Business, economic development - the unofficial Chamber of Commerce

Writing articles is all the rage these days on the web. Or should I say getting other people to write articles for you, joining membership sites that provide “private label” rights — that is all the rage.

And the reason? You get all the benefits of a well-written article without the work! Someone has to write the articles of course, and if you have writing skills theres plenty of opportunity for you.

Why have articles become so popular? People surf the net looking for information — or “content” to use the buzz word of the moment. They’re not interested in adverts, or flashing banners — they just annoy people. If they search for bananas they want solid information about bananas, not a list of related banana links!

A good article will provide that content, or information.

A year or so ago webmasters thought they could profit by creating sites filled with ads and related keywords. This still works, but more people are moving away from this as it’s becoming harder to get indexed in the search engines, and to stay in the search engines. So, you don’t make the money you used to from this kind of site.

That’s why articles and content websites have grown in popularity. It’s a way to fool the search engines without fooling them, if you see what I mean. You give the SEs what they want, which is good quality content. You give your visitors what they want: solid information that helps them.

And you give yourself what you want: visitors that like your site, search engines that index you, and a growing income.

A well-planned article campaign with backlinks to your site can make a huge difference. This is just one aspect of good SEO, and it’s one that everyone can pursue for little cost.

Matt Russell’s latest site provides great information on good SEO techniques at http://www.Eze-Seo-4u.info, and it’s all free. Get all the SEO help you need.

How many years did you register your domain name for?
If it was only one then Google could hold that against you.

Why?

Because the majority of Spam websites only register a domain name for one year. A domain name registered for a longer period implies that the owner is more likely to be legitimate and serious about their web site.

This is just one of the unusual factors possibly considered by Google when indexing and ranking a website. Factors you could never even have guessed at in some cases.

How do I know this?

Google have recently made public, March 31 2005, the contents of their filing of United States Patent Application 20050071741.

In which many of the search giants secret ranking criteria is revealed and it makes very interesting reading. You must read this if you are serious about ranking well in Google. The days of Spaming Google are drawing to a close. With this patent they reveal just how hard they’re coming down on Spam sites. You Do Not want to get caught out.

Listed below you will find the hard facts, I recommend you bookmark this page now. You will need to reference it each time you optimize a new site.

• Links.

It’s common knowledge that Google relies heavily on inbound relevant links to rank a site. Now they explain exactly how it works.

As well as the number, quality and anchor text factors of a link. Google seems to also consider historical factors. Apparently the Google ’sandbox’ or aging delay begins count down the minute links to a new site are discovered.

Google record the discovery of a link, link changes over time, the speed at which a site gains links and the link life span.

With this in mind fast link acquisition may be a strong indicator of potential search engine Spam.

Gone are the days of pages and pages full of links. You must grow your links slowly to stay below the radar and be careful who you exchange links with. That means no more buying hundreds of links at once or other underhand tactics.

PR is now very valuable.

Your link anchor text should vary but remain consistent with your site content. No more using your main keywords on every link exchange you gain. That’s ‘anchor Spam’. Instead vary them around your top five to ten keywords.

Link exchanges are still very important but you must work and utilize them ethically. If you don’t and you get caught the recovery from a ban can be months in coming and your host and IP may also be recorded.

Softly softly seems to be the message. The fact is fewer but better quality links will benefit you more anyway and they will be much more likely to long-term which is good to.

• Site click through rates (CTR)

CTR may now be monitored through cache, temporary files, bookmarks and favorites via the Google toolbar or desktop tools. Many have suspected for some time that sites are reward for good CTR with a raise in ranking. Similar to how Adwords works.

CTR is monitored to see if fresh or stale content is preferred for a search result.

CTR is also analyzed for increases or decreases relating to trends or seasons.

• Web page rankings are recorded and monitored for changes.

• The traffic to a web page is recorded and monitored over time.

• Sites can be ranked seasonally. A ski site may rank higher in the winter than in the summer. Google can monitor and rank pages by recording CTR changes by season.

• Bookmarks and favorites could be monitored for changes, deletions or additions.

• User behavior in general could be monitored.

As Google is capable of tracking traffic to your site you should closely monitor the small amount of copy returned in search results. Ideally you want to integrate a call to action in there to increase your listings CTR.

