Senin, 30 Juni 2008

Keywords Key To SEO, Says Cutts

By: David A. Utte

Do it, don't overdo it

Google's Matt Cutts dished out some basic advice to the newspaper-reading audience about how to optimize for search.

Make sure your keywords appear on your site, and do what you can to encourage others to link back to you. It's basic advice, but for print readers being introduced to SEO for the first time, these are bits of advice interested people will want to keep on hand.

Cutts told USA Today some of the little tricks that may mean the difference between a sweet flow of traffic from the dominant search engine, or being ignored by the Internet-using public.

Regulars to WebProNews probably know the basics well. But with many people engaging in small businesses, with little time to research outside the needs of their operations, the need to know about SEO could fall outside the daily to-do list.

Cutts advised people to make sure their main keywords make it into the title and description tags; modern web development software helps one fill in those blanks. The keyword meta tag, a one-time staple of being indexed, receives little weight in the engines these days.

Don't get carried away with the keywords; Cutts said two or three mentions on a page will be enough. Too much may flag a page negatively for keyword stuffing, putting one's site rank at risk.

Followers of the Matt Cutts blog know he's a fan of the WordPress platform. He recommended blogging as a good way build content and attract those important links. Writing what they know, especially the humorous, strange on-the-job things that happen, helps this greatly.

About the author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Follow me on Twitter, and you can reach me via email at dutter @ webpronews dot com. Why not Mixx this article while you're here?

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For Google, Every Day Could Be Super Bowl Sunday

By: Jason Lee Miller

High rollers only, please

Now that Google is a publicly traded company, traditions and advertiser friendly philosophies seem destined to clash with fiduciary responsibility. Imagine this scenario: Everybody uses Google, so every advertiser needs a presence there, and the law of supply and demand makes Google one expensive place to be.

Big companies were reluctant a few years back to shift a significant amount of their advertising budgets to search marketing. This reluctance made conditions perfect for small businesses to take advantage of Google's relevancy at bargain basement prices while Google built its reputation and search share.

But big companies wised up, making competition for ad space even fiercer. Those big budgets provided a big advantage in organic results, too. While bootstrappy, budget-conscious companies tweaked and tested and gamed to get better organic placement, large companies realized pretty fast it was easier just to buy a site already ranking for relevant keywords.

Trends like these, along with Google's own renewed focus on raising search ad real estate prices by reducing the number of ads while increasing relevancy for users and, by default, conversion rates for advertisers, mean Google was already headed for high-roller club status. And now Google is reaching into Yahoo's pot, too.

Effectively, Google has the potential to reach 90 percent or more of Internet searchers: 90 percent of the US, adding to 90 percent of the UK and Europe. That's what, a couple of hundred million searchers? Add that to other advertising roads Google is traveling—TV, radio, print, wireless—and remember how a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl grabs a couple of million dollars for the network broadcasting it.

Consider this also: According to ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni, Google has made its billions from just five percent of its ads being clicked. Not to insult your math ability, but that's 95 percent of Google ads that are not clicked. Though clicks are monetized based on direct action, Fulgoni says only 16 percent of ads have direct online effects; 21 percent have latent online effects, and 63 percent have latent offline effects.

"[S]o 84% of the value isn’t being monetized by search engines," Search Insider's David Berkowitz summarizes in his "Dreaming of a Super Model" report. The value in that 84 percent is in less tangible branding value. Enquiro attributes a 16 percent brand lift when the brand made an appearance in the top organic result and the top sponsored result.

Fulgoni used these numbers to suggest Google could maximize profit by adding a layer of cost to search advertising in the form of cost per impression. Either by display advertising (Google can certainly pull up DoubleClick's CPM expertise for this*), or by simply charging every time a text ad appears on the search results page, Google could up its ad revenue by huge margins. Advantage: advertisers with huge budgets, and Google shareholders. Disadvantage: Google goes back on its core philosophy of clean interface, simplicity, and equality of opportunity.

