical.

6. Don't Use automated Querying: According to Google's terms of service, "You may not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system without express permission in advance from Google. Note that "sending automated queries" includes, among other things:

Using any software which sends queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage "ranks" on Google for various queries; "meta-searching" Google; and performing "offline" searches on Google.

In closing, stay away from tricks and dishonest SEO techniques. Instead, focus your energy on building a quality, relevant content site for your visitors. You'll be much better off in the long run!

SEO Crucial to Successful Interactive Communications Strategy

2006-10-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

The emergence of “Google” as the search engine behemoth and the increased utilization of the Web by an ever-increasing percentage of the consuming public has put increased pressure on Web marketers to improve their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and executions.

The most creative and innovative Web sites, many costing tens of thousands of dollars, are of secondary importance if the objective of the Web strategy is to create awareness and generate “hits.” The Web “crawlers” or “spiders” are very powerful but very stupid when it comes to reading Web sites. They are looking for WORDS and not pictures. The most creative FLASH design means nothing to those spider/crawlers because all they are looking for is the words for which the search is focused.

Crawler-based search engines, like Google, “crawl” or “spider” their way through the Web looking for the key word or words the Internet user has entered into the search engine. What is produced is a universe of Web sites usually numbering in the thousands. Most searchers will generally find what they need in the first 10 or 20. What happens if you are listed in the 30s. Chances are you are never seen.

P.J. Fusco, writing in the Oct. 25 Clickz.com E-Zine, points out three basic questions to ask before initiating a SEO strategy:

1. What is your business objective?

2. Do you have access to your Web site’s statistics?

3. How far are you willing to go to improve your search-referred traffic?

Your Basic Business

If you haven’t done so, carefully think through why you have created your Web site? Are you trying to sell product? Are you trying to create awareness for your business? Are you looking for sales leads? Are you using your Web site as an on-line brochure?

“Before you can set your sights on garnering greater search engine referrals,” writes Fusco. “Consider targeting specific areas of your business that can provide demonstrative results.” Adding to this thought, Fusco suggests the marketer be specific about on-line business goals and objective before launching the new SEO initiative. A key is being as specific and realistic as possible.

Review the Metrics

The next step is to benchmark from whence you came. For this you need solid historical data that focuses in on the history of your site’s success of lack thereof.

Fusco suggests reviewing the following elements:

- Number of month visitors to your site. - Percentage of visitors originating from search engine referrals. - Number of sales (in units) per month. - Total amount of sales (in dollars) per month. - Average sales per Web site visitor.

“Web analytics should also provide insight into your target market’s demographics.” Fusco writes. “By associating a value to core demographic elements of your business, you can equally prioritize SEO strategy elements.

How Far to Go

The final piece of the puzzle is to determine what can or can not be changed to achieve greater search engine recognition.

Fusco points out: “Making content or design changes to the home page and other high-level sight pages can dramatically enhance search engine visibility. Are you willing and technologically able to revise your site’s structure and navigation to achieve better search engine positioning? How much flexibility do you have with page and linking structures built into the current site.”

One very quick and easy way to start is by analyzing the key words in the site especially on the Home Page. Make sure the site references these key words again and again because, don’t forget, the spiders and crawlers are feeding off of them.

Search Engine Strategies

2006-10-26T23:13:00.000-07:00

The most important aspect of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the links pointing to your site. Here, as with most things, quality is more important than quality. If you have a single link to your site from a high-traffic, popular site, it will be worth many times more than hundreds of links from “Free For All” (FFA) sites.

Trust me when I say this: DON'T waste your time with FFA submission. The people who market FFA submission make it sound really tempting I know. Who wouldn't want hundreds of links pointing to their site? In my early days, I went on a campaign to get as many FFA links to my site as possible. The only thing it achieved was the vast quantity of utterly useless emails I got each day. In fact, it was so bad that I had to close down that email account.

I have found out subsequently from some of the masters of SEO (like say John Reese or Brad Fallon) that it may even be likely that some of the major search engines actually penalise a site that has many FFA incoming links. What I do know is that even though I had possibly 1,000 incoming FFA links, not one of them appeared as a link in the major search engines. It seems reasonable to conclude that even if the search engine doesn't penalize you for having FFA links incoming, at least all that work to get the links is wasted. In case you were wondering, I didn't go out and manually submit to heaps of FFA pages: it was all done through submission software. Even so, it's just not worth it.

Let me say this again ... get good incoming links to your site. Without them, you will never be high on the search engine rankings. How do you know they are good? Get the Google Toolbar and enable PageRank viewer. While it is not a 100% accurate reflection of a site's search engine ranking, at least you can see whether a page has a high page rank.

Another indication of the quality of a site is where it ranks in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. There is a lot of software out there (most of it free) that will allow you to find out the ranking of a page for a particular keyword.

In summary, stay away from FFA and “link farms”. They will not do you any good and may actually hurt you in the long term. Build your quality links and your search engine rankings will soar in no time.

SEO Basics Tutorial

2006-10-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

So often when people encounter seo and want to start optimizing their sites they are lost as to where to begin. Filled with a few helpful and a few not so helpful comments from a forum or article they set out looking for the magic formula that will take their site to the top of the search engines only to get lost in a tangle of misinformation that can often do as much harm as good. To help you get started on your seo journey I have decided to write this tutorial on the basics of seo.

The subject of seo is not one that can be covered in a single post so I will continue this tutorial over several posts for the rest of this week and into the next. Even a few posts can’t hope to cover everything there is to know about seo, but a few posts can give you a solid foundation on which to build and add to your seo knowledge.

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

Ask 10 search engine optimization consultants what seo is and you might get 10 different responses. Different consultants define seo differently. The industry is still in it’s infancy and not all agree yet as to what is and isn’t included in seo. I define seo as optimizing a website both on page and off page in order to achieve a better organic ranking in search engines and consequently driving more traffic to your website.

My definition doesn’t include pay per click advertising, which I consider part of the larger search engine marketing (sem). I see seo as a subset of sem and while both can complemet each other very well here we’ll just be considering seo or at least my definition of seo. SEO consists of four main areas which are keyword research and selection, site building, on page optimization, and link building. We’ll discuss each one briefly in turn and then cover each in more depth over the next few posts.

