First, think about the theme of the site and write down the most popular words that come to mind। Ensure they are words that are likely to be used in finding the site's content. Remember what was mentioned previously about targeted and generalized keywords. Make a list of both types; go over the site content, read it carefully.
Using whatever web design software is necessary, bold the words found or underline them and work out the keyword density for each for the top four or five keywords। This assumes that the content has been written and SEO optimization is now required. If the content is yet to be written, just be conscious from the start of the placement of the keywords chosen.
When compiling the list of keywords, bear in mind what will be sought on search engines by the target audience। The focus of the site should revolve around the keywords, not the other way round. Knowing the target audience will enable some instant keyword choices. Try some searches on Yahoo using the keywords and also other key phrases. See what is found and make notes of the top keywords leading to similar sites.
Don't worry about absolute accuracy at this point. Reviews of some great SEO tools will follow to help the process of developing an effective SEO plan. The initial main factors to consider are:
Popular keywords related to the site theme.
Keywords should reflect the focus of the site's target audience।
Do the research first, and then move onto developing that killer SEO plan।
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Effective Keyword Choice Strategy and Useful Tools
There are several ways to describe the enigma that is keyword marketing। The use of carefully selected words to optimize a site’s content for search engines presents one explanation. Keywords will be relevant words and parts of phrases that relate to the site content. This article will give you plenty of tips for choosing those all-important keywords.
So what kinds of keywords should you use? Well, to coin a few simple examples, if you have a site that focuses on mobile phones, some keywords might be "mobile, mobile phone, phone tariffs, cellular," etc। If it is a movie information site, keywords could be "movie, movies, film, films, horror, sci-fi, action, cinema"......and so forth.
One correctly targeted keyword will produce a better overall search engine ranking than keywords just generally placed। That does mean that both targeted and general keyword types will help the site maintain a high ranking. With the mobile phone and movie site examples above, the search engines will know the site theme while "crawling" the site pages. This is where the keyword power needs to be utilized. If the user wants to find mobile phone sites that host budget phones, he or she may type the keywords mentioned above.
The presence of that keyword placed strategically across the site is a factor in determining whether or not the site is ranked high in a search on sites like Yahoo। Many users will type broader search criteria into the search engines if they are uncertain of exactly what they seek। They may be wondering what the best mobile deals are at present, but do not know which model, service provider, etc. they should favor. So the keywords above in the first paragraph would fall into this generalized category and can produce very general but also occasionally foggy results. This positioning and choice of keywords is crucial for a site towards SEO optimization.
So, what are the most useful keywords for a site?
Establish what keywords are most used in the context of the site content and theme। The SEO campaign begins at this point and does not need to be an arduous process। There is no set number of keywords that can be put forward here for driving traffic। If keyword density is to be utilized, a ball park figure can be derived by dividing the number of instances of the keyword by the total number of words in the content। Then multiply by a hundred to see the keyword density percentage। Safe figures fall between 10 - 15% and up to 25% but this is just a guideline and not a rigid rule. The point is that your keywords depend on your target audience's needs, and what keywords they will use to locate sites that will provide the information sought through a search on Yahoo or Google.
So what kinds of keywords should you use? Well, to coin a few simple examples, if you have a site that focuses on mobile phones, some keywords might be "mobile, mobile phone, phone tariffs, cellular," etc। If it is a movie information site, keywords could be "movie, movies, film, films, horror, sci-fi, action, cinema"......and so forth.
One correctly targeted keyword will produce a better overall search engine ranking than keywords just generally placed। That does mean that both targeted and general keyword types will help the site maintain a high ranking. With the mobile phone and movie site examples above, the search engines will know the site theme while "crawling" the site pages. This is where the keyword power needs to be utilized. If the user wants to find mobile phone sites that host budget phones, he or she may type the keywords mentioned above.
The presence of that keyword placed strategically across the site is a factor in determining whether or not the site is ranked high in a search on sites like Yahoo। Many users will type broader search criteria into the search engines if they are uncertain of exactly what they seek। They may be wondering what the best mobile deals are at present, but do not know which model, service provider, etc. they should favor. So the keywords above in the first paragraph would fall into this generalized category and can produce very general but also occasionally foggy results. This positioning and choice of keywords is crucial for a site towards SEO optimization.
So, what are the most useful keywords for a site?
Establish what keywords are most used in the context of the site content and theme। The SEO campaign begins at this point and does not need to be an arduous process। There is no set number of keywords that can be put forward here for driving traffic। If keyword density is to be utilized, a ball park figure can be derived by dividing the number of instances of the keyword by the total number of words in the content। Then multiply by a hundred to see the keyword density percentage। Safe figures fall between 10 - 15% and up to 25% but this is just a guideline and not a rigid rule. The point is that your keywords depend on your target audience's needs, and what keywords they will use to locate sites that will provide the information sought through a search on Yahoo or Google.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
SEO Tips to Avoid Critical Mistakes
This article outlines three tips to help the budding web site marketing guru avoid some of the horrific and damaging SEO mistakes made by so many web designers। If care is taken to develop a good SEO plan at the outset, much pain is saved later.
A bad SEO plan can result in expensive redesigning and at the worst end, scrapping the site altogether। There are great methods for optimizing web sites for search engines and there are also really bad ones.
Before delving into the subject, there is a tool called Web CEO which is a free download. It is absolutely great at helping the designer optimize any site for SEO purposes. It can be seen at http/www.webceo.com
Tip 1: Write Effective कोन्तेंत
There is nothing worse for a web site than badly written or poorly researched content. Content must be useful for the web site's target audience or they will simply go elsewhere, never to return. It must be relevant to the subject matter covered by the site. That does not mean just advertising products and services. The site should contain articles related to the site theme.
