Human cloning, anthrax and other medical issues are at the forefront of the news right now, and the decision of whether or not to get a flu shot must be faced. Confused? WebMD and OMNI are two excellent medical search engines that can help you find understandable, reputable information about these and other health-related subjects.
WebMD - AN EXCELLENT, COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL SEARCH ENGINE FOR CONSUMERS
WebMD is one of the best all-around consumer medical search engines. It contains information about an extensive range of subjects approached from many orientations (e.g. news, informational articles and reports, transcripts of interviews and chats, and shopping sites with relevant products). Many of the reports contained in WebMD are written by its own journalists and reviewed by board-certified physicians.
There are a wide variety of special features and sections on WebMD. For example, there are special sections on 65 of the most common diseases and conditions, with information on symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, etc. There's a very useful drug and herb database which provides information for consumers (e.g. usage, warnings, side effects, dosage) about hundreds of drugs. In addition there are also links to lists of clinical trials (research) being done on specific diseases and newly approved drugs to treat various conditions.
Search Tips
WebMD is not the place to do highly detailed searches. No search operators are available. You can search using any number of keywords.
Results
Search results are divided into four categories - Library (articles and reports), News, Boards and Chat, and Shopping.
Each result contains the title, a description of the document, and its source (e.g. Web MD, ADAM encyclopedia, etc.). After every result you can select the link to related documents to obtain a list of documents similar to that item.
OMNI - FOR HIGH QUALITY HEALTH AND MEDICAL WEBSITES
OMNI calls itself the "United Kingdom's gateway to high quality Internet resources in health and medicine," and it lives up to this description. It was created by the University of Nottingham Greenfield Medical Library, in partnership with organizations in the UK and beyond. Although its database is heavily weighted toward UK sites, many of the sites stem from the United States and other English-speaking countries.
While OMNI is aimed at students, researchers, academics, and medical practitioners, the sites retrieved by most searches can be understood and used by the general public.
OMNI is one of the BIOME group of databases, which also includes VetGate (animal health), BioResearch (biological research), Natural Selection (resources relating to the natural world) and Agrifor (resources in agriculture, food and forestry). You can search any or all of these databases.
OMNI is especially useful for finding reputable sites (e.g. government agencies, nonprofit organizations, journal articles, research projects, etc.) that can be used to get an overview of a subject. In a search that I did entering the keyword cloning some of the eight documents I retrieved were from the sites of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania (US), Human Genetics Advisory Commission (UK), AIDS reagent project (UK), and the Society, Religion and Technology Project (Scotland).
Search Tips
In OMNI's Simple Search mode, you can use quotation marks to indicate a phrase and the Boolean operators AND and OR .
The Advanced Search mode allows you to choose additional search parameters and lets you specify how you want your results to appear on the page. For example, there are menu choices for searching only specific types of resources (e.g. reports, position statements, news services, etc.). And you can select use truncation, in order to search for other endings of your search words (e.g., the search word invest will retrieve investment, investor, investing, etc.)
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/86161/1
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Home » Technology » Search Engines » Articles » Reviews of Two Legal Search Engines for Consumers
--Hi Paula, this is Janice, your SME. You accidentally posted two copies of this article today. I've dated the second copy into the distant future as a fix. I haven't made any other changes to the copy.----
I'm a believer in the old adage "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," but not when I need the services of a lawyer. I find that when I'm familiar with the basic legal facts about a matter, my lawyer and I can accomplish my goal with a minimum of confusion, in the shortest time possible.
For example, if I'm drawing up a will, it helps to know who can be chosen as an executor, what a living trust is, and how property can be divided, so that I can mull over my own preferences about these issues before seeing my attorney.
Of course, if my legal facts are not accurate, they will be less than worthless. Two specialized search engines that provide access to reputable legal information for consumers are USLaw.com and FindLaw for the Public.
USLaw.com - CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS
USLaw.com is without a doubt the best place to go for consumer information about legal matters. The information you'll find here is consistently well-organized, well-written and informative. Although the articles are not overly long, they are amazingly comprehensive, and touch on the major issues relating to a topic.
