Sunday, July 13, 2008

Site Submission To Attract Visitors to Your Website by Alan Lim

Site submission refers to the practice of notifying the search engines that you have a web site or URL that should be added to the search engine index.

Your site submission to the search engines may be one of the most important things you can do to improve your sales, especially if you have an internet business. This notification can either be done manually, or you can incorporate software or embedded coding to allow this to happen with little additional effort on your part. The notification to the search engine allows your web site to be represented and displayed to those who have completed a query form from the search engine. Because more visitors see your information and are provided a link to your web site, it stands to reason that your revenue will increase when more sales happen.

Optimizing your site for the search engines

Before attempting your site submission, every aspect of your web site should be scrutinized in order to make it work for you in the best way possible. Take advantage of keywords in your articles and links to the web site. Choose industry standard buzzwords and use them in ways that do not mislead the searcher. Use images and titles correctly and with good placement on the page for the sake of the human visitor. Make certain that you have no dead links and that your web pages are set up to easily move back and forth through the various pages.

Links and Contacts

Another preliminary task before completing your site submission is that of checking all your links. It is important that your links connect properly. If you have other links on your web site, they should work well and send visitors where they promised. Consider each link as helping to define the neighborhood where your business is. If you have slovenly neighbors, it will make your own web site look shoddy as well.

Landing Page

Once you have your web site developed and you have completed the site submission, you should pay particular attention to the landing page where visitors will first arrive from the search engine query results page. It is important that the information the visitor sees when they first arrive at your web site be representative of the subject of their query. The visitor should be able to fairly quickly find the answer to his question, the information desired, or the product they want to purchase. If they are disappointed in what they find when they land, it will lessen the chances of them coming back to your site to purchase.

Conversion

After you have finished your site submission and your web site has been indexed on all the major search engines, you still have a job to do before you can consider your web site to be a success. You must 'convert' the casual visitors into loyal and satisfied buyers. There are many ways to encourage visitors to become buyers, but these methods are more likely to be successful if the web site is well constructed and provides interesting and informative data. At each stage of the process of conversion, provide the visitor something that they want or need, even if they didn't know they needed it before.


About the Author

For the best information on the internet about your Site Submission or {a href=" http://www.goodinternetmoney.com/Articles-Submission.php" target="_self"}Website Submission to the major search engines, be sure to look at the links, tips and contacts available at http://www.goodinternetmoney.com/Directory-Submission.php .

Source:http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1007628

Is Ranking in Google Hard? by G. Marwick

Ranking in Google is not as hard as it is constantly made out to be. A lot of forums will beat on about how difficult this is and that you have to be aware of all the algorithm workings before you get to the top of Page 1 on Google.

The truth is that to rank well for a very competitive market does take longer than if you were trying to rank for a small niche market but it is not difficult.

You have to be realistic in your goals. Don't even bother trying to get to page one with "Credit Cards" or "Personal Loans". These are highly competitive keywords and it would take you a lifetime to outrank the current page 1 holders.

The basic ingredients that you need to get noticed by Google are, links to your site, on page relevancy and basic title tag keyword insertion. The last 2 ingredients are no brainers and should be followed as a matter of course. The first ingredient is the most important.

If you don't have links to your site your site is like an island with no connecting bridge. The spiders need to be able to find you from somewhere. Ranking for sites in Niche markets becomes very easy when you focus 90% of you time in building links back to your site. Now not just any links will do. The links to your site must contain the Keywords as anchor text that you wish to rank for. If you own a website on speed boats then the links to your site must have the words "Speed Boats" in the anchor text. You can and should suggest variations of your keywords to those that are linking back to you. Make sure you do not build your links too quickly as this will raise a red flag with Google. It should happen over time so that it looks organic in nature. Get links from all sorts of other websites. It's a bit of a myth that you have to get links from sites that are similar to yours.

To recap as long as you have these key steps covered you will see a huge improvement in your rankings.

1. Links. Lots of them, built slowly and from any geographic location. Anchor text to be placed in the links to your sites. Vary the keywords in your anchor text. 3 Word anchor texts work best.

2. On site relevancy. If your anchor text is "Baby Joggers" than don't write about Baby Cribs.

3. Title Tags: Make sure you have a good Title for your webpage. Make sure your keyword or variation thereof is included in the title.

If you can stick to these basic principles and you are competing in a niche market then you will be guaranteed good rankings as this is what Google is looking for.


About the Author

Grant Marwick is a freelance writer and provides all sorts of useful advice on SEO and web related marketing techniques. To find out more about Building Backlinks and Increasing Web Traffic go to trafficspiker.net

Source :http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1007812

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Off Page Optimization in SEO Services

The main aim of SEO is to get your website in the top of search engine rankings. This includes the keyword selection and optimization of those keywords related with the theme and content of the website to get higher ranking in different search engines. Ranking depend on the search engine behavior as well as the promotion techniques adopted by the website.

There are two major techniques for website promotion in SEO services. These are on page optimization and off page optimization.

Off page optimization plays a great role in attaining higher rankings in major search engines. This refers to the main factor that is linking to your website. There are large number of things to handle in off page optimization to improve search engine rankings and generate targeted traffic to your website. Thus it is a continuous process of web promotion. This generally matches with the online marketing of your website. In off page optimization you are not required to change anything in the web design or layout.

