SEO Basics (Keyword Research)

Author: Dane Lyons

Definitions: SEO (Search engine optimization): The process of building a website to pull the maximum amount of relevant traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves… Keyword Research: The process of researching terms to be used in SEO for a given website.

The first step to successful SEO is always keyword research. Without it you are shooting from the hip. If, for example, you would like to create a website about cooking you could optimize your site for the generic "cooking" term but how well is that going to perform? Well according to Overture there are 8,233.8 searches /day for "cooking" sounds good right? Not exactly…in order to rank high for this term you would have to compete with high end websites such as cooking.com and foodtv.com. Now that might be your ultimate goal but if you are just starting there is little to no chance you will be ranked high enough to receive any traffic for the term. If you were to do a little keyword research you might find more specific terms with much less competition like italian cooking 344.3 /day or crock pot cooking 253.5 /day. Now obviously the number of daily searches is much less with these terms but your chances or ranking will be much greater. Its always a good idea to start off with several low competition terms and as your site builds start optimizing for the larger terms.

Step 1: Create a list of related terms Open an excel spreadsheet and start making a list of all major industry terms and buzz words related to your site in one column. The list doesn't need to be extremely detailed quite yet so don't add part numbers, brand names or several variations of each term. For example if we want to remain on the cooking theme our list might look something like this. Cooking, chef, cutlery, foods, meat, dairy, wine, seasoning, poultry, fish, dining…(simple generic terms)

Step 2: Expand the list Now its time to start adding all those 2, 3 and 4 term combinations along with other very specific terms related to your site. For this we will employ a few web applications to speed up the process. http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion and http://nichebot.com are two of the best free tools at your disposal. Simply type in your first generic term and the tool will list several related terms. Add each new relevant term to your spreadsheet. Do this with each generic term and you should end up with a list of at very least 50 possible terms to optimize for.

Step 3: Find your primary and secondary keywords Now go to nichebot and type in each of your terms. Look for the "COUNT" and "RATIO". (listed to the right of each term) Plug these into your database in the second and third column next to the corresponding terms. Once you have completed this step go through your list and seek out the terms with the highest count and the lowest ratio. Take the top 5-10 terms and place them into a separate list. These will be your primary keywords. You will use these in the optimization of the top pages of your site. Then take the remaining list and alphabetically order it from lowest to highest ratio. (there should be a tool in your spreadsheet to do this automatically for you) These will be your secondary keywords.

That's it! You now know the basics of keyword research. I'm sure you are asking "what now?". Well there is quite a bit more to learn. You are going to need to know on-site and off-site optimization and various methods and tools available to you for these tasks. You will need to learn the difference between "white hat" and "black hat" SEO which basically outlines what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in terms of SEO. So stay tuned for my next article. I will take you through the process step by step. By the end there will be no need to hire greedy SEO firms for something you can do for a fraction of the cost.

About the author: Dane Lyons is the creator and webmaster of Lucid Aura Web Design , 7Seeker The Article Archives and Lyons Craft

Search Engine Optimization for Affiliate Marketers

Author: Ian Mcintosh

There are no secrets on how to rank high with the major search engines because effective search engine optimizations are now immense. What is search engine optimization? Before we discuss that thing, you have to understand first how search engines work and a bit of know-how.

Search engines are into providing their users with the most relevant and up-to-date information to match the search term that was used. They are sophisticated pieces of technology which allow users to quickly find relevant websites by searching for a word or a phrase. Search engine results are useless to users if the information doesn't relate to the search term, or if the results are old. People expect the most up-to-date and fresh information that is useful to them.

Updating your website everyday and adding some materials will help you get noticed by the search engines. So, if you are going to sell any type of product or service online, you have to optimize your website for the search engines, in order to boost traffic and sales. It is because over 90% of your business will likely come directly from search engine results. And for that reason, it is absolutely important to optimize your site for search engines for you to have the greatest deals in the entire world.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which webmasters or online business owners utilize strategic copy to augment their website's status. It is certain that the internet has grown so fast over the years and the competition for the best search engine position has created an enormous market. Therefore, better understanding the fundamental elements of Search Engine Optimization is vital for an online business' success.

Making use of effective search engine optimization techniques will improve the page rank of your website. There are many tricks that can be used to increase page rank; the most effective method is to provide high quality content consistently. This seems like a simple concept but there are many websites that fails to provide content that visitors find interesting. Sites which provide content that are interesting, well-written and regularly updated create highly engaged visitors who are more likely to return to the website in the coming days. So, if you can set your website apart from those boring, lifeless sites then do it. You'll surely have a step closer to achieving high page rank through search engine optimization.

The next significant factor for an effective search engine optimization is to include keywords and phrases within your content. To make sure that you are properly targeting your market, you have to make sure that the keywords and phrases you have on your site are the keywords and phrase that your site is actually optimized for. The more keywords you use in your content, the more likely it is that online visitors will find your site when they do some research with those words. If you are unfailing with these techniques, then your overall search engine optimization will increase, boosting your page rank.

You should also have to develop a linking strategy as a part of your search engine optimization. Not only does this provide free advertising for your site, but it makes the impression that your site is imperative because of its affiliated links. For each link that you have pointing back to you, that is another chance for your potential customer to find you. The more inbound links that you have pointing to your site, the higher you will be ranked in the search engines.

Another is to develop a content stratagem. People who get to search from the internet are looking for information. The more information you provide for them and the more helpful it is, the more likely you will make the sale. Writing articles is the most effective way to build up content for your site. When writing articles to post on your site, make sure that you develop a clear means of arranging their content. You can do this by simply adding a new page to your site. This will allow room for extra articles to be added as you write them, and will allow you to build up an archive of articles which will maintain to draw online visitors. Make sure also that you have included your archived articles in a directory that is next to the root web of your site so that the search engines will catalog your online articles.

Always keep in mind that search engine optimization methods are important in developing your site's status. With that thing in mind, make sure that you write high-quality, keyword rich content and link your site to and from a deliberate family of other sites. These things will help improve your site's popularity and coerce increased business through your online business.

About the author: Ian Mcintosh is the proud owner of affiliatehq.co.uk which lists only the top affiliate programs

What you can expect from Search Engine

Author: David Bell

Search engines will be a way for you to generate from as little as 20% to as much as 60% of your business online (depending on what other marketing techniques you use). Since there are over 130,000,000 webpages in existence (yes that is 130 million!), it is extremely important to understand how they work and how to increase your chances of being placed in the top 20 of the search results. For example, if you were to type ""music"" and ""CD"" into the AltaVista search engine as a keyword the result would be over 1,000,000 related site URLs. Search engines are a very powerful tool if you are in the top 50 results (preferably the top 20), but are completely useless if you are listed further down. You can bet that if you are further down than the 50th result, the searchee will not even see your site listing, much less be able to visit it. As we all know, the beauty of search engines is that they can bring you a large amount of targeted traffic and it will not cost you a cent! It is crucial you understand the basics of how search engines work if you want to get traffic to your site from them. There are three main types of search engines/directories. The first is a directory (sometimes called a category database). This is not a true search engine, but a listing of webpages by category. Many directories allow you to enter in the description and keywords for your site exactly as you would like them to appear. You usually have to select the category you want it cited under, too. A directory will not list your URL and will never become aware of your site if you do not register with them. They do not make use of ""indexing software"" (robots that crawl the web looking for new sites and indexing them). An example of a directory is Yahoo. Search engines (also called crawlers, spiders, robots, and worms) vary to a large degree. They will automatically index your site using ""indexing software"" or ""indexing robots"". Depending on the complexity of the software, here is what different search engines might do: 1.Index the webpage (not the entire ""website"") you give them. 2.Index every word of every page at that site. 3.Visit external links to crawl through the web looking for any new sites 24 hours a day, 7 days a week going from URL to URL until they have visited every website that can be found on the Internet. By simply telling the search engine what your URL is, its software robot will go there automatically and index everything they need. Every search engine has different criteria for returning search results which makes a difference on how you want to submit your site as it can drastically effect your ranking in search engines (we discuss this quite extensively in the course, but it takes up over 30 pages, so we will skip it in this newsletter). It is important to realize that many search engines change their algorithms on a regular basis (i.e. weekly, monthly, etc.) - if you're listed prominently today, that may no be true tomorrow. There are also META search engines. These perform searches on multiple search engines simultaneously. In this instance, your ranking for the keywords inputted is calculated by the combined ranking of all the search engines simultaneously used. The key to getting ranked high is to make sure you're listed in all the search engines used by the META search engines (They use: OpenText, Lycos, WebCrawler, InfoSeek , Excite, AltaVista, Yahoo, HotBot, and Einet Galaxy). It is not necessary to submit your site to META search engines since they use the results of the major search engines (not their own). I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.

