Delisting 101: Bad Webhosting Can Even Get You Banished From Google

You thought cheap webhosting was a bargain. Maybe … but bad webhosting isn't just a bummer — it can get you delisted, added to badware lists, etc.

And it doesn't have to be your fault (directly, anyway).

Use IX Web Hosting | ixwebhosting.com web hosting at your own risk. One day you might just get hacked and/or defaced. Even worse, you might be — courtesy of some Turkish hacker — installing malware on users' computers by proxy. The hackers seem to be pretty good, if a little mean. Fix it, and then it just might happen the next day anyway. That seems to be the story reported everywhere.

A few associates of mine have — they got hacked … and finally delisted.

Now that's OK. People get hacked all the time because of their own incompetence. But at least one of them that I know has a totally static web site. That leaves brute force and/or password sniffing cleartext passwords. Both are unlikely en masse.

So it's that, or your web host *itself* is hacked!

A possibility. I found this all suspicious. I Googled it. What I found is absolutely appalling —

Hundreds and hundreds of hacked domains, with a similar vector.

Some of these people are upgrading often and responsibly, using custom applications, etc.

The same vector simply can't apply to everyone's web sites. They're running various applications with various flaws. So that's unrealistic. Some had weak passwords, I'm sure — but so many? Hence, it's more likely that it's an underlying problem with the web server. IX continues to tell everyone to use stronger passwords, upgrade their anti-virus software (¿que?), and be more careful. As if key-loggers are that common? Um no.

Maybe they should take their own advice and tighten up their own boxes before blaming the user. The users are reportedly get hacked over and over — and over. Scary. So all of them have the same flawed anti-virus application, and use weak passwords? No. Probably not.

If your web host gets hacked, you're at their mercy. So they'd better know a thing or two about security. But you paid $2.99 per month, did you? Bad move. That was your mistake.

Several References:
http://ixwebhostwarning.wordpress.com/
http://forums.applenova.com/showthread.php?t=18025
http://www.vistainter.com/reviews/I/ixwebhosting.com/
http://kuscsik.blogspot.com/2008/01/ix-webhosting-default-backdoor.html
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?s=01a9f3f779beec5274cdc25a9856c8e0&p=5396336&postcount=13
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?p=5403583#post5403583
http://hostjury.com/reviews/IX-web-hosting
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?p=1422266&sid=72538fc95043a14ad091c82e0f161195#p1422266

Find more:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ixwebhosting+hacked&btnG=Search

The worst part is, when you get hacked courtesy of their lackadaisical security, they throw up a monetization page while you're down. So they're profiting while you're getting delisted and Google thinks you're either dead, hacked, or someone snapped up your domain to monetize old links and random traffic. Awesome IX … awesome.

That's some pretty lousy SEO. Cheap web hosting can really be the end. Google might notice of course, and give this lot (of presumably similar IPs) a second gander. But what if they don't?

So bad web hosting can't just lead to downtime. It can lead to permanent exile from Google, and getting on the spyware/badware bad-list for a long, long time. And then R.I.P. everything. Kiss it all goodbye … all thanks to $2.99 hosting.

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Non-Obvious Things eCommerce Can Do When Rankings Implode

Your friendly Captain-obvious-inspired search marketer might argue you shouldn't have done so when you depended on your organic rankings so much — but they're almost certainly vulnerable too. Let's face it. It's just plain difficult to get natural referral traffic when you're ultimately just another guy selling commodities. OK, so don't be just another guy selli … nevermind. They're hypocrites. So what can you do?

1. Move Goods On eBay With Help Of Automation

eBay, except for some upfront infrastructure costs and smaller up-front listing costs, is pay-per-conversion. That should make you salivate. Unfortunately, it's generally a total pain to sell on eBay. Automation with their API can streamline it substantially. We offer our eBay integration module as an option for our eCommerce customers. The module lists items from their product database with a few clicks, and it can auto-relist as well. It's certainly a bear to set up, but once it's running, it's as beautiful as Captain Obvious herself. You can save time (and money — Captain Obvious speaking again) by automating monotonous work.

Templatized listings improve your image and make your manually-listing competitors look amateur. Lastly, it can help by generating more volume even if margins are tighter.eBay used to be a place where you sold the baseball cards in your attic. It's now basically just another venue to sell — whether it be baseball cards or your particular commodities. If you're not selling on eBay, you're not exploiting a potentially very profitable venue with a quasi-pay-per-performance cost schedule.

2. Shopping Feeds + ROI Tracking

Google Shopping is 100% free. So if you're not doing that, start there. Then move to the non-free feeds. You can target only those products that seem to convert or for which you have some sort of deal. Make sure your categorization is correct, as this can make a difference. Our shopping feed module maps product categories to feed categories automatically based on some configuration settings. It also lets you exclude certain listings for paid feeds that aren't profitable. Then you can integrate with Google Analytics and optimize from there. We find this to be easier and less risky than dealing with PPC.

3. Wait Patiently; Improve Site For People

It's not so obvious that this is the best time for usability experiments, but it might be. Ultimately it's people who convert, not search engines — and there's always room to improve your checkout page. We often suggest redesigns, reskins, and improvements when rankings fall. It's not necessarily the obvious time you think to do it, but it's frequently the best time to make changes that you'd otherwise hesitate to do.

