Search Engine Preparation

An important part of developing a successful web site is attracting a steady stream of targeted traffic.

A significant amount of web site traffic originates from the major Search Engines. A Search Engine is a web site that indexes web pages. These sites run software programs called "Spiders" or "Robots" that continuously crawl the Internet in search of new web pages to index.

When you visit a Search Engine and you're looking for something in particular, you type in a few words that best describe what you're looking for. These words are known as keywords. The Search Engine will return a list of web sites that are most relevant to your keywords.

When a Search Engine indexes a web page, it scans the page in search of specific keywords. The pages that rank high when a search is returned are the pages that are most relevant to the search query.

If your page doesn't rank in the top 10 or 20 results when doing a keyword search at the Search Engines, your target audience won't be able to find you.

When designing your web pages, you must specifically optimize each page of your web site. Each page should target one specific subject and be optimized with keywords that best describe the subject.

Optimizing your web pages will include all of the following:

• Selecting the most relevant keywords for each page
• Placing the META keyword and description tags within the head section of each page
• Using your primary keywords as your page title
• Placing keywords within your image ALT tags
• Placing your primary keywords within heading tags
• Using your primary keywords as image names
• Using your primary keywords as page names for hyperlinks
• Using keywords within your body text

Keywords/Keyword Phrases
A keyword is a word that best describes your web page. For example, if your web page is focusing on dogs, your best keyword will be "dogs."

A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page. If your web page is focusing on grooming a dog, your best keyword phrase will be "dog grooming."

When optimizing your web pages, you should concentrate on just a few keyword phrases for each page. These keyword phrases should directly relate to your subject. Avoid using general one-word keywords, as you definitely won't rank high in the Search Engines.

When you begin optimizing your web pages, each page should be optimized for a different primary keyword phrase. For example, if you're selling dog grooming products, your main page would of course be optimized for dog grooming products. However, you might have another page that targets dog grooming tables. And, another that targets dog grooming kit.And, another that targets dog grooming scissors. See how that works? A highly targeted keyword phrase will attract highly targeted traffic.

The key to ranking high in the Search Engines and driving highly targeted traffic to your site is to select highly targeted, product specific keyword phrases that are less competitive and less generalized. You don't want to target every little possible keyword; you want to focus on your primary keyword phrases for each page.

Your first step towards optimizing your web pages will be to download a great little tool called Good Keywords http://www.goodkeywords.com . This is a free software program that will enable you to type in a specific keyword and it will return a list of keyword phrases.

As the competition for highly popular keywords is fierce, you will significantly increase your chances of receiving a high ranking in the Search Engines by targeting the less popular keyword phrases. And in turn, significantly increase your traffic.

For example, if your web page focuses on grooming a dog, you would type the general keywords "dog grooming" into the Good Keywords search box. The search would return a variety of more targeted keyword phrases. The keyword phrases that should be selected are those that are a little less popular, yet much more targeted.

Selecting the right keyword phrases is the first step towards ranking high in the Search Engines.

Make Money with Google Adwords

When talking about the Internet as a legitimate place for trade and commerce, one can’t help but speculate the costs a company runs in advertising campaigns in hopes of building a viable online market.

However, Google, Inc., the company behind the runaway success search engines, outdid itself when it launched its two-fold advertising programs, Google Adwords and Google Adsense. In essence, these two advertising programs allows for both advertisers and websites that host advertisements to make money with usage.

What is Google Adwords?

Google Adwords is the advertising program devised by Google on the basis of a Pay-Per-Click system. Under the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) system, an advertiser only pays for his or her ad placement when a searcher comes upon his or her ad and actually clicks on the link, regardless of sale or purchase. This means that the advertisement virtually runs continuously on various websites at the cost only of the number of people who visit their site! This removes the exorbitant fees other commercial websites would put upon an advertiser when he or she wishes to put up an ad there, even if he or she generates no traffic at all from that ad placement.

How does Google Adwords work?

What advertisers do when signing up for Google Adwords is also designing a textual advertisement of the product or service they are offering. They also submit a list of relevant keywords to the service or product they offer. These advertisements will appear on the right-hand side of a Google page.

However, one may have guessed that the huge volume of businesses under various categories may indeed end up with similar keywords in mind for submission in Google Adwords. In determining which company gets which keywords, Google Adwords devised a bidding system for keywords alongside a content relevancy system.

In the bidding system, advertisers bid and compete for advertisers. Auctioning off keywords usually start at around 5 cents, and it is through this system that various advertisers try to outbid their competition. However, owing to the fact that this may seem as though relevance and advertising placements are completely based on an advertiser buying his or her place, Google Adwords also takes into consideration through an automated computer system the relevance of the content of the website to the keywords submitted to the system.

How does Google Adwords look like after all this work?

The Google ad appears usually on the right-hand side of the page that’s signed up to host various Google Adwords advertisements. The company’s advertisement will appear only when the keywords under which it ad was listed was directly searched for by the web searcher. Again, payment for the advertisement placement only happens once the searcher clicks on the ad.

How can one minimize the costs of the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) system while maximizing profits from sales and purchases?

Google Adwords, unfortunately, is not a no-brainer earning system for a company advertising products or services. It requires a little bit more common sense; after all, it is of interest to minimize still the costs of the Pay-Per-Click system. If searchers keep clicking on ads without these clicks turning into tangible purchases, a company would end up paying more to Google than receiving profits from the traffic brought in to the website.

Simply put, minimizing PPC system costs will only happen if the more serious buyers are the ones clicking the advertisements put up on Google Adwords.

The first step into making this scenario happen is by not being in the top portion of the preferred keywords. While indeed, being on the top three of the most preferred links would generate more clicks than placing lower in the ranks, it would also mean inviting the clicks of a variety of searchers,the interested buyers, the curious searchers, the leisurely searchers not really looking for anything in particular, and the searchers completely clueless about what they are looking for and would keep on just clicking on to find out more.

Obviously, without targeting the people clicking on the advertisements, the PPC system costs will add up, without necessarily meaning purchases.

However, by being in the latter portion of the list, there is a greater propensity that the traffic being generated comprises those searchers who are seriously seeking to purchase a product or service. Even being on the second page of the search page may not be a bad thing; after all, these are the search pages found only by those who are seriously out to buy a product, and are those accessed by usually the more informed and intelligent buyers.

Moreover, sales will be greatly maximized by increasing relevance of content in the website and keeping all the links alive. By having more relevant and targeted content, a company avoids having its advertisements being clicked by people who get confused as to what the advertisement really is for. Live links keep assuring relevant traffic flows into the site, and even the continued featuring of the advertisement on other pages.

At the end of the day, Google Adwords is a viable tool in order to increase traffic to one’s e-business if used in the most efficient way possible. By minimizing irrelevant clicks and instead targeting those who are truly looking to purchase a product or service, a company can best assure the profits they collect would be much greater than the costs they have to pay for each click on their Google Ad.

angellica2017

Search Engine Marketing and Blogging Techniques

Search engines are the web’s most used means of driving traffic to websites, and knowledge of search engine marketing is essential to anybody wanting to succeed online. However knowledge of blogging techniques is also instrumental in gaining you a high position in the search engine listings fore your chosen keyword.

Sure, you can promote your site in many ways and there are more ways than a top listing on a search engine to drive traffic to your website, but there is nothing to beat a top ten listing on Google or one of the other major search engines such as Ask, Yahoo or MSN to provide you with consistent sustained traffic day after day after day.

It is not difficult to get listed in a search engine, but it not so easy to be listed in that all-important top 20 position. The top 10 is the ideal, but if you are listed on one of the first two pages of a major search engine, then the traffic will come to you. That is guaranteed. Naturally, the higher you are listed the better, and you will do an awful lot better on the first page than on the second, but if the best you can do is page three then you are going to need a lot more than search engines to help you attract business.

So what are the main essentials of search engine marketing? You have two objectives, the first being to get listed and the second to reach the top 20. It is easy, as I stated earlier, to get listed on a search engine. Many design their site, submit it to Google and then wait for the Google Dance, when Google carries out its World Wide Web search for websites.