About the author: David Bell is Manager, Online Marketing, at http://www.wspromotion.com/ , a leading Search Engine Optimization services firm and Advertising Agency.

Seven Red Hot Tips for Linking

Author: Gareth Davies

1. Vary the keywords in your link 'anchor' text

Unless you provide only one product or service the chances are you will want to rank for many key phrases. One way to help achieve this objective is to change the link text you want all new sites to use periodically. Vary the anchor text slightly each time and by doing so you can cover more of your targeted key phrases. This approach can help your site rank for many keywords rather than just one or two.

If you do only provide one product or service on your web site it is still important to vary anchor text. If you sell 'blue widgets' then you could also use link text like 'cheap blue widgets' or 'blue widget store'. This means your links take on a more natural feel and are much less likely to be penalised or filtered out by search engines for being 'fake links'.

2. Set up your link information differently - create a link in context

Typically people set up their link information in a very similar way, however you could offer your link information with the hyperlink inside the description instead of at the beginning.

Imagine this is a description about your web site on a partner's link page. Instead of a typical hyperlink followed by a description you could write a sentence describing your web site and then place "your descriptive hyperlink" inside it.

One reason for doing this is that it reads more naturally and search engines may value the link higher as it reads more like a narrative. Many webmasters will be happy to accept this style even if some do not. To cover yourself offer the link in context as a second option along with your regular link information, that way if some sites can't support the layout you still get your link.

3. Vary where your links point

Try to vary where link partners point to on your site. It's fine to have the majority of links pointing into your home page, however it can be beneficial to have some links pointing to other key pages on your web site as well. Taking this approach balances out your linking and can help raise the profile of more pages on your web site.

4. How to find potential link partners from your competitors

If a web site links to your competitors it may also link to yours, and in order to find these potential link partners you can use search engines. Not so long ago Google was useful for getting a lot of back link information about a site. Recently Google's back link data is a lot less forthcoming and it now tends to show only a tiny percentage of the sites that are linking combined with a lot of internal link data. Whether the few web sites Google shows us are the ones it finds important or whether they are in fact red herrings we cannot say for certain. I would assume the latter.

Currently Yahoo is a better portal to check for backlinks. To generate a list of linking web sites on Yahoo simply go to http://www.yahoo.com and type the following into the Yahoo search bar.

linkdomain:www.mycompetitorwebsite.com

This will deliver up to date link information as read by Yahoo. The only downside with the information is that one site may appear many times if it is giving multiple links.

5. Alternate your description text

This is often overlooked, but there is no real advantage to be had if the description text supporting your inbound links is always identical. To avoid the possibility of a description ever being seen as 'duplicate content' alternate it when you can. If you combine it with varied anchor text [as in tip 1] you're heading in the right direction.

6. Link to good related content from your web site

It seems like an obvious thing to say, but with so many people caught up in link exchanging you sometimes wonder if we're losing site of the basics. If you have something useful to say on your site and can back it up with a useful link to another web site then do so. Not every link has to be reciprocated. This resourceful linking will allow your visitors to read around the subject. Linking to informative related content is useful for visitors and search engines quite like it too.

7. Seek out directory links

Links from good web directories can be some of the best links you can get for your web site. Aaron Wall has a 'directory of directories' at http://www.directoryarchives.com where you will find a great selection of search engine friendly directories. Some of the directories are free to get listed in whilst others may charge a fee.

About the author: Gareth Davies is a web design consultant based in London, UK. For information on web design services please visit http://www.garethsketty.com or if you have any questions about this article or its contents please email Gareth at garethsketty at yahoo.co.uk

The Myth of Rankings - Beyond Search Engine Optimization

Author: Scott Buresh

What follows is a condensed version of a conversation that happens all too frequently when I am approached by a prospect interested in search engine optimization (SEO):

Prospect: We need our website optimized, because we aren't showing up for any searches. Me: What searches have you tried? Prospect: We don't show up for ANYTHING. Me: Why do you want to show up in searches? Prospect: Well, it seems like we should. Our competitors do, and our website is WAY better than theirs. Me: But, really, what would you stand to gain from showing up prominently in search engine results? Prospect: Well, we could get more people who are looking for our products or services to find out about us. Me: So, what you are saying is that increasing your search engine results could help you to increase sales and awareness? Prospect: Yes. Me: Now we're on the right track. Since your goals are to increase sales and awareness, have you thought about not only improving your search engine rankings, but also getting more people to take an action on your site that leads to a sale, getting more people to read your press releases or whitepapers so that they can consistently associate your company with your offering, or sending your prospects a regular newsletter to reinforce your name and expertise? Prospect: Didn't you hear me? Our website is great. We just don't show up for searches.

And so it goes.

A consistent problem with the "ranking-centric" mindset demonstrated above is that it doesn't reflect a powerful rationale for getting involved in SEO. Where is the true business case? What tangible results are desired? In general, if a prospect can't explain what he or she hopes to achieve beyond "higher rankings" or "more traffic," we'll first try to educate, and, if that person can't move beyond these base subjects, we'll kindly refer them elsewhere.

More and more frequently, people are getting into SEO for the wrong reasons (and sometimes for no real reason at all). Achieving high rankings for targeted keyphrases, while an admirable and worthwhile goal, is really only a small piece of the entire online marketing puzzle. In this article, we'll discuss a few additional, but equally vital, pieces.

Website Conversion

Website conversion is the art and science of getting more of the people who come to your website to take the action that you want them to take – fill out your contact form, read your whitepapers, sign up for your newsletter, or (in the case of e-commerce) buy something. For a company that is trying to build offline business, this action is typically something that gets prospects into the sales pipeline through some form of online registration. For a company or organization that is trying to build awareness, this action can be a number of things – getting visitors to a certain page of the site, getting them to stay longer at the site, or getting them to tell a friend about the site. The critical point that is commonly overlooked in a ranking-centric mindset is that no number of high search engine positions will address the real problem if your website is not serving as an effective marketing and sales tool. And, as I have said many times before, the overall net effect of raising your conversion rate from one to two percent is the same net effect as doubling your traffic, and it is almost always easier. Increasing the number of visitors to a site that does not convert them effectively is like pumping high performance gasoline into a car with engine trouble – it might help the car to run a little bit better, but if you'd done repairs before adding the premium fuel, it really would have hummed.

Online PR

Your website is only one potential online destination where people can find out about your company, and a typical user will regard your site as an advertisement since you have complete control over the content. With optimized press releases and expert articles, however, you can have your company name mentioned on popular news sites and industry portals, where credibility is more inherent.

Optimized Press Releases

Press releases that are optimized to appear when certain terms are typed into news search engines are an excellent way to build name recognition and credibility. If someone is taking the time to look for news related to your industry, he or she is probably either in your business, learning about your market, or writing a piece about your industry. The last category is especially significant since a recent study* indicates that 98% of journalists go online daily, 92% use the Internet for article research, and 73% use it to find press releases. Whatever motivation a person has when he or she searches for news related to your industry, you want your company represented in the results.

Expert Articles

Another great way to promote your expertise and business is to write expert articles and submit them to the leading online publications in your field. At least one person in your company is almost certainly an expert in your field – why not let everyone know that? A person that reads an expert article published on an industry portal, and who subsequently clicks through to the website (from the link in the expert's bio) is extremely targeted and already has a favorable impression of your company. Moreover, the same study cited above found that 76% of journalists go online to seek news sources or experts. When your company has demonstrated that you have experts on staff by publishing articles in credible, non-biased forums, the phone invariably starts to ring. Your experts will be asked to provide their opinions, quotes, or experiences for feature articles, often in prestigious industry publications. The benefits of this, of course, do not need explanation. A side benefit to both of the strategies above is thatthey increase the number of inbound links to your website and, therefore, can help greatly enhance your search engine rankings – which might be the primary reason you looked into SEO in the first place.

Newsletters

Direct mail was once considered a marketer's dream – but email newsletters can be much more effective. Imagine a direct mail list with a low delivery cost, where every single person on the list has shown an interest in receiving such mailings. Such is the nature of opt-in email newsletters. People have shown enough interest in your company, or, at least, in what your company has to say, to invite you to communicate with them on a regular basis. They are essentially giving you permission to keep yourself "first in mind" whenever they are considering your products or services. Such opportunities are rare in the marketing world. By combining the conversion principles you have applied to your website to your email newsletters, you can also get people to take an action that puts them into your sales pipeline without worrying about getting them to your website itself.

