Do you have a product or service that you want to sell on the Internet? If so, there are a few fundamental components that you must know. Putting your product or service up for sale is easy. You can find a cheap hosting plan and get a 1-5 page site up within a few hours. But what happens next?
Unfortunately, most businesses will never sell their product successfully on the Internet. Their sites may be flashy, but they are not receiving visitors. To receive an endless supply of free, targeted, leads from the search engines you should consider a few of the 5 tips below.
Tip #1- Provide High Quality Content
Providing content does more than give out generic information. Providing content builds trust between you and your visitor. The more content you give, the bigger the bond. Your content should focus around very specific keywords. Each page on your website should be optimized and focused on one keyword.
Finding keywords is a task in and of itself. I will be the first to admit that hunting down keywords with a high demand and low supply is not the easiest task in the world. It can be boring and repetitive. After awhile the numbers will blend together and you will feel a bit dazed. But do not stop now! Keywords are the foundation for your content pages and for your business.
Tip #2- Find Relevant Linking Partners
The days of trading links with any old site are gone. There was a period in time when search engines counted how many links in you had to your site. They factored that and determined if your site was good or not. So if your site had 300 other sites linking to it, search engines would have probably considered it a better site than one with only 10 incoming links.
Search engines have wised up since those days. Now search engines place more emphasis on relevant links. Your site should only link to other sites that are high quality and relevant. If your site is about cookies then you should not be linking to a site about gambling. It doesn’t make sense for your site visitors, and it doesn’t make sense to the search engines.
When you trade links with a relevant, high quality site be sure you specify where your link should be placed, for how long, and what it should say. I often see people exchange links and within a few days the linking partner has taken down the link. Only do business with trusted webmasters.
Tip #3- Submit Your Site to Site Directories
This is a great way to get high quality and high ranked sites to link to you. Think of a link to your site as a vote of confidence. Site directories are less popular than search engines, but their link to you helps you increase in search engine rankings. Be wary of any site directory that makes you pay for submission. There are plenty of great directories that allow you to submit your site for free.
Getting as specific as possible with site directories is a great idea. If your site is about cookies, you should try to find a site directory that only deals with desserts or foods. General directories are fine, but be sure you submit your site to the appropriate category. General directories tend to have a category for almost any topic.
Some site directories will ask you to link to them first. This is your choice. I do not link or pay to get into any site directory. There are too many free ones that do not require a link back. Remember to place only relevant links on your site. Would your cookie site visitors want to click on a link for a site directory?
Tip #4- Add a Site Map
A site map is a single webpage that contains links to all the other pages on your site. Adding a map will help your visitors find information quickly. Besides being a helpful tool for visitors a site map also helps search engines find pages. When a search engine spider visits your site it crawls through a page. It visits all the links on your page and it checks for keywords. This is why keywords and relevant linking partners are recommended above.
Once the search engine spider finds the site map it will find all of your other pages. Search engine spiders do not like to dig very deep into sites. They like to search through 2 or 3 ‘levels’ of information. So pages that are hard to find will not rank well or they will take much longer to rank well. A site map helps the engines find all your pages at once.
Tip #5- Be Patient and Find Other Means of Traffic
Waiting for the search engines to scour your site and rank it could take a bit of time. I recommend a lot of patience. When I post a new content page on my website, it takes a few weeks to get noticed. Some search engines are fast and rank the page immediately. Others are a bit slower.
While you wait for your pages to rank well I recommend finding alternative ways to drive traffic to your site. You can look into PPC (pay-per-click advertising), article writing, off-line ads, buying ad space in newsletters, doing a joint venture with a fellow webmaster or post in relevant forums.
These 5 tips to ranking well at the search engines are tried and true methods. I have built a site using these 5 tips and can personally attest to their sheer power. Patience is the hardest part. Keep building relevant content, link to relevant partners, submit to site directories, add a site map and then keep going.
Persistence pays off. Building a web business takes time. Your business needs to develop and mature. Using some or all of the above tips can ensure a big payoff down the road.
