Apr . 15 . 2009

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – An Overview

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Run a search on any of the 200 major search engines, and the results will come up in similar orders on quite a few of them. How a website owner/operator gets their website to the top of a list is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. Optimizing a website involves many of the same techniques, whether the aim is to optimize for Google adwords, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves or others. There is a list of what not to do as well, and that list is applicable to all engines, as it mostly refers to tricks and hacks unscrupulous designers use to try to trick the engines. These kind of pages generally get removed by automated tools and don’t generally last very long, so they are not recommended to bother with.

Website optimization starts with content. If the content is irrelevant, the website will not last long in the rankings, no matter how many keywords are included. The best way to get relevant content is to get an expert to write the content. General content may be more friendly to beginners, but in the search optimization arena, content is what is going to keep readers coming back and webmasters linking to the page. Many search engines use link counters to rank sites. If enough people like and value the site, they will link to it from their own site as an example of expert help for visitors seeking more detailed information than they can provide, or are willing to provide. Often, general-interest sites will link to expert sites, thereby also driving their own traffic up as the initial portal to those expert sites and improving their own rankings in the optimization listings. The quality of the sites linked is also a major factor in the rankings, as quality sites such as Microsoft and Google are going to be more effective “heavy hitters” than a link to Bob’s House of Website Optimizing.

When the content is being created, keywords are the “anchors” that search engines hook onto, but just filling your content with keywords risks being dismissed as a spam site, as many spammers merely fill a page with keywords, hoping to hook anyone searching for anything. These kind of pages are usually removed quickly, but they exist nonetheless. Specific keywords are the key–instead of Search Engine, use Search Engine Optimization for Google, or combinations of the key words or phrases. Optimization for Search Engines in one area, then Optimizing for higher Search Engine rankings in another increases the chances of an engine ranking your website content a little higher than it may have otherwise.

The guidelines for content also go for Meta tags such as the title. Title is very important, as it is one of the bigger spots for an engine to catch, as well as the hook that draws a surfer in once the rankings have been displayed. A recommended length is 50-80 characters (including spaces), with keywords located near the beginning in case the window is resized on the screen. A good example would be “Search Engine Optimization tips and tricks for Google”, instead of “How to do important SEO for websites.”

Search Engine Optimization–what to avoid: Don’t use huge strings of keywords without relevant content–you may be labeled as a spammer and blacklisted off the engine(s) you’re trying to climb. Stay away from pop-ups, excessive load times (by keeping the page clean and using fast hosting servers), and lots of flash animation, as this takes time to load and also detracts from the readability of the site.

More specific information can be found by typing “Search Engine Optimization” into any major search engine like Google or Yahoo and following the links.

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Apr . 15 . 2009

Black & White – The Philosophies Of SEO

Search engine optimization otherwise known as SEO is a popular form of search engine marketing. The main goal of which (as its name would suggest) is to improve the ranking of the site in various search engines. An entire industry of consultants has sprung up around the idea of search engine optimization. However, it’s important to note that there are two distinct and disparate methodologies at work when it comes to optimization. In fact the SEO consultants themselves as well as their methods can be subdivided further into two different groups.

The categories are best known as “white hat SEO” (which is aimed at improving overall site quality, and increasing the site’s ranking through approved methods), or “black hat SEO” (often use methods such as cloaking and spamdexing to increase rankings. However, using such methods can lead to your site to being removed from search engine listings). Those in the white hat camp charge that black hat methods are not only giving SEO a bad name but are also attempting to manipulate and undermine the search rankings. The black hatters counter that argument by saying that in truth all SEO is an attempt to manipulate rankings, and therefore the particular methods one uses to increase rankings are irrelevant. In other words they take the more Machiavellian approach of using the end results to justify the means they use.

So what more specifically are the methods being employed by the two camps?

White hat methods:

These methods typically involve following the search engines’ published guidelines as to what is and what isn’t acceptable. The advice typically given by the white hat SEO experts is to create more user-friendly content, and not focus so much on the search engines. That is if your site is well put together and presents something users need it will naturally climb in the rankings. Also by making content that is easily accessible to the search engines spiders it will be properly read and therefore properly indexed in the search engines. The white hatters are needed most often because a webmaster has made critical mistakes in either the design or the set-up of their websites, inadvertently “poisoning” them so that they will not rank well. The SEOs then attempt to discover and correct these mistakes, which may include unreadable menus, broken links, temporary redirects, or simply a poor navigation structure.

Here are a few examples of SEO activities which the search engines find acceptable:

• Using a reasonably-sized, accurate description meta tag without excessive use of keywords, exclamation marks or off topic terms.

• Optimizing tags, titles and other parts of the code as necessary

• Using WordTracker or a similar database to find popular and relevant keywords and phrases to use for your site.

• Monitoring the various search engines to ensure that your URL gets indexed

• Increasing the amount of unique content on the site.

• Writing quality content for the website visitors instead of the search engines.

Black hat methods:

Whereas the white hat methods follow search engine guidelines “Black hat” SEO methods to try to improve rankings by any means necessary. Most of these methods are disapproved of by the search engines, typically because of their deceptive nature, but also hamper the ability of the search engines to provide quality content to site visitors. Search engines often penalize the sites they discover using black hat methods, by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from the search engine results altogether. These penalties are usually applied automatically by the search engines’ algorithms, because the Internet is too large to make manual policing of websites feasible. However once they are discovered, search engines may take action against those found to be using unethical SEO methods. Take for example Google’s removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany in February 2006 for use of these practices.

One common black hat method is known as Spamdexing. Spamdexing is the promotion of irrelevant, chiefly commercial, pages through various deceptive techniques and the abuse of the search algorithms. Unfortunately it often gets confused with white hat search engine optimization techniques, which do not involve deceit. Spamming involves getting websites more exposure than they deserve for their keywords, leading to unsatisfactory search results. Optimization involves getting websites the rank they deserve on the most targeted keywords, leading to satisfactory search experiences.

One example of spamdexing is link farming. Link farming can be basically defined as any group of web pages that all link to every other page in the group. Another common practice is listing popular keywords in fine print or in the same color as the background so they can’t be seen by users.

So how can you tell the difference between Black and White SEO practices?