Conclusion

These are only a few of the additional ways to expand an online initiative beyond a misdirected ranking-centric approach. Weblogs (or blogs) are often considered another new frontier in online marketing, and we haven't even touched on paid media opportunities such as banner ads or pay-per-click marketing. However, the three components mentioned above are important elements of a complete and successful online marketing initiative. An SEO campaign launched without considering them is like driving a four-cylinder car with only one cylinder firing – it will move, but you'd definitely reach your destination more quickly – and more smoothly – with all four.

About the author: Scott Buresh is managing partner of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing (www.mediumblue.com). His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, and Search Engine Guide. He also contributed to Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company whose clients include DuPont and Boston Scientific.

The faith of the children of Lir

Author: Paul Gibney

This haunting story has inspired Celtic jewelry makers for many years now as the swan theme embodies traditional Celtic designs and Celtic symbols.

A long time ago in ancient Ireland lived an Irish Chieftain named Lir. He was married to Aobh daughter of King Bodhbh (also called Bov the Red) of Lough Dergh. They had four beautiful children; Fionnula, Aodh, Fiachra and Conn. Unfortunately Aobh died giving birth and Lir was devastated with grief. When King Bodhbh heard of Lir's loss he offered another one of his daughters to Lir in marriage. Lir choose Aoife as his new wife and stepmother to his children. At first, all when well with the marriage, Lir doted on his four children. Soon Aoife became intensely jealous of her stepchildren. She even pretended to be sick for a whole year in order to look for special attention. One day Aoife told the children that they we going with her to visit there Grandfather King Bodhbh, as they had done many times before. Along the way they stopped at Lough Dairbhreach (lake of the oaks) and Aoife ordered the children to wash themselves in the lough. Once they were in the water, Aoife cast a magic spell turning the four children of Lir into beautiful white swans. Fionnuala cursed her but implored her to put some limits on the spell. Aoife regretting what she had done agreed to allow them keep their beautiful singing voices. But the spell still imposed a harsh sentence on the swan children. They were to spend 300 years on Lough Dairbhreach, 300 years in the Straits of Moyle and the final 300 years at Erris. They spell would only be broken when they heard the first bells of Christianity and when a King from the north marries a Princess from the south. When King Bodhbh found out what Aoife had done to the children of Lir, using a Druids rod he turned her into a "Witch of the air". As the legend goes Aoife still blows in the howling wind and her screams can be heard when a storm blows. Over the years Lir and many others continued to visit the swan children. They listened to their enchanting, magical singing that was said to calm even the most savage beast. Over the 900 years of the spell they faced extremely harsh weather conditions. Near the end they traveled to Inish Gluaire where they first heard the Christian bells and met a Christian missionary called St. Mochaomhog. They told him of their plight and that they were the children of Lir. At this time a King from the north King Lairgnean was due to wed Deach, a daughter of the southern Muster King. King Lairgnean had heard of the swan's lovely singing voices and wanted to give them to his wife as a wedding present. But while King Lairgnean was trying to capture the swans he touched one of them and the spell was broken. The swans turned back into their human form, but they were very old and Withered looking. Fionnula the oldest asked St. Mochaomhog to baptize them and soon after they died. They were buried the same way they lived, together. Later that night St. Mochaomhog dreamed that he saw four beautiful white swans flying over the sea straight up to heaven. This beautiful Celtic myth has inspired Irish gifts makers over the years to create wonderful works of art. Many Irish jewelry manufactures have incorporated the 4 swan theme into many stunning pieces of children of Lir jewelry.

About the author: Paul Gibney is a co-founder of http://www.claddaghstore.com one of Ireland largest online Celtic Jewelry Stores.

Linking Strategies for Google

Author: SEO Company

Google has recently filed an application for a United States patent including the use of historical data in analyzing links. This has caused quite a buzz. Many articles are being written about new linking strategies for Google and how to ""beat the system."" Techniques to beat the system include registering the domain name for 10 years instead of one, repositioning your Google AdSense banner to get a better click-through rate and using third party linking strategies. All of the linking strategies geared towards beating Google's system will eventually fail. Why?

Google is using historical data to rank each website. In linking terms, this means that Google keeps track of each link's date including outbound and inbound links. The date a link is found on another site pointing back to yours is recorded. The date you put up an outbound link to another site is recorded.

Other information Google keeps track of with a date stamp is the registration date of the domain name, the date Google finds a website (usually from an inbound link) and the date that browser Favorites are added. There will be a few Webmasters who will work very hard to spoof this information and a few may even succeed. But, for the average web business owner, these shady techniques will not be an option.

So, what is the best linking strategy for the new Google? The best new strategy is the same as the best old strategy: content. Content is still king. Those who argue this point have spent too many hours trying to beat the system rather than working on content. Beating the system has worked for this group, for a while.

Adding unique, fresh relevant content to one's website is a tried and true method that has worked throughout all algorithm changes since day one. When a website has tons of unique content it naturally becomes an ""authority site"" and other Webmasters will want to link to this site for the sake of their own visitors.

While some Webmasters analyze the latest algorithm changes and how to beat them and strategize complex linking systems, others are working on the content. The Webmasters who have chased down the algorithm changes and made adjustments have attained success in doing so, which has encouraged them to keep doing so. But, this short-term thinking falls short of the long-term strategy of content. The ""add content"" method and the ""chasing"" method are analogous to the stock market. Some invest for the long-haul while others chase down the latest hot stock tips.

Content is investing for the long-haul. When search engine fads and techniques come and go, websites with lots of unique content have ridden the waves instead of being tumbled by them. So, the best new linking strategy for Google turns out to be the best old strategy and the simplest. Add content.

About the author:

Copyright ? 2005 SEO Company

SEO Company is a search engine optimization firm geared to achieve high rankings for customer websites.

The search engine secret that is no secret at all

Author: Herb Leibacher and Monica Leibacher, Web Builder Express

It's common knowledge - we all know that it is important to rank well in search engines. Doing so can bring qualified, interested visitors to the web site you create. And, those visitors come to you believing that you know what you are talking about, since you showed up in the search engine results.

All the time, people ask ""How do I get my site to show up first when I type 'whatever' into the search engines?"".

Here's the secret:

Create a great web site with useful information, and have more relevant links pointing back to your web site than your competitors.

Surprised?

You shouldn't be. The secret is not really a secret at all.

We all want short cuts and quick fixes. It would be nice if you could believe the ads, submit to 18 bazillion search engines for free, and get to the top of the search engines. But, alas, it doesn't work that way.

It takes hard work and long term commitment.

So, what can you do today?

1. Write a new, fresh article on the topic of your web site.

You don't have to be Stephen King to create an article for the web. Anyone can do it. Just sit down and think about what you know that other people might like to hear. Not an advertisement for yourself, but real useful informaiton others can use. Then, write it out - just like you are talking to someone. Go back and edit, proof read, and edit again. Then, post your new article on your web site.

2. Share your article with others to get links back to your site.

People all over the internet want useful information to post on their web sites. You can give it to them, and in return ask for a link back to your site. Check out these sites, where you can submit your article for free, and other people can pick it up, post it on their site, and link back to you:

www.ArticleCity.com www.GoArticles.com www.EzineArticles.com

Repeat steps 1 and 2 above, and you will build content and links. And that will help your search engine rankings. And that's no secret.

About the author: Herb and Monica Leibacher operate Web Builder Express. Create a professional web site for your business or non-profit organization with Web Builder Express. At www.WebBuilderExpress.com , you can request your free Quick Start Guide that tells you how to create a great web site.

PDF Optimization: Death to SEO?

Author: Paul Bliss

On April 18th 2005, Adobe announced that it was going to acquire Macromedia.

Besides delivering a critical blow to competitive balance of two highly recognized and respected companies, it has inadvertently created a new form of optimization.

That's right. PDF optimization.

The main technology that Adobe wanted from Macromedia was Flash. Now that they have it, they will be able to incorporate all the power of Flash into a PDF. With one fell swoop, they have changed the face of search engine optimization.

As a site owner, I can now potentially have my entire site reside within the content of a PDF. Sure, it was textually available before, but now I can even have compressed video, dynamically generated content and visually appealing content conveniently wrapped up into the web's only cross-compatible portable platform.

No more worries about having a Flash player installed - that will be incorporated into the PDF reading software. No more worrying about needing Quicktime and Media Player versions of video clips. They'll all be in Flash.

Not only is the PDF web friendly, but it is also PDA and Kiosk ready. Now content can be delivered anywhere to any device that can read a pdf. It can also be included on CD's, DVD's and even your cell phone.

From a user perspective, this is awesome. From a search engine perspective, it is great to push boundaries, but we may also see the end of optimizing for client sites, instead a client will pay a one-time fee to optimize a pdf.

Anyone who makes a living optimizing sites can see the potential loss of revenue as companies move forward and place their marketing efforts into promoting a pdf instead of a web site.