There are about 2,000 articles in USLaw's database. The main areas it covers are family law, employment, immigration, real estate, finance, health and injury, crime and the courts, commercial issues and small business. Most seem to have been written specifically for USLaw.com by professionals in various fields of law, or have been excerpted from books.
Although the number of documents in the database is not large, its scope is relatively limited - the common legal concerns of individuals and small businesses - so most searches result in a fairly long list of relevant, helpful articles.
Search Tips
No search operators are available in USLaw.com. Entering one or two search words having to do with your subject will usually retrieve the best results. For example, if you are withholding your rent payments because your landlord is not providing heat and you want to find information about the legal ramifications, you might enter
withhold rent
This would retrieve 13 articles, most with direct relevance to your subject (e.g. Landlord and Tenant: Solutions for Breach of the Warranty of Implied Habitability and Landlord and Tenant: When Payment of Rent is Excused).
Each search result includes the title of the item and a short description.
Special Features
Special features at USLaw include a search engine for locating USLaw.com prescreened attorneys in your area, plus two fee-based services - access to the advice of a staff lawyer either in real time or by e-mail, and a service enabling you to create your own legal documents.
FindLaw FOR THE PUBLIC - RETRIEVES LEGAL INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES
FindLaw for the Public is part of FindLaw, a very large site that is geared to providing information for legal professionals. A particularly useful feature of FindLaw for the Public are the legal "guides" covering many areas of law that are of special interest to consumers. These guides contain links to various types of information and resources, including articles, FAQ's, legal forms, message boards, etc.
Search Tips
FindLaw for the Public gives you a choice of 10 databases to search (on its drop-down menu) - FindLaw, document library, legal dictionary, legal news, legal websites, all websites, US government sites, US Supreme Court, all Circuit Courts, and the US Constitution. For the average consumer, searching the legal websites will provide the most useful information.
When searching the legal websites, you can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to indicate a phrase.
Results
The format of the items retrieved differ among the databases. Items resulting from a search of the legal websites contain the title, a description and the url.
Special Features
You can find lawyers in many specialties using FindLaw's extensive search engine. In addition, you can get information and advice relating to your topic, and read many sad stories at FindLaw's message boards.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88088
I'm a believer in the old adage "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," but not when I need the services of a lawyer. I find that when I'm familiar with the basic legal facts about a matter, my lawyer and I can accomplish my goal with a minimum of confusion, in the shortest time possible.
For example, if I'm drawing up a will, it helps to know who can be chosen as an executor, what a living trust is, and how property can be divided, so that I can mull over my own preferences about these issues before seeing my attorney.
Of course, if my legal facts are not accurate, they will be less than worthless. Two specialized search engines that provide access to reputable legal information for consumers are USLaw.com and FindLaw for the Public.
USLaw.com - CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS
USLaw.com is without a doubt the best place to go for consumer information about legal matters. The information you'll find here is consistently well-organized, well-written and informative. Although the articles are not overly long, they are amazingly comprehensive, and touch on the major issues relating to a topic.
There are about 2,000 articles in USLaw's database. The main areas it covers are family law, employment, immigration, real estate, finance, health and injury, crime and the courts, commercial issues and small business. Most seem to have been written specifically for USLaw.com by professionals in various fields of law, or have been excerpted from books.
Although the number of documents in the database is not large, its scope is relatively limited - the common legal concerns of individuals and small businesses - so most searches result in a fairly long list of relevant, helpful articles.
Search Tips
No search operators are available in USLaw.com. Entering one or two search words having to do with your subject will usually retrieve the best results. For example, if you are withholding your rent payments because your landlord is not providing heat and you want to find information about the legal ramifications, you might enter
withhold rent
This would retrieve 13 articles, most with direct relevance to your subject (e.g. Landlord and Tenant: Solutions for Breach of the Warranty of Implied Habitability and Landlord and Tenant: When Payment of Rent is Excused).
Each search result includes the title of the item and a short description.