There’s one important point I want to make before continuing. There is no magic formula that will get your page to rank #1 on any of the search engines. There isn’t an optimal keyword density or a perfect place to use a keyword. And if there were don’t you think all the other sites that came before you would already be using that magic formula? SEO is about developing a strategy and tactics to help the pages of your site rank well enough to bring traffic to your site. For some keywords it will be relatively easy to get your pages a high rank, for others it will seem impossible. Good seo will take time and instead of looking for a way to be #1 tomorrow you’ll be better off simply working to bring in more traffic to your site next month than you are bringing in this month.

Keyword Research And Selection

All seo starts with keywords. Choosing the right keywords is perhaps the most important part of your optimization efforts. You may think it obvious what keywords you should be using for your site, but think again. Yes some will be obvious, but more often than not those obvious keywords will be the most difficult to to achieve high ranking for. Begin to identify keywords simply by brainstorming. Write down as many keywords as you can think of and then look for more. Fortunately there are some good keyword suggestion tools you can use to help build your list. Two of them are the Overture Keyword Selector Tool and the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Both offer many suggestions for other keyword phrases you can use on your site.

You should be able to build your list into hundreds if not thousands of possible keywords. No you won’t use them all. You’ll actually combine many of them into longer phrases, but before you can determine which keywords are going to bring the most traffic to your site you need to list as many possible candidates as you can. Once you’ve assembled your list you’ll narrow it down by comparing how many people actually search for those phrases and also what competition is out there on each of the phrases. Let’s skip the details of narrowing down your keyword list for the moment and move on to site building

Site Building For SEO

The way you structure the pages of your site and the way you code your pages will have a great impact on your seo efforts. Before any of your web pages can be found for a given search it needs to be indexed by the search engines. While you should always think about real people first when developing a site you must also make sure that search engines can spider your site and find and index all of your pages.

The main culprit in pages not being found is often JavaScript menus. JavaScript menus can be a great thing for site visitors and I’m not suggesting you never use them, but if you do, make sure you also include another form of navigation for search spiders. Usually this will end up being navigation at the bottom of the page. This search engine navigation should contain text only links. In addition to text only links provide a sitemap for all of the pages on your site and make sure this page is linked from the home page of your site and again it should be a text link.

On Page SEO On page seo includes everything you can do on a given page to increase its chances of being found in a search engine. It includes all of your content and the way you present that content. It includes where, how, and how often you use your keywords on your page and even what other pages of your site and other sites you link to and how you link to those pages.

By far the most important piece of writing you’ll do on any given page is your page title. Search engines consider your page title to be very indicative of what can be found on the page so you’d better make sure to get some keywords in your pages titles. I’m not talking about spamming your page title with a long list of keywords, but your most important keyword for that page should be included in your page title.

You’ll also want to use keywords in your page headings and throughout your page content. Don’t worry about keyword density or looking for the perfect amount of keywords to use on a page. Use them where they are appropriate in the text and you will most likely be using them in the right amount. Do make sure you use keywords in your page headings.

Link Building

Link building will prove to be what has the greatest effect in your seo efforts. That doesn’t mean you should ignore any of the above, but in the end it will probably be the number and quality of links pointing to your site that will be what get’s your web pages found in search engines. It certainly will be for competitve keywords and without many many quality links pointing to your site you will not be able to consistently rank on any competitive keywords.

Link building is a never ending process. It’s not something you do for a few weeks and then stop to rest on your laurels. You should always be looking for other sites that will link to yours and doing what you can to get other sites to link to yours naturally. While in general more links are better not all links are created equal and there are some you don’t want to spend your time trying to get. Free for all (FFA) links pages and link farms are best to stay away from. Most will simply do nothing for your site, but some will be harmful to your efforts.

There are many different ways to get links to your site and often it can be hard to decide where it’s best to get links. As a general rule if you think about that other site and if the visitors of that site will likely find your site uselful and interesting and even better if visitors on that other site might be likely to click on a link to your site then you do want a link on that site back to yours. If visitors on that site probably couldn’t care less about your site then you might just want to move on to the next site. If the time it takes to get that link is short then go ahead and try to get it anyway. It probably isn’t going to hurt, but if it will be time consuming process to add a link on that site where people aren’t likely to click on it then your time will more than likely be better spent getting a link on another site.

Keywords, site building, on page content, and link building are the four cornerstones of seo. We’ve just scratched the surface of each here and I’ll expnad on all four over the coming days and posts. Rememeber that this seo tutorial is about the basics of seo and there will be a lot more detail to learn, beyond this tutorial, but hopefully this seo basics tutorial will lay down a solid foundation from which you can begin to build your experience and knowledge.

I’ll pick things up next time in part II of this seo basics tutorial with Keyword Research and Keyword Selection.

Important aspects of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2006-10-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

If you want to be successful at the Internet Game you need to use these Internet Applications effectively. If you are missing even one of the applications in your marketing portfolio, you are loosing business.

* Website * Opt In * Key Word Selection * Email Marketing * Ezines * Banner Advertisements * Affiliate programs * Notifying Internet Portals and Directories * Search Engine Optimization (SEO) * Pay per click * Blogs * Chat Rooms * Message Boards * Opt In * Ebay

To give you a better understanding of why these applications are important, let’s briefly discuss each application.

Website

Your website content is one of the single most important aspects of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It must be well thought out and structured well throughout your site. You will want to be sure you focus on how your product or service solves a problem or pain for the customer. This almost sounds too simple to work, but focusing on what you have to offer and how it solves the customers problem will pay substantial benefits for the long term.

Having a website will help you increase revenue, decrease expenses, and provide your customers with a higher level of service and support. Here are some examples of how your prospects will benefit from having a Web site.

