Complete WebSite Optimization For Search Engines

Complete WebSite Optimization For Search Engines (Part 1)

by: Pavel Lenshin

SEO or search engine optimization strategy now becomes widely popular among online business operators. Nothing strange about it as it allows to substantially increase your gross income, as a result of growing traffic or visitors flow.

That is why one point should be stressed out your business return on SEO is directly proportional to the results your business have now. It means that SEO strategy, unlike marketing optimization, directed to boost quantity, not quality. If your business enjoys 1% response rate for any action you demand, whether it is sale, subscription, feedback or other it keeps on having similar response rate after SEO will be accomplished, although the response will grow in absolute numbers as a result of increasing traffic flow.

As you see SEO is not a panacea. The highest and the most efficient return on your SEO campaign as well as business investment may be reached upon one condition. Only when your current business model and marketing campaign has already been optimized and reached high level or response rate and efficiency, it is smart to grow your business กin quantityก.

The reason for such attitude lies within the next speculation as well. Having inefficient business model under conducting website SEO will force growing number of visitors to turn your online business down for good. The obvious reason is that too few people actually return to the site once they left it for any reason, so having low response rate will substantially decrease your SEO result!

Letกs draw an example. With previously mentioned 1% response rate from every 100 visitors you get, would mean that 1 visitor only takes desired action. Suppose SEO campaign increased the flow of targeted traffic to 1000. Using childrenกs math we can easily come up with 9 new people, who would start to express their interest in your offer every month.

Now what if your, as some marketers say, กconversionก rate is 10% (10 visitors from every 100) and the SEO helped to bring the same 1000 targeted traffic. You now have 100 ขdesired actionsข per month! In other words, your net SEO achievement is 90 new people. Compare this to 9 people with 1% conversion rate and it all becomes clear. That is why SEO is mainly about quantity, while response rate is mainly about quality.

I haven’t intentionally mentioned about high quality of traffic search engines generate. Many experts would probably be skeptical by now for my eveningout the quality of traffic and focusing on quantity only. The explanation is simple the quality of SE traffic is an Individual parameter.

Unlike many marketing and SE experts I cannot tell you how กqualityก visitors coming from SE will be for your particular business as I don’t know your present promotion methods. That is why the quality of traffic SEO campaign brings may be neutral, slightly positive or even negative. Yes, it may be negative.

I anticipate a small shock among online marketers, who were taught for their whole internet business career that search engine traffic is the most quality traffic they may have. It is not true under some conditions. If banner or classified ads were the only ways of generating traffic for you, then SEO will surely bring a quality improvement to your business response, on the other hand, imagine, that your present visitors are interested readers of your books, ebooks, reports, articles and other publications. Do you really think that ‘response qualityก of people coming from กDescription tagก of your search engine listing will be higher? Hardly, you can surely expect a slight decrease in response rate of SEO campaign, despite the unquestionable quantity growth in accordance with our previous example.

Next vital point is to understand that before anything we, firstly, should have those webpages, otherwise there would be nothing to optimize. That basic logic will lead to another obvious conclusion. The more themebased webpages you have the better SEO result you can achieve. If your online business represented by 3 webpages (main sales letter, about the author and contacts), your initial SEO ‘resourcesก are too weak to reach any substantial goal. SEs look for information, that is why, content rich websites may truly enjoy advantages of SEO.

Secondly, your pages should have already been listed in SEs. If you haven’t submitted your website to SEs yet, no point to optimize the SE listing position you don’t have.

An important dilemma every business operator faces is the extent s/he allows to reach in desire to get outstanding SEO results. Here is what I mean. As we all know the basic rule of successful website optimization is focusing on keywords with low or very low competition. In other words, the less supply of internet resources for some particular keyword or phrase is, the more chances are for your webpage of being กnoticedก and ranked high.

Here is the problem, if you want to get a maximum for your website SE position you should be prepared not just to rewrite or edit your webpages, but to completely change the theme structure and priority of informational content!

There would undoubtedly be website sections or pages with extremely high competition that would stress the popularity and importance of that topic, so if you decide to keep it กas isก, optimization will raise your listing, but somewhere from 796,021 place to 545,932. Does it help you?

The extent of your กflexibilityก and how far you can go to look กprettyก from SE viewpoint is what should be decided beforehand, because there are always 3 parts: you/your business, target market/consumers and search engines/directories, between which about 90% of informational preferences are common, but the rest 10% differ and it is up to you to decide what themes you should focus on. Whenever you are implementing any of the SEO tactics mentioned in this publication, keep in mind your business and consumersก needs.

Having understood these fundamental features of SEO, could we make a step further into a complete website search engine optimization, expanding your business to the new markets.

Note that SEO, despite all mentioned above, is all about กasking for high rankingก and there cannot be any results guarantee as no one except for SE developers themselves control ranking algorithm and determine กwho is whereก. More than that, SEO takes much time before effecting your listing positions and this timeframe may range somewhere from week to several months, so don’t panic if your optimization efforts haven’t resulted in Google #1 position by tomorrow morning.

Structure

Letกs start from drawing a scheme of your website link structure very similar to one every webdeveloper draws before designing a website. Under other equal conditions, we will speak about later, it is also clear that the more theme based webpages or even website sections you create, the more chances of being ranked high you have, no matter how optimized your competitorกs single webpage is.

Each webpage of website section should represent a particular theme or topic. This way you can diversify your กkeywords marketก, increasing chances of high rankings. Despite obvious visitors advantage your site is more likely to win market recognition.

For now try to have กhorizontalก as well as standard กverticalก link connections between pages. If one of your pages got a high ranking position (Google Page rank) it may help to improve the rankings of webpages connected to it as well.

Keyword analysis

Next step is to determine keywords, mainly, phrases that we would like to target. Talking about mentioned dilemma, I would like to point to the other approach you should know about, that is suggested by some experts. Letกs call it SEoriented approach.

According to this approach, before creating a website your first step implies searching for the best key phrases via competitive analysis on main SE and then starting to develop content around these keywords. It means that your website will get highest SE ranking, but the informational richness will be dictated by neither you nor your consumers. Under such conditions it is SE or, to be more specific, your compe tition will determine what kind of content you will have at your website. As you see, according to SEoriented approach, the more competitive some key phrase and based on it topic is, the less attention you should pay to developing that theme at your own site.

My attitude is slightly different. I offer at first to create and evaluate your current website content based on your business preferences and your nichemarket needs and then optimize those webpages according to keywords taken from your existed webpages, no matter how tough the competition may be. Of course, you are free to create new pages around keywords with low competition just for traffic building purposes, but the primary accent should be focused on your business development and marketing needs.

As for the keywords, the basic rule is to choose the most targeted phrases rather than single words for two reasons:

Phrases could describe your webpage theme usually more precisely than a word;

Phrases usually have substantially less competition in comparison with oneword.

