Monday, December 29, 2008

Search Engine Optimization - Advice and Tactic


Unique content is King. Search engines love new, unique and updated content. If you produce new content at a rate of just one reasonably sized page per day and tied in with the other advice throughout the site, I can almost guarantee you will get good listings.
Remember though, write for the visitors but cater for the search engines. If your field of expertise fits into a niche in the market, all the better for you but you must get unique content all you will fall behind.
Page Structure. Search engine bots can sometimes get confused with poorly coded html, javascript and other web languages. If the bot has to wait too long or cannot decipher the web language then it will just abandon your site and move on to the next, even if it manages to get through the code it usually leads to poor search engine indexing of your website.
You should also keep to widely used file extensions like .htm, .html, .php, .asp for your pages.
Loading Speed. The loading speed of your website should be kept to a minimum, if it takes long than 5 seconds on 256kb+ connections then you lose visitors - both real and search engine bots. There are a variety of reasons why pages can load slowly, it may either be your web server, poorly coded server side code like php or client side code like javascript which can slow or even stop your page from loading.
Visitor Navigation. This is more an aesthetic feature of your website focused at real visitors but you need to have some sort of standard navigation that is the same throughout your whole site. People can be put off and leave your website if they find it difficult to browse easily, search engine bots may also miss links if they can only be found deep within your site. Try to make as many internal links as possible available on each page.
Site Hierarchy. Site hierachy can be great for adding keyword density to your web site. An example of site hierachy working effectively would be this page, seo-advice.php. The full link contains SEO twice - www.seoassistance.com/seo-advice.php which is very beneficial in the way search engines determine your sites relevance to a particular subject. Use your domain, folders and file names to your advantage.
Avoid Blackhat SEO. Blackhat SEO is a vast topic that commands little respect from real webmasters as it means using underhand methods to gain search engine rankings, although the site is usually banned quickly. Blackhat SEO includes using link farms, search engine spamming, hidden or disguised text, fake meta tag data, using duplicate content and using doorway pages. I would recommend you stay away from tactics like this as you will end up losing out in the long run.
Targeted Linkswaps. Link swaps are great but you must make them work for you. It does little good for you when your going for top search engine positions when your link swaps are untargeted. You should choose some specific keywords for both the link text and the link title text then make sure before you link swap that the other webmaster adds those specific keywords with the link. by: daniel chow

Copywriting For Your SEO Way of Promoting Your Website


Search engine optimization or SEO is a broad term that has many sub categories.
There is a lot that can be done to and for a website with the help of search engine optimization.
Two aspects that are involved within search engine optimization are article promotion and SEO copywriting.
These are important to the positioning of your website within the search engine results as the search engines mainly pick up on the text that is used on your website and for more detail go to: www.search-engine-premiere.com.
the text that is used to promote your website; you need to make sure that your website is keyword rich and the best and most effective way of doing this is to use the help of SEO copywriting.
Copywriting refers to the text that actually appears on your site and article promotion refers to pieces of text that are written and distribution to article directories as a way of promoting your website. Both of these are important when it comes to the success of your website.
When you are undertaking both copywriting and article promotion you need to make sure that you keep in mind what people are likely to search for to reach your website; so if your website is based on providing an auto repair service then you have to put yourself in the position of your potential customer and think about how this customer is going to reach your website. Most people reach the website that they purchase goods or a service from via search engines so your website needs to be in the top positions of these search engines, this is because people are most likely to use a website for their needs that appears in the first three pages of search engine results. So when you are putting yourself in the position of your customer you need to start going over what you would type into a search engine if you needed an auto repair.
Car repair, auto repair shops, garages and car mechanics are just a few examples of what people may type into the search engines; to get your auto repair website to appear in these results you need to make sure that these search phrases appear within your website, which is where copywriting comes into play.
Once the copywriting duties have been performed on your website and your site is keyword rich you can then move onto the article promotion of your website. Within article promotion you look at the pages of your website and for more detail go to: www.greatseosecrets.com. you then write promotion articles based on certain pages of your website so you may write an article promoting a specific product or service that your website has to offer, whilst keeping your keywords in mind at all times.
Copywriting and article promotion are proven ways of ensuring that your website performs better within the search engine results.
If done correctly copywriting and article promotion could be the difference between your website appearing on the first page of the search engine results and the fourth page.
Some of you may be thinking now that this is all well and good but you may not have the time for copywriting and article promotion or your writing skills may not be up to scratch but don't worry there are professional companies available who are able to do this writing for you; just look around the Internet and you will find a company in minutes who can offer you all the best in copywriting and article promotion. by Bala