Why would a company not embrace this? While it's a true a site like Amazon would not be able to take full advantage of this, they could embed pdf optimization for dvd's and cd's sent to your cell phone, based on previous selections you've made.

It's a marketer's dream, and it makes a buzz agent's job even easier. Word of mouth marketing will be coupled with a portable demonstration of the product or service being sold.

While the general public may not become aware of this technology for a few years, those who reside on the cutting edge will find great ways to use this in promotion.

Now instead of just watching a movie trailer, you could also have the script, actor bios and studio contact information. Maybe even after the movie gets released, you could get your pdf updated with box office results.

The benefits of storing information in a pdf are huge. Instead of storing all of that information in a database, you have everything you need as a portable document. No worries about server stability, access to the database or even an internet connection.

By embracing this new development, it will be another service you can add to your seo repertoire and allow for your business to adapt to this emerging technology.

-To your online success!

Paul Bliss www.SEOforGoogle.com

About the author: Paul has been optimizing sites for over 5 years and has successfully placed over 60 clients into top rankings for all the major search engines.

www.seoforgoogle.com

History of the Claddagh rings

Author: Paul Gibney

The Claddagh ring is Irelands most romantic and enduring Celtic jewelry tradition. It is customary for the ring to be worn as a wedding or engagement ring and then to be handed down from generation to generation. Claddagh itself is one of Ireland's oldest fishing villages just outside Galway City in the west of Ireland. Legend has it that one of its residents a Richard Joyce was abducted while out fishing, by Moorish pirates and taken back to Tunisia. There he was to become a slave and learned the craft of a Goldsmith. In 1670 he was released when King William III came to the throne and concluded an agreement whereby all his subjects who where held captive were allowed to return to their homes. Richard`s former master pleaded with him to stay, marry one of his daughters and inherit half of all his wealth. But all to no avail Richard was returning to his one true Irish love back in Claddagh. When he arrived home he found that his true love was unmarried and still waiting for him. They set up a Goldsmiths store together. Where Richard made the first Claddagh rings and used at their own wedding. In earlier times in Claddagh village the design of the ring was the symbol of the "fishing Kings of Claddagh" the meaning being then "in love and friendship let us reign". The heart symbolizes love, the hands symbolizes friendship and the crown loyalty. The popularity of the Claddagh ring was helped by the mass exodus from Ireland during the great famine 1845-50. Some famous wearers of the Claddagh ring include Queen Victoria, Edward VII and lately Buffy the vampire slayer (who was given the ring by Angel). The present Governor of New York recently mentioned that over 200 Claddagh rings had been recovered from the attack on the world trade center on September 11th 2001.

The tradtional Claddagh symbols - heart for love, hands for friendship and crown for loyalty.

How to wear your Claddagh Ring;

Right hand with the heart pointing outwards = Fancy free Right hand with the heart pointing inwards = Spoken for Left hand with the heart pointing inwards = Found true love

About the author: Paul Gibney is a co-founder of http://www.claddaghstore.com one of Ireland largest online Celtic Jewelry Stores.

What is Local Search Engine Optimization and Who Are Your Relatives?

Author: Kathleen Jerauld-Brack

Your business website is finally up and now comes the task of getting found on the incredibly huge Internet neighborhood.

Where to begin?

Well, the first thing most people do is head for a major search engine like Google, or Yahoo. And while that is a good idea, there is much to learn before laying out those precious dollars on ads and clicks. Most of us become totally confused on the breadth of information we must learn in order to be savvy marketers using the search engines. And, if you are busy running your business 150% of the time, who has the time?

The first rule we all like is 'keep it simple". So start off modestly and test the waters as you go. Identify your market. Do your customers come from all over the country, or mostly from nearby areas?

For most brick and mortar businesses on the Internet, your bread and butter still comes from the local neighborhoods and adjoining states.

So try this:

After developing a strong list of keywords related to your specific business, look for other attractions that are geographically near your business as well.

For instance, is there a state park near you? If you sell hiking boots and there is a state park near you, wouldn't it make sense to target those people looking for the state park? Won't they need hiking boots? Add some 'state parks in your area' related keywords to your list.

Say you live in Jamestown and you sell fishing gear. Wouldn't it make sense to take advantage of the presence of some of the other popular things related to the water attractions in your same area? People who are looking for fishing gear also look for boats, boat supplies, life preservers, local marinas and the like. You won't need to use really specific keywords like 'The Fish and Bones Marina in Jamestown' for instance, just add something general like 'marinas near Jamestown' in your keyword list. Fishermen (and fisherwomen), who are planning to come to your area to fish, are more likely type in 'marinas in Jamestown' than a specific marina name anyway if they are new to the area. Their results will not only show the marinas in Jamestown, but your fishing gear business as well, under the same keywords. Later, when they need fishing gear, they will already be familiar with your business name. Target more attractions and they will see your name again and again.

If you are a restaurant who depends on the tourist trade, you might want to consider just what other things your potential diner might be in your town for. Consider the attractions in your area. Museums, theme parks, entertainment centers, camping, are all destinations your potential customer might be looking for as well as a place to dine. Include those attractions and local products in your keyword list and expand your visibility exponentially.

Remember, most travelers won't be looking for your particular business name unless they are already familiar with you. But your business name will pop up again and again whenever they search for those popular attractions near you.

You don't need to pay big bucks for your search engine results, just brainstorm a little bit and consider all those 'relatives' in your area. You may also find that some keywords are really expensive, but for the most part you won't need them. There are plenty of inexpensive and related keywords that will bring you exactly the same results if you use them creatively.

To find more information on how people are using keywords try www. suggestiontool.com, www.wordtracker.com and Google adwords.

And be nice to your relatives.

By Kathleen Jerauld-Brack

This article has been written solely by the author and is copyrighted. 4/2005.

About the author: Kathleen Jerauld-Brack. BFA Graphic Design and Fine Art. Her illustrations and stories have been published in major magazines, and she is recipient of many Art and Literature Awards. She is Webmaster of: http://www.BestPlacetoEat.com | http://www.BestRestaurants.us.

The Art of Website Optimization

Author: David Bell

They say ""diamonds are a girl's best friend"". Just like a flawless diamond in the making, a website demands significant attention to detail in order to stand up and deliver and captivate its target audience. Ever wondered what components clearly define a website as ""professionally"" done? It should have a polished look! You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on web design, simply make sure it loads quickly and employs a simple navigation system. Your visitors must feel that the time spent at your site was time well spent! Pay extra close attention to your sales copy. If you have all kinds of questions popping in your head as you read your own sales material, so will your customers. There is a simple approach to creating great sales copy and it works like crazy. Ask yourself a few simple questions, ""What's in it for me?, ""How can you fulfill your promise?"", ""Why should I believe you?"", ""What if I don't like it?"". Write your sales copy to paint a portrait of ""yes, I can!"" by answering each question; giving a risk free assurance by including a money back guarantee along with a good time factor. Strive to incorporate all of your answers in your sales copy and you'll convert your readers into buyers. One of the hottest topics on the Internet today is search engine optimization, another critical and important component of a professional website. With recent surveys showing over 40% of all search engine traffic coming from Yahoo Directory, it has never been more important to pay close attention to the selection of your title and description. First and foremost, get a head start on the competition by choosing a keyword rich domain name. It's a clear advantage you may have overlooked in preparing for search engine submission. Make sure that your title is 5 words or less and includes your most important keywords. Try to limit your site description to 25 words or less. Remember, Yahoo doesn't look at your meta tags like a typical search engine, so make your title and description count! If you are submitting to Yahoo for the first time, make sure to submit to Google, Yahoo's search partner, then Yahoo in a few days. Google creates the description of your site by looking for the first bold word so make sure you optimize your site accordingly. Every webmaster should analyze their site's keyword count. Your most important keywords should be 5% - 8% of your keyword count. If your percentages are too high, the search engines may consider your site as ""spam"". If your percentages are too low, your site will never appear in the Top 100 of any search. Keyword and relevancy optimization can easily move a site from complete obscurity to instant popularity in the search engines overnight. Do it right the first time and I'll see you at the top! It's a painstaking process but website optimization is a necessary step towards securing market position. In an age of instant gratification, ones and zeros, gigabytes and terabytes, the simple virtues of patience and perseverance are seldom nurtured. In developing your website, take time to reflect on your mission, and if you do only one thing well, share your passion with your target audience. Do it for the sheer love of it. Your audience will appreciate your efforts. It's the first step towards creating a website that speaks the language that your visitors want to hear! With the right attention to detail, just like a long lasting relationship, you'll have no fear in the night that your website might desert you.

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.

About the author: David Bell is Manager, Online Marketing, at http://www.wspromotion.com/ , a leading Search Engine Optimization services firm and Advertising Agency.

