A Reflection of God's Beauty

In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away.

Only The Sky Is Our Limit

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.

The 3rd Rock From The Sun Is My Home

Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be.

Welcome To 'Horne Isle'

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's learning to dance in the rain.

What Lies Beneath The Surface?

Remember the past, plan for the future, but live for today, because yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

$10 Million Dollar Online Business... [How To COPY It]

If you haven't heard about this already, you REALLY need to check it out for the following 7 reasons...

1. Among inner-circles, this is known as the best kept secret in internet marketing. (I agree)

2. It has been running for nearly 2 years, over 5000 people have been *in the know* and almost 100% of the time, they are all AMAZED.

3. It turns our that parts of this were directly responsible for the success of three of the top performing affiliates in the Clickbank network.

4. This stuff has made these guys millions. In fact, these resources are exactly what they use to maintain and expand their $10 million dollar business.

5. It is one of the most incredible deals ever... something that most people would charge up to $1000/month for.

6. Once in, everything discovered is shared with this privileged group... (which could and should include YOU).

7. No matter what type of online business you have, I believe that this could SERIOUSLY affect how successful you are over the coming weeks, months... even years.

You need to watch the video which explains everything VERY carefully in order to make the correct decision here:


Exclusive Video Reveals The Exact Strategies Used To Build And Maintain A $10 Million Dollar Online Business!

















Monday, July 18, 2011

Search Engine Optimization-Budgeting


For arguments sake let's say that you own a successful bed and breakfast in the middle of Idaho. Currently you rely mainly on word of mouth and repeat customers. You can't help wandering if creating a website won't help attract more attention to your little business.



A quick internet search has you rethinking your plans. There are a lot of bed and breakfast's with web pages. You can't help but wonder what you could possibly do to get your webpage noticed.



The key to a successful webpage is search engine optimization.



Search engine optimization is the art and science of making your website attractive to the internets search engines. The more attractive your website is the search engines the higher they will rank your little bed and breakfast. The higher your website ranks the more people, hopefully, will check your website out.



The first step towards a successful website is getting it submitted to a search engine. Search engine submission is the act of getting your website listed with the search engines. Search engine submission can also be referred to as search engine registration.



One of the first things you want to consider is how much you are willing to spend to submit your website to a search engine. It is possible to have your site listed for free; paying for the service will generate more traffic to your website. The cost of submitting your website to Yahoo's search engine is about three hundred dollars a year. The three hundred dollars pays for Yahoo's human compiled directory. The humans help influence web crawlers to your website. If you can't afford the three hundred dollars for the human compiled directory try to list your website and see if any of the search engine crawlers locate it. You can go back in a few months time and pay for a human compiled search engine later.



There businesses that, for a fee, can help you design a website that will attract web crawlers to your website. Many of these businesses charge different prices for different search engine optimization packages. Types of search engine optimization services some of these companies offer include naming convention, keyword density/syntax, blog implementation, vertical affiliates, and third-party posting. When looking for a business or search engine consultant looks for reciprocal links, keyword strategies, knowledge of HTML, language skills, knowledge of search engine optimization boosters, submission strategies, and submission tracking,



If you decide to use a search engine optimization company take your time and shop around. Ask questions. Avoid any companies that guarantee instant success, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Try to find a search engine optimization company that will work to build the targeted content of your website. Look for a company that offers interactive features that create documents that will lead web crawlers to your website.



When it comes to the cost of search engine submission and search engine optimization spending less simply means it might take a little longer to realize your goals. The more you are able to spend the faster your website will gain attention.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Search Engine Optimization Simplified


Chances are good that at some point in your life you ran a search on an online search engine and instead of one hit you received pages and pages of possible hits. Have you ever wondered if the order the websites appear on search was just a random grouping or if they had been placed in a specific order that just appeared disorderly to you? The answer is that there is a very elaborate system used to determine where a website appears during an internet search. The process is something called search engine optimization.



Search engine optimization is the science and art of making web pages attractive to search engines.



Next time you run an internet search look at the bottom of the page. Chances are good that there will be a list of page numbers (normally written in blue) for you to click if you can't find exactly what you are looking for on the first page. If you actually look farther then the second page you will part of a minority. Studies and research have shown that the average internet user does not look farther then the second page of potential hits. As you can imagine it's very important to websites to be listed on the first two pages.



Webmasters use a variety of techniques to improve their search engine ranking.



The first thing most webmasters (or website designers) do is check their meta tags. Meta tags are special HTML tags that provide information about a web page. Search engines can easily read Meta tags but they are written with special type of text that is invisible to internet users. Search engines rely on meta tags to accurately index the web sites. Although meta tags are a critical step in search engine optimization they alone are not enough to have a web site receive top ranking.



Search engines rely on a little device called a web crawler to locate and then catalog websites. Web crawlers are computer programs that browse the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. Web crawlers are also sometimes called automatic indexers, web spiders, bots, web robots, and/or worms. Web crawlers locate and go to a website and "crawl" all over it, reading the algorithms and storing the data. Once they have collected all the information from the website they bring it back to the search engine where it is indexed. In addition to collecting information about a web site some search engines use web crawlers to harvest e-mail addresses and for maintenance tasks. Each search engine has their own individual web crawlers and each search engine has variations on how they gather information.



Most webmasters feel that proper use and placement of keywords helps catch the attention of web crawlers and improve their websites ranking. Most webmaster like to design their websites for ultimate search engine optimization immediately but there aren't any rules that say you can't go back to your website at any time and make improvements that will make it more attractive to search engines.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

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.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Search Engine Optimization and the Knight


On October 15, 1881 a baby by the name of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (Plum to his friends) was born. In 1996, one hundred and fifteen years later, a brand new internet search engine would be named in honor of him, sort of.



P.G. Wodehouse was an extremely popular English writer who had a flair for comedy. Magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and The Strand serialized his novels while he spent time in Hollywood working as a screenwriter. P.G. Wodehouse had an incredibly prolific flair for writing. His writing career officially started in 1902 and ended in 1975. During that time he wrote ninety-six books, several collections of short stories, screenplays, and one musical.



When he was ninety-three years old, P.G. Wodehouse was made a Knight of the British Empire. Two of Mr. Wodehouse's most famous characters(or perhaps infamous, depending on your point of view), are the bumbling Bertie Wooster and his long suffering valet, Jeeves.



P.G. Wodehouse will always be remembered for his comedic approach to writing.



In 1996, when Garret Gruener and David Warthen needed a name for the internet search engine they created they choose the name of Wodehouse's fictional valet. The website was called Ask Jeeves. Jeeves remained the search engines mascot until the company retired him on February 27, 2006 a decision they announced on September 23, 2005. Jeeves retirement prompted the internet search engine to create a page titled "Where's Jeeves", that listed a variety of creative activities, including growing grapes and space exploration, the valet planned to do during his retirement. With Jeeves retired the search engine simply became Ask.com. During his reign at Ask Jeeves, the valet was always impeccably dressed in a beautifully tailored black suit, shiny shoes, and red tie. Although his posture changed almost yearly on the company logo he always had the same amicable smile.



When it was first created the idea behind Ask.com (back then it was still Ask Jeeves) questions would be posed in regular language and answers would be hunted down and provided. The creators of Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) hoped that internet users would be drawn to the intuitive, user friendly style.



The growing popularity of keyword search engines like Yahoo! and Google prompted the powers-that-be at Ask Jeeves to overhaul their search engine to include keyword searches in addition to answering questions. Because Ask.com was not as quick to index new websites as some of its competitors its was not bogged down with computer generated linkspam., when users were unable to find usable web pages on the three most popular internet search engines, they turned to Ask.com who still had viable pages readily available.



Today, Ask.com uses the ExpertRank algorithm to provide its users with search results. Ask.com uses link popularity and subject-specific popularity to help determine rankings.



Ask.com has sold technology has been sold to additional corporations including Toshiba and Dell. A variety of web destinations, including country specific, sites such as; Germany, Italy, Excite, Japan, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, IWon.com, Bloglines, and Ask For Kids are owned by Ask.com.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Search Engine Optimization-Web Crawlers


The terms web crawler, automatic indexers, bots, worms, web spiders, and web robots are programs or automated scripts with browse the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. The term web crawler is the most commonly used term.