Generally off page optimization in SEO services includes the following tasks Link building is the most important part of off page optimization. This is the process of increasing back links of website by the way of reciprocal, one way and three way link building techniques.

A directory submission is the way of submitting websites in the directory so that it gets recognized by the search engines. This is a way of getting one way link as well as increasing traffic to the website.

Articles can be used to get natural rankings in search engines. Also a way of one way link as well as make your content popular in search engines and attracting more and more visitors. Articles enhance the popularity of your website as well as increase more back links.

Press release in a simple word means an introduction about the product, services and happenings of a company and stating all about the launch of a new product.

About the author
Rajeev Guglani writes articles for SEO.He has vast exposure in writing for Web Promotions.He is working for NDDW. For Website Promotion ,Internet Marketing and SEO Services India visit http://www.nddw.com/

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/Off_Page_Optimization_in_SEO_Services_a3929.html

On Page and Off Page SEO Explained

SEO is considered one of the most important parts of your website development. By employing SEO throughout your website you will assist your webpage rankings. For SEO to be successful, you need to allow it time to work and therefore it can take 2 - 3 months before you see any result with your SEO.

SEO is split into 2 parts, On Page SEO and Off Page SEO. Successful page rankings require you to work on both your On Page SEO and Off Page SEO. The full benefits of SEO can't work by concentrating on one part of SEO only. You need to do both SEO parts to get the required results. On Page SEO concerns what you see on the page and Off Page SEO concerns what you can't see.

On Page SEO follows some simple rules. Firstly, with On Page SEO you need to ensure that you have targeted keywords. Good On Page SEO requires you to use the targeted keywords in your page titles, in your meta keywords and description, in headings and in the content of your page. For good SEO content, you need to ensure that the targeted keywords used in the content have a density of between 3-5% as a minimum, that's 6 times per 200 words. Some SEO specialists say that content needs to be at least 500 words.

Off Page SEO is simple. The most common belief SEO rule is link building. Off Page SEO requires you to generate inbound links pointing to your webpage but there is a hidden SEO rule. SEO specialists recommend advise that high ranking links are better, even more so if from an authority site. Therefore, for Off Page SEO not only should you generate links but also consider where the links are coming from.

Remember, SEO doesn't happen overnight. You need to develop your SEO technique and your site and rankings will follow. By following important SEO rules you should see the difference in search engine rankings after several months. Your SEO can be made easier with good SEO Software which can be found on my website.

About the author
Chris uses SEO Software to assist with his work from home business concept promoted by The Rich Pom.

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/On_Page_and_Off_Page_SEO_Explained_a4077.html

How To Conduct On Page Search Engine Optimization

On page search engine optimization deals with making changes in the website pages, in order to make them user and search engine friendly. Most of the times, the website that the designers create have a number of loop-holes that are left unattended. These minor errors stand as a problem in the optimization of the pages in the search engines. It is here, that good on page SEO is required. There are a number of SEO companies that provide on page SEO services. But not all of them provide complete on page search optimization. Some of the features that are essentially required in on page SEO Services are as follows:

A genuine On Page Search Engine Optimization begins with the analysis of the concerned website. This is done to find out the trouble areas in the very beginning of the process, so that all of them can be handled one after another. Keyword analysis is an important part of site analysis. The website must contain a good quantity of quality keywords, which will be used to optimize the website in the search engines. It is essential that the website too contain a good number of those keywords in the content of the website so that user is able to find a connection between the two.

Optimization as the term describes itself, is an important aspect of on page search engine optimization, a lot of features are included within this umbrella head. Features like, meta tag optimization, anchor text optimization, image optimization and also checking and optimization of URLs to ensure that they contain important keywords that are required for the listing of the websites.

The next essential feature of on page search engine optimization is site navigation. Website navigation is an extremely important feature that keeps the user looped to the site. If the navigation of the site is not appealing to the user, they will not stay for long in your website and will soon exit out. In order to avoid this from happening, it is important that you check the navigation of your thoroughly.

Discussed here, are some of the on page search engine optimization services that are responsible to get a website good ranking in the search engines and also a liking by the users.

About the author
Naman Jain is an Online marketing professional, Presently working with Rupiz Media, one of the leading online marketing company offering expert UK web development services and website designing solutions over the globe.

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/How_To_Conduct_On_Page_Search_Engine_Optimization_a3989.html

20 tips for On Page Optimization: the foundation of any SEO Analysis

Actually SEO services divided into three parts. The First one is known as pre SEO suggestion. In this particular SEO industry several SEO analysts are using this part before choosing the domain name of a site. They usually put the targeted market or most targeted key phrase into the domain name.

But if the client is not influenced by this pre SEO suggestion and if they are keener to put their brand name into the domain then the remaining two parts are available for SEO analyst. The first one is on page optimization and off page optimization.

You can define the off page optimization as the entire web promotion of a site. The total SEO work done on the back end of a site is also known as off page optimization and entire SEO Work done into the front end of a site which is viewed by visitors and crawlers is known as on page optimization.

The cumulative effect of off page optimization reflects to the growth of keyword placement into the search engines through on page optimization. Thus it is know as the basement or you can say the soul of any SEO services. This part of optimization is done very carefully, smartly and should be done after a strong internet research for that site.

20 fabulous tips which to be maintained when you done any on page optimization.

1. Title tag of every page should be unique and keyword infusion into the tile tag should be done smartly.

2. Meta descriptions of all pages should be written uniquely and also a well measured knack of keyword alteration into the description should be their.