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Lynn VanDyke builds successful websites. She provides several options for business owners including a “Jump Start Your Online Business” CD-ROM. Visit http://www.LynnVanDyke.com to learn more about her and her services. Lynn’s content website is ranked in all 3 major search engines and is in the top 1% of all websites worldwide according to Alexa.
Written by SEO Tipster on April 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Since the beginning of the understanding of Search Engine Optimization - SEO - there have been tons of different theories developed about how to do it “right”. The truth is, however, that there is no one single method that is one hundred percent known to be better than the rest. Since the large search engines such as Google and Yahoo! don’t release the details of their ranking elements - in addition to the fact that they are constantly changing what these elements are, and how they are weighted in the grand scheme of things - we can only apply the efforts that have been tested and have worked for a given online marketing effort.
The following are the SEO techniques that have been known to work for marketing strategies used by experienced web
designers and webmasters. Keep in mind that SEO is an ever-changing experience, and that while these techniques
will work for you today, they may not be the same when tomorrow arrives.
1. Google AdWords - this is an SEO technique specifically offered by Google to make certain that you are indeed
getting use out of the keywords you want to use. This technique is considered to be quite cost-effective for achieving good search results for your website. It works by allowing you to state the maximum amount that you are willing to spend on a daily basis on your chosen keywords. This can be changed monthly as you witness the results that
the Google AdWords SEO technique brings you.
2. Overture Keywords - similar to Google’s AdWords, you can choose the keywords you want, however, you cannot limit
your daily spending, so this may be an issue if you’re on a tight budget. However, it has been found to be quite cost
effective when balanced against the number of new visitors and active customers created.
3. Yahoo! Regional Directories - when you have your site indexed by Yahoo! Regional Directories - a place where
submission is free - then you will always be in their list. Many new clients are found through this reliable process.
4. Keywords, Site Descriptions, Alt-Tags, Title Tags, and Page Content - these are the main focus of SEO experts and
SEO businesses today. These are the five elements that take the most amount of effort when optimizing websites. It
all has to do with what is contained within the coding of your website. Unless you are truly confident that you know
what you’re doing, it is very beneficial to hire a professional SEO company to ensure that you’re including all of the right elements, and doing it properly. Have this done before you submit your site to the different search engines, or re-submit your site after you’ve done your SEO for your website. SEO is well worth paying for to ensure that it is done properly. Professionals will know which keywords to use, how to use them, and how to make sure that they are properly laid out for search engine spiders to crawl the site. Furthermore “illegal” tactics will never be used, which can result in having your website permanently banned from search engines.
5. Online Directories - by submitting your website to any number of different free online directories, you will have
an excellent new path for prospective customers to follow to find you. Many are free, others include a nominal
charge. If there is a fee involved, do some investigation into the directory first, to make sure that it is worth the
money.
6. The Open Directory Project - this is one of the primary resources utilized by the big search engines such as Google
for sending their spiders out to crawl new sites. The directory is entirely maintained by humans - that is, every
site submitted is reviewed and indexed by a person, not a spider. This does mean that it takes additional time to
have your site indexed, but it is well worth the wait.
7. A Blog - adding a blog to your website is a fantastic method for continuing to attract new and repeat visitors to
your website. They are drawn to the fresh new content that is constantly being added.
8. Make It Great - Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) is only as good as the website it supports. If you bring lots of
visitors to your website, and it has nothing to offer them, or the content is terrible, all of your efforts will be in
vain.
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Mark Nenadic
Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North
http://www.15dn.com , where you will find articles and resources to help with SEO, marketing and Web design.
Written by SEO Tipster on April 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Keyword Selection
The most important component of search engine optimization is keyword selection. Search engines use key words and phrases to find and rank websites. The crawler or spider-based search engines, so called because they sift through websites and add them to their databases, sort through millions of websites by following an algorithm, or set of rules.