Forget that: do not submit your site to Google or any of the other search engines because that can delay your listing. Instead do one of two things. The best is to write a few articles on the topic of your website and submit them to the top article directories. If you can’t write, or if English is not your main language, then use an article ghostwriter. There are plenty people online offering article services at good rates.

Google and the rest frequently visit the higher ranked article directories and will pick up on the link to your website in your ‘author’s resource’, or bio. When they find your site, you get listed, and that can happen in less than 24 hours. That is the main way, but the other is blogs. Add a blog to your site, and it will soon be listed. Google, especially, likes blogs, particularly if it is a Blogger blog, since Blogger is owned by Google. You are virtually guaranteed a listing. If you are not too keen on Blogger, you can switch once your site has been listed. Wordpress is arguably the most versatile blogging software available at the moment, especially if you are running it from your own web space.

Once you are listed, you can improve your position by optimizing each website page for the topic of that page. Don’t forget that search engines list each page separately, and so each page should be optimized separately. However, you should initially focus on your index page, since it is that page which almost invariable gets listed highest. Once your site does have a reasonable high listing, it is possible that another page could get listed higher than your index page, although this is not generally the case.

You can then post a blog on the topic of the page, and add new postings on a regular basis. You should also include a link to your blog from your web pages and a link on your blog sidebar to your website. This will enhance the probability of your home web page being listed, as it also will your blog, since your blog can also be listed on Google and other search engines.

There are some simple things that you can do to make your index page more attractive to the search engines. Bear in mind that your listing is for one search term only, as used by someone seeking information related to the topic of your page. You can receive another listing for another search term (or keyword) on a different index. So, what you must do is to determine the best keyword for which to optimize your index page.

Once you have decided that, include it in the title of your page and place the title in ‘title’ tags. Try to make the title a bit longer than your keyword, so if your keyword is, say, ‘lock design’, make the title ‘The History of Lock Design’, for example. The main heading for the page need not be the same, but should also contain your keyword. A good heading, for example, would be ‘Lock Design from the 18th Century’. Place that in H1 tags to tell the search engine algorithm that the heading contains important text relating to your web page.

In order to accentuate the fact the ‘lock design’ is an important term in your web page, use it in the first 100 characters and again in the last paragraph of the page. You can also use it once for every 300 words if you want, but don’t overuse it. Use plenty of words that relate to the term, in order that the algorithm used to determine the relevance of your page can decide what the actual subject is. Hence, in the example used, it is still not clear if the locks referred to are canal locks or security locks. You should make that clear in the syntax of the page.

For example, your title could be changed to ‘Canal Lock Design from the 18th Century’, and you could make lots of reference to canals, barges, longboats, plan, construction, locks and design. These words will make it clear to the statistical mathematical formula that makes up the LSI (latent semantic indexing) algorithm that determines the meaning of the words used on your page, and determines that the page is about canal locks and not locks and keys.

There are many other ways in which you can optimize your web page to make it more relevant to the search term, and the more relevant the search engine deems it, then the higher the listing in the index for that specific keyword. Blogging can enhance the effect of your SEO, and not only improve your listing position, but also be listed itself, thus providing even more traffic to your website.

Search engine marketing involves a good knowledge of search engines and how they work, but if you get it right then the rewards can be very high in terms of traffic highly targeted to your product. The problem is, unless you know how, or have the right advice from people who know what they are talking about rather than trying to sell you a service, then it takes a long time to learn.

angellica2017

Maximize Adsense Earnings Per Click and CTR

You will have 3-4 ads on your page MAX. (NOT ad blocks. ADS). The fewer AdSense ads show on a page, the higher the average earnings per click for you.

If you place more ads on your page, they will show ads that rank lower on AdWords (and are cheaper). You don’t want people to click on ads that pay you $0.05. You want them to click on ads that pay you $0.50! AdWords are generally disproportionately expensive on the top positions. After a while, the bids “normalize” and you won’t get paid as much for showing that “AdSense” on your site.

Also keep in mind that many options confuse people. Give them few links to click on.

Don’t forget to create channels to track your ads. You can set up a new channel by following this path inside your AdSense account:

AdSense set up ==> Channels ==> Add new custom channels

Be descriptive in your channel name so you know what is going on and you don’t get confused. For example, if you have a page on golf clubs and you are testing a 250X250 square on the top left of the screen, use a name like: golfclub250X250left

Also make sure that you don’t use channels you have used in ads in previous different markets. I have found that this can confuse the system some times and your page can show ads for the OLD market you were in. This happens especially if there is not a lot of ad inventory in the new market you are in.

Many webmasters like the big rectangle. Why? Because it works! It gets very good CTR. However, I’m not sure that most people have actually tracked the profitability of their ads. Different markets can respond differently BUT, here are a few things to consider:

The 250X250 square, has almost the exact same look like the big rectangle. One ad below the other. But it shows three ads instead of four. What does that mean? It means that you give your visitors fewer options to choose from (but not too few) and they may decide to click more easily. Not only that but you now eliminated the 4th ad which would be, on average, the lowest paying of the four.

Can we push this even more? We can. We can create a similar block of ads with only two ads this time. Just create two 234X60 half banner ads and put one under the other. You now have a “mini rectangle” with only two ads. In many markets, two ads is the sweet spot not only as far as CTR but also as far as earnings per click go.

What about having only one ad then? This would definitely give you the highest earnings per click. But one ad usually doesn’t give people that much of an option. If it’s not compelling enough, they won’t click it. I would have at least two ads on my page.

Note: if you use the trick with the two half banners one on top of the other, make sure that you use different channels. I found that, if I use the same channel name, the exact same ad can show twice on my page! Use different channel names. It makes sense from a tracking standpoint anyway.

Make sure you disable the “advertise on this site” link that your AdSense ads show by default. This will make your ads look less like, well, ads - and more like helpful resources. Login to your AdSense account and click “My Account”. Scroll down where it says: Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up [edit]. Under that it should say: Subscription: You are not currently subscribed to Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up. If it says you are signed up, click the edit link and uncheck the box on the next page. All “advertise on this site” links on your ads should disappear in a few hours max…

angellica2017

What is HYIP ?

HYIP, which stands for High Yield Investment Program is just what it sounds like, a program offering a high yield investment. HYIP's are offering probably the most profitable investments available today. Interest rates of up to 100% a monthis not uncommon. In general the interest rates are ranging anywhere between 5 – 250% a month.

HYIP's are using different investment strategies. Some invest in stocks, others in property. There are even HYIPs investing in other HYIPs. Probably there are also programs that are not investing at all. These belong to the scammers. You’ll read more about unserious HYIPs further down this text.

Most HYIP's use different e-currencies as their way of accepting funds from members. E-gold is undoubtedly the most commonly used one hence the many program names containing “Gold” or “E-gold”. E-currencies makes instant and secure money transfers possible online and have very much paved the way for HYIP's.

The phenomenon of Hyips is growing bigger and bigger on the internet today. Every day new programs are being launched. Lots of people are earning fortunes investing in these programs.

Sounds too good to be true?

Well, while the statements above are not lies, they don’t give you the whole picture. Many program owners are scammers. Their only will is to run with your money. There are more scams out there than serious long term programs.Over the years large amounts of people have lost their money as a result of being involved in High Yield Investment Programs.

Given the fact that the HYIP industry is a very risky one, most people are very hesitant when it comes to investing in HYIP's – which is legitimate. However, not being aware of the risks is the main reason why people are losing their money. There is a great number of cases where people have thought they’ve found an incredible opportunity and gladly invested their entire fortune. When the programs later went out of business, the consequences have been devastating.

Although there are unserious players in all markets, the HYIP arena seem to have more of them than many other industries. The reason for this is the big amounts of money involved and the fact that it’s pretty easy to steal money on the net.

Taking both the negative and positive aspects of High Yield Investments into consideration, the conclusion is; If done right, High Yield Investments can be extremely lucrative.

This is where we come into play. We are constantly studying and researching the market. We are also investing in a number of HYIP's to be able to analyze them and keep track of their payments.