Clicks away from your site back to the search results are also monitored. Make your site as sticky as possible to keep visitors there longer. As mentioned above it may also help if you could get your visitors to bookmark you.

• The frequency and amount of page updates is monitored and recorded as is the number of pages.

Mass updates of hundreds of files will see you pop up on the radar.

On the other hand few or small updates to your site could see your rankings slide. Unless your CTR is good. A stale page that receives good traffic may hold it’s own and not require an update. So don’t update for the sake of it.

Depending on your market fresh content may not be a requirement. If the information your pages contain does not go out of date then updating may not be necessary. If your market is more news based for example then changes regularly are a must. In general changes don’t necessarily have to mean fresh content. They could involve simple edits to current content.

A further indicator that Google is really cracking down on Spam is made clear in the following extract from the Patent. Mention is made of changing the focus of multiple pages at once.

Here’s the quote -
“A significant change over time in the set of topics associated with a document may indicate that the document has changed owners and previous document indicators, such as score, anchor text, etc., are no longer reliable.

Similarly, a spike in the number of topics could indicate Spam. For example, if a particular document is associated with a set of one or more topics over what may be considered a ’stable’ period of time and then a (sudden) spike occurs in the number of topics associated with the document, this may be an indication that the document has been taken over as a ‘doorway’ document.

Another indication may include the sudden disappearance of the original topics associated with the document. If one or more of these situations are detected, then [Google] may reduce the relative score of such documents and/or the links, anchor text, or other data associated the document.”

There’s still more to look out for:-

• Changes in on page keyword density is monitored and recorded as are changes to anchor text.

• The domain name owner address is considered, most likely to help in a local search result.

• The technical and admin contact details are checked for consistency. These are often falsified for Spam domains.

• Your hosts IP address. If you are on a shared server it’s possible somebody else on that server is using dirty tactics or Spaming. If so your site will suffer since you share the same IP.

The impression I get here is that Google have learned from the Spam ‘attack’ they suffered in early 2004 and they are determined to eradicate it from their listing results.

So what do you do?

There’s a lot to take onboard here and consider. But you can’t go far wrong with your SEO if you try to grow your site as organically as possible.

If you know what you are doing you can take short cuts. Carry on with link exchanges but consider each site carefully and slow down in your gathering of them. Vary your anchor text. Add small amounts of good quality content to your site regularly. Check your search engine listings and edit your site to include a call to action in them if possible. Make your site more ’sticky’ to encourage visitors to stay a while. Encourage visitors to Bookmark your site. Oh and register new domain names for at least two years.

Before you do anything remember to reference the above info first. It may just save you months of misery as your site gets banned and ‘Sand boxed’.

Overall keep it ethical and you can’t go far wrong.
Do not be tempted to Spam. Stick to the guidelines above and you are much more likely to outlast and out rank your competition.

About the Author
Darren Yates is owner of How-to-make-money-online.info a site focused on Making Money Online and Internet Marketing, listing the many and varied ways of making money online. Featuring, resources, thousands of Internet Marketing articles and useful links.

This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute it as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is include, and that the link above is intact.

If you are a webmaster, chances are one of your main concerns is the ranking of your website with the major search engines. Since you are concerned with this, you are probably involved in acquiring links to your websites on the Internet to further increase the link popularity or your site. The reason gaining links to your website is important is because many of the large and popular search engines focus on the amount of links there are to your site when they begin ranking your site. The more links you have, the higher your website will rank. So, if you are not familiar with how to increase your marketing by acquiring links then you need to learn. Fortunately, it is not difficult and will not take a lot of effort, but you will need to be open minded, patient, and always play fair. Consider the following suggestions when you are beginning your link swapping or reciprocal linking campaign.

-Similar Market

The first thing you need to do is find web pages that target a similar market as your website does. It does not have to be the exact market, but a derivative of that market will work as well because you can spread your links out among a variety of different sub-markets and get really great coverage. Regardless, identify the markets you are shooting for and then you will be ready to look for the sites that target these markets.