Content needs to be keyword-targeted, with keywords used by web surfers to find the information on the site using search engines. The search engine optimized content makes the difference between those who find the site and those who go elsewhere. Of course, there are other marketing methods for bringing traffic to a site, but by optimizing the keywords, targeted traffic from search engines is much more likely.
Web sites that employ well-written keyword targeted content will also be crawled effectively by the search engines। For example, a site selling mobile phones could host articles on the latest mobile technologies and brand reviews. It is no longer necessary to submit site addresses to Yahoo or Google. Given time, not too long either, the search engines will find the site quite easily by crawling using search algorithms.
Maintain the balance between graphics and content। Ensure that there is not an overload of graphical imagery splattered across the pages even if it is an artistically driven site like a gallery. The content and its ability to grab the interest of the visitor must be paramount. The quality of the content is what is required for optimized results on the web. This does not entail refusing to use graphics altogether. It simply means that a balance between content and graphics should be applied to avoid badly cluttered pages. Ensure that the images have attributes with relevant text inserted. For example, if it is a site showing pictures of computers for a vendor, the tag text could be "Brand new PCs at low prices." This in turn will further aid search engine page rankings.
A bad SEO plan can result in expensive redesigning and at the worst end, scrapping the site altogether। There are great methods for optimizing web sites for search engines and there are also really bad ones.
Before delving into the subject, there is a tool called Web CEO which is a free download. It is absolutely great at helping the designer optimize any site for SEO purposes. It can be seen at http/www.webceo.com
Tip 1: Write Effective कोन्तेंत
There is nothing worse for a web site than badly written or poorly researched content. Content must be useful for the web site's target audience or they will simply go elsewhere, never to return. It must be relevant to the subject matter covered by the site. That does not mean just advertising products and services. The site should contain articles related to the site theme.
Content needs to be keyword-targeted, with keywords used by web surfers to find the information on the site using search engines. The search engine optimized content makes the difference between those who find the site and those who go elsewhere. Of course, there are other marketing methods for bringing traffic to a site, but by optimizing the keywords, targeted traffic from search engines is much more likely.
Web sites that employ well-written keyword targeted content will also be crawled effectively by the search engines। For example, a site selling mobile phones could host articles on the latest mobile technologies and brand reviews. It is no longer necessary to submit site addresses to Yahoo or Google. Given time, not too long either, the search engines will find the site quite easily by crawling using search algorithms.
Maintain the balance between graphics and content। Ensure that there is not an overload of graphical imagery splattered across the pages even if it is an artistically driven site like a gallery. The content and its ability to grab the interest of the visitor must be paramount. The quality of the content is what is required for optimized results on the web. This does not entail refusing to use graphics altogether. It simply means that a balance between content and graphics should be applied to avoid badly cluttered pages. Ensure that the images have
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Five SEO Tips To Improve Your Search Engine
Dear David: I just created a website on baby toy safety। What should I do to make sure gazillions of people find me through the search engines?"I can't promise you gazillions, but there are a few things you should do to make it easy for search engines to find you।
I assume you have already decided to submit your site to the major search engines and directories। I assume that you will develop some sort of linking strategy (hopefully a better strategy than most websites use today)। I also assume you will have picked key search terms for all the pages on your website।Beyond that, here are my top five tips for making your website easy for those "gazillions" to find it।
- A picture might be worth a thousand words, but search engines don't read pictures। Make sure your key search terms are written out in text, not part of a graphic title you hire somebody to prepare for you। That also means you should not just show pictures of toys, but also write out the names, and possibly a keyword description with the title.
- Have several pages of articles related to your website's topic। Use a different keyword search term for each article। For instance, one article might use frequently the term "safe toys for babies", while another might use the term "baby safety".
- What's the URL of your website? Your name won't help you there। Your key search term will। In this instance, I might pick www।baby-toy-safety।com, for example (if that is one of your top keyword phrases)। Hire somebody who knows what he is doing to develop the right keyword strategy for you BEFORE you choose your domain name.
- What's the title of your page? I don't know how many times I see titles such as "Article" or "Contact us"। Don't expect the search engine robots to get all excited about that term। And don't expect anybody to search for that term, either। Much better to title your page "Free article on safe toys for babies" or "Contact the *Baby Toy Expert* today"। By the way, this is the single most important place to include your keyword
- That about that navigation menu that appears on every single page of your website? Does it say "Contact the baby toy expert?" Or "about the baby toy expert"। Or links about baby toys?" Need I say more? If your website is about life insurance, you have little hope of hitting the front pages of any search engine। "Life insurance" is such a competitive search engine marketplace. Unless, of course, people are searching for a very specific and rare niche. Even then, I suspect you will need much more than these five tips.In fact, there are dozens, if not hundreds of things you can do to win the search engine race.
These top five search engine optimization tips are a great start, whatever yourwebsite is about।
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Google Wins Trademark Dispute
American Blind and Wallpaper Factory agreed to settle its four-year-old trademark dispute with Google out of court। American Blind had filed one of the first trademark cases revolving around Google's AdWords practices concerning trademarks, but it wasn't the last, and there are more in the works. Don't expect the search engine giant to change its behavior any time soon, however.
The suit was originally filed in 2003, and would have gone to trial in November in the US District Court for Northern California। We'll get to the full details of the resolution in a moment, but first I want to cover a little "history." This will give you the background for why this kind of case matters to Google -- and why the search engine wants to keep such disputes out of court.
The suit's filing coincided with a decision by Google to change the way it ran its advertising keyword business। When the search engine first came out with its AdWords service, it avoided letting advertisers bid on trademarked names. Perhaps realizing how much money it was leaving on the table, the company finally decided to allow advertisers to bid on trademarks -- even trademarks the advertisers themselves didn't own.
