Friday, November 2, 2007

The Absolute basics of SEO

Search engine optimization is the process of maximizing the ranking of you site in search engine listings. The most important factors to consider to achieve a high ranking are: the keywords you use, your title, your description, the text of your site, and the links others provide to your site.

To begin selecting keywords, consider what words and phrases the people you are trying to reach will be searching on. When placing keywords in your keyword tag, it is best to use phases rather than single words. Almost all single words are in very widespread use, thus will not tend to produce high rankings. Keyword phrases can be better tailored to your business. Also, since phrase searches produce fewer results, people are more likely to search on them. It is also a good idea to produce a list of keyword phrases for every page of your site. If you must include difficult to spell words, it is a good idea to include some common misspellings of these words as well.

The title is just as important, if not more important, than your keywords. Most search engines place the highest level of importance on the words found in the title when calculating the ranking. You should place your most important keyword phrases first in your title, as some search engines limit the number of characters you can use. Make your title a readable sentence, as this is the first text that will appear for your listing on the results page. One thing you should avoid doing is simply listing keywords. This could be regarded by the search engine as keyword spamming, and may lower your search ranking, or even get your listing removed from the site. As with keywords, it is a good idea to give each page a unique title.

In your description you should once again make use of your best keyword phrases. In this case, you can use more of them, since search engines will give you typically around 1024 characters for the description, while they will give you only around 50 to 80 for the title. Again, place your keywords as close to the beginning of your description as makes sense.

In the text of your site you should make use of, yes, you've guessed it, your keyword phrases. Also include any text you have used in other tags, such as meta tags, alt tags, and headings. Having a lot of content helps as well. A minimum of 200 words per page is recommended. Having many pages of content also increases your rankings.

Having many other sites link to you is another good way to increase your search rankings. Both the links themselves and the increase traffic which results will help. Also, having bloggers link to your site is a good idea.

Although these practices will boost your rankings, there are certain design elements that can interfere with your search rankings. These include frames, dynamic URLs, Flash, using image maps for navigation, and using javascripts for navigation. Also, there are certain practices that search engines regard as spamming, and these practices will get you permanently removed from the site. These include using keywords in your meta tags that do not relate to the content of your page, using multiple instances of the same tag, and listing keywords in the text of your site.

This is just the briefest introduction to search engine optimization. One book available on this topic is Search Engine Visibility, by Shari Thurow. Software packages that can assist you with SEO tasks include Bruce Clay's SEOToolSET and Web CEO's Web CEO. If you prefer to have someone else do your SEO for you, Marinerblue is ready to help you for free with your .ws domain.


Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/author-articles/5986/1.html

About SEO for 2007

When Google is buying into radio and television advertising that should tell you something about SEO generally, and in particular for organizations who are not web-only entities.

Mass marketing advertisers would have used various strategies for spending on ads - including telephone directory, radio or television, newspaper, magazine, billboards, etc. Each of these media provides some form of statistics showing their effectiveness.

In a multi-format approach to advertising and marketing each company will have to analyze the effectiveness of dollars spent in each medium, OR combinations of those media. The idea that groups of these media will band together to offer competitve prices versus Google is a given. Whether any of these multimedia ad groups, some combining with Google or other search engines, can offer more bang for the buck than a first year marketing student can put together is a major question.

Major Ad and Marketing firms know how to squeeze a buck, if necessary, but their advice is not usually free. Google was able to grab resources allocated for print this past year when they dabbled in print ads campaigns. Effective or just making their presence known?

News organizations have been losing ads on and off for years as each new medium was invented, then perfected, then improved. National and International organizations can expect more multimedia prepackaging offers. Congressional investigations of PPC schemes and various lawsuits make it mandatory for ads buyers to keep it cheap and keep it flexible when they plan spending. They will have to read their own stats sheets, not Google's, newspapers, or anybody else's.

Google will the most prominent example for 2007 of a techie overselling their services and their stock prices. The message should be clear by now - only the truly legit tech corps survive. In my opinion, any corp that isn't user-friendly is dead meat before the wave is over, no matter how many investors they have hypnotized.

As Google focuses on quick profits an maintaining dominance - they make themselves a big and stupid target for corps like Yahoo and the newer breed of search engines that focus on getting it RIGHT.

While Google is trying to push you into all it's favorite traps they lose friends, create enemies, and have to lean heavier on their imagined mystique with their investors.

Video, voip, internet voicemail will all become a standard component of online communication. Video particularly will revolutionize news and movies online.
Yahoo Publisher Network, YouTube, Flickr and distributed podcasts will only partially replace professionally developed network broadcasts, except in the niche and nonprofessional areas.