-Quality Sites

Now that you know the types of markets you want to attract, you will be able to choose websites that are not in direct competition with you and still attract the same types of visitors. Do some research on the sites available and only choose the sites that have high rankings in the search engines and are quality sites that will reflect the quality of your site as well. If you have links to your site on poorly designed websites that are not very popular you will not get much traffic from these.

-Personal Contact

You have your target websites nailed down and now all you have to do is contact them. The best thing to do in this situation is send them a personal e-mail. Avoid using a software program in this case, as you really want to personalize your note to them as much as possible. The reason for this is people are more likely to respond to a real person and the extra time it takes you to write the email shows that getting a link from them is important to you. So, send an e-mail saying you have added a link to their site on your website and ask them politely to add a link back to yours. Also, provide all of the information they might possibly need so adding your link will be easy and take as little time as possible. When you contact people in this manner, you are significantly more likely to gain links. This will take more time and effort, but it also has a higher payoff as well.

Michael Turner shows you exactly how to increase web site traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it today at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

Creating a well-designed website is the first step in your internet marketing strategy
that must be backed up with techniques designed to drive traffic to the website for
successful, long-term results. You wouldn’t consider opening a retail store in a
major shopping mall without signage and you shouldn’t consider having a nice
looking website designed without expanding your web presence in order to be
found on the internet. The following strategy overview is designed to bring about
these results:

• An attractive website that is complementary to your company image and
  provides your targeted audience with information about you, your company and
  your products and/or services
• A website that creates a call-to-action in the form of purchase, contact,
  subscription or other commitment from your viewer
• Create a successful marketing arm for your overall business promotion and
  marketing campaign to promote your business, products and/or services
• Become competitive in your industry and marketplace by meeting or exceeding
  the industry marketing standards and attracting a qualified audience for your
  products and/or services via the internet
• Generate and maintain or grow internet traffic to your website resulting in a
  conversion of traffic into sales of your products and/or services

This search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is composed of several processes in
three stages.

Tier I

Website design is the foundation and beginning of a successful internet marketing
strategy. It is true that several websites exist on the internet that are unattractive
but seem to work. If there are aspects of these websites that work, imagine how well
they could do if they simply followed basic design implementation tactics that
resulted in a good image as well as simply pushed information out to the viewer.
These basics are essential for Tier 1 success:

• Good web design that complements the company image and offline marketing
  campaign products
• Easy, logical navigation that leads the viewer deeper and deeper into the web of
  information provided by the website
• Attractive but quick-loading graphics that are pleasing to the eye and
  meaningful to the website.
  • Keyword usage that is search engine-friendly:
  • Utilization
  • Placement
  • Frequency
  • Relevance

• Coding that is lean, clean and without errors
• Relevance of content to the theme of the site
• Changing content that changes frequently
• Content is king — it’s all about content, content, content

Tier II

Once the website has been created and published, many new website owners think
that the project is finished. But in reality, the real work is just beginning. In order to
create a money-making site, traffic must be generated and driven to the website.
There are several effective methods that can be implemented in Tier II for this to
occur. While all methods may not be required to see successful traffic generation,
some combination of most if not all will probably be needed to create traffic,
maintain traffic and finally, grow traffic to our website with long-term results.
Consider implementing these strategies:

• Dynamic content is necessary and by updating the website frequently the
  search engines see your website as active, not stagnant. How often should changes
  be made? At the very least, monthly. But the more frequent the changes, the better.
  There are some tried and true methods you may want to employ:
  • Monthly newsletter (or weekly)
  • Tip of the day that rotates to the page using a script from an existing database
    of information at your site
  • RSS feed to public news feeds that update hourly or daily at the least
  • Changes to contact information, staffing, clients, etc.
  • Checking the links frequently to make sure that they are active and valid
  • Simple modification of content from time to time should be done in between
    these regular maintenance tasks which will update the website

• Good links management results in a positive weight given by the search engines
  for search positioning. The algorithms used for weighting one page over another
  require link popularity assessment for successful traffic to your website. Link
  popularity is also one of the main contributions to Google and Alexa Page Rank.
  How do you achieve link popularity? It can be tedious and requires careful attention
  to the selection of the links, but there are several means that can be employed:
  • Reciprocal Links - Search for relevant and desired web pages with which to
    trade links
  • Purchase Page Rank-based links to boost your relevance and weight in the eyes
    of search engines
  • List with directories, paid or unpaid that will give your website additional
    exposure
  • Create the links with link text in mind, designed to utilize relevant keywords
  • Link only with websites that have decent PageRank (PR); i.e., PR of 3 at a
    minimum, PR of 4 would be the ideal minimum
  • Blogs - web logs linked to your site or posting to popular blogs with your links
    included to point traffic back to your site; a good strategy is to employ pinging with
    the blog posting