Web crawlers are a tool used for search engine optimization.



Search engines use web crawlers to provide up to date data and information. Web crawlers provide the requested information by creating copies of web pages that the search engine later processes. Once the information has been processed the search engines indexes the pages and are able to quickly download the pages during a search. The process of web crawling is a key factor in search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is the art and science of making web pages attractive to search engines. Computer people call the process of using a web crawler to rank a website spidering.



Some search engines use web crawlers for maintenance tasks. Web crawlers can also be used for harvesting e-mail addresses. The internet is a gaping ocean of information. In 2000, Lawrence and Giles manufactured a study that indicated the internet search engines have only indexed approximately sixteen percent of the Web. Web crawlers are designed to only download a tiny amount of the available pages. A miniscule sample of what the internet has to offer.



Search engines use web crawlers because they can fetch and sort data faster than a human could ever hope to. In an effort to maximize the download speed while decreasing the amount of times a webpage is repeated search engines use parallel web crawlers. Parallel web crawlers require a policy for reassigning new URLs. There are two ways to assign URLs. A dynamic assignment is what happens when a web crawler assigns a new URL dynamically. If there is a fixed rule stated from the beginning of the crawl that defines how to assign new URLs to the crawls it is called static assignment.



In order to operate at peak efficiency web crawlers have to have a highly optimized architecture.



URL nominalization is the process of modifying and standardizing a URL in a consistent manner. URL nomalization is sometimes called URL canonicalzation. Web crawlers usually use URL nomilization to avoid multiple crawling of a source.



In an attempt to attract the attention of web crawlers, and subsequently highly ranked, webmasters are constantly redesigning their websites. Many webmasters rely on key word searches. Web crawlers look for the location of keywords, the amount of keywords, and links.



If you are in the process of creating a website try to avoid frames. Some search engines have web crawlers that can not follow frames. Another thing some search engine are unable to read are pages via CGI or database -delivery, if possible try creating static pages and save the database for updates. Symbols in the URL can also confuse web crawlers. You can have the best website in the world and if a web crawler can't read it probably won't get the recognition and ranking it deserves.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Search Engine Marketing-How it Differs from Search Engine Optimization


Search engine marketing is a set of marketing methods used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages. Types of search engine marketing include; search engine optimization, pay per click, paid inclusion, and social media optimization. Search engine marketing differs from search engine optimization which is the art and science of making web pages attractive to internet search engines.



Non-profit organizations, universities, political parties, and the government can all benefit from search engine marketing. Businesses that sell products and/or services online can use search engine marketing to help improve their sales figures.



Some of the goals of search engine marketing are to develop a brand, generate media coverage, and enhancing a reputation, and to drive business to a physical location.



If you do not feel confident enough to try your own search engine marketing there are several companies that will be able to help you out for a price. If you decide to go with a search engine marketing company take your time and shop around, find a company that really suits your own businesses search engine marketing needs.



Stay away from companies that promise top rankings. Most companies that promise tope ranking are more interested in your money then they are in keeping your business. Quite often this type of company will charge you top doller, spend a few days making sure your website has a few basic requirements and that is the last you hear from them. This type of search engine marketing company is not really interested in repeat customers.



Tread carefully around companies that promise first page rankings on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. Make sure these companies are talking about sponsored listings and not just natural listings. Companies that are only after natural listings traditionally charge a large monthly fee, using a small portion of the money on sponsored listings, and pocketing the remainder.



The false promise most commonly used by shady search engine marketing companies is the money back guarantee. Generally if you read the contract very carefully you will lean that these companies have a very strange idea of major search engine. Companies that have a money back guarantee typically don't deal with the search engine movers and shakers like Google and Yahoo, instead they use small obscure search engines that are hardly ever used.



The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) was created in 2003 to offer the public educational resources about search engine marketing and to also promote search engine marketing. Currently SEMPO represents over 500 global search engine marketing companies. Sempo is happy to offer their resources to the public for free. SEMPO has offers search engine marketing training courses for any and all interested parties who would like to expand their knowledge of search engine marketing. SEMPO's objectives are to teach search engine marketing strategies, techniques, and successful practices, to increase the availability and quality f its professionals, and to offer training courses that will help to establish a benchmark for search engine marketing. The cost of a SEMPO training course can range anywhere from five hundred dollars for a fundamentals of search marketing class, to over two thousand dollars for an advanced search advertising course.

Friday, July 8, 2011

What to Look for in a SEO Company?


The search engine has laid down its rights to be depicted as one of the basics of the Internet. It has consolidated its power in terms of aiding surfers do their Internet-related activities. It has been found out that 9/10 Internet users utilize search engines to be able to look for the information that they need.



The search engine optimization has become a full-time sunshine industry. Many companies have been established to do search engine optimization-related jobs. There is a great demand for these kinds of services because search engine optimization has a long learning curve and will take much time from people who would want to do this themselves.



As we all know, there are a lot of hoaxes and scams out there in the Internet. It seems that as the Internet grows more and more complex, so do the scammers. In hiring the services of a SEO company, there are many factors that one should consider, given the fact that this endeavor will cost money and can make or break the website.



This article tries to give tips on how to choose a SEO company to hire. Here are some of them:



1) Assess the service of the SEO company



As with any other company-seeking endeavors, service is always the key dimension that one should look at. There are many ways of pre-assessing the service of a SEO company towards it customers. One can try to inquire by placing a call or by sending an email to the company. Depending on the courtesy and time of response of the company, one can initially assess its service.



2) Search engine optimization takes time



In hiring the services of a SEO company, one should always take into mind that search engine optimization takes time. If a company promises to deliver unreasonably fast results, they are probably making a fool out of you. Search engine optimization requires research and research requires time.



The normal SEO process takes around a month or so. No effective SEO efforts can be done in a week or two.



3) No guarantee



There are many factors to consider when optimizing search engine hits. Search engines use different algorithms and their spiders can vary. A SEO company which promises to make a website number 1 in search engine listing may be pulling the legs of its customers. A legitimate SEO company will be straight-forward and honest and will tell its clients that no single company can give a guarantee to the top spots in search engines. Remember that search engine optimization is not a comprehensive and exact science. It is more or a trial and error game than hard science.



4) Reports



A good SEO company will be able to tell its clients details regarding the standing of their websites. They will be able to track the developments of their clients’ websites in terms of their keywords, links and more importantly, their rankings in the major search engines.



5) Testimonials



A testimonial is the most powerful tool in proving a company’s worth. A satisfied customer is always a good indication of the effectiveness of a company’s operations and will always be the most credible piece of information about its integrity. If one can, he should find people who have garnered benefits from hiring a SEO company or at least try to validate the testimonials which are claimed by the SEO companies that he is choosing from.



6) Price



The price of the services of an SEO company should never be the main factor to consider when hiring it. Yes, it is important to consider the costs but one should look into the whole picture. A higher price will not necessarily mean that the company is better than the cheaper ones. One should also avoid companies which offer unreasonably low prices. Again, search engine optimization is no joke and one should expect to spend to be able to get results.



7) Other commitments



Make sure that the SEO company is primarily involved in search engine optimization and does not treat it as a sideline. SEO takes effort and dedication. A paying customer deserves to get results and his demands should not be put on the side lines.



One should be careful in hiring a SEO company because he will be spending much important money for its services. Also, if one hires an inefficient SEO company, he will be losing time and a lot of opportunities. Take in mind the basic tips above about selecting a SEO company and choose the best one which suits your needs.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Why is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Important?


The Internet has provided ways to revolutionize how we live our daily lives. It has crawled into the different dimensions of human lives- business, communication, information dissemination, personal relationships. People have made a paradigm shift towards using the Internet to aid them in their daily activities.



With this context in mind, many people are continuously struggling to get noticed in the world of the Internet. Websites are growing like mushrooms everywhere, every time. How can one’s website get past the millions of other websites and eventually be noticed by its target audience?



Search engine optimization aims to achieve the goal of getting more visitors to a website by helping it get higher rankings in the search engines. This simply means that search engine optimization’s goal is to make a website appear on the first pages, if not the first page of a search done through the search engine.



