Search engine optimization, SEO, is the practice of making web site search-friendly to search engines and for those who search business through search engine. There are some common mistakes that people make while optimizing their sites for search engines.
Find some common mistakes as under that may lead to a fall in ranking in search engines. Sometimes webmasters do not even know that they are doing something that will affect search engine positioning, so here are some common mistakes listed.
*Incorrectly Designed Websites
If your website is designed inadequately i.e. lack of proper navigation, using frames to save web designers designing times, and large graphics which takes more time to load, these all makes effect on listing in Search Engine. Search engine spiders can actually be blocked from crawling sites that are not well-designed. Therefore proper web designing is very important part of search engine optimization.
In many sites, images and other script languages are used for fine looks. These are good but not crawl-able i.e. not advisable for search engine optimization. Try to make your useful links in HTML rather than using images or use of other web script languages. If your page layout change then place HTML link on bottom of your page. It is also good chance to use keywords in anchor text.
Large image size will cause more time to download page, people don’t have time to wait for long time. Make your images in more pieces so it will take less time than single image. Try to make low resolution file where high resolution graphics are not required. If it is essential to use large images then consider using thumbnails and open it in separate page. This may give additional benefit of creating more pages and more text that spiders and bots crave.
* Poorly written of Content
If we have to rate single largest factor for high ranking in search engine i.e. “content”.
Clarity of content written in site is a very important aspect for search engine spiders, search engine and directory users. If your content is badly written and not relevant to what you want to find for or content which are never updated, than your site is neither search engine friendly nor user-friendly. Well-written content is what search engine spiders feed on, and content is the key to high rankings. In addition, your content absolutely must have targeted keywords and phrases. If content is written properly, you can make more targeted keyword and appropriate phrases.
Ideally, you will use those words throughout your copy frequently and may also include them in bold or italics to show search engines that those words are very important in the scope of the page!
Absence of targeted keyword and phrases can break your site. When users go to search engine and type particular keyword related to your site, but if you have not entered that keyword in your body text than your site will not come in listing.
Another common mistake made by some SEO professional is their choice of keywords placed in the META keyword tag. Make sure it might seem logical to your content.
Any irrelevant keyword or phrase can increase your ranking but think about it – even if you succeeded in ranking well for such a competitive term that you don’t want, how many of the people visiting your site as a result of this search would leave as soon as they see your home page? That’s right, because most of them don’t find what exactly they are looking for. Misspellings, odd spacing, and product feature-specific variations should also be considered. Thorough keyword research can save money and future disappointments.
Does it become clear now that targeting such a generic word is a waste of time? What you need to do instead is optimize your site for search terms and phrases that are highly targeted to your precise business. Use a tool such as Word tracker to find what people are actually typing in to the search engines to find goods and services similar to yours and concentrate on ranking well for those terms. The more qualified your site visitors are, the more likely you are to convert those visitors into paying customers.
* Replica of Content
Do not copy content from other’s website. When Search engines compares your site with other site; if your page is updated later that it consider your site as spamming and it may result into penalty or low ranking of your site. If you use duplicate pages means if you prepare more than one pages with different name and link but if content in page are same search engine will considered as trick and it definitely affect your ranking.
Also, search engine algorithms have become smarter and are now checking that sites contain highly relevant content before including them in their index.
*Improper use of Meta Tags or Site without Meta Tags
Without Meta tags or improper Meta tags can misguide search engine for irrelevance search that may cause improper listing of your website. Meta tags are used to include Keyword and description tags. It is reserved part especially for search engines. Meta tags help search engines for quick search. It is also helpful to increase ranking in search engines. Make sure to include these Meta tags in all page of your site, and target them for each individual page.
If your website is good in content and also have proper keywords, but not place page title or not used descriptive and appropriate page title than it might harm your ranking. It is better to have different title on every page also use descriptive page title.
Use your title tag, URL, and H1 tags when optimizing site. In a website these are the three most simple and most important for search engine, when it comes to search engine optimization.