Think that can't happen? You could be right, but "fiduciary responsibility to shareholders" is a much weightier phrase than "advertisers will be outraged." Berkowitz joins a likely chorus that advertisers would break this model:

"So, what would a CPM model add to search? In this economy or any economy, not much. Yes, it would show marketers that there is more they should value. At the same time, that would make search marketing much less appealing. There are competing forces: the engines aren’t cashing in as well as they could be, but marketers have enough pricing concerns with search even when they’re getting a great return on investment, let alone when they’re struggling."

Of course, high roller tables in Vegas and national television networks with primetime programming don't cater to the struggling advertiser. Advertisers would be outraged and many would likely leave—but the cold, hard, unpleasant fact is that with enough market share and enough fiduciary responsibility Google nor advertisers would have much choice. For advertisers, it's be on Google or risk it in the margins of the rest of the search world. For Google, everyday is Super Bowl Sunday.

To get (big money) advertisers on board, Berkowitz suggests, Google would have to be able to prove the benefits of branding impact with actual numbers. Enquiro's Gord Hotchkiss also questions whether an unclicked ad has much impact beyond being subconsciously stored on the "white board" of our working (short-term) memory.

Ask yourself, though, how many national (or local, for that matter) television ads work their way from short-term to long-term memory. Then think about how much that lack of transference cost the advertiser. Still yet there is value in awareness, and advertisers have not stopped advertising on a national, primetime level.


*Google's acquisition of DoubleClick has already sparked antitrust concerns, but it seems to me it's hard to prove antitrust claims on the Internet, where competition is virtually limitless, even when natural, but not necessarily permanent, monopolies develop. I think this scenario, where DoubleClick's display advertising/behavioral targeting capabilities are pulled up for search results, is fairly unlikely given Google's general tendency towards a cleaner interface, which has been one of the company's principle paths to success. It would be much easier and less annoying to the end user just to better monetize the text ads themselves. But stranger things have happened…

About the author:
Jason Lee Miller is a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology.

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Giving Props To Essential SEO

By: David A. Utter

The basics never go out of style

Search engine optimization covers an array of topics, from a decent title tag to the world of viral video and social media connections. It's the basics that matter most.

If you spend much time online, there's a good chance you have a greater affinity for technology than the average person. Something new comes along, and you're looking for a reason to give it a try. It's fun, and it could be rewarding too.

Lisa Barone looked at the current state of search marketing and SEO, courtesy of Andrew Goodman's assessment of SEO and recent trends. There's a lot of curiosity and love for the latest and greatest ways to attract attention, she noted:

There may be great value in spending the time and money creating Facebook applications, toying with viral YouTube videos, and seeing if MySpace is filled with anything other than strippers and bands, but that often comes with an awfully low return on investment compared to the traditional stuff.

All the latest technologies have their place. In a number of examples, social media and viral videos brought tremendous attention to their points of interest.

Such potential should not be ignored, but Barone cautioned against getting too caught up in them. Content building, link development, and researching analytics for trends and necessary adjustments may not be the flavor of the month.

But like a vanilla cone, they still deliver what people really want when things get hot.

About the author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Follow me on Twitter, and you can reach me via email at dutter @ webpronews dot com. Why not Mixx this article while you're here?

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Kamis, 12 Juni 2008

how to get your blog back on track after a long period of inactivity.

First, Let me apologize to all my readers for my absence. I was really busy lately because of an important exam that I hope I will pass.
As you all can notice my blog was inactive for more than six months. My Alexa rank dropped from 500k to 2M ! My PR dropped from 4 to 2 ! ( That's hard ! ah) . My visits kept an average of 50 visitors a week most of them from google. So to fix these problems I put some steps to take :

1- Finding new content :
I have to write and make some new fresh articles about the latest news. I made a tour among the E-magazines that I used to read and I found a couple of subjects that I definitely will write about. Since I was cut off from the world, I will need some time to figure out what is going on in the world.

2-Gathering old web traffic sources :
Get back tou your Web analytics and open the archives of the happy days ! The busiest months and the best traffic days and find out the websites that directed to you and try to post your content in them again. Believe me it's very efficient.