Search Engine Optimization-Hoaxes


Google believes in having a good time. They especially believe in having a good time on April Fools Day. How does a company who runs a search engine celebrate April Fool's Day?
They set up search engine hoaxes. April Fool's Day hoaxes are fast becoming a Google tradition.
On April 1, 2000, Google announced its brand new form of search technology, a technology they cheerfully named MentalPlex. How did MentalPlex work? Brainwaves, all the searcher had to do was think about what they wanted to search for, this eliminated the need for typing, effectively eliminating the issue of spelling errors.
In 2002, Google openly discussed the genius behind its PageRank system. The secret? Pigeons or rather PigeonRank. Google was very proud of the way they had created a more efficient and cost effective way to rank pages. They were quick to explain that no pigeons were cruelly treated.
April 2004 offered Google employees the opportunity to work at the Google Lunar/Copernicus Center...on the moon. This April Fool's Day prank made several tongue-in-cheek references to WindowXP's visual style.
They named the operating system Luna/X paying homage to Linux.
Google broke into the beverage industry in 2005 with their Google Gulp. People who drank Google Gulp would be able to get the most out of their Google search engines because they would be increasing their intelligence with every swallow. Google Gulp worked through a series of algorithms that used a real time analysis of the drinkers DNA and made precise adjustments to the brains neurotransmitters. Google Gulp came in a variety of flavors including Google Grape (glutamatic acid), Sero-Tonic Water (serotonin), Sugar-Free Radical (free radicals), and Beta Carroty (beta carotene).
2006 was a time for romance. Google created Google Romance. Google's catch phrase, which appeared on the main search page was, "Dating is a search problem. Solve it with Google Romance." Google users were invited to use Soul mate Search which would send them on a Contextual Date. Google invited people to "post multiple profiles with a bulk upload."
Google has also taken advantage of April Fool's Day to announce very real changes in the company.
The reason they make real offers to consumers on April Fool's Day is so that the consumers will think that it's a hoax, joke about it, and then be pleasantly surprised when they find out that its real. Google announced the launch of Gmail, e-mail that was free to the consumer and provided one entire gigabyte of storage (that amount of storage for free was unheard of at the time), on March 31, 2004 (most consumers found out about it on the morning of the first). Exactly one year later they announce that they were increasing the one gigabyte of storage to two gigabytes.
Google's map of the moon was added to Google maps on July 20, 2005. The map of the moon was semi-real, it did show NASA images of a very small section of the moon, but zooming in on the tiny section presented viewers with a photograph of Swiss cheese.
There was also the location of all moon landings on the map. The map was Google's way of celebrating the thirty-sixth anniversary of the first man on the moon but many consumers assumed that it was an extension on the Google Copernicus hoax. Google claims, through something called Google Moon, that in the 2069, Google Local will support all lunar businesses and addresses. by Li Ming WongTechnorati Profile

What is the Google Dance?


As with any good web developer, the ability to time the changes Google will update your website and refresh the content for better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is in your favor. Welcome to the world of “Google Dance”.
The Google Dance is simply that the predetermination of when the actual update will commence.
What really happens is Google sends out spiders to crawl the Internet, usually done to DNS (Domain Name Servers), upon spidering all of the available tables it begins to go through each individual site and updates the content on to Google.com.
Thus if you watch your rank on the Google Toolbar, you can tell when your overall page rank has changed.
Understanding SEO and what is necessary to improve your overall ranking. Webmasters have been looking for ways to increase the odds of guessing when the next spidering would commence. There are various versions and servers that go out and crawl thousands of servers at a time, it takes time to relay and decipher this information back to the web server that Google.com pulls its information from.
Some vendors have created programs that actually go out to the data centers themselves to find out approximately when the last index was kicked off. Depending on the information returned from the trace the exact time and date are pinpointed. Is there really that much of an advantage to doing it this way? It depends, if you have a vital update that you want to optimize your site, you may want to know when the last time Google visited your site for content to keep information fresh and relevant.
There are many data centers that Google uses to spider across the world. Each center has a specific region it covers and all the information is gathered in aggregate and returned back to populate Google.com. With this many data centers the chances for continuous indexing is good, but not guaranteed. by: Jakob Jelling

PDF Optimization: Death to SEO?