The algorithms for the various search engines are not exactly the same (which is why a search of the same keyword brings different results). However, they follow very similar processes. Most of the search engines rank websites based on where and how often a particular keyword is used on the website. They will rank a website higher if, for example, the keyword is used in the title, placed near the top of the page, and if it is used often.
Choosing the right keyword or phrase and placing it properly is an art that is refined through practice and trial-and-error. In the e-market, time is money and competition is fierce. Your business cannot afford to languish while you get up to speed on the latest SEO technology. The use of a good e-marketing professional makes good economic sense.
Keyword Expertise Now
Valiss has the SEO expertise you need now. We know how to get the best results in the shortest amount of time. With Valiss, the keyword selection process is quick and efficient. Your search engine utilization is maximized to bring more visitors to your site who are interested in what you have to say or sell.
Written by SEO Tipster on April 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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At One Time Local Searches were reserved for services like City Guides and Online Yellow Pages. But the BIG 3 (Yahoo, Google and MSN) have all jumped into the Local Search Market. According to some Estimates Local searches represent 20-25% of all Internet Searches either implicitly or explicitly)
1 - Local Content
Create a web site with a few pages that contain local content.
- If you sell Life insurance in Missouri you may want to have information on how to file a Dispute with the Missouri Department of Insurance.
- If you have mortgages you may want to discuss a Missouri State Government Loan Program for low income first time Home Buyers in Missouri
- If you sell flowers you may want to discuss the best time to plant Roses in St Louis Missouri
2 - Local Yellow Pages
Get Yourself listed in the local online Yellow Pages both free and Paid. Currently much of the local Search results for the Local Searches perfromed by the Big 3 Come from Yellow Page Listings
3 - Local City Guides
Get Yourself listed in the local City Guides both free and Paid. Currently much of the local Search results for the Local Searches perfromed by the Big 3 Come from City Guides.
4 - Local Blog
Get Yourself a Local Blog. If you sell Insurance in Florissant MO call your Blog ‘Insurance-In-Florissant-MO’ Try and Post one or 2 times a Week with topics relevant to your Local Market. See Step 1 for Ideas on what to post.
5- About Us Page
Create an About us page on Your Web Site. Make sure your about us Page has your Name, Local Information and the Products or Services you offer. An About us page can be as simple as
- About US: Mike Makler located in Florissant Missouri in North St Louis County Missouri offers Financial Services such as Life Insurance, Annuities and Mortgages.
- One or more paragraphs with inforamtion about You or your company.
- Contact US:
Mike Makler
Florissant MO, 63031
314 398-5547
6 - Contact Information on All Pages
Place you contact Information on All of your web pages. At a bare minimum include
- Your Name
- Your Company Name
- A Brief Description of Services Offered
- City, State and Zip Code (Street Address Optional)
- Contact Information (E-Mail Address and/ or Phone Number)
7 - Article Resource Box
When You Submit Articles you should create a Resource Box that includes the same information from Step 6 above. You should also have a Link to your web page.
About the Author
Mike Makler is a Financial Consultant in Florissant in North St Louis County Missouri Specializing in Real Estate Loans (Mortgages), Life Insurance and Annuities. To Learn More Call Mike at 314 398-5547 or Visit Mike’s Web Page: http://ewguru.com/finance
Get Mike’s Newsletter Here http://ewguru.com/fin-news
Copyright ?2005-2006 Mike Makler
[You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated getarticles At Ewguru .Com]
Written by SEO Tipster on April 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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There has been a good deal written about the Google ’sandbox’ effect, as it’s known. It has been taking up a lot of forum and article space over the last few months. I can’t help wonder why most of the comment I’ve been seeing is negative or at least ambivalent about the concept (if of course, it really exists, as is the case with much about SEs that we don’t truly know).