A very easy way to distinguish between the two is though the amount of time involved in getting the desired results. White hat SEOs use methods that produce results slowly over time and only after a good deal of effort has been put into the site. Black hat SEOs offer you quick and easy results most, if not all, of which will obtained through deceptive practices.

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Apr . 15 . 2009

Web Site Copywriting For Search Engines

Your goal when copywriting for your web site is to get your site to the top three pages in the SERPs (search engine results position). Any further back than the first three pages or thirty sites, and your site won’t be found because that’s where the average web site surfer stops—after just three pages of searching. And web site information seekers account for the vast majority of click-throughs on your site.

Copywriting for search engines should be part of your search engine optimization strategy, but it’s challenging to say the least. Most of us are either artistic or scientific types; few are both. But that’s what online copywriting is all about. It’s both an art and a science, and that’s what gets most people on the wrong track.

In a nutshell, good web site copy needs to be rich, keyword-specific and topic-based. Many inexperienced web developers simply use brochures for their web site copy. Don’t let them talk you into it! Search engines most likely won’t find your web site if you do.

The optimal web site page size is around 2 MS Word pages. If you have more copy than that, consider splitting it into two or more. If you find you’ve got more than one topic on a page, split it into two or more.

If you’re like me, your first instinct is to sit down and start plunking away at your keyboard and get as many of your thoughts out as quickly as possible.

And that’s fine for your basic outline, but that’s about as far as it’ll get you. That’s the artistic side. And it just might be the wrong side to start with. I’ve learned over the years that, contrary to my instinct, starting with the scientific is actually easier and faster.

So, where do you start?

The first thing I do is find the right keywords to base my copywriting on, and there’s a relatively simple way to figure out which keywords to use. Open your favorite spreadsheet program (I use MS excel), and head four columns with:

Keyword   #Searched   #Returned   Ratio

Then, find a good keyword suggestion tool. Wordtracker has one and so does Overture, and both have free trials. There are also several others out there to use.

Tip: Keyword suggestion tools suggest more keywords and phrases for your search terms.

So, what you’re going to do is brainstorm some keywords and phrases for your product or service, enter them in the “keyword” column, and find out how often it’s searched for in your keyword suggestion tool.

Next go to a search engine and search for the phrase in quotations to find your competition for that word or phrase. And then figure out the ratio of “#searched” to “#returned”. What you’re looking for is a low number of returns for a highly searched word or phrase, or a relatively low ratio.

Tip: Keyword phrases often work better than keywords alone.

You want brainstorm a hundred or more words and phrases, and choose two to four to use in your web site copy. And as the saying goes, “two heads are better than one” so ask your family, friends and neighbors for input if you can.

Try a general keyword and start there. You’ll find a general keyword will be searched a lot, but you’ll also find there’s too much competition in most cases, so your ratio is too high. Then try different spellings, misspellings and more specific phrases. You’re looking for two to four target words or phrases per page.

For example “bodybuilding” has a ratio over 4,000, but “body building” is under 3,000. To get more specific, try targeting women. “Body building woman” has a ratio of around 500.

Once we’ve found our target phrases, we can start writing our web site content. But where do we put our targeted keywords and phrases?

Search engines look in specific places to try to determine your web site’s theme, yet they’re all slightly different as to exactly where they look and relative importance of each placing.

Nearly all search engines use page title as one of the most important, so try to make sure your page title uses at least one targeted phrase, or better yet, two. Our example title could be “Body Building Supplements – How to Build Muscle | Company Name” for example. That uses two of our target phrases and our company name. Or we could substitute the protein shake name for the company name.

Some search engines use meta tags, others do not, so I generally include meta tags for the search engines that do.

Heading tags are next in importance, ranging in importance from H1 and down. If you recall, in our last newsletter, we mentioned that headings are also high on your list for catching clients’ interest, so h1 heading tags carry lots of weight for both. One thing to watch for is cute headings, which can work for clients, but won’t work for search engines. To make the search engines happy, you need to include your keywords in your headings.

The last thing to be aware of for search engine copywriting is keyword density and placement. Again, each search engines seems to want something a little different, but you’re pretty safe if you have keywords near the beginning, middle and end of your copy. You’re looking for keyword density balance though because too many and your site is seen as spam by the search engines, while too few mean your web site theme isn’t clear enough to be found by your target audience.

So, now you have your keywords and you can start writing, right? Well, you can, but unless you keep a few points in mind, your copywriting won’t be as effective as you’d like it to be. But that’s the subject for another article.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, earth4energy diy. Feel free to look at his earth4energy diy website. You can also send your feedback at his earth4energy diy site. Thank you.

Apr . 15 . 2009

The Seven Secret Skills Of SEO Work

There is a lot of talk on the web regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how, if you just do this one thing, you will be at the top of Google. If only it were that easy! In fact, I believe there are seven distinct skills that a search engine optimiser needs to possess. Most people possess one or maybe two of these skills, very rarely do people posses all seven. In truth, to get to all seven, people who are good at two of these need to actively develop the other skills. This takes time and effort and, if you are running your own business, do you really have the time to do this?

The seven skills that I believe are necessary for SEO work are:

Web Design – producing a visually attractive page

HTML coding – developing Search Engine friendly coding that sits behind the web design

Copy writing – producing the actual readable text on the page

Marketing – what are the actual searches that are being used, what key words actually get more business for your company?

An eye for detail – even the smallest errors can stop spiderbots visiting your site.

Patience – there is a time lag on any change you make, waiting is a virtue.

IT skills – an appreciation of how search engine programs and the algorithms they use actually work

Many website designers produce more and more eye-catching designs with animations and clever features hoping to entice the people onto their sites. This is the first big mistake; using designs like these may actually decrease your chances of a high Google rating. Yes, that’s right; all that money you have paid for the website design could be wasted because no-one will ever find your site.

The reason for this is that before you get people to your site you need to get the spiderbots to like your site. Spiderbots are pieces of software used by the search engine companies to crawl the Internet looking at all the websites, and then having reviewed the sites, they use complex algorithms to rank the sites. Some of the complex techniques used by web designers cannot be trawled by spiderbots. They come to your site, look at the HTML code and exit stage right, without even bothering to rank your site. So, you will not be found on any meaningful search.