• Forums — forum participation that allows you to leave your link with the intent
  of attracting traffic back to your site
• Listing with the few free search engines and directories is essential although
  you won’t see any results for months
• Develop an email list subscription function on your site with the intent of
  sending e-newsletters and announcements on a regular basis. This subscription list
  can be used for several other campaigns, including the sale of advertising space on
  your newsletter.
• Purchase sponsorship on other email lists where you can promote your product
  and/or services as well as get your website promoted in the process.
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns with Google and Yahoo Search Marketing where
  you purchase advertising space for keywords that are popular for your industry if
  you are not in a saturated market. If your business operates in a saturated internet
  market, seek niche keywords for your PPC advertising. Determine your budget first
  and from there, you will know how much you can afford for the positioning your
  desire. It’s all mathematical:
  • Price Per Click = monthly budget/number of clicks or
  • Number of clicks = monthly budget/price per click

  Some combination of price and number of clicks will result from a well-designed
  and constantly monitored campaign. The important result to watch is the conversion
  rate. How many paid clicks convert into the desired result; i.e., new contract, sale of
  product, sign up for e-newsletter, etc.

Tier III

Finally, after the hard-core efforts that are directly related to generating traffic to
your website, you will want to create follow-on, additional traffic that is under your
control. Several methods exist for this strategy:

• Taking the large list of ancillary keywords that relate directly or indirectly to
  your website, begin purchasing keyword related domain names that will be used to
  create traffic driving websites that point to your money site.
• Setup satellite pages using the keyword domain names that are heavily
  populated and geared toward keyword designed to develop niche market traffic. As
  you develop niche markets that create new customers, you are going to be able to
  capitalize on those customers for the other products and/or services that your
  company offers by focusing on information sites that link back to your money site
  while informing and attracting these new customers.
• Create links, backlinks and cross-links between the satellite pages and your
  money site, improving your link popularity for all websites, especially your money
  site.
• Display articles or e-books related to your industry and place these articles on
  your websites being aware of the best location based on keyword dominance.
• For long-term, viral marketing results, create articles or e-books that you will
  either sell on your website or offer to public domain websites where your link
  information must be retained for use by anyone else on the internet.

Monitoring

In order to determine if the SEO efforts are successful, you must monitor results of
backlinks, PR and web trend statistics. There are many sources for generating this
data as well as programs that will assist in these analyses. Whatever method you
choose, whether it is using specific programs or setting up a spreadsheet for entry
of data, be consistent in tracking the data. There will be fluctuations from day-to-
day. You are looking for general, overall upward trends. Upward progress followed
by maintenance of a strong position with slow, steady growth would indicate a
successful SEO campaign.

Article written and copyrighted by Chesa Keane, TAO Consultants, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.

Chesa Keane of TAO Consultants has been involved with the internet for 10 years
through internet consulting, web development and search engine optimization. Go to
http://www.computergoddess.com for a free Search Engine Optimization Checklist.

Meta tags are an absolute must from a search engine optimisation perspective, there are many mistakes that can be made by not including these or even trying to ’spam’ the SE’s using them so heres a quick summary of the three main ones:

Meta Page Title Tag

The title tag is supported by all search engines and should be considered as the most important element in your optimisation process. Why is this you may ask? Well the page title is the first thing search engine spiders and human visitors will see. Your title appears at the top of the page in the browser and the title also becomes the clickable link in the search engine listings and should therefore be concise, accurate and include your keywords.

Meta Description Tag

The meta description tag is supported by most of the search engines, it is not as important as the Title Tag because the web page viewer will not see it but the description is sometimes used in the search listings under the title tag and as such should be an accurate and keyword driven description of what the page value is. Google usually uses an abstract of the page content and will use the description tag only if it cannot find enough on page content to form a page description.