On April 18th 2005, Adobe announced that it was going to acquire Macromedia.
Besides delivering a critical blow to competitive balance of two highly recognized and respected companies, it has inadvertently created a new form of optimization.
That's right. PDF optimization.
The main technology that Adobe wanted from Macromedia was Flash. Now that they have it, they will be able to incorporate all the power of Flash into a PDF. With one fell swoop, they have changed the face of search engine optimization.
As a site owner, I can now potentially have my entire site reside within the content of a PDF. Sure, it was textually available before, but now I can even have compressed video, dynamically generated content and visually appealing content conveniently wrapped up into the web's only cross-compatible portable platform.
No more worries about having a Flash player installed - that will be incorporated into the PDF reading software. No more worrying about needing Quicktime and Media Player versions of video clips. They'll all be in Flash.
Not only is the PDF web friendly, but it is also PDA and Kiosk ready. Now content can be delivered anywhere to any device that can read a pdf. It can also be included on CD's, DVD's and even your cell phone.
From a user perspective, this is awesome. From a search engine perspective, it is great to push boundaries, but we may also see the end of optimizing for client sites, instead a client will pay a one-time fee to optimize a pdf.
Anyone who makes a living optimizing sites can see the potential loss of revenue as companies move forward and place their marketing efforts into promoting a pdf instead of a web site.
Why would a company not embrace this? While it's a true a site like Amazon would not be able to take full advantage of this, they could embed pdf optimization for dvd's and cd's sent to your cell phone, based on previous selections you've made.
It's a marketer's dream, and it makes a buzz agent's job even easier. Word of mouth marketing will be coupled with a portable demonstration of the product or service being sold.
While the general public may not become aware of this technology for a few years, those who reside on the cutting edge will find great ways to use this in promotion.
Now instead of just watching a movie trailer, you could also have the script, actor bios and studio contact information. Maybe even after the movie gets released, you could get your pdf updated with box office results.
The benefits of storing information in a pdf are huge. Instead of storing all of that information in a database, you have everything you need as a portable document. No worries about server stability, access to the database or even an internet connection.
By embracing this new development, it will be another service you can add to your seo repertoire and allow for your business to adapt to this emerging technology.

How important are back links?.


When setting up your website for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on Google there are several factors you need to look at in order to obtain a high rank on their search engine.
Of course your content and meta tags must be inline with positive density percentages and reciprocal links.
Google then takes your website and performs a mathematic equation and places a numeric value on your website depending on one of the most important features, reciprocal or back links.
A back link and reciprocal link are identical. They both say the same thing to the Google engine, that your site should be ranked higher in the order because other people find value in what your website has to offer, thus they provide a link to your site. In turn, you keep a closed loop by reciprocating the favor to the other website by extending the same courtesy of a back link. Thus creating a solid network connection. Google likes to see interconnectivity and will reward your website well for planning it this way.
There are drawbacks to the equation. As things change a website that you are affiliated with may drop a hyperlink or a page may get accidentally deleted. When the Google robot goes through your website and finds a dead link it notes that you aren’t keeping good care of your website and punishes your web rank by reducing its point value.
If you wish to know what your sites current point value is download The Google Toolbar and search for your website www.yourwebsitename.com in the box and perform a Google web search. Upon reading the full URL, Google will go directly to your site first thus pulling up your home page.
There on the toolbar will be a page rank for your website between 1 and 10.
1 being a less visited and noted website and 10 a site that screams traffic 24/7.
Some of the individuals you share reciprocal links with may in fact scan all their links for continuity, should they receive a bounce back for a broken link on your website you can be assured you will receive an email from them. Keeping your website in balance with other sites you share links with will keep the Google engine happy.
If you go off and add a company that is not Google friendly, meaning they have no back links you may also lose points. by: Jakob Jelling