For example, here's a new checkout mockup we're prototyping —

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Google PageRank Doesn’t Matter. Can We Stop Talking about it Now?

I build websites and develop them for fun and profit. The wellspring and catalyst for both factors is people or what we call traffic.

The more people visit my web site, the more money I can possibly make, and perhaps the more fun I can possibly have.

Today, many websites had their Google PageRank reduced and many bloggers have been speculating about the causes.

Introspection is often forced. We don’t think about sustainability and our actions until unfavorable circumstances arises. If you only consider how a PageRank shift will negatively affect you after it has happened, you’re already screwed.

It’s all very simple to me. Google is an factor that is outside of your control. Sure, you can follow their rules or adjust your behavior to fit in but that still doesn’t put Google within your palm. What do good entrepreneurs do with uncontrollable factors? They create what-if contingency plans to accommodate for possible loss.

Keep this point in mind: People can do whatever they want to you and they often will. You however have the power to determine how you want to react to their actions. Google will adjust its PageRank scores in a way they deem fit (it’s their toy after all) and ultimately you must decide how you will cope with the possible results.

If your ad revenue is affected just because PageRank changes, then you’re not doing something right. Not exploring the right monetization options. Not having a long term business plan. Not making full use of the traffic you have. Not getting the right advertisers who know the value of your site.

And all these are factors within your control. Who cares what Google thinks about content or site quality? People are the ones who visit your site and decide if its worth reading or recommending to someone else. Google doesn’t own the way you write or think. They don’t influence the type of content you decide to put out.

I have never sold an ad based on my meager PageRank. Advertisers have approached me and have told me directly that they are interested in my websites because I rank for key terms relevant to their business and because I easily pull in a heck of a lot of targeted traffic that is likely to convert. And that’s what matters.

So what if PageRank weakens your position on a ranking list or advertising network? You don’t need systems that use PageRank as a metric for measuring comparative value. Really, you don’t need them at all. There are literally hundreds of different ways to build your brand and get valuable traffic from a variety of other sources.

Stop complaining. Pagerank is simply a webmaster fetish. It’s a inside joke that’s gone too far. Washington Post and Forbes were penalized. But do you really think Aunt Mary or Uncle Joe will give a toss about it? They’ll still type in the URL or click on the bookmark icon faithfully because they want to get the info-fix they need.

And that says a lot about creating remarkable brands that are trusted by your target market. Brands that bring in direct repeat traffic in the long run, despite unpredictable algorithm changes by corporations beyond comprehension.

I don’t see any point in blogging about PageRank drops or updates (yes, I’m guilty). I really didn’t want to write about this but I just couldn’t help ranting after seeing so many oh my god Pagerank dropped! posts all over the web today.

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Brian Pasch Invites NJ Business Owners To Free SEO and Internet Marketing Briefing

Pasch, CEO of the Pasch Consulting Group, is holding a free SEO and Internet Marketing briefing in Red Bank on April 28, 2009 at 6:30pm. The event will cover the most cost-effective and results oriented Internet Marketing Strategies for New Jersey business owners.

There are only a few spots left for New Jersey business owners to register for the Executive SEO Briefing that will be held at the Red Bar and Lounge. The Executive Briefing is free but participants must signup in advance using this special registration link: http://biznik.com/events/internet-marketing-best-practices.

“In a challenging economy, executive officers and business owners are looking for cost effective ways to promote their businesses, and Internet Marketing should be tops on their list”, says Pasch.

Brian will discuss how business owners can leverage the hottest online tools like Facebook, Twitter, press releases and social networking sites to grow their customer base.

If you would like more information regarding this event, contact Carrie Valentine at 732-450-8200 or email at carrie@paschconsulting,com. Additional event information is also provided on the registration link.

There will be a cash bar and food will be available. Attendees are responsible for their own food and drinks. Red will be featuring a ½ priced wine by the bottle special for those dining after the mixer.

About Brian Pasch of the Pasch Consulting Group

Brian Pasch, CEO is an 18-year veteran of the direct marketing industry. His career has spanned both management and technology roles. PCG continually tests new digital marketing strategies which can provide a cost effective channels for business advertising and lead generation. Brian Pasch and his staff are currently rating the effectiveness of the top social networking and blogging portals.

PCG works for and with an ever-growing number of business large and small from all over the country to maximize results of their digital marketing efforts.

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UK politicians use SEO for rebuttal

The UK's Conservative party used search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to draw viewers to its rebuttal of Alistair Darling's budget proposal

If there was ever any question about the power of search engine optimization (SEO) it should be long gone after news has surfaced that politicians in the UK are using keywords to draw online viewers to their website.

The UK's Guardian newspaper reports that in an attempt to gain viewership to its "live rebuttal" of the Labour Party's budget on Wednesday, the UK's Conservative party purchased numerous keywords which would redirect people searching for terms related to the budget.

Jeremy Hunt, one of the Conservative members of Parliament, said the party chose this tactic because so many people go to Google to learn more information about something like a budget proposal.

"We understand that it's important for us to serve up our views in different formats, and Google is one of the first places people go to when trying to find information on a given subject," he told the paper.