3- Gathering keywords :
This absence is a very good experience for my blog. In fact, I kept on having traffic from google. So it's very important to get those keywords and work on them more so you can still have traffic if you will get absent again.

4- Heavy social networking :
I will need thousands of diggs and stumbles. I will use everything I can use to get the old traffic.

If I follow these steps my blog will definitely be back.

Selasa, 10 Juni 2008

Obama Seeks 'Indefinite' Web Marketer

By: Jason Lee Miller

Shows Audacity of Presumptive Nominee

Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama must be pretty confident he'll get his party's nomination; his campaign recently posted an Internet advertising job opening. Job duration: Indefinite.

Which means, we presume, maybe until June, maybe until November. We're guessing he means the latter.

In a posting dated May 9th on ClickZ's network, the Obama for America campaign lists the marketing position as full time and based in Chicago, Obama's hometown. He's equal opportunity for the most part since only Obama supporters need apply, and applicants should have expertise in search engine marketing, SEO, display advertising, Flash animation, and Web video experience.

Obama's campaign has been Internet savvy from the get-go, taking advantage of popular social networks, YouTube and other video sites. Earlier in the campaign, Obama was the only candidate among the three remaining who spoke at the Googleplex to outline a detailed 21st Century technology plan.

All three candidates already have paid search campaigns running, so the open position could mean Obama is set to go full force into leveraging the Web to get his message out.

Following sponsored links for all three candidates leads to landing pages, two of which—Clinton's and McCain's—make immediate calls for donations. In fact, it's hard to get away from Clinton's extended hand; navigating away from her first donation prompt leads to another donation-pushing landing page. Navigating away from that page leads finally to the official website where visitors again are ubiquitously prompted to give whatever's in their pockets.

Obama's landing page asks only for participation and donations are prompted via one link on the homepage, reinforcing what most know already: Hillary's broke—unless she dips into that $100 million again.

Parody is still high in the rankings
Maybe a search expert could help any of the candidates optimize for images of them appearing on Google Image search. While Barack is seen mostly looking Presidential, the West Side doo rag and platinum grill parody is still high in the rankings. For Hillary, it could help her shed the I-think-she-might-be-a-sociopath whispers. But McCain will always be a pirate—yarr.

About the author:
Jason Lee Miller is a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology.

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Buyout The Best Sites, Beat Google

By: David A. Utter

Mark Cuban suggests a new way to stop Google

Mark Cuban suggested Yahoo or Microsoft could payoff the top five sites for each of the top 25,000 queries on Google, have those sites leave the Google index for good, and bring Google's normal traffic for those sites into the rival fold.

Tech billionaire and NBA team owner Cuban must still be reeling from his Mavericks being ousted from the playoffs already. He's got a doozy of a post up on his always entertaining Blog Maverick site about beating Google the old fashioned way, by buying off their most valuable search results.

"How many websites would have to recuse themselves from the Google Index before Google Search was negatively impacted?" he asked. "A theoretical maximum of 125k sites, but with overlap, probably closer to 100k or less, times how much per site on average?"

Cuban's post included the suggestion these sites dump Google's publisher network in favor of the one operated by whoever buys them out, effectively recouping whatever investment the rival site made to get those sites out of Google's index and revenue stream.

Per site, it could be a lot. Financially, a Microsoft possesses the resources to pull this off, but the real issue isn't the sites, but the searchers who expect to find the best results for a top query when using Google.

John Battelle flatly stated "no one would do it," as far as selling out and leaving Google entirely. He suggested Cuban should try the strategy out, since he has the money to do it.

Inertia presents the real problem in getting people to switch search engines. They use Google out of habit, plus the idea that everyone "Googles" anyway. There's no motivation to switch. People would just treat the next batch of search results as the ones they want and click from there.

"Time to go back to the drawing board on beating Google," Andrew Parker said of Cuban's suggestion. Indeed, it seems it will take a lot more than money to overcome the inertia that keeps people tied to Google today.

About the author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Follow me on Twitter, and you can reach me via email at dutter @ webpronews dot com. Why not Mixx this article while you're here?