Write down 35 the most targeted key phrases for each webpage or section we are going to optimize. Then by evaluating supply/demand ratio find the easiest keywords for SE positioning.

Standard procedure of determining your key phrase competition or, as i said กevaluating supply/demand ratioก is to look at their supply and demand at popular SEs. Supply is determined by results of searching them on SEs while demand can be found through query on PPC programs at Overture.com or Google.comกs AdWords that have tool for discovering how many time keywords or phrase have been searched on them.

By doing so we are searching for the most prospective and promising for optimization key phrases. Having them allow us to go further and start optimizing the webpages themselves.

(to be continued)

About The Author

Pavel Lenshin is a devoted Internet entrepreneur and founder of the entrepreneurship portal, where you can find discounted Internet services, FREE ebooks http://ASBONE.com/ebooks/, FREE reports http://ASBONE.com/reports/, and finally uncover innovative strategies through FREE กNET Business Magazineก

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 31, 2003

by Pavel Lenshin

The Critical Importance of Good Web Graphics to In

The Critical Importance of Good Web Graphics to Internet Marketing Profits

by: Ross Storey

There’s an old saying: ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, but this hardly applies to the science of designing web graphics. Everybody judges web sites by their ‘cover’ or home page, have no doubt. Is your site giving out a professional, visual aura, or is it telling visitors that you built it yourself, because of bad design?

Ask yourself: Of the many thousands of web pages trying to sell you something, which are the ones that keep your interest? Which ones have convinced you to depart with your hardearned cash?

If you are honest, you will say the ones with the most attractive and professional graphics – the pretty pictures. Human nature determines that what catches your eye, and is pleasing to view, keeps your attention. Subconsciously or not, you make a judgment within seconds, on how professional is the website you are viewing. If the appearance of a site is amateurish, the owner can kiss goodbye to any potential buyers bothering to purchase.

Visual appeal is critical. Sure, current thinking is that you should focus more on the content, than on the pretty ‘bells and whistles’ for your website, but you must have professionallooking graphics. Like branding a business, your web site graphics, headers, footers, buttons etc. should all be in the same theme, the same colour scheme and consistent design.

If you want proof of the importance of this consistency, check out the ‘livery’ (a fancy word for the logos, design, colours and badgeing) of corporate giants like Microsoft and Nike. Most people in the western world know the Nike ‘tick’ logo instantly, almost as well as they know the slogan ‘Just Do it’. And the Microsoft logo and colour set must be the most familiar visual environment on the planet. Want to bet that Bill Gates’ people spent many millions on developing this set. In today’s digital publishing world, you can’t see the ‘bits’ and bytes’ so digital products must be represented by pretty ‘boxes’ and with carefully matched colour schemes for their sales sites. That’s why web designers produce those very familiar eBook covers and Program boxes, with the shadows and reflection effects.

Why do you think that hard copy book publishers make sure their covers are in well matched colours, and have good pictures and dramatic fonts?

Why do you think that so much work goes in to covers for videos and DVDs in your local video hire store? In the visual flak of such a store, there are hundreds of covers competing for attention, visually asking you to hire them. Check out your newsagent and see what effort magazine publishers put into the design of their front covers.

One the web, there are many millions of sites clamouring for attention.

And, despite the vast number of programs now available, like Adobe PhotoShop, and Jasc PaintShop Pro, good design is hardly a DIY skill. It requires creativity, expertise and, most importantly, time. This is why web designers, and their close cousins, banner, header and footer designers, can charge up to $50 for one good web page header, and more for a complete set. You’ll notice that there are many schools and colleges offering courses and degrees in design, so it’s not something that you will be able to pick up without study. So there’s the dilemma. You need good design, you’ll probably have to pay for it, but doing so will likely pay dividends.

About The Author

Ross Storey [email protected] is a completely bald (it’s fashionable), 52yearold public relations and marketing consultant who has been involved in web marketing and design for more than a decade.

http://bestprographics.zapz.biz

http://www.quokkaSoft.com

(Please feel free to publish this article, so long as you keep this resource section complete)

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 03

by Ross Storey

Absolute Top Five Search Engine Marketing Myths Un

Absolute Top Five Search Engine Marketing Myths Uncovered!

by: Lee Traupel

It’s no secret that Search Engine marketing can drive significant amounts of very qualified traffic to a web site – as 85% of Internet users utilize search engines to find/research for goods and services. The problem for many companies is the difficulty they face sifting through conflicting information and hyperbole! Here is my top five list of myths that need to be run to ground.

Big Picture Myth One – Search engine ranking leads are not as good as those which originate from other forms of traditional marketing (print, direct mail, PR, etc.) – this is absolute hogwash, the truth is many agencies don’t have a clue about s/e ranking, so they push their clients to ignore this form of advertising. They simply don’t want to recommend anything they don’t understand and/or utilize an interactive marketing vehicle that requires a blend of very specialized technology and processes.

We’ve in fact found just the opposite when we’ve analyzed s/e traffic versus other types of leads for our clients; i.e. search engine traffic can be much better, as it is comprised of individuals who are actively seeking info, not just people whose curiosity has been piqued by an eyecatching publication ad or press release. And, when we’ve analyzed the data by tracking leads via a landing page (on a web site) we’ve discovered that CPL (cost per lead) numbers can be much lower for s/e ranking than other more traditional marketing methods.

Big Picture Myth Two – Effective s/e marketing can be done in house – this is rarely the case, the sheer complexity and online competition (digital warfare!) for rankings makes this extremely difficult for most companies. Based upon our analysis over 73% of corporate accounts don’t understand the basic fundamentals; i.e. how to properly use keywords, meta tags and titles and worse, don’t submit their web sites to top tier Directories (Yahoo, LookSmart, OPD) and the hundreds of second tier directories.

Most companies delegate the s/e submissions to the webmaster or web site development staff and they just don’t have the time to understand the daunting complexities required to generate page 13 rankings or to stay abreast of the shifting submissions and ranking criteria standards, as modified monthly by top tier search engines. And, in many companies the s/e ranking is added to the over worked webmaster’s tasks purely as an afterthought – as opposed to being addressed formally by the marketing department, with dedicated personnel and a budget.

Big Picture Myth Three – off the shelf software that submits a site to thousands of web sites and presents snazzy reports can do it all. This is so inaccurate and nothing can be further from the truth – it takes a tremendous amount of labor and time to identify keyword sets (not just words), optimize the content for these keywords, submit the pages while obeying the rules of the road and then continually analyzing rankings and tweaking to maintain and drive rankings (web site visibility).

Software can certainly help to automate some facets of the process and be used for back end analysis – but you can’t expect any application to make the job easy, there is too much inherent complexity in the processes. And, competition for keyword sets is fierce – as there are an estimated 510M registered domains (the numbers vary widely) with 60K new domains being registered every day.