Hunt went on to say that the group's recent foray into search engine optimization (SEO) is " a perfect example of how political parties should be using the internet."

It would appear that the UK is ahead of the curve in terms of using search engine optimization (SEO) for things beyond the business world. Recent reports noted that the government's Office of Security and Counterterrorism would be teaching search engine optimization (SEO) to some Islamic groups in an attempt to reduce the ranking of so-called "radical Islamic" organizations.

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8 Ways On How to Dominate Google using Search Engine Optimisation

It is very important to know how to improve your Google rank, usingsearch engine optimization and is a vital part of being successful with your websites. Most people use search engines to find what they’re looking for, Google is the leading search engine. If you want people to find your site on the internet, you need to use SEO in order to get high search engine rankings. These eight tips will help you achieve that.

1.Develop good content!

As the saying goes, content is king. The importance of having high quality, relevant content that is updated regularly cannot be understated. If you have a quality website, it makes all the other steps easier.

2.Write articles

Submitting articles has become one of the most popular methods to drive traffic to your website. Not only do the articles generate traffic, they provide non-reciprocal links, which are the most valuable kind of links according to Google’s ranking system. Make sure the content is relevant to your site, and that the quality of writing is as high as what is on the website; these articles are your best advertisement for what your site has to offer.

3.Use smart, targeted keywords

Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into a search engine to find what they’re looking for. The keywords you choose will define your site and who see it. Know your niche and who you want to reach. Research your target audience, research your competitors, both successful and unsuccessful and learn both from their successes and mistakes. You can also maximize your keywords by optimizing different pages within your website to different keyword phrases.

4.Use directories

Directories are a fast and easy way to get non-reciprocal links. There are hundreds of directories that you can submit your URL to for free. It is time-consuming, but this search engine optimization tool is worth it for the traffic it builds and how it will improve your Google rank. Most directories are edited and maintained, and your posting must be approved. While the sheer number of directories may seem daunting, try applying to 5 per day – you’ll have over 1500 listings after a year.

5.Don’t forget your meta tags and HTML code

While optimizing your website content for the proper keyword density is an obvious choice, don’t forget about the text that you don’t see, but Google does. Good search engine optimization includes adjusting all of your meta tags and HTML code to also reflect your chosen keywords. If you have a website about dog breeds, why label a picture “photo 1” when you can label it “purebred Yorkshire Terrier at play”. These are a great way to up your keyword density without making the content sound unnatural.

6.Use PPC advertising

Pay-per-click advertising is not the steal it once was, with popularity of the search engine optimization tool driving prices up, but it can still be a valuable and cost-effective method of improving your ranking when used properly.

7.Get a site map

An easy way to make the most of your search engine optimization is to ad a site map to your website. You can either have an actual webpage that can be used by both your viewers and Google, or you can also use an XML file, which, while not visible to the public, will also Google to easily spider your site. Google offers free tools and scripts to help you easily build a site map.

8.The last point, number 8 is the most important: TAKE ACTION.

All the reading in the world, all the research in the world means nothing if we do not take action; massive concerted action using a plan that includes all of the other 7 points.

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The Search Engine Optimization for Beginning guide

The Internet is the biggest place that you can go to buy or sell anything. There are always people looking to make a purchase so it makes sense that if you have a business you should strategize to market to them. There is an almost constant supply of people who are ready to buy what you have to offer. The trick is getting them to notice you.

Search engine optimization is a great way that you can generate additional customers to your online business. When people do an online search they use a search engine. There are literally thousands of websites for people to choose from when they get the results. You need to ensure that your website comes up in the top of the search engine results.

There is interesting studies done that prove that most visitors to websites don’t make a purchase on their first time vesting your site. You need to get as many people to your website as possible. You can do this by increasing your site on the search engine results by using search engine optimization. One key strategy to use to keep people returning to your site is to provide visitors with lots of free information that they can use.

One way to help drive your website up higher in the searching lists is by using search engine optimization. Search engines use special software that reaches out and locates the keywords and Meta tags from websites all around the Internet. They take this information and based on the keywords will rank the sites. These rankings are how the results will be given to people who enter those words during a search.

Meta tags are important because they indicate what your site is about while providing the terms that are used for searches. You’ll sometimes see Meta tag phrases appear on the search results as well as on the top of the site pages. Meta tags are made up of a couple of sentences or groups of words (keywords) that describe your site. Meta tags are typically less than 25 words and are used by the search engines to rate your site.

The keywords are important because this is how you will be ranked. Most people never look beyond the first couple of pages of returned results of an online search. This means that you must get your site in the top three ranking pages in order to be successful at search engine optimization and drive business to your site. The most important page of your site is your home page also sometimes called your “landing page”.

It is of utmost importance to properly choose your keywords. These words, if chosen properly, can actually help to drive business to your site. Do not take search engine optimization lightly. Keywords need to be specific. They can also be phrases rather than one single word. Try to narrow down your keywords so that you’ll get the best results from search engine optimization. For example a travel site may consider using keywords like “travel” or “vacation” yet the resutlst for these broad terms will be enormous. Instead, narrow your keywords down making them as specific as possible. In this case you could use “Bahama cruise” or other much more specific search terms.