I’m sure most are very familiar with the concept of the ’sandbox’ but for those who aren’t and at the risk of boring everyone else, here is a very brief rundown:
Google, it is said, have decided that newly listed websites should have their listing (and PR etc) placed on hold for an ‘unknown’ period (the consensus seems to be around 90 -120 days) in order to make sure that they firstly, stick around for more than the specified period, and probably also continue to rank in the same way as they ‘initially’ do. The concept has been likened to ’sending them off to play in the sandbox with all the other kiddies’ until they mature and can be judged by the same criteria as the rest.
Frankly, I can’t see any problem with the idea at all. I have websites that have been online some time and other, newer ones that would be included in this ’sandbox’ category, so I’m not saying this as someone who has only established sites that wishes to make it as difficult as possible for new competition to ‘get established’.
Over the last few years, I’ve seen so many people decide (often on a whim and as often again with much planning) to try their hand at one form of Internet business or another, only to give up after a very short time. Certainly not long enough to see themselves out of the ’sandbox’ (if it exists).
I’m not sure of the exact count, but Google?have around 8.2 billion web pages indexed and in my opinion, that’s far too many websites in almost every category on every topic. It’s also true that the vast majority are idle and contributing nothing to the average Internet user. Speaking strictly about the Home Based Business area, I’m sure no one could possibly disagree that any kind of idea or system, which requires a website to first prove itself as a positive contribution and demonstrate it will be online for more than a few months, is surely welcome.
After all, anybody who has had any degree of success in an Internet Home Business will tell you that it takes work, time and perseverance to get to the point where it is remotely worth your while (except for a few limited exceptions). So why would anyone who is serious about it be opposed to a relatively short ‘trial’ period, where their commitment needs to be examined and established? If anyone really thinks that they are going to see any great benefit from an Internet business website in the first 90 -120 days, then they really need to re-evaluate their reason for doing it (even though so many ‘gurus’ guarantee success in far less time…)
As for websites of an educational, information or entertainment nature, I feel the same should apply. If something like the ’sandbox’ had been around a lot earlier and was implemented by all the SEs, there certainly wouldn’t be as many dead links and inactive websites as there are.
In most cases and in most places, there is no licensing or certification whatsoever needed to begin a website about anything at all (even in the guise of a so called ‘expert’ or ‘guru’). So anything in the form of a trial or cooling down period (even though the ’sandbox’ doesn’t fill the bill to any great degree) is a step in the right direction towards controlling the number of completely useless and pointless websites that exist, for a short time, purely on a whim or search for a quick buck.
Just to qualify my comments a little, I know there are a number of ‘personal’ websites and ‘Journals’ etc. These, of course, are a means of personal expression and everyone has the right to tell the world about themselves and to discuss whatever their fancy. I don’t believe that these types of websites are in any way unwanted. Obviously, such sites would not be included in the vast majority of meaningful searches, purely by virtue of their very nature and such, are not contributing to the abundance of ‘dead’ or ‘idle’ websites.
The 2005 Edition of Steve Brennan’s popular ebook title ‘The Affiliate Guide Book‘ is now available. He also operates a number of Affiliate wesbites including Hair Loss Remedy and Quit Smoking OnlinePlus.
Written by SEO Tipster on April 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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OK. So you’ve created a nice website with lots of interesting products and information. Now all you need is visitors.
No problem.
This is what online marketers call “getting traffic”, and it definitely is a problem. In fact, probably much more of a problem than you realized when you got into this online selling stuff. You probably figured it was just a matter of creating a nice site and waiting for people to discover it. Get listed in a few directories; “submit” your site to a bunch of search engines, and you’ll be on your way.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.
Why it doesn’t work that way
The reason is pretty simple. Most new internet entrepreneurs have no idea how important the big search engines are — especially Google, MSN, and Yahoo. And they have no idea how these big search engines work. If they did, they would probably tear their beautiful websites apart and start over.
And guess what? That is exactly what most online entrepreneurs end up doing. If they are persistent enough, they eventually learn about the search engines, and they rebuild their sites the way they should have been built in the first place.