Risks of online investments

First and foremost you must understand that the reward is directly proportionate to the risk. That is what speculation is all about; you cannot expect to make a substantial return if you are not prepared to accept a certain amount of risk. Any experienced financial speculator will tell you that successful speculation involves being able to quantify risk. The amount of risk attached to any particular HYIP, is for the most part, unquantifiable.
Many of the genuine small Internet based HYIP's are considered high risk, as they are not particularly well thought out programs, often with no sound methodology from which to generate returns. They receive thousands of small deposits from participants, which only adds to the problem. The larger specialist programs, many of which are not plugged on the Internet, can be much safer in many respects, as they are usually run by professional traders who know how to generate returns using sound trading methods. They keep a low profile due to the risk of interference by some authorities, but this does not mean that they are not genuine investment programs.

There is yet another type of HYIP trading program which allows you to set up your own offshore company and a bank account, the funds are then traded through this account, but the program administrator and/or trader never has any kind of access to your funds, he/she only has the authority to place the trades on the account. This method of funding is without a doubt the safest that is available to the HYIP investor. The only risk is that which is attached to the trading method used to generate the returns, although most professional traders will operate with specific risk parameters in mind.

The program administrators should also be forthcoming about how they intend to generate the quoted returns. You should be extremely wary dealing with any HYIP that refuses to disclose details about their system, after all they are asking you to show good faith in them by investing your hard earned money, so they should at least be willing to tell you how they intend to generate the quoted returns. Once you know how a program works, you are in a much better position to be able to assess the viability of that program. For example there is one HYIP that claims very high returns from investing in domain names. This type of HYIP might have been feasible a few years ago, but is highly unlikely to be profitable these days. There have been many high profile court rulings against domain name speculators over the last few years, and registering domain names is hardly an area that requires specialist knowledge and expertise.

As a rule the larger the sum of the investment the safer the program is likely to be, assuming that you are afforded adequate capital security. The frauds are usually the ones that request small investments and membership fees, as well as offering referral fee arrangements. Programs operating in this manner can draw in a greater number of participants in a short time before shutting down. The larger programs tend to be much more professional, with their focus on making steady returns for investors and taking a small part of those returns as their profit. Most of the larger programs also appear to understand the need for frequent client communications, which is often an area of complaint amongst many of the smaller HYIP's. Usually your only source of regular information is the HYIP website (assuming they have one), and in many cases these websites are not updated as frequently as they should be.

http://www.worldhyip.com

Make 100 Millionaires In 1 year!

Will you be one of them?

You are invited to our Upcoming Financial Service Webinar where you will learn how to start a $1,000,000 finance company with no out of pocket costs.
I’m writing to cordially invite you and a guest, to an upcoming webinar I’ll be presenting on: “How to Own Your Own Financial Service Company, How to Raise Business Credit for Yourself, How to Make 1,000,000 doing It, and How to do it with $0 out of pocket cost. ”
My name is Jamal and over the years I’ve discovered a relatively unknown yet completely legal method to owning your own Finance company.

On Tuesday and Thursday at 2pm PST I’ll be sharing some of my best secrets:
• What your credit score means to the banks and how much investment capital you have waiting for you right now.
• How to repair your credit so you will never be denied a loan or line of credit again.
• How to raise 50k in unsecured personal lines of credit in 7 -10 days.
• How to raise up to 1m in unsecured business lines of credit in 7-10 days.
• How to fund a start up company with up to $200K of investment capital before you start doing business.
• How to get paid for giving away the banks money!!!
The sad fact is that 90% of small businesses are being run from personal loans, lines of credit, and earned income. This means that if business is slow not only does the business suffer but the individual’s credit and personal financial situation is put in jeopardy.
You see, the company Product Group LLC specializes in raising credit capital for individuals and small businesses as well as giving them an opportunity to earn huge amounts of cash capital.
That’s why I’m writing. I wanted to invite you to meet with me for 20 minutes to go over my company, our products, and how to market our services to make an incredible income.
I’ll go over everything you need to know to make an informed decision and to see if you qualify. I won’t try to sell you anything or push you into anything you don’t want to do. I don’t work that way.

Reservations are free but please do not delay as the seating is limited and the last time I presented this seminar it was completely sold out. I can accommodate 24 attendees so everyone can have the opportunity to ask any critical questions.
This is not some pie in the sky scheme and this is definitely not a get rich quick scheme. This is a chance for honest, hardworking individuals to build a personal fortune. The bottom line is: I have discovered the perfect system for creating wealth using other people’s efforts, other people’s information, other people’s money, and other people’s credit.

Although I cannot guarantee your income, I can tell you that there are several associates that have earned as much as $100k in their first month. They did this with $0 out of pocket cost.
Suppose you could sign a few pieces of paper and in under 45days have:
• A new corporation with credit lines up to $250k
• A personal line of credit of 50k or more
• The ability to repair anyone’s credit
• The ability to finance any business up to 1,000,000
• The power to earn up to $30k per client
• All with $0 out of pocket costs to you and your clients

Imagine being the go to person who knows all about raising capital. You will be an incredible and invaluable resource to every person you meet. With our system YOU WILL BE THE BANK!
Sound too good to be true?
Well, it isn’t if you have the right information, tools, and resources.
Think about it. Knowing how to raise capital for any purpose is the most powerful skill you could ever learn. Simply put, you will never have to worry about money again!

Now, you could learn how to do this yourself. It could take you years or cost you a small fortune to figure it out just as it did for me. Instead of knocking yourself out trying to come up with your own system you can have our turn key $0 out of pocket business system and start making money right away.

Of course you want references and testimonials. You have tried so many things before without success that you don’t know what to believe anymore. You just want to find an opportunity that works well and pays better. To prove my point, I also invited existing clients that have gone through my process for you to ask any questions during the live seminar.
See if this sounds familiar?

You join a company, no one wants what you have, no one signs up for your opportunity, and you have no support. You give up hope and begin looking for another opportunity.
With our system you can guarantee every business person wants what you have. Why? Because you have the MONEY! That’s why they are in business. To get money!
With our system you can guarantee people will want to join your business. Why? Because no matter what business they are in they need to raise money for their clients so they can make a sale. Our system enables each person to not only finance their own business but to finance the purchase of their products for their clients as well.

The only question is do you have what it takes to retire wealthy and be financially free?
Answer these simple questions:

1. Are you willing to work to be successful?
2. Do you enjoy making checks with 5-6 figures in them?
3. Are you willing to help other people?
4. Do you have an open mind to listen to new opportunities before you discount them?
5. Do you know anyone who wants, works for, looks for, wishes for, dreams about, prays for, hopes for, plans for, some money?
If you can honestly say “Yes! to these 5 questions I want to make you a Millionaire.”

Let’s face it, learning how to open your own financial company is tough. No doubt it is the most difficult lesson to learn. Frankly it is the only subject you can’t fake. Either you can deliver the cash or you can’t.
Of course some people are going to tell you that you can do fine without an understanding of finance or a business system to support you. Just take a look at their finances and let their net worth speak for itself.

Frankly I thought long and hard about delivering this exclusive information in a high priced seminar where I charge at least $10,000 per person. But instead of going through all the trouble of arranging a room and taking the time out of my schedule – I settled on a webinar as the perfect and convenient way to deliver this information to you absolutely FREE!!!
Needless to say this webinar is jam packed with the jealously guarded secrets of raising credit and cash capital. Even with that being said, just to sweeten the pot a bit I’m going to offer the first 10 people who sign up from this call, personal 1 on 1 mentoring with me until you reach the $1,000,000 commission level.

Reinclusion in Google

Even if you are not looking for trouble and do not violate any known SEO rule (but only half of them), you still might have to experience the ultimate SEO nightmare - being excluded from Google's index. Although Google is a kind of a monopolist among search engines, it is not a bully company that excludes innocent victims for pure pleasure. Google keeps rigorously to SEO best practices and excludes sites that misbehave.

Not Present in Google's Index

First, it is necessary to clarify that the fact your site is missing from Google's index can mean two things:

a. You have not been included yet, though you have submitted an inclusion request. As described in the Google Sandbox article, it is normal to have to wait some time before being indexed for the first time. You can't to anything to speed the process but wait.
b. You have been excluded from Google's index because of violation on your site. As said, this is a real nightmare for any SEO and you will need to take some steps to correct this most unfavorable situation. The rest of the article explains how.