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Google Boozes Up, Sort Of

By : Jason Lee Miller

Vodka listings raise eyebrows

Google has had a longstanding policy against advertising liquor, along with guns and gambling. Frank Watson at SearchEngineWatch found it surprising, then, when a search for [vodka] brought back Google Shopping results.

The search brought back results from various vendors, along with prices. "Now that does seem like they are contradicting their own rules," writes Watson.

Oddly, similar results are not returned for other liquors like gin, rum, tequila, or whiskey. Likewise, searches for other banned products, like handguns or shotguns, brought back no Shopping results. Watson concedes it could be an oversight.

SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan weighed in on the issue, disagreeing that Google was violating its own policy because Shopping results are not the same as ads. On Sphinn, he comments:

[T]hat's not a "Google Checkout" box that's appear. It's Google Shopping results….Just like regular Google web search, you have paid and unpaid results in shopping…. You could argue that if Google wants to ban things in ads, they should ban the same things in editorial results. But Google's never claimed to be consistent here, when I've talked to them about it in the past. Some things they don't want ads for (some things they also by law can't take ads for), and that's it.

Glitch or not a glitch, hypocrisy or not, Sullivan makes a good case. It's still odd only [vodka] brings up anything.

About the author:
Jason Lee Miller is a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology.

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Minggu, 08 Juni 2008

SEO Content: the Secrets of Attracting Traffic to Your Website

Author: John Mahoney

If there is one force that puts the cyberspace, then that would be information. It has become a hot commodity in today’s fast moving world. In answering the demand of information, the worldwide web is designed to get an easy access of information to millions of audience around the world.

Information, nowadays, is not only utilized in satisfying one’s craving for data, it has also become a good utility in marketing products. Perhaps the most effective way to capitalize its usage is through search engine optimization.

When searching for an item in the internet, users would usually go to search engine sites. These sites work by looking through out its database of web pages and returning links for search result. If you wonder how they can possibly obtain copies of numerous links and stored in their own data store room, here is how they do it:

1.Google and other search engine websites have crawlers with them to get some keywords of the website.


1.These keywords are stored in their database.


1.When a user will search a certain topic, the engine will try to sort on websites containing the keywords.


1.Search results will give the internet users the link of the website that contains the keywords.


By using keywords, your websites will be possibly visited by a number of web users around the world. The advantage about attracting traffic to your website is that more advertisement will surely find its exposure on the heavily visited site. Here, the business of search engine optimization or SEO will take place.

The most important thing a website should have is its content. It is the bread and butter of the site. Its contents can make audiences around the world get interested in what one has to offer.

It must be taken into consideration that SEO is the vehicle of the audience to the site and the site’s vehicle to the audience are the ways in which SEO will catch the website.

Here are some few steps to make an SEO friendly website:


1.Prepare for the Meta Tags


One has to be familiar with the basics of HTML to know what tag is. Meta tags are HTML tags which can be found in the source code of an HTML file or simply put it the website source code. Meta tag contains necessary information of the website which cannot be found in the interface page of the website. These are hidden tags that can only be determined by the SEO crawlers.

In this way, one has to prepare the meta tags by putting on it the information about the website, and at the same time getting to know the keywords. Knowing the keywords is like putting a webmaster in the shoes of the searchers. In this way, one can identify what keyword one has to type in the search engine.


1.Creating Website Portals with Lots of Keywords


Website portals are the entry point of every surfer to a certain website. One has to stuff the necessary keywords in the portal so that SEO’s crawler can readily attract on it.

However, extra care must also be done to avoid being blacklisted by the SEO’s. SEO crawlers, especially the most sophisticated one, can detect if there is spamming or too much keyword on the portal. Keywords should not only be substantiated with content, it must also be used wisely along the content. Otherwise, the website will totally be unknown because it is in the blacklist.


1.Consider Submitting Directories to a Search Engine Site


One way of connecting to search engines is not to wait for the crawlers to crawl on the website. Establishing direct contact to the Search Engine site can be done by submitting directories. However, the website must be prepared before submission of directories. It must get rid of dead links or other spamming agent which can be very harmful in search engine ranking of a website.