What they think they have learned
The reason they rebuild their sites is because they learn a little bit about something called “Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO”. The mysterious art of SEO starts from the premise that search engines analyze websites in terms of content and subject matter. Their automatic “spiders” look over your pages and use hints within those pages to determine what they are about. If they see lots of words about “golden retrievers” on a particular page, then they assume that page is about “golden retrievers”. These are known as “keywords” — the words that indicate what your content is about.
SEO takes this fairly obvious fact and says, “Since the search engines are going to draw conclusions about the subject matter of your pages based on keywords, then you should make sure they see the correct ones.” In fact, there are all kinds of little SEO techniques that try to exploit the way spiders draw conclusions about your pages.
Why this is not enough
Unfortunately, no matter how much SEO you do, it is still not enough to ensure you a high ranking in searches for your most important keywords. Especially if you are chasing popular keywords like most of us are. For instance, it really doesn’t matter how much “optimization” you do for a keyword like “Real Estate”, since you will be competing for search engine results with literally millions of other pages which are also optimized for that term. Why should they choose your humble little page?
The fact is, they don’t choose yours. And the reason is pretty simple. Your page is just not important enough to rank a high position for a term like “Real Estate”. You have to do something to give it some importance.
Making your pages “important”
The most effective way to make your pages “important” in the eyes of the search engines, is to get other sites to link to yours. When the search engines see a link pointing from an outside site to a page on your site, they assume this means your page is important enough to be considered a resource worth looking at. The more links you have pointing at your page, the more important your page is considered and the higher it will rank when people search for the type of content your page is about.
It is also important to understand that not all links are considered equally valuable by the search engines. The most valuable links come from other important sites that share your area of interest. For instance, if yours is a Real Estate site, then the most valuable links are from other real estate sites that have already achieved some importance in the eyes of the search engines.
To put this all in “link strategy” terms:
The best way to enhance the importance of your web pages in the eyes of the search engines, is by getting as many links as possible from relevant sites that are considered authoritative in your area of interest.
Rick Hendershot is an internet writer and publisher and is the creator of the Linknet Publishing Network. For information on products to enhance the exposure of your website and build traffic, go to Linknet Products.
Written by SEO Tipster on April 18th, 2006 with no comments.
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If you are looking for a great way to build multiple web sites on valuable topics or trying to streamline your web development process, you should look into keyword tools and services. Many search engine optimizers usually build web sites off of keyword lists. Many web sites can be 500 pages or more and the odds of a person coming up with all 500 keywords from scratch are remote. If you would like to build high quality, on topic web sites that can bring in valuable income, look to keywords as a major part of the equation.
There are plenty of keyword tools on the market. For instance, Keywordtracker is a web site that you can type in one word or a phrase and receive thousands of words or phrases that are directly related to it. This is an awesome tool for search engine optimizers. You can then go through these lists of keywords and pick out the top keywords or the keywords that will be best for your web site.
There are also membership services that deliver thousands of great keywords via email every month. These keywords are usually set around a specific topic and can sometimes include how many times each term was searched for on a specific search engine or how much advertisers pay for the term through various pay per click providers. So if you are a search engine optimizer, look into keyword tools and services to increase your web sites profitability.
Written by SEO Tipster on April 18th, 2006 with no comments.
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Jack had an amazing idea & started his online business with a vision of making it big someday. But few years down the line Jack is left wondering as to why his business isn’t turning up the way he expected it to!
Mark thinks that he has a better service than his competitors, but still fails to understand why their Balance Sheet figures are running into millions, while his are still in few thousands!
All these puzzling facts make one doubt himself. But my friend, the problem is not with the idea or the service! The problem lies in the promotion strategies. No matter how good an idea or a service is, it won’t be successful unless you put it to the right people in the right manner. Good Web Promotion can do wonders to an average idea; forget what it can do to a good one. Had Jack & Mark adopted the right kind of Internet Promotion strategy, they would have achieved what they wanted to.