There are two ways to be able to get noticed by search engines. One is through pay-per-click-advertisements. A good example of a pay-per-click system that is employed by search engines is the Google Adwords system. It has created a hype and has given Google around 5 billion dollars in terms of revenue per year. Webmasters can place their bids to be shown when a keyword is searched by a surfer. The highest bidders will get their sites to appear first when the search is being done.



The second way of getting high rankings from search engines is through organic searches. Search engines evaluate websites by using what they call “spiders.” These programs scan the websites and collects information about them. They then collate the information and pass it on to the search engine. This area is primarily the main arena of search engine optimization. It utilizes a set of methods to be able to get search engines to list the website on high ranks.



Traffic



The main purpose of search engine optimization is to increase the traffic generated by a website. Websites are built to be seen by Internet surfers and search engines can help it achieve this goal.



The power of the search engine should not be underestimated. It is one of the building blocks of the foundation of the Internet. A survey showed that 90% of all Internet users employ search engines to aid them in their Internet-related activities. Google, the dominant player in the search engine industry, generates 70% of all search-related Internet activity.



People and Search Engines are alike



Search engines behave like people. They like websites which contain substantive information about a certain topic. The best sites usually appear first in search engines because people like them as well as the search engines.



Search engine optimization does not only generate traffic, it helps maintain the traffic. The behavior of the search engine is indicative to the behavior of the people who visit the website. Search engine optimization leads to the optimization of a webpage or a website. It will lead to a website which is more organized and a website which contains substantive information.



Target Audience



The use of the search engine to be able to target one’s target audience is one of the most effective Internet marketing strategies. It is not like other on-line marketing techniques (such as email marketing) which can lead to a lot of leakages in terms of targeting the right audience.



Search engines segment the market and connect the right people together. People search for topics which they are interested in and this is the main strength of search engines in connecting markets together.



Cost Effectiveness



One can do search engine optimization under the assumption that he knows what he is doing. Search engine optimization is a full-time job and has a very long learning curve. This is why most people would resort to out-sourcing the job to experts who are good at what they do. One should be cautious, however, in hiring a search engine optimization company or consultant. Factors such as pricing and service should carefully be assessed before signing a deal. If done properly, search engine optimization is a very cost effective way of getting more people to know about one’s products or to know about a certain issue or event that a website is disseminating.



SEO is very important for websites since it determines the position of the website in comparison with its competitors. It does not only generate traffic from the targeted audience but is also a cost-effective way of optimizing the website.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Search Engine Optimization: Art and Science


One of the basic components of the Internet is the search engine. A search engine, as its name implies, helps people look for pertinent websites and web pages which contain information based on the keywords that the surfers have encoded. A survey revealed that around 90% of Internet users utilize search engines in doing their Internet-related activities.



Websites are developed for the main reason of being viewed. They are portals which provide information that are intended to reach their target audience. This is the main context which explains the importance of search engines.



Being listed in search engines is one thing and being listed on the top lists of the search engines is another thing. When someone searches for a certain keyword through the search engine, the most popular websites appear first and are usually the most visited websites. There are factors that search engines consider when they rank websites according to keywords. This is the main task of search engine optimization (SEO).



SEO?



Search engine optimization consists of methods which aim at improving a website’s ranking in search engines’ listings. SEO has become one of the sunshine industries that are related to the Internet. There are multiple ways on how to do search engine optimization and many companies have dealt into this business.



How do Search Engines Operate?



To be able to appreciate the beauty of the art and science of search engine optimization, one must be able to understand how search engines work. One may not be able to fully grasp the nitty-gritty details of search engine optimization operations, but he can appreciate it to a level that he realizes the importance that it plays in effectively marketing his website.



Search engines rank websites in different ways. A website can primarily be listed by a search engine as a sponsored link or a pay-per-click advertisement or as a result of organic search.



With the continuous development of search engines, many search engines have introduced paid advertising. Website owners can actually bid to be displayed on top of the website listings of search engines. The most popular example of this system is the Google Adwords system, which is displayed at the right-hand side corner of the browser when one uses the Google search engine.



A website can also be listed through organic search. Search engines use “spiders” and “robots” to be able to assess the contents of a website and they then relay the information to the main search engine system so that when a surfer searches for a certain topic, the websites which are organized to contain that topic appear first. Search engine optimization is aimed primarily to be able to do certain things to a website so as to achieve optimal organization to reflect a certain keyword or topic.



History of SEO



Search engine optimization can be traced back to the mid-1900s. During those times, the search engines initiated the cataloging of the contents of the Internet. Webmasters needed to submit their websites to different search engines to be able to get the attention of the engines’ spiders. The spiders collected, collated and reported the information to the search engines. The engines would then arrange the websites according to topic and displayed the websites when the keyword or topic is searched by surfers.



Meta tags were used by webmasters to be recognized by the search engines. Then, abuse of meta tags became rampant, causing websites to dominate searches that are irrelevant to them. Search engines began to fight back by using more complex algorithms which took into consideration other factors such as the text that is contained within the tile, the domain name, the file names, the keyword density, the keyword proximity, and other such factors.



Today



Today, the newly developed websites don’t need to submit to the search engines to be noticed. Spiders today are capable of tracking down websites even through links that are in the website. The use of a site map or hypertext links can help the spiders to navigate the site.



The industry of search engine optimization is a booming one. As the Internet takes people’s lives into more advanced stages, it has become more and more important terms of information dissemination, business development and communications. Having one’s website noticed by search engines is a good way to start the whole Internet journey.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Spamming is Not a Good SEO Technique


Perhaps very few things can illustrate competition as vividly as the Web. After all, how can one website compete with thousands of other websites just like it?



If the attention span of an average Internet user is as expansive as a search engine’s listing, then there’s nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, though, that is not the case. Very likely, a person conducting a search on the Internet will probably just browse through the top 3 to 5 SERPs (search engine results pages) and stop there. Website that get buried in the 10th page and onwards will probably not get too much attention if certain measures are not undertaken.



Those measures are what are called search engine optimization (SEO). Experts in this field perform certain procedures which may be seen a “website boot camp” to get your website into fighting form that will compete in the top rankings of a search engine.



However, as it is with almost everything else, some shortcuts exist that are able to “cheat” search engines into placing a particular website at a high ranking, despite the fact that it offers no real information. These sets of shortcuts are called “spamming”.



SEO spam (or spamdexing) is a set of techniques that manipulate a website for the purpose of creating an unrealistic boost in its rankings on SERPs. Here are just some examples of some SEO spam:



1. Cloaking

When a website presents a set of information to a search engine different from a set the user is seeing, then cloaking has been done. What usually happens is that the web page’s code is relevant to the user’s search keywords, but when the user visits that particular web page, he user sees a document that has little or nothing to do with his search.



2. Artificially networked sites

There is really nothing wrong with creating links between one site to another so long as the links are relevant and serve to connect useful information.



However, spammers who perform this technique set up several web sites and link them together even the sites contain no real and useful information. The purpose for doing so is simply to create the illusion of a highly referenced site because of its density of links. If this is the case, then it can be considered spamming.



3. Blog and Forum Spam

Online blogs and fora are a great source of information since it these formats are built to be updated within short intervals. This, in itself, what makes it a good reference for information, which is why search engines like to visit these sites and rank it well for the quality of information it holds.



However, spammers have taken advantage of this by flooding blogs and fora with irrelevant links to the websites they want to generate artificial ranking for. Not only are they cheating the search engine company by misleading a user to irrelevant information, they also interrupt the bloggers and the forum participants, which is downright rude.



4. Hidden text.

Similar to cloaking, hidden texts are meant to make search engines think that a page is about one thing, while it is actually about another. But it fools the search engine this way: the text that the search engine is able to reads is camouflaged by making the text font color the same as the background. What happens is that the user is unable to read what the search engine saw, and therefore may be looking at a document that is not related to the user’s search.



Other techniques are to create small, imperceptible links that a user can accidentally click on, thus generating more hits for a website even if the user had no intentions of visiting that site at all.



By this time, you probably already know why spamming is done. It is a shortcut used by some unscrupulous website owners to make their website rank high on SERPs. Folks who pose as SEO experts use these spamming techniques to get money for doing little to no work.



Now that you know who they are, and how they do it, here’s why you should have nothing to do with spamming and the people who condone them.