* Open up a virtual storefront that creates an additional sales channel

* Sell products online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

* Introduce new products to the market faster

* Compete with big corporations based on service, price, and quality

* Capture the impulse buyer

* Accept credit card orders online in real time

* Optimize existing advertising (add a .com to ads directing customers to your dynamic, informative Web site) expose your business to new markets you may not otherwise reach

* Establish credibility with potential customers

* Provide fast, personalized service to customers

* Provide answers to frequently asked questions 24 hours a day

* Offer special packages or deals through your Web site

* Display testimonials from satisfied customers

* Send customers exclusive online coupons or discounts

* Allow customers to set appointments online

* Facilitate pro-active communication between you and your customers

* Respond to customers’ changing demands faster

Opt In

Confirmed opt-in has become the most rigorous method of obtaining permission to send email campaigns.

What does confirmed opt-in mean? And, is it for you? Well, first let's define the terms. Then, we'll discuss the advantages and disadvantages so that you can make your own decision - and I'll throw in my two cents.

Single Opt-In (with a subscriber acknowledgement email) is the most widely accepted and routinely used method of obtaining email addresses and permission. A single opt-in list is created by inviting visitors and customers to subscribe to your email list. When you use a signup tag on your website, a message immediately goes out to the subscriber acknowledging the subscription. This message should reiterate what the subscriber has signed up for, and provide an immediate way for the subscriber to edit her interests or opt-out.

Confirmed Opt-In (a.k.a. double opt-in) is a more stringent method of obtaining permission to send email campaigns. Confirmed opt-in adds an additional step to the opt-in process. It requires the subscriber to respond to a confirmation email, either by clicking on a confirmation link, or by replying to the email to confirm their subscription. Only those subscribers who take this additional step are added to your list.

ISPs and corporations are now doing everything they can to stem the tide of spam flowing into their users' email inboxes. Without a foolproof solution to turn to, some ISPs, like Road Runner (@rr.com email addresses), now require confirmed opt-in for email delivery. They do this because the subscription tracking capabilities associated with confirmed opt-in can help them differentiate legitimate commercial email from spam and protect their customers from receiving spam.

Is Confirmed Opt-in for You?

While usage of confirmed opt-in is not widespread today, and we can't tell just yet if it will become the industry standard, it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of confirmed opt-in so that you can make an educated decision on what is best for your business.

The Advantages: In a nutshell, confirmed opt-in ensures that those who are receiving your email want to receive it; it can protect you against spam accusations; and it allows for email delivery to ISPs, like Road Runner, who require confirmed opt-in for email delivery.

The confirmed opt-in method prevents: Email address collection without permission, Accidental subscription due to email address typos, and Subscriptions made by an unauthorized third party.

Key Word Selection

Choosing the right Keywords to target is of paramount importance to your success in search engine marketing. Many online consumers know exactly what they are willing to spend when searching for retail products. You should try optimizing for products based on best value? Example: "bridesmaid gifts under $20" Example: "cars under $2000" Example: "timeshare resale under $1000" The above examples have low competition factors, so really think about how your target audience may be searching and optimize accordingly. More online consumers know exactly what they're searching for when it comes to retail products. You should try optimizing for products by part or model number? Example: nokia 8910 cell phone Example: hp deskjet 5550 printer Also, try adding "" quotes around your product and model number within the

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available for communicating and developing relationships. But, email marketing can only be that powerful when it’s done well. Using your standard email client (e.g. Outlook, Eudora, hotmail, AOL, Yahoo etc.) to send a Bcc text or HTML message to your list is not doing email marketing well. Why not? Because your standard email client is not designed for email marketing and therefore has significant limitations that can actually undermine vs. aid your email marketing efforts. The good news is – you do not have to go it alone. There are Web-based email marketing services that are inexpensive and designed to make email marketing simple for the non-technical user. By using a good email marketing service, you can just easily avoid common mistakes and truly get the most out of your email marketing efforts.

Here are the top ten reasons you need an email marketing service. Coincidentally, these are also the top ten critical email marketing benefits that you will never get from any standard email client.

1. Are approved as bulk mailers

2. Follow professional mailing practices

3. Provide list hosting and management

4. Require no technical skill or support staff

5. Handle formatting

6. Create great looking emails

7. Get higher email deliverability

8. Deliver measurable results

9. Include frequent updates and enhancements

10. Comply with email laws

Ezines

An Ezine is a periodic publication distributed by email or posted on a website.

Ezines are typically tightly focused on a subject area. Ezines in concept are reworking of the popular magazine format of monthly, or weekly topical publications, in an electronic format.

Ezines range greatly in size and scope, from irregular newsletters reaching a handful of subscribers to daily journals reaching hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Writing articles for ezines increases your visibility on the Internet. By writing articles, you establish your credibility as a market leader. By including your name, company name and website address, you will drive traffic back to your web site.

Banner Advertisements

Probably the most popular method of online advertising is through the use of banner ads. These are the advertisements, most often in rectangular boxes, that seem to appear on almost every page you look at on the Web. In addition to banner ads, some other ways you can advertise your online business include having your ad placed with a newsletter distribution service, and inserting your domain name (www.yourbiz.com) in offline advertisements. If you are unfamiliar with the process of running a banner ad, then you'll be surprised at how fast you can actually start pulling in visitors with this medium. While in the offline world it can take months to actually get your advertisement placed in a publication, in the online world the whole process can be accomplished in a matter of days. Another advantage of online advertising is that you can change your ad in the middle of a campaign.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs offer you a way to make money for your online business by advertising for other online businesses. In their simplest form, affiliate programs establish a business relationship between your business and another business, where you will receive a percentage, or a fee, for the sales that you generate for the other business. In a sense, by joining an affiliate program, you become an agent for another business and get a commission every time you sell something for that business. For instance, let's say that you joined an affiliate program that paid you a 15% commission on every sale that you made. If you sold an item worth $100, then you would receive a $15 commission from the affiliate program.

In order to join an affiliate program and begin earning commissions, you will be required to show a banner ad, or text link, for the other business on your Web site. For instance, if you join the Amazon.com affiliate program, you would place an Amazon.com banner ad on your Web site, with a special identification code, that links back to the Amazon.com site

Notifying Internet Portals and Directories

Getting listed with portals, search engines and directories is the beginning of your promotional campaign. By having your site properly indexed in these search engines, you stand a good chance of getting some visitors to your site. However, don't expect to have the world knocking at your door just because you have gotten your site listed in all of the major search engines.