The SEO Rip-Off


I have decide to write this article as a result of numerous emails. It seems more and more people are falling victim to bad SEO. The main complaint is that they are paying entirely too much for little or no results. Additionally, many fall prey to bad SEO practices. If you plan to hire an SEO pro in the future, I suggest you use this article as a set of guidelines.
Before going with any SEO firm or individual, do the following:
A) Find out how established and experienced an SEO firm is before you negotiate.
Do they have a sizeable client list under their belt?
Are they published?
B) Scrutinize their portfolio.
What kind of results have they achieved?
Contact a few of their clients. Were they satisfied with the work performed?
C) Consider and confirm their methods?
How will they optimize your site to reach your keywords?
Do they use organic methods? Some individuals or companies use doorway pages, hide text in the background, utilize re-directs and other blacklisted methods. Stay away from these.
D) Get a least three proposals from different SEO firms.
Look at each one carefully. Are there similarities? Proposals will help you see which companies are honest and which are trying to sell you something you don't need.
What is the cost? The cheapest isn't always the best, however, the highest price may not be attached to a comprehensive and viable course of action. Try to find find an individual or organization that will give you what you want within your SEO budget.
E) Contract, Contract, Contract.
Get everything in writing. Look over the document carefully. Be sure it covers everything you have discussed, including methods of achieving your desired results. Have the copies signed by both parties. If the job is a large one you may want to consult a lawyer.
F) Clearly state the terms of payment.
While most SEO firms will not do any work for free or agree to a results based pay scale, many competant SEO professionals will not shy away from a base plus performance incentive package. I am not a firm believer in prepaid contracts.. Most SEO professionals will abide by the 50% up front, 50% upon completion standard. Make sure all financial terms are as clearly defined in your contract as the actual scope of work. This will protect all parties involved in the event that expectations are not met.
All in all, try to do your best to educate yourself on SEO. Have a basic understanding of SEO terminology and SEO methodology. Anyone offering SEO services should not have a problem explaining how they intend to get you results. If they fail gain your confidence or raise a red flag for any reason whatsoever, keep searching. You will eventually find someone who will help you reach your goals for a fair price. Happy hunting. by: Joe Balestrino

Search engine optimization


, Drive Visitors To Your Website And Increase Your Market Share.
SEO is the key to unlocking your website's full potential. Google handles over 200 million internet search requests each day, and people who search for information clearly express what they want. Imagine capturing a relevant stream of such web traffic. It's therefore important to optimize your web pages to improve search engine rankings using the most appropriate keywords describing the content of your site.
The search engine optimization process begins before you start building your website, when you decide on the domain name to register. The process then continues on as long as your website remains online.
Please note that optimizing your web pages to get high rankings takes time. Your rankings may start out low and slowly improve. Link popularity, i.e. the quantity and quality of external links to your web pages, greatly influences your rankings, and it takes time for your website to become popular in its niche.
Every time you improve your site, you need to allow time for the full effect to show in search engine results. Don't tweak your web pages too frequently. The time and effort is better spent on adding high-quality contents to your site and building inbound links.
Search Engines have computers and programs called "Spiders" that collect information about your web pages in an attempt to "figure out" what your pages are about. These spiders gather information from your pages and use these in factoring which sites get ranked higher than others. Search Engines analyze over 100 On-Page Factors when analyzing your web pages.

The One Most Overlooked SEO Secret


Most internet business owners know the basics when it comes to getting ranked well in search engines. Put the keyword in the title. Put the keyword in your headline, the text, etc...
Some get even more "slick" and they insert the keyword many times in the text. Then others get even more technical and begin an active linking strategy.
By the way, an active linking strategy can be one of the best ways to get your search engine rankings high - but that's not what we're talking about today.
Today I want to talk about a little secret that MOST sites don't use - even some of the most active websites that PAY for their search engine optimization. The best part is that you can use this trick in just minutes - you could do it 5 minutes after reading this!
Ok, ok...here it is...
----------------------------------------------------
Insert the keyword in the text of a link
----------------------------------------------------
You want to have about 2 to 5 out-going links with the keyword in the text of the link.
Ok, it's time for example:
Let's say you're optimizing your site for the keyword "big screen tv" - besides all the other great SEO techniques - you want to have at-least 2-5 links on that page with the keyword "big screen tv" in the text of the link.
The link can be any of the following:
1. A link to another page in your own site.
2. An affiliate link to another website.
3. A link to a completely different website.
In other words, don't stress too much on what site you're linking to (obviously, you want to make sure you link to a relevant page - not something completely un-related).
Including this strategy on your website will take just minutes.
All you have to do is change the text of some of your out-going links to include your main keyword.
NOTE: This trick won't do anything for you if you aren't using the other SEO techniques along with it. BUT, if you ARE using other SEO techniques, this little trick just MAY be what you need to finally bring up your rankings!
So, hurry now and change your link's text, you better do it before your competition does!by: Anik Singal