I am amazed how many times I look at websites and I immediately know they are a waste of money. The trouble is that both the web designers and the company that paid the money really do not want to know this. In fact, I have stopped playing the messenger of bad news (too many shootings!); I now work round the problem.

So, optimising a website to be Google friendly is often a compromise between a visually attractive site and an easy to find site. The second skill is that of optimising the actual HTML code to be spiderbot friendly. I put this as different to the web design because you really do need to be “down and dirty” in the code rather than using an editor like FrontPage, which is OK for website design. This skill takes lots of time and experience to develop, and just when you think you have cracked it, the search engine companies change the algorithms used to calculate how high your site will appear in the search results.

This is no place for even the most enthusiastic amateur. Results need to be constantly monitored, pieces of code added or removed, and a check kept on what the competition are doing. Many people who design their own website feel they will get searched because it looks good, and totally miss out this step. Without a strong technical understanding of how spiderbots work, you will always struggle to get your company on the first results page in Google. We actually run seven test domains which are testing different theories with different search engines. Remember that different search engines use different criteria and algorithms to rank your site – one size does not fit all.

Thirdly, I suggested that copy writing is a skill in its own right. This is the writing of the actual text that people coming to your site will read. The Googlebot and other spiderbots like Inktomi, love text – but only when written well in properly constructed English. Some people try to stuff their site with keywords, while others put white writing on white space (so spiderbots can see it but humans cannot).

Spiderbots are very sophisticated and not only will not fall for these tricks, they may actively penalise your site – in Google terms, this is sandboxing. Google takes new sites and “naughty” sites and effectively sin-bins them for 3-6 months, you can still be found but n t until results page 14 – really useful! As well as good English, the spiderbots are also reading the HTML code, so the copy writer also needs an appreciation of the interplay between the two. My recommendation for anyone copy writing their own site is to write normal, well-constructed English sentences that can be read by machine and human alike.

The fourth skill is marketing, after all this is what we are doing – marketing you site and hence company and products/services on the Web. The key here is to set the site up to be accessible to the searches that will provide most business to you. I have seen many sites that can be found as you key in the company name. Others that can be found by keying in “Accountant Manchester North-West England”, which is great, except no-one ever actually does that search. So the marketing
skill requires knowledge of a company’s business, what they are really trying to sell and an understanding of what actual searches may provide dividends.

The next skill is an eye for detail. Even a simple change to a web page can create an error that means the spiderbots will not crawl your site. Recently, I put a link to a page that didn’t have www. at the front of the address. The link still worked but the spiders stopped crawling, and it took my partner to find the error. We have recently invested in a very sophisticated html validator that picks up errors that other validators just fail to see. These errors do not stop the pages displaying correctly to the human eye, but cause massive problems with spiderbots. Almost all the code that I look at on the web using this validator flags major errors, even from SEO companies.

The sixth skill is patience, or is it a virtue! Some people seem to want to make daily changes and then think they can track the web page ranking results the next day. Unfortunately, it can take a week for absolutely correct changes to take effect, in which time you have made six other changes. Add to this Google’s
reticence to allow new sites straight on to its listings by adding a waiting factor of, maybe, three months for new sites, and you have a totally uncontrollable situation. We say to all our clients that a piece of SEO work should be looked at like a marketing campaign that runs for six months, since it is only after that time that a true judgement of the effectiveness of the work can be made.

The final and seventh skill is an appreciation of how search engines and algorithms work, for this where both IT and maths experience is useful. People who have programmed at a detailed systems level have a natural feeling for how spiderbots will read a page, what they will search for, what tables they will set up, what weightings they may give to different elements. All of this builds a picture of the database that will be created and how it will be accessed when a search is undertaken. Unfortunately, this skill is the most difficult one to learn as it relies on many years experience of systems programming.

So, in summary, I would say “If it was easy everyone would be doing it!”. I hope you will see that professional Search Engine Optimisation companies need more than a bit of web design to improve your business. Make sure anyone you choose for SEO work can cover all the bases.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, earth4energy review. Feel free to look at his earth4energy review website. You can also send your feedback at his earth4energy review site. Thank you.

Apr . 15 . 2009

The SEO Benefits Of Link Building

If you are a Webmaster looking to break in on the benefits derived from link building then you are not alone. Thousands of webmasters just like you, each day, are attempting to establish a strong link building net for myriad reasons. Why? What is it about link building that has got webmasters scouring the Internet looking for a way to establish links with other, similar websites? The reasons and vast benefits of link building are described below:

• More Traffic to Your Website:

First, the biggest benefit from link building is, of course, and increase in your website traffic. When you agree to post a reciprocal link for another website with a similar theme, you will find that both you and the other website benefit from the transaction. For instance, if visitors stop into the website you link with and are looking for websites with a similar theme, the reciprocal link provided by the website you are linking with can bring traffic into your website. Clearly, the more links you have with various websites the better as it gets your website out there and noticed. In fact, you will find that as long as other websites exist you can benefit from reciprocal linking and traffic will be directed to your site from the links you have established.

• A Higher Search Engine Ranking for Your Website:

Search engines determine the popularity of your site based on a number of factors, including how many links are directed to your website. The more links pointing to your website on the web, the higher your search engine ranking is. Thus, it really pays to establish a link building system in which you can create reciprocal links to other websites that share commonalities with your website as, not only do you improve your website traffic, but you also improve your search engine ranking.

• An Increase in the Informative Nature of Your Website

If you are creating a website that you want to be informative for viewers, then you will definitely want to add links to your site. Adding links to your site suggests your familiarity with the other websites on the Internet that address the same topics as you do. Plus, for those individuals that are interested in your website and don’t know where to look for similar websites, you afford them the convenience of easily finding such sites—a convenience that the visitor is sure to remember.

• Linking Increases the Credibility of Your Website

If you apply and successfully place reciprocal links to other websites, the credibility of your site immediately increases. Why? Due to the fact that other, reputable websites are linking to you, your site’s credibility increases because visitors realize that other webmasters deem you a credible source on the Internet. Finally, credibility goes a long way in many Internet communities—people will begin to revere you as an expert and you will be able to reap the rewards afforded to you through your increased popularity and web traffic.