* Absence of Sitemap for website with more than 10 pages
Without sitemap, user need to search entire site for the content he is searching for which is very tedious and sometime user may quit without going further. For the reason it is very important to prepare sitemap in the website to help searcher and search engine. Sitemap assist web crawlers in indexing websites more efficiently and effectively. Sitemap provides structure of entire site in one page which is very useful for search engine optimization. The sitemap drives the search engine to go directly to the page instead of search for links. This helps a lot in optimization of website in search engines.
Google has introduced an option for generating sitemap of your website. Google sitemaps is an easy way to tell Google about all the pages on your site, which pages are most important to you, and when those pages change, for a smarter crawl and fresher search results.
Google Sitemaps also answers questions you might have about how Google sees your site.
* Page Cloaking
The website that contains contents that is specially designed for the search engine is called cloaking site. The search engine checked IP address and keywords of the search query. There are cloaking techniques where the homepage is altered to each and every keyword to make search engine think that your site contains very relevant contents especially designed for the queried keyword or key phrase. Cloaking can result in a penalty that may damage your business as well as ranking.
*Over optimization affects your web site
When you put weight only on search engine ranking then it becomes over optimization. When you prepare content in your site with more numbers of keywords i.e. keyword stuffed body text; having a too high keyword density may cause an over optimization penalty. This also applies to your page title, your Meta description and Meta keywords, as well as the ALT attributes of your images. That means you can not place stuff of keywords as body text in the site. Therefore, avoid optimizing your pages very much by all way. Try to make website for human being rather than making for search engine robot.
* Absence of Back Links or broken links
Your site must be link properly. For example if you open some page in new window and there is no back link or any navigation in that page to return main page than it is just as a deserted island. The other example is if you have placed banner of some of your partner or relevance to your business, when user click on that link and you have not place back link than user may not find way if he wants to back to your site.
It is a good way to link sites that are related to your business and ask them to link of your website. But take care of proper linking. Try and think in terms of traffic and avoid the page rank trap. If a link will bring your site traffic then go for it. If you are in a highly competitive market try to build quality links.
* Inadequate Marketing Plan
Ranking will not help if you don’t know what your target market is. Your ranking has to lead with proper marketing strategy that hit your target audience and not just useless hits. Before spending time and money a perfect marketing plan is essential.
http://www.topranker.in/seo_articles.htm#most_common_mistakes_in_search_engine_optimization
Friday, June 1, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Why Should You opt for Search Engine Marketing?
Started getting aware of the web technology and search engine marketing of your website? If you have not started marketing your website it is not too late you must start now without any further delay. Here are concrete reasons why you must market your website through search engines and directories.
* Your competitors are ranking well on the search engines.
Your competitors have opted for search engine optimization technology and started attracting your prospective customers. It is very frustrating that even though they are inferior in quality and services they are getting more and more business through internet marketing.
* Your customer and potential customer are surfing the web to find out your products.
Gone are the days when your potential customers are collecting initial information about your products and services through yellow pages and business directories. They have become more technology oriented and using internet to read and research about products and services. They shortlist good companies and start negotiations with them. If your site is not listed well in the search engine, you will miss the chance to quote.
* A well promoted website makes it easy for people to refer new customers to you.
For most of the businesses, referrals are the most crucial source of getting new customers. With a well promoted website, it becomes easy to encourage the referrals because customer can simply send your URL to their business contacts. Many times, referrals influence your potential customers to alternative manufacturer.
* Search Engine Optimization makes your website online global office which is open to your potential customer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Even when you are relaxing, your website is working for you. It is constantly giving information about your company, business, and services. Your prospective customer does not have to contact you personally for any kind of information about your company. They can only get in touch with you through email when they are convinced about getting into any type of business association with your company. This saves lot of your time and energy.
* From remote destinations or distant countries, your customers can buy your products and pay for them while sitting at their computer.
Online business or selling online has become so common across the world that irrespective of nature or value of the product, people close deal through website. You can do business with customers from any part of the world and their payment made directly into your bank account here you are sure about your payment as you will not dispatch the product without realization of money while there are instances in the local market that you have to send product first and then you get the payment. Chances are there you get payment very late but here you are doing business in cash and widening reach of your product across the world.
* Search engine marketing increases the value of your product.
You can have pages and pages about your company, products, and services in much more detailed form than anyone else can be able to offer. A well placed website in search engine can draw the attention of your prospective customers and get an opportunity to explain about superiority over your competitors.