Special Features
Special features at USLaw include a search engine for locating USLaw.com prescreened attorneys in your area, plus two fee-based services - access to the advice of a staff lawyer either in real time or by e-mail, and a service enabling you to create your own legal documents.
FindLaw FOR THE PUBLIC - RETRIEVES LEGAL INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES
FindLaw for the Public is part of FindLaw, a very large site that is geared to providing information for legal professionals. A particularly useful feature of FindLaw for the Public are the legal "guides" covering many areas of law that are of special interest to consumers. These guides contain links to various types of information and resources, including articles, FAQ's, legal forms, message boards, etc.
Search Tips
FindLaw for the Public gives you a choice of 10 databases to search (on its drop-down menu) - FindLaw, document library, legal dictionary, legal news, legal websites, all websites, US government sites, US Supreme Court, all Circuit Courts, and the US Constitution. For the average consumer, searching the legal websites will provide the most useful information.
When searching the legal websites, you can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to indicate a phrase.
Results
The format of the items retrieved differ among the databases. Items resulting from a search of the legal websites contain the title, a description and the url.
Special Features
You can find lawyers in many specialties using FindLaw's extensive search engine. In addition, you can get information and advice relating to your topic, and read many sad stories at FindLaw's message boards.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88088
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Search Engine Metrics… Organic Search vs. Paid Placement
Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004 have spent 4 Billion dollars on search engine marketing according to (SEMPO) the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.
Website marketers cited Search engine positioning was the top method to drive traffic to their sites (66%), followed by email marketing (54%). Source: Direct Marketing Association. Accordingly, the most cost effective way to market your web site online is to obtain several top 10-search engine rankings in the major search engines for your keywords.
According to a recent Jupiter Research Survey, searching on the search engines is one of the main uses of the Internet among 79% of users. Source: September 2002 Jupiter Research Survey. So that being the case, whatever your promoting you’ll want to make sure it can be found on the first page of the search engines results page.
The reason is numerically simple. An Iprospect Survey in 2002 reported that 78% of web users abandon their search if the first 3 pages don't provide an answer to their question, and 28% don’t scroll past the 2nd page of results. Source: Media Post article reporting results of Spring 2002 IProspect survey.
Combine those facts with the Internets explosive growth rate of 1.8 Million people worldwide going online every week for the very first time, Source: Official Guide To Internet Promotion and you can soon appreciate what a top 10 ranking can mean to you.
Google receives approximately 39.4% of all search engine traffic. Yahoo receives approximately 30.4%. They’re simply the largest search engines being utilized online today.
Bringing up the rear is MSN at 29.6%, and AOL 15.5% then Ask Jeeves with 8.5%. Source: Nielsen//NetRatings January 2004
How much traffic is that? Well, Google and its partner sites were reporting a whopping 250 million searches a day in February 2003.
Overture and its partners were reporting over 167 million searches per day. Inktomi reported 80 million followed by LookSmart with 45 million per day.
FindWhat reported 33 million while Ask Jeeves reported 20 million, Alta Vista reported 18 million and finally Fast reported 12 Million searches per day. Source: Searchenginewatch.com 2004.
With all said, you can easily see how your search engine rankings are directly proportional to the traffic your web site receives, and your site traffic is directly related to your potential to profit online.
Oh, and in case your wondering how much money is spent online; a recent Forrester Research Report indicated that online spending reached $95,700,000,000 million in 2003!
That's a cool 95.7 billion dollars. Projected online spending is estimated to grow to $229 billion in 2008! A whopping 139% increase in online spending! Source: Forrester Research
Now with these facts in mind I’m confident you can clearly see what a top 10-search engine ranking can mean for your bottom line. Although it does leave a question unanswered in my mind, what has a higher ROI… organic search engine optimization or paid search?
According to SEMPO’s key analysis, the U.S. & Canadian SEM Industry Size Estimate by tactic in 2004, organic SEO accounted for 12% of the market share or $492,057,200 while Paid Placement accounted for $3,341,878,176 or 81.8%.
