Archive for Internet SEO Resources
03.26.09
Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 10:16 pm by admin
Getting your site listed in the top search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is no small job. There is lots of work that needs to be done to guarantee the highest placement possible, and even more work is needed to keep your ranking for any period of time. Here are some simple tips and strategies to keep your site listed, and listed well, without spending any extra cash on pay per clicks.
Optimizing your site for the best search results
Linking and Links to Your Site
Getting links to your site is one of the most important jobs you have when trying to properly optimize your site for search engine listings, regardless of which search engine you are attempting to get listed in. Having links to your site assures that it will be found by the spiders of the major search engines, and the more links coming to your site, the more pages from your site are going to be listed in any given search engine. The more popular the site, the more exposure you get, both from the search engines and the general browser. Link trading, or exchanging links to other sites on your page for links to your own on their site, is an excellent way to get started in getting some links to your site. There are thousands of sites out there with automated link exchange pages, where you simply fill out a form and place their link on a page of your site, and you get a link from theirs. You can easily get 20 to 50 links a day from such pages, although they aren’t as high quality as the others you can find.
Any site on the internet with a “Links” or “Resources” page can be a potential link exchange partner. Simply find the sites that relate to yours, even in a general sense, and send them an email requesting a link exchange. Be sure to have a link to their site on your links page and give them a link to the specific page their link is on. It also helps to have your links dispersed into categories, rather than having one long page with 1,000 links on it. This will make people more eager to trade links with you due to it being much easier to find their site on your links page. Keep a list of the sites you have emailed, and mark off which ones have or have not replied and have or have not placed a link to your site. If after two weeks no link is present, or the owner of the other site has not replied, simply delete their listing from your links directory and move on. There are enough sites out there, no matter what topic you relate to, that link exchanges are not difficult to find. These types of sites generally have a higher popularity and higher quality traffic than the instant submissions, although it does take a bit longer to accumulate the amount of links you need.
Another way to get links quickly would be to sign up at one of the various link exchange websites like linkpartners.com. These will usually charge a small subscription fee, but you will get a large amount of links in a relatively short amount of time. Remember when dealing with these type of sites to deal with only links from your particular category, as it will help more in the long run. Also, be careful who you link to within your own category. Try to stick with high-popularity websites that show up high in the rankings on your favorite search engine. Having quality over quantity with links, as well as most other optimizations, is vital if you plan on being ranked highly for any period of time.
Also, try to keep your links coming in. With a massive burst in incoming links that completely dies the next month, the search engines grow suspicious. Either try to spread out that massive burst out over the next few months, or keep the incoming links at or above the number you got last month. With this approach, the major search engines “see” that you are not only gaining in popularity rapidly, but you are continuing to grow in popularity instead of dieing out.
Content
Content is another major factor in how you will be ranking in the major search engines. Having fresh, new content every month, or better, every day, will show that your site is not stagnant. It will also keep your visitors happy. Nobody will come back if your site never changes… they will move on to one that is updated more often. A great way to do this is through goarticles.com or other article sites like it. You can copy an article to your site (leaving the article fully intact, of course… you don’t want to break any copyright laws) and have free, original content, every day if you would like. Again, it is best to use content that is directly related to your site, not only for the sake of your rankings (although you will have original content, it will not be related, and so it will be thrown out as “fluff” by the major search engines), but for your visitors as well. Nobody wants information on the newest video game when they visit a flower shop online.
Ever-changing, original content is very important to the search engines, as it shows your website is growing and popular. Even with one new article a day, you will be surprised at the results. If you have the time, you can even write your own articles and content and place them on your site. This content will be completely original, and nobody else on the internet will have a copy (or if they did, you can track them down and exercise your right to copyright as an author). Not only can you get original content by writing your own articles, but you can post them on goarticles.com for free with your name and a link to your site at the bottom. You provide content to the online community and they provide you links back to your homepage. A win-win situation either way you look at it.
Keywords
Keywords are words within your meta tags that you would like the search engines to list you under and pay special attention to. Picking keywords can be tedious and difficult at times, but good keywords can make the difference between lots of traffic or no traffic at all. Search for sites on your favorite search engine that relate to your own and check what keywords they have chosen. You can do this by going to View -> View Source on the menu bar. The keywords will be marked by a “” tag. See which keywords they are using that you may want to use as well. Keep a list of up to 50 of the keywords you think will be the best match for your site and add them in to your meta tag. As always, be sure that these keywords directly relate to your site. This will help your listings in the search engines, as well as help browsers find the site they are actually looking for.
Descriptions
Provide descriptions in your meta tags for each one of your pages. Use descriptions to provide an outline of what each particular page on your site is built for. Keep them clear and concise, and don’t load them up with keywords. For example, for your main page, use a description that contains the slogan for your website and a brief outline of what your site is meant for. For SuperFaster.com you would say something along the lines of “Online Marketing Information, Tips, and Strategies - We provide free articles on all you need to know about website promotion.” With clear descriptions, the search engines will not consider a particular page a “duplicate listing” just because it has the same title as your other 30 pages, and it will make it easier for browsers to find what they need.
Alt Tags
Alt tags are descriptions of images on your website. These can be seen when you mouse over picture, and can be seen by the spiders of the major search engines. Having a description of a picture makes it easier for a spider to understand what is actually on the site. If, perhaps, you have a tutorial on your site describing how to set up a web hosting account, and this tutorial has screen shots for people to follow instructions easier, you would want to make an alt tag for each screen shot. This will allow the spider to see that not only do you have a tutorial teaching your users how to create an account, but it comes with screen shots instead of random images of your dog or family.