There are literally hundreds of keywords that could probably be used to describe your site and products. However it is important to reduce your list by choosing the ones that are most important and using them as both keywords on the copy of your website and in Meta tags of the pages. When you can get the hang of search engine optimization you’ll be able to greatly increase the visitors to your site and therefore create more sales. If you are unsure about using search engine optimization on your website hire a good SEO company to take care of your online marketing needs.

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Search Engine Optimization 10 Mistakes you shoud know

Here are the Top Ten Mistakes in Search Engine Optimization:

1. Wrong Keywords are targeted – this is the most common mistake in Search Engine Optimization, even most experienced Search Engine Optimization experts make it. Most of the keywords chosen by the people for their websites are descriptive for their website, but they are too far from average users mind. For example for a relationship website the keyword ‘relationship guide’ won’t work even tough it contains the keyword ‘relationship.’ On the other hand ‘dating advice’ will work easily.

2. Using Java Script Menus – search engine do not read JavaScript, so build your website accordingly. You should go for sitemap i.e. putting your links in a noscript tag. Once doing so all your links will be crawable.

3. Flash website without html as alternate – one thing you should remember is that flash websites are attractive but not to search engines. If you want your Flash based website to be loved by the search engines then provide an html versions. The reason why search engine don’t like Flash sites is because spider can’t read Flash content and therefore can’t index it.

4. Title Tags are ignored – very often people leave <> tag empty. Instead leaving it empty this is one of the best place to have a keyword, because it not only help you out in optimization but also the text in the <> tag shows in the search results as your page title.

5. Meta-tags are past – it is a common myth that Search Engine Optimization is all about getting your Meta keywords and description correct. Meta tags are long gone now they are past and don’t except your website will be ranked well because of adding Meta keywords and description.

6. Ignoring URLs – URL plays an important role in your websites promotion. It is possible to have high rank even without keywords in the URL. But if you have keywords in the URL, (file name, domain name as part of the URL) gives you an additional advantage. For MSN and Yahoo keywords in URL are more important. Even for Google weight of URLs with keywords is more than that of the URLs without keywords.

7. Less keyword in content – put keywords wherever it makes sense and focuses more on keywords. It will be better to highlight them or make them bold.

8. Choose backlinks wisely – one of the most common fallacies is that more backlinks are always better. Because of this many web masters go for links with forum, newsgroup, link farm etc. ultimately leading the site to be banned. What you really need is quality backlinks.

9. Images for Headlines – an image in the headline can make your website look unique, but not in terms Search Engine Optimization. For search engines images in menus and headline are big mistakes because menu links and h2, h2 tags are important for SEO. If you are not sure how your h1, h2 tag will look like or you are afraid of that it will look horrible, try improving or modifying them in stylesheet instead of going for an image.

10. Consistency and maintenance – in the last but not least, most important to get rank in search engine is daily updates. To be successful optimize your site permanently and keep an eye on competition.

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The SEO Trends for 2009 you should Read and Know

Following the pace of change relating to search engine optimization — or SEO as it’s often called — can be dizzying.

Sure, there are landmark changes every once in a while that almost everyone hears about; Google’s introduction of “universal search”, in May 2007, is one example.

But Google says they made more than 400 changes to the ranking algorithm last year. Who can keep up with that?!

Luckily, you don’t have to keep up with every detail. But there are some important SEO trends you should know about as we go further into 2009. I’ll break the list down into two sections — Strategy and Tactics and Industry/Big Picture Trends - and then turn it over to you at the end.

Industry/Big Picture Trends

1. Increased SEO Awareness

SEO used to be something akin to voodoo; the only people who understood it were the ones doing it. But now it seems everyone knows about SEO. (Heck, even Wal-Mart offers SEO services!) As more small business owners become aware of what SEO is and why you should be doing it, competition should increase and put a premium on smart decision-making when it comes to doing SEO in-house or hiring a consultant.

2. Moving SEO In-house

On that note, in-house SEO has never been more popular than it is now, and that trend should continue into 2009. The upcoming SMX West search marketing conference even has an entire day devoted to in-house SEO. Companies big and small are recognizing the need for and value of having dedicated staff to recommend and implement SEO strategies.

3. SEO Consultants and Firms Booked Up

Many of us who don’t work in-house have never been busier than we are now. Because of trend No. 1 above, small business owners are hunting far and wide for SEO help. Purely anecdotal evidence, but something that many fellow SEO friends are experiencing: I usually get 2-3 emails a month from small business owners looking to hire an SEO. Last week alone I received five. There’s big demand and a lot of SEOs will be booked up.

4. It’s Google’s World

Google has dominated the SEO landscape for years, and their lead over Yahoo and Live Search is only getting bigger. There are several companies that try to track market share, and their numbers differ. But they all agree that between 60-70% of searches happen at Google. That doesn’t mean you should put all your SEO eggs in Google’s basket, but it does mean if you’re not being found on Google, you’re not being found.

5. SEO Tools & Automation

Hoping to take advantage of the growing interest in SEO, and the difficulty in finding the right consultant, more companies and individuals are creating online tools that automate portions of an SEO analysis. While some of these tools offer helpful data at a basic level, what matters most is how you use the data they provide.