Meta Keywords Tag

Due to massive abuse this tag is very rarely useful but in my opinion should still be used. Include your main keywords in here but do not go crazy, 4 or 5 is more than enough usually. It is far better to include your keywords in the on page copy and will hold better weight with the SE’s as such. Please remember however that it still has to read well to the human eye.

The Meta Tags should be placed between the HEAD> and /HEAD> tags of your web page and should follow the following format:

Mike - Webmaster and eBay Power Seller at Online Auction Trader

We offer free templates, information and product sourcing to enable you to develop your online auctions into a sustainable, long term income stream.

We also operate a Traders Forum where any advice can be sought on any aspect of Online Trading.

Oops! I meant “web content management system for windows.” Do search engines understand consumer search engine typos? Typing something so close to what you are looking for, like typing “web content management system fr window” instead of “web content management system for windows” may not seem like a big deal, but search engine bloopers alter consumer searches more than we know.

The phrase used in the title, “web content management system fr window” is a real-life example of a common search engine typo. In fact, within that phrase, the “o” and the “s” are missed so often that search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN have recorded the phrase “web content management system fr window” as searched about 481 times on a monthly average.

You might ask how this affects your search engine searches. Well, let us use the same phrase for an example. Typing the phrase you are looking for, “web content management system for windows,” yields about 29.6 million indexed pages in Google, 14.7 million in Yahoo, and 2.3 million in MSN. However, the typo “web content management system fr window,” only slightly different from what you really meant to type, yields drastically different results: 654 thousand indexed pages in Google, 131 thousand in Yahoo, and 56.5 thousand in MSN.

That doesn’t seem so bad. Who doesn’t want to narrow down the search? The problem is that the number of indexed pages is not the only difference with search engine typos; the poor search engines are trying to find the most relevant pages they can to the misspelled search, but it may not find what you need. On the one hand, you have tens of millions of relevant pages with a correct search; on the other hand, you have hundreds of thousands of semi-relevant pages. Which would you rather have?

Search engine typos are very common, but they do alter the relevance of your results.

Joe Miller is an author of informational articles and online advertisements on business, technology, and health. ‘Web content management system fr window’ is actually ‘web content management system for windows’.

About directories:

A directory is simply a web site that contains a categorized listing of links from around the web. They aid surfers to locate the ‘best’ and most informative links for a particular category. For example a category may be called ‘Home and Garden’ and in this category there is list of links about home improvement and gardening. Directories consist of a collection of categories into which links are seperated. Categories can have sub-categories to make the division of links more specific.

Directories are important tools in building link popularity and as a result help improve search engine ranking. They are an excellent source of inbound, one-way links, which are the most powerful types of links to help build link popularity.

There are a multitude of varied directories on the web at present. They range from general directories that include categories for almost everything, to specific directories that contain categories to match specific area/s of interest e.g. web sites about fishing. It is helpful to get your web site listed in as many directories as possible as this will help you beat the competition in rankings.

Getting your link listed varies between directories as each has their own different process. Some directories require a fee but most do not. A lot of directories offer a mixture between free and paid listing. When you pay to get your link listed in a directory it is normally added within a week and it is guaranteed to be added. On the flipside a directory offer a free listing can take anywhere from a week to several months to add your link, and also there is no guarantee that the link will be added.

Some directories use other approaches to get your link listed. For example the Joeant directory http://www.joeant.com requires you to register as an editor in order to submit a link. The Zeal directory http://www.zeal.com also requires you to register as a member but first you must complete and pass a 20 question quiz to prove your worthiness.

Directories to submit to:

Getting listed in quality directories such as DMOZ or Yahoo can be more beneficial for your link popularity than a lot of links from smaller, newer directories. It is therefore useful to know which to submit to. The following is a listing of some of the higher quality directories:

DMOZ
http://www.dmoz.org
The most important directory that exists on the web today. Getting listing in this directory is critical if you aim to achieve top rankings..

* Listing - Free
* Time to get listed - 1 to 6 months, maybe even longer

Yahoo Directory
http://dir.yahoo.com
After DMOZ, probably the next most powerful directory to get listed in.