Next Step after search engine optimization process

Author: prabhjot

Next Step after search engine optimization process. These days every one is approaching search engines to find something, product and services once needs. Here are some steps that need to be remembered when planning out the strategies that make sense for your web site. A comprehensive search engine strategy for the web site will have multiple prongs. This article at meta mend.com also discusses some strategies which search engines like.

A strategy for building a web site. * A search engine marketing plan. * A

search engine optimization plan that includes the following steps. 1. Optimization - Includes Analysis and Optimization. 2. Submission - Includes Search Engine and Directory Submissions. 3. Promotion - Includes building Relevant Reciprocal Links to and from your web site. 4. Reporting - Includes a Graphical Web Stats Report.

Other particular areas to watch are. * Proper Meta Tag usage. * Things that the search engines look for. * Building Links and Link Popularity. * Choosing The Right Search Engine Strategy, Pay per Click vs. Pay for Placement. * Lastly, you need to know about how to monitor your position within the search engines. Search Engine Tricks To Avoid * ""spam"" and spamming the search engines. * ""cloaking"" techniques.

About the author: Prabhjot kaur working with A-1 as SEO analyst. A-1 internetdesign blog is a place to learn search engine optimization techniques for Free. Our SEO Blog www.thewebmarketingblog.com is a collection of search engine optimization news, tips, articles and commentaries As a professional services firm, A-1 internetdesign, will increase your online market reach to help you achieve greater business results.

Blogs & SEO

Author: Jack Bickford

If you have been keeping up with the latest internet marketing and SEO trends, you might already be aware that, for many... the Adsense bonanza has come to a screeching halt. The glory days of page and directory generation software has come and gone, as the search engines have caught on and struck back with a vengeance.

Hundreds of millions of pages, created by this type of software, have been banned forever. Once high flying websites have fallen back down to earth with a resounding thud... leaving their owners with only a memory of those sweet dollars-for-clicks and a big fat PR 0 for their troubles.

So is that it? Game over?

Or could there be some new magical SEO technique, that can once again give marketers the upper hand in capturing those elusive contextual advertising dollars?

Well... I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that it's become near impossible for website owners to get their pages indexed by the search engines. Used to be, you could just purchase a couple of high PR links and the search engines would come-a-calling in no time. Not anymore. And we all know that automated page builders are a losing proposition... although some marketers figure they can spit web pages out faster than the search engines can find and de-list them. Even time tested favorites like cloaking seem to have lost their efficiency.

But... the good news is, that there still remains a relatively easy way to get your pages indexed by the search engines. And we're talking in a matter of days to a few short weeks.

How? BLOGS baby!

Blogs? You bet.

More specifically, a blog farm or network of blogs.... all niche or topic related. You know... ordinary stuff, like: unusual baby names, tasty casserole recipes, facial care, motorcycle racing, tropical fish, antique watches... all sorts of things that people like to discuss.

And do you want to know what's really awesome?

Search engines absolutely LOVE Blogs!

In fact, the ""king"" of search engines, Google, even has their very own search tool dedicated to finding content on blogs. It's in beta now, but will be in full release soon.

So, if Google thinks that Blogs should have their own unique search engine... doesn't that tell you something?

And just why do Google, MSN, Yahoo and other search engines love blogs so much? Simple really...

1. Blogs are where people like to hang out.. kind of like an online coffee shop.

2. Unlike web pages, blogs can't be spit out by the tens of thousands.

3. Blogs are always changing and updating, as fresh new content is added.

Which all adds up to one thing. One very important thing. Blogs get spidered (visited by search engine robots)! And spidering leads to indexing, which leads to rankings, which leads to page views, which leads to clickable ads, which leads to clicks, which leads to $$$... if you get my drift.

Now, let's suppose that you had links on these blogs... links that pointed back to your website(s). Wouldn't it make sense that the search engine spiders would gleefully follow them back your domain(s)? And don't you think that you just might get some PR brownie points for all those non-reciprocal keyword relevant links?

Off course!

I know, I know. You're thinking that most blogs have that darn ""no follow"" tag in their links to prevent that from happening?

And you're right... they do.

Which is exactly why you must treat your blog farm, just like a real farm... by planting good seeds and by using the right tools.

Done correctly, you can once again have an abundant harvest... if you know what I mean.

Want to learn more about using

blog farms to get your sites indexed? Visit http://www.easy-wordpress-blog-builder.com and view videos of our new automated blog building software in action.

About the author: Jack is the author of many articles covering SEO and Internet Marketing topics. You can see more of Jack's articles here: http://myarticleannouncer.com/go/vs.php?author=Jack%20Bickford&au thor_id=5364

SEO

Author: Mary Ann Wells

As anyone in the SEO business will tell you, the number of quality links pointing to your site can improve the overall ranking of your site. This does not mean that you should submit your site to every directory you can find and, in fact, submitting your site to some directories won't do you any good at all and could even cause your site to drop in ranking. Let's explore the types of directories available and which ones you should consider submitting to.

Free-For-All While the concept of free may sound enticing, many of these ""Free-For-All"" directories may be considered nothing more than link farms by some search engines and might hurt your site's rankings if you rely on a lot of these for listings. On top of that, they are not likely to bring you any significant or targeted traffic. This does not mean that all directories that accept free listing are ""free-for-all"" directories. You should visit the directory site and determine if the links at this directory are quality links. Are you allowed to submit your site to the proper category? Are you allowed a brief description of your site?

If the directory has a category for the services or goods that you are offering and allows you a brief description of your site, I would suggest you submit to it IF your listing will be search-engine-friendly.

What is a search-engine-friendly listing? This is a static link that goes back to your site. For example: www.mydomain.com is a static link while www.thisdirectory.com?id=123+CatID=456 is a dynamic link. When there is a ""?"" in the URL this is a redirected link and will not count as a direct link to your site by the search engines. Now, by design all directories use a database to store your listing information and rely on programming to call up that listing. This is where the redirected URL comes from: the id is the record number of your listing. The dynamic URL allows the directory owner to track the traffic you receive from this listing. However, most directories can and should also include in your listing a direct hyperlink to your site. Sometimes the direct link will be the title of your listing, sometimes it might be separate within the listing.

If the directory does not have a static link to your site, there's no point in listing your site unless the directory is specific to the audience you wish to address. An example of a directory to have your site included in despite the lack of a static link might be an online directory supplied by a business association that you belong to or a trade magazine buyer's guide assuming the trade magazine applies to your audience.

Some of the highest quality links require monetary input, however. Associations usually require membership to list your site, trade publications generally only list advertisers. Many popular online directories also want you to subscribe to their advertising programs and your ranking position within those directories is usually based on the amount of advertising dollars spent. While they may say you can list your site for free, the truth is that your site will probably never see the light of day in ranking position at that directory if you don't purchase their advertising package.

While it is getting more difficult to find quality directories that provide a static link to your site without a listing fee or that require only a small listing fee, there are some available. If you offer industrial goods and services, you'll want to list your site at http://www.industry2industry.com. For a more complete list of other search-engine-friendly directories accepting free or minimal fees, visit http://info.vilesilencer.com.

About the author: Mary Ann Wells is a partner of Web-Kare, LLP (www.web-kare.com), an Internet marketing firm that specializes in designing and promoting industrial web sites.

What You Need To Know About SEO Web Design

Author: Glenn Ford

SEO web design usually helps a site to maximize on traffic from search engine queries. As the name suggests this is web design with SEO (search engine optimization) very much in mind. It is possible to get involved in numerous SEO activities without paying attention to web design and end up in a situation where your efforts are not as effective. SEO Web Design Will Impact On The Duration Visitors Spend On The Site The duration that a visitor will take at your site is critical and will usually have a very high impact on the revenue and success of your web site. SEO web design will usually have a high impact on this. The longer a visitor stays at your site, the higher the chances of them impacting on your revenue by either purchasing something or clicking on one of your PPC ads displayed on your site. Once the SEO activity has gotten a prospect to your site, the quality of your web design will decide how long they spend and also whether they will ever return again. Good SEO web design means that your site will load swiftly on your visitor's browsers. Good SEO web design will also ensure that your site is easy to navigate and finding stuff will be extremely easy. SEO Web Design Ensures Repeat Visits A very important part of any SEO campaign is maximizing on the number of repeat visits to a site. This is very important in ensuring that one sustains the high and increased numbers of visitors that they get from SEO activities. Your SEO design should ensure that each visit is such a pleasure that your visitors are much more likely to come back. In addition your SEO web design should also include a system or method of capturing email addresses of as many of your visitors as possible so that you can send them follow-up emails later t remind them about your existence and get them to return again and again. All this should be done and executed as creatively as possible. There is little doubt that good SEO web design is critical to the success of any site.