3. Try to avoid image links or flash links or Java script links for inter linking of you site.

4. Optimize the images of your site with Alt Tag because crawlers are unable to read images. Thus put some effective sentence into the Alt tag which is containing your selected key phrases as well.

5. Ensure search engine bots with adaptation notification are placed at all of the pages.

6. Do not forget to check whether any broken links exist on your site or not.

7. In case of internal linking of your website, you should use text links and try to alternate your keywords into those texts.

8. Remember you should use targeted keywords as text in case of cross linking between your own pages.

9. Do not forget to infuse your selected keywords into your web content for every page and those keywords should be relevant with the page content or topic.

10. Try to spread text links for important web pages from your main page (index page) of your website.

11. If the site is older but newly come to you then check whether their any black hat techniques are used or not, if so then remove them quickly.

12. Remember links of your all web pages should be short and easily accessible by search engine crawlers. Change unwontedly long links if exist.

13. Do not forget crawlers are unable to read image contents. So try to avoid images for placing your content and place contents within the text part of your web page.

14. Make sure that robot.txt of your site should be placed with appropriate instructions.

15. If your site has enormous pages then situate a site map at your website for visitors.

16. Canonical issue should be solved before starting off page optimization.

17. Try to place a common header and footer text within H2 tag. Here you can alternate your keywords for increasing keyword density.

18. Do not forget to situate a XML feed or a ROR sitemap at your site and the link of that feed should exist as a link at the index page of your website.

19. Ensure the important links of your website should be static. Try to avoid dynamic links for your important business pages.

20. W3C Validate is mostly required for SEO which ensures conformity of your site with all kind of browsers.

About the author
Joanna Gadel is form an Australian SEO firm named by SEO Sydney. She shares her enormous on SEO analysis with her readers that they can gather SEO facts as much as possible and put that SEO awareness into their work.

Source :http://seoarticles4u.com/20_tips_for_On_Page_Optimization_the_foundation_of_any_SEO_Analysis_a3688.html

Do-It-Yourself SEO - A Beginner's Checklist

There have always been do-it-yourselfers succeeding at web promotion and search engine optimization. In fact, many of the established businesses offering web services today came from humble beginnings, perhaps nothing more than a college student with a laptop, an internet connection, and too much free time. The Web evolves as the result of the innovation and experimentation of individuals. The sharing of knowledge. The do-it-yourself attitude.

As text link brokers and mass link networking decrease in value and use in social media increases, it becomes more important for companies to have an internal approach and awareness of search engine marketing. Don't get me wrong; outsourcing to SEO firms is still a smart option. That said, making the most out of Web 2.0 usually requires some level of cooperation between SEO firm and site owner. You don't need to be an expert to know the basics of good SEO practices, and that added knowledge will be a great advantage whether you're working along side an SEO team, or promoting your own site in your spare time.

So if you're on a "need to know" basis with SEO, the following points should illustrate what an overall plan should include:

1. Create Search Engine-Friendly Content

Unique web content is your most valuable asset, and ensuring search engines can read it is crucial. Text embedded in images or Flash cannot be read, so make sure you use important keywords, headings, and hyperlinks in plain text form. Instead of using images as navigation links, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) makes it easy to format those links to look more like 'buttons', thus creating powerful anchor text as well as making it visually appealing. Use heading tags properly and don't try to hide keywords or text by making it the same color as the page background or shrinking it so it can't be seen. Make sure the keywords you wish to rank high for are used frequently in the page copy but within reason.

Now that you've created good content, is it actually being crawled? Copy and paste a page's URL into a search engine to see if it has been indexed. If you've just created the page, it may take a few days to show up. Aside from age, many factors can lead to web pages not being indexed by search engines, such as duplicate content (ie. a printer-friendly version of a page might be indexed and the normal version not, or vice versa); links generated by JavaScript instead of HTML; poor site architecture (ie. using too many sub-directories); lengthy, dynamically generated URLs using special characters; and orphaned pages.

2. Choose Your Keywords Wisely

One of the first steps of SEO, this one needs to be done properly the first time or all your future efforts and promotion could end up being wasted. Start by writing down general terms that describe your products, services or web content. Use keyword research services to investigate word and phrase variations. Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery, and the Google AdWords suggestion tool are good starting points. The goal is to find those niche phrases that your target market uses to find sites just like yours and optimize your site for them. If the phrases do not get enough use by searchers, your profits from ranking for them will be low. At the same time, stay away from general terms that are tougher to rank for (ie. like "art", "computers", "business", etc.) as a great portion of the traffic will be irrelevant and you'll break the bank attaining such competitive phrases.

3. Get Others to Link to Your Site

In theory there are countless ways, some traditional and some quite innovative, to get other web sites to link to yours. In practice, it can be easier said than done. Google defines a link as it pertains to rankings and SEO as a "vote" from one site to another. The more quality votes your site receives, the greater chance you have of rankings well. If a well established site links to yours, that link carries more weight than one would from a mom & pop shop or less reputable page.