6. SEO Scams

The downside of increased interest in SEO is that many small business owners will continue to spend money making unethical scam artists rich. $99/month for 500 directory links? $200 for search engine submission services? Don’t do it. Read what several search industry leaders had to say about SEO scams, and make sure this is one trend you avoid in 2009.

Strategy & Tactical Trends

7. Content = Authority (Still)

Links are the currency of SEO, and content is what attracts the links you need to rank well. When you rank well, you have authority. If you run a service-based business, you must be giving away your knowledge and expertise in the form of articles, blog posts, or other unique content that will attract links. If you run a retail web site, this still applies. Follow Amazon’s lead; I think they’re the SEO-smartest retailer online.

8. Content Variety …

I mentioned Google’s universal search at the start of this article, and other search engines have also been providing blended results for some time. What this means is that the Google search results page is no longer a list of 10 web page links; it now includes videos, news articles, blog posts, images, and more. In turn, this means that SEO isn’t just about tweaking your web site; it’s about creating and optimizing whatever forms of content make sense for your business and industry.

9. … Especially Video

The numbers are astonishing. YouTube gets more searches than Yahoo. About 100 million people watched videos on YouTube in October, and the average viewer watched 92 videos that month. eMarketer just reported that video is the number one tactic that US marketers will be focusing on in 2009. If you’re not doing it, chances are your competition will be.

10. Personalized Search Results

Personalization of search results has been simmering for a couple years now, but has started going mainstream recently. Google is leading the way with things like SearchWiki and Preferred Sites. Plus, things like your location, your recent searches, and which datacenter your search gets sent to can also impact the 10 search results you see at any given moment. It will continue to become more unusual to see the same 10 results when you and a friend in another state do the same search.

This renders ranking reports borderline useless. In other words, it’s no longer about whether your business is ranking for a certain search term at, say #2 in Google. Traffic and conversions are what you should be tracking, not what number you rank at for a specified term.

11. Local Search and Mobile Search

Mobile search has been on the way for years, but it never arrived. Until now. Mobile search used to be as fun as root canal, but the growth of smartphones - fueled by the iPhone - means mobile search is more enjoyable, more productive, and more popular than ever before. If your business appeals to people who might be searching on the go, local SEO should be a high priority for you in 2009.

12. Value of Your Audience and Community

Social media (sites such as Facebook and Twitter) isn’t going anywhere. And more of your potential customers are using it to make connections. You should be, too. By being active in online communities, you can develop an audience (look at the 38,000 followers Zappos has on Twitter!). When you do it right, that audience will help you push out your content (see No. 7 above), link to your content on occasion, tell their friends about you, and become your de facto marketing department.

Few small businesses will suddenly find themselves with 38,000 Twitter followers, but don’t underestimate the value of connecting with even 25, 50, or 100 people in the right online community.

What Others Say

Speaking of community: While writing this article, I asked my audience of Twitter followers to share their thoughts on SEO Trends for 2009. Here’s what they said.

@jfaris

@midnighttango

@MikeTek (read this one from the bottom up!)

@SimonHeseltine

@FrankReed

@lucasng

@Matt_Siltala

@karriflatla

They’ve had their say. I’ve had mine. Your turn: What SEO trends do you expect to see in 2009?

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How Using Website Analytics To Measure your SEO Success

I’ve previously discussed why rankings are a poor measure of success, but only touched upon how to instead use web analytics to measure SEO success. My hope is that once you have a good grasp of what to review and how to use that info, you’ll be more inclined to wean yourself (and your clients) off rankings reports once and for all!

For purposes of this article, let’s assume that you’ve already optimized your website for a number of keyword phrases across a variety of pages within your website. Let’s also assume that you’ve kept a list of those phrases handy, as you’ll need to refer back to them. In addition, let’s assume you’re using Google Analytics since more companies appear to be moving in that direction.

While heavy-duty analytics programs can be quite daunting at first because there’s so much data provided, for SEO purposes you can concentrate on just a few key areas when starting out. The place to start is the “traffic sources” section—more specifically, the “search engines” and the “keywords” sub-sections.

Clicking on the search engines sub-section will show you all the search engines that brought visitors to your website. If you’re running AdWords campaigns, be sure to click the “non-paid” link so that you can differentiate your organic traffic from your paid (you will have had to previously linked your Adwords account with your Analytics account in order for this to work). If you’ve done a decent job with your SEO, you’ll likely see most of the search engine traffic comes from Google, then Yahoo, then MSN with a bunch of smaller search engines trailing behind.

You can see how you’re doing with your keywords in all the search engines as a whole by then clicking the “dimension” dropdown box, and setting it for “keywords.”

This will show you all the keyword phrases that drove traffic to your website. As above, if you’re also doing paid search campaigns, be sure to click the tab that says “non-paid” so that you’re only looking at organic traffic. Depending on how many keywords are showing up, you may want to change your settings to show you 100 rows at a time (or more) so that you can have a good snapshot. By default, you’ll see the keyword phrases that have brought the most traffic at the top.

Are you seeing the keyword phrases (or some variation) for which you originally optimized? If they are not readily apparent, scroll down to the bottom and put an exact phrase or a word from one of your optimized phrases into the “find keyword: containing” box. Searchers use a variety of phrases at the search engines so you’re likely to see numerous related phrases that go beyond the exact ones for which you optimized. This is a good thing, and something that you don’t get from ranking reports.