About the author: Glenn Ford is a professional SEO expert and provides SEO Services thru http://www.seo-gurus.net/ .

SEO SERVICES......ARE THEY FOR YOU?

Author: JD Donahue

SEO Services line the internet super highway like gas stations. On every entrance and exit ramp seo services shine their bright neon signs hoping to attract attention and get you to stop in and pay.

Sooner or later you will have to stop in and see what they are offering. Some are flaky internet squatters hoping to cash in on your desperation. Others provide a good service for what you pay them. You will stop in because your competition is outranking you in the search engines and taking valuable customers and profit out of your business. How are they doing it and why can't you do it? Or you are contemplating starting a web-based business and realize there is no point if you do not have a high ranking. Without a high ranking be prepared to spend lots of cash on driving traffic to your site. On the other hand with a number one ranking traffic and customers will find you without you having to spend a dime on advertising. For the beginner with little money to invest it is crucial to get a good position in the search engines. Otherwise you will go broke trying to advertise and driving traffic to your site and in a few months you will have to close the doors.

Well, there is more than one answer to this puzzle. There is no magic code you can put on your site that will instantly transport your site to a number one ranking. Seo services will use multiple paths to get you a better ranking. There is nothing magical about it.

There are two key areas that you will need to concentrate on to improve your website's ranking. Are you ready? Here they are: Keywords and back-links.

""Keywords"" are those words or phrases that your potential customer will use to find you.

""Back-links"" are links on other websites that link back to your site.

These are two of the most important areas to consider when using seo services. ""Keywords"" and ""back-links"" can be further broken down into other categories. If you have an existing website you might have to reconsider your keywords. For sure you will have to work on your back-links. If you have yet to start your website you will need to spend many hours researching, and choosing your keywords carefully. If you don't you will fail before you get started.

One more thing. Keywords and back-links are not independent of the other. Rather they depend on each other. Pair them up as a team and you will be way ahead of your competition. You can do it with or without the help of paid SEO Services .

JD Donahue

SEO Services

http://seo--services.bl ogspot.com

About the author: JD Donahue is author and publisher of SEO Services

Making money online with SEO or Search Engine Optimization

Author: Mahesh Mhatre

I visited many forums and found that people like to do their own SEO initially and then give up later after they do not find reasonable results. I would suggest that they should keep on trying, until they really feel that their sales is directly dependent on their ranking in the search engines.

I have high respect for all the people who have achieved success using in-house/personal SEO and still are able to maintain there top spot for highly competitive keywords like digital camera software or photo software . The world of SEO has changed rapidly and so have the techniques. Now lets start with main subject which is ""Making money online with SEO"" .

The first well known fact:

Higher the traffic better the sales It is a proven fact that among the billions of pages that are searched by search engines only a few make it to the top and these top 30 websites make the most business. Type in digita l camera software for instance and you will understand what I mean. Do you remember how many times have you gone beyond the 3-4th page of your search page results? I would expect the same behavior from 99.9% of the Internet surfers as no one has the time to go beyond the top 30 listed pages. I am exaggerating when I say top 30 because mostly the top 10 get 75% of the hits. So if you are not at the top you are losing on a huge chunk of sales, unless you are advertising locally and are limited to a local business.

Google adwords is worth a mention at this point as there are millions who use them and know their importance. The users of google adwords know that they will get listed at the top page (sponsored listing) for the specified keywords. But they do not estimate the sales that they will make. They can easily do it in a month and then change their bid amount to be paying less in advertising on google. Getting listed in the top page doesn't necessarily mean business. You need to have a real good sales page that will make the ""buyer"" feel the need to buy it. Remember its all about making him feel that he needs it.

""Search engine optimization"" . will propel your page to the top 10 without having to pay for the adwords campaign which is a pay per click campaign and you might end up paying far more than your sales. Having said this if you choose the niche keywords for your campaign and have a good sales copy you are bound to make a lot out of the campaign. Out of thousands who click to your page at least 50 should buy your product.

The million dollar question

How will you benefit from SEO? How much should you spend?

If you have a good product and at a reasonable price compared to competition and feel that you can garner enough sales once your website receives traffic SEO will benefit you by providing you with exposure for the chosen keywords ( a proper keyword analysis for searches per month for that chosen keyword) will be conducted by the SEO expert. Depending on the competition you have for those keywords the plan will be chalked out by him. Sometimes only on-page SEO may take you to the top however, nowadays SEO has become a popular career with many top websites spending huge amounts on SEO to be listed in the top.

Your expense should depend on how much sale you are bound to make. A proper estimation of this can be drawn after the first month that you are listed in the top 10. Your expense can range from any where between $250-$2500. depending on the competition you face.

Be careful while choosing an SEO firm or person as they can use spammed techniques that can get you banned from search engines.

About the author: Mahesh Mhatre is an SEO pioneer in India. Make Money Online with xpertcoders . Outsourcing projects for freelance is easy at Lanceboard.com

Google Sitemaps :: Are They Or Aren't They Lucrative SEO Tools?

Author: Rob Sullivan1

Google has had a feature out for some time which allows webmasters to create a sitemap file to help Google's crawlers find and index content.

It sounds like a great idea. After all, it's much easier to feed the crawler the content then hope it finds it on it's own.

But is a Google sitemap worthwhile? Is it even necessary?

When the Google Sitemap program first started my thought was ""That's kinda cool but what's the real benefit?""

So, I thought I'd try it out and submit sitemaps for a few sites that I own.

When Google Sitemaps first came out it was very difficult to figure out what all the entries meant as well as how to actually create the sitemap.

Sure, it was XML based, and I could plainly see what they expected but when you have a large site, how do you go about creating this?

Then Google came out with

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/si temap-generator.html , a sitemap generator which is a program intended to help you create a sitemap for your site. This does help speed up the process but unless you are a developer it is a little difficult to implement.

Also, you need access to your server to run the script required to generate the sitemap. If you are unsure you should check with your web host to see if you have terminal access to execute Python scripts.

Personally, I've never tried the Google Sitemapper tool but I have used others. For example, on my personal blog which uses Moveable Type, I found a blog post which shows How to build a Movable Type Google sitemap template

http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2005/06/goog le_sitemaps.html . And I've used Xenu and an Excel spreadsheet http: //forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=199253 which works great as well.

Now that the sitemap creation is covered, let's get into the question at hand. Is a Google sitemap really worth the effort?

A few months ago I would have said no, but lately Google has been adding features that make me think otherwise.

For example, if you've gone through the verification process (which is really just placing a blank HTML file on the site and having Google find it) and ensured your 404 errors are properly configured you can get access to a wealth of additional intel.

One such feature is the ""Top Search Queries."" This tells you which queries were used when your pages appeared in the search results but may not have been clicked on.

In other words, these are actual searcher queries that were performed on Google where your site may have appeared but not had click-through's.

From a keyword research point of view, this is a huge advantage to you. By monitoring your sitemap stats you can easily see some of the terms people are using and perhaps determine what you need to do to rank higher for those terms so you too can get the clicks that your competitors are receiving.

If you don't have ready access to log analysis or other stats, the Google sitemap can also tell you what terms actually drove traffic to your site.

In other words, these were searches performed on Google that actually generated clicks for your site.

There's also a wealth of other information. For example, ""Crawl Stats"" shows you how Googlebot sees your site, errors generated by it, and even a PageRank distribution chart detailing how well PageRank is distributed.

So, if you are like me and wondering if a Google sitemap is worth it I'd say yes, it is. The information provided, while mostly technical, can help you troubleshoot problems as well as provide ideas to help you improve your positioning.

About the author: Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for http://www.textlinkbrokers. com . Textlinkbrokers is a link building company. Please provide a link directly to Textlinkbrokers when syndicating this article.

MovableType SEO

Author: Miles Evans

Alright I touched on Movabletype and SEO this last week in my best movable type plugins article with the intent to come back and provide some specific details. I will tell you that Movabletype is optimized quite well out of the box, but there are a few quick tricks to easily providing the spiders with some dynamic content.

For my main home page and category index pages I hardcode most of my meta data. Your meta tags will be at the top of the template within the tag. You can get fancy on your index pages but I cannot really see why. Optimize these two templates by hand for whatever keywords you are targeting site wide.

The important part of your main index template is telling Googlebot what the title of your blog and lead article are properly. This is accomplished with heading tags. For the title of your blog you can do this:

"">

And for your lead article do this:

"">

rel=""bookmark"" title="" "">

This is pretty much essential as we know that all search engines give weight to heading tags. You should do this as well in your archive templates .