If your site has useful content and is doing something unique, you're already ahead of much of the competition. People need a reason to link to your site, as very few will do it out of the goodness of their heart. Trading links can work, but link exchange networks have decreased in value and won't be of much use in competitive fields. Buying links, if you haven't heard, is a big Google no-no. While entire articles could be written on this topic, here are a few popular methods of acquiring incoming links:

- issuing company press releases with a link back to your site
- submitting to reputable business directories such as Yahoo! and Business.com
- be active on related blogs by commenting and exchanging ideas
- if you have clients with web sites, ask if they would mind adding your link in a "partners" section
- participate in relevant forums and discussion boards with a link in your signature
- write and submit original articles to web publications in your field with a link in your bio
- get involved in social media and bookmarking

4. Join the Social Media Revolution

The collaboration between Internet users and the development of online communities is at an all-time high. Social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Furl, Reddit, and Technorati offer users a way to store their favorite pages and media online, and share it with others. These services also provide a way to promote your own content or create a buzz over a product or service. Creating a Myspace page or Squidoo "lens" is also a way to network and share information.

However, if your goal is to generate sales then you must offer something without the promotional hype. The reality of social media is that popularity is based almost entirely on public interest. If your information or media isn't unique or of interest to anyone, you cannot force success using social media communities.

The key to using social media and bookmarking sites to your advantage is to not be shy. Getting your entries and content to the popular pages on these sites requires some hard work. Network with other users, bookmark and share useful content, create eye-catching titles for your entries, and tell your friends and co-workers about the content you have on these sites. However, don't force your employees to vote your entries up - this is social media fraud. If you have great content and simply share it with as many people as you can, it will see success naturally.

These four points are a general guideline to follow for SEO. Search engine optimization experts and firms are a good outsourcing option in competitive markets, while the DIY attitude can yield great results for web site owners with smaller marketing budgets. If you're in the latter group, hopefully this helps get you started.

About the author
John Metzler has held executive positions in the search engine marketing industry since 2001. He is the Founder of FreshPromo, a Canadian-based search marketing firm and updates his blog regularly.

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/Do-It-Yourself_SEO_-_A_Beginners_Checklist_a4000.html

Friday, July 11, 2008

Ten Great SEO Tips

Are you afraid of competition that you see everywhere in the World Wide Web? Don't be. The following ten simple proven tips will guide you through to get ranked in search engines. You don't need to pay thousands of dollars like many companies do in order to get a high ranking. By consistently applying these simple tips you will have every advantage when it comes to Search Engine Optimization.

Become An Expert

People are looking for information. That's what they come to web sites for. If they see you as an expert on a certain subject you have a better chance of getting a high ranking in search engines. Over time you ranking will increase because people will come looking for you.

Plan Your Site Well

Don't take for granted the layout of your site. User-friendly site and the right layout of your site make it easier for search engines to crawl. Putting a site map, for example, is definitely a plus factor and the search engine will love you for it.

Do Your Research

If you don't do research to see what others are doing and check out the competition then you will be left behind. Always see to it that you know what your competition is up to so you can act on it and do something about it. Doing this will keep you in the loop and thus make you competitive.

Use Combination of Keywords

Keyword research is perhaps one of the toughest things to do and the most understood part of SEO. When researching for keywords, don't just grab the most common keywords but give attention to combinations of keywords. Think about the things you would search for about your site then come up with your own keyword combinations.

Be Search Engine Friendly

Take time to learn about the process as to what search engine like and dislike especially when it comes to use of keywords. Be search engine friendly. If you follow their rules the better off you will be.

Focus On The Topic

Search engines do not like to have more than one topic per page. So if you want to have a much higher ranking you should focus on one subject per page. The reason for this is that when you are focused on one topic you give more relevant information to your visitors. Join Directories

Do not overlook the importance of giving your site a link back. One way to do this is by joining as many directories as possible. Remember, each directory that you join gives your site another link back. And the search engines come down to links in these directories - especially the bigger ones that have great SEO power.

Keep Adding Content

Search engines love to crawl for fresh and new content. Sites that don't have fresh content on a regular basis remain stagnant and will not be crawled by search engines. Article directories are one great source for new content for your site.

Keep Promoting

If you consistently promote your site, overtime you site will get a higher ranking in the search engines. Just follow the simple tips suggested here and you will be on your way to a profitable and traffic pulling site.

Keep Learning About SEO

Again, as long as you use these tips, there's no need to be afraid of the competition. Do not allow the rankings of your competitors stop you from doing what you should be doing. It takes time to learn and really understand about SEO. Keep learning as much as you can and you will be fine.

About the author
Edwin V. Tan is an Internet Marketer, publisher and educator. For a limited time, you can claim
the "The Yellow Big Book of Turbo Marketing Secrets" e-book absolutely free at InfoTurbo.com

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/Ten_Great_SEO_Tips_a3964.html

17 Top Strategies to SEO

1. Picking strategic keywords.

2. Making sure these strategic keywords appear in the crucial locations on web pages.

3. Including lots of relevant text content in the body of the HTML page.

4. Avoiding image map links - some search engines can't follow these - use HTML hyperlinks instead.

5. Avoiding frames - some search engines can't follow framed links.

6. Avoiding dynamically generated pages - if pages are generated via CGI or database-delivery, it is expected that some of the search engines will not be able to index them. Consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly. Also, avoiding symbols in URLs, especially the symbol, as most search engines will not be able to read past these, and will not be able to index that page.

7. Using Meta Tags (including tags on images).

8. Including a reciprocal links page.

9. Including a site index / map page in plain HTML.

10. Submitting site to search engines via manual submissions and paid inclusion services, but avoiding unwittingly submitting to the same search engine database, and getting site banned from its index.