* Any new product or updates in product range can reach your customer faster.
A well promoted site conveys the message through search engine listing. If your site is listed well in search engine, any updates in your website will be reflected faster as spider visits your site regularly. So when you introduce latest product or upgrade the product and your prospective customer is looking for upgraded product, your site will draw attention with the relevant keywords. So chances of getting new business will become faster. Just compare this fast updates of your website in search engine with reprinting, redesigning, and redistribution of your new sales brochure.
* Search engine marketing will help you to reach potential customers worldwide, nationwide, or locally without any extra cost.
Thanks to search engine marketing, wider the business prospect, lower the business promotion cost. It is rightly said search engine marketing is a gift of God to all small and genuine ambitious businessmen to reach globally. Just think if your website is listed well, and it opens all doors to business opportunities coming from all over the world.
* Search engine marketing can save lot of your money.
Just compare the cost of leaflet printing, magazine advertising and mailing versus the cost of search engine marketing. The scope of search engine marketing has wider reach vis-à-vis conventional marketing activities which is much more expensive than search engine promotion.
* Your website positioning in search engine increases your credibility
Imagine the miracle of technology, your website is listed above multimillion dollar companies or your company placed above world leader in your product range. In that case, your prospective customer will visit your website, which creates credibility at par with the multimillion dollar company. A high ranking website creates powerful impact on a potential customer & creates confidence in you. If your website is well designed and well positioned visitors will have no choice but to be impressed.
* You can test new products or services instantly at no extra cost
Once your site is positioned well in search engine, you can add any information to the website and list the same at ranking high in search engines. So based on response, you get about new services or products through search engines. You can make business decision about scope of new services or products. In other words, search engine marketing replaces conventional market research and get feed back from larger and wider audience at no extra cost.
* Search engine optimization helps you to stay in contact with potential customers.
There are chances that your prospective buyer is interested in your product but not ready to buy right now. So just to get information he will visit your site and collect the information but when he is ready to buy the product he will again search the internet. If you are with knowledgeable search engine marketing company, your position in search engine would have improved or remained the same position, giving more confidence to your prospective buyer. Staying top in search engine ranking keeps your company fresh in visitors mind.
* Leading in search engine proves that you are leader in your business too.
If your website is listed with high ranking in most of the search engine and directories, customers will see your website more wherever and whenever he surfs. This creates a solid impression about your company product and services in the mind of prospective buyer. In other words, it establishes leadership status in the mind of customer. This leads to more business opportunities. So be on top, go for search engine marketing with knowledgeable firm. This is the most effective and more economical marketing technology available on this planet.
http://www.topranker.in/seo_articles.htm
* Your competitors are ranking well on the search engines.
Your competitors have opted for search engine optimization technology and started attracting your prospective customers. It is very frustrating that even though they are inferior in quality and services they are getting more and more business through internet marketing.
* Your customer and potential customer are surfing the web to find out your products.
Gone are the days when your potential customers are collecting initial information about your products and services through yellow pages and business directories. They have become more technology oriented and using internet to read and research about products and services. They shortlist good companies and start negotiations with them. If your site is not listed well in the search engine, you will miss the chance to quote.
* A well promoted website makes it easy for people to refer new customers to you.
For most of the businesses, referrals are the most crucial source of getting new customers. With a well promoted website, it becomes easy to encourage the referrals because customer can simply send your URL to their business contacts. Many times, referrals influence your potential customers to alternative manufacturer.
* Search Engine Optimization makes your website online global office which is open to your potential customer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Even when you are relaxing, your website is working for you. It is constantly giving information about your company, business, and services. Your prospective customer does not have to contact you personally for any kind of information about your company. They can only get in touch with you through email when they are convinced about getting into any type of business association with your company. This saves lot of your time and energy.
* From remote destinations or distant countries, your customers can buy your products and pay for them while sitting at their computer.
Online business or selling online has become so common across the world that irrespective of nature or value of the product, people close deal through website. You can do business with customers from any part of the world and their payment made directly into your bank account here you are sure about your payment as you will not dispatch the product without realization of money while there are instances in the local market that you have to send product first and then you get the payment. Chances are there you get payment very late but here you are doing business in cash and widening reach of your product across the world.