* Listing - Free or paid
* Time to get listed - Free inclusion can take several months, paid inclusion a few days

Zeal & Looksmart
http://www.zeal.com
http://www.looksmart.com
These two directories are very closely related as Looksmart owns Zeal.
* Listing - Zeal: Free for non-commercial sites (sites can only be submitted after passing a 20 question quiz) but paid for commercial sites.
Looksmart: Paid

* Time to get listed - Zeal: Free inclusion can take 1-2 months, paid inclusion a few days
Looksmart: A few days

JoeAnt
http://www.joeant.com
JoeAnt is a directory that is growing in popularity.

Gimpsy
http://www.gimpsy.com
Operates differently to other directories. Web sites are organized according to question asked.

Information needed to submit to directories:

When submitting a link to a directory you will more than likely be asked to provide the following information about your web site:

* URL
* Title
* Description
* Keywords that describe it

One thing I recommend that you do before submitting is to prepare this information in advance and to use the same information when submitting to all directories. As much as possible place keyphrases that describe your web site into the Title text and Description text you submit, especially into the Title text (this is known as anchor text optimization).

When a directory asks you to provide keywords that describe your web site it uses these keywords to locate your site when someone performs a search within the directory. So for example if I submit the keyword ‘lawn’ I have a better of chance of being listed in the directory’s search results when someone searches within it using the keyword ‘lawn’. However focus more on writing keyphrase-rich Title and Description entries than Keywords when submitting.

Tips when submitting to directories:

* Submit your link to the most appropriate category
Every directory will tell you this as it makes their job easier when it comes around to listing your link. This point should be stressed though as it not only makes the directory editor’s job a little easier therefore speeding up your listing, but also the search engines will look at the other links that surround you on the page you are listed on and if they are of a similar theme to your own this can boost your rankings.

* Be patient
One point to remember about directories that provide a free listing, be patient. If you are not paying to be in the directory then your link listing has a lower priority than paid listings. It can take several months to get into some directories so it can be frustrating. The best thing to do when you submit is to put it out of your mind.

* Keep a log
One of the most useful things to do upon submitting to a directory is to write the name of the directory and the date of submission into a log of some sort (try an Excel sheet). This prevents you from submitting to a directory more than once (keeping the editors happy) and gives you the satisfaction that you are getting something done. When your link gets listed in the directory mark it off in your log. Job well done!

Summary:

Submitting your link to directories is an excellent way to build your web site’s link popularity and improve search engine rankings. There are many directories out there, ranging from the general to the specific, each with their own link submission processes. Prepare keyphrase-rich text that accurately describes your web site to submit to the directories. Choose the most appropriate category for your web site before submitting.

Submitting to directories requires a little effort and a lot of patience. Your search engine rankings will thank you for the extra effort.

Frank Kilkelly is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Expert and Webmaster at http://www.seo-ireland.com/, a complete search engine optimization resource. The highlight of the site is an SEO forum http://www.seo-ireland.com/forum/ for discussion of the latest techniques and tips to improve the ranking of your web site.

Copyright © Herman Dias http://www.Money-Earner.com

Your website’s ranking on search engines is a vital element of
your overall marketing campaign, and there are ways to improve
your link popularity through legitimate methods. Unfortunately,
the Internet is populated by bands of dishonest webmasters
seeking to improve their link popularity by faking out search
engines.

The good news is that search engines have figured this out, and
are now on guard for “spam” pages and sites that have increased
their rankings by artificial methods. When a search engines
tracks down such a site, that site is demoted in ranking or
completely removed from the search engine’s index.

The bad news is that some high quality, completely above-board
sites are being mistaken for these web page criminals. Your page
may be in danger of being caught up in the “spam” net and tossed
from a search engine’s index, even though you have done nothing
to deserve such harsh treatment. But there are things you can do
- and things you should be sure NOT to do - which will prevent
this kind of misperception.

Link popularity is mostly based on the quality of sites you are
linked to. Google pioneered this criteria for assigning website
ranking, and virtually all search engines on the Internet now
use it. There are legitimate ways to go about increasing your
link popularity, but at the same time, you must be scrupulously
careful about which sites you choose to link to. Google
frequently imposes penalties on sites that have linked to other
sites solely for the purpose of artificially boosting their link
popularity. They have actually labeled these links “bad
neighborhoods.”