11. Remembering to submit the site to the major directories such as Yahoo and relevant minor directories.

12. Not relying on automated technology, it may get pages banned (e.g. Cloaked pages, IP redirects, meta-refresh, auto submissions etc).

13. It is not better to expect overnight success, the longer it takes time for optimization, the better the results.

14. It may seem easy to do in-house, but it will work out cheaper and much more effective using a specialist search engine marketing firm, who are constantly researching the market.

15. Use headings as h1, h2 because search engines interpret headline text as more important.

16. Bolded text is also considered more important by the search engines. Bolding the primary keyword phrase 1-3 times on the page is a good way to alert the engines to the phrases prominence and importance.

17. Image alt tags should contain a brief text description of the photo/image.

About the author
Do You Want to Learn How to Make Money Online? Wealthy Affiliate Teach You How to Start a Successful Affiliate Marketing Career! Click Here to Learn About The Wealthy Affiliate University

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/17_Top_Strategies_to_SEO_a3968.html

Top 20 Contributing Factors For Google SEO

Websites are quickly becoming one of the most popular ways of advertising. Whether it be a business, its product or service or something completely different, everyone of all ages are turning to the web as a method of getting their message out there. With the popularity of this marketing medium increasing and the number of websites always growing, it is obvious that everyone wants to appear at the top of Google's search engine rankings. Achieving such a task is never an easy feat, however with a bit of perseverance, one can definitely increase their chances of reaching that glorious first page result.

Given that there are a heap of websites out there who are on the first page, what is their secret? It is a little industry term called "SEO" and it stands for Search Engine Optimisation. SEO basically consists of the customisation of your website, its content and its internal and external links to assist in the overall indexing and ranking of your website in popular search engines. There are many contributing factors that are used in determining a website's ranking and every search engine is different. This makes trying to optimise your site for Google, Yahoo, Live and the many others quite a pain staking task.

As most of us are aware, Google is currently the most popular search engine for the majority of Internet users. As such, it is only normal that we'd want to focus our sights on achieving a higher ranking within Google first with a hope that the rest will follow. To do this, we must start a journey that could potentially take months before we start seeing any real change, however we have to start somewhere.

Our journey begins by defining some of the key contributing factors that Google uses to determine a website and webpage's ranking within its results. These factors range from keyword use to manipulating internal and external links and the list goes on. To get you started, we have listed the top twenty factors that you should focus on in order to help get your website that little bit closer to the top of the search engine results listing.

Keyword Use Factors The following components relate to the use of the user's search query terms in determining the rank of a particular page.

1. Keyword Use in Title Tag - Placing the targeted search term or phrase in the title tag of the web page's HTML header

2. Keyword Use in Body Text - Using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page

3. Relationship of Body Text Content to Keywords - Topical relevance of text on the page compared to targeted keywords

4. Keyword Use in H1 Tag - Creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term/phrase

5. Keyword Use in Domain Name & Page URL - Including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name, i.e. keyword.com plus target terms in the webpage URL, i.e. seomoz.org/keyword-phrase.

Page Attributes The following elements comprise how the Google interprets specific data about a webpage independent of keywords.

6. Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure - Refers to the number and importance of internal links pointing to the target page

7. Quality/Relevance of Links to External Sites/Pages - Do links on the page point to high quality, topically-related pages?

8. Age of Document - Older pages may be perceived as more authoritative while newer pages may be more temporally relevant

9. Amount of Indexable Text Content - Refers to the literal quantity of visible HTML text on a page

10. Quality of the Document Content (as measured algorithmically) - Assuming search engines can use text, visual or other analysis methods to determine the validity and value of content, this metric would provide some level of rating

Site/Domain Attributes The factors below contribute to Google's rankings based on the site/domain on which a page resides.

11. Global Link Popularity of Site - The overall link weight/authority as measured by links from any and all sites across the web (both link quality and quantity)

12. Age of Site - Not the date of original registration of the domain, but rather the launch of indexable content seen by the search engines (note that this can change if a domain switches ownership)

13. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site - The subject-specific relationship between the sites/pages linking to the target page and the target keyword

14. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world

15. Rate of New Inbound Links to Site - The frequency and timing of external sites linking in to the given domain

Inbound Link Attribute These pieces affect Google's weighting of links from external websites pointing to a page and ultimately will assist in the ranking of that page.

16. Anchor Text of Inbound Link

17. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site

18. Topical Relationship of Linking Page

19. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world

20. Age of Link

Negative Crawling/Ranking Attributes There are also some points we should make before you start getting your hands dirty. With any type of SEO marketing, there are some things that can actually have a negative impact on your ranking. These following components may negatively affect a spider's ability to crawl a page or its rankings at Google.

* Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots
* Content Very Similar or Duplicate of Existing Content in the Index
* External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites
* Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages
* Overuse of Targeted Keywords (Stuffing/Spamming)

It's now time to get busy! Start prioritising your tasks, modifying your content and building your internal and external links to meet some of the above guidelines. Keep in mind that improving indexing is mostly a technical task, improving ranking is mostly a business/marketing strategy, what might work now may not work in the future and finally, it takes time. Loads of time. Still, with a bit of trial and error and a good dose of persistence, you can achieve the search engine ranking you're after.

About the author
Jon is the owner of Bergan Blue, an Australian based creative design firm focused on bridging the gap between the online world of the Internet with the offline world of Marketing. Please visit http://www.berganblue.com.au/ for more information.