Big Picture Myths Four and Five – Any page listing will help to drive traffic to a web site – this is another misconception. If you are aren’t achieving page 13 rankings then your wasting a great deal of time and resources – most people never drill down below these pages. Another common mistake is trying to achieve s/e rankings for a specific URL or product – if people know the name of a company or product they will find your web site easily, it’s a waste of resources to optimize for these specialized terms in 80% of most cases.

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, a resultsdriven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies. [email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 25, 2002

by Lee Traupel

Networking Basics

Networking Basics

by: Kashif Raza

A network is a group of computers, printers, and other devices that are connected together with cables. The sharing of data and resources. Information travels over the cables, allowing network users to exchange documents & data with each other, print to the same printers, and generally share any hardware or software that is connected to the network. Each computer, printer, or other peripheral device that is connected to the network is called a node. Networks can have tens, thousands, or even millions of nodes.

Cabling:

The two most popular types of network cabling are twistedpair (also known as 10BaseT) and thin coax (also known as 10Base2). 10BaseT cabling looks like ordinary telephone wire, except that it has 8 wires inside instead of 4. Thin coax looks like the copper coaxial cabling thatกs often used to connect a VCR to a TV set.

Network Adapter:

A network computer is connected to the network cabling with a network interface card, (also called a กNICก, กnickก, or network adapter). Some NICs are installed inside of a computer: the PC is opened up and a network card is plugged directly into one of the computerกs internal expansion slots. 286, 386, and many 486 computers have 16bit slots, so a 16bit NIC is needed. Faster computers, like highspeed 486s and Pentiums, , often have 32bit, or PCI slots. These PCs require 32bit NICs to achieve the fastest networking speeds possible for speedcritical applications like desktop video, multimedia, publishing, and databases. And if a computer is going to be used with a Fast Ethernet network, it will need a network adapter that supports 100Mbps data speeds as well.

Hubs

The last piece of the networking puzzle is called a hub. A hub is a box that is used to gather groups of PCs together at a central location with 10BaseT cabling. If you’re networking a small group of computers together, you may be able to get by with a hub, some 10BaseT cables, and a handful of network adapters. Larger networks often use a thin coax กbackboneก that connects a row of 10BaseT hubs together. Each hub, in turn, may connect a handful of computer together using 10BaseT cabling, which allows you to build networks of tens, hundreds, or thousands of nodes. Like network cards, hubs are available in both standard (10Mbps) and Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) versions.

LANs (Local Area Networks)

A network is any collection of independent computers that communicate with one another over a shared network medium. LANs are networks usually confined to a geographic area, such as a single building or a college campus. LANs can be small, linking as few as three computers, but often link hundreds of computers used by thousands of people. The development of standard networking protocols and media has resulted in worldwide proliferation of LANs throughout business and educational organizations.

WANs (Wide Area Networks)

Often a network is located in multiple physical places. Wide area networking combines multiple LANs that are geographically separate. This is accomplished by connecting the different LANs using services such as dedicated leased phone lines, dialup phone lines (both synchronous and asynchronous), satellite links, and data packet carrier services. Wide area networking can be as simple as a modem and remote access server for employees to dial into, or it can be as complex as hundreds of branch offices globally linked using special routing protocols and filters to minimize the expense of sending data sent over vast distances.

Internet

The Internet is a system of linked networks that are worldwide in scope and facilitate data communication services such as remote login, file transfer, electronic mail, the World Wide Web and newsgroups. With the meteoric rise in demand for connectivity, the Internet has become a communications highway for millions of users. The Internet was initially restricted to military and academic institutions, but now it is a fullfledged conduit for any and all forms of information and commerce. Internet websites now provide personal, educational, political and economic resources to every corner of the planet.

Intranet

With the advancements made in browserbased software for the Internet, many private organizations are implementing intranets. An intranet is a private network utilizing Internettype tools, but available only within that organization. For large organizations, an intranet provides an easy access mode to corporate information for employees.

Ethernet

Ethernet is the most popular physical layer LAN technology in use today. Other LAN types include Token Ring, Fast Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and LocalTalk. Ethernet is popular because it strikes a good balance between speed, cost and ease of installation. These benefits, combined with wide acceptance in the computer marketplace and the ability to support virtually all popular network protocols, make Ethernet an ideal networking technology for most computer users today. The Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) defines the Ethernet standard as IEEE Standard 802.3. This standard defines rules for configuring an Ethernet network as well as specifying how elements in an Ethernet network interact with one another. By adhering to the IEEE standard, network equipment and network protocols can communicate efficiently.

Protocols

Network protocols are standards that allow computers to communicate. A protocol defines how computers identify one another on a network, the form that the data should take in transit, and how this information is processed once it reaches its final destination. Protocols also define procedures for handling lost or damaged transmissions or กpackets.ก TCP/IP (for UNIX, Windows NT, Windows 95 and other platforms), IPX (for Novell NetWare), DECnet (for networking Digital Equipment Corp. computers), AppleTalk (for Macintosh computers), and NetBIOS/NetBEUI (for LAN Manager and Windows NT networks) are the main types of network protocols in use today. Although each network protocol is different, they all share the same physical cabling. This common method of accessing the physical network allows multiple protocols to peacefully coexist over the network media, and allows the builder of a network to use common hardware for a variety of protocols. This concept is known as กprotocol independence,ก which means that devices that are compatible at the physical and data link layers allow the user to run many different protocols over the same medium.

Topologies

A network topology is the geometric arrangement of nodes and cable links in a LAN, and is used in two general configurations: bus and star. These two topologies define how nodes are connected to one another. A node is an active device connected to the network, such as a computer or a printer. A node can also be a piece of networking equipment such as a hub, switch or a router. A bus topology consists of nodes linked together in a series with each node connected to a long cable or bus. Many nodes can tap into the bus and begin communication with all other nodes on that cable segment. A break anywhere in the cable will usually cause the entire segment to be inoperable until the break is repaired. Examples of bus topology include 10BASE2 and 10BASE5. 10BASET Ethernet and Fast Ethernet use a star topology, in which access is controlled by a central computer. Generally a computer is located at one end of the segment, and the other end is terminated in central location with a hub. Because UTP is often run in conjunction with telephone cabling, this central location can be a telephone closet or other area where it is convenient to connect the UTP segment to a backbone. The primary advantage of this type of network is reliability, for if one of these กpointtopointก segments has a break, it will only affect the two nodes on that link. Other computer users on the network continue to operate as if that segment were nonexistent.

PeertoPeer Networks

A peertopeer network allows two or more PCs to pool their resources together. Individual resources like disk drives, CDROM drives, and even printers are transformed into shared, collective resources that are accessible from every PC.

Unlike clientserver networks, where network information is stored on a centralized file server PC and made available to tens, hundreds, or thousands client PCs, the information stored across peertopeer networks is uniquely decentralized. Because peertopeer PCs have their own hard disk drives that are accessible by all computers, each PC acts as both a client (information requestor) and a server (information provider). A peertopeer network can be built with either 10BaseT cabling and a hub or with a thin coax backbone. 10BaseT is best for small workgroups of 16 or fewer users that donกt span long distances, or for workgroups that have one or more portable computers that may be disconnected from the network from time to time.