Everyone will agree that today’s Web Promotion is dominated by Search Engines, or to be precise, Google. If your site is in the top thirty, for the right “Keyword”, you can be a winner. But how can one make it to the top & stay there for a long time? (Mind you, in this dynamic world called Internet, sticking to your position is as important as getting there!)
The best way to “optimize” your site is through a new “Organic Method of Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) that Google & other search engines just love, generating “Quality One Way Links”. One can generate quality back links by way of “Directory Submission” & “Article Submission”.
Online directories provide you with quality back links, which is precisely what you are looking for. Apart from this, you need to submit your site to the most appropriate category & with a brief description about your business. Thus, they also send targeted audience your way!
Another way of generating quality targeted audience & one way links is by writing quality articles & submitting them to Article Directories! By writing a quality article, you are not just informing your potential customers about your service, but are also sharing your knowledge with them. Again, Article Directories gives you an opportunity to inform people about yourself & also provide a link to your site. This way, people get to know about you & your site. And if your article provides a visitor what he came looking for, you have most definitely found yourself a new client!
Had Jack written an article about his idea & explained his service to his target audience and submitted his site to Hundreds of Search Engine Friendly Directories, he would have been on “Cloud 9″ by now. Had Mark written an article informing his potential customers, how his service is better than his customers & also submitted his site to Online Directories, his Balance Sheet too might have run into Millions. To summarize, when you submit your article or your site to various online directories, this is what you get - 1. You generate hundreds of quality back links to your site.
2. People who search these directories may find your article or your sites description interesting & visit your site. Thus you get large targeted audience.
The end result is that your site satisfies all the criterions set by various search engines to have a favorable Rank. You thus reach high positions in search engines & stay there for a long time!
About the Author
Rahul Rungta is a Professional Internet Marketer. Having done intensive research on Search Engine Optimization & Traffic Generation, he is now pioneering two new innovative tools in Internet Marketing - Article & Directory Submission. To know more about him, please visit http://www.submit2please.com
Written by SEO Tipster on April 18th, 2006 with no comments.
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You’ve seen the ads: Guaranteed #1 Ranking! There are no guarantees in search engine marketing and website promotion. If anyone tells you different, you should check quickly to make sure they don’t have their hand in your wallet.
Suppose you sell widgets. You want to sell more widgets, and the way to do that is to make sure that more people know about widgets, and that you are the place to buy their widgets. You might decide to buy a half-page ad in a national magazine to tell your story. When you place that ad, you are “guaranteed” your position.
With a magazine advertisement, you know what the magazine’s circulation is, who reads it, and which page will feature your ad. The magazine can guarantee all that, because they own the medium.
Search engine marketing is qualitatively different. When you work with a search engine marketing firm to promote your website, they cannot guarantee where your listing will appear. Certainly there are types of online ads where there are guarantees in place: banner ads priced at “cost per thousand impressions”, pop-up ads, and so forth. These are like traditional media buys, where you are working directly with the owner of the medium where the ads appear, but this is not search engine marketing.
Even so-called pay-per-click search engines cannot guarantee your position. In Google AdWords, for example, it is not just the price you pay for a given keyword that determines where you will rank. They also bring in other factors, including how often your ad is clicked-on, to determine which ad will be listed first. Just throwing money at them will not necessarily get you into the #1 spot.
The bottom line is this: search engine marketing professionals do not own the search engines. They can tell you that you will achieve #1 ranking on a given search engine, or they can tell you that the moon is made of green cheese, but there is no way they can make either of those happen. When you tell Time magazine you want your ad to be on the back cover, and you pay them enough money, they will guarantee you the back cover. If you tell your search engine marketing people you want to be #1 in AllTheWeb, they cannot guarantee you that result. They can recommend changes to your site that will increase the likelihood of your ranking higher, but that is a long way from a guarantee. If you don’t control the medium, you can’t guarantee the result. Since your search engine consultant doesn’t control the search engine, there is no way they can guarantee your position.