When Google made this decision, Sheryl Sandberg, the search engine's vice president of global online sales and operations, said that "By letting people restrict certain words, you're not getting the results that people expect from Google।" This decision opened the door to a plethora of trademark infringement lawsuits. Google has not been too successful defending its practices in Europe; as an American company, however, it is most concerned with American court and precedent.
Here it has been more successful। For example, in a case involving Geico Insurance, the judge sided with Google, granting the search engine's motion for summary judgment. The judge stated that "as a matter of law it is not trademark infringement to use trademarks as keywords to trigger advertising," according to Michael Page, one of the lawyers who represented Google in that case. The motion was granted at the end of 2004, and many thought that Geico had an excellent case against Google.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
wordtraker
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/keyword-suggestion-tool.html
Try this url for the better keyword search.To increase traffic to your website.I daily use it.
Try this url for the better keyword search.To increase traffic to your website.I daily use it.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Why Bother with SEO
- Is this a loaded question? You bet.
It's commonly agreed that "Content" is king and "Linking" is queen in regards to what you need to do in order to get your site ranked. If that's the case why even bother to get your site properly optimized?
Here's why: - an optimized site will be easier to navigate
- proper naming structures wil make categorization of your site easier
- server configuration is important to SEO
- by appying standards to the coding of your site, they can be implemented to other sites as well
That's just a tiny sampling of the benefits of proper seo. Keep that in mind when you decide to re-design your site.
To your online success!
Why You Need Outbound Links
ust in case you've forgotten, an outbound link is a url that you have on your site that points to another website.
In today's Google PR obsessed Internet world, everyone is completely focusing on getting in bound links to your site. While you should always be on a mission to get more sites to link to yours, you must not forget their polar opposites.
Remember, by having outbound links from your site, you are in essence "voting" for the site you link to. This is part of the entire ranking algorithm process for all the search engines. The idea is, that if two sites are similar in content and design, a site with more links pointing to it would be considered more important by the search engine.
So then, why should you help out any other site? Actually, by carefully linking to other relevant sites, you are increasing the relevancy of your own site.
Pretend I have a pizza shop, and I am located in Anywhere, USA. It's a typical site that displays types of pizza, store location, hours, and coupons. I also know the power of outbound linking. For this case, I am going to link to 10 sites: Domino's, Pizza Hut, Little Ceaser’s & Papa Johns. Next, I link to 6 sites that are physically located in Anywhere, USA. (And their physical addresses are listed on their sites.)
Now, I will switch roles and view the site as a search engine spider. I navigate through the site, and determine that this site is about pizza. Then I find a resource page and discover some well-known links (Domino's, Pizza Hut, Little Ceaser’s & Papa Johns - and as the spider I know that these are major players in the realm of pizza). Next, I find 6 links to sites located in Anywhere, USA.
So, as a happy spider leaving the site, I now know that the site I just visited is about pizza (site content and links to the major players of the pizza industry), and that it is located in Anywhere, USA.
Next, I visit one of the 6 sites listed as a resource in Anywhere, USA. I find the local address, and it has the same zip code as the pizza site I was just at. Now I know how these two sites are related to each other.
Taking into account the fact that this local pizza shop has also linked to the major pizza chains, as the spider, I am lead to believe that this shop has relevancy to the zip code of Anywhere, USA.
So, as the spider returns the information to the database to be processed in the algorithm, it has pre-sorted some search results based on the links your site points to.
Another benefit of outbound linking is Geo Targeting, or Local search. There is a lot of speculation that local search is the next big trend in Search Marketing. While only time will tell, it won't hurt to have your physical address listed on your website for those who will be embracing local search.
As an experiment, I created a site with a very unique url (to avoid the possibility of people finding it by accident), and I made it only 1 page long. The only thing the page consisted of were 80+ outbound links to relevant sites in the SEO industry, tools, forums and some tutorials. When the PageRank was first updated for the site, it came out of the box with a PR of 3. It has since fallen to a PR of 2 (now that I’ve pointed a few sites to it!).
The whole point of this experiment was to see how outbound links affect your own rankings of your site. I was able to generate a PR of 2 based entirely on linking to authority sites in the SEO industry. So, take the time to link to some relevant sites, the big names (if any), and enjoy the power of the easy, outbound link.
-To your online success!
In today's Google PR obsessed Internet world, everyone is completely focusing on getting in bound links to your site. While you should always be on a mission to get more sites to link to yours, you must not forget their polar opposites.
Remember, by having outbound links from your site, you are in essence "voting" for the site you link to. This is part of the entire ranking algorithm process for all the search engines. The idea is, that if two sites are similar in content and design, a site with more links pointing to it would be considered more important by the search engine.
So then, why should you help out any other site? Actually, by carefully linking to other relevant sites, you are increasing the relevancy of your own site.
Pretend I have a pizza shop, and I am located in Anywhere, USA. It's a typical site that displays types of pizza, store location, hours, and coupons. I also know the power of outbound linking. For this case, I am going to link to 10 sites: Domino's, Pizza Hut, Little Ceaser’s & Papa Johns. Next, I link to 6 sites that are physically located in Anywhere, USA. (And their physical addresses are listed on their sites.)
Now, I will switch roles and view the site as a search engine spider. I navigate through the site, and determine that this site is about pizza. Then I find a resource page and discover some well-known links (Domino's, Pizza Hut, Little Ceaser’s & Papa Johns - and as the spider I know that these are major players in the realm of pizza). Next, I find 6 links to sites located in Anywhere, USA.
So, as a happy spider leaving the site, I now know that the site I just visited is about pizza (site content and links to the major players of the pizza industry), and that it is located in Anywhere, USA.
Next, I visit one of the 6 sites listed as a resource in Anywhere, USA. I find the local address, and it has the same zip code as the pizza site I was just at. Now I know how these two sites are related to each other.