Interestingly, 9 out of 10 respondents are actively engaged in organic SEM marketing programs accounting for 89% of the respondent advertisers. This trend can be contributed to the average cost of popular keywords continuing to escalate.
If the escalation continues to rise it could make paid search engine advertising exponentially cost prohibitive for all but the largest advertisers… the 900lb gorillas!
Simply put, ROI is outpacing inflation: SEMPO’s key analysis indicates advertisers could afford to pay on average 33% more for their keywords and remain profitable, while they say prices have gone up 26% on average in the last 12 months. That’s leaves a 7% advertising margin to maintain current profits for 2005!
SEMPO’s data also noted that advertisers will get smarter about managing their paid placement programs before they cut back on spending.
This is also consistent with a report released by Nielsen/NetRatings indicating that the growing demand for search engine advertising is outstripping the supply of currently available advertising space.
These findings seem to indicate the inventory of keywords is approaching a critical demand problem however; most advertisers felt they still have some degree of price flexibility in their paid placement programs before they will reach the threshold of diminishing returns.
Is there any wonder why organic search engine positioning has gained popularity for online marketers in 2004? Could it be higher (ROI) return on investments?
SEMPO also cites that 43% of advertiser respondents have shifted their budgets away from other marketing programs for Organic SEO.
So what does it all mean? Let the numbers speak for themselves.
Organic SEO is undeniably gaining favor over the lower ROI paid advertising. This is evidenced by virtue of the fact that paid advertising is becoming less profitable.
Although paid advertising will continue to hold a large portion of the market shareFree Web Content, as paid advertising returns diminish and keyword costs soar my early 2005 forecast is for the materialization of a progressive organic SEO market trend to facilitate the need for advertising space.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lawrence Deon is an SEO/SEM Consultant and author of the popular search engine optimization and marketing model Ranking Your Way To The Bank. http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.com
Website marketers cited Search engine positioning was the top method to drive traffic to their sites (66%), followed by email marketing (54%). Source: Direct Marketing Association. Accordingly, the most cost effective way to market your web site online is to obtain several top 10-search engine rankings in the major search engines for your keywords.
According to a recent Jupiter Research Survey, searching on the search engines is one of the main uses of the Internet among 79% of users. Source: September 2002 Jupiter Research Survey. So that being the case, whatever your promoting you’ll want to make sure it can be found on the first page of the search engines results page.
The reason is numerically simple. An Iprospect Survey in 2002 reported that 78% of web users abandon their search if the first 3 pages don't provide an answer to their question, and 28% don’t scroll past the 2nd page of results. Source: Media Post article reporting results of Spring 2002 IProspect survey.
Combine those facts with the Internets explosive growth rate of 1.8 Million people worldwide going online every week for the very first time, Source: Official Guide To Internet Promotion and you can soon appreciate what a top 10 ranking can mean to you.
Google receives approximately 39.4% of all search engine traffic. Yahoo receives approximately 30.4%. They’re simply the largest search engines being utilized online today.
Bringing up the rear is MSN at 29.6%, and AOL 15.5% then Ask Jeeves with 8.5%. Source: Nielsen//NetRatings January 2004
How much traffic is that? Well, Google and its partner sites were reporting a whopping 250 million searches a day in February 2003.
Overture and its partners were reporting over 167 million searches per day. Inktomi reported 80 million followed by LookSmart with 45 million per day.
FindWhat reported 33 million while Ask Jeeves reported 20 million, Alta Vista reported 18 million and finally Fast reported 12 Million searches per day. Source: Searchenginewatch.com 2004.
With all said, you can easily see how your search engine rankings are directly proportional to the traffic your web site receives, and your site traffic is directly related to your potential to profit online.
Oh, and in case your wondering how much money is spent online; a recent Forrester Research Report indicated that online spending reached $95,700,000,000 million in 2003!
That's a cool 95.7 billion dollars. Projected online spending is estimated to grow to $229 billion in 2008! A whopping 139% increase in online spending! Source: Forrester Research
Now with these facts in mind I’m confident you can clearly see what a top 10-search engine ranking can mean for your bottom line. Although it does leave a question unanswered in my mind, what has a higher ROI… organic search engine optimization or paid search?