* Search engine marketing increases the value of your product.
You can have pages and pages about your company, products, and services in much more detailed form than anyone else can be able to offer. A well placed website in search engine can draw the attention of your prospective customers and get an opportunity to explain about superiority over your competitors.
* Any new product or updates in product range can reach your customer faster.
A well promoted site conveys the message through search engine listing. If your site is listed well in search engine, any updates in your website will be reflected faster as spider visits your site regularly. So when you introduce latest product or upgrade the product and your prospective customer is looking for upgraded product, your site will draw attention with the relevant keywords. So chances of getting new business will become faster. Just compare this fast updates of your website in search engine with reprinting, redesigning, and redistribution of your new sales brochure.
* Search engine marketing will help you to reach potential customers worldwide, nationwide, or locally without any extra cost.
Thanks to search engine marketing, wider the business prospect, lower the business promotion cost. It is rightly said search engine marketing is a gift of God to all small and genuine ambitious businessmen to reach globally. Just think if your website is listed well, and it opens all doors to business opportunities coming from all over the world.
* Search engine marketing can save lot of your money.
Just compare the cost of leaflet printing, magazine advertising and mailing versus the cost of search engine marketing. The scope of search engine marketing has wider reach vis-à-vis conventional marketing activities which is much more expensive than search engine promotion.
* Your website positioning in search engine increases your credibility
Imagine the miracle of technology, your website is listed above multimillion dollar companies or your company placed above world leader in your product range. In that case, your prospective customer will visit your website, which creates credibility at par with the multimillion dollar company. A high ranking website creates powerful impact on a potential customer & creates confidence in you. If your website is well designed and well positioned visitors will have no choice but to be impressed.
* You can test new products or services instantly at no extra cost
Once your site is positioned well in search engine, you can add any information to the website and list the same at ranking high in search engines. So based on response, you get about new services or products through search engines. You can make business decision about scope of new services or products. In other words, search engine marketing replaces conventional market research and get feed back from larger and wider audience at no extra cost.
* Search engine optimization helps you to stay in contact with potential customers.
There are chances that your prospective buyer is interested in your product but not ready to buy right now. So just to get information he will visit your site and collect the information but when he is ready to buy the product he will again search the internet. If you are with knowledgeable search engine marketing company, your position in search engine would have improved or remained the same position, giving more confidence to your prospective buyer. Staying top in search engine ranking keeps your company fresh in visitors mind.
* Leading in search engine proves that you are leader in your business too.
If your website is listed with high ranking in most of the search engine and directories, customers will see your website more wherever and whenever he surfs. This creates a solid impression about your company product and services in the mind of prospective buyer. In other words, it establishes leadership status in the mind of customer. This leads to more business opportunities. So be on top, go for search engine marketing with knowledgeable firm. This is the most effective and more economical marketing technology available on this planet.
http://www.topranker.in/seo_articles.htm
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
How search engine marketing tools can work for you: or, searching is really all about finding
Summary
This is the second of three articles. Part 1 appeared in the August issue of Information Outlook.
Search engine optimization and marketing covers a wide range of activities, many of which are similar to what a reference librarian, systems librarian, or market researcher does. Although the focus is the World Wide Web, many of the tools that are used have broader applications for special librarians.
Internal corporate processes. Web analytics tools measure and analyze corporate sales, customer preferences and problems, viable products and channels, and other issues that may provide answers for questions received by special librarians.
Competitive intelligence/market research. Keyword research, Web site saturation and popularity tools can provide information on a company's competitors: how they are marketing on the Internet, what they are spending on online marketing campaigns, how they are pricing their products.
Legal issues. Who Is tools can provide valuable information relating to copyright and trademark issues. Link Popularity tools can show who is deep-linking to your site. Log files, in conjunction with Who Is tools, can tell you who may be committing click fraud on your paid placement campaigns or spamming your e-mail servers.
Back end knowledge of how Web sites work. These tools can show you what may be keeping search engines from indexing your site and can highlight customer service issues.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_10_9/ai_n15890934
This is the second of three articles. Part 1 appeared in the August issue of Information Outlook.