Why Does Google Exclude Sites?

There are many reasons that can make Google exclude your site(s) and all these reasons are related to a violation of some kind. For instance, your sites are over-optimized and this makes them very suspicious. Over-optimization has many faces and you can have a look at the Optimization, Over-Optimization or SEO Overkill? Article to get some ideas of practices that you should avoid.

Besides over-optimizing the onsite content, some of the other reasons for being excluded from Google are SE spamming, hidden text, hosting illegal content, linking to bad neighbors, inter-linking, etc. There is no an exhaustive list of SEO sins that Google does not tolerate, nor you'll get a letter from Google to inform you that you have been a bad boy and that's why you have been kicked out of its index but if you resort to any forms of SEO manipulation and you attempt to mislead search engines, you might expect that sooner or later you will have to deal with reinclusion.

Reinclusion Steps

After you discover that you have been excluded from Google, the first step is to analyze why. You need to know what made them angry with you and correct your mistakes. Check for links to link farms and bed neighbors, for doorway pages and keyword stuffing. It is unlikely that you don't know your own sins.

Next, you have to contact Google with a reinclusion request. Go to Google Sitemaps and from the Tools menu on the right, select Submit a Reinclusion Request. On the next screen, read carefully the instructions and explanations, fill in the required data (you may want to have a look at the next section - Reinclusion Tips for ideas what to write) and submit your request.

After you submit your inclusion request, there is nothing more you can do than fix your errors (if you have not already done it) and wait patiently for the answer.

Though the process of submitting a reinclusion request is pretty straightforward, there is some general advice, which can help you. The following tips can improve your chances of success.

Reinclusion Tips

• Admit your errors and fix them
  This has already been said but it is a big mistake to write to Google and play innocent. You can lie to yourself but this way you will not convince them that you are a martyr who has been suffering because of their cruelty. And above all - fix your mistakes before you submit the reinclusion request. It is a very stupid situation to have your errors unfixed and wait for reinclusion because you will simply never get reincluded this way. What is more, you are undermining your chances for success in the future as well.

• Be polite.
  The worst mistake you can make in your reinclusion request is to be rude. Threatening Google with lawsuits or hinting that you might boycott their AdWords program in revenge for being excluded from their index is a deadly mistake. Anyway, Google are not obliged to provide you with free traffic, so being included in their index is not a special privilege they had granted you for your AdWords money.

• Look at their Webmasters Guidelines.
  It is unlikely that they have changed them recently and you do not comply with them anymore but it does not hurt to double check that you have done what Google recommends to do.

• Don't spam them.
  Google receives heaps of e-mails and it is not possible to answer each incoming e-mail an hour or so after it had been submitted. Bombarding Google with tons of e-mails (even polite ones) could only make your situation worse.

• Is it your first time?
  Google may not keep statistics of its recidivists but if it just happens that your site gets bans several times a year, this gets very suspicious. If you are banned for the first time, you can account on amnesty. But if you have been banned many times, you can be out of luck with reinclusion requests about the same site.

• Reaasure them that it is not going to happen again.
  This is also very important because if Google get the impression that you violate their rules very often, they might be reluctant to reinclude you. In some cases, when it was not your personal fault - e.g. webmaster you hired sent many spam letters or your site got hacked, you can explain what happened, giving a detailed timeframe of the events.

• Consider AdWords
  If you really rely heavily on traffic from Google, consider buying AdWords. This is not a blackmail (we ban you, you pay for AdWords) because many sites just do not pay for AdWords but rely on other traffic-generating schemes instead.

How to Build Backlinks

It is out of question that quality backlinks are crucial to SEO success. More, the question is how to get them. While with on-page content optimization it seems easier because everything is up to you to do and decide, with backlinks it looks like you have to rely on others to work for your success. Well, this is partially true because while backlinks are links that start on another site and point to yours, you can discuss with the Web master of the other site details like the anchor text, for example. Yes, it is not the same as administering your own sites – i.e. you do not have total control over backlinks – but still there are many aspects that can be negotiated.

Getting Backlinks the Natural Way

The idea behind including backlinks as part of the page rank algorithm is that if a page is good, people will start linking to it. And the more backlinks a page has, the better. But in practice it is not exactly like this. Or at least you cannot always rely on the fact that your contents is good and people will link to you. Yes, if your content is good and relevant you can get a lot of quality backlinks, including from sites with similar topic as yours (and these are the most valuable kind of backlinks, especially if the anchor text contains your keywords) but what you get without efforts could be less than what you need to successfully promote your site. So, you will have to resort to other ways of acquiring quality backlinks as described next.

Ways to Build Backlinks

Even if plenty of backlinks come to your site the natural way, additional quality backlinks are always welcome and the time you spend building them is not wasted. Among the acceptable ways of building quality backlinks are getting listed in directories, posting in forums, blogs and article directories. The unacceptable ways include inter-linking (linking from one site to another site, which is owned by the same owner or exists mainly for the purpose to be a link farm), linking to spam sites or sites that host any kind of illegal content, purchasing links in bulk, linking to link farms, etc.

The first step in building backlinks is to find the places from which you can get quality backlinks. A valuable assistant in this process is the Backlink Builder tool. When you enter the keywords of your choice, the Backlink Builder tool gives you a list of sites where you can post an article, message, posting, or simply a backlink to your site. After you have the list of potential backlink partners, it is up to you to visit each of the sites and post your content with the backlink to your site in it.

You might wonder why sites as those, listed by the Backlink Builder tool provide such a precious asset as backlinks for free. The answer is simple – they need content for their site. When you post an article, or submit a link to your site, you do not get paid for this. You provide them for free with something they need – content – and in return they also provide you for free with something you need – quality backlinks. It is a free trade, as long as the sites you post your content or links are respected and you don't post fake links or content.

Getting Listed in Directories

If you are serious about your Web presence, getting listed in directories like DMOZ and Yahoo is a must – not only because this is a way to get some quality backlinks for free, but also because this way you are easily noticed by both search engines and potential visitors. Generally inclusion in search directories is free but the drawback is that sometimes you have to wait a couple of months before you get listed in the categories of your choice.

Forums and Article Directories

Generally search engines index forums so posting in forums and blogs is also a way to get quality backlinks with the anchor text you want. If the forum or blog is a respected one, a backlink is valuable. However, in some cases the forum or blog administrator can edit your post, or even delete it if it does not fit into the forum or blog policy. Also, sometimes administrators do not allow links in posts, unless they are relevant ones. In some rare cases (which are more an exception than a rule) the owner of a forum or a blog would have banned search engines from indexing it and in this case posting backlinks there is pointless.

While forum postings can be short and do not require much effort, submitting articles to directories can be more time-consuming because generally articles are longer than posts and need careful thinking while writing them. But it is also worth and it is not so difficult to do.

Content Exchange and Affiliate Programs

Content exchange and affiliate programs are similar to the previous method of getting quality backlinks. For instance, you can offer to interested sites RSS feeds for free. When the other site publishes your RSS feed, you will get a backlink to your site and potentially a lot of visitors, who will come to your site for more details about the headline and the abstract they read on the other site.

Affiliate programs are also good for getting more visitors (and buyers) and for building quality backlinks but they tend to be an expensive way because generally the affiliate commission is in the range of 10 to 30 %. But if you have an affiliate program anyway, why not use it to get some more quality backlinks?

News Announcements and Press Releases

Although this is hardly an everyday way to build backlinks, it is an approach that gives good results, if handled properly. There are many sites (for instance, here is a list of some of them) that publish for free or for a fee news announcements and press releases. A professionally written press release about an important event can bring you many, many visitors and the backlink from a respected site to yours is a good boost to your SEO efforts. The tricky part is that you cannot release press releases if there is nothing newsworthy. That is why we say that news announcements and press releases are not a commodity way to build backlinks.