According to SEMPO’s key analysis, the U.S. & Canadian SEM Industry Size Estimate by tactic in 2004, organic SEO accounted for 12% of the market share or $492,057,200 while Paid Placement accounted for $3,341,878,176 or 81.8%.
Interestingly, 9 out of 10 respondents are actively engaged in organic SEM marketing programs accounting for 89% of the respondent advertisers. This trend can be contributed to the average cost of popular keywords continuing to escalate.
If the escalation continues to rise it could make paid search engine advertising exponentially cost prohibitive for all but the largest advertisers… the 900lb gorillas!
Simply put, ROI is outpacing inflation: SEMPO’s key analysis indicates advertisers could afford to pay on average 33% more for their keywords and remain profitable, while they say prices have gone up 26% on average in the last 12 months. That’s leaves a 7% advertising margin to maintain current profits for 2005!
SEMPO’s data also noted that advertisers will get smarter about managing their paid placement programs before they cut back on spending.
This is also consistent with a report released by Nielsen/NetRatings indicating that the growing demand for search engine advertising is outstripping the supply of currently available advertising space.
These findings seem to indicate the inventory of keywords is approaching a critical demand problem however; most advertisers felt they still have some degree of price flexibility in their paid placement programs before they will reach the threshold of diminishing returns.
Is there any wonder why organic search engine positioning has gained popularity for online marketers in 2004? Could it be higher (ROI) return on investments?
SEMPO also cites that 43% of advertiser respondents have shifted their budgets away from other marketing programs for Organic SEO.
So what does it all mean? Let the numbers speak for themselves.
Organic SEO is undeniably gaining favor over the lower ROI paid advertising. This is evidenced by virtue of the fact that paid advertising is becoming less profitable.
Although paid advertising will continue to hold a large portion of the market shareFree Web Content, as paid advertising returns diminish and keyword costs soar my early 2005 forecast is for the materialization of a progressive organic SEO market trend to facilitate the need for advertising space.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lawrence Deon is an SEO/SEM Consultant and author of the popular search engine optimization and marketing model Ranking Your Way To The Bank. http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.com
Website Search Engine Positioning
Search Engine Positioning Does Not Have to Be a Complicated Process! Find Out How I Have Gained Top Search Engine Spots in Google with Little to No Optimization...
The greatest thing about getting high ranking positions in the major search engines is that it's 100% free. This is also the reason why it's difficult to attain the top positions in markets outside of very tight niches.
Search engine optimization can seem a very complicated process and if you want to make it that way, you can. You can spend a lifetime studying the search engine logarithms and every little keyword trick to position your website higher, but the problem is - the major search engines, like Google, keep changing the rules.
Anything I write here may not even apply 6 months from now but what I have learnt from my own experience, getting top search engine placement is a simple process. That's right - Simple!Simple does not mean that you do not have to do any work. Like most of my other online strategies I have to work hard to gain top placements. Also my experiences apply to only Google. I really don't care about the others at this point as Google provides high quality traffic and the lions' share of it too.
I have proven through my own methods that only two things matter -
1. The title of your page.
2. The backlinks to your sites.
I would even go as far to say that the title does not even matter all that much. The backlinks are the things that drive you up the search engines more than anything else. If you concentrate on this area above all others, you will do well.
When I refer to backlinks, I mean one way backlinks. Reciprocal linking used to be the main thing but I have found that this strategy has lost much of the power it would have had a few years ago. I still use reciprocal linking BUT my main concern are links from site where I do not have to link back.
A backlink with your keyword phrase in the linkback text is worth it's weight in gold.
I have taken many of my sites to the top of Google with numerous highly competitive keyword phrases. I have not optimized the main content of the pages, nor have I messed with the title much either, other than to put some keywords in the six word title tag.
So it can be done, and it works. If I could put images in this article I could show you the top postions that I have achieved. Feel free to get in touch with me and I can show you proof.