Search engine optimization and marketing covers a wide range of activities, many of which are similar to what a reference librarian, systems librarian, or market researcher does. Although the focus is the World Wide Web, many of the tools that are used have broader applications for special librarians.
Internal corporate processes. Web analytics tools measure and analyze corporate sales, customer preferences and problems, viable products and channels, and other issues that may provide answers for questions received by special librarians.
Competitive intelligence/market research. Keyword research, Web site saturation and popularity tools can provide information on a company's competitors: how they are marketing on the Internet, what they are spending on online marketing campaigns, how they are pricing their products.
Legal issues. Who Is tools can provide valuable information relating to copyright and trademark issues. Link Popularity tools can show who is deep-linking to your site. Log files, in conjunction with Who Is tools, can tell you who may be committing click fraud on your paid placement campaigns or spamming your e-mail servers.
Back end knowledge of how Web sites work. These tools can show you what may be keeping search engines from indexing your site and can highlight customer service issues.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_10_9/ai_n15890934
GeoTrust updates TrustWatch Search engine
INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
Additional features have been added to the TrustWatch Search engine by GeoTrust Europe Inc, a provider of identity verification solutions for e-business and digital certificates.
TrustWatch Search is a free trusted search service aimed at preventing consumers from being victims of identity theft, phishing scams and web-based fraud. It verifies the security of a website by placing a green, yellow or red verification symbol beside each search result and displays CNET's Certified Store rating data, allowing consumers to evaluate merchant sites using additional data.
As well as verifying secure sites for e-commerce and other transactions the service now also verifies a number of content sites.
TrustWatch Search offers a site report facility to include site verification and SSL encryption, store ratings and website reviews, security certification, site attribute information and privacy policies. It enables consumers to evaluate and verify the integrity of a website, review merchants and report suspicious, phishing-related activity.
Feedback is collected and evaluated by GeoTrust, forwarded to anti-fraud organisations as appropriate and kept for potential future use in TrustWatch ratings. The updated TrustWatch Search can be found as a search box in the TrustWatch anti-phishing toolbar from GeoTrust and through http://www.TrustWatch.com as a destination consumer search site.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNG/is_2005_Oct_27/ai_n15761539
Additional features have been added to the TrustWatch Search engine by GeoTrust Europe Inc, a provider of identity verification solutions for e-business and digital certificates.
TrustWatch Search is a free trusted search service aimed at preventing consumers from being victims of identity theft, phishing scams and web-based fraud. It verifies the security of a website by placing a green, yellow or red verification symbol beside each search result and displays CNET's Certified Store rating data, allowing consumers to evaluate merchant sites using additional data.
As well as verifying secure sites for e-commerce and other transactions the service now also verifies a number of content sites.
TrustWatch Search offers a site report facility to include site verification and SSL encryption, store ratings and website reviews, security certification, site attribute information and privacy policies. It enables consumers to evaluate and verify the integrity of a website, review merchants and report suspicious, phishing-related activity.
Feedback is collected and evaluated by GeoTrust, forwarded to anti-fraud organisations as appropriate and kept for potential future use in TrustWatch ratings. The updated TrustWatch Search can be found as a search box in the TrustWatch anti-phishing toolbar from GeoTrust and through http://www.TrustWatch.com as a destination consumer search site.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNG/is_2005_Oct_27/ai_n15761539
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Reviews of Two Legal Search Engines for Consumers
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/88089/1
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/88089/1
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).
--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).
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).
--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).
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88088
Monday, May 28, 2007
Surplus Of Search Engine Marketing Reports
It's been a busy few weeks for reports about search engine marketing issues, with three different publications having been released recently. They cover the issues of selecting a search engine marketing firm, which search engine marketing strategies seem to work and a review of how the web sites of Fortune 100 companies rate in terms of search engine friendliness.
The first, "Buyers' Guide to Search Engine Optimization & Positioning Firms," is an outstanding resource that fills a long-needed gap. There has simply never been this type of comprehensive guide to firms that conduct search engine marketing, and the report is a real must buy for anyone considering outsourcing their search engine marketing efforts.
Published by MarketingSherpa, the 100 page report covers 24 search engine marketing firms, with at least another 31 to be added over the coming months. Along with profiles of the firms, it also has an outstanding introduction to the many different ways that search engine optimization firms approach the task of building traffic. The report costs $119, when downloaded in PDF format, or $129 for a print version.