After the networking hardware has been installed, a peertopeer network software package must be installed onto all of the PCs. Such a package allows information to be transferred back and forth between the PCs, hard disks, and other devices when users request it. Popular peertopeer NOS software includes Most NOSs allow each peertopeer user to determine which resources will be available for use by other users. Specific hard & floppy disk drives, directories or files, printers, and other resources can be attached or detached from the network via software. When one userกs disk has been configured so that it is กsharableก, it will usually appear as a new drive to the other users. In other words, if user A has an A and C drive on his computer, and user B configures his entire C drive as sharable, user A will suddenly have an A, C, and D drive (user Aกs D drive is actually user Bกs C drive). Directories work in a similar fashion. If user A has an A & C drive, and user B configures his กC:WINDOWSก and กC:DOSก directories as sharable, user A may suddenly have an A, C, D, and E drive (user Aกs D is user Bกs C:WINDOWS, and E is user Bกs C:DOS). Did you get all of that?

Because drives can be easily shared between peertopeer PCs, applications only need to be installed on one computernot two or three. If users have one copy of Microsoft Word, for example, it can be installed on user Aกs computerand still used by user B.

The advantages of peertopeer over clientserver NOSs include: � No need for a network administrator � Network is fast/inexpensive to setup & maintain � Each PC can make backup copies of its data to other PCs for security. By far the easiest type of network to build, peertopeer is perfect for both home and office use.

ClientServer Networks

In a clientserver environment like Windows NT or Novell NetWare, files are stored on a centralized, high speed file server PC that is made available to client PCs. Network access speeds are usually faster than those found on peertopeer networks, which is reasonable given the vast numbers of clients that this architecture can support. Nearly all network services like printing and electronic mail are routed through the file server, which allows networking tasks to be tracked. Inefficient network segments can be reworked to make them faster, and usersก activities can be closely monitored. Public data and applications are stored on the file server, where they are run from client PCsก locations, which makes upgrading software a simple tasknetwork administrators can simply upgrade the applications stored on the file server, rather than having to physically upgrade each client PC.

In the clientserver diagram below, the client PCs are shown to be separate and subordinate to the file server. The clientsก primary applications and files are stored in a common location. File servers are often set up so that each user on the network has access to his or her กownก directory, along with a range of กpublicก directories where applications are stored. If the two clients below want to communicate with each other, they must go through the file server to do it. A message from one client to another is first sent to the file server, where it is then routed to its destination. With tens or hundreds of client PCs, a file server is the only way to manage the often complex and simultaneous operations that large networks require.

Computer Networking is the very important and the crucial part of the Information Technology. Millions of the computers are networked together to form the Internet. Networking plays a important role in every kind of organization from small to medium sized, in Banks, Multinataional Companies, Stock Exchanges, Air Ports, Hospitals, Police Stations, Post Offices, Colleges, Universities, and even in home, in short networking plays an important role everywhere where computers are used. This article will be interesting for the students, network professionals and for the people who are interested in the computer networking

About The Author

This article is created and submitted by Kashif Raza http://www.cisconotes.net

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 14, 2005

by Kashif Raza

How To Improve Your Conversion Rate

How To Improve Your Conversion Rate

by: Michael Cheney

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t get an email from someone saying:

กMichael, I just don’t know what to do. We are not getting sales, nobody is signing up, we are not making any money. What is going wrong?ก

They start thinking about search engines, more marketing and expensive advertising. When what they SHOULD be doing is taking a step back and saying;

กWhy aren’t the people who are already finding my website doing what it is I want them to do?ก

If you can get to the bottom of that problem you might not even need to get more people to your website. If you can convert a high percentage of the visitors that are already finding you into sales you won’t need to devote as much time and money to marketing your site in the first place. So letกs talk about some quickfire ways you can improve your conversion rate.

**This Visitor Will SelfDestruct in 5 Seconds..

You have probably heard a lot of figures and the average seems to be about 4 5 seconds: the time you have from when somebody lands on your home page to actually convince them to remain on your site.

You don’t have long after the 5 seconds if people don’t see what they want to see they will disappear forever. What happens is when I come to your site I am looking to get a series of questions I have in my mind answered as quickly as possible.

For example, I want to know;

Why you are different to your competitors, maybe where you ship to, how many products do you have on your site?

What sets you apart from everyone else in your region or in your industry?

What do your customers say about you?

Do you have any testimonials?

Do you have any press coverage?

Do you have any accreditations?

What makes your product so special?

What do you actually provide on this website?

I want to know all of these things in about five or six seconds.

Now it is not easy, nobody is saying that it is easy, but you do need to get over these benefits as soon as you can on your homepage. One of the ways you can start to do this is to actually bullet points of information.

**Be Ruthless With The Pages on Your Website

Take a look at your web site and pare down everything that you think is not essential. Try to take a step back, put yourself in the shoes of the customer, look at your website and look at every element and say;

กIf I removed that would my web site be any worse?ก

As a customer would that make the experience any worse, would that give the customer less information?

It is quite a scary thing to do. I have been down this road myself. When you start to do this it turns around your whole perspective on what your website is actually trying to do. I have landed on some websites, as Iกm sure you have, that have the opening line;

กWelcome to our home page. Welcome to ABC Ltd. We were formed in 1973 and we have 50 staff. Our core services are..ก

And it just goes on and on and on boring long paragraphs. People just don’t read like this on the web. They just want something now, they want it yesterday. So you need to think about how your website content is put together.

Don’t put things on your site that the managing director wants on there or things that you want on there or the graphic designer or developer wants on there. Put things on there that your CUSTOMER WANTS.

**Don’t Try To Be All Things To All Men

Another way you can improve your conversion rate is to try to focus on one single goal for your website or for each page.

The problem I see a lot of people struggle with is that they are trying to do too much with their web site;

They are trying to sell a product

They are trying to get people on their subscriber list

They are trying to give information to their employees

They are trying to get new business

They are trying to get information to customers

They are trying to give information about the community

Just hold fire a minute and zero in on the ultimate goal of the site. What is your siteกs primary objective?

You need to have one goal for the site or at least one goal for each page.

**Your Website Only Needs To Do One of The Following 2 Things

To help your thinking in this there are really only two things that a web site should do. If you are in the position that you can sell directly over the web that is what you need to do you need to be selling through your website.

If you can’t do that, and there are a lot of companies that can’t due to the type of business they are in, then you need to be getting peopleกs contact information. That is it. Just two things.

Either sell to visitors or get their contact information.