Backlink Building Practices to Avoid

One of the practices that is to be avoided is link exchange. There are many programs, which offer to barter links. The principle is simple – you put a link to a site, they put a backlink to your site. There are a couple of important things to consider with link exchange programs. First, take care about the ratio between outbound and inbound links. If your outbound links are times your inbound, this is bad. Second (and more important) is the risk that your link exchange partners are link farms. If this is the case, you could even be banned from search engines, so it is too risky to indulge in link exchange programs.

Linking to suspicious places is something else that you must avoid. While it is true that search engines do not punish you if you have backlinks from such places because it is supposed that you have no control over what bad guys link to, if you enter a link exchange program with the so called bad neighbors and you link to them, this can be disastrous to your SEO efforts. For more details about bad neighbors, check the Bad Neighborhood article. Also, beware of getting tons of links in a short period of time because this still looks artificial and suspicious.

www.webconfs.com

Optimization, Over-Optimization or SEO Overkill?

The fight to top search engines' results knows no limits – neither ethical, nor technical. There are often reports of sites that have been temporarily or permanently excluded from Google and the other search engines because of malpractice and using “black hat” SEO optimization techniques. The reaction of search engines is easy to understand – with so many tricks and cheats that SEO experts include in their arsenal, the relevancy of returned results is seriously compromised to the point where search engines start to deliver completely irrelevant and manipulated search results. And even if search engines do not discover your scams right away, your competitors might report you.

Keyword Density or Keyword Stuffing?

Sometimes SEO experts go too far in their desire to push their clients' sites to top positions and resort to questionable practices, like keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is considered an unethical practice because what you actually do is use the keyword in question throughout the text suspiciously often. Having in mind that the recommended keyword density is from 3 to 7%, anything above this, say 10% density starts to look very much like keyword stuffing and it is likely that will not get unnoticed by search engines. A text with 10% keyword density can hardly make sense, if read by a human. Some time ago Google implemented the so called “Florida Update” and essentially imposed a penalty for pages that are keyword-stuffed and over-optimized in general.

Generally, keyword density in the title, the headings, and the first paragraphs matters more. Needless to say that you should be especially careful not to stuff these areas. Try the Keyword Density Cloud tool to check if your keyword density is in the acceptable limits, especially in the above-mentioned places. If you have a high density percentage for a frequently used keyword, then consider replacing some of the occurrences of the keyword with synonyms. Also, generally words that are in bold and/or italic are considered important by search engines but if any occurrence of the target keywords is in bold and italic, this also looks unnatural and in the best case it will not push your page up.

Doorway Pages and Hidden Text

Another common keyword scam is doorway pages. Before Google introduced the PageRank algorithm, doorways were a common practice and there were times when they were not considered an illegal optimization. A doorway page is a page that is made especially for the search engines and that has no meaning for humans but is used to get high positions in search engines and to trick users to come to the site. Although keywords are still very important, today keywords alone have less effect in determining the position of a site in search results, so doorway pages do not get so much traffic to a site but if you use them, don't ask why Google punished you.

Very similar to doorway pages was a scam called hidden text. This is text, which is invisible to humans (e.g. the text color is the same as the page background) but is included in the HTML source of the page, trying to fool search engines that the particular page is keyword-rich. Needless to say, both doorway pages and hidden text can hardly be qualified as optimization techniques, there are more manipulation than everything else.

Duplicate Content

It is a basic SEO rule that content is king. But not duplicate content. In terms of Google, duplicate content means text that is the same as the text on a different page on the SAME site (or on a sister-site, or on a site that is heavily linked to the site in question and it can be presumed that the two sites are related) – i.e. when you copy and paste the same paragraphs from one page on your site to another, then you might expect to see your site's rank drop. Most SEO experts believe that syndicated content is not treated as duplicate content and there are many examples of this. If syndicated content were duplicate content, that the sites of news agencies would have been the first to drop out of search results. Still, it does not hurt to check from time if your site has duplicate content with another, at least because somebody might be illegally copying your content and you do not know. The guys from Blackwood Productions have told me about cases like this, so as incredible as it might seen, content theft is not that uncommon. The Similar Page Checker tool will help you see if you have grounds to worry about duplicate content.

Links Spam

Links are another major SEO tool and like the other SEO tools it can be used or misused. While backlinks are certainly important (for Yahoo backlinks are important as quantity, while for Google it is more important what sites backlinks come from), getting tons of backlinks from a link farm or a blacklisted site is begging to be penalized. Also, if outbound links (links from your site to other sites) considerably outnumber your inbound links (links from other sites to your site), then you have put too much effort in creating useless links because this will not improve your ranking. You can use the Domain Stats Tool to see the number of backlinks (inbound links) to your site and the Site Link Analyzer to see how many outbound links you have.

Using keywords in links (the anchor text), domain names, folder and file names does boost your search engine rankings but again, the precise measure is the boundary between topping the search results and being kicked out of them. For instance, if you are optimizing for the keyword “cat”, which is a frequently chosen keyword and as with all popular keywords and phrases, competition is fierce, you might not see other alternative for reaching the top but getting a domain name like http://www.cat-cats-kittens-kitty.com, which no doubt is packed with keywords to the maximum but is first – difficult to remember, and second – if the contents does not correspond to the plenitude of cats in the domain name, you will never top the search results.

Although file and folder names are less important than domain names, now and then (but definitely not all the time) you can include “cat” (and synonyms) in them and in the anchor text of the links. This counts well, provided that anchors are not artificially stuffed (for instance if you use “cat_cats_kitten” as anchor for internal site links this anchor certainly is stuffed). While you have no control over third sides that link to you and use anchors that you don't like, it is up to you to perform periodic checks what anchors do other sites use to link to you. A handy tool for this task is the Backlink Anchor Text Analysis, where you enter the URL and get a listing of the sites that link to you and the anchor text they use.

Finally, to Google and the other search engines it makes no difference if a site is intentionally over-optimized to cheat them or over-optimization is the result of good intentions, so no matter what your motives are, always try to keep to reasonable practices and remember that do not overstep the line.

http://www.webconfs.com/

Choosing a SEO Company

After you have been dealing for some time with SEO on your own, you discover that no matter how hard you try, your site does not rank well or that your site ranks well but optimizing it for search engines takes all your time and all your other tasks lag behind. If this is the case with you, maybe it is better to consider hiring a SEO company to do the work for you. With so many SEO companies out there, you can't complain that you have no choice. Or is it just the opposite – so many companies but few reliable?

It is stretching the truth to say that there are no reliable SEO companies. Yes, there might be many scam SEO companies but if you know what to look for when selecting a SEO company, the risk of hiring fraudsters is reduced. It is much better if you yourself have a substantial knowledge of SEO and can easily decide if they promise you the starts in the sky or their goals are realistic but even if you are not quite familiar with SEO practices, here is a list with some points to watch for when choosing a SEO company:

• Do they promise to guarantee #1 ranking? If they do, you have a serious reason to doubt their competencies. As the Google SEO selection tips say, no one can guarantee a #1 ranking in Google. This is true even for not so competitive words.

• Get recommendation from friends, business partners, etc. Word of mouth is very important for the credibility of a company. For instance, we do not perform SEO services but despite that we constantly receive e-mails asking for SEO services. We always direct these inquiries to Blackwood Productions because we have worked with this company for a long time and we know that they are competent and reliable.

• Ask in forums. There are many reputable Web master forums, so if you can't find somebody who can recommend you a SEO company right away, consider asking in Web master forums. However, beware that not all forum posters are honest people, so take their opinion (no matter if positive or negative) with a grain of salt. Forums are not such a reliable source of information as in-person contact.

• Google the company name. If the company is a known fraudster, chances are that you will find a lot of information about it on the Web. However, lack of negative publicity does not mean automatically that the company is great, nor do some subjective negative opinions mean that the company is a scammer.

• Ask for examples of sites they have optimized. Happy customers are the best form of promotion, so feel free to ask your potential SEO company about sites they have optimized and references from clients. If you get a rejection because of confidentiality reasons, this must ring a bell about the credibility of the SEO company - former customers are not supposed to be a secret.

• Check the PR of their own site. If they can't optimize their site well enough to get a good PR (over 4-5), they are not worth hiring.

• Ask them what keywords their site ranks for. Similarly to the page rank factor, if they don't rank well for the keywords of their choice, they are hardly as professional as they are pretending to be.