Taking into account the fact that this local pizza shop has also linked to the major pizza chains, as the spider, I am lead to believe that this shop has relevancy to the zip code of Anywhere, USA.
So, as the spider returns the information to the database to be processed in the algorithm, it has pre-sorted some search results based on the links your site points to.
Another benefit of outbound linking is Geo Targeting, or Local search. There is a lot of speculation that local search is the next big trend in Search Marketing. While only time will tell, it won't hurt to have your physical address listed on your website for those who will be embracing local search.
As an experiment, I created a site with a very unique url (to avoid the possibility of people finding it by accident), and I made it only 1 page long. The only thing the page consisted of were 80+ outbound links to relevant sites in the SEO industry, tools, forums and some tutorials. When the PageRank was first updated for the site, it came out of the box with a PR of 3. It has since fallen to a PR of 2 (now that I’ve pointed a few sites to it!).
The whole point of this experiment was to see how outbound links affect your own rankings of your site. I was able to generate a PR of 2 based entirely on linking to authority sites in the SEO industry. So, take the time to link to some relevant sites, the big names (if any), and enjoy the power of the easy, outbound link.
-To your online success!
Google Tricks
- Enter just the word http for your search to find the top 1000 PageRanked sites.
- Enter only www in your search to see how Google ranks the top 1,000 sites
Manually type the following prefixes and note their utility:- link:url Shows other pages with links to that url.
- related:url same as "what's related" on serps.
- site:domain restricts search results to the given domain.
- allinurl: shows only pages with all terms in the url.
- inurl: like allinurl, but only for the next query word.
- allintitle: shows only results with terms in title.
- intitle: similar to allintitle, but only for the next word. "intitle:seoforgoogle google" finds only pages with seoforgoogle in the title, and google anywhere on the page.
- cache:url will show the Google version of the passed url.
- info:url will show a page containing links to related searches, backlinks, and pages containing the url. This is the same as typing the url into the search box.
- spell: will spell check your query and search for it.
- stocks: will lookup the search query in a stock index.
- filetype: will restrict searches to that filetype. "-filetype:pdf" to remove Adobe PDF files.
- daterange: is supported in Julian date format only. 2452384 is an example of a Julian date.
- maps: If you enter a street address, a link to Yahoo Maps and to MapBlast will be presented.
- phone: enter anything that looks like a phone number to have a name and address displayed. Same is true for something that looks like an address (include a name and zip code)
- site:www.somesite.net "+www.somesite.+net" - (tells you how many pages of your site are indexed by google)
- allintext: searches only within text of pages, but not in the links or page title
- allinlinks: searches only within links, not text or title
Friday, August 31, 2007
Poor Search Engine Rankings Caused by Duplicate Content Issues
Introduction:
It is a problem to have identical or near duplicate versions of a webpage available at more than one URL, on one web site or many.
This can be an unintentional issue, because of site architecture etc., or something the webmaster is well aware of, such as syndicated contend and scraped/illegally copied content from other websites.
Canonical URLs
The problem with Canonical URLs, which refers to the issue where the site URLs with and without "www." Are valid and return the same content, is not too much of an issue today, because many webmasters are aware of it.
Google even has a tool in its Webmaster Central application for webmasters to specify which version is the primary one -- the one with "www." or the one without. The webmaster does not have to make any changes to a site code for that. He should, though, because other search engines do not provide a mechanism like Google's.
The solution for this is to specify one of the two versions as the "primary one" and 301 redirect requests to the other. You can accomplish this by code within the web site application or by using special ISAPI filters, such as Helicon's "ISAPI Rewrite" on Microsoft IIS web servers or specifying URL rewrites (mod rewrite) in the ".htaccess" file on Apache web servers.
Bigger concerns are things when it comes to pages with the same content but more than one URL because of the sites architecture. There are various reasons for causing duplicate URLs for the same content. I recommend consulting with a SEO firm for an evaluation of your site, if you suspect duplicate content on your own website.
Website Scrapers and Content Theft
It also became much easier for black-hat SEO to create scraper-sites with the increased popularity of RSS, the ease of syndication and aggregation and "mash-ups". Scraper sites are sites that are thrown together as quickly and as automated as possible to either rank well directly or get users to click on contextual Ads like Google AdSense and generate revenue. The chances are high, because the Ads are the only text that often makes some sense compared to the gibberish produced by the scraper.
Another goal of a scraper site could also be to boost indirectly the ranking of a more hidden site. The scraper site simply links to that other web site from multiple pages.
Those sites are a bad experience for the user in most cases and Search Engines try the get rid of them in their index as good as they can. Because of this struggle, become legit webmasters more often a victim of the circumstances than they should what increases fear and mistrust between search engines and webmasters.
Duplicate Content Detection
There are some duplicate content detection tools for webmasters available. Not just to detect duplicates on your own site, but also stolen content from your site by scrapers and other webmasters. One popular and free web based tool is Copyscape.com.
Legal Steps against Content Theft
There is not very much you can do about scraped and stolen content from your site, but it makes sense in some of the cases to have your lawyer send a DMCA notice to the copyright infringing webmaster and also his hosting provider (if known).
You can download the details of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) at the following URL at Loc.gov: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pd
It is a problem to have identical or near duplicate versions of a webpage available at more than one URL, on one web site or many.
This can be an unintentional issue, because of site architecture etc., or something the webmaster is well aware of, such as syndicated contend and scraped/illegally copied content from other websites.
Canonical URLs
The problem with Canonical URLs, which refers to the issue where the site URLs with and without "www." Are valid and return the same content, is not too much of an issue today, because many webmasters are aware of it.
Google even has a tool in its Webmaster Central application for webmasters to specify which version is the primary one -- the one with "www." or the one without. The webmaster does not have to make any changes to a site code for that. He should, though, because other search engines do not provide a mechanism like Google's.