Getting listed with the portals and directories can be done easily using an auto-posting service. You simply type, or cut and paste, the keywords and description for your online business in the appropriate boxes of the notification forms, and the auto-posting service will take care of the rest. In addition to getting your Web site listed across the Internet, many of these services will also analyze your site for loading speed, browser compatibility, and its ability to distinguish itself from the "crowd."

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is the technique of fine-tuning your website so that it appears more frequently and with a higher ranking in search engines, thereby increasing free traffic to the site. Each search engine compiles a database of web pages which are then ranked by relevance when a particular search term is entered. Every search engine uses different algorithms in order to determine a web page's relevance for a given search.

Pay Per Click

Google AdWords Select and Overture are the two leading Pay-per-click players, but there are over 400 search engines using this model. They all work in more or less the same way. You bid on keywords and phrases that your target audience may use to find your site in the search engines. When they do a search for those keywords your ad or "sponsored listing" appears in a special section near the top or side of the search results.

The position of your ad depends on the amount you bid and the competition for your keywords, so selecting the best keywords is essential. You pay only when someone clicks through to your site.

Blogs With a Blog, you can submit to the many Blog directories that exist online.

By submitting to the many blog directories in the proper category, you can expand your reach to targeted subscribers or readers who wants to read your posting on your area of specialization. Blogs promote relationship building and trust with your readers, as it allows you to interact with them. Your readers can refer a friend and imagine the traffic power that can be generated if each one of your reader make a referral.

Chat Rooms

Use online chat rooms to promote your web site. Find the right chat room where your targeted audience would gather. Announce to everyone in the chat room something interesting or free that's offered on your web site. This will draw visitors to your web site. Always be aware of chat room rules before engaging the visitors in a sales pitch that could be considered spam.

Message Boards

A message board (also called a discussion forum or bulletin board) is a web-based tool that allows a group of users to discuss topics of interest with each other.

The most important function of a message board is to create a stronger connection between you and your customers. You may have the best product in the market, but if you cannot get enough feedback about your product, you will never know what your customers really think about it. A message board can provide you significantly better feedback about your product by allowing many-to-many connections

Opt In

Opt-in email is the opposite of "Spam" email. When people voluntarily sign-up to receive your electronic messages, they are "opting-in" to your mail list. Because they have actually requested information from you, your messages are not considered to be junk mail, spam, or unsolicited email.

Sending messages and information to people who have given you permission to contact them is a great way to build the kind of relationships that will encourage a steady flow of traffic to your website... and greatly increase your online sales!

Ebay

On average, Ebay receives 40 million hits daily, and of that, it's average user views 17 pages. Most listings get at least 50 very targeted views. If you can get listed on eBay's "The Pulse" (most popular internet auctions) you are guaranteed at least 5,000 visitors to that listing, and many of them will click through to your site, affiliate link, whatever makes you money.

You can probably understand why you should consider eBay one of the most unique prospects on the internet. It's like the search engines USED to be, where you are guaranteed hits and visitors no matter what the field, and where being outrageous pays off.

Google Takes Manhattan

2006-10-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Google’s Internet search brand is so strong that we forget how big a player it’s becoming in the world’s advertising markets. Even when we read the latest forecasts about its growing success, we tend to think exclusively about Google’s online brand image. That powerful brand image tends to hold back what Google is becoming and that means they will need to consider changing their brand identity, a common problem for companies today who must navigate changes in business direction amid turbulent market changes. Google is so versatile itself now, that it offers a huge range of services and advertising opportunities. Advertisers can almost take it for granted that their advertising will hit the right target market and the right up-to-the-minute brand impression will take place.

Google is Everywhere According to one Sash’s analyst, Google is poised to serve 6.1 billion dollars worth of advertising in the coming year. This makes it fourth among American media companies in total ad sales after Viacom, the News Corporation and the Walt Disney Company, and ahead of giants including NBC Universal and Time Warner. The Google growth needs to be recognized. It’s not going away as this company has the revenue and capital resources to grow and consume other competing media giants. That means Google Adwords will become even more ubiquitous. It’s not beyond the realm of imagination that they will show up on television or DVD movie rentals. Anything is possible for Google. As the company ventures into new offline advertising mediums, the Google brand will evolve and lose its “Web only” image.

Getting into Goggle’s world is an intelligent investment in your company’s future. Most companies could benefit from exposure on Google whether in paid ads via Adwords, or through organic search listings (search engine optimization). Plus you receive all that brand exposure!

Sadly most don’t. There could be a number of reasons for this. Foremost, it’s likely that corporate marketing managers haven’t explored the value of search marketing (search engine optimization). The market share numbers are still small, so they don’t devote much time to it. A lack of familiarity and understanding of search marketing is another reason. The realm of search marketing is new and is slightly different than the usual advertising buy. It’s more complicated, and requires more strategy and it can take some time for results to show through in organic search engine marketing. Those with patience can do very well, but patience seems to be at a premium today.

The success of some companies in search marketing is well known; Internet.com has built an empire on traffic from search engines. Yet this doesn’t seem to matter to business managers. They still don’t believe search can make a difference in their bottom line. Often, they think about only online sales, and see channel conflicts or 1% conversion rates and then dismiss the whole thing as a waste of resources.

The truth is, ultimate consumers and B2B buyers and purchase influencers use Google everyday and it’s becoming critical to their method of finding relevant products and services.

We see clients receiving visits to the Web from organic search optimization campaigns that dwarf what they receive from print or TV advertising, and at a fraction of the cost. And these are high quality visits from very motivated prospects and here’s the kicker… because you come up in the top 10 in Google you become an authority. That’s right, your prospects automatically trust you because they trust Google. They may purchase offline or via telephone, but most of them research their purchase online before making the purchase decision. Real sale conversion rates might be from 3% to 20% of visitors, depending on the offline availability of products. For national manufacturers and retailers, the end sales benefit is mind-boggling. The ROI is unequaled. Let me say it again, UNEQUALED! It can power up promotional marketing campaigns as well.