You can raise a toast to the fact that you cannot be penalized
when a bad neighborhood links to your site; penalty happens only
when you are the one sending out the link to a bad neighborhood.
But you must check, and double-check, all the links that are
active on your links page to make sure you haven’t linked to a
bad neighborhood.

The first thing to check out is whether or not the pages you
have linked to have been penalized. The most direct way to do
this is to download the Google toolbar at
http://toolbar.google.com. You will then see that most pages are
given a “Pagerank” which is represented by a sliding green scale
on the Google toolbar.

Do not link to any site that shows no green at all on the scale.
This is especially important when the scale is completely gray.
It is more than likely that these pages have been penalized. If
you are linked to these pages, you may catch their penalty, and
like the flu, it may be difficult to recover from the infection.

There is no need to be afraid of linking to sites whose scale
shows only a tiny sliver of green on their scale. These sites
have not been penalized, and their links may grow in value and
popularity. However, do make sure that you closely monitor these
kind of links to ascertain that at some point they do not
sustain a penalty once you have linked up to them from your
links page.

Another evil trick that illicit webmasters use to artificially
boost their link popularity is the use of hidden text. Search
engines usually use the words on web pages as a factor in
forming their rankings, which means that if the text on your
page contains your keywords, you have more of an opportunity to
increase your search engine ranking than a page that does not
contain text inclusive of keywords.

Some webmasters have gotten around this formula by hiding their
keywords in such a way so that they are invisible to any
visitors to their site. For example, they have used the keywords
but made them the same color as the background color of the
page, such as a plethora of white keywords on a white
background. You cannot see these words with the human eye - but
the eye of search engine spider can spot them easily! A spider
is the program search engines use to index web pages, and when
it sees these invisible words, it goes back and boosts that
page’s link ranking.

Webmasters may be brilliant and sometimes devious, but search
engines have figured these tricks out. As soon as a search
engine perceive the use of hidden text - splat! the page is
penalized.

The downside of this is that sometimes the spider is a bit
overzealous and will penalize a page by mistake. For example, if
the background color of your page is gray, and you have placed
gray text inside a black box, the spider will only take note of
the gray text and assume you are employing hidden text. To avoid
any risk of false penalty, simply direct your webmaster not to
assign the same color to text as the background color of the
page - ever!

Another potential problem that can result in a penalty is called
“keyword stuffing.” It is important to have your keywords appear
in the text on your page, but sometimes you can go a little
overboard in your enthusiasm to please those spiders. A search
engine uses what is called “Keyphrase Density” to determine if a
site is trying to artificially boost their ranking. This is the
ratio of keywords to the rest of the words on the page. Search
engines assign a limit to the number of times you can use a
keyword before it decides you have overdone it and penalizes
your site.

This ratio is quite high, so it is difficult to surpass without
sounding as if you are stuttering - unless your keyword is part
of your company name. If this is the case, it is easy for
keyword density to soar. So, if your keyword is “renters
insurance,” be sure you don’t use this phrase in every sentence.
Carefully edit the text on your site so that the copy flows
naturally and the keyword is not repeated incessantly. A good
rule of thumb is your keyword should never appear in more than
half the sentences on the page.

The final potential risk factor is known as “cloaking.” To those
of you who are diligent Trekkies, this concept should be easy to
understand. For the rest of you?cloaking is when the server
directs a visitor to one page and a search engine spider to a
different page. The page the spider sees is “cloaked” because it
is invisible to regular traffic, and deliberately set-up to
raise the site’s search engine ranking. A cloaked page tries to
feed the spider everything it needs to rocket that page’s
ranking to the top of the list.

It is natural that search engines have responded to this act of
deception with extreme enmity, imposing steep penalties on these
sites. The problem on your end is that sometimes pages are
cloaked for legitimate reasons, such as prevention against the
theft of code, often referred to as “pagejacking.” This kind of
shielding is unnecessary these days due to the use of “off page”
elements, such as link popularity, that cannot be stolen.

To be on the safe side, be sure that your webmaster is aware
that absolutely no cloaking is acceptable. Make sure the
webmaster understands that cloaking of any kind will put your
website at great risk.