• Do they use automated submissions? If they do, stay away from them. Automated submissions can get you banned from search engines.

• Do they use any black hat SEO tricks? You need to know in advance what black hat SEO is in order to judge them, so getting familiar with the most important black hat SEO tricks is worth before you go and start cross-examining them.

• Where do they collect backlinks from? Backlinks are very, very important for SEO success but if they come from link farms and other similar sites, this can cause a lot of trouble. So, make sure the SEO firm collects links from reputable sites only.

• Get some personal impressions, if possible. Gut instinct and impressions from meetings are also a way to judge a company, though sometimes it is not difficult to get mislead, so use this approach with caution.

• High price does not guarantee high quality. If you are eager to pay more, this does not mean that you will get more. Just because a firm costs more DOES NOT make them better SEO's. There are many reasons for high prices and high quality is only one of them. For instance, the company might work inefficiently and this is the reason for their ridiculously high costs, not the quality of their work.

• Cheap is more expensive. This is also true. If you think you can pay peanuts for a professional SEO campaign, then you need to think again. Professional SEO companies offer realistic prices.

• Use tricky questions. Using tricky questions is a double-edged sword, especially if you are not an expert. But there are several easy questions that can help you.
  For instance, you might ask them how many search engines they will automatically submit your site to. If they are scammers, they will try to impress you with big numbers. But in this case, the best answer would be "no automatic submissions".
  Another tricky question is to ask them if they will place in you top 10 for some competitive keywords of your choice. The trap here is that it is them, not you, who chooses the words that are best for your site. It is not that probable that they will choose exactly the same words as you suggest, so if they tell you that you just give them the words and they push you to the top, tell them “Goodbye”.

• Do they offer subscription services? SEO is a constant process and if you want to rank well and keep on like that, efforts are necessary all the time. Because of this, it is better to select a company that includes post-optimization maintenance, than get a company that pushes your site to the top and then leaves you in the wild on your own.

We tried to mention some of the most important issues in selecting a SEO company. Of course, there are many other factors to consider and each case is different, so give it some thought, before you sign the contract for hiring a SEO company.

http://www.webconfs.com/choosing-a-seo-company-article-21.php

Jumping Over the Google Sandbox

It's never easy for newcomers to enter a market and there are barriers of different kinds. For newcomers to the world of search engines, the barrier is called a sandbox – your site stays there until it gets mature enough to be allowed to the Top Positions club. Although there is no direct confirmation of the existence of a sandbox, Google employees have implied it and SEO experts have seen in practice that new sites, no matter how well optimized, don't rank high on Google, while on MSN and Yahoo they catch quickly. For Google, the jailing in the sandbox for new sites with new domains is on average 6 months, although it can vary from less than a month to over 8 months.

Sandbox and Aging Delay

While it might be considered unfair to stop new sites by artificial means like keeping them at the bottom of search results, there is a fair amount of reasoning why search engines, and above all Google, have resorted to such measures. With blackhat practices like bulk buying of links, creation of duplicate content or simply keyword stuffing to get to the coveted top, it is no surprise that Google chose to penalize new sites, which overnight get tons of backlinks, or which are used as a source of backlinks to support an older site (possibly owned by the same company). Needless to say, when such fake sites are indexed and admitted to top positions, this deteriorates search results, so Google had to take measures for ensuring that such practices will not be tolerated. The sandbox effect works like a probation period for new sites and by making the practice of farming fake sites a long-term, rather than a short-term payoff for site owners, it is supposed to decrease its use.

Sandbox and aging delay are similar in meaning and many SEO experts use them interchangeably. Aging delay is more self-explanatory – sites are “delayed” till they come of age. Well, unlike in legislation, with search engines this age is not defined and it differs. There are cases when several sites were launched in the same day, were indexed within a week from each other but the aging delay for each of them expired in different months. As you see, the sandbox is something beyond your control and you cannot avoid it but still there are steps you can undertake to minimize the damage for new sites with new domains.

Minimizing Sandbox Damages

While Google sandbox is not something you can control, there are certain steps you can take in order to make the sandbox effect less destructive for your new site. As with many aspects of SEO, there are ethical and unethical tips and tricks and unethical tricks can get you additional penalties or a complete ban from Google, so think twice before resorting to them. The unethical approaches will not be discussed in this article because they don comply with our policy.

Before we delve into more detail about particular techniques to minimize sandbox damage, it is necessary to clarify the general rule: you cannot fight the sandbox. The only thing you can do is to adapt to it and patiently wait for time to pass. Any attempts to fool Google – starting from writing melodramatic letters to Google, to using “sandbox tools” to bypass the filter – can only make your situation worse. There are many initiatives you can take, while in the sandbox, for as example:

• Actively gather content and good links – as time passes by, relevant and fresh content and good links will take you to the top. When getting links, have in mind that they need to be from trusted sources – like DMOZ, CNN, Fortune 500 sites, or other reputable places. Also, links from .edu, .gov, and .mil domains might help because these domains are usually exempt from the sandbox filter. Don't get 500 links a month – this will kill your site! Instead, build links slowly and steadily.

• Plan ahead– contrary to the general practice of launching a site when it is absolutely complete, launch a couple of pages, when you have them. This will start the clock and time will be running parallel to your site development efforts.

• Buy old or expired domains – the sandbox effect is more serious for new sites on new domains, so if you buy old or expired domains and launch your new site there, you'll experience less problems.

• Host on a well- established host – another solution is to host your new site on a subdomain of a well-established host (however, free hosts are generally not a good idea in terms of SEO ranking). The sandbox effect is not so severe for new subdomains (unless the domain itself is blacklisted). You can also host the main site on a subdomain and on a separate domain host just some contents, linked with the main site. You can also use redirects from the subdomained site to the new one, although the effect of this practice is also questionable because it can also be viewed as an attempt to fool Google.

• Concentrate on less popular keywords – the fact that your site is sandboxed does not mean that it is not indexed by Google at all. On the contrary, you could be able to top the search results from the very beginning! Looking like a contradiction with the rest of the article? Not at all! You could top the results for less popular keywords – sure, it is better than nothing. And while you wait to get to the top for the most lucrative keywords, you can discover that even less popular keywords are enough to keep the ball rolling, so you may want to make some optimization for them.

• Rely more on non-Google ways to increase traffic – it is often reminded that Google is not the only search engine or marketing tool out there. So if you plan your SEO efforts to include other search engines, which either have no sandbox at all or the period of stay there is relatively short, this will also minimize the damages of the sandbox effect. http://www.webconfs.com/google-sandbox-article-11.php

Keyword Difficulty

The wise choice of the right keywords you will optimize for is the first and crucial step to a successful SEO campaign. If you fail on this very first step, the road ahead is very bumpy and most likely you will only waste your (or your client's) money and time. There are many ways to determine which keywords to optimize for and usually the final list of them is made after a careful analysis of what the online population is searching for, which keywords have your competitors chosen and above all - which are the keywords that you feel describe your site best. All of this is great and certainly this is the way to go but if you want to increase your chances of success, additional research is never too much, especially when its results will save you the shots in the dark.

Dreaming High - Shooting the Top-Notch Keywords?

After you have made a long and detailed list of all the lucrative keywords that are searched by tens of thousands a day, do not hurry yet. It is great that you have chosen popular keywords but it would be even greater if you have chosen keywords for which top positioning is achievable with reasonable effort. If you have many competitors for the keywords you have chosen, chances are, no matter how hard you try, that you will hardly be able to overtake them and place your site amongst the top ten results. And as every SEO knows, if you can't be on the first page (or on the second and in the worst case on the third one) of the organic search results, you'd better think again if the potential gain from optimization for those particular words is worth the effort. It is true that sometimes even sites that are after the first 50 results get decent traffic from search engines but it is certain that you can't count on that. And even if you somehow manage to get to the top, do you have any idea what it will take to keep the good results?