For example, when reviewing the keyword phrases driving traffic to one of our clients’ websites, I found over 100 variations of one phrase for which we optimized, and they were all highly relevant to what the client offers.

Next, you’ll want to see which pages of your site are bringing keyword traffic and whether they are the specific ones for which you optimized. To view this, click on the “content overview” section and then on the right hand side of the page, under “landing page optimization” click on “entrance keywords.” This allows you to view specific stats for each page of your site.

The first screen is the entrance keywords for the page that receives the most pageviews (typically your home page), but you can click to other pages via the drop down box that says “content.”

If you don’t immediately see a page for which you are interested in viewing entrance keywords, you can type a word that you know is in the URL of that page in the search box that’s contained in the content dropdown. So if you’re looking for a page that has a file name of /green-widgets.php you can type just “green” or “widgets” into the search box and you’ll see all pages that have that word in the file name.

Now you should be able to see all the entrance keywords for that page. Are they ones (or variations of) those for which you optimized? If so, then your SEO is taking hold! If not, you’ll want to determine why. Perhaps it’s just too soon after your SEO work was completed. Perhaps they’re highly competitive phrases which will need more anchor text links pointing in.

Rankings don’t always equal traffic, and vice-versa

Something interesting that I’ve noticed a lot lately is that while my optimized pages are getting good search engine traffic for their optimized keywords, they may not show up in Google when I do a spot check of rankings. This is especially true of newly optimized pages. It seems that this could very well be personalized search in action. While I might not see the pages ranking in Google, others obviously are as the web analytics don’t lie. Had I been relying on rankings reports to measure our success, I would be thinking that not much was happening yet.

Of course, the best indicator of SEO success is conversions. Those can be measured via your analytics as well, so you’ll want to be sure to have all your forms’ thank you pages set up as conversion goals. That way, when you’re viewing the “traffic sources -> keyword” data, you can also click the “goal conversion” tab and learn very easily which phrases convert for you.

For those keyword phases that you find convert very well, you can work on additional optimization efforts to gain even more traffic. For phrases that don’t convert well, you may want to think about why they’re not converting. It’s possible that they’re simply too general, and thus you’re pulling in people who are just in the research phase, or it might be that they don’t accurately describe what you offer on your website.

Don’t forget about old-fashioned conversions!

In addition to using your web analytics, don’t forget to take note of any increases in emails and phone calls. That’s the best way to know if your SEO campaign is going as planned. Our clients typically call us up very happy within the first month or two to let us know that their phone has been unusually busy all of a sudden. This usually makes them happier than any ranking reports we used to send!

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21 Top SEO and Techniques Tips for Small businesses

Small businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization. But if you read a variety of small businesses blogs and Web sites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there’s also a lot of misinformation about SEO strategies and tactics.

This article is the second in a SEO checklist specifically for small business owners and webmasters. Naturally, this week addresses the “Do’s”—things to make sure you include whether you’re hiring an SEO company or doing it yourself.

Small Business SEO Checklist: The Do’s

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.

4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.

6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.

9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you’d like; it’s close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don’t appear on the page.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.

15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.

16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.

17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.

18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don’t spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.

19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.

20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google’s webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.

21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.

Your additions are welcome in the comments.

With this checklist and last week’s list of “Don’ts,” you should be able to develop a good plan of attack for your SEO efforts for your small business.

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How to find a Good Internet Marketing Affiliate Program and database web design?

Search engine play a vital role in internet marketing. Search engines are the primary marketing tools in this current business trend. The real success for your business and for your website lies in being search engine friendly. Nearly 90-95 percent of online transactions are succeeded by means of some top search engines only. The success or failure of a business completely relies on the website design. The more search engine friendly database web design, the more leads to your business.

Search engine optimization is not as simple as implementing meta keywords for each and every page. Top search engine placement is always a dream for those who think so. As a professional Search Engine Optimization Web Design Company, we implement all our SEO efforts, SEO strategies for your website’s prestigious search engine ranking. We make use of custom SEO tools for a professional website design.

The search engines or even web browsers can estimate the potentiality of your website by just going through your website’s home page. The content of the home page should be in such a way, that it makes the visitor mesmerising. After visiting your site, one should end his desired transaction there itself without a second thought. We will try our level best to implement the said strategy. Our web sites can be designed with full ecommerce facilities such as shopping carts and secure online payment facilities. We have experience of developing very large database driven site capable of supporting many coincident users.

We can develop database systems of any size from small access databases to large intranet/internet databases. We usually advocate the use of browser based database systems due to their flexibility. These do not require a connection to the Internet to function but can be run on any machine using a web server. The advantage of such a system is that they can easily be used to construct a database driven website at a later time.

Get you found specilaises in database web design. A database driven web site, as the name implies, uses a database to store the content of the web site. The web site may consist of a number of normal HTML pages and a number of templates. As these templates are displayed, code embedded in them queries the database and retrieves data which in turn is displayed within the template.

Get You Found offers and Internet consultancy service. If you are looking to get an online presence or just wish to develop your Internet strategy our experience can help. We understand that every customer's requirements are different and we offer unprejudiced advice on Internet related matters.