The ranking algorithms of the search engines are a closely-guarded secret. The search engine wants to give top ranking to the site that is the best match to an individual visitor’s search query, not to the site that was able to “beat” the system. That is where the value of real search engine marketing comes in.
While the search engine marketing person cannot guarantee you a position, what they can do is to apply years of experience to tell you what has worked in the past, and to help you make it work today. In many ways, “organic” search engine optimization is really a matter of editing web pages or whole sites to make them the most search engine friendly they can be. Making sure that a given page has just the right combination of keywords, title, links, and so on, is really at its base simply a matter of making that page the best web page it can possibly be. The page that will rank the best in the search engines is also the page that will make the most sense to the human visitor. Rather than relying on tricks to try to make the page rank high, it is a matter of just making the page the most focused and on-message that it can be. The bad news is that this doesn’t guarantee which position in the search engine rankings that page will occupy on a given day. The good news is that the page will always rank well.
The search engines change their algorithms from time to time. If today’s rule, for example, is that just the right combination of text in the title tag will make or break a site, and you know this is true, then all you have to do is to tweak the title tag to fit within that rule, and you will automatically rank very high. Today.
Suppose that tomorrow, however, that rule is changed. Suppose that now the most important factor that the search engines use to rank a site is the content of the META Description tag. All the work you went to yesterday to fix the title is now useless. All of your attention is now focused on fixing that description tag.
Clearly, over time the focus of the search engines will vary. The best way to deal with this is to not deal with it! This means that rather than tweaking a site one way today and another way tomorrow, the best way to approach optimizing a page or a whole site is to not try to beat the system. Instead of trying to “psych-out” the search engines, why not add value to the site? A “common sense” approach to search engine optimization, looking for long term results, is the way to go. When you try to help a site rank better by making it the best it can be, everybody wins.
Dale Goetsch is the Technical Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Optimization company serving small businesses. He has over twelve years experience in software development. Along with programming in Perl, JavaScript, ASP and VB, he is adept at technical writing and editing.
(dale@searchinnovation.com)
Copyright ?2002-2004 Search Innovation Marketing. http://www.searchinnovation.com All Rights Reserved.
Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without modification, including the bio information. Please include a hyperlink to http://www.searchinnovation.com when using this article in newsletters or online.
Written by SEO Tipster on April 17th, 2006 with no comments.
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(A Reflective look at the little search engine that soared!)
All knowing, all seeing, ever present!
Google has permeated into almost every aspect of life on this planet and beyond. It has become a mainstream fixture for computer and Internet users around the globe. All the while, cementing its position as the only real facilitator of the world’s collective intelligence.
Can you remember a day when you have not Googled?
But Google’s reach doesn’t stop with the mouse or the cursor. It has moved beyond the computer screen, snapping up resources, sites, and people at a frighteningly steady pace. Perhaps, the first indication Google wasn’t just satisfied with staying within the wired confines of the world wide web was when it partnered with universities such as Harvard, Oxford, Stanford and others, to scan and index the contents of their libraries — then making this material accessible through Google Print.
Then it casted its aspirations heavenward with the introduction of Google Maps and Google Earth. Mapping services that bring the world’s geographic information into view, it is as if Google had literally ascended, watching us from far and near, tracking our every move as well as our every keystroke. Even using satellite imagery to provide it with eyes in the sky; leading one to wonder, from those lofty heights can divinity be far behind?
All kidding aside, Google, whether it wants to or not, is developing a god-like reverence in the eyes of many. But is this such a leap of faith? Is the idea of Google as a god-like force in our lives so preposterous? so ludicrous? so sacrilegious?
In prehistoric times, pagans used to worship the sun gods. Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome all had their gods who satisfied the basic human need we have to believe in a superior being or force. They even raised ordinary humans who displayed unusual courage or bravery up to a god-like status. Are we now entering into a new post-modern pagan era — will we be worshipping at the feet of Google?