The whole point of the Internet was to create a wealth of information that everyone can access and add to. The whole idea was to be able to create a place where information can be created and shared with others so that it can foster understanding despite physical borders.



Other results of this information have led to the development e-commerce and online businesses, which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. It still contributes to a community of information and sharing.



However, spamming is fundamentally profiting at someone else’s expense. A spammer profits by using other people to make his website rank higher than others without taking the necessary time and effort to make his website useful and relevant as what others have done.



It speaks poorly of website owners who see nothing but their own bottom lines in using the Internet. It is basically exploiting the trust and the willingness to share, which made the Internet such a promising venue for everyone.



Finally, it demeans honest SEO experts who take the time and effort to produce quality website and make it a point to follow the rules. Search engine marketing is helping to level the playing field so it can allow businesses of any to advertise right along side each other. And that is a commendable thing, which everyone should gladly support.



Search engines, on their part, are developing smarter technologies to detect spamming techniques in order to give users the best list of information from the Internet. Eventually, the spam methods mentioned above may be eliminated. But it is very likely other more sophisticated ones will come up. On your part, you can report spammers to these search engines when you encounter them. The more people like you who do this, the easier it will be to apprehend these cheaters and make it more difficult for spammers to do their thing.

Monday, July 4, 2011

SEO Tips for Blogs


Originally conceived to be something like an online journal for individuals has become yet another tool businesses can use to market themselves online. Web logs or blogs are now being used not just for the sheer purpose of writing, but also as means SEO (search engine optimization) experts use to increase a website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERP).



An interesting thing about keeping and maintaining a blog (also known as blogging) is that anyone can blog. What will make a blog more successful than most is simply a keen sense of its target readership. Of course, it will not harm the blogger (a person maintaining a blog) to possess a few basic skills navigating the Internet and creating links to other websites and blogs.



Bloggers today are finding that they can not only write and publish their thoughts for free, but also can find themselves getting compensated for writing. This is because one of the techniques in SEO is to create content that is rich in keywords, which is basically what search engines look for in ranking web pages in its SERPs.



That said, here are some tips to make your next blog an effective SEO tool.



1, Choose a Theme (and Stick to It)

Most blogs never gain a real readership because it simply is a mishmash of a writer’s thoughts, with very little coherent theme to bind the entire blog together. If the blogger does it for the sheer purpose of a journal, there’s really nothing wrong with that.



However, as an SEO, a blog has to have a theme that will tie all the posts (individual articles) together. This is because instead of just looking for keywords, a search engine will also assess whether the page just happens to have a lot of keywords mentioned in the post or whether the entire blog is about the topic it is searching for. The former will rank less than the former in the SERPs. Given this point, it will do you well to pick a theme that you are interest and won’t tire of writing about.



2. A Place You Can Call Home

Working alongside the idea of a theme, When creating your blog (whether with your own domain name or an a free blog site), give it a URL that has words related to the theme. For example, if you are going to blog about bonsai making, try to use words that are related to that in your blog’s URL (such as www.bonsaienthusiast.com). Name your blog using words that are relevant to your theme as well. Search engines look at these things as well to determine how high your blog could possibly rank.



If you are blogging on a hosting site, it is possible to have your blog delegated into a proper category. This will help make a search engine easier to find your blog given that the category is strongly related to themes and search keywords.



On a related note, your individual posts should also be titled with words that are closely related to your theme. Again, working on a blog with a bonsai theme, one post could be titled “Miniature Trees: How to Get Started” while another one could be “Selecting the Right Pot for a Bonsai”. This will give your posts a URL that is rich in keywords, which helps in a page’s ranking on SERPS (but you already know that, right?).



3. Link And it Shall Be Linked Unto You

Another thing about blogs that SEO experts are finding to become a great advantage is the fact that blogs make it easy to link to other blogs, which in turn makes it easy for other blogs to link to you.



This is yet another criterion a search engine uses to rank a particular page in the results pages. The more incoming links it possess about the keyword in search will increase ranking status because the page shows that a lot of people think what you’ve written is a good source of information.



So when writing on your blog, be sure to take the time to read other people’s blogs and other online articles related to your theme. Create links to them so that you point your readers to more information. This will increase the chances of other people creating links that will point to your blog.



4. Keep it Coming

Since blog content is so easy to create, search engines scour blog sites very regularly. That means if you keep on creating new content on a regular basis, search engines will have to keep up with what’s new on your blog.



By regularly creating fresh content on your blog, search engines will tend to look to your blog first before others that are not maintained and renewed as regularly as you do. It helps in the rankings as well, which is the whole point of this article, right?



These tips are just to get started on using a blog for SEO. As you go along, you’ll find more tricks of the trade that will help you push you up the ranks on SERPs. Of course realistically, don’t expect to rank on the top 3 pages on your first try. But give it a few weeks. And for as long as you keep to the tried and true principles, it may not be that far until you’ve captured a good ranking for your blog.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

SEO Technique: Link-building


With many businesses engaging in advertising wars in order to win over the majority of the Internet’s viable market, it’s easy to deduce the intensity of the competition. After all, the Internet and its network of information grow exponentially by the minute, while the increase in the number of users more or less takes a little slower.



Some businesses employ paid advertising on major commercial portals in the Internet, in hopes that the traffic generated by these pages will eventually flow into their own company website. Others make use of the ingenious pay-per-click (PPC) system, which virtually requires no start-up cost on the part of the advertiser. He or she only pays for the amount of traffic that he or she generates through the public’s accessing his or her website through that particular link; no payment is made at the initial ad placement in various media.



These two means of advertising are aimed towards trying to be greatly accessible to a potential viable consumer market, because only then can profit be possibly made. These two methods of advertising, however, gain greater ground because they have the capacity to push up a website’s ranking in the query results in search engines.



Query results in search engines, or the matches found by a search engine to the keywords entered by the user, are important because of the fact that these are the most effective tools through which users try to access information on the Internet. The volume of information existent on various topics is simply overwhelming, which is the reason why people make use of search engines to do for them the dirty work of going through Internet clutter and give them results ranked on the basis of relevance to what they are exactly looking for.



PPCs also increase the probability of finding the website ranked higher. Google Adwords, for instance, already creates an innate ranking system within their advertising system, so that even in prioritizing which advertisements are published in a particular page, the ones with greater relevance is made accessible to the public.



Another technique by which to hike up rankings is by providing quality information that is both highly relevant and targeted towards a particular set of keywords pre-determined by the website. With careful market study and a study of consumer behavior, businesses can study just what keywords yield traffic, and subsequently shape their business website in order to best address the demand.



However, with the Internet being as competitive as it is, it is not enough to employ just one of the many methods to increase traffic. Another means that has been acclaimed in truly delivering increased traffic into the website within the framework of SEO is link-building. Link-building is the process through which one website is advertised in another website dealing with a similar field of interest. Usually, an exchange of links can happen, which can provide mutual benefits to both businesses.



Link-building, and being in productive link exchanges, can make or break a SEO campaign to optimize the search engine. It requires a degree of experience and loads of interactive communication in order to make sure that the link does end up published in another website. When this does happen, one’s website can already appear on the search engine more than once—the first is the direct page of the website containing it; the rest are outside access points from links by other pages.



This can be done first, by creating the impression of expertise in a particular field. By creating this impression both among colleagues and clients, the website becomes respected. Moreover, this can create a level of marketability on the part of the website, which will give people an easier time to trust the content of the pages. In effect, it becomes easier to build links with another website who may wish to be affiliated to the image and reputation built by the business.



Another way to do this is by soliciting the help of affiliate web pages. Businesses try to make affiliates by constantly reviewing products, articles, and services offered by other companies on their websites that could serve to complement the service or products to their own. This gives the other company greater impetus to provide links to the business because after all, it features their product. This also results in mutual referral, especially in the case of two complementary products.



Integral to the decision of building links with websites is the determination of the suitability of a particular website to become a link partner. Emphasis is placed on decent linking partners that more or less practice the same brand of ethical SEO as one’s own. Moreover, targeting possible link partners who actually will be amenable to the idea of exchanging links is very important. By targeting invitations for link-building, the business gets a better opportunity to actually gain real link partners who will eventually link the business to their website.