The Ten Commandments of Search Engine Optimization


Most of the time when we pitch to a new client we are asked for SEO guarantees. “Your competition has guaranteed top results and submission to 100,000 Search Engines and Directories”. We go all out educating clients that Search Engine Optimization is all about smart work and not just adding random keywords and submitting to every directory possible. I’m writing this article to reach out to the SEO buyers and help them distinguish the crooks from the genuine SEO. I’ve compiled my Search marketing experience over the years in this article. I hope this helps you in selecting your Search Marketing initiative.
Commandment 1: There are no Rank Guarantees. (Period)
Search Engines alone control their indexing and ranking algorithm. Do not try to trick Search Engines. The only way to improve your Search Engine Ranks is by playing by the rules. And the rule is very simple: make it logical. Web content is primarily for the site visitor and not crawlers.
If your Search Engine Optimizer sold you magic “Top rank on google in 10 days flat”. Forget it. There are no short cuts. Top ranking in Search Engines Natural Results will take time. Hard work is imperative especially for the content on your website and the links to your site.
Commandment 2: Ranking is not the end, it’s the means.
Ask yourself what will Top Search Engine Ranks get you? Most businesses are interested in increasing sales on the website or in the least driving qualified traffic. Ranking for the right keywords (keywords used by your target audience) is important. There are SEOs who would try to show case results for keywords that occur only on your website. Beware such gimmicks.
Commandment 3: Know your competition.
“Rank” is relative position and more so in the Search Engine’s natural results. How well you do in the Search Engine Results is a function of how much hard work you have put over competition. Analyze competition’s keywords, links, keyword density and spread. But be sure to never copy your competition.
Commandment 4: Use Search Engine Friendly design.
A search and visitor friendly design is must for any successful website. Your website should be compelling enough for repeat visits by search engines and potential customers. Make sure you have Search Engine friendly urls and avoid those long URLs with query strings (http://mywebsite.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=5&a=z&f=g). You should also make sure that your web designer follows global coding standards like w3c (http://www.w3.org).
Commandment 5: Select Keywords that are worth.
You must research the keywords before targeting. There are tools that give you good idea of keyword’s search potential for example (http://www.wordtracker.com/, http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/, https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox ). It is important to know the number of searches for a keyword in the last month, last 6 months and last year. You should also find out the number of web pages that are targeting the keyword. It is advisable to start a campaign with keywords with moderate competition and high number of search.
Commandment 6: Write Great content.
Even if your website site is technically perfect for search engine robots, it won’t do you any good unless you also fill it with Great content. Great is contextual and has editorial value. Great content brings repeat visits and increases the chance of conversion. Great content is factual and appeals to the target audience. The web page should have desired action embedded in the content.
You must ensure that the content is fresh. Keep adding and editing the content regularly.
Commandment 7: Use good hyper linking strategy.
Hyperlinks make the content accessible and contextual. You must hyperlink in the right context within the website and to the other websites. Good links are appreciated by the Search Engines and by the visitors. No one likes to be taken to a mall selling “Macintosh” when shopping for “apples”.
Commandment 8: Write relevant and original Meta content.
Meta content is like business cards. Just as your business card tells who you are and what you do Meta content tells the Search Engines the relevance and context of a web page. Resist the temptation to include everything in the Meta content, but make it detailed. Confused? The idea is to include only what is relevant to the page in the Meta Content but include everything that is relevant.
Commandment 9: Acquire Relevant Links.
The Links you acquire are the roads to your web page for Search Engine Bots and visitors. Good links increase your webpage’s equity on the World Wide Web and bad link make a dent to the equity and credibility. Be selective in reciprocal linking. Both reciprocal and one way links work, if you are prudent in selecting the links. Submit your website to the relevant sections in relevant directories.
Commandment 10: Consult experts, if you need to.
If you have the competence there are two ways to learn. Learning from one’s own mistakes and learning form other’s experience. You could choose either. If you have the time and can wait for the online dollars do it yourself. If you want to get started now it may be useful to consult the experts. by: Bhaskar Thakur