Once you realise this, and it might not be a nice thing to hear, because you might look at your site and think that lots of your pages are now redundant, or that certain pages don’t sell anything or get contact information. You might realise that specific paragraphs aren’t getting contact information for you or selling anything. The entire creation and copywriting process of your website becomes a totally different exercise.

But if you don’t focus on one of those two things then nothing is going to happen. I know from experience that not many visitors will read through your homepage, through the about page, through the services page and then dawdle along and click on contact and say;

กI will go to the enquiry form and see how much do you charge.ก

You might get the odd one. But you are not going to get tens, thousands or tens of thousands. You need to sell something or get contact information. Your website needs to be a machine that does one or both of those things and that is it.

About The Author

Michael Cheney

This article is an excerpt of กFrom Zero To Heroก a free 30minute Audio Masterclass you can download here: http://www.websitemarketingbible.com/marketing/

This article was posted on February 28

by Michael Cheney

Another Fine Mess!

Another Fine Mess!

by: Doug Woodall

I was reading an excellent article today titled กIdentity Theftก by Judith Collins at eWeek.com, when it got me to thinking…. Iกm in the AntiSpyware business, and Iกm doing a lot of advertising to promote my website, but here I am online and on the phone, giving my personal information to…..who? Strangers basically, Geez!.

The majority of identity thefts occur thru contractors employing people in entrylevel jobs that have not been properly screened. Not even Hackers,Phishers or Dumpster Divers account for as many! The ideal location for a Identity stealer would be in a out sourced agency that fails to use adequate screening processes.

Iกve read many articles lately that state we need stricter guidelines and procedures to insure we have proper security as consumers. A set of universal rules that would be adhered to by all. To even think of the enormous complexity of this project staggers the mind!

So here I am, I want to take a advertisement out at a prestigious magazine that is published in a traditional print paper and online. I may have to deal with people online and on the phone.I give my name, address, phone number, and my credit card number! EGAD, what am I doing?

Then my common sense and education about matters such as these kicks in and I rationalize that these companies would not be in business if they couldn’t keep their customers happy. But,accidents happen. So you see my dilemma. I know computer security and Spyware, and the vulnerabilities and strengths when dealing online. Its just a little new to me to trust, when I know the ramifications to me personally if my Identity were to be used for illgotten gain.

I know after all these years of being a, OK I admit it, a slightly paranoid online user, that I need to make myself a little vulnerable so I can better succeed in my online business. Iกve been where the people who contact me asking for help are; a place in their minds of anger, frustration and helplessness.

But then as I said earlier, common sense and education about Spyware wins over and I take a deep breath and go on.

The California Attorney General has a excellent website for Identity Theft at http://caag.state.ca.us/idtheft/

About The Author

Doug Wood all has a web site at http://www.spywarebiz.com.

There he provides free information and recommended products to combat Spy ware.

He is a member of the IWA (International Webmasters Association).

Article edited for proper content by Wendy McCallum.

Permission to copy ok as long as about author info remains with article.

Copyright 2005 SpywareBiz

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 11

by Doug Woodall

5 Simple Steps to Protect your Digital Downloads

5 Simple Steps to Protect your Digital Downloads

by: Priya Florence Shah

A couple of days ago, I was searching for a popular eBook online.

Now Iกm not going to tell you the name of this eBook for reasons youกll understand in the next few minutes.

Okay, so here I was, opening Google, entering the name of the eBook clicking search, and checking through the first few pages of search results.

> Forward to Page 5 of Google

I saw a link that looked like a PDF document.

Right click > open in new window

There, in full glory, was the eBook I was searching for!

The complete eBook, mind you, not a trial or demo sitting there for the world to download.

And this is a product that sells for over $25 online!!

Obviously Iกm not going to tell you the name of the eBook because it would not be fair to the reseller.

But it just made me realise that one of the reasons digital theft is so prevalent is simply because… its so EASY!

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t condone theft of any kind digital or otherwise.

But would YOU shell out $25 for a product that everyone can กlegallyก download off the 5th page of Google?

Most people would just shrug their shoulders, hit the save button and thank their lucky stars.

Result: The opposite of $ KACHING $ for the sellers

One of the problems with selling digital products online is that it is so SIMPLE to do. So now everyone and their grandmother wants to do it.

But most newbies have no idea that it requires only a few simple steps to ensure a moderate degree of security for your downloads.

So here Iกve outlined the five most BASIC security steps That anyone selling digital products online must take.

These will take you only a few minutes to do, and you do not need any special software or programming knowledge.

1. ZIP THAT FILE

The biggest problem arises when sellers store their downloads as PDF documents, as in my experience above.

Now you should know that Google, Altavista and many other search engines can read and list PDF files.

While this may not be a problem for those adding content to their sites in the form of PDF newsletters and reports, it also means that you must never store a product you want to SELL as a PDF file (unless it is in a password protected folder).

It gets worse. Google also converts your PDF files into HTML documents. So ordinary browsers not only have access to your PDF file, but horror of horrors they can download your SOURCE FILE as well!!

The next logical step is for them to customize it with their own links, compile it and sell it or give it away.

Result: The opposite of $ KACHING $ for the sellers …AND the author.

A simple way of keeping your files out of the reach of spiders is to upload them as a zip file. Search engines cannot look inside zip files (yet) and list their contents.

2. CREATE AN INDEX.HTML FILE

You MUST have an index.html file in EVERY folder. It acts like a curtain that keeps your files away from prying eyes.

A folder without an index file is like a house without walls. Everyone can enter and help themselves to the valuables.

The กindex.htmก file is the default file that opens when you click on the link here

http://ebizwhizpublishing.com/

If you don’t create an index.htm or index.html file, youกd be allowing everyone to directly access the root directory of the folder where you store your downloads.

Here is a folder I uploaded to show you what happens when you DON’t have an index file. http://ebizwhizpublishing.com/test/

As you can see, all the files stored in it are clearly visible and ready to download.

And yes, feel free to help yourself I won’t accuse you of stealing 🙂

3. SHOW PEEPING TOMS THE EXIT

You can use a simple script to redirect peeping Toms back to your home page.

Hereกs the easiest way to do it using what it called a กmeta refresh tag.ก Add it between the Header tags like this.

Just replace my URL with your own in the example above and paste it into the head of your document (before your text).

You can see how it works by clicking on the test folder here. http://ebizwhizpublishing.com/redirect/

Now even though you click on the folder URL, you will be sent to my home page.

4. SPIDERPROOF YOUR DOWNLOAD PAGES

To prevent search engine spiders from reading and listing the download pages that link to your eBooks add the tag below in the head of the document.

This กRobotก tag tells the spider that this page is not to be spidered or indexed. As a result it should never show up on a search.

5. CHANGE YOUR DOWNLOAD LINKS OFTEN

To prevent unscrupulous people from posting your download links on forums or message boards, change the folder or file name where you store them from time to time, even if it means having to change the download links in your merchant account.

Using these methods will give you a good degree of satisfaction, knowing that you have taken the most basic steps to protect your digital valuables and at absolutely no cost to you.