Pictures that are part of the template for your site don’t necessarily have to have alt tags, since they are purely for visual effect. For graphical buttons it would be beneficial to have alt tags, to explain to the spider that these are links to other portions of your site. Although these are not really necessary either, it never hurts to have tags explaining where a button will take you once it is pressed.
For further information on Search Engine Optimization, stay tuned for “Advanced Search Engine Optimization”
You can see other articles by Claude Beavers on this topic at:
Website Promotion Articles and Resources at Superfaster.com
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02.02.09
Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 12:39 pm by admin
Definition: A doorway page is content created specifically for the purpose of garnering high placements in the search engines.
Issue: Google makes the following specific recommendation: Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content (http://www.google.com/intl/az/webmasters/guidelines.html).
This article addresses the issue of doorway pages, proposes an acceptable alternative and offers some insights into the basic principles of search engine optimization.
To frame the issue of doorway pages it is important to understand why content is so critical to search engine optimization. In order to do this we need to step back and take a look at the search engines themselves:
• Google, Yahoo, MSN, and all other search engines want to provide the same thing: A prioritized list of links that point to most relevant web sites satisfying the users search criteria.
• Relevance is defined as the “best content” with the “best fit” to the user’s search. That’s a search engine’s value - providing efficient access to the information a user wants when they want it.
• The search engine that does the best job of delivering the largest quantity of the most relevant results attracts the most users.
• Obviously speed, ease-of-use and “marketing” impact popularity but in the end the quality of the results counts most.
The best way for you to get long-term results is by “partnering” with the search engines. Partnering means recognizing and supporting the value-proposition that the search engines provide to their end-users:
• Provide lots of highly relevant content
• Follow accepted (i.e. ethical) search engine optimization principles
Is there an alternative? Sure, like many situations there are always short cuts and quick fixes that purport to let you “game the system.” Instead of partnering with the search providers you compete with them. By “compete” I mean all the effort (and dollars) expended to chase their constantly evolving algorithms and artificially increase your site’s rankings. These techniques may get you short-term results but many are considered the equivalent of “spamming” and could get your site de-listed. From a search engine providers point of view, anything that gets better results for sites with inferior content (and fit) is compromising their product and is temporary until they tune their algorithm so that it correctly ranks your site (down).
One of these shortcuts is the use of “doorway pages.” The rest of this article discusses the use of doorway pages and recommends an alternative approach.
What is a doorway page?
Doorway pages are pages of content that have been specifically designed to achieve high rankings in the search engines. They are often used by websites that don’t have an abundance of content within the main pages of their site due to technology issues or design conflicts. They can be an effective tool for garnering short-term placement in search engine rankings when used appropriately, but doorway pages have been abused by websites for many years, to the point that they are frowned upon by search engines who now attempt to exclude them from their result pages.
What does a “Doorway Page” look like?
A doorway page appears as if it was built specifically to attain high search engine placement, and offers little value to searchers. It often has the following characteristics:
o A lot of poorly written content, with an abundance of hyperlinked phrases in the body text
o Copy that is stuffed with lists of keywords
o Zero (0) in-bound links from other parts of the website
Example: you build a doorway page named “targeted-keyword.html,” but do not link to this page from any other part of your website. Google assumes no in-bound links exist because this page is of little value, and you want to hide it from regular visitors to its site.
o A “redirection” that automatically loads a new page once the doorway pages is accessed
Bottom line: A doorway page stands alone from your website, and offers little value to searchers
If any of those characteristics exist on the page, and if a number of these pages are created within a single website, Google is likely to discount their value, or worse, ban the site.
If doorway pages are inappropriate then what is a better alternative?
The “essay page”
An essay page, on the other hand, is integrated into the main website (although not into the navigation structure). It offers real value to the searcher because the content is relevant and well-written. It often has the following characteristics:
o Clean HTML coding with an HTML design similar to that of other pages of the website
o A lot of content, with several hyperlinked phrases in the body text
o Several in-bound links from other parts of the website
Example: On the solutions page, you hyperlink the phrase “targeted keyword,” to the targeted-keyword.html essay page.
o Quality content that offers real value to the searcher
Bottom line: An essay page is a natural extension of your website. For all intents and purposes, it is integrated content more than it is a doorway page, because it expands on a certain subject.
Will you benefit from using essay pages?
Essay pages used effectively can be good solutions when a site’s navigation does not support the addition of content, or if it would be difficult to develop valuable content to include within the main navigation. If this is not the case I recommend that you add additional pages of content (which will provide more benefits than essay pages), while enhancing the user experience.
Summary and Recommendation
The creation and proper integration of additional content is critical to the ability to achieve consistent top 10 rankings on the most targeted keywords. Essay pages can be valuable when a website cannot be easily scaled to include more content through the main navigation structure. However, the first priority should be increasing content as much as possible before resorting to essay pages.
Over time, your more sophisticated competitors will compete for placement by incorporating significant content, and by implementing important search engine optimization features, not by using essay (or doorway) pages.
If you’ve adopted an aggressive “doorway page” strategy, it’s possible (and maybe likely) that a competitor would report it to Google. If Google determines that you have violated their “rules,” you could be “de-listed”.
As a result of the risk that doorway pages pose and the benefits integrating additional relevant content provides, I strongly recommend the approach of reevaluating your navigation structure, and adding additional pages of relevant content if possible. From a search engine ranking point of view - content is not king, but relevant content sure is.