• Establish Connections within the Internet Community

By engaging in Link building, you can increase the number of people you reach. Link building, in and of itself, is a form of free advertising—for every link you establish; you establish the possibility of reaching a new web audience. In essence, the more people you reach, the more traffic you are able to draw to your website. Plus, while you are meeting new people with similar interests, you can become a serious member of the Internet community. Finally, in becoming a member of the Internet community, you will also increase your credibility.

• Suggest an Affiliation with other Websites

Even if you are not affiliated with a website, if such websites decide to link to you, you have created the suggestion that you are affiliated with such sites. Visitors will find that credible websites have supplied links to your website and they will believe that you have some kind of affiliation with the site linking to you—an illusion yes, but a powerful one indeed—one that increases your credibility on the Internet, as well as your ability to be recognized.

Submitting a site to relevant directories can help you get that link building campaign underway. There is no time like the present to get your link campaign started—the sooner you start establishing links from other sites, the sooner you can reap all the benefits from link building.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, www earth4energy com. Feel free to look at his www earth4energy com website. You can also send your feedback at his www earth4energy com site. Thank you.

Apr . 12 . 2009

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The Myth?

Search Engine Optimization. Big words. Sounds Important. What is it? If you do a search in google for the web definition of search engine optimization, you get a lot of different results.

Some simply say that search engine optimization is the generic term for making sure your site is optimized to appear as one of the top ranking web sites on a search.

Others get more detailed with their definition and say search engine optimization is the term used to describe the marketing technique of preparing a web site to enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine once a relevant search is undertaken.

A number of factors are important when optimizing a web site, including the content and structure of the web site’s copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags and the submission process.

Is it important? That also depends on which definition you believe and who you ask that question to. If you ask someone who runs a business and charges for search engine optimization, they will tell you it is the most important thing you will ever do for your website.

At each SEO website, they will tell you they are the number 1 SEO company on the web, even though each of them has a completely different method of optimizing your website.

If you ask many self-appointed webmaster gurus in some of the webmaster forums, they will tell you the same thing, then each one will tell you a different way to do it and they will all disagree on the most important aspects of search engine optimization.

So the confusion continues for the average user and the SEO companies love it that way. If the consumer doesn’t understand what you are doing, you don’t really have to do very much and just say you are doing a lot. Most of them would never work on your website on a contingency payment plan, one based on actual results and performance. Some say money back guaranteed, but read the fine print.

A lot of these businesses are based on the fact that people who are new to the web and even some of those who have been online for awhile do not know what search engine optimization is. They know that with more and more people coming onto the web for the first time, their business is secure. They can continue to tell people that without their service the website will fail.

I’m not saying all search engine optimization companies are rip-offs. Some of them really do their best to get good rankings for their clients and know what they are doing. A lot of them still really believe that search engine optimization is the key to success on the web.

It isn’t. How’s that for a statement? I know a lot of web designers will disagree. I know a lot of SEO companies will disagree. But simply put, search engine optimization of your WebPages is not the most important thing you need to do to succeed on the web.

Let’s break down some of the things that are included in the phrase search engine optimization.

Metatags are one of the things these gurus tell you is important. Metatags are all but dead. Search engines, especially google, ignore metatags for the most part.

Having them in does not hurt you, but go do a search on any topic besides web design or search engine optimization, etc. and you’ll find that IF the websites at the top of the search results have metatags at all, they usually only have the description and keywords metatags.

Well they also have the title tag, which is sometimes referred to as a metatag, but it is actually the only metatag you need to have.

Keyword Optimization is something the gurus will tell you is very important. Some will tell you they know the exact percentage of text that should be your keywords. Yes, keywords are very important. Do they know what percentage the search engines will want to read for the best results? No.

When writing copy for your website, you must be conscious of the keywords you wish to promote. Don’t pick too many keywords and try to optimize each page of your website for twenty different things. If you do, it will not be relevant for any of them. That isn’t guru talk, that’s just plain old fashioned common sense.

Remember that search engines crawl web pages, not web sites. If you choose just one or two keywords per webpage that you wish that page to be optimized for, then you can optimize the page easily and write text the user will want to actually read.

Write your sales text the way you would with only the user in mind and with making sales in mind. Then go back and reread the page.

Find places where you can add in your keyword without destroying the flow you created when you wrote the text in the first place.

Now, do you need to hire an SEO company to do that? Do you know your product? Do you know how to sell your product? Then you need to write the text. If you do not wish to write the text, then hire a writer. You still don’t need a search engine optimization guru.

Some search engine optimization experts will tell you they can increase your link popularity. They use a variety of methods. They create websites where they put all of their clients website links so you will have links to your website. The search engines call these link farms and discount any value they may have had in the past.

Those methods, along with many others, are simply tricks that temporarily work. Alot of search engine optimization companies all keep up with the latest tricks and shortcuts. They may even get you some good results in the short-term. But what happens when the search engines catch onto the trick?

I’m glad you asked. They stop letting that trick or shortcut work. They may even penalize the websites that used it. They penalize you, the customer, not the search engine optimization guru who used the trick and charged you for it.

Whenever one of these companies tells you it has “inside information”, “ex-search engine company employees”, “guaranteed search engine placement”, guaranteed top 10 placement”, or “secret methods”, a red flag should go up in your mind right away.

If you start a business offline, like a restaurant or a store, you know that besides the money you will have to put up, you will also have to work to make it a success. It is no different when you start a business online. You have to work at it, if you want to be successful.

If search engine optimization is not the most important thing you can do to become successful, what is? Again, I’m glad you asked.

Promotion. Do not depend solely on being found by the search engines. Search engines are fickle creatures and what is today’s #1 can be tomorrow’s #100 just because they decided to change the way they give relevance to websites. Continually chasing this dream is a total waste of time.

There are other sources of traffic out there. Would you rather have 1000 hits from a search engine for one of your minor keywords or have 100 hits from someone who read an article you wrote and came to your website because they liked what you had
to say?

If you chose the thousand hits, you don’t get it yet. Out of that 1000 hits you might convert 2 of them into sales. Out of the 100, you may get as many as 20-25 people who want to buy from you. Conversion rate is more important than how many hits you get to your website.

Write articles about your website, about your products, about relevant topics to your products or services you wish to sell. Distribute or submit those articles to article submission websites that provide free content to webmasters.