SEO will be forced to adopt billing that is based on the success of a campaign as opposed to flat fees charged up front or on a monthly basis.

Microsoft Vista users will hopefully get a Patch in 2007 but they may need a new computer before then, and maybe a bigger one to hold the big Patch.


Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/author-articles/728/1.html

Internet Traffic and SEO Techniques

You might be wandering the reasons your web site is not getting much internet traffic. After all your web site took lots of financial and human resources, but unfortunately like so many web sites, it is quite unknown and as a result it does not get enough internet traffic to make it financially viable.

Did you know that about 80 percent of all web site traffic originates from search engines? Yes, it is true! Listing near the top page of search engines and obtaining the attention of your target audience should be a main priority for any web site internet promotion.

And the good news about this is that improving a web site position in search engine pages may be done for free. How? Using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

There are many ways to promote a web site. Some promotions are paid and some are free. Among the free ones, the search engine optimization techniques enable web sites to become search engine friendly. In other words, it makes website pages to accept the search engine crawler in a friendly way. These techniques will be some of the steps one will have to use to obtain a better position in search engine's pages, when searching for specific keywords, related to services or products offered by a web site.

Search engine optimization steps for a web page:

Title:

The html Title tag is a very important element and must include the most important keywords or phrases, which best represent the products or services offered by the web page. It should not contain more than 60 characters.

Keywords:

The html meta Keyword tag should have all the keyword phrases which best represents the products or services offered by the web page. Avoid repeating keywords and bad use of capital letters. It should not contain more than 250 characters.

Description:

The html meta Description tag is a description of the web page, which will be displayed by the search engine. Make sure it contains keywords phrases. Avoid repeating keywords and bad use of capital letters. It should not contain more than 200 characters.

Keywords in Headings:

Keywords in Headings tags (h1) will be interpreted by search engines as being an important keyword relevant to the web page, and it should be looked for and indexed by the search engines.

Web page text:

It is a good practice to include informative text one every page, using natural language and appropriate keywords. It should contain more than 200 words. Informative text should be placed in the html Body section of the web page.

Keywords in Alt Tags:

Every html picture "img" tag should contain an ALT tag with an appropriate description. Keywords should always be used when appropriate.

Keywords in Anchor Tags:

Every html hypertext link "a href " should contain a TITLE tag with an appropriate description. Keywords should always be used when appropriate.

Robots.txt file:

Make sure there is a robots.txt file in you web site directory. This is a text file created by the webmaster, which will guide the search engine´s crawler when indexing a web site.

There are some cases in which one might not want to have some web pages indexed. This way thru the use of robots.txt, one will have control over which pages will be indexed and made available to the search engines.

User-agent: +
Disallow: /tmp/
Disallow: /data/

HTML code validation:

Search engine's crawlers become more efficient when indexing web pages with no html errors. Beware that some html errors can make search engine crawlers to give up indexing web pages. So it is recommended for those web pages to be indexed, there should be no html errors.

Links:

Links are very important to search engines. The quality of links and whether it is reciprocal or not, are important factors in evaluating the importance of a web page. Links from web sites with higher page ranks are a plus.

Registering with Directories and Search Engines:

It is very important the registration of a website with directories and search engine web sites. It is a way of telling the world that your web site exists. Avoid using automatic search engine/directory registration.

Search engine optimization has become a very important set of procedures which helps web sites to become more relevant to search engines. To obtain an increase in internet traffic will take some time. It probably will take some kind of additional promotion too. But anybody in need of higher internet traffic, free search engine optimization might be considered his first option.

Roberto Sedycias
IT Consultant

This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author´s name and all the URL´s (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.

Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/author-articles/11033/1.html


Benefits of Articles Submission in SEO

Article submission is a great resource for increasing traffic to your website and also getting one way links back to your site. There are a lot of article directories on the web that accept articles for a variety of categories. It is important however, to pick a category that directly relates to the content of your website. This is an effective marketing method referred to as targeting visitors to your web site.

It is also important to understand when submitting your articles, that a massive amount of articles are submitted to popular article sites and directories. For this reason, only some of the articles that are submitted actually generate a significant amount of traffic to their respective websites. The most important question to ask yourself is: what unique information can I provide that will be of the most value to my readers?

Here are some additional important things to consider before you begin your article-submission endeavors in order attract readers to your articles and ultimately get a large amount of traffic to your website:

1) Provide valuable content! Always be asking yourself, would I want to read this? Then take it one step further and ask yourself: after reading this article, would I feel enlightened in such a way that I would be motivated to do something that I would not otherwise have known how to do? By answering this question, you are evaluating what is referred to as your "call to action". Good writing influences the reader's behavior.