Let’s not forget that there are indirect ways of getting to consumers as well, such as other Web sites where promotional advertising can be placed. Often manufacturers can launch their own Web sites and find they have far better control of their marketing and acquire better marketing information than if they rely on an ever diminishing base of distributors and retailers.

Although Google’s success is new and even threatening to traditional marketing, major retailers, manufacturers and distributors have to take it seriously. There are many creative and innovative ways to use Google for promotional marketing. It can bring prospects to an interactive Web site that capture the imagination of the prospect and motivate them in ways not possible through other advertising media.

Search engine marketing then, is just the beginning of a rich stream of targeted prospects. Google is growing and represents a revolutionary opportunity for your company. Master this new medium early and your company will prosper for the next twenty years.

Your SEO Company - Protecting Your Time And Brand

2006-10-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

A search engine optimization company can create a campaign to bring you new, targeted leads, and raise your companys online profile, all while keeping in line with your branding strategy.

However, you will find that in order to get quality results that last, significant changes will need to be made to your website, from the addition of copy to changes to the code to alterations to the sites design.

If your internal resources are already strained to the breaking point, you are probably considering outsourcing your SEO efforts. The search engine optimization company that you select should have the capability to handle all aspects of the project with minimal involvement from your company to save you time and keep your branding strategy intact.

Protecting Your Time

Your search engine optimization company needs to be respectful of your time by making resources available to handle copywriting, implementation, and keyphrase recommendations, some of the most time-consuming parts of an SEO campaign, so that you dont have to. While you may need to provide reference material about your branding strategy, and while you should always have an approval step for each milestone in your campaign, your company should otherwise be able to sit back and relax while the search engine optimization company handles all the details.

Copywriting

Its very likely that your internal marketing department does not have the additional time that would be necessary to write the optimized copy that needs to appear on your site. Your search engine optimization company should have the resources available to handle all copy, from brand new pages to updates of existing pages, as long as you are able to provide the materials that accurately describe your products and services, as well as your branding strategy and marketing message.

Implementation

Likewise, your IT department is probably already stretched thin with internal issues. While your search engine optimization company does not perform the same functions as your Web design firm, it still should be able to implement all changes to your site on a test bed, allowing you final approval before your site goes live. This will eliminate the need for your IT people to be deeply involved in the process.

Keyphrase Recommendations

Many companies believe they need to be heavily involved in the selection of keyphrases for their SEO campaign in order to keep the initiative in line with their branding strategy. However, you may be surprised to find that the lingo your customers are using, and the phrases theyre searching for, are not the same as the ones you might use internally. Your search engine optimization company should have the experience necessary to do all of the research for you and present its findings, leaving you to simply review and approve the results.

These are only a few examples of how your search engine optimization company can protect your time. A full SEO campaign involves many more steps than this, but your firm should maintain the philosophy of adhering to your branding strategy while taking as much of the burden off of your hands as possible throughout the entire process.

Protecting Your Brand

When you hand the reins of your SEO campaign over to your search engine optimization company, you need to be able to trust that your branding strategy will be followed. In order for this to happen, you need to be sure that the search engine optimization company youve hired has the proven resources available, so you're not jeopardizing your own brand in order to save time. And you need to be confident that the firm can produce copy that is as accurate and well-written as your internal resources would have done.

Copywriter

Your search engine optimization company should have a copywriter on staff that has proven skill in writing search engine optimized copy, and marketing copy in general. The firm should be able to provide its clients with writing samples and references to demonstrate the copywriters ability to interpret a companys branding strategy and messaging.

Marketing Materials At the beginning of your campaign, your search engine optimization company should request a data dump of all of your current marketing materials that reveal your branding strategy, including whitepapers and press releases. This will ensure that any new pages that are added to your site will be in line with your marketing message and will be technically accurate.

Differentiators and Initiatives

A quality search engine optimization company will ask you for your brands key differentiators. These can be woven into your web copy by the copywriter in order to give a more complete picture of your company and enhance your branding. Strategy changes and new initiatives on the horizon should also be discussed with your search engine optimization company so that the firm can make plans to address them as they happen.

Interviews

Your technical experts are valuable resources for your search engine optimization company, but its understandable that their time is limited. Reputable search engine optimization companies will need to conduct interviews with these experts in order to get a better picture of your branding strategy, your services, and your products, but these interviews should be kept brief and concise. Of course, the more information you can provide, the more in-tune your search engine optimization company can be with your brand.

Adjustments

Along the way, your company may come across new considerations that need to be incorporated into its campaign. If you change your branding strategy, your search engine optimization company should be able to adjust your campaign accordingly. If you add or remove products, your search engine optimization company should be able to accommodate you with ease. Your search engine optimization company should always be flexible enough to manage your companys unique requirements.

Conclusion

Utilizing a search engine optimization campaign as part of a complete marketing and branding strategy doesnt need to mean additional work for your company. You should be able to find a search engine optimization company that can handle your copy and your implementation so that you dont have to. Your resources should only be involved as much as they can be, and the search engine optimization company should take care of the rest.

Getting Started – SEO for New Businesses

2006-10-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

The business plan is sound enough to get backing from a bank. The administration and management processes are established and the business owners are firmly convinced that, after months or even years of exhaustive study, there is a ready market for the goods, products or services offered by the business. There's even a cute mascot as part of the business logo. By this point, someone in the business has thought about designing a website or to marketing a freshly built site.

As an SEO, working with a brand new business is, on some levels much easier than working with an established operation and on others, an extremely challenging experience. While it is simpler to deal with smaller organizations, guiding the owners of a fledgling business through the intricacies of search marketing is complicated by the million and one minor details every new business owner needs to attend to in the weeks preceding their launch date.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of working with a brand new business is the sense of expectations held by the newly minted proprietors. For months they have toiled to get their venture off the ground and hope, (which springs eternal on opening day), quickly turns to a sense of worry if the first few weeks are slow.

If the new business owners have developed a thorough marketing plan, it is likely they have considered and perhaps even researched website marketing. Chances are however, the new owners have not fully explored the range of choices, tasks and obligations that come with marketing a new website.