Apply the simple process of getting one way backlinks in a niche market and the strategy becomes all the more powerful and rewarding.
You can believe that search engine optimization is for the elite only, and never get started. OrBusiness Management Articles, take the jump now and do some testing for yourself. You will find that the only things that search engine experts are doing that you aren't is putting in the hours. There is nothing complicated about it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
To find out the Two Proven, Powerful Strategies that I use to Propel my Sites to the Top of the Search Engines Check Out Affiliate Article Marketing and SEO Elite Review
The greatest thing about getting high ranking positions in the major search engines is that it's 100% free. This is also the reason why it's difficult to attain the top positions in markets outside of very tight niches.
Search engine optimization can seem a very complicated process and if you want to make it that way, you can. You can spend a lifetime studying the search engine logarithms and every little keyword trick to position your website higher, but the problem is - the major search engines, like Google, keep changing the rules.
Anything I write here may not even apply 6 months from now but what I have learnt from my own experience, getting top search engine placement is a simple process. That's right - Simple!Simple does not mean that you do not have to do any work. Like most of my other online strategies I have to work hard to gain top placements. Also my experiences apply to only Google. I really don't care about the others at this point as Google provides high quality traffic and the lions' share of it too.
I have proven through my own methods that only two things matter -
1. The title of your page.
2. The backlinks to your sites.
I would even go as far to say that the title does not even matter all that much. The backlinks are the things that drive you up the search engines more than anything else. If you concentrate on this area above all others, you will do well.
When I refer to backlinks, I mean one way backlinks. Reciprocal linking used to be the main thing but I have found that this strategy has lost much of the power it would have had a few years ago. I still use reciprocal linking BUT my main concern are links from site where I do not have to link back.
A backlink with your keyword phrase in the linkback text is worth it's weight in gold.
I have taken many of my sites to the top of Google with numerous highly competitive keyword phrases. I have not optimized the main content of the pages, nor have I messed with the title much either, other than to put some keywords in the six word title tag.
So it can be done, and it works. If I could put images in this article I could show you the top postions that I have achieved. Feel free to get in touch with me and I can show you proof.
Apply the simple process of getting one way backlinks in a niche market and the strategy becomes all the more powerful and rewarding.
You can believe that search engine optimization is for the elite only, and never get started. OrBusiness Management Articles, take the jump now and do some testing for yourself. You will find that the only things that search engine experts are doing that you aren't is putting in the hours. There is nothing complicated about it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
To find out the Two Proven, Powerful Strategies that I use to Propel my Sites to the Top of the Search Engines Check Out Affiliate Article Marketing and SEO Elite Review
Monday, May 14, 2007
The Importance of Search Engine Optimization SEO
Search Engine Optimization is a key to any successful internet marketing strategy. There are numerous definitions and interpretations as to exactly what Search Engine Optimization means. It is the process in which the careful and strategic placing, analysis, and wording of keywords of text on a particular website to enable optimum search engine rankings, this definition comes from www.pixelphoria.com/glossary.php. There are several ways in which this process can benefit internet marketing strategies.
When creating or updating a commercial website, the reason is typically to make the products more attractive to viewers, while at the same time creating the ability to gain more exposure with a broader audience. While most websites have a target audience, it is this ability to gain a larger, broader audience that they are all searching to gain. The Search Engine Optimization process allows for the creation of a higher page ranking when a potential viewer is using a search engine to find specific websites based upon the searchable keywords they will enter. This process identifies those keywords that will benefit a particular website and uses them in such a way that it gets a higher page ranking when those keywords are searched. For example, if "internet marketing" was searched for in Google, the more times the phrase "internet marketing" is included within the website, potentially the closer to the top the page will be displayed.
In this time of maximum Internet usage, many searchers only use first page displayed websites on their searches because this is where the pages with those higher page rankings are displayed, which translates into these pages find the highest relevance to their keyword searches. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that these websites are the only ones out there that will have the relevant search information, it just means that these websites have better marketed themselves to be located when specified keywords are searched, which is the exact benefit of Search Engine Optimization. This makes it even more critical that each website understand the importance of and the knowledge necessary to adapt their websites to benefit from Search Engine Optimization.