You may write one article like the one I am writing now and have 100 webmasters want to use it as content for their website. That would mean there is suddenly 100 other websites on topics related to your product that now contain a link to your website. (see the footer below contains links to my website and is to be included when this article is reprinted.)

That increases your link popularity without the need for a company to optimize you. Just by submitting your article to several article submission websites, you increase your link popularity, but when those webmasters start to republish your articles, you will see a huge increase in your page rank and the quality of your traffic.

Some people write one article per month and others write one or more per day. It depends on you. How fast do you want your website to grow?

How much time do you have to invest? If you are not good at writing articles or do not have the time, hire a writer to ghost-write them for you with your byline and your links in
the footer.

So that we are clear. Search engine optimization is necessary, but by no means the most important thing you can do for your website to make it successful. I would not pay a lot of money for this service. Promoting your website IS the most important thing you can do. Articles are just one of the methods you can use to promote your website.

Advertising, buying links on relevant websites, posting in forums and blogs with related topics, putting your link in your signature line, are some of the other ways you can promote your website.

My Checklist:

1. Be conscious of the keywords you wish to target with each webpage you build. Write your text for the reader, then go back and add your keywords without destroying the flow of your text.

2. Make sure the website is easy to navigate and user-friendly. Don’t assume the customer knows the web site as well as you do. Make it simple. Make it easy to find the buy button!

3. Once the website is built, quit worrying about the newest search engine trick or optimization technique as some like to call it.

4. Search for blogs and forums with related topics and sign up for them and participate in discussions with your link in your signature line.

5. Write articles about related topics and submit them everywhere or buy a service like isnare.com that will do the submissions for you. If you cannot write the articles, hire someone to do it for you.

6. Don’t do link trades with websites that have less traffic than you do. Buy links on websites that have more traffic than you and are on a topic related to your products or services.

This article in no way claims to have listed all the ways you can use to promote your website. What I have done here is tried to explain to you what is or is not important to creating and maintaining a successful website. I hope this helps you.

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Apr . 4 . 2009

What Is Basic SEO And How Does One Go About It?

SEO is the short way to say Search Engine Optimization. It is the practice of trying to get better rankings in Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Those three are known as the ‘big three’ because nearly all searchers use one of them, so it is the most profitable for you to try to optimize for them.

Americans conducted 7.4 billion searches online in May, up 12 percent from April. Google Sites registered the most search queries performed with 3.3 billion, followed by Yahoo! Sites (2.1 billion), MSN-Microsoft (963 million) – Comscore

Search engines take into account many things in your website, optimizing those is called on-page optimization, everything that isn’t your website is off-page optimization. Now, while the exact ranking formulae are secret, this is what is widely believed as ‘simple SEO’.

First, we want to improve on-page optimization. So we have to pick keywords. There are a variety of tools you can search for which will give you lists of keywords that are usable.

Now you have your keywords. So you now have to see what the top 10 people are doing for them (warning: basic html and math needed ahead). Go to the top person on the most important keyword you have, on google. As an example, we’ll use the keywords ‘free downloads’, and I’ll do the math with you.

The number one website is download.com, so let’s analyze this top website.

Keyword density is the measure of how many times a keyword appears compared to the rest of the text in that area. The areas include: title, meta keywords, meta description, plain content (text), h1, h2, h3, bold, italics, underlined and domain name.

Let’s do some of the math for download.com… Their title is: “Reviews and free downloads at download.com” First we ignore any ‘common’ word, like ‘and, the, at’ etc. So we have: “Reviews free downloads download.com” So, ‘free downloads’ takes up 14 characters out of 35, or 40%. In the meta description tag, it’s 14/272 = 5.14%, so go on and on through the list, keeping it in an excel. After you’ve done the top 10 in google, go to the top 10 in yahoo and msn, ignoring the repeats and do it again. Now, take the average. For the title, let’s say my average was 15%. I wanna try to have a percentage close to that. Too much, and I might get penalized, too little and It wont help.

That’s the basic on-site SEO. Matching keyword density on the site. Off-site seo is everything that is not on your site, mainly getting links for the beginner. The kind of links you want are links from a relevant website that has few other links to other sites. Ways to get these: Submit to directories and reciprocal linking. Submit your site to directories. You can find many lists of them on google. Reciprocal linking is trading links, or in effect, ‘I’ll link to you if you link to me’. The best way to get one is to go to a person who’s site is close in topic with yours, find their email and send a personal one.

_______________
Dear (contact info, or Webmaster)
I was looking at your site and I really liked (thing on their site) about it. (comment about site). I have placed a link to you at (URL of link you place to them) and would appreciate if you’d link back.

Regards,
(name)
(your site url)
_______________
Yes, you have to do this manually, yes, it will help you, and yes, you have to link first. You’re the one asking for a link, so you have to show them you mean it.

Do that for all the top websites in your keywords, and keep doing it. The more you get links, the higher you’ll be in the rankings. You can find the number your competitors have by going to MSN search and typing in ‘Link:download.com’ for my example. It showed that there were 692,811 links to download.com… Better get to work.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, the earth for energy. Feel free to look at his the earth for energy website. You can also send your feedback at his the earth for energy site. Thank you.

Apr . 4 . 2009

Your Online Business Can Grow With SEO

Selling and marketing a product or service in today’s realm does not only reserve itself to actual store presence and sales. In these days, setting up an online storefront is an innovative add-on to and actual store presence, and probably less expensive and more valuable than ever, as more and more people get relaxed shopping online

Putting up an online storefront is an innovative method of starting a business or generating sales by expanding the reach of your current business, and whether you are opening your shop online for the first time or have already started down the path, you can boost your online sales through techniques that are helping today’s online businesses thrive. Any or all, or some of these strategies can be integrated to help increase traffic, and drive more people to your site and make it more attractive to prospective customers.

As a marketing strategy for increasing a site’s relevance, An SEO considers how search algorithms work and know what people are lookingfor. An SEO’s efforts may involve a site’s coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could stop search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more helpful stuff may include adding unique content to a site,and making sure that the content is easily indexed by search engine robots, enabling the site to look more appealing to users.