Scott Smigler has been an evangelist for a serious, ROI-based focus on the online channel since he founded Exclusive Concepts in 1997. Exclusive Concepts provides integrated online marketing strategies, Internet brand consulting, search engine marketing campaigns and results-oriented web sites for hundreds of clients that range in size from small ecommerce firms to public companies.
Visit Scott’s website: http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com
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01.07.09
Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 12:57 pm by admin
There are no secrets on how to rank high with the major search engines because effective search engine optimizations are now immense. What is search engine optimization? Before we discuss that thing, you have to understand first how search engines work and a bit of know-how.
Search engines are into providing their users with the most relevant and up-to-date information to match the search term that was used. They are sophisticated pieces of technology which allow users to quickly find relevant websites by searching for a word or a phrase. Search engine results are useless to users if the information doesn’t relate to the search term, or if the results are old. People expect the most up-to-date and fresh information that is useful to them.
Updating your website everyday and adding some materials will help you get noticed by the search engines. So, if you are going to sell any type of product or service online, you have to optimize your website for the search engines, in order to boost traffic and sales. It is because over 90% of your business will likely come directly from search engine results. And for that reason, it is absolutely important to optimize your site for search engines for you to have the greatest deals in the entire world.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which webmasters or online business owners utilize strategic copy to augment their website’s status. It is certain that the internet has grown so fast over the years and the competition for the best search engine position has created an enormous market. Therefore, better understanding the fundamental elements of Search Engine Optimization is vital for an online business’ success.
Making use of effective search engine optimization techniques will improve the page rank of your website. There are many tricks that can be used to increase page rank; the most effective method is to provide high quality content consistently. This seems like a simple concept but there are many websites that fails to provide content that visitors find interesting. Sites which provide content that are interesting, well-written and regularly updated create highly engaged visitors who are more likely to return to the website in the coming days. So, if you can set your website apart from those boring, lifeless sites then do it. You’ll surely have a step closer to achieving high page rank through search engine optimization.
The next significant factor for an effective search engine optimization is to include keywords and phrases within your content. To make sure that you are properly targeting your market, you have to make sure that the keywords and phrases you have on your site are the keywords and phrase that your site is actually optimized for. The more keywords you use in your content, the more likely it is that online visitors will find your site when they do some research with those words. If you are unfailing with these techniques, then your overall search engine optimization will increase, boosting your page rank.
You should also have to develop a linking strategy as a part of your search engine optimization. Not only does this provide free advertising for your site, but it makes the impression that your site is imperative because of its affiliated links. For each link that you have pointing back to you, that is another chance for your potential customer to find you. The more inbound links that you have pointing to your site, the higher you will be ranked in the search engines.
Another is to develop a content stratagem. People who get to search from the internet are looking for information. The more information you provide for them and the more helpful it is, the more likely you will make the sale. Writing articles is the most effective way to build up content for your site. When writing articles to post on your site, make sure that you develop a clear means of arranging their content. You can do this by simply adding a new page to your site. This will allow room for extra articles to be added as you write them, and will allow you to build up an archive of articles which will maintain to draw online visitors. Make sure also that you have included your archived articles in a directory that is next to the root web of your site so that the search engines will catalog your online articles.
Always keep in mind that search engine optimization methods are important in developing your site’s status. With that thing in mind, make sure that you write high-quality, keyword rich content and link your site to and from a deliberate family of other sites. These things will help improve your site’s popularity and coerce increased business through your online business.
Author is writter for sites such as Information Today
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Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 12:07 pm by admin
Even though Google Revenues continue to soar, the hidden problem that may stifle growth and may even allow Yahoo or MSN to overtake the paid search market in the future lies in two critical phrases: Customer Support, and Customer Training
Approximately 40% of the small businesses we have surveyed have tried Adwords in the past and failed, and some of them have tried multiple times. In some markets the percentage is closer to 60%. Why? because the program was designed by Google engineers, and heavily favors companies with the type of resources that most small businesses do not have. Unlike MSN and Yahoo who have programs that are much simpler in terms of use for small business people, Google favors a technology driven solution that relies less on customer support, and expects users of their system to become more sophisticated.
The problem with this is that it is working quite well for professional internet marketers and search engine marketing companies employed by big corporations, but many small business people who are not web-savvy are by and large left out of the mix. This is unfortunate because this is a huge segment of potential income that is left “up for grabs” and may be scooped up by MSN and Yahoo who are developing simpler, easier systems with better customer support.
All the major search engines recognize this problem, and getting those “offline” advertisers online is a high priority for all of them, but so far there has not been great success. It is a knowledge and training gap, and neither Yahoo, MSN, or Google has so far been able to address it adequately.
Google’s recent acquisition of urchin, a web analytics program illustrates the problem Google is trying to solve. Big Companies getting involved in paid search will still continue to drive big revenues, but the new internet is about verticals and niches, and Google simply isn’t making the grade in terms of training their customers well enough.
Where do small business customers go after they “churn”? Many of them go back to what they were doing successfully before; email marketing, direct marketing, and call centers according to our study.
The next growth area will be hundreds of thousands of verticals, driven by small businesses exploiting areas and needs that the fortune 500 companies can not fill efficiently. The search engine company that gets the most advertisers on its side will win market share, and winning will require the ability to service everybody, not just the super sophisticated internet super geeks.