So let's focus on the individual archive template as this is the page you want ranking well in the SERPS. From my testing the code I use on two separate blogs (this one and PlanetBangkok) the results show up very neat and tidy in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. By this I mean the title and description fields are what I am expecting them to be. Here is an example with Google from last weeks:

Article Post Robot Review (hopefully I am still front page).

Ok back to you meta tags but this time go into your individual archive template . Take a look at the following from my own page:

ProfitPapers | :

"" />

"" />

"">

"">

"">

Most of this is self explanatory. Notice the is being used to generate keywords from your entry page (you may need to turn this field on in the MT entry area). The meta description data is going to be the first 30 words from your entry body as I have done with - so you should see some nice descriptions in the search results pages. Finally I structure my title to contain both the category and entry title - we all know yahoo loves them tags mmm'kay.

Now one final caveat with meta data is the issue/non-issue of comment links. Personally I love comments, and I do not mind people adding a link to my articles as long as their comment has some meaningful input. Others disagree and feel that excessive comment links leak pagerank like a sieve. I'm not too concerned with this notion as the pagerank loss is minimal and Google has done its best discounting links from popular weblog software. So this is open to debate but for the record I do not bother.

If you want to stop Googlebot indexing your comment links you can simply place a robots meta tag in your comments template like so:

Finally page names are important to all search engines and URL's like /archives/09/12/i_need_skillz_bec.html are about as useful as tits on a bull. I use the dashify plugin to structure my page names for SEO. It's a 3 minute change - for details take a look at my

best movable type plugins article.

And that is pretty much it. Of course how well you do in the actual search results pages depends on many factors outside the scope of this article, but doing your meta data properly is pretty much square one. Having said that it is also well known that Google ignores most of your meta tags. I was snooping through Matt Cutts page source the other day and noticed he uses no meta info at all. In fact you might notice that many large websites pay no attention to meta tags ...Regardless these tags are still important for Yahoo, MSN and the rest of the stragglers and Google seems to always uses my descriptions properly for its results.

Although dated i still think

Nicholas Carvine's article on Movabletype SEO is one of the best online.

I hope someone finds this helpful. If I missed something cool and useful let the comments fly.

About the author: ----- Miles Evans provides indepth reviews on every SEO/marketing or killer app he can get his paws on. His reviews, essays, and tools on SEO/SEM, development, and other equally fascinating subjects are normally carried out at ProfitPapers.com - Stop by and check out the free backlinks page, and as always - Thanks for rea

Surfers prefer organic SEO 5 to 1 over PPC advertising

Author: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

It's a fact that surfers prefer organic search results, which are the result of organic SEO methods, 5 to 1 over Paid Search engine advertising. I'm not saying this because I'm a firm believer in the long term benefits of SEO over SEM (even though I am), I'm saying it because it's true. PPC does have it's place in online marketing, but before I get into that, let me expound on my previous statement.

Why do people go to the organic listings before they go to the sponsor ads? It's very simple. People know that organic listings are more likely to have what they're looking for. Sites that are shown as a result of a search have creditability over paid listing sites. This is important to keep in mind, in addition to the fact that if your site ranks well organically, you will spend substantially less money on PPC and overall online marketing. I have a few clients that receive thousands of hits a day based solely on organic searches. These results, along with the ever-increasing cost of PPC advertising, make me wonder why more companies don't utilize organic SEO methods.

In regard to PPC, it's certainly an effective way to drive traffic to your site quickly. PPC campaigns are an excellent option for those waiting for a higher page rank or companies that sell high dollar items or have large profit margins. If your average sale is 5 dollars, you can't really afford to be paying much for an ad. If one average order can pay for an entire day's or even week's PPC budget, it's probably well worth the money. Unfortunately, a successful PPC campaign takes a lot more than money. A successful PPC campaign is all about monitoring. Of the many subpar PPC campaigns I have ""inherited"" from frustrated site owners, roughly 80% were improperly monitored or tracked. Why is tracking so important? For one thing, without any sort of tracking, how will you know how much you are spending for a lead or a sale? Aside from not having tracking in place, many PPC managers bid on bad keywords, allow poorly written ads and utilize improper landing pages. Again, a successful PPC campaign takes a lot more than money.

Another thing many fail to realize when it comes to organic SEO and PPC is that one can be used to the advantage of the other. PPC can be used to test whether or not the keywords you are targeting are right for you. This works especially well for a company that has a unique service or product. Sometimes, traditional keywords or phrases are ineffective. PPC combined with tracking can help you determine if the keywords you are bidding on are converting. If they are, you can the create pages for the organic search which will hopefully alleviate your need for future PPC spending or at least curtail it significantly. There are also other ways to use PPC to ""test"" areas in which you could benefit from organic SEO, though many SEM firms will not tell you this. Why? Because they either don't know how to use PPC in this capacity or they want you to remain dependent on PPC for the life of your business. Not all, but many SEM firms view their clients much in the same way that high interest lenders view borrowers with good credit. They want you to stay put and throw your money out the window and will be more than happy to let you do so until you figure out that you don't have to.

The idea behind SEM is to help your ROI. Since I lean more toward SEO than SEM, I tend to use PPC as a way to test the market and to help new businesses bring in traffic. Ideally, organic SEO will help minimize the cost of PPC. It's my opinion that companies who focus solely on PPC are putting all their eggs in one basket and will always be dependent on their marketing budget. As PPC prices soar, so will your PPC expenses.

So, the next time you search for an SEM firm, ask how they can help you save money and achieve better results over the long term by incorporating organic SEO into your overall marketing strategy. If a 5 to 1 preference isn't a good enough reason to engage in organic SEO, then I don't know what is.

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Google Sitemaps' Hidden Secrets - Powerful SEO Tools Revealed!

Author: Rob Sullivan

Google has had a feature out for some time which allows webmasters to create a sitemap file to help Google's crawlers find and index content.

It sounds like a great idea. After all, it is much easier to feed the crawler the content then hope it finds it on it's own.

But is a Google sitemap worthwhile? Is it even necessary? Well, once you realize the incredibly powerful statistics available to you, you might change your opinion. After all, would knowing what terms might be driving searches to your competitors be helpful?

When the Google Sitemap program first started my thought was ""That's kinda cool but what's the real benefit?""

So, I thought I'd try it out and submit sitemaps for a few sites that I own.

When Google Sitemaps first came out it was very difficult to figure out what all the entries meant as well as how to actually create the sitemap.

Sure, it was XML based, and I could plainly see what they expected but when you have a large site, how do you go about creating this?

Then Google came out with a sitemap generator which is a program intended to help you create a sitemap for your site. This does help speed up the process but unless you are a developer it is a little difficult to implement.

Also, you need access to your server to run the script required to generate the sitemap. If you are unsure you should check with your web host to see if you have terminal access to execute Python scripts.

Personally, I've never tried the Google Sitemapper tool but I have used others. For example, on my personal blog which uses Moveable Type, I found a blog post which shows How to build a Movable Type Google sitemap template. And I've used Xenu and an Excel spreadsheet which works great as well.

Now that the sitemap creation is covered, let's get into the question at hand. Is a Google sitemap really worth the effort?

A few months ago I would have said no, but lately Google has been adding features that make me think otherwise.

For example, if you've gone through the verification process (which is really just placing a blank HTML file on the site and having Google find it) and ensured your 404 errors are properly configured you can get access to a wealth of additional intel.

One such feature is the ""Top Search Queries."" This tells you which queries were used when your pages appeared in the search results but may not have been clicked on.

In other words, these are actual searcher queries that were performed on Google where your site may have appeared but not had click-through's.

From a keyword research point of view, this is a huge advantage to you. By monitoring your sitemap stats you can easily see some of the terms people are using and perhaps determine what you need to do to rank higher for those terms so you too can get the clicks that your competitors are receiving.

If you don't have ready access to log analysis or other stats, the Google sitemap can also tell you what terms actually drove traffic to your site.

In other words, these were searches performed on Google that actually generated clicks for your site.

There's also a wealth of other information. For example, ""Crawl Stats"" shows you how Googlebot sees your site, errors generated by it, and even a PageRank distribution chart detailing how well PageRank is distributed.

So, if you are like me and wondering if a Google sitemap is worth it I'd say yes, it is. The information provided, while mostly technical, can help you troubleshoot problems as well as provide ideas to help you improve your positioning.

About the author: Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for http://www.textlinkbrokers.com. Textlinkbrokers is the trusted leader in building long term rankings through safe and effective link building. Please provide a link directly to Textlinkbrokers when syndicating this article.

Improve The Ranking Of Your Website - Hire A SEO Consultant!

Author: Dana Goldberg

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a method aiming to improve the ranking websites on search engine records. Search Engine Optimization refers to the company of consultants that carries out the optimization promotions and projects of the customers' particular websites.