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/Top_20_Contributing_Factors_For_Google_SEO_a4015.html

Create A Web Site Or build A Blog?

Many small business owners are jumping on the blogging craze and after a couple of months, they come to realize that blogging is far more difficult than the time it takes to create a web site.

Should you create a web site or build a blog; that's the question.

Before you go out and build a blog, you should understand what blogging is. Blogs are very similar to web site building, except for the fact that your web site pages are more seo friendly and stay longer in the search engines.

A blog gets updated often, and you will have to keep adding content on a regular basis, to keep your blog ranking highly in the search engines.

I believe that your much better off, building web pages that are content rich, and very informative, that will keep your visitors on your site. Once, you have a steady flow of visitor, then you should add a blog to your site.

Once you create a web site, a theme based web site, will generate more traffic than a regular blog. Blogs don't attract buying visitors. Readers of blogs, just read the newest post and dissapears. Unlike web sites, your visitors spend more time on your sites, following the links you have added to your pages. Seeing that your pages are all related.

I always create a web site, just for the purpose of pre-selling and to help me with my affiliate marketing. One you learn how to build a web site for profit, you will come to realize that a blog lacks structure. The whole blogging concept is very complicated for newbies. They build a blog, and do absolutely nothing with it, and then give up.

You will understand the logical concept behind building themed sites, they target a specific topic, and your visitor will be able to follow this process much easier than a from your blog. Once you create your web site, with easy to follow links, the pattern will be easy to follow, and easy to understand. A blog should be mainly used to get visitors to your site. Once they are on your blog, lead them to your web pages. Creating web sites with that frame of mind will win in the long run.

No matter which web site builder you choose to create a web site, your chances of making money online with a web site will be much greater than any of the top blogging platforms online.

About the author
Alexander Marlin is an Expert, and he will show you how to create a web site, the easy way, without the need to learn HTML. Learn how to design your own website without HTML.

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/Create_A_Web_Site_Or_build_A_Blog_a4045.html

SEO you shouldn't be doing

SEO mistakes will affect your rankings. Many people have a website and forget about SEO. They think that search engines will magically pick up their site and be ranked well. However, this is most often not the case as you need to employ SEO to help the search engines pick up webpage. By using SEO techniques, including SEO Software, your website will rank well and by picked up and noticed by the search engines when they are returning searches.

Search engines love good SEO on pages as it makes their job a lot easier. Apart from sites not being SEO friendly, common SEO mistakes include having low keyword density, not having keywords in the page title and description, etc. However, all of your SEO has to adhere to certain search engine rules. If not, not only will your SEO work be of no use but your site will more than likely be unlisted.

Here are some bad SEO practices, often referred to as Black Hat SEO, which you must not do:

Keyword Stuffing - This happens when you put your keywords in your content too many times. The extreme is just having a page full of keywords and no content.

Hiding keywords - this is when the font colour of the texts is the same as the webpage. Invisible to the eye but visible to the search engines.

Link Farms - these are just webpages full of links and nothing else.

Too many links - sounds silly but your off page SEO such as link building should be gradual and over time. Search engines get suspicious if one day you have 1000 inbound links suddenly pointing to your page.

By ensuring that your SEO is correct and remembering not to do the above will ensure that your webpage remains listed. In addition, too many people only do SEO work on their home page. You should aim to ensure that all pages on your site are SEO friendly. Remember, SEO is not a search engine obstacle but rather the helping of the search engine to promote your website.

About the author
Chris uses SEO Software to assist with his work from home business concept promoted by The Rich Pom.

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/SEO_you_shouldnt_be_doing_a4076.html

SEO Color Scale: White, Gray, Black

Anyone who is familiar with search engine optimization has heard the terms, “white hat” and “black hat” in reference to SEO practices. Discussion abounds when we attempt to draw a line in the sand between what is considered “white hat” and what is considered “black hat.” There are those that claim that any type of website optimization is considered cheating. There are also those who are willing to do anything to get ahead, regardless of the consequences later down the line.

So when does website optimization turn from white to black? Is there a gray area, and if so, how big is it? Below I will discuss two areas of website optimization and the differences between white and black hat in both of them.

Website Content

Anyone who has spent any sort of time in website optimization knows that including keywords in your content is one of the best ways to get a ranking for that term. Including the correct amount of keywords is called optimization, adding too many keywords is called spam. Is there a magic number/percentage? Many SEO experts say, as long as your content is readable, then it isn’t spam, other experts say that a keyword density anywhere between 8-15% is optimal. This area is probably the most heavily discussed of all the optimization methods in terms of white hat and black hat. In fact, much of what is called “content enrichment” has been put under the label of “gray hat.” This involves items that are legitimate optimization techniques but are generally abused. For example, including the keyword “computer parts” in your content is essential to your site if you want to rank for that term. Due to the millions of potential competitors for that term, the word might need to appear on your page a little more than normal in order for that page to be fully optimized. This practice is abused by those who use the keyword so many times that the article ceases to become informative and becomes more of a page geared towards the select .001% of the world’s population who actually gains pleasure out of reading the same phrase over and over again.

It is no secret that the search engines love content. In their eyes, the more content, the better chance that some of it contains information that users are searching for. However, the search engines are not dumb; they know which side their bread is buttered on. If a search engine stops providing meaningful results and turns first page rankings into what boils down to a “keyword race”, the search engine loses credibility and eventually, revenue. Therefore, it is in the search engine’s best interest to keep spammed content out of the top results.