Just as you must be diligent in increasing your link popularity
and your ranking, you must be equally diligent to avoid being
unfairly penalized. So be sure to monitor your site closely and
avoid any appearance of artificially boosting your rankings.

NOTE:You have full permission to reprint this article within
your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article
fully intact and include the “About The Author” resource box.
Thanks!

Whether you launch a search engine optimization program in-house or outsource the program, you should keep the following training opportunities and skill sets in mind:

• Advanced SEO techniques, including page titles, META descriptions, META keyword sets, internal page cross-linking, search engine submissions, robots.txt files and domain name management;

• Comprehends keyword weighting, proximity, density and related factors;

• Search term ranking analysis;

• Link popularity building research, management and strategy;

• Online forum and industry newsletter monitoring;

• National SEO conferences;

• HTML and advanced programming languages;

• Web site content writing;

• Essential Web site usability practices;

• Keyword research, including a firm understanding of language and the way people search;

• Web analytics, including understanding common and complex metrics associated with visitors, unique visitors, page views, online sales, profitability and more;

• Ability to see the big picture and not go so overboard with SEO practices that the web site gets banned from major search engines;

• Appreciation for ethical standards (i.e. should know about cloaking, keyword stuffing and the differences and nuances associated with “black hat” and “white hat”);

• Marketing and branding experience;

• Project management, including ability to effectively communicate needs and foster cooperation from appropriate stakeholders;

• Familiarity with pay per click (PPC) programs and how their performance directly relates to natural SEO results;

• Management of paid inclusion (72-hour rapid indexing programs);

• How to adjust to the changing algorithms of search engines.

The search engine optimization field is complex and ever-changing. To keep pace, you should have plenty of skills on hand. Overall, the SEO program process should be simple: set goals, choose the best keywords, optimize pages, submit to search engines and refine efforts in light of rankings and web analytics.

Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO, a Cleveland, Ohio-based SEO firm. He authored the “U.S. Manufacturers Resist Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Online Sales Leads” study and a white paper, “Search Engine Marketing: Get in the Game.”
michael@fathomseo.com

The makers of the world renowned search engine, Google, have taken things a step further to increase their user loyalty, grow their user base and at the same time reward websites for helping them promote their search engine. What a beautiful deal.

Google now offers WebSearch™ allowing AdSense members to take the earning potential of their sites to an even higher level. Is it all about the money? For most I bet the answer will be “YES”, however, those who would say no can say so with confidence.

Google delivers the best search results on the web today. Don’t be surprised if the majority of your website users use it to search the web. They pride themselves on highly relevant search results with a clean and effective interface. They offer various filters to fine tune their results to allowing you to eliminate any unwanted sites from being displayed.

They have started a highly successful symbiotic relationship between Google and websites that many webmasters will be taking advantage of as soon as they hear the news. It is said time and time again how Google AdSense has transformed websites not geared towards earning income, into solid income producing businesses. Now with WebSearch™ it gets even better.

So what exactly is WebSearch™?

It’s using Google’s SiteSearch or Google’s Web Search and displaying AdSense ads in the results and you earn income every time someone clicks on the ads. Lots of sites already use these features together or independently and them being able to monetize this is a sure plus. You are also able to customize your results page to some extent which includes full color customization as well as the ability to include your logo.

So how do I get it?

Well if you haven’t already done so you will need to create and AdSense account at Google AdSense and follow the steps.

If you already have an AdSense account then log in and click on Search Settings and you should be able to figure it out from there. They also offer reporting information which can also be filtered by channel and includes clicks, the number of queries and clickthrough rate.

The verdict

If you answer yes to any of the following questions then there’s a good chance that Google’s WebSearch is for you:

1. Do you want to give your users a reason to stay on your site longer?

2. Have you ever wanted to offer web search from your site?

3. Do you want to be able to offer a site search feature to your users?

And last but not least

4. Do you want to increase the earning potential of your website? More popularly stated as… Do you want to make more money?

I’m not a betting man but id put my money on you answering yes to at least one of these.

Happy Google WebSearch™ing

About The Author

Alec Duncan is the founder of LilEngine.com a Search Engine Optimization resource site. Visit Li’l Engine for search engine optimization tools and strategies and also check out Developer Tutorials for web development techniques and strategies.