If you want greater security and more information on plugging the security loopholes in your website, you should take a look at this very revealing report by Bogdan Ravaru.

The HTML Security Report http://ebizwhizpublishing.com/secureport/

About The Author

Priya Shah is webmistress of http://www.1whey2health.com.

Subscribe to กHealth eBizก http://healthebiz.com for information on wellness marketing trends and online marketing tips for Health & Wellness Marketers

This article was posted on April 11, 2003

by Priya Florence Shah

The Never Ending Spyware Story

The Never Ending Spyware Story

by: Doug Woodall

It’s been with us since 1993, it’s gotten more intrusive, more complicated. It’s created a whole ecosystem, so to speak.

A person sits somewhere, writing a new virus, a new application of Spyware. It is put onto the Internet and AntiVirus and AntiSpyware vendors begin to develop definitions to combat it, maybe even to stop it permanently. These fixes are incorporated into the new versions of the software they sell, or distribute as freeware. Existing companies, businesses, and users struggle to keep up with what to use, overwhelmed, their lifeline to the Internet depends on it.

In this portion of the ecosystem you have; The end user. YOU! Your Internet Provider, Hosting Service, ect. The businesses on the Internet, all of em. The existing companies and vendors providing the AntiVirus and AntiSpyware Programs. Adding to this ecosystem, new companies start up to get into the rapidly exploding business, marketing their own software. More additions occur as new businesses start up to sell the software the companies have produced. New and old online users buy upgraded and new software to try and protect their personal information from being stolen.

Interlaced into all the above is the knowledge required to know how to protect ourselves with the basics. A hardware or software Firewall, AntiVirus and AntiSpyware.

Whew! Ok, rest.

Point to ponder while resting. Recent eWeek.com tests reveal that some Vendors are failing to provide solutions when it comes to finding and permanently destroying Viruses and Spyware. Rested?

Then let’s look at it from another angle shall we? Without the person somewhere in the world writing the virus or Spyware, there would be no need for the person that is writing the program to combat it. There would be no need for the company that employs the person writing the programs to combat the virus or Spyware. No need for the Businesses that sell the programs the company markets. Still with me? Good. And finally, No need for the user, you, to protect yourself.

I hope this lil exercise has proved informative. Take Care.

About The Author

Doug Wood all has a web site at http://www.spywarebiz.com.

There he provides free information and recommended products to combat Spy ware.

He is a member of the IWA (International Webmasters Association).

Article edited for proper content by Wendy McCallum.

Permission to copy ok as long as about author info remains with article.

Copyright 2005 SpywareBiz

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 11

by Doug Woodall

The Affiliate Model – How To Make Money As An Affi

The Affiliate Model – How To Make Money As An Affiliate

by: Rob Rawson

Affiliate programs are a very easy and effective way to make money on the Internet right? so how do they work?

Essentially, affiliate programs are a way that you can promote other people’s products and get paid a commission for promoting them. You can get paid to promote almost any type of product and service on the web.

Most of the top companies on the web have Affiliate Programs. Dell computers, Amazon, Expedia, AT&T, Chase bank, Delta airlines and Walmart are just a few examples did you know that you can be paid a commission to sell products online for any one of these companies?

The best thing about affiliate programs is that it is so easy to set up a relationship with any one of these companies. Normally in business you would have to spend weeks or months of meetings, proving that you are a worthwhile partner to be able to do business with these sorts of companies. However, an affiliate program allows you to get commissions straight away as a little guy,without all the hassle of meetings and forming that relationship.

There are thousands of affiliate programs that you can promote on the web. You have so many choices that you could pursue. The key factors for success with affiliate programs are the following:

Choosing the right affiliate programs. If you choose certain affiliate programs you will likely only be able to earn a small income because their payouts are small. Other affiliate programs have very large payouts and high earning per click (EPC). If you don’t know what earning per click (EPC) is, it is the average amount that affiliates earn from each click to the site that they are sending money to. Some networks express it in earnings per one hundred clicks.

For example you could say an EPC of $57. This means you make $57 on average for every 100 visitors that you send to a site or 57 cents for sending one visitor to the site. Generally I am looking for affiliate programs with an EPC of $20 or more, which means I am making 20 cents per visitor. Usually, I focus on programs that have an EPC of $100 or $1 per visitor. When you are earning $1 per visitor you have potential for a lot more profit.

The second critical factor is getting the traffic to the affiliate program. We are going to talk about this more in other issues of the Ecourse.

The third factor is being able to presell to the visitors of your site. Let’s say that you have a website where you discuss different products and services, a comparison type of site. You can recommend the product that you think is most beneficial and then when people click through to the site after your recommendation, they are much more likely to buy.

How do you find good affiliate programs?

One easy way is to go to all of the affiliate networks and sign up for affiliate programs there. The major affiliate networks like Commission Junction have thousands of affiliate programs that you can join in all sorts of categories. You can find a listing of the different affiliate networks at: http://www.profitpuppy.com/affiliatenetworks.htm

It also depends on what type of strategy you are pursuing with affiliate

programs. There are many different strategies and we can’t go into all of them now, we’ll talk about them in detail in some later issues of the ecourse. However here are a few strategies to get your brain ticking over with ideas:

You can promote affiliate programs directly using Google Adwords. You simply promote the program by creating your own ads. This is the quickest way to make money on the Internet as you can get started and in 12 hours have some ads up that are making you money. However, it is getting more and more difficult to make money with this strategy as there are too many people doing it. As with anything in life, if something is too easy to make money, everyone will start doing it and it then becomes more difficult because there is more competition.

One strategy is to focus on a particular niche area … let’s say you decide to do a site on car rentals. You could then join all the affiliate programs to do with car rentals. You can find many of them through the major networks, but you might also need to search on Google for something like – ‘car rental affiliate program’.

Another strategy is to build lots of little mini sites on the Internet focusing on different keyword phrases that people are searching for and get free search engine listings in Google and other search engines. This is a great strategy because the traffic that you get is free. This is general called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is great and can make you a lot of money but it is also very tricky. It is not easy to get to the top of the search engines. It requires a lot of knowledge, and quite a bit of effort. Don’t think that you can just read a book and do it … normally it is going to take months of dedication to get there.

That’s a few ideas, but whatever area you are involved in on the Internet you should definitely be promoting affiliate programs. Even if you sell your own product online you should still look into affiliate programs as a back end profit centre for your business.

Affiliate programs are one of the quickest ways to make money on the Internet. Over the next few issues of the Ecourse we are going to talk about other strategies of using affiliate programs.