However, many private companies not sanctioned by Google, have sprung up in order to try to bridge the gap between the Google Adwords program and the ability to advertise efficiently on Google and achieve a high ROI. One such company is http://adwordstraining.org that offers free video training and free frequently updated information at http://marketingnewsblog.adwordstraining.org
Simple training videos are available on the site, as well as an advertiser self study course to get non-technical people up to speed with Google Adwords advertising.
Between Google’s extensive training program of Google Professionals and private training by private companies, this knowledge gap may be bridged, and in the process a whole new industry of Google Adwords Marketing companies may be created, to facilitate the knowledge gap between Google and the advertisers that want to take advantage of the enormous advertising reach afforded by paid search.
But, this might not be enough for Google to keep its lead, as advertisers often follow the path of least resistance in getting their messages out, and they are the ones funding the growth of the search engine industry.
Where those advertisers ultimately go will determine the ultimate victor in the ever growing search engine wars, and the winner is by no means secure at this point.
Steve Blom
Founding Partner
InTouch Media Group
About the author:
Steve Blom is a founding partner of InTouch Media Group, a publicly traded company specializing in the online marketing field.
http://www.intouchmediagroup.com
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01.04.09
Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 7:33 pm by admin
It’s difficult to dispute the rational behind the rant since Google continues to outpace its rivals in popularity with an 89% “strongly positive experience” rating from an opinion poll of U.S. Adult Internet Users conducted by eMarketer in early 2005. Google certainly achieves mass exposure and logically it’s fair to attribute a first position ranking to gaining access to the masses.
However, your success in search engine marketing should not be reliant on a single source of visitors. Although the convenience of focusing on Google is comforting in the whirlwind of new search and Internet technology, the outcome from it could be disastrous to the growth of your business.
An effective search engine marketing strategy leverages the advantages of all of the major search engines and their advertising channels including natural and paid.
Why?
Here are three essential reasons why you should expand your search engine marketing strategy beyond just Google, paid search or any other singular search engine marketing strategy to encompass the broader opportunities available for your business.
(1) Paid versus Natural Search: Relevancy and Conversion
A common strategy of search engine marketing companies and Internet marketers is to bid for the top paid search listing in Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) or Google Adwords as a way to acquire the perceived “bread and butter” position in the search results page. The concept is that a search result appearing at the top of the list is the most relevant to the search users’ keyword query and therefore will receive the most click-throughs and conversions.
However, research from Enquiro as well as many other research firms, found a “significant amount of confusion over sponsored links.” In the research conducted, over 77% of participants when performing a product research search choose a natural listing over a paid listing. Even during an actual purchase scenario, 67% of participants still choose a natural listing over a paid one.
And what about Google specifically? The Enquiro study showed that 85% of Google users choose a natural listing while 14% clicked on a paid “sponsored” link. The study stated that, “Google users also had the lowest level of confusion about what was a sponsored link on the search results page.” Compare these numbers to 42% of search users on non-Google search engines like Yahoo and MSN choose a sponsored link over a natural listing.
Also, the conversion rate whether sales or leads may be affected by the source of a website visitor’s click-through. A study conducted by MarketingSherpa called “Search Marketing Metrics Survey” in July 2004, showed that “conversions from (natural) search engine results are 25%+ higher than paid search ad conversions.” Relevancy from search result listing to website is critical however you also need to consider the relevancy associated with the ad type - paid versus natural.
So you know the insight - what’s the solution?
Easy - don’t get caught up in an “either/or” decision, as a search engine marketer you must focus on both natural search through search engine optimization and paid search.
As the Enquiro study stated, “Unless a company is willing to forfeit either 70% (in the case of natural) or 30% (in the case of paid) of their potential market to the competition they have to seriously consider both search channels.”
(2) Cross-Search Engine Builds Brand Credibility
Tempting as it may be to put all of your eggs in one basket for convenience sake, Google is not the only major source of quality website visitors. In the most recent search engine rankings issued by Nielsen/NetRatings in March 2005, Google was first with 47% of searches (among work and home users in U.S.); Yahoo second with 20.9% and MSN third with 13.6%. If you only focus on Google, you are missing access to over 53% of the marketplace.
In addition, another separate study conducted by Nielsen/NetRatings determined that “the majority of Internet searchers use mutliple search engines.” As a ClickZ article written by Rob McGann on February 28, 2005 stated, “The (Nielsen/NetRatings) study found that 58% of Google searchers also visited at least one of the other top two search engines, Yahoo and MSN Search.”
So what happens when a potential customer finds your search listing on Google yet you are no where to be found on MSN or Yahoo? What if they only see a sponsor listing on Google which they immediately view as less than relevant? How about a major slam against your credibility?
Yes - that’s right. Because of the wide-spread utility of the internet for research and consideration during a buying cycle, if you are not found across search engines for a particular keyword search, you don’t exist in the eye of the searcher as a potential option to fulfill their needs. On the other hand, if you are found across multiple search engines, you instantly receive a relevancy and credibility boost.
So you know the insight - what’s the solution?
Focus on generating search result listings for at least the top three search engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN. Because these three feed a number of other search engines like AOL and AskJeeves (for paid listings) you will gain cross-search engine exposure.
In the worse case, work on generating natural search listings in Google and perform paid search in Yahoo and MSN using Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) to achieve the broad search exposure.
If search users are adopting multiple search engines to conduct their keyword searches then build your credibility with them by appearing across the major search engines especially for your top brand-oriented keywords.