The solution for this is to specify one of the two versions as the "primary one" and 301 redirect requests to the other. You can accomplish this by code within the web site application or by using special ISAPI filters, such as Helicon's "ISAPI Rewrite" on Microsoft IIS web servers or specifying URL rewrites (mod rewrite) in the ".htaccess" file on Apache web servers.
Bigger concerns are things when it comes to pages with the same content but more than one URL because of the sites architecture. There are various reasons for causing duplicate URLs for the same content. I recommend consulting with a SEO firm for an evaluation of your site, if you suspect duplicate content on your own website.
Website Scrapers and Content Theft
It also became much easier for black-hat SEO to create scraper-sites with the increased popularity of RSS, the ease of syndication and aggregation and "mash-ups". Scraper sites are sites that are thrown together as quickly and as automated as possible to either rank well directly or get users to click on contextual Ads like Google AdSense and generate revenue. The chances are high, because the Ads are the only text that often makes some sense compared to the gibberish produced by the scraper.
Another goal of a scraper site could also be to boost indirectly the ranking of a more hidden site. The scraper site simply links to that other web site from multiple pages.
Those sites are a bad experience for the user in most cases and Search Engines try the get rid of them in their index as good as they can. Because of this struggle, become legit webmasters more often a victim of the circumstances than they should what increases fear and mistrust between search engines and webmasters.
Duplicate Content Detection
There are some duplicate content detection tools for webmasters available. Not just to detect duplicates on your own site, but also stolen content from your site by scrapers and other webmasters. One popular and free web based tool is Copyscape.com.
Legal Steps against Content Theft
There is not very much you can do about scraped and stolen content from your site, but it makes sense in some of the cases to have your lawyer send a DMCA notice to the copyright infringing webmaster and also his hosting provider (if known).
You can download the details of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) at the following URL at Loc.gov: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pd
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
A Brief Explanation of Linking Strategy for SEO Beginners
Every webmaster learns, sooner or later, that a good linking strategy is Essential to getting a website into a higher position in the Search Engines. In case you are new to internet marketing, this is because having links pointing to your website on other websites increases the "value" of your website in the perception of the Search Engines. There are two types of link: reciprocal links and one way links. With a reciprocal link, you have a link on your website pointing to another website and the owner of that site reciprocates by having a link pointing back to your website. The best links from the point of view of Search Engine Optimization are one way links.
Reciprocal linking was once an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work nowadays it is considered to be less important but there is still a place for reciprocal linking because reciprocal links still affect placement in the Search engines even though Google discounts them. Reciprocal linking is free and is easy to manage with the help of reciprocal linking software.
One way links are very valuable and, the higher the PR (page rank) of the site providing the link back, the more good it does your website's Search Engine importance. One way links can be obtained by paying a webmaster to place your link on his website and there are Link Directories that will include a link to your site in return for payment of a fee (normally renewable annually).
It is possible to obtain free one way links and one of the most popular and effective ways to do so, is by writing articles and submitting them to article Directories. each article carries a link back to the author's website and this strategy is viral. Good original articles will be picked up by webmasters looking for content and posted on their websites, thereby giving you a further free link to your site. Writing and submitting articles can be quite time-consuming but with the help of an article Submission Service, the time required can be greatly reduced.
Another popular way of obtaining free one way links to a website is by submitting your website link to free Link Directories. This strategy can secure you free links from websites with a Google PR as high as 9. The snag with submitting your website to Link Directories is that the process takes a great deal of time and is boring beyond belief. You have to search online for Link directories, visit the site of each one to check to see if your site is eligible for inclusion (some Directories are specialised). Then you have to fill in a submission form on each site.
There are paid services which will submit your website to Link Directories. however, these services are quite expensive and it can be tricky maintaining a record of the Link Directories where your link has been submitted. It is important to keep records as accidentally submitting to a Directory more than once will be viewed as "spamming" and can result in your website being banned from the Directory. The best Linking Services are ones that undertake to submit your website to the Directories over a long period of time and these are the most expensive services, certainly out of the reach of most new website owners. Subscribing to a service that will submit your website to hundreds of Directories at once is cheaper but is a bad idea from an SEO point of view: the Search Engines look for a gradual organic increase in links and a sudden surge of links back to your website will raise a warning flag.
By far the best way to manage submitting to Link directories is by using specialised software to do the job yourself. This way you have complete control over the rate at which the links back to your site are created. The task is much less boring because, with the aid of the software, it takes hardly any time to submit your website to a Directory and you can conveniently spread the work over an extended period.
It is impossible to imagine a way of making linking exciting or even interesting but it is an essential part of the SEO work of any webmaster. Webmasters are fortunate that software is available to remove the boredom
Reciprocal linking was once an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work nowadays it is considered to be less important but there is still a place for reciprocal linking because reciprocal links still affect placement in the Search engines even though Google discounts them. Reciprocal linking is free and is easy to manage with the help of reciprocal linking software.
One way links are very valuable and, the higher the PR (page rank) of the site providing the link back, the more good it does your website's Search Engine importance. One way links can be obtained by paying a webmaster to place your link on his website and there are Link Directories that will include a link to your site in return for payment of a fee (normally renewable annually).
It is possible to obtain free one way links and one of the most popular and effective ways to do so, is by writing articles and submitting them to article Directories. each article carries a link back to the author's website and this strategy is viral. Good original articles will be picked up by webmasters looking for content and posted on their websites, thereby giving you a further free link to your site. Writing and submitting articles can be quite time-consuming but with the help of an article Submission Service, the time required can be greatly reduced.