Linking

Another important aspect of website optimization is your linking campaign. A well structured linking campaign can lead to significant increases in your search engine rankings. Many webmasters see the value in linking and use devious methods of achieving them. Google has made it very clear that anyone caught paying for links will receive a penalty. So what does this mean? How can Google tell if a link has been paid for? The truth is, they probably can’t. However, if they see that it is because of massive number of links pointing to your site, a red flag immediately goes up. If they see that a decent number of links pointing to your site are from “link farms” or completely unrelated sites, you will undoubtedly be penalized. In an ideal, white hat, world, everyone would understand the value of linking and there would be almost nothing but reciprocal links, or genuine one way links. The truth is, we have all paid for a link, whether it is to a blog, or to another site. The nature of the linking business just works that way. However, if you want to avoid a Search Engine penalty, take great care to make sure that the links pointing to your site are at least somewhat related to your industry, services or products.

The difference between white and black hat when it comes to linking, might not necessarily lie in the method of procuring links, but in the number of links acquired and the relevancy of those links. As an SEO specialist, I would much rather have one link pointing to my site from a reputable, related site than 100 links to my site from questionable domains.

Now it’s Time to Choose a Side!

There is always some risk involved when optimizing a website. Methods that increase rankings today can be just as easily lost with a simple twist on the algorithm dial by any of the major search engines.

The simple truth is that sites that resort to black hat SEO tactics generally need to do so because the content on their site is not meaningful enough to achieve a first page ranking any other way. I am not here to sit on my cloud of judgment and hand down life lessons to all of you sinners out there, but take a good look at your SEO practices. I have seen SEO companies use black hat methods to help a client achieve number 1 rankings and then laugh all the way to the bank once the search engines change their algorithm and the client suddenly finds themselves out of the top 50, or even worse, banned from the search engines.

There are many Search Engine Optimization companies out there who have proven that white hat methods work. They have been able to distinguish the borders of the gray area and stay comfortably away from less than reputable methods of achieving high rankings because their client’s long term success is very important to them.

About the author
Aaron Garcia is an SEO Analyst for MorePro Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing company. He has conducted extensive research in the field of Local Search and is also heavily trained in content optimization techniques. He has spent significant time as an SEO copywriter and has written numerous optimized press releases.

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com/SEO_Color_Scale_White_Gray_Black_a4135.html

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Digging and Stumbling for Traffic

Digging and Stumbling for Traffic

Is your approach bringing, or stopping traffic?

Both StumbleUpon and Digg have the potential to be real traffic boosters for your website or blog.
They can also put an effective roadblock on your attempts to make it anywhere if you and your friends are not using them the right way.

You have to remember that these networks were not designed to drive traffic to you; they were designed with their own well being in mind.
Not yours. Users who want more than they give are not going to be very successful.

Digg and StumbleUpon both rely on people to submit and vote on content.
They have complex algorithms for calculating what stories should be promoted to popularity status and which ones shouldn’t.
The common thread for these calculations is that they attempt to stop users from manipulating the system, and they are pretty successful at it. Far too many users are trying to manipulate the system to get traffic, this will be hard to do and is the primary reason why it isn’t working. There is a much easier way to use the system that will inevitably get you traffic - and a lot of it.

What is the Right Way?

1. Participate
This is the base for all Social Networking success.
Be an active part of the network so that you add as much as you hope to receive. However, as you will see later in this post. Mindless participation doesn’t do much.

2. Think about what the network wants
The Networks both want users to submit and vote on GOOD content, they have checks and balances to make sure that the votes counted are worth something.

3. Comment
Commenting shows the system that you are giving this article more attention, which automatically will make a comment worth more than just a vote.

A Closer Look at Digg

Digg has the option to shout pages to your friends.
Since Digg wants to promote good content. Do you think they are going to give a vote where the reader isn’t looking at the article first? For Digg, the key is to either submit the vote from the page with a button on the article, or use that hyperlink before you click digg. If you vote without looking at what you are voting for; Digg will know and compensate accordingly.

When I have shouted a Digg article to friends, the total amount of traffic is directly related to how many hits I get from that shout. I’ve had articles with 30 diggs but only 4 actual hits. In other words, the people that dugg the article didn’t read it. The total amount of traffic there was about 20 hits.

Then I have had articles with about as many hits and 20 hits from the shout. Which gave me a total traffic of over a hundred. Digg’s algorithm saw that people were actually reading the article before voting and kept it higher on their pages for longer.

StumbleUpon

Stumble is different, when you thumb up an article there, the best "value" of a vote is when the user arrived at that page because of the Stumble button. Not if they vote from the article itself.

A stumble always happens from the page or article, so the problem encountered at Digg with users not actually reading the page isn’t present. What I am fairly sure about thought is that Stumble will look at how long you spend on a page before voting. A lot of testing has shown that Votes inside of a couple of seconds after arriving don’t count for much there.

Commenting for Traffic

If you really want to be an active part of the community and become a powerful voter, you have to comment. Your comments are worth a lot more than your clicks. Comments on your post will drive it up the algorithm scales much quicker than votes will. If you comment on others, they will comment on you. It’s that simple.

Choose your friends wisely

It is easy to just go ahead and slam on as many friends as possible, thinking that it will boost your power and traffic as a result. This is not necessarily true at all.