If you want a free email course on affiliate programs you can send a blank email to: [email protected] This email course is written by Ken Evoy and it is this course that actually got me started in marketing on the Internet.

http://www.profitpuppy.com

About The Author

Rob Rawson

You may reprint/republish any of the following articles on your own Site, in your own ezine, autoresponder series, product, bonus items, or any other format you wish as long as you adhere to the following:

1. The article must not be altered in anyway and the links must remain active

2. You must not abuse the Internet in anyway, shape, or form with ANY of your online marketing. This includes but is not limited to sending unsolicited commercial email (SPAM), abusing online forums, using copyrighted materials without permission, or infringing on the trademarks of others.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 29, 2004

by Rob Rawson

Who Had The Better Brushes Leonardo or Michelangel

Who Had The Better Brushes Leonardo or Michelangelo?

by: Robert Hartness

Ordinary photos of dull subjects do actually sell, but the dramatic shots generally have an unusual element that makes them stand out from the crowd. They are wellcomposed and they carry no excess baggage.

One of the best photos Iกve seen was taken many years ago in New York Central Station (1928) Itกs quite famous and youกve probably seen it. Sunlight streams in through the windows dominating the scene, while people mill about the expansive floor in a hustlebustle atmosphere.

Photographers of yesteryear were past masters of judging the best exposure for a dramatic shot, without the benefit of modern gadgetry. I just wonder about that when I hear the death knell being tolled on the use of film.

We’re told that 60% of the income of Kodak UK came from digital cameras last year, as Kodak announced big job cuts. Immediately, the media produced a kneejerk reaction that claimed film is dead. True the public are totally won over by the shortterm gains of the digital camera, but what about the professionals?

Many studio photographers may well switch to fitting a digital back on to their Mamiyas, but what about fieldwork? Big shots with view cameras and 6ก9กs, not to mention the use of long lenses for wildlife and sport, will still be dominated by film rather than digital.

Digital cameras are great for the mass market, where shots are generally taken with the subject a close range. Some of the photos of flowers that Iกve seen for example, are quite exceptional. In many cases, using film for these shots would be beyond most average users because judging the best exposure would be too difficult.

The public are happiest when they can they can just point and shoot. The modern digital camera allows them to do this and produce exceptional pictures of family events, so they’re happy. However, put these same cameras to a stiffer test and film wins hands down. Even the latest, best and most expensive cameras still fall short of the best that film can produce, especially where the subject is at a fair distance e.g. most landscapes.

Coming back to oldtime photographers, I just can’t see anyone producing, or rather reproducing the same quality shots of say, Ansell Adams, using a digital camera instead of film. For Ansell Adams, substitute Man Ray, or a host of other cult photographers and youกll soon catch my drift.

Regarding photos that sell, the type of camera used is irrelevant when the client looks at the final result. Iกm sure that Michelangelo never crossed swords with Leonardo about who had the better brushes. Itกs the masterpiece that counts, not the tools used to produce it.

And yet this epic battle between digital and film cameras is important, because a lot of time and effort can be wasted, trying to produce shots that sell with equipment that just isn’t up to the job.

Without being prescriptive or dogmatic, it seems to me that any prospective Freelance photographer must weigh up the pros and cons of digital versus film carefully. It is the nature of the photograph being attempted that should decide the matter rather than personal prejudice.

Another key factor is, of course, the preference of the client. Where the customer is happy with small digital images then convenience may suggest using digital. So, for someone who shoots a range of photos it seems sensible to become conversant with both. Digital and film cameras are totally different beasts, especially with regard to exposure ก rules of thumbก.

After excellent composition, shots that sell need perfect lighting so the modern freelance photographer should use the best tools, digital or film to achieve the perfect shot of his chosen subject. Thatกs the kernel of truth Iกve yanked out of the splinters of this hoary old chestnut for you.

About The Author

Robert Hartness

One of a series of articles by Robert Hartness, successful freelance and author of an hotlinked, flipover, ebook, published on the web in October 2004. It offers a stepbystep guide to those on the threshold of freelance photography and is illustrated with 40+ published photographs. Acclaimed as a great reference source for serious freelancers. More information and order link http://www.cashfromyourcamera.com

This article was posted on October 19, 2004

by Robert Hartness

10 Steps To Higher Search Engine Positioning

10 Steps To Higher Search Engine Positioning

by: Dave Davies

There is perhaps no more level playing field in business than the Internet. It is this fact that has created millionaires from paupers. The amount of money that can be made depends of course on your industry and your products and/or services but to be sure, if it can be sold at all, it can be sold online.

While there are many methods out there for building a profitable website, from banner ads to email campaigns, by far the most cost effective over time has proven repeatedly to be search engine positioning. That major advantage search engine positioning has over other methods of producing revenue online is that once high rankings are attained and provided that the tactics used were ethical and that continued efforts are made to keep them, they can essentially hold and provide targeted traffic indefinitely. Your site will rise and your site may sometimes fall in the rankings but a solid and complete optimization of your site will insure that through algorithm changes you may fluctuate but you will not disappear.

I have been ranking websites highly on the Internet for quite a few years now and there are some essential rules that, if followed, will insure that over time your website does well and holds solid and profitable positions on the major search engines.

Here are the 10 steps to higher search engine positioning:

Step One Choosing Keywords

You first must choose your keywords. This is perhaps the most important step of the process as incorrectly targeting phrases can result in traffic that is not interested in your product. There are three tools that I use virtually every day to help pick the most appropriate keywords:

Overtureกs Search Term Suggestion Tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)

WordTracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/)

A Brain

The last in the list is the most important. Look through the potential keyword phrases and think, กWho would be searching using that phrase?ก If the answer is, กa student looking for informationก then chances are it won’t result in a sale. If the answer is กSomeone who is looking specifically for a product I offer,ก then obviously this is a prime candidate as a targeted keyword phrase.

Step Two Site Content

Even before I optimize websites I like to get a good deal of new content down in order to insure that I know exactly where Iกm going and exactly what I need to do to get there. Creating some of the new content before starting the optimization process can be doubly helpful in that it can reveal potential additions to your website that you may not have considered (a forum or blog for example). If you already have a site, perhaps simply sit on your back deck, sip on a coffee and image what you would do if your whole site was lost and you had to start again (other than launch into a very colorful discussion with your hosting company).

Step Three Site Structure

A solid site structure is very important. Creating a site that is easily spidered by the search engines yet attractive to visitors can be a daunting and yet entirely rewarding endeavor. To adequately structure your website you must ‘think like a spiderก which is not as difficult as it may sound. A search engine spider reads your web page like you would read a book. It starts at the top left, reads across, and then moves down.

Priority must be given then, to what you place near the top of your page.

Step Four Optimization

Once you have your keyword targets, your content created and your site structure established you must now move on to the most obvious step, the optimization of your content.

As noted above, a spider places importance on what it reads highest on the page and so beginning with a sentence that includes your targeted phrase only makes sense. That said, stuffing in keywords in hopes that it will add weight to your page generally doesn’t work. The term กkeyword densityก refers to the percentage of your content that is made up of your targeted keywords. There are optimum densities according to many reputable SEOกs though exactly what they are is debata ble. Estimates seem to range anywhere from 4 or 5% to 10 to 12% (quite a gap isn’t it).