Relevance, congruence, and even similar reputability are just some factors that can make link-building campaigns more effective. With effective links, a business’s search engine appearance is maximized and magnified.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

SEO—What It Can Do for Your Business


Businesses that have found homes on the Internet find it more difficult identifying their target market, and even more defining the course of action in order to best take advantage of the market trends vis-à-vis the spending behavior of their markets. This phenomenon took place when the Internet became a hodge-podge of constant created websites and content pages, each to serve a particular purpose or to target a particular market.



Without the limitations set by languages, geography, and even a huge overhead start-up capital, businesses are left to reach out almost blindly to a market and hope for a favorable response. Left boundless, some businesses tend to put behind the importance of finding a loyal niche market. This market, with its constant patronage, helps translate web traffic and hype into tangible profits.



This is where SEO comes in. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process by which SEO providers enhance a website by beefing up the content pages, cleaning up its codes, and making it more consumer-centric, in order to gain a better standing in the listings yielded by search engines. This is most especially important in an age where search engines are the most popular tools for users to swim through hundreds of Internet clutter in order to find the particular information, product or service they are looking for.



Search engines take on the task of sorting through Internet content in order to find something as close as possible to the keywords entered by the user in the search field of the search engine. In crawler search engines, for example, the search engine simulates the crawling movement as it moves through pages studying relationships and relevance to each other of links and pages available online.



On the basis of popularity among Internet users, quality of service, and relevance of keywords to website content, various website content are ranked according to how they match up to what was queried. Obviously, top-ranked websites usually generate more traffic than those found in the other pages, and as such, it is every company’s goal to become top-ranked one day.



Making sure that content is useful, written effectively, and relevant is an imperative first step. Often, various websites tend to claim information on a certain field or topic, only to find that they cannot deliver these promises to their customers. Instead, when content is useful, relevant, and written in a manner most effective, users are benefited in that they find exactly what they are looking for, maybe even more. This will solicit greater patronage from users and clients.



Moreover, streamlining content by making sure that it is closely related to the keywords help keep the page relevant, and increases its chance of ranking higher in listings. In addition to this, steps also have to be made in order to make sure that the website is updated often, and that the links are all working properly. This measures the usability of a website, and if it doesn’t do well in this category, it will likely not be ranked as high by search engines.

Why should ranking in the query listings matter at all?



It matters because if the website is not ranked into the first couple of pages of the matches found by the search engine, chances are, customers who could be benefiting from its content and from whom the business could be generating profit are not getting to the page. This would deem the website completely useless; after all, what is the use of a published website in the Internet that is not viewed by visitors and web surfers?



Moreover, effective SEO that translates to better rankings actually defines the nature of traffic that gets generated by the website. With meaningful and useful content made available to the public, the website gains patronage from individuals who value satisfaction and service offered to them online.



Increased patronage from individuals who actually make use of the information made available on the page can translate to their continued accessing of the website, and can even translate to a higher probability that these people will trust the business enough to make frequent purchases of the product or service.



At the end of the day, what SEO stands for in the light of any business is the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. In an era where customers are offered a huge variety of options, only the ones that give a semblance of integrity through unbiased representation even from the very start when the information is listed in a search engine, and actually end up delivering what they promise, gain the benefit of maximizing the Internet’s business potential.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Search Engine Copywriting For SEO Without Losing Readability


Copywriting is one significant factor when you want to achieve excellent search engine ranking. Yet, a lot of times website owners think that all that they have to do is to incorporate keywords in page tags and include some keyword mentions in their articles. While SEO copywriting not exceedingly hard, writing for search engines is more complex than that.



“Search engine optimization copywriting” or SEO, is a method of writing viewable or easily scanned text on your web page which is very acceptable and readable for the internet user as well as targets certain or exact search terms, having the purpose of ranking high in search engines.



“SEO Copywriting” generally optimizes and enhances other on-page components for search terms being targeted, namely the title, the description and likewise keywords tags, alt text and headings.



Search engines require and look for authentic content pages, rather than additional pages which are designed solely for attaining high rankings; this then, is the concept of “SEO copywriting”. And for this reason, search engines may not likely consider SEO pages with undesirable copywriting content.



Simply put, your site’s content must follow good marketing standards, having great interaction with your visitors because excellent “SEO copywriting” acknowledges the fact that humans make the purchasing decisions and not “spiders”.



It is recommended that your content comprises of about 250 words that are viewable per page, having a maximum of two targeted keywords or search terms located strategically inside the text as well as in other on-page components.



A good quality and informative copywriting content indeed is the very foundation for a website to be successful. A good content and excellent website setup will direct your visitors to what exactly they desire while collecting or inquiring for information in your website. A well developed and constructed content page really is important for powerful website content and can take a huge bound in your keyword ranking approach.



Always remember that internet surfers do not "read" all the time your content, but rather, their tendency is just to scan through the page, searching for prominent and attractive sentences and words. Meaning that for you to magnetize your visitors, you need to write not only convincing and captivating content, but also scannable.



When a prospect visits your site searching for a service or product, it can be due to fact that they find your information educational and helpful; thus it actually depends on the quality of your content and what type of information that you supply your visitors that determines whether they stay or leave your website. A content rich in keywords will leave an enduring impression for your SEO campaign.



Here are a few guidelines on writing good quality SEO content:



1. Understand and determine your “key phrases” before you begin writing. Returning and then editing an already existing copy so to reach higher keyword concentration can be a difficult task which often results in fragmented sentences, complicated statements and a copy that is stiff sounding. If you already know the “key phrases”, then you are able to construct a complete and flowing stream of ideas.



2. Know who your target audiences are. You need to determine your target clients before writing your content, so that you can address them properly. You can not write a good quality, informative and persuading content without knowing your visitors requirements, problems and needs.



Your content should offer a solution to their problems and you need to first identify that problem before you can determine a solution.



3. Incorporate your “key phrases” in the headlines. Almost all search engines believe that a headline is a significant part of your copy which means that the text that comprises the headlines bears additional effect.



When you make headlines, be certain to construct them so that they also carry the keyword that you have used in your content. Also take note of the “HTML encryption for your title. When you make bold headlines and incorporating them in “

” or “

” tags, they will catch the search engine’s attention.



4. Scatter or distribute properly your “key phrases” all throughout the body of your article. To do this effectively, focus on just a maximum of three primary keywords and let them naturally flow in your article.



There is what is called a "3 percent guideline" which states that 3 percent of the words in your article must be “keywords”. You should take note however, that this is only a guideline; do not ruin a good article just so to achieve the three percent guideline by insisting on the keywords in sentences where it does not fit just so to achieve the “3 percent guideline.”



Just remember that a literature form of writing is not what is required in SEO copywriting; it just makes a poor web content. SEO copywriting demands that you specifically need to write for the internet, something that is very much different from a literature or storybook style of writing.



There is more to web copywriting than merely writing well. Keep this in mind: Effective web copywriting and keywords “search engine optimization” mean the same thing.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Say No To Illegal SEO Techniques


Search engine optimization spamming, substantially increases the possibilities that a website or page will appear at the top of results on search engines for a certain keyword.



Businesses that use illegal SEO techniques to control, raise and improve their search engine positions, are denying or removing the rights of ethical websites to be heard and seen. Regrettably, there are still many individuals who believe that “illegal SEO techniques” do no harm.



It is unethical and illegal for “spamming sites” to control search engines in order to gain high rankings in search engines at your website’s expense. You acquire your search engine position fairly so you deserve to be safeguarded from deceitful individuals who steal your visitors, publicity and income.



Remember that any effort so as to deceive search engines to achieve higher rankings is regarded as “SEO spam”; under no circumstances should you implement such methods in your marketing campaigns.



Never sacrifice your principles just so to reach your goals. There will be a great risk involved, such as your website can be penalized or worst, banned from top search engines and can stay banned for a long time.



Unethical and illegal SEO techniques:



1. “Keyword stuffing”. This means employing the use of the same or exact “keywords” in your “META tags” or anywhere in your content repeatedly.



2. Hidden links and text. Search engines work by scanning pages for certain keywords which are submitted into a search request and display results where the exact keyword appears typically, on a “page”.