Directory submission is usually being reviewed manually by the people manning the search engine. In this way, search engines can determine if the website is indeed substantially stuffed.


1.Maintain the URL


One way of maintaining the traffic is to keep the URL. URL is very important for websites especially if one is only dependent on SEO crawlers. Having a dead URL is not only damaging to the website’s ranking, it will also lose the interest of web surfers.

Avoiding any forms of symbols and other non alphanumeric is one way of building a good URL. Symbols and non-alphanumeric characters are usually ignored by the SEO crawlers. In this way, the website will not be overlooked.

Knowing how an SEO works is an advantage for a webmaster. In this way, he is not only increasing the traffic of web surfers, he is also catching some advertisement on his website.

About the Author:

John Mahoney is a freelance author who writes about various technology related subjects including Search engine optimization. For more information about John visit his website:www.techstore.ie .


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How To Make Link Exchanges Like An Expert

Author: Karl Sultana

First of all you want to make it as easy as possible for webmasters to exchange links with your website.

Give the what they expect. The expect a decent links page. Some prefer that you have a maximum of thirty five or forty links per page. So putting thirty five links per page is acceptable. You need to have categories and sub categories, so when webmasters visit your website they know you already have a place where you can put their link.

Link to your links page from your homepage. Follow those guidelines or else many webmasters will simple not request a link exchange or disapprove your link if you request one. So ask yourself the question, are you loosing link exchange partners everyday?

Most webmasters do not like to open up their email and send you a link exchange requests, for several reasons. An email address attracts spam no link exchange requests, even though you should place one it is not enough. So put a link exchange submission form, and link to it from every page of your link directory, so wherever they are on your directory they can easily add their website.

You need to notify your link exchange partners with the location where you placed your link.

Let us say you emailed a webmasters and he added your link to your website. You then asked for his link details and added his website. It is not yet finished, you need to reply again and tell him the location you placed your link.

Do not forget, it is the most important message. Webmasters are all busy, and they do not receive only your email. So they might forget they did a link exchange, and then when they check days later, simple delete your link. Rest assured most will not visit your website and try to look for their link. You need to treat them in the best possible ways.

Are you saving your email contacts?

If in the past month you received a hundred link exchange requests by email. Did you simple delete those messages once the link exchange was completed? I hope not, because if you create a new website, you just lost a potential hundred link exchanges. Store those email address, in some way or another.

Are you using some automated tool?

Most webmasters waste time, which could have been used better. They still use ftp software to add link partners. When you have enough money to invest, there are many tools that allow you to add link partners in five seconds, from your web browser itself. You do not even need a software.

Are you saving the location the link partners placed your link?

Remember that you need to check every two months approximately, and make sure all your link exchange partners are still linking back. If they are not it is no longer a link exchange, so you can delete their link from your links page.

Keep record of this important information always. Once again there are tools that do this easily for you as well. Look for that tool that provides many tools in one, including the most important features like adding links, categories, subcategories and saving link exchange partners location.

Making these simple tweaks will greatly increase the number of link exchange requests you receive. Treat your link partners like you want them to treat you. Never reject a link exchange as long as there is a solid reason behind it.

About the Author:

Search engine optimization (seo) strategies can be used by every marketer to drive traffic towards his website from the search engines. See Karl's software, OutRankSmart (ORS)


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The Two Keys to Top Search Engine Rankings

Author: John Buchanan

Yes, the title is correct. When you get down to it, it only takes two things for your site to rank well in the search engines. The problem is most sites only do one or the other correctly. The sites that do these two "magical" things properly enjoy those coveted spots at the top of the rankings.

So what does it take to get to the top? Focus & Popularity

Let's talk briefly about "focus" and it's importance. The search engines do their best to return relevant results to a given query. To decide if a page is relevant to a users query, it has to be able to determine the focus of the page. The more focused the page the more relevant it will generally be seen.

