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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More