You can feel discouraged that all lucrative keywords are already occupied but it is too early to give up. Low-volume search keywords can be as lucrative as the high-volume ones and their main advantage is that you will have less competition. The SEO experts from Blackwood Productions confirm that it is possible with less effort and within budget to achieve much better results with low-volume search keywords than if you targeted the high-volume search ones. In order to do this, you need to make an estimate about how difficult it would be to rank well for a particular keyword.

Get Down to Earth

The best way to estimate how difficult it would be to rank well for a particular keyword is by using the appropriate tools. If you search the Web, you will see several keyword difficulty tools. Choose a couple of them, for instance Seochat's Keyword Difficulty Tool, Cached's Keyword Difficulty Tool and Seomoz's Keyword Difficulty Tool and off we go. The idea behind choosing multiple tools is not that you have so much free time that you need to find a way to waste it. If you choose only one tool, you will finish your research faster but having in mind the different results that each tool gives, you'd better double check before you start the optimization itself. The Seomoz's tool is a kind of complicated and if you want to use it you need to make several registrations but it is worth the trouble (and the patience - while you wait for the results to be calculated).

You may also want to check for several keywords or keyword phrases. You will be surprised to see how different the estimated difficulty for similar keywords is! For instance, if you are optimizing a financial site, which deals mainly with credits and loans, and some of your keywords are finance, money, credit, loan, and mortgage, running a check with the seochat's Keyword Difficulty Tool produces results like these (the percentages are rounded but you get the idea): finance - 89%, money - 76% credit - 74% loan - 66% mortgage - 65%.

It seems that the keyword finance is very tough and since your site is targeted at credits and loans and not on stock exchange or insurance, which are also branches of finance, there is no need to cry over the fact that it is very difficult to compete for the finance keyword.

The results were similar with the second tool, though it does not give percentages but uses a scale starting from Very Easy to Very Difficult. I did not check all the results with the third tool, because it seems that the seomoz report on keyword difficulty for a particular word needs ages to be compiled but the results were similar, so it becomes clear that it is more feasible to optimize for mortgage and loan, rather than for the broader term finance.

You may want to bookmark some of these tools for future use as well. They will be very useful to monitor possible changes on the keyword difficulty landscape. After you have optimized your site for the keywords you have selected, occasionally check again the difficulty of the keywords you are already optimizing for because the percentages are changing over time and if you discover that the competition for your keywords has increased, make some more efforts to retain the gained positions.

Source : http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-difficulty-article-20.php

Dynamic URLs vs. Static URLs

The Issue at Hand

Websites that utilize databases which can insert content into a webpage by way of a dynamic script like PHP or JavaScript are increasingly popular. This type of site is considered dynamic. Many websites choose dynamic content over static content. This is because if a website has thousands of products or pages, writing or updating each static by hand is a monumental task.

There are two types of URLs: dynamic and static. A dynamic URL is a page address that results from the search of a database-driven web site or the URL of a web site that runs a script. In contrast to static URLs, in which the contents of the web page stay the same unless the changes are hard-coded into the HTML, dynamic URLs are generated from specific queries to a site's database. The dynamic page is basically only a template in which to display the results of the database query. Instead of changing information in the HTML code, the data is changed in the database.

But there is a risk when using dynamic URLs: search engines don't like them. For those at most risk of losing search engine positioning due to dynamic URLs are e-commerce stores, forums, sites utilizing content management systems and blogs like Mambo or WordPress, or any other database-driven website. Many times the URL that is generated for the content in a dynamic site looks something like this:

http://www.somesites.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=12345&sort=date

A static URL on the other hand, is a URL that doesn't change, and doesn't have variable strings. It looks like this:

http://www.somesites.com/forums/the-challenges-of-dynamic-urls.htm

Static URLs are typically ranked better in search engine results pages, and they are indexed more quickly than dynamic URLs, if dynamic URLs get indexed at all. Static URLs are also easier for the end-user to view and understand what the page is about. If a user sees a URL in a search engine query that matches the title and description, they are more likely to click on that URL than one that doesn't make sense to them.

A search engine wants to only list pages its index that are unique. Search engines decide to combat this issue by cutting off the URLs after a specific number of variable strings (e.g.: ? & =).

For example, let's look at three URLs:

http://www.somesites.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=12345&sort=date

http://www.somesites.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=67890&sort=date

http://www.somesites.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=13579&sort=date

All three of these URLs point to three different pages. But if the search engine purges the information after the first offending character, the question mark (?), now all three pages look the same:

http://www.somesites.com/forums/thread.php

http://www.somesites.com/forums/thread.php

http://www.somesites.com/forums/thread.php

Now, you don't have unique pages, and consequently, the duplicate URLs won't be indexed.

Another issue is that dynamic pages generally do not have any keywords in the URL. It is very important to have keyword rich URLs. Highly relevant keywords should appear in the domain name or the page URL. This became clear in a recent study on how the top three search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN, rank websites.

The study involved taking hundreds of highly competitive keyword queries, like travel, cars, and computer software, and comparing factors involving the top ten results. The statistics show that of those top ten, Google has 40-50% of those with the keyword either in the URL or the domain; Yahoo shows 60%; and MSN has an astonishing 85%! What that means is that to these search engines, having your keywords in your URL or domain name could mean the difference between a top ten ranking, and a ranking far down in the results pages.

The Solution

So what can you do about this difficult problem? You certainly don't want to have to go back and recode every single dynamic URL into a static URL. This would be too much work for any website owner.

If you are hosted on a Linux server, then you will want to make the most of the Apache Mod Rewrite Rule, which is gives you the ability to inconspicuously redirect one URL to another, without the user's (or a search engine's) knowledge. You will need to have this module installed in Apache; for more information, you can view the documentation for this module here. This module saves you from having to rewrite your static URLs manually.

How does this module work? When a request comes in to a server for the new static URL, the Apache module redirects the URL internally to the old, dynamic URL, while still looking like the new static URL. The web server compares the URL requested by the client with the search pattern in the individual rules.

For example, when someone requests this URL:

http://www.somesites.com/forums/the-challenges-of-dynamic-urls.html

The server looks for and compares this static-looking URL to what information is listed in the .htaccess file, such as:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule thread-threadid-(.*)\.htm$ thread.php?threadid=$1

It then converts the static URL to the old dynamic URL that looks like this, with no one the wiser:

http://www.somesites.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=12345

You now have a URL that only will rank better in the search engines, but your end-users can definitely understand by glancing at the URL what the page will be about, while allowing Apache's Mod Rewrite Rule to handle to conversion for you, and still keeping the dynamic URL.

If you are not particularly technical, you may not wish to attempt to figure out the complex Mod Rewrite code and how to use it, or you simply may not have the time to embark upon a new learning curve. Therefore, it would be extremely beneficial to have something to do it for you. This URL Rewriting Tool can definitely help you. What this tool does is implement the Mod Rewrite Rule in your .htaccess file to secretly convert a URL to another, such as with dynamic and static ones.

With the URL Rewriting Tool, you can opt to rewrite single pages or entire directories. Simply enter the URL into the box, press submit, and copy and paste the generated code into your .htaccess file on the root of your website. You must remember to place any additional rewrite commands in your .htaccess file for each dynamic URL you want Apache to rewrite. Now, you can give out the static URL links on your website without having to alter all of your dynamic URLs manually because you are letting the Mod Rewrite Rule do the conversion for you, without JavaScript, cloaking, or any sneaky tactics.

Another thing you must remember to do is to change all of your links in your website to the static URLs in order to avoid penalties by search engines due to having duplicate URLs. You could even add your dynamic URLs to your Robots Exclusion Standard File (robots.txt) to keep the search engines from spidering the duplicate URLs. Regardless of your methods, after using the URL Rewrite Tool, you should ideally have no links pointing to any of your old dynamic URLs.

You have multiple reasons to utilize static URLs in your website whenever possible. When it's not possible, and you need to keep your database-driven content as those old dynamic URLs, you can still give end-users and search engine a static URL to navigate, and all the while, they are still your dynamic URLs in disguise. When a search engine engineer was asked if this method was considered "cloaking", he responded that it indeed was not, and that in fact, search engines prefer you do it this way. The URL Rewrite Tool not only saves you time and energy by helping you use static URLs by converting them transparently to your dynamic URLs, but it will also save your rankings in the search engines.