(3) Search Engine User Demographics
Depending on the type of product or service you are selling, focusing on just Google or any other single search engine marketing strategy may be placing you in the entirely wrong marketplace. Although absolute demographic figures are difficult to gather, a 2004 Enquiro study titled, “Search Engine Usage in North America” provided some interesting demographic characteristics for the top three search engines:
• Males are more likely to remain loyal with one search engines (primarily Google) while females are more likely to use more than one search engine (Google, MSN and Yahoo).
• Males prefer Google while females had a strong preference for MSN.
• For both males and females, a trusted site that offers unbiased information with the natural search results was the strongest preference.
• As educational levels increased, an affinity towards Google increased as well. This may imply that Google uses are more sophisticated.
• Google users were more Internet savvy than non Google users therefore, for technology-related products Google may be a better source of qualified visitors while MSN and Yahoo may be better for non technology-related products.
So you know the insight - what’s the solution?
Visitor behaviors are dynamic - they have a tendency to change as frequently as the weather. Therefore, do not assume that your potential customers are sophisticated and therefore reside in the Google pool. Instead, use paid search engines to test all three major search engines to generate a sense of where your potential customers hang-out. Once you find a populated pool of qualified visitors work on building your natural search listings to support and ultimately replace your paid search engine strategy.
Although it is easy to want to simplify search engine marketing by focusing all of your efforts on the biggest and most popular search engine, Google - it is business smart to avoid the temptation. Yahoo and MSN are prominent players in the search engine market and may possess hidden gems that could explode your business growth. Even more so, moving beyond the top three search engines is also important to extend your brand exposure on an international level.
By focusing your efforts across the top three search engines whether using natural or paid listings, you are placing yourself in the best position to build credibility, relevance and conversion - the main variables that lead to significant search engine marketing success for your business.
Kevin Gold is a writer, speaker and co-founder of Enhanced Concepts, Inc. Enhanced Concepts specializes in turning website visitors into leads or sales through web conversion strategies and ROI-driven search engine marketing. If you want to increase your leads or sales and get a free copy of “Understanding Your Conversion Rate” and “12 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Website Conversion” visit http://www.enhancedconcepts.com
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12.30.08
Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 8:16 pm by admin
For the uninitiated, searching for web pages can seem a slow, obscure process. Unless you have a high-speed Internet connection, web pages may seem to take days to load. And the searching itself - you have to admit it looks weird typing in bunches of plus signs, asterisks, parenthesis, and other funny symbols and operators to find what you want.
To help you in this process and show that you are not, I’ve compiled a top five list of things you must realize when searching the web for information. No pencils will fly, no drums will roll, but you just might learn something.
5. Search Engines Have to Make Money
Before you grumble over the growing number of advertisements and sponsored links that appear in search engine results page, remember that most search engines are free. You’re not paying anything for a very costly service. Thus, these sites have to earn income somehow to stay afloat (computing power and bandwidth isn’t cheap!) So, to put it bluntly… live with it.
(Yes, I know some types of advertising are much more obtrusive than others. Popup ads, dancing animations, and other larger advertisements may make it harder to use some search engines that support these types of ads. If you don’t like it, vote with your mouse clicks and move to another search engine).
4. Sites Go Down
Worse yet, you’ve entered in your perfect search query, looked at the results page, and the first site you see no longer exists!
The Internet changes all the time. Unfortunately, search engines and directories are not able to constantly query every site on the Internet to see if they are still online. Occasionally (in other words, probably frequently) you will find links to web sites that no longer exist. It is just a part of life. Especially with the dot-com bust, many web site owners can no longer afford to host free resources. If they could not convert their traffic to paying customers, they just took their sites down
So when you find a link that is dead, don’t pump your fist in anger … just go back to the results page and move along. Or, better yet, if you’re using a search engine that caches pages, such as Google, just look at the cached version of the now defunct pages and find the information contained therein. It’s like stepping through a time machine!
3. Your Web Browser Will Crash
On a related note, not only do web sites go down - but so may your web browser. Sometimes it will be due to visiting a multimedia-intensive web site. Sometimes it will seem to happen for no reason. But it will happen, and when it does, don’t go blaming yourself saying that you did something wrong.
Web browsers, like just about any other type of computer software program available on the market, are not infallible. They can and usually do contain bugs. These may predictably rear their ugly heads when visiting sites containing a lot of multimedia and advanced interactive elements, or they may appear completely at random.
If your web browser crashes, do what I do. Just restart it. Don’t say you did something wrong. Don’t think that you must be so bad with computers that you crashed the Internet. Just restart your browser, and if you have to restart your computer to do so, then do it as well. Most likely the crash is not your fault.
2. The Internet Can Be Slow
No matter how fast your on-ramp to the Internet may be, there will be times where it seems to take forever to load a web page. This is just the nature of the beast.
As the Internet is a loosely connected network, if certain connections go down, computers may not always be able to route information via other networks. Thus access speed will suffer and your web browser will start to crawl. If this seems to be happening often, step away from the computer, go outside and take a nice, long walk (unless it’s 30 degrees below). You can run your search another time when the speed is back to normal.
And the #1 thing you must realize when searching…
1. The Best Result Just May Be On Page 10
Most people only look through the first page of search engine or directory results, usually the top ten listings. Others may visit the second page, but relatively very few people venture to the higher numbered pages.
This is a shame - sometimes the best results to a search engine query are not in the first ten listings as they may only contain links to commercially driven sites or sites run by web owners who know how to manipulate listings. In some cases web sites containing perfectly good information may not be listed in the top 10, 20, 50, or even top 100 results.