The most optimal time for an emerging business to contact a website marketing firm is in the weeks before a new website is created. Having the input of a good SEO in the planning and design phase of a new website can actually shave months from the time it takes to achieve strong search engine placements. Along with the necessity of search engine friendly design, there are a number of factors and choices the site designers will face, each of which can make huge differences in the coming website marketing campaign and subsequent efforts.

Before a website is built, a number of necessary assets need to be acquired. Communication between the new business owners, the site designers and the website marketers is critical in the initial planning stages, often necessitating a live or virtual meeting, or at least a conference call. There is a lot that needs to be accomplished, usually in tight time frames. During the course of meetings and conference calls, a general site-plan should be developed outlining the purpose and basic architecture of the site.

To build a new site from scratch, one needs to register a domain name, find a hosting company, accumulate and prepare content for the site, and find complimentary applications to make the site functional for visitors. These tasks need to be completed before the site design phase begins but before one gets to them, keyword research is required.

Keyword research is an important first step when considering building a marketable website. Choices regarding finding the right domain name, content creation and ad-spend budgeting all revolve around keyword selection. The research phase should take a couple of days and many pots of strong coffee.There are a number of tools that make the immense task of pouring over hundreds, perhaps thousands of potential keyword targets, the most useful of which are the imaginations of the new business owners and the website marketers.

Knowing what they know about their vocations, the new business owners should be able to articulate at least twenty frequently used words or phrases that refer or relate to their business. A short list of twenty is a good starting point from which hundreds of other keywords, phrases, or variations can be determined. There are several free tools website marketers and webmasters can use to quickly expand their lists and make a fair selection of winning keywords and keyword phrases.

While brainstorming the short list, it might be useful to take a look at some of the terms used by competing websites from similar business sectors. An easy tool to check on the keywords and phrases used on competitors' websites is the Apogee Competitor Keyword Research Tool. Though the tool is limited to scanning meta-keywords tags it can help find and suggest words others in the same sector are using.

Once a list of immediate keywords and phrases is compiled, the first thing to do is to test unique words against a thesaurus. Running the short list of keywords and individual words found in phrases through a thesaurus can offer numerous variations or alternatives that were not thought of or included on the original list.

Depending on the market the business is trying to reach, it might be wise to research both the US and International spellings of particular words. The Roget's Interactive Thesaurus is a good reference for US English while Thesaurus.co.uk works well for UK and International English. The list should have grown significantly after consulting the thesaurus. The next step is to prioritize the words by determining the ones that should work best for the new site. There is an array of free tools to help, some of which will also produce more keyword suggestions.

The first and most basic is the Overture Keyword Selection Tool. This ancient and overloaded tool draws its results from searches conducted over the old Overture domain, which is now part of Yahoo Search Marketing. The number of searches per month number should be considered a relative number given the limited number of searches conducted at the old Overture domain. While it doesn't often produce new keyword phrases, it can act as an exclusionary device, showing which words are frequently searched and which are not.

Knowing if a series of words or phrases are well searched is one thing. Deciding if a new site can compete under those terms is another. Before deciding the most frequently used keywords or phrases are the best ones for the new site to focus on, take a few hours to study how competitive different keywords and phrases are.

In search marketing terms, "competitiveness" is a measure of the likelihood a site can rank well organically and compete commercially against other sites at Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. There is a lot to think about when considering competitiveness but for brand new sites, keeping it basic is best. Important factors include; the number of sites found under various keywords and phrases in each of the search engines, estimated PPC bids and required click-traffic, and estimated searches per month.

The SEOBook Keyword Research Tool is a good place to start.

The tool is useful for many reasons. Though it is driven by the Overture keyword suggestion tool, it offers estimated monthly search volumes by regional market for Google, Yahoo and MSN, provides links to related global SERPs, and links to price estimation tools offered by Yahoo Search Marketing and Google AdWords. SEOBook's keyword research tool also displays links to Google Trends, Google Suggest, Google Synonyms, Yahoo Suggest, Nichebot and Wordtracker keyword results.

A cool feature to this tool is the links to vertical databases such as Topix.net, blog search and Del.icio.us designed to offer ideas on how people generally relate to the various words or phrases entered. This gives search marketers a chance to get into the heads of potential visitors, some of which might use different words than those indicated by previous research.

By now, a list of hundreds of keywords should have been generated along with stats and figures to make selection analysis simpler. (It should be noted that there are several professional keyword research firms available to conduct this crucial research.)

There are two types of keywords and phrases to think about, organic search phrases and pay-per-click search phrases.

When seeking strong organic search results, new sites should try to target less than ten keyword phrases at the start. Choosing the best keywords and phrases comes down to weighing the most descriptive combinations of words against the competitiveness of each variation.

For instance, if there are a lot of sites competing at Google or Yahoo for a term that is less frequently searched, chances are that term is not a winning one to target. Conversely, if there are less sites competing for placement under terms or phrases that generate a fair amount of search traffic, chances are those terms or phrases are good targets.

A primary keyword phrase comprised of two or more words gives a new site the best chance to succeed. A series of secondary phrases, some longer than others, should apply to relevant pages of the planned (or pre-existing) site.

Hundreds or even thousands of keywords and phrases can be targeted through paid-search but there are tricks to finding the best ones and keeping up with the costs of click-traffic they generate.

As the name suggests, Pay-per-Click search charges based on the number of times an Internet user clicks a particular paid-ad. Site owners bid for positioning with the highest bids (per click) tending to place on the first page of search results. Google and Yahoo both apply a secondary algorithm that promotes ads that are more frequently clicked on, offering them better placement if they generate greater click-traffic revenue than others.

Knowing the bid rates of each of the keywords or phrase under consideration is important, as are the relative click-through rate and the estimated traffic necessary to keep an ad well placed. When the initial keyword selection is complete, tasks can be assigned to various people involved in creating the new site. The copywriters can write and the techies can concentrate on building a search engine friendly site.

Writing the copy becomes easier as site development progresses but knowing the target keywords is important for the copywriters. They need to know which words or phrases to weave into the site content and where. Based on the basic site plan, the copywriters should be able to quickly develop their first rough drafts to place on the pages being built by the designers. The first part of building a site is finding a good hosting company and registering a domain name. It is generally best to select the hosting company first because part of the process of registering a domain is telling the registrar where the URL is meant to reside.