Who made the cut to be reviewed? A post for recommended search engine marketing firms was sent to several mailing lists frequented by web marketers. Over 100 responses came back, and a list of the initial 24 firms was compiled, when duplicates and subcontractors were removed. The concept was to use this type of survey to find what are the leading firms, at least in terms of reputation.
It was a good approach, especially in that since the SEO industry lacks any type of trade group to determine who is biggest. Nor does biggest necessarily mean the best. After all, independent consultants might perform outstanding work as well as firms with many employees. At least this report provides a first benchmark to "who's who" in the industry.
One part of the MarketingSherpa report calls search engines "the ultimate, cost-effective online guerrilla marketing tactic" and adds that "if search engines are not driving a solid percentage of your traffic, then you have not optimized properly." But what's a solid percentage? The report notes this could vary between 5 to 100 percent, depending on your overall marketing mix.
Isn't there a better figure that can be found? That's one of the questions several questions that "Search Engine Optimization Strategies: A Marketer's Perspective" aimed to answer.
I know this new 46-page report well, because I cowrote it with Search Engine Watch associate editor Chris Sherman for CyberAtlas. Whereas the MarketingSherpa report is a first in surveying SEO firms, the CyberAtlas report is a first in surveying so many web site owners about a wide-range of tactics they follow to achieve success with search engines. The report is $195, when downloaded in PDF format, using the special URL below.
The focus wasn't about specific search engine optimization techniques, such as how many search terms can go into a meta keywords tag. Instead, it was an overview of the collective search engine marketing experiences of over 400 web site owners and marketers.
For instance, we found that there was no conclusive answer to the "how much traffic should you get from search engines" question. Nearly as many respondents (24 percent) said they received more than 75 percent of their web traffic from search engines as those who indicated they got less than 25 percent. In fact, answers for the entire range of traffic volumes were nearly evenly matched in responses. Truly, how much traffic others get is no great measure of how well or poorly you are doing.
The report examined the take-up of paid participation programs. Paid submission to Yahoo and LookSmart and paid listings with GoTo were by far the most popular programs, each used by over 30 percent of those survey (you could select as many programs as you used). Paid inclusion from Inktomi and Google's paid placement programs also had some significant usage, around the 20 percent mark.
Another finding was that about half (46 percent) of those responding said they spent less than 0.5 percent of their annual marketing budgets on search engine optimization, which was pretty shocking, given that search engine listings are becoming widely recognized as one of the most targeted and cost-effective types of advertising available.
The third search engine-related report released recently comes from search engine positioning firm iProspect. The company surveyed the web sites of the Fortune 100 companies and found that 97 percent of them had some type of site architecture problem that might give them problems being found by search engines.
In particular, the report examined the use of JavaScript, Flash, frames and some popular dynamic delivery systems, all of which can may cause crawler-based search engines to miss indexing pages. The study also examined the use of title and both the meta keywords and description tags, as well as link popularity.
One fact from the report's press release is that the study found that half the companies reviewed had meta keyword tags. However, it determined that the tags didn't make use of key products or services offered by those companies. If they had, it might have increased the chances of the companies getting some valuable traffic from search engines.
The press release overstates the problem, however, suggesting that the lack of accurate meta data means that pages about products and services from these companies "will in all likelihood not appear in the query results." The web's major human powered search engines, such as Yahoo, make no use of meta data to compile their listings. In addition, Google -- one of the web's most popular crawler-based search engines -- also doesn't use the meta keywords tag. In these instances, accurate or inaccurate meta data would have no bearing on rankings.
The report is available in two forms. A $195 summary version provides an overview of findings, with some interesting comparisons to how things have changed since 1998 (better, but there's plenty of room for improvement), along with an industry-by-industry breakdown. The $2,000 full copy presumably provides a close up look at each company's web sites, providing details on problems that were found.
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2164261
The first, "Buyers' Guide to Search Engine Optimization & Positioning Firms," is an outstanding resource that fills a long-needed gap. There has simply never been this type of comprehensive guide to firms that conduct search engine marketing, and the report is a real must buy for anyone considering outsourcing their search engine marketing efforts.