SEO’s Can Help Generate More Sales

An SEO may help generate a return on investment. However, search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, so their algorithms may change, and there would be no guarantees of continued referrals. However, due to this portent for the lack of guarantees and certainty, a company that relies much on search engine traffic could suffer major losses if the search engines stop sending or attracting web visitors. According to notable web analysts, operators should liberate themselves from dependence on search engine traffic. A top ranked SEO blog, Seomoz.org, has analyzed that “Search marketers, in a twist of irony, receive a very small share of their traffic from search engines.” Instead, their main sources of traffic are links from other websites.

Keywords Are Crucial In The Web

Search terms are important. Even one’s most frequent and loyal customers are likely to discover your site by searching. Having relevant keywords in your page titles, product titles and links could make all the difference when one tries to lead customers to your site. For those with established sites, it is imperative not to t forget that keeping your keywords current and relevant is an everyday thing. Ensure that you check your Web logs regularly to see what visitors search for on your site, and identify pages and products appropriately.

Relevant Content Matters

Adding as much relevant content as you can to your site improves your customers’ appreciation an experience, as well as the positioning of your site on the search engines. The important term here is relevant. Content that isn’t related to your products could work against you, as it may confuse the potential customers and gives search bots the impression that you’re tricking them. A better method to add relevant content to your site is to add descriptive paragraphs about each of your products, which are placed next to your photos. Use as much detail as possible and necessary, and be sure to use the terms people are most likely to enter when searching.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, catering buffet. Feel free to look at his catering buffet website. You can also send your feedback at his catering buffet site. Thank you.

Apr . 3 . 2009

The Link Building Services

SEO is search engine optimization and there are quiet a few entrepreneurs out there that would be competent to aid you in order to dig up a improved positioning in the search engines, and would help your business earn higher earnings. seo web design

The subsequent are some packages that search engine optimization companies will offer you:

SEO auditing on your website:
The corporation you would have chosen for the SEO pricing helps you to check your website for the SEO optimization purposes. They will give you some information about the problems on your website. This ought to be the calculated first step.

Webdesign :You might be amazed to know that the design of your site may also be hindering the rating of your site. The SEO group would be able to direct on web design and HTML or Flash codings along with the required changes in the site. These changes in the site indubitably would be helpful to optimize the rating of your site.

The Link building services :Whether you have the link building services then you do not need to concern about the ranking of your website. This refers to a whole bunch of SEO techniques. This might include social book marking, forum posting article submission etc.

Content creation in sink with SEO norms:
Content of the web page plays a pretty important role, in ranking the site. More the articles are relevant to the products of your site, the higher is the rating of the site. The SEO service also pay attention into this facet of the site and provides with good articles that would benefit your site. They would ensure that the right kind of key words have been used in the articles and they work well with the search engine. Article writing should be submitted on conventional basis in order to give fresh content to the search engines.

SEO Monitoring Services:
Even after you have gotten the right kind of the benefits that were expected from the SEO services, you can nevertheless want to choose for some SEO monitoring services. This would support you due to receive time to time reports and examination of your website’s traffic. You will explore the types of modifications which should be compulsory in order to get your website on top ranking position. Search engine keyword optimization service

Professional SEO Implementation:

The SEO companies can help you to apply the right strategy for your website.Since they are aware the latest news about search engines. In such case you can concentrate on your marketing and promotional campaigns. These realization startegies can be different from website to website. It all depends on how braod and competative is your keywords and the extent of using the startegy. It can be from a few weeks to several months in order to get a stable ranking position on the search engines.

Read valuable ideas about web traffic – your own knowledge base.

Apr . 3 . 2009

Information About SEO Basics

By utilizing SEO web design technique you may craft your web page user friendly for both humans and search engines. The website would be optimized and will be noticeable in the Search Engine Result Pages (SEPRs).
Significance of SEO web design

Study suggest that:

* 60% of readers who search on the search engines, view only first page of result.
* Top five listings drive 90% of the traffic.
* Seeing website on the first page of result could boost click rates by 3 times. Search engine keyword optimization facts

Diversity between Paid search and SEO:

Core Differences are:

o SEO takes time to show results whereas paid search can be launched promptly.
o SEO concentrate on few crucial keywords. Paid search focus on the large total of keywords.
o Tracking the results in paid search is achievable whereas it’s not promising in the case of SEO.

#1 Ranking- is it guaranteed?
No one can pledge the number one ranking in SERPs as there are too loads of factors that regulate this likelihood which are outside your jurisdiction. Google recommend to remain be careful of SEOs that pledge such outcome.

#1 Rank- for how long

Algorithm of search engine changes frequently and this algorithm altering makes search engine ranking to fluctuate. If a whiz in SEO maintains your website on monthly basis, then you can be guaranteed that your website will reside on top results.

How long does it take to see the results

It varies from search engine to search engine. If your website is new then don’t expect any major results from Google search unless website has been on the Google’s index for at least six months. MSN and Yahoo take three months time to show significant results. If your website is one year old then you can see SEO results in a week.
The vital fact about SEO copy writing

SEO copy writing means writing your web contents utilizing keywords many times, which sometimes makes writing very difficult to understand. The common idea is to increase the positioning of website by serious usage of the keywords.
But that does not mean that it’s not notable, all you require to do is to apply the words in a natural way and optimize the others on page factors and links.

Selection of keywords

Generally keywords are elected by using data from accurately managed paid campaign. The keywords that can generate leads or sales should be focused.

Link rental or purchase:

The muddy surprise of the SEO world is that many top ranker have achieved the place by using the paid links. There are links that can be bought on one time basis or monthly basis. The main advantage related with it is that you can constitute the link the way you want to configure to derive the fullest reimbursement.

How results are track?

Some of the webmasters spend fuzzy metrics. The visibility is the idea behind this sort of technique. For example if particular keyword move from rank 100 to 20 then according to these firms its 500% visibility. They are not bothered by the traffic these ranking would bring in. So, it is better to employ some professional agency that can enhance the traffic to your website rather than positioning.Best search engine keyword optimization

Gain important tips about home business ideas and opportunities – read this web page.

Apr . 3 . 2009

What SEO Marketers Should Avoid Doing

Perfecting the art of Search engine optimization (SEO) is a truly tricky process. An SEO does the job improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via the organic or algorithmic search results.

A lot of webmasters today want to get top search engine rankings in search engines such as Google or Yahoo. In order to attain this purpose, some webmasters go to great lengths as willing to spend incredible amount of efforts in doing link exchange, refine their meta tags and body content. However, most still overlook some crucial issues. In order to address some of these sensitive SEO issues, here are a few tips to briefly lay out some things that SEO markets should avoid doing.