2) Your article's content should not be too long, so keep it short. If you have large article content, then try to split them into two or more separate articles.

3) Try to keep your article title short as well, and make sure it is directly related to the contents of the article.

4) Make sure to keep your article title very close to the main keywords of your website as well. As per my experience, keep article titles short and close to the keywords of your website, Google will place far more value to the article's contents in comparison to your competitor's websites with the same keywords as you.

For example: If you had a web site related to hemorrhoids diseases and we wanted to write an article for this site, then if we put our article title "Hemorrhoids" or any other relevant keywords, then Google wiil give more value to our articles as well as our website in comparison to other related web sites, whose articles consist of vague, meaningless titles.

5) As most article directories do not accept articles with URLs or hyperlinks in the article contents, be sure to not violate this rule or your article will usually not be considered. They do however usually allow you to include your company name and web address in the "about the author" section that is included with each article submission.

So then what is the advantage of article submission for the SEO work of your website?

1) Great sources of getting one way link.
2) Generate interest in the content of your website so as to attract new, unique visitors.
3) Best alternative to link exchange and link exchange networks.
4) Save time in getting back-links to your website instead of directory submission and link exchanging.
5) Some article submission and PR web sites allow people to subscribe to specific categories related to their web site as RSS feeds. If a website subscribes to the RSS feed for the category that you have submitted your article to, your article and back link will not only show up on the website that you have submitted to, it will also automatically appear on all of the websites that subscribe to the RSS feed of that category. However, only articles that have unique and informative content are chosen to be included in these RSS feeds, so make sure to follow the directions we have provided for you here.


About the Author

Vision Media Corporation is a Las Vegas & Nevada based marketing, software, design, and business development firm specializing in new approaches to information technology and it's relationship to marketing strategies and business models. For more information regarding search engine optimization, as well as the SEO services offered by Vision Media Corporation, browse to our site: Las Vegas Website Design & Internet Marketing Services

Thursday, November 1, 2007

How To Get Quality Back Links To Your Website

Today we will discuss how to get quality back links to your website. Back links are links to your website from other websites. Quality back links are links that are placed on websites that are relevant to your websites content.

For example: if you have a website that sells internet marketing services, you want to find websites that have the same type of content on their websites to place your website link on. Sites like internet marketing services, web design services, email marketing services, pay per click services, and affiliate marketing services will have content that Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the other major search engines see a relevant to your sites content.

Back links are important and count as votes of website quality. It use to be that quantity was more important than quality. But now quality is the key factor. It is better to have 10 quality back links that are targeted to your industry than 1,000 back links to uncommon topics.

It is better to get your back link placed on the first or second page of a website than hundreds of pages in. Make sure that you can get to the page your link is going to be on from the home page of the website. If you can't get there, than the search engines probably can't get there.

There are 2 types of back link placement, free and paid placement. Free placement can be done several different ways. You can submit your website to directories under the category of your website. Many will request that you place a reciprocal link on your site for the free placement of your link on theirs. Write articles about your expertise in the industry in which you have knowledge. This article is targeting internet marketing and back links. The link at the bottom of this article along with the article content will be placed on sites that need quality content on their websites. Most article directories are free to submit to. You can do research to find sites that are relevant to yours and write an email explaining the benefits of exchanging links with them It's a lot of work but can be beneficial if you can get some decent link exchanges.

When you don't have a lot of time to do manual link placement work, you may choose to look at purchasing text links for your site. If you plan on doing this you will want to do your research on the sites history using Alexa, Google, and other free website tools.

Many websites want to charge a monthly fee for this. Make an offer; don't settle for what they are asking for. If they want to place you on one page or every page of the website, that can change the cost and value of the link. See if you can get a deal for the entire year, it may be much cheaper than paying for the link each month. The benefit of getting on every page is that you may get more than back link credit; many times you will get extra traffic from the site itself.

Using the right information in the back link is very important. You want to use the description you're using to place in the search engines with. When the search engines crawl the back link, they will come to your site and see that the information matches up and will give your site more relevance in the engines.

Remember that building quality back links takes time. You must continue to build back links to your site if you want to make it to first place in the engines.


http://www.1articleworld.com/Article/How-To-Get-Quality-Back-Links-To-Your-Website/149339

Link Building And Places To Submit Your Links

Search engines are a great way to get people to your site. The problem is no matter what you sell, search engine rankings for your keywords are most likely competitive. What makes it worse is, people usually don't bother looking for listings beyond the first few pages of the search results. The good news is, on the Internet a small company can effectively compete with companies that are willing to spend thousands of dollars for search engine optimization.