Webmasters then insert some links or texts that are only readable by search engines but can not be seen by the human eye. You can, for instance put a white link or text with the appropriate keywords unto a certain web page with also a white background. Individuals can not detect it and will not even notice the difference; however “spiders” can read it and rank that site higher.



3. “Mirror websites” or “Sybil attack”. These are several sites having identical contents but different “URL”, all linking to one another, constructed for a very cruel objective.



4. “Doorway pages”. Normally, these are pages of poor quality constructed to rank highly particularly for one or even more selected keywords. These do not affect your website visitors and only constructed for search engines.

These pages can contain the exact content of other sites but generally exhibits only a link going to the main page with no “navigation menu”. They can at times dwell on the very same, however typically on other business’ server.



5. Cloaking. Delivers many different web pages for search engines and visitors. Webmasters construct their servers so that it can identify “IP addresses” of spiders then provide them with content rich and optimized pages, at the same time displaying different web pages for individuals.



Cloaking can likewise redirect a web visitor to their home page.



6. “Link farms”. Purposely to acquire link popularity, link farms are typically one page consisting of fifty up to one hundred or even more links to certain websites having no similarities with your website’s content.



Search engine “spammers” are aware of the fact that their pages’ content are of poor quality and are useless to individuals that visit their site.



The unethical and illegal websites prompted Google (Google page rank) as well as other top search engines in improving search technology that now has faster, better and advanced spam filters that can detect illegal techniques then ban such websites from search engines forever.



Risks and dangers of Unethical and illegal SEO Techniques



SEO spamming can, in reality bring about high rankings. Do keep in mind however, that the effect is only temporary. Webmasters using illegal SEO techniques can benefit from their high search engine position for days, weeks, even months however once search engines discover webmasters using these illegal techniques, then they will be banned from search engine index for possibly a lifetime.



Even if one is not banned for a lifetime, it is difficult to be “re-indexed”. One may need to start over and purchase a new “domain name”. So then before using any illegal SEO techniques, think wisely and weigh if you are prepared to put your entire internet business in jeopardy just for months of obtaining a high rank in search engines.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Off-Page Factors On Doing SEO


SEO, or “Search engine optimization” is a method used by experts to improve a website’s search engine ranking, with the objective of having it in the search results’ “top 10” or at the very least, having it in the first three pages of “search results”.



Off-page SEO pertains to all the influencing factors that determine your website traffic levels and ranking which are not inside the website; they are principally links that comes in your website from other websites referred to as “link popularity”



Link popularity is a key factor utilized by the famous search engines in ranking websites.

In order for SEO, to be useful, it needs to provide valuable, authentic and educational website content as well as information at the same time maximizing “Off-Page” factors in securing good ranking in search engine positions.



Almost all search engines put a great deal of significance in a website's “link popularity”. They utilize the amount of incoming and outgoing links to websites to establish the relevance of a website for specific keywords or key phrases. Take note that incoming links prove to be more significant compared to outgoing links.



Google, one of the top search engines, makes use of its “Pager Rank” or “PR” as their means in measuring the “link popularly” of a certain website. When you installed the “Google toolbar”, you easily can view a web’s PR. A PR of a website is read from 0 to ten, ten being the highest. When you see a grey “PR” bar, it signifies that, that particular website have either not yet been indexed or was dropped or have been banned.



Acquiring quality links coming from good or reputable websites can be a difficult task. A reputable website only will agree to link to your website when you can offer them certain benefits.



Reciprocal Linking and how to go about it:



Reciprocal linking in simple terms means exchanging links so to enhance link popularity. This often entails sending e-mail letters to certain webmasters of your choice that you find has complementary and relevant content.

Write a polite, personalized and good e-mail letter to the “webmaster” that you want to “exchange links” with. Here are some guidelines:



1. Download the Alexa (http://www.alexa.comand) and Google tool bars. Google “tool bar” will permit you to view the “PR” of other websites, so that you are aware which sites have great traffic and link with them. The Alexa “tool bar” supplies you with estimates of the website's traffic as well as the sites that are being linked to it.



2. Visit particular websites that you want to “exchange links” with in order that you will know what that particular website is all about.



3. Send email letters to websites which you want to be linked with. In your letter, mention important things regarding your website and explain the benefits of having a “link exchange” for both your sites as well as both your visitors.

Place a “link” to the website and inform the webmaster as to where he can find the link. Likewise, furnish the key phrase or keywords that you need to be “linked”.



4. Broadcast your willingness to “exchange links” in your website. You may use a "reciprocal linking" link or "link to us" as well as a “web-form” for possible “link partners” to enter their details.



Incoming “one way linking” and how to go about it:



Incoming “one way links” are considered by webmasters to be the best kind of links that one can for one’s website, but also one that is hard to acquire. They can increase link popularity and website PR. They point out to all “search engines” that your website is an expert on key phases or keyword employed to “link” to you.



Here are some guidelines:



1. Construct an informative, good quality and educational website or unique, educational and authentic web page content. Great content is what webmaster look for so to refer you to their visitors by way of links going to your website.



2. Offer free tools and helpful service in your website.



3. Give something away for free at your website, such as quality e-books, downloadable trial software, gift or a useful program in exchange for “links”.



4. Arrange an award for winners to link to your website before they can claim their prizes. Make certain that your policy is clear to everyone.



5. Allot a budget so you can pay for niche directory listing. Present excellent and relevant articles with links directing to your web home page and give your consent to webmasters to display your articles in their sites.

Link popularity will not grow overnight



Allocate a time each week just for working on building links, so that it becomes a regular habit. Select one day each week as well as schedule the time. You need to oblige yourself on a regular basis and make your priority, or else you can not accomplish it.



Note that “link building” is gradual and accumulating process. Over time all the links will start to add up until such time that there will be hundreds and even thousands linking to you.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Modern SEO Techniques




Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are methods that aid in the improvement of a website's ranking in the listings of search engines. There are different kinds of listings that are displayed in the results pages of search engines, such as paid inclusion, pay-per-click advertisements, and organic search results. Utilizing SEO can increase the quantity of site visitors that acts on the activity that the site intends.



Sites have different goals for search optimization. Some sites search for all kinds of traffic. A SEO strategy that is broad in scope can be advantageous for sites that cover broad interest, such as directories and periodicals. On the other hand, majority of the sites attempt to maximize their pages for a high quantity of very specific keywords that radiate the possibility of a sale. Usually, focusing on well-chosen traffic produces sales leads of desirable quality, and allows advertisers to pull in more business.



The importance of having a high rank for an advertiser's site cannot be emphasized enough. Unfortunately, many site owners believe that their site has a high-ranking, when the truth is exactly the opposite. Others who are aware that they do not possess enough presence in search engines do not know that it is possible to achieve the ranking they want, and that they can get it through means that are a lot easier and more efficient.



So what are the techniques that advertisers must employ to maximize their optimization and garner the site activity and profits that they seek? Here are some of the most useful ones.



1. Title tags should be written in a creative way. It should be created with the strongest keyword targets as the basis. It is the most important tag of a web site when it comes to optimization. The specific keyword of the web site that is being optimized should be the one that is placed in the title tag. It goes without saying that every site should have its own title tag.



2. Carefully select the words and phrases to be assigned to Alt tags. Alt tags are not really mandatory, but they are provided for text browsers because images do not get displayed in web browsers, and it is the Alt tags that give information to the users about its significance. The rule in Alt tags is fairly simple: only key phrases or key words should be put in Alt tags, overdoing may cause a site to disappear in search results or get banned from it indefinitely.



3. Manage keyword density. Keyword density is the percentage occupied by keywords or keyword phrases in a web page. Ideally, keywords are used once in the title tag, the heading tag, and in bold text. Keywords should be placed at the top of the page, and phrases can be inserted in every paragraph, depending on how long the paragraph is.



4. Determine the appropriate page size for the site. Speed is a vital element to the success of a site, and it important to both online visitors and the search engines. It is recommended to limit web pages under 15K.



5. Create rich themes for the pages. Search engines are increasingly getting particular about themes. Content should be created as often as possible, and the pages should be maintained to 200 to 500 words. The content should be created in relation to the market, and should be linked to the other related content present on the site.