As should be understood by this point, it is imperative that an understanding of and taking advantage of Search Engine Optimization will provide the website a higher profile in the world of search engines. By taking advantage of optimization techniques, more searchers will gain faster access to the particular website. If the website has something worthwhile to offer in the world of ecommerce, then Search Engine Optimization is a strategy that should be employed immediately.
Authors submit your articles to the Internet’s newest searchable article database. Increase your web site traffic and link popularity by displaying your articles to thousands of targeted publishers, ezine editors, and webmasters. Go to http://www.websition.com today!
© John Doetsch 2005. Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entiretyFree Articles, including links and resource box.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Doetsch is SEO specialist at Websition.com where you will find additional articles and free web content written by the Internet's most gifted authors. Visit his web site at http://www.websition.com/
When creating or updating a commercial website, the reason is typically to make the products more attractive to viewers, while at the same time creating the ability to gain more exposure with a broader audience. While most websites have a target audience, it is this ability to gain a larger, broader audience that they are all searching to gain. The Search Engine Optimization process allows for the creation of a higher page ranking when a potential viewer is using a search engine to find specific websites based upon the searchable keywords they will enter. This process identifies those keywords that will benefit a particular website and uses them in such a way that it gets a higher page ranking when those keywords are searched. For example, if "internet marketing" was searched for in Google, the more times the phrase "internet marketing" is included within the website, potentially the closer to the top the page will be displayed.
In this time of maximum Internet usage, many searchers only use first page displayed websites on their searches because this is where the pages with those higher page rankings are displayed, which translates into these pages find the highest relevance to their keyword searches. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that these websites are the only ones out there that will have the relevant search information, it just means that these websites have better marketed themselves to be located when specified keywords are searched, which is the exact benefit of Search Engine Optimization. This makes it even more critical that each website understand the importance of and the knowledge necessary to adapt their websites to benefit from Search Engine Optimization.
As should be understood by this point, it is imperative that an understanding of and taking advantage of Search Engine Optimization will provide the website a higher profile in the world of search engines. By taking advantage of optimization techniques, more searchers will gain faster access to the particular website. If the website has something worthwhile to offer in the world of ecommerce, then Search Engine Optimization is a strategy that should be employed immediately.
Authors submit your articles to the Internet’s newest searchable article database. Increase your web site traffic and link popularity by displaying your articles to thousands of targeted publishers, ezine editors, and webmasters. Go to http://www.websition.com today!
© John Doetsch 2005. Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entiretyFree Articles, including links and resource box.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Doetsch is SEO specialist at Websition.com where you will find additional articles and free web content written by the Internet's most gifted authors. Visit his web site at http://www.websition.com/
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. It’s important to note that when it comes to SEO there are two distinct 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. These were only a few examples but there are many other deceptive practices that may be employed by black hat SEOs. 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 allPsychology Articles, of which will obtained through deceptive practices.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Kothe is the talented marketing coordinator at Internet Traffic Solutions (http://www.itsontarget.com) which is a full service marketing agency that offers clients a profitable way to get the attention of their target audience online.
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. These were only a few examples but there are many other deceptive practices that may be employed by black hat SEOs. 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 allPsychology Articles, of which will obtained through deceptive practices.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Kothe is the talented marketing coordinator at Internet Traffic Solutions (http://www.itsontarget.com) which is a full service marketing agency that offers clients a profitable way to get the attention of their target audience online.
How To Optimize Your Website For Google
Expert Google search engine optimization have increased exponentially, because of the proven search engine optimization and search engine positioning techniques.
A group of Google employees have recently filed a patent application (#20050071741) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office which gives insight into how to optimize one's website to do well in the Google rankings. The filing of the patent gives verification that Google uses or intends to use historical data in its ranking algorithm. This patent also gives credence to the Google Sandbox Theory for new websites.