Another popular way of obtaining free one way links to a website is by submitting your website link to free Link Directories. This strategy can secure you free links from websites with a Google PR as high as 9. The snag with submitting your website to Link Directories is that the process takes a great deal of time and is boring beyond belief. You have to search online for Link directories, visit the site of each one to check to see if your site is eligible for inclusion (some Directories are specialised). Then you have to fill in a submission form on each site.
There are paid services which will submit your website to Link Directories. however, these services are quite expensive and it can be tricky maintaining a record of the Link Directories where your link has been submitted. It is important to keep records as accidentally submitting to a Directory more than once will be viewed as "spamming" and can result in your website being banned from the Directory. The best Linking Services are ones that undertake to submit your website to the Directories over a long period of time and these are the most expensive services, certainly out of the reach of most new website owners. Subscribing to a service that will submit your website to hundreds of Directories at once is cheaper but is a bad idea from an SEO point of view: the Search Engines look for a gradual organic increase in links and a sudden surge of links back to your website will raise a warning flag.
By far the best way to manage submitting to Link directories is by using specialised software to do the job yourself. This way you have complete control over the rate at which the links back to your site are created. The task is much less boring because, with the aid of the software, it takes hardly any time to submit your website to a Directory and you can conveniently spread the work over an extended period.
It is impossible to imagine a way of making linking exciting or even interesting but it is an essential part of the SEO work of any webmaster. Webmasters are fortunate that software is available to remove the boredom
How to Write Effective SEO Copy for Websites
All websites want to be listed at the top of the best known search engines. Website developers and business owners alike understand that an effective site involves more than simply spending time and money on a good design. The overall goal is to get visitors to the website and then make it 'sticky', using good, solid content to keep them there. In this context, design is only used as a tool to make the content visually appealing to the target audience.
Boosting a company's web presence is a crucial aspect of any good marketing campaign, and search engine optimization (SEO) is how successful websites get visitors, and keep them. Search engine optimization is the art of striking a balance between the words and phrases visitors use in search engines when looking for information, with website content that is written to appeal to site visitors.
The first step in creating effective SEO copy is to determine what keywords or terms site visitors are using to find your website and/or your competition. By using tools such as Hitwise or the less expensive alternative, WordTracker, you can find common terms and phrases your content should be built around.
The top search engines, Google and Yahoo, also have their own useful tools for determining which keywords are being searched on, and how much traffic you can expect to get for certain keywords and phrases. It's often best to be very specific when selecting your search terms too, choosing multiple word keyphrases instead of single words. For example, 'SEO copywriting' instead of just 'copywriting'.
Once your keywords and/or keyphrases have been identified, the next step is to build effective copy around those terms. Building naturally flowing content around specific terms and phrases may take some getting use to, especially if the phrases are a bit awkward. Despite these limitations, try and produce quality sentences. The general rule of thumb is to always write the content that appeals to and caters to your site visitors, even if it's not perfect for the engines.
Discovering which keywords your site visitors are looking for is the first step in writing SEO copy. Writing copy that motivates and interests your readers, while keeping focused on the purpose of the website (based on these terms) is next. Writing effective SEO copy takes time and practice, but the end result is a major boost in both your site's appeal to visitors and its overall search engine
rank.
Boosting a company's web presence is a crucial aspect of any good marketing campaign, and search engine optimization (SEO) is how successful websites get visitors, and keep them. Search engine optimization is the art of striking a balance between the words and phrases visitors use in search engines when looking for information, with website content that is written to appeal to site visitors.
The first step in creating effective SEO copy is to determine what keywords or terms site visitors are using to find your website and/or your competition. By using tools such as Hitwise or the less expensive alternative, WordTracker, you can find common terms and phrases your content should be built around.
The top search engines, Google and Yahoo, also have their own useful tools for determining which keywords are being searched on, and how much traffic you can expect to get for certain keywords and phrases. It's often best to be very specific when selecting your search terms too, choosing multiple word keyphrases instead of single words. For example, 'SEO copywriting' instead of just 'copywriting'.
Once your keywords and/or keyphrases have been identified, the next step is to build effective copy around those terms. Building naturally flowing content around specific terms and phrases may take some getting use to, especially if the phrases are a bit awkward. Despite these limitations, try and produce quality sentences. The general rule of thumb is to always write the content that appeals to and caters to your site visitors, even if it's not perfect for the engines.
Discovering which keywords your site visitors are looking for is the first step in writing SEO copy. Writing copy that motivates and interests your readers, while keeping focused on the purpose of the website (based on these terms) is next. Writing effective SEO copy takes time and practice, but the end result is a major boost in both your site's appeal to visitors and its overall search engine
rank.
Building Backlinks That The Search Engines Love
Building backlinks to your website is highly recommended in the Internet marketing community these days. This practice is especially helpful for the purpose of drawing organic (read "free") traffic to your website. And, if you don't have traffic to your site, you don't have much if earning money is your goal.
By building backlink to your website, you benefit in a number of ways. First, your placement in the search engines can improve, since the number of backlinks pointing to a website appears to have considerable impact on search engine ranking (love). Second, you may also attract traffic, as visitors on the other sites see your link and click over to see what you're offering.
The rest of this article will focus on several backlink building methods that are great for beginners and experienced marketers alike:
Social Bookmarking
There are now literally thousands of social bookmarking sites. These sites offer an opportunity to bookmark all of the websites (including yours) that you find interesting and want to keep track of. Bookmarking your site often means you're creating a backlink too.
Website Directories
These also are in great supply. These sites are storehouses for information about all sorts of websites, sorted by topic. Many allow you to submit your website for inclusion for free and create a backlink if your website is accepted.
Link Exchanges
These are also known as reciprocal links. You allow me to put my link on your website and I allow you to include your link on my site. Reciprocal links are considered more valuable if they are placed on a website whose theme is relevant to yours.