Choosing a hosting company can be pretty difficult. There are a number of things to consider before buying a block of time and cyberspace. Does the hosting firm, or ISP, offer strong customer support? Can the server handle the technologies called for in the initial site plan? Is there blog support? Can log-files be easily accessed?

If it takes a day or two to research and select a good hosting firm, the time is well spent. The business is planning on using that hosting firm for as long as possible. Changing servers is often as difficult and time consuming as moving from one house to another.

Most hosting companies can help register domains for a fee. There are much less expensive domain registrars out there but registering through your chosen hosting company saves a bit of time and minor technical hassles. Domain name selection can be simple or difficult, depending on the names one wants to pursue. General wisdom says the domain name should be the same as the business name. That's not always possible, as the various owners of Atlas Moving Company, Atlas Pizza and Atlas Gym must already know. If the business name is not available, using a variation on the strongest keyword phrase wouldn't hurt. SeattleBlueWidgets.com would work for the fictional Puget Sound Widget Works Company.

When registering the domain, buy rights to the name for several years. The amount of time a domain is registered for makes a difference in some search algorithms which use registration dates as a means of determining the seriousness and long-term stability of a website.

Once the domain is assigned to a hosting company, the skeleton of the website can start to take shape on the host server, fleshing itself out as the site is designed. This is an important stage for SEO involvement for a number of reasons.

The way a website is designed and laid out plays a determining factor in the search engine and financial success of that site. A good SEO can work with the primary designers to affect a search engine friendly design and help avoid search-unfriendly techniques and technologies.

A good SEO should also be conversant in website usability issues. Usability is the term describing how simple or difficult it is for the average visitor to move around a site and complete whatever goal or task the site is designed to promote. For instance, if the site owner wants to sell blue widgets but it is very difficult for a site visitor to navigate their way to the purchase area, that site would not be considered very usable. The most successful sites make it easy for visitors to get from the Home page to the information, service or product purchase they came for. Because of this, search engine optimization has become a much more technical, statistics driven practice involving the "funneling" of website visitors from home page to goal-destination pages.

Flashing ahead several weeks, the site design should be completed and fleshed out with content. Now the real work for SEO's begins but that work will be accomplished much faster and for far less money than it would have been had the SEO team not been involved from the get-go. Note to new site owners.Don't expect rapid search engine placements with new websites. Sometimes new sites rank well very quicly but more often than not, new sites sit in the low to mid rankings for months before cracking the lucrative Top10. Some SEOs call this tendency the Google Sandbox however others suggest no such sandbox exists. Jennifer Laycock from Search Engine Guide covered the perceived sandbox in early June.

SingleFeed : Affordable Shopping Search Data Feed Management

2006-10-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

Brian Smith, an independent analyst for the shopping comparison engine industry known for his work at Comparison Engines, has just launched a new service for businesses wishing to simplify the product submittals to shopping search engines. SingleFeed (currently in Beta) simplifies the data feed management and data feed submission process by allowing merchants to create a single feed which covers all the requirements and most important optional fields for Google Base, Shopzilla, Shopping.com, Yahoo! Shopping, PriceGrabber, NexTag, Become, and Smarter.com. SingleFeed checks the feed for errors, walks the merchant through how to fix any errors, manually categorizes the products in the feed, and then submits and automatically re-submits the data feed to the selected shopping comparison engines.

Each shopping comparison engine has a unique specification that merchants have to strictly follow in order to submit their products. Filling out a data feed for any one shopping comparison engine can take hours. Figuring out how to submit the feed can then be difficult. Finally, once the data feed is submitted, fixing errors can take an additional couple of hours. And then a merchant has to repeat this process again for each additional shopping comparison engine. At the end of the day, the process is so complicated that many merchants fund accounts and then never submit a proper data feed.

No fear, SingleFeed is here! Small and Medium Sized Merchants can now take advantage of professional and affordable data feed management by Brian Smith, one of the best in the business. Using SingleFeed, merchants can save a significant amount of time and money by allowing SingleFeed to work with them in order to create an optimized data feed and correct all errors for that feed through the online service.

* No software download is required.* It might take a little longer to create the SingleFeed, but merchants only have to do it once.* Because of his background in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Brian developed SingleFeed with Data Feed Optimization (DFO) in mind, requiring fields that might be optional, but that significantly improve results when used in the right way.* Brian and his team will also manually categorize product listings for Shopzilla, Shopping.com, PriceGrabber, Become, and Smarter.com.

Costs? During the Beta period, merchants can submit to Google Base (which automatically gets the merchant on Froogle and possibly Google itself) for the special price of $4.99 per month in October and November. Deluxe Submission to Google Base plus any or all of the other 7 shopping comparison engines SingleFeed supports will be just $99.99 per month plus a one-time $29.99 set up fee in October and November.

As an incentive for signing up for the Deluxe Submission service, Brian has negotiated special free click offers for all merchants who sign up for the first time with Shopzilla, Smarter.com, PriceGrabber, and Become. These free clicks represent more than $150 in savings which means the Deluxe Submission service pays for itself.

Give SingleFeed a lookover, it could change the way you do business online.

Directory Focus: Mastering the Search Trifecta

2006-10-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

SEO and SEA talk, but IYPs do the walking Search is one of the industry's most discussed subjects these days, and for good reason. It's impossible to deny its power and growth potential. But for all that search does to build brands in the online marketplace, consumers still overwhelmingly choose to shop and spend locally: in stores, offline.

According to comScore Networks, only 6 percent of consumer retail spending last year happened online. So how does search fit into the picture? If search-engine optimization (SEO) brings users relevant search results that educate them about brands, and search-engine advertising (SEA) influences and informs shoppers about retailers and service providers, then what actually brings customers into stores to buy?

Internet Yellow Pages, or IYPS, don't seem an obvious part of the search process. But IYPS can seal the deal. They serve as highly visible, cost-efficient, relevant, and targeted online fixtures in the final phase of the buying cycle the purchase. They also boast another key feature: prime placement in search engine results.