Personally, when it comes to keyword density I prescribe to one rule: put your keywords in the content as much as you can while keeping it comfortably readable to a human visitor.

Some do it first, I do it last, regardless of when you do it you must choose your heading. At the beginning of your content you have the opportunity to use the tag to specify the heading of your content. This tag is given extra weight and is also an indicator to the search engine of where your actual content starts. Make sure to use your keywords in the heading but don’t shy away from also adding additional words (though not too many).

Step Five Internal Linking

To insure that your website gets fully indexed you have to make sure that the spiders have an easy path through your website. Text links make the best choice as the anchor text (the actual words used to link to a specific page) add relevancy to that page for the words used to link to it. For example, if I ran a website on acne and had a treatments page I could link to it with an image, with text reading กClick for more information on how to treat this skin conditionก or simply กAcne Treatmentsก. When a search engine spider hits an image it has no idea what the image is and, while it will follow the link, it will not give any weight to the page it hits. If you use text that does not contain the keywords you are targeting you are essentially supplying the engine with the same lack of relevancy as with an image, but if you use the phrase กAcne Treatmentsก to link to your acne treatments page you are attaching relevancy to that page for those keywords.

There are two main ways to insure that your site gets well spidered AND that the relevancy is added. The first is to place text links on the bottom of your homepage to your main internal pages (not EVERY page, that just looks odd). The second is to create a sitemap to all your internal pages and link to it from your homepage. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages but thatกs a whole article unto itself.

Step Six Human Testing

So now you have your site, itกs optimized and you have your navigation in place. The next step is to put it past someone who has never seen your site (and preferably who won’t know how much work youกve put in and tell you itกs great even if itกs not).

Ask them to find specific information and see how long it takes. Ask someone else to just surf your site and watch which links they click and ask them why they chose those ones.

Most importantly, find out how the content reads to them. Youกve spent hours working through the content at this point and are probably not the least biased on its readers. Find out how it reads to someone who has no invested interest in the site and correct any issues they may bring up.

Step Seven Submissions

I take a different philosophy than most when it cones to search engine submissions. I submit to directories (both general and topicspecific) and to a few topical search engines but for the most part Iกve found submitting to Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other major engines has proven to be a bit of a waste of time. The major search engines are spidering search engines which means they will follow links to wherever they go. Simply having sites that are spidered by the major search engines linking to you will get your site found.

When I have spent time submitting my sites I have found they get picked up in about a week. When I have simply skipped this step and sought out reputable directories and other sites to get links from I have found that at least the homepage of the site gets indexed in as little as two days.

Neither will hurt your rankings but simply to make the best use of your time, seek our directories and other websites to get links from and leave the spiders to find you on their own.

Step Eight Link Building

All of the major search engines give credit to sites that have quality links pointing to them. How many is enough depends on your industry and targeted phrases. Running a search on Google the reads กlink:www.yourcompetition.comก will reveal approximately how many links a competitor has.

The first place to seek links is with general and topicspecific directories. After that you may want to move into reciprocal link building. Reciprocal link building is the exchange of links between two websites. Some webmasters will simply link to any website that links back to them. I highly recommend being more particular than that.

Find websites that you believe your site visitors would genuinely be interested in and youกve probably found a good link partner. You want to find links from sites that are related to yours.

There are obviously many more methods to building links than directories and reciprocal link building. Again though, this is a whole article (or more) in itself.

Step Nine Monitoring

Whether you use WebPosition Gold (http://www.webposition.com/) or just run searches manually by hand you will have to monitor the major search engines for your targeted phrases. Also, you will need to review your stats to see where your traffic is coming from and what search terms are being used to find you.

If a month passes and you don’t see any changes then more work needs to be done. Iกm certainly not stating that you should take a month off, a solid search engine positioning strategy involves constantly adding content, building links, and insuring that your visitors are getting the information they want to have and finding it as easily as possible.

Step Ten Reward Yourself

So youกve done it. Itกs taken many many hours of work but youกre rankings are doing well. What youกve created is a solid position that will stand the tests of time provided that you continually revisit the above noted steps and insure that your website is always one step ahead of your competition (who have noticed you climbing and succeeding as you would notice others climbing up around your ranking).

Now itกs time to turn off your computer, take your partner out (you haven’t had much time for them lately) and have a great week(end). Youกve got a lot of work to do to maintain and build on these rankings but the hardest part is over. Congratulations!

About The Author

Dave Davies is the owner of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/). He has been optimizing and ranking websites for over three years and has a solid history of success. Dave is available to answer any questions that you may have about your website and how to get it into the top positions on the major search engines.

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 11, 2004

by Dave Davies

The Changing Face of Search Engine Optimization

The Changing Face of Search Engine Optimization

by: Bobby Heard

With the ever evolving internet market for just about anything you can imagine and Google’s index growing to almost 9 billion pages, and counting, there is little dispute amongst search engine optimizers that our job is getting much harder. From linking to articles, and density to ontology, our industry changes as fast as any other. The search engines, especially Google, seem to be on a daily diet of change and their algorithm seems to be growing at the rate of their index.

The word ‘related’ plays a much bigger part in SEO today than it ever has in the past. Instead of targeting an exact keyword phrase, it now makes a lot more sense to keep your site within context and to have related words to your keywords, compared to having density of one keyword phrase. Linking has also turned into a frenzy for relevancy. Unrelated links seem to no longer carry much weight at all. The theme through all of Google’s recent changes seems to come down to one cliché: quality over quantity.

Just like with any other update at Google, optimizers must search and research their profession, however it seems to be happening more often than ever. You can’t walk through our office without hearing Google’s name a thousand times. We have unofficial RND (research and development) meetings almost every hour as there seems to constantly be new ideas and theories popping into all of our heads. In the past there were always changes to the way we’ve done our work, but the pace of this change is accelerating rapidly as well as the competition for online searchers.

MSN seems to be creating a buzz and they’ve just recently started a national television ad campaign. Their search results resemble Google’s of 6 months ago, a time that will go down in SEO history as ขthe good old daysข, and also a time that Google’s SERPs seemed a lot more relevant than they do today. New search engines seem to be popping up all over the place, and after all, wasn’t Google a virtual unknown 5 years ago?

One of the best points made to me over the past month came at the preview of the new become.com search engine in California, where founder Michael Yang decreed this to be only the very beginning in the history of online search. Whatever happens in Google’s future, and the future of online search, there is one thing for certain: only the most intelligent and innovative of SEO companies are going to stay above the bar and continue to find ways to get their clients, and themselves, to the top.

About The Author

Bobby Heard ([email protected]) is the VicePresident of Abalone Designs (http://www.abalone.ca), which offers great SEO results at affordable prices.

This article was posted on February 23

by Bobby Heard