Search Engine Optimization also a means of promoting your websites and aim for a top ranking on major search engines.

The main goal of SEO is to reach the most research pages in the search engine. It includes the selections of particular words on a particular page. Search engines use different grounds in indexing, but it is expected that it may change. In this way, clients can be satisfied with the results. Many directory-oriented sites by hand, index a website. In this way users will be provided with the best results.

Through the use of engines, clients can find different sites in so many ways. One way is through Advertisement in the Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs, this requires payment. Another link is through third parties in the search engines. It can also be through organic listings, one example is through the results the search engine presents engine. The most concern of Search Engine Optimization is improvement of the visibilities of a site.

In the organic search results, the highest rankings can provide targeted traffic for a particular site. Targeting can make you spend a lot of money. It is expensive to obtain traffic. In healthy competitions, the price of per click is highly expensive when pay per click or banner advertising is being used. The prize is ranging from cents to ten dollars per click of the user in slightly competitive terms. With the price high, it really counts for websites owners to optimize their sites for organic search.

Most of the sites have identical goals, but not all sites have one particular goal in optimizing their sites for search engines. Sites may be optimized or may seek much traffic to rank the highest in most common search phrase. This is obviously marketing in poor strategy, because produces lots of low-quality explorations that is costing money upon use.

Problems can be encountered in this kinds business. They may use advisers to solve particular problems. This is when SEO consultants join the picture. Websites may need Search Engine Optimization Consultants.

Consultants are the advisers. They are the advisor to technical staff as well as for the users. In computer industry, consultants are always available. They specializes electronic circuit designs, software development and information system analysis. They uses specified functions to which the vendors responses.

About the author: D. Goldberg is editor of Easy Domain Registration - find the cheapest places on the internet to register your domain.

Link Popularity: How to Boost Your Rankings

Author: Marty Pukstys

So, after hard and time consuming process you got your web site on the internet, optimized it for certain keywords and can't wait to see it at No.1 position on Google, Yahoo and MSN? Not so fast. First of all, you'll need 3 things to be taken care of: on-site optimization, search engine submission and some major work on link popularity building. There's plenty of information about internal web page optimization on the internet, and it's not a secret how to submit all your web pages to Google or Yahoo through their new feed systems. If it is - you should educate yourself about the first two elements first, and then worry about link popularity.

The first thing you should do is to listen to what search engines have to say about search engine optimization. It's not a secret that they hate web pages artificially stuffed with keywords or bought incoming links. Such techniques give them a hard time to deliver relevant results to their users. In fact, current search engine ranking algorithms are so advanced that in a lot of cases they can distinguish between natural and bought incoming links.

So, what do search engines have to say about their rankings? Never try artificially boosting your rankings. Don't participate in link farms. Don't buy links. Don't stuff your text with keywords just to get higher rankings. In conclusion - do not interfere with their function to deliver relevant and useful information to the user.

Well, it's not a bad idea to listen to them for a change. The techniques of getting links that I am going to tell you about are both search engine ""legal"" and ""not so legal"". The choice is yours.

The first thing that everyone should do is make the content of their web site useful and informative to people. Doesn't matter what kind of website you have, try to give something useful to your visitors. This can be useful information, some attractions, free service, or anything you may come up with. This may sound banal, but this strategy eventually will pay off. Other web sites will notice that you have something useful and original, and will start linking to you. This is the best and most ""legal"" link building strategy anyone can come up with, although it takes the most time and patience.

Second ""legal"" choice for building link popularity is through articles. Try to write an interesting article about something you are good at and know a lot. Then find thousands of article submission and publishing web sites that are available on the internet. Use your best friend and enemy at the same time - Google - to find them. The most important part of the article is the Resources box, where you can use HTML code and place links to your web site.

The next perfectly ""legal"" and effective area to build your link popularity is forums. You can find millions of forums on the internet - take advantage of them. Post your answers to relevant topics, and don't forget to use HTML and links to your site. It can't get any easier than that, and at the same time, it might help your rankings a lot.

I bet you heard about reciprocal links - when you link to some web page, which in exchange places a link to your web page on their site. This strategy may be not as effective as couple of years ago, but it still works. Search engines simply can't ignore links to your webpage. The most important thing to remember about reciprocal linking, as with all other links, is that links from related websites will have much higher impact on your rankings than those from unrelated ones. Also, don't forget the importance of keywords and rephrases in the anchor text - without it, your links are close to useless.

Do some research and find websites similar to yours. They don't have to offer exactly same services or information - something broad as computers or internet if you are offering web design services is good enough. E-mail their administrators with a request to exchange links. How to persuade them to place a link to you, especially if their web site has good rankings on the search engines - that's another subject. Offer something useful in exchange - for example, suggest placing a link to them on your home page, while they put the reciprocal link on their partners or resources page.

Find millions of directories where you can submit your web site. Some of them offer free inclusion, some of them ask for a reciprocal link, while others require to be paid for the listing. Whether to pay or not, that's totally up to you, but from my experience, some of their links are worth several dollars that they are usually asking for. Make sure they have substantial Page Rank, and sacrifice several dollars. It will pay off eventually. But to start, try to find countless free directories and submit you web site there.

Finally, time has come for the most controversial and dangerous link building strategy - link buying. I don't recommend anyone to use it, but a lot of search engine optimization specialists are utilizing this unfair tactics, placing honest optimizers in serious disadvantage. If you decide to go ahead and buy some links, make sure of two things: the page you are buying a link from has a high Page Rank, and find the links for sale in search engine optimization forums - never buy links from the websites that specialize in this. Otherwise, Google will weed your web site out from their index faster than your eyes blink.

In conclusion, I would recommend staying away from unethical link building strategies, and concentrate on long-time goals versus short-term ones. Keep in mind, that if everyone starts buying links and using other unethical search engine optimization techniques, search engines will not be able to deliver relevant results, and eventually come up with new and smarter algorithm to kick such websites out from their indexes. With all the ethical search engine optimization methods I told you about, everyone can build substantial link popularity and get good rankings.

About the author: If you liked what you read - visit our S earch Engine Marketing Service LLC website and find out more about s earch engine positioning services and

improved search engine rankings .

SEO Firms: Help For Businessmen's Online

Author: Dana Goldberg

Probably the most efficient way to advertise is trough the net! You will need no more other but these SEO experts. There are plenty of search engine firms each promising the best for you, it is most appropriate that you choose the best and most well known.

Search Engines Optimizing Firms are companies responsible in the advertisement and announcement made through the net. Their priority is to help businessmen aid their way to success, using nice captions and more to catch the attention of people.

Generally speaking, once Search Engines Optimization Firms optimizes a website, the dividends in traffic may be from moderate to enormous. If the site is designed properly, it will then convert most of its traffic to sales. SEO firms are an expert search engine optimization service company can indeed help you reach the top!

Aside from hiring these SEO companies, there are other effective means of marketing a business that owners can take, but only search engines optimization offers a continual return of investment far after the initial dollars are plunked down. Take note, some sites actually get 80-90 percent of their traffic only after using the SEO firms placement services.

In case your company is into the technical data, SEO Firm can aid you to get into the nuts and bolts of being top ranking as well.

SEO firms are experts on how to write proper meta tags, keyword-rich text and achieve link popularity and reputation.

SEO firms also provide the necessary and needed expert tools and SEO services for your site to rank well with search engine spiders and robots.

The main aim of SEO firms is SEO services. They offer services that will not only make your website appear on search engines but also be on the top rank as well.

SEO services includes free SE ranking report, analyzing log files, website analysis, keyword research, web usability, creating meta tags, SEO copywriting, link building, methods of measuring success, consulting services and SEO Onsite Training.

Search Engines ranking Reports are used to see where your site stacks up in the SE's for the Website in progress main keywords. This will indeed serve as the starting point before optimization.

Another is analyzing log files, by doing this, SEO firm can determine where traffic is currently coming from and how much traffic you received. This is indeed the basis before doing optimization.

Another service of these firms is the complete website analysis. They will analyze the basic usability of your web from visitors. It is best that you subscribe to these firms to assure you of your business success!

To add is the keyword research; they identify potential keywords and competition in regard for such keyword. The three key for keyword research are; popularity, competition and convertibility.

Another service of SEO firms is the web usability. Also is they create meta tags, they will create relevant and eye catching title for your web to attract and gain people.

SEO copywriting is also one of their services; they know specifically how to write keyword-rich, content rich text.

Another is the link-building campaign; this includes finding relevant, quality sites for exchanges.

These SEO firms are a great help for businessmen in particular. Through this, they will not only be limited to advertising within their locale, rather, they will be well known anywhere.

About the author: D. Goldberg is the owner of Global Business United . A Collection of articles, tips, guidelines and resources on doing business online.