Obviously searching through the many pages and pages of resulting sites will take extra time, especially if you do not have a high-speed connection to the Internet. But, this time spent may well be worth it if you find some gems in the rough! So if you have the time, speed, and patience, browse through the deeper results pages. You never know what you may find!
And that’s it - my top five list of things you must realize when searching. This covers slow access time, results not on page 1, browser bugs, web sites popping up and down and changing management, and the need for sites to make money, causing advertisements to become more obtrusive. Gosh, that just makes you want to go out and search right now, doesn’t it? .
About The Author
This article was written by Andrew Malek, Internet Search Guru and author of Find Stuff On the Net, an e-book that can show even beginning computer users how to navigate the Internet without fear. Gain confidence using your web browser. Master search engines. And more! For further information and free snippets of the book, visit http://www.findstuffonthenet.com/
webmaster@envprogramming.com
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12.28.08
Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 11:54 am by admin
Top 10 search engine rankings. Everybody wants it but a few achieve it. Search engines have always been an important source of traffic for many marketers. Achieving high search engine rankings should be one of your goals because it can be profitable in the long run.
But what is it that prevent some people from obtaining their coveted rankings?
It’s true that some years ago, getting high rankings was very easy. You could just set up a site, heavily optimize it on the page itself and bam, you can appear in the top listings quickly and easily.
Nowadays, this has totally changed. It is becoming more and more difficult to secure and even maintain good rankings on the major search engine result pages(SERPs) like Google and Yahoo. Some of the reasons are:
(1) Competition
There is more and more competition. More and more websites are popping out everyday and everyone is trying to promote their websites, hence increasing pages and websites in the SERPs. An example, Google has more than 8 billion pages now in its index.
(2) Search Engine Algorithm Change
With the search engine algorithm changing, it can become more complex to figure out how to get top rankings or maintain your existing ones.
(3) Search Engines Are More Severe
Doing any foolish mistake with your site can be costly. You should be careful what you are doing when promoting your site. For eg, you can have hidden text or links on your site without you knowing and you can be penalized.
If it’s not a mistake, you could be linking to websites that aren’t good anymore, hence devaluing your site.
What should you do? Well, you can’t do anything about competition neither algorithm change but you need to monitor who you link to and ensure that your site is clean everytime. And above all,
links on as many similar and related sites are still highly valuable to get top rankings and you should constantly get them regularly because that’s the core building block of good placement in the SERPs no matter what and to outrank your competition, that’s what you should do. And you can be sure that good quality links will still be important in every algorithm change.
Here are top 2 ways to get links to your site and higher rankings in major search engines:
(1) Reciprocal Links
It’s being said that reciprocal links are decreasing in value but still though, they are worth getting. If you are exchanging links with sites which are of similar or related topics, it can do you more good than harm. So don’t stop getting these type of links. A link is a link and it will benefit you in many ways you can imagine. A link will not only help you in better search engine placement but you will get traffic from that link alone.
I know that because I get lots of traffic from my link partners alone. If you can get one on the homepage, it’s even better. So don’t underestimate reciprocal linking. They still work. Many sites with high search engine positioning have reciprocal links to them, so they are still of great value. The web is simply a network of websites linking to each other in a way. Links are what form the internet.
(2) One-way Links
On the other hand, one-way links are best because they are independent votes. Other websites link to you without linking back. Well these type of links are harder to get.
Some good ways to get them are:
(i) Build a useful site and allow others to link to you freely by providing them with the necessary materials like text links or banners. Text links are better because you can include your targeted keywords in them. Some people will even link to you just because your site has good content and will find a way to link to you usually just by taking your homepage title. I’ve seen that.
(ii) Buy some text advertising on other quality related sites. This will give you traffic and automatically benefit you in your rankings.
(iii) Write articles of interest to your audience and submit them to other websites which accept articles. In your author bylines, you have a link to your site. Well this will certainly help your traffic, link popularity and rankings. But to boost your rankings better, check out section (iv) which reveals how use the article marketing strategy to get one-way inbound links with your targeted keyword in your anchor text.
(iv) Create a section on your site allowing others to re-publish your articles. Provide them with the exact html code so that they can just copy and paste that code on their sites easily. Don’t forget to mention that the article and author bio should not be modified in any way if it’s used. Hence by facilitating their tasks, you can be sure to get your articles distributed on the web much more faster.
In your author bylines, be sure to put an anchor text with your targeted keyword in the link to your site. This is how an author bylines can be extremely beneficial for your rankings. This is not just a url but a keyword targeted url. Imagine your reprint article page gets decent traffic, you increase your chances to get some people interested to re-publish your work on the net. With time, you will boost your link popularity and get higher rankings.
Well you work hard to produce quality content and it can pay itself many times over. One article can be published on hundreds of websites and if your url is automatically coded with an anchor text containing your targeted keyword, you will have 100 one-way keyword-rich inbound links. Now what’s the value of that? I let you figure it out.
Getting high search engine rankings takes time, work and patience but if you are serious about your business and you are here to stay for long, you should devote some of your time everyday doing some search engine promotion. In the long run, you are going to reap the rewards of your on-going work.
This article can be freely published on a website as long as
it’s not modified in any way including the author bylines,
plus the hyperlink must be made active just like below.
Jean Lam is the author of the highly acclaimed eBook
Top Search Engine Ranking Secrets in Google Revealed,
a concise, step-by-step guide to high search engine ranking for
the beginner to intermediate level webmaster.
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Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 11:20 am by admin
Welcome to part seven in this ten-part search engine positioning series. Last week we discussed the importance of human testing. In part seven we will cover the best practices of website submissions, where to submit your website to, and how to do so.