6. Make the site's design attractive to the viewer. All efforts in optimization will be in vain if the site is poorly designed and if its contents are hard for viewers to read. There should be more text content than HTML content in the web site. Viewers should be able to use the pages in all major browsers. It should be noted that most search engines veer away from JavaScript and Flash.



7. Stay away from the bad techniques. Utilizing them could get a site blacklisted from the search engines. Spamming is a no-no, and the following techniques are considered spamming: doorway and identical pages, tiny or invisible text, cloaking, usage of keyword phrases in author tags etc.



Advertisers should keep in mind that simplicity is the basis of a successful SEO campaign. Sites should be easy for viewers to locate, follow, and read, and should contain relevant content. Following the techniques above will prove worthwhile for site owners in the future.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Keyword Selector Tools and SEO




Keyword selection is one of the primary procedures to have a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy implemented. It is extremely important that the right keywords are selected by businesses for their advertisements in order to maximize an online advertising service and gain profits. An advertising campaign can be deemed worthless is the wrong keywords are selected to represent it.



In a nutshell, SEO are methods that aim to improve the position or rank of a web site in listings produced by search engines. The benefits of getting a higher placement in the listings increases the chances that online visitors will view their pages and avail of the services offered by advertisers. It also gives visitors a feeling of security, because to them, a well-positioned ad equals high credibility.



Sites have different goals when it comes to optimization. Some sites employ broad search optimization strategy, they are in search for all traffic that comes along the way. It can be useful for sites that are generates broad interest, such as a directory or a periodical. Other sites go for utilizing keywords that are highly specific, and radiate the probability of a sale. In most cases, going for specific and carefully chosen traffic can prove advantageous, because it gives sales leads with more quality.



The process of choosing the appropriate keywords for a particular advertiser is not a simple task. An advertiser has to accomplish several things to pull it off successfully. First, the advertiser has to be well acquainted with the machinations of its target market. A thorough research into the keywords used by the competitor should be carried out, and whatever result that it will produce should be analyzed in detail. Keyword selection tools will assist advertisers in determining the keywords that is most suitable for their businesses.



Keywords selection can have many varieties, largely depending on the kind of web site that a client needs. These are the major types, static sites and dynamic states, where the former is more limited in terms of keyword numbers compared to the latter. If an advertiser is creating a brand new site, it is recommended to choose the initial number of keywords that will be needed, and afterwards, the architecture of the site can be prepared using the keyword selection criteria as a basis.



After coming up with the keyword list, the terms should be trimmed down up to the specific and necessary ones. In narrowing down the list, keep these factors in mind: Majority of the search engines do not bother doing word stemming, and that most visitors type keywords in lower case, and it is less difficult to gain a good rank for keyword phrases that are longer.



Here are some of the popular keyword selection tools available for advertisers:



1. Google AdWords Keyword Selection Tool

Google is the most successful search engine in the world, and it takes in more searches in the web than its competitors. This tool usually comes with the awards program of Google, and it shows the keywords that are actually utilized by users. Google AdWords provide users with the most sought-after queries, vast matches, and other keywords that the user may consider for usage.



2. Wordtracker

It is a database that people utilize as queries for searching terms. Aside from giving information on how often a term is utilized for web search, it will also inform users the number of competing sites that utilize the same term. The tool aids in finding combinations of keywords that is in any way related to the content of a web site.



3. Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool

A keyword selection tool that provides the number of searches in a month that proliferated within the Overture network. It provides the variations and phrase stems when a certain keyword is used. It also provides pay-per-click bids and a ROI Time CPM Calculator.



4. Keyword Destiny and Prominence Analysis

A keyword analysis tool which analyzes the words utilized on a web page by applying default settings or custom report options. It also reports on the number of times the word was used, and an analysis of a competitive URL. Other information provided includes word count, prominence values, the location of the significant keywords in the elements of the page, and density percentages.



Advertisers should choose the best tool that works for them. With various options available, it will not be too difficult to do so. Picking the right tool can make wonders for their business ventures.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Keyword Selection and SEO


Everyday, hundreds and millions of Internet users access the network in search of something they need or want. In the earlier days, users had a much easier time locating just exactly what they sought because very few online entities were in existence, and they offered very little services. Thus, it was easy to determine which sites actually contained what they needed.



Fast forward to the current period, and instead you find hundreds and millions of content varying in degree almost to the same extent as to the number of average users of the Internet per day. Businesses, institutions, and even individual users generate their own websites and content by using simple means, and as such, a searcher may end up having to choose from hundreds of choices in pursuit of materials related to what they are searching for.



Search engines play a huge role in making the current scenario work. Major search engine service providers, like Google, create user interfaces that allow for their users to enter words, or keywords, relating to what they are searching for. Various methods are then employed in order to search for the content links. Either they employ purely organic searches, which lists matches to the keywords regardless of whether they are paid or not, or they utilize crawler search engines. Crawler search engines simulate the crawling movement when they travel through the codes of each website and deciphering relationships between links and pages.



To maximize the potential of search engines in providing businesses their much-needed online traffic (and hopefully translate traffic into sales), SEO or Search Engine Optimization method was created. SEO is centered in trying to provide a business with quality content and websites in order for it to help rise in the rankings in the query listings. Central to SEO is a customer-oriented approach, and is achieved mainly by providing well-written information in the website, as well as making sure that the content found in their websites are relevant to what the users are looking for.



However, for SEO to work, there must be a clear and tangible relation between keywords and relevant content. After all, if the search engine finds great difficulty in tracing matches back to keywords provided by the users, chances are, the website will not be found by the target market.



SEO works with keywords at the very onset of the business. The business picks a variety of keywords to which their website will be related to in search engines. If the user enters in the search engine a keyword that matches the keywords related to the business’s website, a high-ranking match is displayed among the listings.



Keyword selection and the effort that goes with it is only justified; after all, the nature of the keywords a business selects can make or break its campaign.



In order to effectively match a business’s keywords to those that will be entered by the users, selecting keywords must take into consideration the variety of keywords under the same topic that could be utilized when searching for it. For starters, making a list of around 50 keywords and selecting those that make greatest impact will help narrow down the keywords that should be bid for by the company when trying to get a spot in the listings.



In selecting keywords, it must also be taken into consideration the sort of response generated by certain keywords, alongside the people who would respond greatly to those words. By selecting keywords with the expressed intent of targeting a particular consumer base, the business creates a greater probability of visitors to the website being actual interested buyers instead of web window shoppers.



Moreover, selecting keywords that are closest in relevance to the content of the website better streamlines traffic into that which yields profits.



Popular keywords are those that users often enter into search engines and look for. These popular keywords (and the subsequent websites) usually are recipients to huge amounts of traffic, and as such, are subject to higher rankings in listings.



While popularity, relevance, and targeting are important, it must be balanced with the competitive demand for a particular keyword. Obviously, more businesses vying for the same word would create difficulties in acquiring that keyword for a business’s use. Before selecting keywords, it is imperative that checks may be made in order to make sure that while the keywords are popular, relevant, and targeted, they are also not within the too competitive bracket, which will make it extremely difficult to acquire and rank.



Keyword selection is important in every SEO campaign. Only in pre-meditating keywords and studying market behavior in relation to these keywords can the benefits of this productive relationship be clearly seen.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Getting quality inbound links and seo


It’s the dream of every online blogger to be the acknowledged king of the hill. When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), to be king of the search engine hill is to have as many people link your site to theirs. One-way.



Search engine optimization is a method of preparing a site for high ranking in search engine queries. Methods on optimization vary between legitimate ways like continually improving content relecvancy and ease of navigation to tricks like keyword stuffing, link farming, etc.



The term used for people to have your site linked to theirs one-way is to have an inbound link. With search engine giants like Google and its PageRank system, it places significant value on the number of links pointed to your site because it is considered a vote of confidence and relevance by that site.



As stated by Google: “In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.” And a large vote of confidence online not only means fame but most likely even fortune. This is because the relevancy of a site causes it to rank higher in the search engine search strings, attracting more attention from consumers and attracting revenue from companies willing to pay to appear on the same site.



In effect, one-way inbound links are now as good as gold.