Avoid Keyword Stuffing

This term refers to the repeated use of a word to swell or boost its frequency on a page. Search engines now have the capability to analyze a page and resolving whether the frequency is above a “normal” level in comparison to the rest of the words in the document.

Optimize Both Homepage And Inner Pages As Well

A number of webmasters squander lots of time optimizing their website, but for their homepages only. A webmaster should also need to spend time optimizing the inner pages as well, since this increases the likelihood of getting search engine traffic. In most fully optimized sites, an optimized inner page gets more search engine traffic than the homepage.

Use HTML Hyperlinks And Not Just Javascript

Some SEO’s only use Javascript to construct their navigation menus. However, many search engines do not “read” hyperlinks written in Javascript. On search engines like Yahoo and Google, what they do is only to index their homepage. To avoid this, you must use HTML hyperlinks so that search engines can follow and index them

Avoid Submitting Identical Pages Often

Most webmasters and SEO’s know that it is a no-no to submit virtually identical pages. Do not simply duplicate a web page, give the copies different file names, and submit them all. This move will be simply interpreted as an attempt to flood the search engine.

Be Careful In Selecting The Right Content Management Software (CMS)
Most firms agree that using web-based CMS to construct web sites makes things easier. Right, it is a easy to use this software, however, it does not allow users to create different Title and Meta tags for different web pages and has limited characters, and is obviously, not good for optimizing websites. Ideally, every web page must have specific Title and Meta tags.

SEO methods are classified by some into two wide categories: techniques that search engines suggest as part of good design, and those techniques that search engines do not approve of and attempt to minimize the effect of, often termed as spamdexing. Some industry analysts classify these methods, and the folks who employ them, as either white hat SEO’s, or black hat SEO’s.

A White hat tends to produce results that last a long time, while black hats foresee that their sites will eventually be banned once the search engines find out what they are doing. Black hat SEO’s try to improve rankings in ways that are rejected by the search engines, or involve deception. One black hat technique uses text that is hidden, either as text colored similar to the background, which are invisible, or positioned off screen. Search engines may reprimand sites they find using black hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or purging their listings fully from their databases.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, earth 4 energy. Feel free to look at his earth 4 energy website. You can also send your feedback at his earth 4 energy site. Thank you.

Apr . 3 . 2009

Wordtracker: Search Engine Optimization Project

While many factors influence the rankings of a web site, any search engine optimization effort isn’t worth even a second of your time without one and single unknown: relevant and competitive keywords.

Let’s examine an example: a local moving company decided to optimize its website. It knows (or assumes that it does) that the most popular keywords for their type of business are “movers” and “moving”. At a first glance, looks like everything’s fine: the keywords seem to be relevant, and should produce good results. However, there are two mistakes made here.

The first one is keyword relevancy. What’s the use for our local moving company of people that are looking for “movers” or “moving” in Denver, CO, Boston, MA or New York, NY, if they are located and offering services in and around San Francisco only?

Another mistake is keyword effectiveness. It’ll take much more time and effort to get top rankings for such popular and competitive general keywords as “moving” and “movers” than to get same results for something more specific and relevant, such as “movers San Francisco” or “moving San Francisco”. Not only are these keywords more likely to convert visitors to buyers, but also it’s a much easier and less time-consuming task.

If the world we live in consists of atoms, the smallest and most important particles in search engine optimization world are keywords. In fact, there’s nothing complicated about them, if one remembers three things about keywords: relevancy, effectiveness and Wordtracker.

Wordtracker.com is an UK based company that offers an irreplaceable search engine marketing service tool: keyword research and analysis. It helps to find and pick keywords that are both relevant and competitive. Relevant mean that the keywords are related to your website, and that these are the words people are typing in Google, Yahoo or MSN in order to find your kind of business. Another important factor in determining a “good” keyword is its effectiveness. Let’s say we have a keyword “movers” which has a record of appearing in Google search list for 1009 times; there are 15400000 different web pages competing for this keyword. This means that this keyword’s effectiveness index is 1009/15400000=0.066. This index shows that the keyword is far too competitive and you’ll probably end up somewhere in the middle of Google’s search results if you try to optimize your webpage for this particular keyword. A rule of thumb is to find keywords that are quite popular and at the same time have fewer webpages competing for them. A good keyword is considered to have an effectiveness index of over 100, although anything in between 10 and 100 can be targeted as well.

Needless to say, without having the right keywords that are both relevant and competitive it’s impossible to succeed in any search engine optimization campaign. Without knowing your niche words, you’ll probably end up competing against web sites with thousands of inbound links optimized by search engine optimization gurus and will be lost in millions of search results – no one will even ever find out you exist. On the other hand, all it takes to get your web traffic from 0 to couple hundreds a day might be something as simple and cost-effective as Wordtracker.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, catering singapore. Feel free to look at his catering singapore website. You can also send your feedback at his catering singapore site. Thank you.

Apr . 3 . 2009

Valuable Modern SEO Techniques

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, earth4energy com. Feel free to look at his earth4energy com website. You can also send your feedback at his earth4energy com site. Thank you.

Apr . 3 . 2009

What Should You Look For When Selecting An SEO Partner?

Every company offering SEO related services promises results but few deliver on that promise. To be the exception when it comes to delivering on that promise a SEO partner must take an approach that ensures quality results that meet YOUR business objectives.

There are lots of ‘unethical’ approaches to SEO that can actually get you banned from search engines. Unfortunately, some SEO companies still use these as a ‘quick-fix.’ Unfortunately, you get left holding the bag. Make sure the SEO company can explain their approach in terms you can explain and if they can’t you should keep searching.

Here’s what to look for:

First, they should demonstrate that they understand your business need.

Just giving you a questionnaire is not enough. At the beginning of any engagement, they should take the time to understand your business objectives. Your business is unique and a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach rarely actually fits every business. By taking the time to understand your business they should be able to tailor their services to best meet your business objectives as well as your budget.

Second, they should use a proven model of optimization that offers ‘realistic’ expectations.