If each of your pages aren't focused on a core phrase, it is likely that you will not be seen as relevant to a users search as you could be.

Unfortunately, relevance alone is no longer enough to obtain those coveted top spots. A site/page also needs popularity. By popularity, I'm referring to link popularity. The search engines look at inbound links to a site as votes of confidence. The more of these votes a site has, the more "popular" it is seen as being. The more popular it is, the more "worthy" of ranking high the site/page is seen as by the search engines.

In many instances, the popularity of the site is more important than the focus. It is not uncommon to find very popular sites ranking for phrases that they are not truly focused on, however, you will almost never see a highly relevant page ranking for a phrase if it has no link popularity.

While the popularity of the site/page tends to be the more important aspect, they are both very important pieces to the puzzle of high rankings. Think of it as similar to cooking. While there may be one primary ingredient, if you don't add all the proper ingredients and cook the meal correctly, it won't turn out as expected.

The same goes for ranking. You need to insure that your site and it's pages has the relevant focus on it's core phrases to be seen as relevant by the engines AND you need to make sure it has the popularity to be seen as worthy of ranking. To little of one or the other and you will end up missing your target, but get the balance right and you will be the one enjoying the feeling of owning the top spots in your industry.

If you find your site is not ranking where you feel it should. Take a look at both factors. Is it possible that your site isn't as tightly focused on your topics as you thought? Are you being beaten by sites that are better focused? Or do you have the proper focus, but you are being beaten by sites that are seen, due to their inbound links, as being more popular than yours and deserving of a higher rank?

Take a look at your competitors and see in which area you can outdo them and go after it.

See You at the Top!

About the Author:

John Buchanan is an Texas SEO specialist with 10 years experience in the field. He does seo consulting and search engine optimization in Texas and for companies throughout the world.


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Website Optimization New York: Increase Your Base in the Market

Author: Steve Waganer

Nowadays, if one wants to have a reach to the vast client base then internet is the answer. In this race to reach the top, the internet is the effective medium to connect to the future. Here, the companies get instantly connected to their future customers. They make every effort to promote their services and their products through website optimization service providers. Though many sites claim to be the best in the field, but it is only a few who can work with maximum benefit for the client. The website optimization New York is the best medium where you can advertise your products and your brand gets promoted in an effective manner. If any company has to attain an instant rapport with its future clients, the internet duly serves the purpose. One is sure to get a good ranking with web optimization as the services offered here truly world class.

The decision to go for the best service provider rests with you, as a number of website optimization sites have come up. The website optimization services contribute towards your popularity on the internet where your site attracts a large number of visitors. In the days to come, this means increased traffic on your site and therefore increased profit margins for your company. The website optimization New York helps you to achieve your aim of reaching the top in the market. Given the scenario in the market today, one requires these services to a large extent for the popularity of your site. Numerous examples can be cited where the companies have immensely benefited with the website optimization New York service providers and website optimization New York is not an exception.

The personnel at the website optimization New York are always there to help you because of their proven expertise. They have been in the field for a long time now and know the nitty gritties of the market scenario. They know that to survive in the market today, one should have a good command over the advertising aspect of their trade. This website optimization site offers its services at most affordable rates. You have to just contact them and see for yourselves what goes on behind the success of this particular service provider. You are bound to discover a lot of latest techniques employed to increase the traffic on your site. So you don’t have to wander much farther for online promotion services, because you have now reached at a proper destination.

Besides the usual techniques, employed for website optimization another latest one has been added to increase the attractiveness of your website. This is called thematic website optimization. In this technique, the service providers at website optimization New York blend the keyword analysis with the linguistic theme approach. This surely helps in the optimization of a website by offering the experts an exact understanding of the keyword importance. The service providers at website optimization New York go for the regular updates. They make it a point to periodically introduce changes in your site content so that it remains ever fresh. This is a sure fire way to increase the traffic on your site and thus a loyal client base.

About the Author:
Steve Waganer has specialization in web marketing. He is expert in SEO New York, search engine marketing firm, website optimization New York.To get the SEO tips from search engine marketing firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

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