Under the Google Sandbox Theory, new websites are placed in a sort of holding tank for observation for a period of time (6 - 9 months at present) until the website has proved that it's not a fly-by-night operation.
Once the Sandbox period is over, then new websites will climb rapidly in the rankings. The Google Sandbox Theory is an unofficial theory based on observation and anecdotal evidence from those within the search engine optimization industry.
Based on the new Google patent here are the top 5 suggestions to better optimization for Google:
1- Build links slowly to your website. Websites that put up a bunch links quickly send up a red flag that links are being added in order to boost rankings. According to Google, natural links happen slowly over time, so one's link-building strategy also needs to include link-building slowly over time.
2- The anchor text in the back links to a website also need to be natural as well. If a website has lots of great content of interest to visitors, other Webmasters will naturally link to the website. Content is still king when it comes to building natural links.
In fact, having great content is the best natural linking strategy.
3- If content is king, then fresh content is prince. Google thrives on websites that are constantly adding fresh content. Websites with stale content erode in value over time.
4- When adding fresh content, make sure it is substantial. According to the patent, Google measures substantial versus insubstantial content that is being added to a website.
Don't try to trick the search engines with lots of minor content updates.
5- Outbound links to trusted, authority sites help in the rankings. As a reputable online business, it makes good business sense to refer customers to other reputable businesses as well. Referring customers to disreputable websites only hurt a business's reputation and credibility and Google takes this into account when deciding how to rank websites.
There are more insights to be gained from the patent application, but these are the highlights that will help Webmasters and SEO's focusing on Google to achieve higher rankings. Many of these ideas have been stated before as theory and now the patent application verifies these theories.
Historical data has always been thought to play a significant role in the Google rankings. So now that it has been confirmedPsychology Articles, taking action seems to be the next logical step.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Biehn, SEO Consultant.Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services.comProfessional And Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services Trought Natural Search Engines Results.
A group of Google employees have recently filed a patent application (#20050071741) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office which gives insight into how to optimize one's website to do well in the Google rankings. The filing of the patent gives verification that Google uses or intends to use historical data in its ranking algorithm. This patent also gives credence to the Google Sandbox Theory for new websites.
Under the Google Sandbox Theory, new websites are placed in a sort of holding tank for observation for a period of time (6 - 9 months at present) until the website has proved that it's not a fly-by-night operation.
Once the Sandbox period is over, then new websites will climb rapidly in the rankings. The Google Sandbox Theory is an unofficial theory based on observation and anecdotal evidence from those within the search engine optimization industry.
Based on the new Google patent here are the top 5 suggestions to better optimization for Google:
1- Build links slowly to your website. Websites that put up a bunch links quickly send up a red flag that links are being added in order to boost rankings. According to Google, natural links happen slowly over time, so one's link-building strategy also needs to include link-building slowly over time.
2- The anchor text in the back links to a website also need to be natural as well. If a website has lots of great content of interest to visitors, other Webmasters will naturally link to the website. Content is still king when it comes to building natural links.
In fact, having great content is the best natural linking strategy.
3- If content is king, then fresh content is prince. Google thrives on websites that are constantly adding fresh content. Websites with stale content erode in value over time.
4- When adding fresh content, make sure it is substantial. According to the patent, Google measures substantial versus insubstantial content that is being added to a website.
Don't try to trick the search engines with lots of minor content updates.
5- Outbound links to trusted, authority sites help in the rankings. As a reputable online business, it makes good business sense to refer customers to other reputable businesses as well. Referring customers to disreputable websites only hurt a business's reputation and credibility and Google takes this into account when deciding how to rank websites.
There are more insights to be gained from the patent application, but these are the highlights that will help Webmasters and SEO's focusing on Google to achieve higher rankings. Many of these ideas have been stated before as theory and now the patent application verifies these theories.
Historical data has always been thought to play a significant role in the Google rankings. So now that it has been confirmedPsychology Articles, taking action seems to be the next logical step.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Biehn, SEO Consultant.Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services.comProfessional And Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services Trought Natural Search Engines Results.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)