On Digg for instance. Having a lot of friends will actually make articles you submit and shout harder to get promoted to popular. There are reports that people with a lot of friends are seeing this effect clearly although it is not documented on their site. Also votes inside your network aren’t worth as much as votes that are completely unrelated to you. Having a lot of friends that aren’t’ reading and voting is actually slowing you down.

On Stumble, You are limited to 200 friends, this seems like a lot, but if those friends are added randomly without understanding what they are looking for, they might actually not be your best option.

Chances are that if your friend isn’t interested much in your topic, they are not going to vote you up when they get to your pages. If you aren’t getting thumbs up, then you are not getting the benefit of them promoting it to their networks. This will immediately show up in your numbers.

Avoid the temptation of adding anyone and everyone that you can find, add the people that show interest in your items already, if they vote on your articles, they are likely to want to read more of them in the future and do it again.

Make friends in your own topic area, they are also looking for your information and will have friends that are doing the same. This is where your traffic will come from.

Finally never underestimate the power of good content. The same old story will always be true, good content will always do better than bad.
Work on your writing and the results will show up.

Good luck, and if you liked this, I hope that you will Digg or Stumble it as well.

By: Erik Johnels

12 Ways to Monetize your Blog - The Blogpreneur 3

12 Ways to Monetize your Blog - The Blogpreneur 3

A little planning. Some basic preparation, and good old fashioned hard work can turn a blog into a money maker. How much? That is really up to you and your determination.

Some ways are easier than others; some will earn you more money than others. But in the long run, it’s all about building a solid brand and a good base of readers before you will see much return.

1. Advertising Networks
Advertising networks such as AdSense, Adready, etc. is the most common way of monetizing.
It’s Important to realize that most ad networks don’t work very well until you have search engine traffic. People who arrive from other sources don’t click as much as you’d think. However, a few cents can always be made on page impressions alone. Never a bad idea, but not the goldmine its painted out to be.

It’s easy to sign up, it’s easy to implement, and in most cases, it’s problem free. It is however not a great way to make a lot of money unless you have serious amounts of good search engine traffic.


2. Direct Selling Ads
You can sell Ad-Space to companies direct. This is not that hard to do, but it does require you to do a little more work on your own. You also need to monitor the ads, adding and removing as contracts expire. Your price and revenue will depend on both your traffic, and your negotiating skills.

3. E-Books
If you have quality material to sell, then you can write an e-book and sell it through your website. You can also upload e-books for sale to Amazon. The E-book is the most common gateway to serious diversified monetization. It is also a powerful traffic builder if used right.

4. Print Books
If you are a blogger, you might have it in your to write a full book for print.
Print on demand, Google, Amazon and other services have great ways to market print books alongside your own blog. A book has the additional benefit of being a perpetual money earner. Once it’s out there, you can reap the benefits for a very long time.

5. Merchandise
You have a blog? Maybe there is a market for some t-shirts, posters, Coffee Mugs or other ideas. Cafepress has made it very easy to make merchandize with zero cost.
You can of course do it the traditional way too. Which gives you better profit per item, but has the problem of finding a manufacturer of your products, stock and shipping.

If you are already producing something, you can of course add a web shop to the blog. But that’s really not about blogging. That’s more a traditional e-business approach.

6. Affiliate Marketing
Some businesses will make you their sales person.
Either by just advertising, or by actually doing the sales work for them and earning a commission (see point 7.) This is one of the most popular ways of monetizing, but it has also become a bit of a scourge of the blogging world. Be careful since this can damage your brand.

7. Build your own Amazon (or other) shop
Amazon allows you to advertize a specific product.
You can choose the exact ad you want to show.
This can allow you to make a product review, and advertise the sale through Amazon. Doing this tastefully can actually be a very good way to earn a living, I’ve seen some very sophisticated applications of this approach.

8. Member Services
Provide a subscription based part of the website that gives access to VIP information, services etc. If you are trying this one, make sure that the value given is worth the investment. Or you will get plenty of bad reviews written about you and your service.

9. Consulting / Coaching
If you are a specialist, or have a business where you can give advice, you can leverage that by giving either online advice or channeling customers to your real world business. This works especially well for Consultants and Personal Coaches, but designers, programmers, and other computer oriented blogs can make good money this way too.

10. Paid Posts
There are plenty of companies out there that will pay you to make a post on your blog. You’ll need some traffic and basic notoriety before this becomes an option. Be careful! You might lose credibility if you do not disclose that you are making a paid post. There are enough bloggers out there that get the same offers as you do.
Your readers will know what’s real and whats been paid for sooner or later.

11. Links
Another common offer is to get paid for links from your page. This only becomes viable once you have a decent pagerank, and since this is frowned upon by Google, you might get that pagerank taken away. Not something I’d advice on doing.

12. Sell it
Blogs are being sold all the time, once you have designed your blog and brought it up to speed, there might be a market to sell it. However, building a blog and traffic etc just to sell it rarely is a very effective way to spend your time. If you are a great blogger, that has all the tricks of Traffic building down. Then you might be the person to have this as a goal. Otherwise, time/value is just not there.

Blogging for a living is not as easy as many advertisers out there might want you to believe. But it is possible for those with drive, determination and a firm grasp on the difference between leveraging, and selling their brand name down the tube.

Good Luck!

By Erik Johnels