Ignore marketing hype like “Rank #1 in Google in 24 hours” Search engines do not make public the process or rules they use to crawl, rank pages or index website pages. Further the processes and rules change often as the search engines attempt to increase the value of search results. Of course if your keyword phrase is “one of a kind white unicorns hand made by a grandmother in Peoria” then you actually have a good shot of # 1 ranking if anyone actually ever searched for that. Otherwise, it takes time and lots of work to get high rankings.

To compensate for this lack of public information, an SEO partner should rely on a proven model to ‘uncover’ the rules.

1. Analyze – Determine where your pages rank today. From this you can learn what may be ‘right’ about these higher ranking that can be applied to other pages.

2. Target – Every web site is unique. Rather than a set of ‘canned’ optimization recommendations they should determine the right optimization options for your website. To accomplish this they should use a range of methods:
• Expert Review. While many SEO partners have great in-house experience they should also turn to other experts who study search engines to determine the most likely ‘rules’ used to determine how pages are indexed and ranked.
• Best Practices. They should look at the top ranking competitors in your space to determine how they optimized their pages, particularly those aspects that could influence page rankings.
• Learn as they Optimize. They should consider implementing changes to larger sites in stages. Start by optimizing your highest value pages first, then, based on the results modify the optimization approach if needed before continuing.
• It’s More than Google. While organic search results are a key portion of any optimization effort, they should know that it takes much more to get quality traffic to your website. They should be able to help you go beyond the search engines to find your new traffic.

3. Optimize – They should be able to provide the detailed information you need to understand what needs to be done to your website. They should also be willing to let you make the changes rather than forcing you to allow them to make the changes at substantial per hour fees.

4. Analyze – SEO is not a one-time effort. Your business changes, your competitors change, your prospects and customers change and the search engines refine rules. This means you will need to periodically review your ranking and re-optimize your site. You should expect your SEO partner to provide ‘follow-ups’ to ensure that you got results.

Third, their approach should be comprehensive and include all the aspects that bring traffic to your website, not just search engines. Make sure they will provide

• Detailed Site Analysis – You need to understand from where your site is starting.
• Keyword Analysis – All keywords are not created equal. They should help you understand which ones to use, and as importantly, which ones not to use.
• Page Structure Recommendations – Content, headers, keyword placement, it all matters.
• Engine Submissions – Each engine is unique. ‘Submit a link’ programs are not effective.
• Paid Search – The internet is like any business, sometimes ‘free’ isn’t worth even that.
• Reciprocal Links – As with keywords, all links are not created equally.

Finally, the right SEO partner should work hand in hand with you to make sure the changes recommended for your website are the best fit for you. They should share their approach to making the changes to your website and should be flexible to make changes in a way that best supports your business needs.

Selecting a SEO partner can be intimidating. With all the marketing hype, it is easy to get fooled. In the end SEO is like any other business service you use. You should be able to understand the benefits, and limitations, it offers and make an informed decision about how to invest your money.

By the way, if you find the hand-made unicorns please pass me the URL. I’m in the market :>)

Aubrey Jones is President and founder of Riverbank Consulting, Inc. Through Webs 4 Small Business he is able to bring SEO and other internet services to Small Business owners. He has been in the technology and internet industry for over 10 years building and managing large commercial internet services.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, earth 4 energy. Feel free to look at his earth 4 energy website. You can also send your feedback at his earth 4 energy site. Thank you.

Apr . 3 . 2009

What You Need To Know As A SEO Newbie

I started doing Search Engine Optimization very recently, at the end of December 2005, at first I could not understand anything about it, when I started, I couldn’t tell what was the difference between a Search Engine and a Directory! It was hard to believe that people has to do that much to get their website listed in Search Engines. I think all normal internet users don’t realise this, what’s important for them is that they get what they want from their searches.

Well I am still new in this field but I’ve already learned a lot and want to share some ideas and my point of view about the matter. To optimize your website you should follow these simple steps:

1. Search Engine and Directory Submission
2. Article Submission
3. Link Exchange

The motive of Search Engine Optimization is to get the maximum of links pointing to your website, that is more links pointing to you means better ranking in Search Engines. Traffic plays a big role in your ranking, there are many ways you can bring traffic to your website, posting your website to the maximum directories and Search Engines that you can. And be sure to post in the good category, if your website is not suggested in the good category, it has many chances of not getting listed. Article submission is also a very good way of getting traffic.

For those who are not familiar with these terms:
A Search Engine is a searchable online database of internet resources. Some examples are www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.msn.com, www.altavista.com, www.askjeeves.com, etc there are really thousands of Search Engines on the net but these listed above are what surfers use most frequently (the major search engines). Among these google is the mostly used by internet users then yahoo, I personally do like 80% of my searches on Google and the rest on yahoo and very rarely on msn. It’s important that you submit your website to these search engines, you can add your website to google here http://www.google.com/addurl.html

A Directory is a web page consisting mostly of categorized links to other web pages. Some examples of directories are www.dmoz.org (google directory is based on dmoz, it is important that you submit your website here, but there are very small chances of inclusion), the yahoo directory, and so on and as for Search Engines, there are many directories where you can submit your website. The submission process is very easy but the real point is whether the directory will list your website or not. The best way to get your website listed is to read the guidelines well as you would not like spending all this time and not getting listed..

Article submission is another way to get traffic and links to your website. Write articles and submit to as many article directories as possible, try to write about things that people want to read, make them want more, well your article must reflect what’s in your website, for e.g. if your website talk about wedding your article should also be about wedding not about any other subjects, you can give tips, or explain about the particular stuff, anything that you want as long as it is interesting. It doesn’t need to be long articles of more than 1000 words from 500 words should be fine.

You can also exchange link with websites having the same subject as yours, contact only websites with good PR (Page Rank) I suggest 3 or more as exchanging links with a website with PR0 will be useless as itself is not having much traffic, how will it be able to bring traffic to your website? And the website you’ve been exchanging links with try to verify regularly if your link is still on their website as they may remove your link as you’ve added a link back to them.

You now have an idea of what SEO means, it’s very interesting and I really enjoy doing, what I find more time consuming till now is Link Exchange as you have to wait a lot until a person reply to you. You can start doing SEO for your website. Good Luck.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, earth 4 energy. Feel free to look at his earth 4 energy website. You can also send your feedback at his earth 4 energy site. Thank you.