With services offering to help you get more traffic and higher search engine positioning by submitting your website to “18 Bazillion Search Engines For Just $19.95 Per Month!” and other such claims, there has grown much confusion around website submissions. In this article we will clear up many of the misconceptions around submitting your website and may even save you “Just $19.95 Per Month!” in the process.
Over this series we will cover the ten key aspects to a solid search engine positioning campaign.
The Ten Steps We Will Go Through Are:
1. Keyword Selection
(http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/keywords.htm)
2. Content Creation
(http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/content.htm)
3. Site Structure
(http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/structure.htm)
4. Optimization
(http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/optimization.htm)
5. Internal Linking
(http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/internal-linking.htm)
6. Human Testing
(http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/human-testing.htm)
7. Submissions
8. Link Building
9. Monitoring
10. The Extras
Step Seven - Website Submissions
While there are definitely more critical areas of the website optimization process there is perhaps no area subject to as much misinformation and to such a vast audience. Here are some common misconceptions that are often believed about search engine submissions:
1. You need to submit your website often to keep it indexed by the search engines
2. You need to submit your website to thousands and thousands of search engines to get decent traffic
3. Submitting your website often will keep you at the top of the search engine rankings
These beliefs are all incorrect and those who can make a quick buck selling this disservice perpetrate them. If you have not recently received an email offering to “Submit Your Website To More Search Engines Than There Are Websites On The Internet For Just $19.95 Per Month!” then I can pretty much guarantee that you will in the not-too-distant future if your email can be found somewhere on your website.
An irony of this can be found in Google’s webmaster area where they note:
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
“Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”
Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for “burn fat at night” diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
Good advice as I’m sure Google has their website submissions taken care of. Just because you receive such an email, doesn’t mean that you’re missing out on anything. Let’s first look at a breakdown of which engines are responsible for which traffic.
According to research the major search engines are responsible for the following percentages of traffic as of June 2004:
Google - 41.6%
Yahoo - 31.5%
MSN - 27.4% (MSN draws their results from Yahoo!/Overture)
AOL - 13.6% (AOL draws their results from Google)
Ask Jeeves - 7.0%
Lycos - 3.7%
Netscape - 3.0% (Netscape draws their results from Google)
AltaVista - 2.7% (AltaVista draws the Yahoo!/Overture)
Source: Neilson/Netratings (http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/)
Note: These numbers total over 100% as people may use multiple search engines if they don’t find the information they are looking for at the first one they try.
So what does this tell us? This tells us that the very vast majority of search engine traffic does not come from many thousands of search engines but rather, relatively few. This would lead to the obvious questions, “Is it worth paying to be submitted to thousands of search engines?” The real answer, “No.”
Then How Do I Submit My Own Website?
Automated search engine submission systems simply access the existing and readily accessible “Add URL” pages of the search engines and automatically submit your site. You can do this yourself simply by visiting the search engines and submitting through these same pages.
To simplify this process you can visit the “search engines” page on the Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning website (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/info/search-engines-major.htm) where we link directly to the submissions pages of the major engines.
But What About The Other Engines? Surely They Provide Some Traffic?
Quite honestly, they may. You may get a visitor or two. Is it worth $19.95/mth or some such amount? No. You can get a better dollar/visitor ratio on any of the many PPC engines out there.
An additional point to note is that you may want to actually visit some of the lists of engines on the sites offering these services to you. You will discover a couple of important facts:
- Many of these so-called “search engines” are not engines at all but rather FFA (Free-For-All) pages and classified ads sites. They will not help your rankings, you will not see traffic from them and your listing will probably last about as long as spam in your Inbox.
- Many of the actual search engines and directories are topical. What this means is that they are focused on a single area and unless your site coincidentally is about space exploration, topographical mapping, etc. you won’t get listed. Submitting should not be confused with “guaranteed listing”. Submitting your site to thousands of engines is not the same as getting your website indexed on thousands of engines.
The Submission Myth
The truth of that matter is, submitting your website at all can realistically be considered a waste of time. Aside from a few key general directories (DMOZ, Yahoo, etc.) and a number of SEO directories, we did not submit the website www.beanstalk-inc.com to any of the major search engines. It’s true, not a single submission.
Are we indexed? Yes we are.
How did we get indexed without submitting our site? If you take the time that you would be spending submitting your site and spend it instead finding quality inbound links (which we will write about next week) your site will be indexed and much quicker than you think.
You’ve probably heard the term “search engine spider”. Search engines crawl websites. This means that they visit a page, follow all the links on that page and so on. If you have a link on a website that is already known to the search engines it is only a matter of time before your website will be found by default. If fact, when the Beanstalk site went live and the first link was established to it, it did not take the weeks that are estimated through the use of the submissions pages for our site to be found. The homepage of beanstalk-inc.com was index by Google three days after the site went live and the other major engines followed within a week or so.
Final Notes
If there are any points that I hope you take away from this article they are the following:
1. Automated search engine submissions services are not worth the money they charge.
2. You do not need to be submitted to thousands of “search engines”. The vast majority of traffic comes from the top few.
3. You will want to consider whether it is even worth the time to submit to search engines or whether that time could be better spent building quality, relevant links to your site and submitting your site to the major and topical directories.
An additional failing to the automated submissions systems not covered above is their inability to take into consideration the exact characteristics of your website for their directory submissions. When you’re submitting your website to directories you will have to choose the exact category your site falls into. Most directories have slightly different category hierarchies and the more exact you are in your submission, the higher the chance you will be listed. Automated systems can never be as exact across multiple directories as a human can.