Published by MarketingSherpa, the 100 page report covers 24 search engine marketing firms, with at least another 31 to be added over the coming months. Along with profiles of the firms, it also has an outstanding introduction to the many different ways that search engine optimization firms approach the task of building traffic. The report costs $119, when downloaded in PDF format, or $129 for a print version.
Who made the cut to be reviewed? A post for recommended search engine marketing firms was sent to several mailing lists frequented by web marketers. Over 100 responses came back, and a list of the initial 24 firms was compiled, when duplicates and subcontractors were removed. The concept was to use this type of survey to find what are the leading firms, at least in terms of reputation.
It was a good approach, especially in that since the SEO industry lacks any type of trade group to determine who is biggest. Nor does biggest necessarily mean the best. After all, independent consultants might perform outstanding work as well as firms with many employees. At least this report provides a first benchmark to "who's who" in the industry.
One part of the MarketingSherpa report calls search engines "the ultimate, cost-effective online guerrilla marketing tactic" and adds that "if search engines are not driving a solid percentage of your traffic, then you have not optimized properly." But what's a solid percentage? The report notes this could vary between 5 to 100 percent, depending on your overall marketing mix.
Isn't there a better figure that can be found? That's one of the questions several questions that "Search Engine Optimization Strategies: A Marketer's Perspective" aimed to answer.
I know this new 46-page report well, because I cowrote it with Search Engine Watch associate editor Chris Sherman for CyberAtlas. Whereas the MarketingSherpa report is a first in surveying SEO firms, the CyberAtlas report is a first in surveying so many web site owners about a wide-range of tactics they follow to achieve success with search engines. The report is $195, when downloaded in PDF format, using the special URL below.
The focus wasn't about specific search engine optimization techniques, such as how many search terms can go into a meta keywords tag. Instead, it was an overview of the collective search engine marketing experiences of over 400 web site owners and marketers.
For instance, we found that there was no conclusive answer to the "how much traffic should you get from search engines" question. Nearly as many respondents (24 percent) said they received more than 75 percent of their web traffic from search engines as those who indicated they got less than 25 percent. In fact, answers for the entire range of traffic volumes were nearly evenly matched in responses. Truly, how much traffic others get is no great measure of how well or poorly you are doing.
The report examined the take-up of paid participation programs. Paid submission to Yahoo and LookSmart and paid listings with GoTo were by far the most popular programs, each used by over 30 percent of those survey (you could select as many programs as you used). Paid inclusion from Inktomi and Google's paid placement programs also had some significant usage, around the 20 percent mark.
Another finding was that about half (46 percent) of those responding said they spent less than 0.5 percent of their annual marketing budgets on search engine optimization, which was pretty shocking, given that search engine listings are becoming widely recognized as one of the most targeted and cost-effective types of advertising available.
The third search engine-related report released recently comes from search engine positioning firm iProspect. The company surveyed the web sites of the Fortune 100 companies and found that 97 percent of them had some type of site architecture problem that might give them problems being found by search engines.
In particular, the report examined the use of JavaScript, Flash, frames and some popular dynamic delivery systems, all of which can may cause crawler-based search engines to miss indexing pages. The study also examined the use of title and both the meta keywords and description tags, as well as link popularity.
One fact from the report's press release is that the study found that half the companies reviewed had meta keyword tags. However, it determined that the tags didn't make use of key products or services offered by those companies. If they had, it might have increased the chances of the companies getting some valuable traffic from search engines.
The press release overstates the problem, however, suggesting that the lack of accurate meta data means that pages about products and services from these companies "will in all likelihood not appear in the query results." The web's major human powered search engines, such as Yahoo, make no use of meta data to compile their listings. In addition, Google -- one of the web's most popular crawler-based search engines -- also doesn't use the meta keywords tag. In these instances, accurate or inaccurate meta data would have no bearing on rankings.
The report is available in two forms. A $195 summary version provides an overview of findings, with some interesting comparisons to how things have changed since 1998 (better, but there's plenty of room for improvement), along with an industry-by-industry breakdown. The $2,000 full copy presumably provides a close up look at each company's web sites, providing details on problems that were found.
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2164261
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