Not really, we treat all our knowledge givers with respect, some even reach a god-like status. We raise them up above the crowd, give them special meaning or reverence in our lives. Humans have been doing this since we stood upright and walked on the plains of Africa. The shaman or high priest of ancient times — holders of the secret rites, holders of a group’s history or knowledge; we show these people respect and we elevate them to a higher status.
Google falls into this category.
And Google does deserve some respect, as far as the search engine market goes, whether it’s wearing a halo or a cursor — Google is still the only game in town. According to Alexa, a company that tracks web traffic, the top three sites on the Web are 1. Yahoo, 2. MSN, and 3. Google. However, when you compare where people go on these sites — search.yahoo.com accounts for only 9% of Yahoo’s traffic and search.msn.com only 7% of MSN’s total traffic; whereas most of Google’s traffic is search traffic. This is a big distinction.
And what about the purchasing power of these search engines; latest data presented by Score Networks, Inc. shows MSN searchers at 48%, Google searchers at 42% and Yahoo at 31%. That is Google searchers were 42% more likely to purchase online than the regular Internet user.
Another aspect of Google’s commercial might is its online advertising system. Through its Adsense and Adword programs, Google has commercialize and monetized most of the web’s free content. Depending on your opinions or stand, this may be good or bad. Regardless of viewpoints, Google has been more than generous with sharing this ad
revenue with all concerned parties — content providers, web writers and journalists, professional bloggers, ordinary webmasters and marketers — all have reaped the benefits of these programs.
If you feed it with fresh high quality content — Google will take good care of you! In many cases, it can be argued that Google is subsidizing or facilitating the creation of quality content on the Net through its Adsense program.
Google’s dominance of all aspects of the Internet is also taking on a god-like force. It is acquiring and building at an almost god-like speed. Google Acquisitions include: Outride, Blogger, Neotonic Software, Applied Semantics, Ignite Logic, Genius Labs, Picasa, Keyhole, Urchin software… how did all this madness start?
Initially called BackRub, referring to the way it back linked to web sites, Google was founded by Stanford graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google, the name itself is a play on the word googol, and refers to the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros… opened its doors on Sept. 7, 1998, in Menlo Park, California. It had a corporate staff of three. In 2004 Google offered its IPO with a price per share at $85. By June 7, 2005, Google was worth $80 billion, making it one of the world’s biggest media companies.
Perhaps, one of Google’s most brilliant (some believe absurd) moves, happened just recently. It has applied (via Nelson Minar, a Google Engineer), for patent rights to transmit ads through RSS feeds. Few people know, even more won’t believe, but the Internet has undergone a fundamental shift in how information is exchanged on the web. RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ and was first popularized by blogs because blogs use XML and RSS feeds to syndicate their content.
Don’t come to us, we will deliver. People can view a site’s contents through RSS readers or an RSS equipped browser without actually going to the sites.
RSS will revolutionize the Internet. Microsoft in its Longhorn Statement has announced the next version of Windows will have RSS integrated into its Operating System. RSS applications, under the Creative Commons license, will change the way we use our computers and the Internet.
Google, if it is successful with this patent application will build on its already god-like status. The stakes are enormous and Google knows it. This patent could put Google directly into the mix, but the rewards are beyond belief! And that’s not all, there are rumors Google may be developing its own RSS powered operating system and browser. Why not, it has the resources and financial clout to easily carry out such an undertaking. Google is already the owner of the domain name “gbrowser.com”!
One can only wonder, is Google positioning itself to not only be the brains of the Internet but also placing itself into the very core of the nasty beast? Does it desire not only to be a mega hub, but also to be an innate part of the whole structure? Positioning itself, in essence, to becoming the web’s nervous system.
Any movement of data, information, or commerce on the Internet will have to pass through and be affected by the Google Factor. More or less, cementing Google’s influence on the whole scheme of things. And in the process, further weaving Google into the very fabric of our lives.
Now if that’s not God-like, nothing is.
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Copyright ?2005 Titus Hoskins
This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
Written by SEO Tipster on April 17th, 2006 with no comments.
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