To understand the synergy between SEO, SEA, and IYPS, think about how search engines work. They build their businesses and their consumer credibility by offering relevant search results. Relevance also happens to be profitable. Advertisers pay more to show up on the first page of search results through keyword auction platforms, where highly defined, better-performing keywords typically come at a premium cost. In return, consumers get more targeted and relevant results. It's a symbiotic relationship.

Now add a geo-targeted modifier on a search term something most likely to happen toward the end of the purchase cycle, when a consumer is ready to buy. Take, for instance, "Cars in Dallas." This may increase bid rates, a benefit to the search engine. Advertisers see higher conversion rates, and users get local results. It's a win-win for everyone, especially the local IYP advertiser, whose company, phone number, street, and sometimes Web address feature prominently on the first page of the search, displayed alongside optimized results and bid-winning advertisers. IYP listings get prime placement.

Not only that, but the search engine reinforces its credibility by providing this specialized local data, having enhanced the user's experience by providing the ultimate in relevant information. After all, if you're looking to buy something, what information could be more relevant than a location close to home where you can get that product in your hands?

Thanks to recent alliances and partnerships, IYPs feed local business information into geo-targeted search results, making them a common fixture among those top search results. SmartPages.com, YellowPages.com, and RealPages.com came together to form the YellowPages Network, aligning themselves with Yahoo Yellow Pages and Yahoo Local. MSN Yellow Pages uses information from SuperPages.

The latest partnership allows Google spiders to search an advertiser's business profile in SuperPages for natural rankings. It also allows advertiser's business profiles to be ranked on AOL and Ask, powered by Google. These dramatic changes make it possible for IYP results to appear where they should: front and center among the search engine results of a geo-targeted online search.

Considering the costs of investing in Yellow Pages and IYPs, placements garner phenomenal ROI prime placement on the first search results page and the same tracking and dead-on measurability that defines directional marketing. According to the Kelsey Group, IYP usage increased 20 percent in 2005 alone. Search optimization efforts and search-engine advertising continue to grow at a dizzying pace. The time to take advantage of the synergies between SEO, SEA, and IYPs solidifying search marketing's role in pointing consumers to your client's door is now.

When Will SEO Become Obsolete?

2006-10-11T01:59:00.000-07:00

Recently I've seen some predictions that with the direction search engines are taking, search engine optimzation is going to become obsolete in 5 or more years.

That's not too risky of a prediction, since 5 years is literally the half-life of the entire search engine optimization industry. Five years is a lifetime in internet time.

Do I think SEO will die a slow death? I think a slowdown in the impact of current SEO methods is a more accurate assessment. That's not much of a prediction either, is it? The rules for effective SEO change more often than the rules for just about any other industry I know.

The need to optimize content to be relevant and fixing all the bass ackward web designs and HTML that continues to be pushed out to the web by agencies will never really discontinue. Links are always good for traffic, so link building isn't going away either.

If you're a search engine optimization firm, you've got to love all those award-coveting, Flash-obsessing interactive agencies out there that keep SEOs busy cleaning up and fixing code so web sites can get crawled.

Rather than SEO becoming obsolete, I think it would be more accurate to say that other tactics like traffic building through social media will simply become more effective. At least until those channels get replaced by something else. What won't go away is the need for good marketing: Creative, smart, problem solving marketing never goes out of style.

As long as there are web pages and links and search engine spidering, there will be a need for optimization of some sort. The impact might be a lot less than other tactics, but the need will always be there.

As more and more online marketers are discovering, search engines are not the only way to drive traffic and sales via the web.

How to Drive Traffic To Your Web Site

2006-10-11T01:44:00.000-07:00

One of the most popular questions I get when I speak about online marketing is how to drive more traffic to a web site. Eight different techniques for doing just that are outlined below. Save this article, and refer to it for additional ideas whenever you try to expand your online marketing campaigns:

- Business Blogging. Start a blog for your business and update it on a regular basis. A business blog is an excellent tool to toot your own horn, let the world know about your new products, and tell your target customers why they should do business with you, rather than your competitor. A business blog is also a great tool for attracting potential customers to your blog and your web site.

- Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). SEO is the process of modifying web page content and meta-information to improve the search engine ranking of the page. Successful search engine optimization will greatly increase the number of visitors that come to your web site since over 70% of people who are looking for products and services use search engines to locate them

- Article Writing and Publishing. This is another great way to drive traffic to your web site. When you write and publish your articles, other web site owners pick them up and publish them on their web sites, while giving you a link back to your web site.

- Newsletter Publishing. Keep in touch with your clients and potential clients by sending out a newsletter on a regular basis. Every time you send out a newsletter, don’t forget to invite the subscribers to visit your web site.

- Online Networking. Mention your web site address in your signature when networking online. Make sure that your web site is prominently displayed on the page, provided to you by every online networking service that you participate in, so that your fellow networkers can visit your web site.

- E-mail Signatures. Every time you send out an e-mail to one person, you have a chance to get an extra visitor for your web site. When you send an e-mail to a mailing list, you have a chance to spread the word to even more potential customers. All you need to do is to append a signature to every outgoing e-mail message. Make sure that the signature contains a powerful tagline that invites the readers to click on the link and visit your site

- Pay Per Click Search Engines. Here you can control exactly how many new visitors you want to get. There is a catch, though --- you have to pay for every click to your web site. Make a budget and stick to it an make sure to monitor your account – those clicks add up fast.

- Affiliate Marketing. An affiliate program is another way to drive traffic to your web site. Your affiliates are your commissions-only sales people who make money when they sell your products. They drive traffic to your web site in exchange for commissions on sales.

Today I have discussed eight different ways of driving traffic to your web site. Which techniques are you not using yet? Take one of the techniques and incorporate it into your marketing plan. You will get a whole new pool of web site visitors coming to your web site.

Biana Babinsky is the online business consultant, expert and author who teaches business owners how to make more money online. Learn step by step techniques to drive more traffic to your web site and make more money online in Biana’s Complete Step by Step Online Marketing Course at http://avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zcourse.