So far, there are five effective ways to acquire inbound links:



1. Wait for Offers. The normal way of getting inbound links. This method is the most ethical of the strategies. This methods banks on the fact that if the site has great content that is constantly fresh and interesting, with a navigation system that does not require rocket science, people will eat it up. Offers will come of their own volition. Then you get your links.



2. Play Musical Chairs. A devious way of getting inbound links using reciprocation with a twist. Reciprocation is the most common form of getting links which doesn’t hold much water with page ranking systems of search engines.



Normally search engines can detect reciprocal links, but if reciprocation is layered, i.e. indirect, it takes the engine much more work to detect it, requiring more complex algorithms. The price for doing this trick is steep, though. You have to have more than one website. Some people make a pretty penny putting up links one-way.



3. Apply for Inbound Links. Yes, it’s not a crime to promote your site. You can submit your site for review at people-run directories whose interests run into the subject matter of your site.



If the world wide web is the analogy of the earth, a directory can be best described as a town, where almost everybody knows each other. Any new arrival gets a thorough once-over and the whole town votes to see if you can get to stay.



4. Links for Sale. Some high-ranking sites are willing to sell their outbound links to the highest bidder. Sites that are popular with PageRank or other search engine ranking systems use this extra capacity for extra income sometimes.



However, the drawback to this is that the sites are only mercenary, selling their sites for rent. You have no link-equity other than the amount of cash you shell out to keep on existing on their site. Search engines such as Google are actively trying to dampen these efforts as it degrades the relevance of their search engine results.



5. Be Generous, Distribute Content. Of all the strategies stated, this is a highly effective method of getting better quality, legitimate one-way links. You give other websites a reason to put a link on their sites to point in your direction.



All sites are always looking for fresh content for their sites. A site cannot expect to stay number one in relevancy if they just keep on refreshing the content of their sites once every month. Most of the time these sites will even pay for fresh online content to a slew of writers. For a discounted offer, you can have a “about the author” link posted on the site with your own content. Be creative. The key is to make it mutually beneficial.



Ultimately, with a little patience, elbow grease, and luck. It pays to just be honest and stick with the stuff you like to talk about. You don’t regret eating up the time and you enjoy the process.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Ethical SEO Techniques


Hundreds and thousands of people have made use of the Internet in a variety of ways, each in an attempt to subjugate its great power and potential to give profit and gain to users and businessmen. However, alongside the aims of these hardworking innovators and entrepreneurs are people who simply want to extort as much money from people in exchange for dubious products and services.



Web content is brought to a potential user by means of either direct recall of a particular service provider’s website, or by blind searches done on various Internet search engine platforms made available by Internet software giants. By entering words, known as ‘keywords’ relevant to the desired information, product, or service, into the search field, users can employ these blind searches to look for content closest to what they are looking for.



As is the practice, a search engine usually produces a list of websites matching the keywords provided by the user to a degree of relevance. These are ranked by relevance, quality of content, and sometimes, ‘visitor votes’ that come in the form of a measure of frequency of visits by people who usually find the content useful to them.



SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a method used by many businesses and entrepreneurs online in order to maximize the potential of the search engine by helping them rise in the ranks of the query response listings. SEO usually deals with organic searches, or those that need no payment to be listed among the list of likely matches to a client’s keywords, as well as crawler search engines, which are search engines that literally crawl through web pages in search of relevant links and relations between pages in order to find relevant content.



Dubious figures in the Internet, however, have made use of the Internet to forward their own selfish desires, leading to an unethical use of the brilliant SEO model. This has led to a divergent field of SEO, called “black hat SEO”. In this method, various deceptive schemes are used in order to manipulate search engines and dupe customers by providing them with websites that are completely useless. This method is also called “spamdexing”.



Ethical SEO techniques also exist in the Internet. Before even going into details, the most important ideal behind ethical SEO techniques is in providing better service to clients, and allowing this satisfaction to become key in promoting the website.



What does it take for a method to become an ethical SEO technique?



There are various ways under the central guideline to achieve them.



The first one is creating quality content for the users. After all, no ethical SEO technique tries to get the better of any customer, or even harm them to the slightest extent. By providing quality content, users receive useful, timely, and secured information when they need it.



In order for that to be achieved, no amount of exaggeration or manipulation of the nature and content of the website is done to lead customers into believing that it contains the website relevant to their query. Ethical SEO does not employ any method that will mislead the customer into a site, and even offend the customer once he or she has found his or her way into the website.



Moreover, ethical SEO techniques do not, in any way, violate any laws as regards intellectual property rights, international law, or spamming laws implemented at every level of every way. This would include not claiming for their own products and services that are not theirs to sell or produce just so they can fool users into providing sensitive information through which they can extort money.



A website employing ethical SEO techniques will never try to exaggerate and reflect a company’s image any more than how it should be portrayed; doing so, in effect, manipulates the customer into trusting a company based on falsity.



Relevant to various security issues existent on the Internet, one last measure of how ethical a SEO technique is lies in the protection of its customers on the basis of privacy agreements. In providing the service sought by the client, ethical SEO techniques protect the confidentiality and sensitivity of the information made known to them in confidence by their clients.



Both goals aim to achieve the same end of profit. However, the road diverges and one must pick one over the other. In the end, ethical SEO techniques allow for users to maximize the profit they pay without impinging on the rights of other people an manipulating others; this by far is the best option to go.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Do-it-yourself SEO Techniques




A company mostly relies on its official web site to build a reliable customer base, to interact and get feedback from customers, and to use the site for advertising purposes.



With search engine optimization, some techniques are employed so that a web site will be listed on top of the list of results when a user types in a keyword by going to Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other search engines.



Emerging on top of a search list would lead more business your way that is why search engine optimization or SEO tactics are employed.



Some companies employ the services of establishments or individuals who deal with search engine optimization.



This would involve the development of a more informative and user-friendly web site. It may also include pay-per-click or adwords services, such as the one offered by Google.



Another thing that can yield positive results at a lower cost, as compared to an adword campaign, is optimizing a web site for organic search.



This would mainly require keyword density which would result to more traffic going to your web site.



In effect, you will have an added clientele and this should lead more business your way.



If you would like to have a hands-on experience with search engine optimization and you would not like to get a third-party SEO service provider, there are some techniques which are easy to learn so that you can do it yourself. Take a look at the following:



1. Take a lot of time with developing your web site's content.



For most web sites, content is the key. When writing the content of your web pages, insert vital keywords which relate to the products and services that your company offers.



Make it brief and concise, yet informative.



You might see that Internet users do not actually read a web site's content word-for-word.



They just skim through the text and concentrate on the articles that they need and the data which they find interesting. A 600-word article may be too boring or too long for a user to read.



Keep your facts up-to-date so that users will visit your web site more often. Do not forget toinclude a lot of helpful links, articles and guides that users can forward to another user and add to your customer base.



2. Make the overall design user friendly.



In most cases, the rule the simpler, the better applies. Do not design your web site in an overly-complicated way that users will find it too "frightening" to browse through.



Adapt the design to your target market. If your target audience is of a younger age, make sure that the colors and designs are funky, youthful and attention-grabbing.



For a more mature audience, you can use subdued colors and have a more elegant theme and overall web site design.



3. Vary the keyword for each individual web page.



Think of every possible keywords or phrases that will apply to your products and services.



Each user is different and may not necessarily use the keyword that you expect them to type in the search bar. Search engines offer tools which will guide you through finding the correct keywords for search engine optimization.



4. Make sure that your hyper links are visible, accessible and informative.



Providing users with hyperlinks or HTML links which are useful and easy to find is yet another way to optimize your web site.



5. Learn how to lead traffic to your site.



Seek the advise of experts on this field if you do not know how to lead traffic to your site. Develop a plan and learn how to use the necessary tools pull traffic your way.



Gather all the statistical data that you can use to keep your web site on top of the search engines' list.



Vary your web site's contents and keywords to adapt to the current trend. If there is a particular word or phrase that you have not used when searching for keywords, use it instead to lead more traffic your way.



Be flexible enough to change the web site's contents and fulfill the ever-changing needs of the online users.



All in all, you would have your work cut out for you if you want to employ do-it-yourself search engine optimization techniques.



With the proper research, creativity and enough knowledge, you can definitely optimize your web site and yield very promising results for your business.




























Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More