Blog Comments
Many blog owners welcome readers' comments in reaction to their posts. The reader can generally include a website link along with their comment, creating a backlink. Just watch out for blogs that include the "no follow" tag because then the backlink won't count.
Press Releases
Submitting a press release entails writing up a short news story about your website or some of its content. It's a who, what, when, where, and how of something likely to be of interest to the media. As with many of these methods, there are free and paid options. Of course you include a link to your site in your content.
Article Marketing
Some say article marketing is the best method to draw free traffic and ultimately lots of backlinks. The webmaster writes an article on a topic relevant to their site and submits it to one or more article directories with a resource box incorporating links pointing back to the website.
Link Networks
These are typically private networks of blogs or websites on which members can post content which includes a link to their website. Often the blogs that are available in these networks have a fairly high page rank, say PR5-PR7, which is an attractive feature. The value of a backlink can increase if it is placed on a webpage with a higher page
rank
Using all of these methods at the same time to create backlinks might lead to being scattered and ineffective. If you're interested in building links to your website, start with one method, complete it thoroughly and then move to
another.
Of course some of the techniques, like article marketing, are never complete. There is always room for more, so intersperse this with other link building methods. With some concerted effort you will be able to create hundreds
or thousands of backlinks to your website and really feel the search engine love.
By building backlink to your website, you benefit in a number of ways. First, your placement in the search engines can improve, since the number of backlinks pointing to a website appears to have considerable impact on search engine ranking (love). Second, you may also attract traffic, as visitors on the other sites see your link and click over to see what you're offering.
The rest of this article will focus on several backlink building methods that are great for beginners and experienced marketers alike:
Social Bookmarking
There are now literally thousands of social bookmarking sites. These sites offer an opportunity to bookmark all of the websites (including yours) that you find interesting and want to keep track of. Bookmarking your site often means you're creating a backlink too.
Website Directories
These also are in great supply. These sites are storehouses for information about all sorts of websites, sorted by topic. Many allow you to submit your website for inclusion for free and create a backlink if your website is accepted.
Link Exchanges
These are also known as reciprocal links. You allow me to put my link on your website and I allow you to include your link on my site. Reciprocal links are considered more valuable if they are placed on a website whose theme is relevant to yours.
Blog Comments
Many blog owners welcome readers' comments in reaction to their posts. The reader can generally include a website link along with their comment, creating a backlink. Just watch out for blogs that include the "no follow" tag because then the backlink won't count.
Press Releases
Submitting a press release entails writing up a short news story about your website or some of its content. It's a who, what, when, where, and how of something likely to be of interest to the media. As with many of these methods, there are free and paid options. Of course you include a link to your site in your content.
Article Marketing
Some say article marketing is the best method to draw free traffic and ultimately lots of backlinks. The webmaster writes an article on a topic relevant to their site and submits it to one or more article directories with a resource box incorporating links pointing back to the website.
Link Networks
These are typically private networks of blogs or websites on which members can post content which includes a link to their website. Often the blogs that are available in these networks have a fairly high page rank, say PR5-PR7, which is an attractive feature. The value of a backlink can increase if it is placed on a webpage with a higher page
rank
Using all of these methods at the same time to create backlinks might lead to being scattered and ineffective. If you're interested in building links to your website, start with one method, complete it thoroughly and then move to
another.
Of course some of the techniques, like article marketing, are never complete. There is always room for more, so intersperse this with other link building methods. With some concerted effort you will be able to create hundreds
or thousands of backlinks to your website and really feel the search engine love.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
How to Improve Search Engine Rankings
Search Engine Ranking: Why it Is SO IMPORTANT?
Search engine ranking refers to the placement or position of a website in search engine results. Most companies aim to fall within the first 10 of the searchengine results because typical visitor behavior indicates that most people do not go beyond the first 10 results page when searching for something. Essentially it is the first page of the search engine results that offers companies the most visibility and the most traffic potential. Therefore most companies scramble to get a ranking within the top 10 listings. It is what will differentiate between success and failure.
How to improve search engine ranking? With the immense competition and millions of websites, all wanting to get listed in the top 10 search engine results, how does one go about it?
Here in this section we provide some tips and ideas on how to improve visibility among search engines:
Position of keywords: Keywords are very essential for visitors to find what they're looking for on your website. The best place to have these keywords is the title of the article of webpage and the top of the page in the title bar.
Zero downtime: Visitors are impatient and there are loads of websites that can give them the information you're giving. Added to that if your website is going to have downtime and slow pages, it is sure to make visitors disappear. 24x7 uptime is an absolute must on your website.
Easy navigation : Nothing gives a website as much negative publicity as its navigation. If users are not able to find what they're looking for quickly, they will make an exit from your website. Website design is critical in determining search engine popularity. If users are happy with your website design, search engines will automatically favor your website.
The right keywords: : Having the right keywords can mean the difference between an "also ran" website and one that is top of the list. Using overly common keywords risks the chance of being lost in the crowd while using less popular keywords means losing traffic altogether. It is best to use strategic, powerful keywords that stand out, add value to your website and describe what your website offers in as concise a manner as possible.
Meta Tags : These are machine friendly descriptions of what your website is about. They are embedded in the backend HTML coding of a webpage and are used by robots that crawl websites to gauge the popularity of your website.
Avoid overusing graphics: Graphics cannot be read by the search engine robots and hence by overusing these graphics you miss the potential to increase the search engine ranking of your website. It is best to use HTML code as much as possible.
Regularly monitor website listing: It is important to frequently monitor the performance of your website in terms of search engine ranking. In this age of tough competition and websites scrambling to get listed on search engines, it is essential to know where you stand.
Article marketing: Article marketing represents a great way to enhance one's search engine ranking. For this it is essential to write articles on current topics of interest. Also it is essential to use the right strategic keywords for better search engine visibility. While posting articles on article directories, it is essential to post all mandatory information required by the website, as well as ensure strict adherence to website rules and regulations.