This is what makes it fun. When it comes to competing for keyword position in the major search engines you can stomp large companies in the ground. You will not be able to do it for all keywords, but you will be able to beat them consistently for many keywords. That is if you have a well thought out, persistent linking campaign.

Used effectively, link building can be one of the single best techniques you can use for getting your web site listed in the first few pages of a keyword search. Link quantity and quality are an important element of every search engine's ranking algorithms. If your site doesn't have links, it will not rank well for competitive keywords.

Places to submit your link.

Link Directories

There are hundreds of free link directories where you can submit your link. Search Google for, "link directory". Submit your site to a few new link directories every day. You will soon get link requests from members of these directories. Be picky, only exchange links with sites that are in some way related to, but do not compete with your site.

Article Directories

Good articles will bring one way, related links to your site. Write articles which are related to the subject of your site and submit them to free article directories. At the bottom of each article you can put a link back to your site. Don't just link to your home page, link to pages deep within your site. If your articles are worth reading, there is a good chance that web masters looking for content will use them on their site. There are no better links than one way links that point to pages deep within your site.

Blogs

Search for sites with blogs that relate to your site. If your site is about gardening search Google for, "blog gardening". This will pull up gardenings sites with blogs where you can leave your comments and a link to your site under your name. It is important that your blog comments are genuine and not spam.

Forums

Search for forums with the same niche as your site. Leave your link in forums signature. Again, it is important that your comments are genuine and not spam.

Web Directories

There are thousands of free web directories where you can submit your link. Always submit your site to the major search engines like Google and Yahoo by hand. This means going to their site and filling out the information they ask of you. Doing this to all the thousands of web directories is not possible. I recommend using an automated submission program like AddWeb.

Press Releases

Write press releases about your site and submit them to press release distribution services. Search Google for, "press release distribution service".

Social Networking

Social network services like MySpace and Facebook provide ways for people with the same interests to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, file sharing and blogging. Search engines and people love social networking sites, participate in them and leave a link to your site under your name.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a way for people to remember, organize and share bookmarks of web pages and see what others have bookmarked. As people bookmark sites, sites that are of more use are bookmarked by more users. Thus, sites are ranked based on their usefulness.

Links are one of the most important ways for visitors to find your site. It's all about getting people to your web site. With persistent link building the search engines can find your site faster and will rank you higher on their search results.




http://www.1articleworld.com/Article/Link-Building-And-Places-To-Submit-Your-Links/150785

Linking Strategies for Website Traffic

Linking Strategies - It's a fact that inbound links contribute heavily to your site's ranking in the search engine and that some links are worth way more than others. Here are seven of the best linking strategies to pursue.

Technorati tags - Add a widget to your blog that automatically creates Technorati tags for your posts. That means that you automatically get high-quality links to every blog post you make. Plus, this link strategy gives you one-way links that are relevant, on-topic, and keyword rich.

Social bookmarking - Add a widget to your blog and your website pages that allows users to easily bookmark your content at any of the wildly popular social bookmarking sites. AddThis is a great free tool that accomplishes this linking strategy while using minimal site real estate.

Directory submissions - Use a low-cost overseas service to submit your site to 1,000 SEO friendly directories. Directory Maximizer will submit five variations of your site title and description for $0.14 per directory. That's money well spent because it leaves you free to focus on content creation while gaining 1,000 one-way links.

RSS feeds - Submit your blog to all the popular feed directories. Be sure to include easy to spot RSS feed buttons on your blog so you can quickly add subscribers. You can also create an RSS feed for your website that creates traffic to your newest pages. This linking strategy gets high-quality links with keyword anchor text.

Forum posts - Search for and signup in forums related to your niche. Post helpful answers to questions and topics of interest. Add a signature file to your profile in any forum where you post to create keyword rich anchor text links back to your site from each post.

Blog comments - Comment blogs on topics related to your site. Be sure to include a link back to your site. If the comment allows a link to the username field, then pick a username that is keyword rich.

Automated tools - There are several high-quality tools which will automate many of these linking strategies. Information about them is below.

Tip: Get links to interior pages of your site, not just the home page.

Do yourself a favor: Signup for your free website traffic membership at www.hitsusa.com and get your hands on some really advanced Linking Strategies!



http://www.1articleworld.com/Article/Linking-Strategies-for-Website-Traffic/151316