Source : http://www.webconfs.com/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls-article-3.php

What does Google PageRank Really Means ?

Where is Google PageRank from and how do I view it?

The name "Google PageRank" is originated from one of Google's founders Larry Page. It was invented to help Google Search become more precise. PageRank is a "rank" for a website and ranges from zero to ten (0 - 10). You will notice that high respected websites have a higher PageRank assigned whereas new websites will have a lower PageRank.

Popular known websites:

Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com - 9 out of 10 PageRank
MSN http://www.msn.com - 9 out of 10 PageRank
Google http://www.google.com - 10 out of 10 PageRank

Websites that are not as popular as the ones mentioned above will usually have a lower PageRank, something ranging from zero PageRank to 5 PageRank. Google PageRank update's every three to four months but in some cases it can take up to six months before you notice any updates.

To view the PageRank of a website, you can either download the Google Toolbar or use an online tool such as iWEBTOOL's Rank Checker.

The basic understanding of Google PageRank

According to Google, the PageRank given to a website indicates the website's importance, and is calculated from sites linking to a page. For instance, if PAGE A has a text link to PAGE B then PAGE B will be ranked higher as PAGE A is "voting" for PAGE B. However, although it seems very straightforward, many different factors are considered while calculating the PageRank. The page casting the vote will be inspected by Google also.

Google analyzes the webpage that has the text link to another website and looks at various qualities of the webpage. For instance, one of the foremost quality is the PageRank of the webpage that has the link to another website. The higher the PageRank of the "linker", the higher the link will value. For example, if PAGE A has a PageRank of 5 and is linking to PAGE B. This link will be valued more as PAGE A has a high PageRank of 5. Whereas if PAGE A had a small PageRank of 2 then this link will not be valued as much. Another factor that is taken into consideration is the amount of links on a webpage. If PAGE A has only one link on the page, it will be valued much more than if it were to have five links on the page.

An important information most webmasters tend to forget nowadays is that PageRank isn't as relevant to search results ranking as it use to be. There was a time when PageRank had a very important impact on the search results from Google but in the recent changes, Google has developed new factors and PageRank isn't as critical now.

Things to check before launching your website

Congratulations! You're ready for launch! But before you make your site known to the world, it's important to check it carefully through fresh eyes. Yes, you've been living and breathing every link, dissecting each and every page, and slaving over your content. But, your site's credibility can easily get shot the second a visitor hits a broken link or spots a typo. After all, your site is a reflection on your business, your product and, well...you.

Make QA (Quality Assurance) a part of your master plan and you can be sure you're putting your best foot forward. Now, even in my 10+ years in the industry, I have yet to find anyone say, "I love QA'ing my site. I look forward to it. I wish I had more pages to check."

But QA does not have to be all that drab. Make a checklist and log action items for every page and the time will fly.

Here's what your preflight checklist should include:

1) Check what's above your fold. The "fold" is the imaginary line at the bottom of your screen. When you first land on a Web page, anything above that line falls above the fold. Place your "must-see" content, links or images above the fold whenever possible for maximum exposure. The purpose and benefit of every page should be clear before visitors even begin to scroll.

2) Test every link. You've edited, formatted, moved files and changed page names. And, yet with all your hard work, broken links will happen. Everytime a visitor clicks a link, they hope to find exactly what they're lookingfor. Error pages will instantly cause frustration and doubt in your visitors'minds. Make sure every link leads to the correct destination!

3) Check Spelling. FrontPage, Dreamweaver and most other web-building applications, have spell-check. Use it. Because you've probably edited and re-edited your text over time, it never hurts to run one last check.

4) Read every page as if you were visiting for the first time. Put yourself in a new visitor's shoes. What are the first questions on your site's topic?What would their reaction be?

5) Make sure your menus and links make sense. Instead of getting overly cute or cryptic with menus and link titles, hit visitors over the head withclear phrases and words that describe exactly what they'll find on each page.For example, one leading discount site had a link that read "Show Me theMoney." After changing the title to "Get Online Coupons" hisconversion nearly doubled.

6) Ensure your text and links are digestible. It's a fact: Internetusers do not read Web pages like books. They are detectives who knowwhat they're looking for. They skim pages looking for any clue that they'reon the right track. If you burden them with endless miles of text, they're likely to abandon you in search of a more user-friendly page. Keep visitors engagedby breaking up long content.

Some effective clutter-busting techniques include:

* Subheads
* Bullets
* Bold text
* Images
* White space
* Links

7) Make sure you've balanced your pages with relevant images that reinforce your content.

8) Check the clarity and flow of content.

9) Test submission forms -- especially on your Contact Us or Order pages.

10) Ask others to review. Fresh eyes make all the difference! Ask everyone you know, especially those who reflect your site's target audience, to critique your site and give you honest feedback.

Optimize websites without changing a thing

If you are satisfied with your website, look again. Chances are there are several things that will help optimize your website while keeping the overall look and functionality the same. In particular, one of the biggest trends is a Content Management System which makes updating your site as easy as filling out a few form fields and typing some text into the form. Unfortunately, most tools that make it 'easier' lack when it comes to making it 'better'.

This is no big surprise as the same system that makes it easy to manage your site must fit all possible scenarios and may not be the best way to handle YOUR situation. This is where website optimization services like Comptrio.com come in to help improve your site according to your specific needs. A professional service will be able to assess your specific website and make optimization recommendations based on your usage and requirements.

One of the biggest downfalls of the 'owner friendly' CMS systems is a very 'server un-friendly' navigation system. What could be easier for the owner than to enter a new category name and have the database store the category name, link, and ID# and just call them on every page load? With one additional step while updating your categories, the same code that is called 10 times (assuming you have 10 categories) every time the page is loaded can be run once when you update the navigation and write a file with all of the navigation in a static or unchanging file.

This static navigation can be called every time a page on your site is requested and may cut down on the number of queries to the database by double digit numbers. I recently optimized a website and removed MORE THAN 95% of the database queries by using this method. The website went from nearly 1,000 database queries to only 20 each time the page is loaded into a users browser.

This required changing 2 sets of navigation with new code, but had an amazing effect on the server load during high-traffic and allowed an incredible amount of users to connect all at once that was not possible before.

Another change that can be made is to ensure that your server is 'properly' using Apache's built-in cache. While caches can also be setup within the HEAD section of your pages, using Apache itself to setup the 'rules' will cut down on the code used on your page. The trick to getting mod_expires setup correctly is trial and error. Eventually you will find settings that work best for your site.

Typically, images can be cached the longest as they don't change very often on most sites. HTML pages generally don't update change very often, but dynamic pages can be a little tougher to tune. I generally begin with 1 day from first access for php files and then adjust how long the cache lasts from there. The length of cache will depend on your actual needs on a 'per website' basis.

The beauty of using the cache is that common files (where all pages use the same header image) are stored in the users browser and not downloaded when they visit the next few pages of your site. For many websites, especially graphic-heavy sites, this can mean a serious reduction in the bandwidth and resources used in transferring the same layout images page after page after page.

In almost every case that I've seen, websites created by a wysiwyg editor (FrontPage, DreamWeaver, etc.) can benefit from good, old handcoding. Many HTML tags are unnecessary or are used to help the wysiwyg editor to remember it's place on the page, but wysiwyg editors don't concern themselves with optimizing your code. Once again, this is a case of needing to work in every scenario, but not needing to work with the best optimization. Often times I will gain an 80% reduction in filesize by hand coding websites and removing extraneous 'fluff' from the code.

Reduction in image sizes (filesize, not space on a page) is perhaps one of the easiest optimization targets to pinpoint, but also one of the easiest ways to make your site look goofy. The best way to optimize images is to start with the original image files at full size with no compression. Fortunately, aside from a professional logo, this is usually what you are working with on your website already. With a 20% reduction in size (80% compression in the world of images), more size can be saved here than anywhere else. There are many tools to compress images and my personal favorites are the gifcruncher and jpeg wizard.

Making several passes over your website once it's completed should point to several areas where improvement is possible without changing the look, feel, and functionality of your website. As newer technologies are being adopted by a growing number of websites, optimization is more important than ever.