Keyword research: Keyword research plays a crucial role in ascertaining the popularity of keywords, which ones are most used by visitors etc. Most organizations spend top dollar in getting access to this information and to enhance their website popularity in search engines.
Incoming links: Incoming links refer to exchanging or purchasing links of other websites to direct traffic to your website. The more the incoming links the better the chances at enhancing search engine ranking.
Press releases: Press releases, although they sound clichéd, are a great way to boost search engine ranking. They provide the latest updates on your website, the latest news and events and other important information which could be of interest to readers. Having frequently changing press releases helps to keep the buzz alive around your website and generates curiosity for website visitors.
Search engine ranking refers to the placement or position of a website in search engine results. Most companies aim to fall within the first 10 of the searchengine results because typical visitor behavior indicates that most people do not go beyond the first 10 results page when searching for something. Essentially it is the first page of the search engine results that offers companies the most visibility and the most traffic potential. Therefore most companies scramble to get a ranking within the top 10 listings. It is what will differentiate between success and failure.
How to improve search engine ranking? With the immense competition and millions of websites, all wanting to get listed in the top 10 search engine results, how does one go about it?
Here in this section we provide some tips and ideas on how to improve visibility among search engines:
Position of keywords: Keywords are very essential for visitors to find what they're looking for on your website. The best place to have these keywords is the title of the article of webpage and the top of the page in the title bar.
Zero downtime: Visitors are impatient and there are loads of websites that can give them the information you're giving. Added to that if your website is going to have downtime and slow pages, it is sure to make visitors disappear. 24x7 uptime is an absolute must on your website.
Easy navigation : Nothing gives a website as much negative publicity as its navigation. If users are not able to find what they're looking for quickly, they will make an exit from your website. Website design is critical in determining search engine popularity. If users are happy with your website design, search engines will automatically favor your website.
The right keywords: : Having the right keywords can mean the difference between an "also ran" website and one that is top of the list. Using overly common keywords risks the chance of being lost in the crowd while using less popular keywords means losing traffic altogether. It is best to use strategic, powerful keywords that stand out, add value to your website and describe what your website offers in as concise a manner as possible.
Meta Tags : These are machine friendly descriptions of what your website is about. They are embedded in the backend HTML coding of a webpage and are used by robots that crawl websites to gauge the popularity of your website.
Avoid overusing graphics: Graphics cannot be read by the search engine robots and hence by overusing these graphics you miss the potential to increase the search engine ranking of your website. It is best to use HTML code as much as possible.
Regularly monitor website listing: It is important to frequently monitor the performance of your website in terms of search engine ranking. In this age of tough competition and websites scrambling to get listed on search engines, it is essential to know where you stand.
Article marketing: Article marketing represents a great way to enhance one's search engine ranking. For this it is essential to write articles on current topics of interest. Also it is essential to use the right strategic keywords for better search engine visibility. While posting articles on article directories, it is essential to post all mandatory information required by the website, as well as ensure strict adherence to website rules and regulations.
Keyword research: Keyword research plays a crucial role in ascertaining the popularity of keywords, which ones are most used by visitors etc. Most organizations spend top dollar in getting access to this information and to enhance their website popularity in search engines.
Incoming links: Incoming links refer to exchanging or purchasing links of other websites to direct traffic to your website. The more the incoming links the better the chances at enhancing search engine ranking.
Press releases: Press releases, although they sound clichéd, are a great way to boost search engine ranking. They provide the latest updates on your website, the latest news and events and other important information which could be of interest to readers. Having frequently changing press releases helps to keep the buzz alive around your website and generates curiosity for website visitors.
What is Search Engine Marketing? (SEM)
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Search Engine Marketing is the process of getting targeted traffic to your site by getting exposure of your site through various channels. Here are some examples of getting exposure for your site:
Search Engine Marketing is the process of getting targeted traffic to your site by getting exposure of your site through various channels. Here are some examples of getting exposure for your site:
- Press Releases
- Article Writing
- Blogs
- Engaging in a link campaign
- Directory Submission
- Purchasing Text Links
- PPC Campaigns
- Banner Advertising
- RSS/XML Feeds
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Search Engine Optimization for Google
With the recent Jagger update settling, many people find their sites no longer have the high rankings they had for so long enjoyed prior to the latest Google update.So, the sites that lost these rankings are scrambling to find some answers as to why their site dropped. While it's my business to know the intricacies of how this particular update impacted the search algorithm, there are some common ground starting points that if you apply these to all of your sites, you should be able to survive any update intact.
Be sure to follow these simple guidelines and you won't need to worry too much anytime Google has an update - your site will not be impacted by any filters that are checking for spamming, hidden text, or anything that resembles cloaking.-To your online success!
- Proper naming structure
- Name your page titles with your keywords if possible
- Always have a sitemap
- Always include a robots.txt file
- If you must use a re-direct, be sure it's server side, not with a meta refresh tag
- Don't use hidden text
- Make sure your keyword phrase is included in your H1 tags
- Don't optimize for more than 2 keywords per page
- Use text links where possible
- In any product image, be sure to use the alt tag
- Use hyphens, not underscores when you name a page file
- Make sure your site has an error handling page
- Create a Google Sitemap and submit it to them (This is in addition to a typical sitemap)
- Offload all your js and css code
- Don't forget about meta tags
Be sure to follow these simple guidelines and you won't need to worry too much anytime Google has an update - your site will not be impacted by any filters that are checking for spamming, hidden text, or anything that resembles cloaking.-To your online success!
Searh Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. 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.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Another class of techniques, known as "Black Hat" SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove their listings.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Another class of techniques, known as "Black Hat" SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove their listings.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
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