Submitting your website, even correctly, will not guarantee you top rankings however it will leave you with money in your pocket to spend on other promotional endeavors that may actually produce a solid ROI. And THAT’S what it’s all about.
The rankings? You’ll have to read the other nine steps of the series to find out how to attain those.
Next Week
In part eight of this search engine positioning series we will cover the importance of link building, how to attain high quality, relevant links to your website, and the tools to reduce the time it take to do so significantly. With the importance of inbound links to your overall rankings you won’t want to miss this very important step in the website optimization process.
Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning. He has been optimizing and ranking websites for over three years and has a solid history of success. Dave is available to answer any questions that you may have about your website and how to get it into the top positions on the major search engines. To keep informed about what going on in the SEO world you may also want to visit the newly created SEO blog on the Beanstalk website.
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11.21.08
Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 1:16 pm by admin
Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination - your website - you need to provide them with specific and effective signs that will direct them right to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords.
Finding the right keyword
Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.
Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.
You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven’t followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It’s hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.
Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers’ understanding is significantly different.
The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of your business.
Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keyword to the list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.
Evaluate your keywords
The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By “quality visitors” I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.
Keyword Popularity
Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which will then bring up your URL.
You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.
Popularity isn’t enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity.
Keyword specificity
The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you.
Let’s look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword “automobile companies.” However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword “automobile body shops” would rank lower on the popularity scale than “automobile companies,” but it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you will face.
Consumer motivation
The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase. Let’s look at another example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between “Seattle job listings” and “Seattle IT recruiters” which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in between beer parties.
You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to you site.
Evaluate your keyword performance
Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.
Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines. There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.
This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.
Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work - and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your business’ rewards.
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10.11.08
Posted in Internet SEO Resources at 2:33 am by admin
All SEO specialists will agree upon this: quality inbound links
help getting high rankings on popular search engines.
Basically, you can get links to your website:
- on reciprocal basis - swapping links with
somehow-related-to-yours websites;
- by paying for links = getting listed in directories in
exchange of a fee;
- by offering good content on your pages - specialists will
reffer to your site in forums, blogs etc.;
- by offering for free good content to others in exchange for a
link pointing to your website.
Let’s talk about the last one and you will decide if you will
use it in your SEO and promotion strategy. So here’s a short “7
steps how-to” guide about w.a.f. free quality links ( writing
articles for free quality inbound links):
Step 1: Carefully choose the theme of your article
First of all, it should be within your area of expertise. You
must be able to provide interesting and useful information
regarding the topic you choose. Then, you want to attract
visitors which are interested in the theme / content / product /
services you post on your web pages. Therefore you should write
about a topic that matches your website’s subject.
Step 2: “Give birth” to a good title
I say “give birth” becase I want to give emphasis to
originality. There are a lot of articles on the web which sound
alike: “The 10 commandements of “, “A step-by-step guide to ”
etc. Make all the research you want, but come up with something
new! At least 80% of the web surfers will spend as much as 30
seconds or less on a web site (not on a web page!) The title of
your article will show first and must make them curious and
willing to spend more time to find out what’s “behind” the
title. Make it concise, explicit and interesting.
Step 3: Plan and follow a coherent structure
Design a clear structure of the article, follow it and build
your article around this “backbone”. Basically, your should get
your readers in the mood first, then feed them the information
and “hit” them in the end with your smart conclusions.
Step 4: Nicely wrap-up your article
Regardless the relevant information you share, you must make it
a “sweet candy” in order to make sure that the reader goes
through the entire article. Keep it to 600 - 800 words. Use
short sentences. Keep it simple and suggestive. Share quality
information. Place a joke here and there.
A piece of advice
here: make it a SEO - wise article. Include the keywords that
you target for your website (read the conclusions below to find
out why).
Step 5: Compose your “author’s box”
Your name and/or alias, a few words about your
expertise/background, the URL of your website, maybe an e-mail
address. Some of your publishers will ask for this author box
and it is better to have it ready. Again, make it concise and
suggestive.
Step 6: Check up your inbound-link-generating article
Check the spelling and grammar of your article. Make sure it
makes sense for readers - give it to other people (friends) and
ask for their input. Modify it if necessary and then check it
again.
Step 7: Be prepared!
If you are editing the article using an advanced text editor the
article looks great. But you will publish it on the web, not
print it on paper! Create a plain text version of the article in
a basic text editor, without using “bold”, “italic”, “bullets”
etc. This is the format you will use for submission in most of
the cases.
Your article is now ready to be published on the web. Where?
Well, this is another topic and it is at least one other article
of mine (about where to submit your articles) you should read.
Quality-inbound-links-generating article: conclusions.
Writing an article and getting it published on the web is a
good SEO and promotion strategy because:
- you get free inbound links: “votes” for search engines and
targeted traffic without paying any fees
- you get inbound links without having to link back to other
sites (search engines appreciate this)
- you get a link to your website in a page with relevant content
(a very important SEO technique)
- beside the sites you directly submit your article to, other
sites / newsletters may use your article and therefore link to
your site (further reading about “the other side” of newsletters
in my SEO -
WSSYA for high rankings article);
- you promote your name along with your website and you increase
your web visibility as a specialist in a particular field.
So, writing articles for (w.a.f) free quality inbound links is a
SEO / web promotion strategy which worths consider in web
marketing. Read more (on www.ewolwe.com) to find out
more and good luck to you all!
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