We build website designs with creativity and e-business in mind. Knowing that a boring web site development will be quickly ignored, our website design team shapes and molds a layout to control the viewer's focus and attention without overloading them. Simplicity is key. With a set structure, production moves ahead until the site is ready for testing and editing.

An internet marketing affiliate program is either an individual or merchant company that is willing to pay you a commission for selling their product or service for them. Some affiliate programs can be marketed offline, as well as online, however, most are designed to be put in front of internet audiences.

You would think that finding a good internet marketing affiliate program wouldn't be that big of a deal, however, there are definitely good affiliate programs and bad affiliate programs online, so it's very important that you get a "heads up" so you don't get ripped off.

There are, of course, many different methods of marketing affiliate programs. The most popular by far is email marketing. Email can send your marketing message to all four corners of the world in a matter of seconds, providing that it can get by the spam filters employed by most internet service providers. Another method for promoting an internet marketing affiliate program is by using pay per click advertising.

An affiliate program is one of the modules from internet marketing to generate inactive income. How it works is the website owners will pay a certain amount of commission to the affiliates for fetching traffic to the advertiser website or for subsequent dealings. These websites are owned by people and are called merchants, the ones who technically operate the affiliate program. You can join an affiliate program for free and start promoting the product immediately. A great affiliate program can go a long way in bringing revenue to a site.

Developing and managing an affiliate marketing program effectively could give you a real boost in your business results. Use these resources to learn how to plan and manage your affiliate marketing campaign. A successful affiliate marketing program takes time to build, but with a bit of effort it has the ability to increase your Internet sales noticeably. Learn how you can create a successful affiliate marketing program for your products and services. There are several ways that you can market an internet marketing affiliate program online.

Resource Box:There are several ways that you can market an internet marketing affiliate program online. database web design is the design of web pages, websites and web applications using HTML, images, and other media.

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21 Great SEO Tips From Google's Matt Cutts

This is a compilation of stuff Matt Cutts has said historically, I decided I'd dig backwards and document some of the older stuff. I dated it accordingly.

Here it is:

1. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/Matt recommends using dashes over underscores to delimit words in urls. 2005.Google does not algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url despite the fact that some have raised it as a possible heuristic for spam detection. I think WordPress pretty much precludes this anyway. 2005.


2. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-sneaky-javascript/Google takes action on individual instances of spam when they find it, but they focus on creating better algorithmic solutions. He states that he would not recommend using sneaky JavaScript redirects because your sites may get nailed in the near future. 2005.


3. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whats-an-update/Google updates their index data — including backlinks and PageRank all the time. However, they export and publish new backlinks and PageRank data approximately every three months. New backlinks and PageRank are meaningless — it is not an update. The information is likely already factored in for awhile before you see it. 2005.


4. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-nearly-hidden-text/Hiding text using similar colors and background colors can actually be worse than using the same colors. Using “#EEEEEE” instead of solid white on a solid white background can look worse — as if you’re trying to hide it. I suspect this is a heuristic for detecting hidden text. 2005.


5. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/q-a-thread-march-27-2006/If you sell links, Matt says you should use link condoms. Otherwise your reputation may fall. I assume this means they will devalue your outbound links. 2006.


6. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/Googlebot can only crawl the free portions that non-subscribed users can access since it does not log in. Therefore, be sure to excerpt material in the free version that that offers value. Vanessa Fox. 2006.


7. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/If you must use Flash, you must also make an HTML version available as well. Block the Flash version from the crawlers with a robots.txt file. Vanessa Fox. 2006.


8. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/Use user-friendly URLs like "african-elephants.html," and not "343432ffsdfsdfdfasffgddddd.html." Don't overdo it either — african-elephants-and-their-habitats-etc-etc-etc-etc.html. Vanessa Fox. 2006.


9. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/Assign unique, descriptive

10. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/Minimize the number of redirects upon hitting a URL. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

11. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/Minimize the number of URL parameters — 1-2 parameters if possible. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

12. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/Don’t use a parameter named “id=” in a URL for anything other than a session ID. Otherwise, it may not be included in the index. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

13. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/Earned-links are earned and given by choice. Google does consider buying text links for PageRank purposes to be outside our quality guidelines. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

14. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-analytics/Blackhat SEOs may be leery of using Google for analytics, but regular site owners should be reassured. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

15. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-link-follow-up/Google’s is against selling/buying links, and Matt indicates they are good at spotting them — both algorithmically and manually. Sites that sell links can lose their trust in search engines. 2006.

16. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-spam-in-other-languages/Google is focusing on detecting spam in other languages in 2006 — Italian, Spanish, Chinese, etc. 2006.

17. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-discussing-302-redirects/External (domainA -> domainB) 302 redirects are largely treated as 301s now. 2006.

18. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages — http://www.example.com/ vs. example.com vs. www.example.com/index.html. Since all these urls are different, a web server could return completely different content for all the urls above. When Google “canonicalizes” a url, it tries to pick the best one and elimintes the others. To help Google, link to resources on a site consistently, and use 301 redirects to enforce it. 2006.

19. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/Do not use the URL removal tool to remove domain.com if you are worried about URL canonicalization and have both domain.com and http://www.domain.com/ in the Google index. This will remove the entire site. 2006.

20. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/Search engines can perform canonicalization for things like keeping or removing trailing slashes, upper vs. lower case, or removing session IDs from bulletin board or other software. 2006.

21. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/sitemaps-interview/404s (Gone, but may reappear) are treated the same as 410s (Gone, but will not reappear). Most web masters use 404s as 410s anyway. 2006.

Following these tips will probably help you rank better, so long as you actually trust Matt Cutts. I'd assert it's wise to approach some of his advice with skepticism, since I'm sure Google gives him guidelines as to what he can actually say, but following the advice above won't get you into any trouble.

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Search Engine Optimization And Meta Tags And Search Engine Submit

Every search engine uses it’s own, very specific algorithm to index the websites. All major search engines keep updating their search algorithms quite frequently to give their searchers the best searching experience. Your website’s place in the search result pages depends on it’s calculation from the algorithm it follows. These algorithms are not changing everyday but are evolving into more intelligent and accurate. Yet, the major focus is on the Meta tags of the site.

Site Submission

These Meta tags are not visible when someone browses your web page but the search engines read these Meta tags alone and decide the place of a web page on its search result pages. It does so by finding the relevance of the Meta tags within them and with its contents. The most important Meta tags are the title, description and keywords. The first thing a search engine looks for is to find a relevance in these meta tags by looking at the keywords used in them and secondly it looks the relevance of the keywords used in these meta tags with the contents of the page.

Increase Website Traffic

The Title Tag

The title is the most important Meta tag of your website. This is the first thing shown on a web page and this is visible to both your visitor and most importantly to the search engine. That’s why it has to be given the utmost importance while search engine optimization is the consideration.

It is always depicted on the left top bar of in the browser window. This tag should include the most relevant keyword about your business. If the most relevant keywords are used in here, your web site will sure get a boost in a search.

Most websites use their company name in the title which in fact, is not something desirable. Because, nobody usually searches for a company name unless it is very well known or some giant multinational.

The perfect title tags should be something between 10-70 characters. It is not so that one can not put a longer title but the search engine would ignore the longer part of the title.

The Title tag should be written for the visitors (people searching for your business or services) first and the search engines second. This should be such as to motivate a click and obviously to favor the search engine indexing too.

Different title tags should be assigned to each page of your website containing its own keywords that relate to that specific page.

Description tag

The description tag should be written in such way that it speaks about the website contents in just one or two sentences.
It should be short and clear that your visitors get a close idea about your site by reading this in a short time.

The description tag should be 100 to 200 characters long. The Meta description tag also has a great role in the SEO of your page. This tag displays the information at a search engine result page (SERP) after a search is performed by a user. So, this should be such as this puts the concise summary of your page. Most search engines truncate longer Description. Remember this while writing this tag.

Same as above every page should have a different description tag in accordance with the contents it holds. This tag has quite some effect on the ranking of your site in Search Engine results. The Search Engine will read your description tag and will check if the keywords or search terms match your title tag and content of your web site. My suggestion is to take the first sentence or two of the contents from your web page and use that for the Meta description content.

Include the most relevant sentences matching with the page contents in description tag instead of stuffing the tag with more keywords. Remember that the Meta Description Tag of a web page must not look just a bunch of keywords, but should contain an informative and concise summary of your web page.

Keywords Tag

The most heavily sought technique in Search Engine Optimization process is Keyword optimization. But at the same time if keywords are too often repeated, chances are that the site gets marked out as “”spam”". However, if your target keyword are not included enough, its ranking will not be optimized. So, with present algorithms which are really smart and intelligent include only those relevant keywords you want to target and make sure that these are included in the contents too.

Use variations of a keyword like watch, watches, wrist watch etc. They are slightly changed keywords and yet don’t render any feeling to the search engine for their being repeated in the tag.

Geographical information (name of the country, city or place) may be used in the keywords. Sometimes it plays a great role when a search is made for a location based business. Or, even brand names, model name of a product can be used in this tag. That also helps when a search is made for a specific product model or brand.

Search engines give different weights to the keywords according to their positions in HTML tags used in the content. For example if a keyword is used in this tag which is present in Heading Tag also has more weight particularly when the same is in H1 tag.

Write your Alt tags of the images and the text links being used in the page such that it includes at least one keyword from the keyword tag. But, remember the same should look just relevant with the image or the hyper link for which it has been written.

The content should have included all of your keywords. The aggregate keyword density (all the keywords used in keyword tag) should be between 20% to 30% but not less than 5% to the best optimized results. However, Density for a single keyword should not be less than 2% and higher than 6%. The best is about 5% with the major keywords and 2% with subsequent keywords.

The Meta tags should be fine tuned with the contents and a good relevance is brought about between themselves with a perfect balance between the target audience and the search engines.

These Meta tags have been used really very un-carefully by the spammers, if we commit to use them methodically with the due respect, I hope, we should be able to create ever increasing web traffic on our sites.

Don’t forget to submit your site to all the search engines on the internet.

Grab expert tips about web traffic - your personal knowledge base.

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Google algorithm update Vince favors Big Brands

Recently there was a rumor on the Internet that there has been a change in Google algorithm which seems to be helping big brands for ranking on major keywords. Matt Cutts, the Head of Search Quality group in Google, confirmed in the following video that the rumor was indeed true, and Google ranking algorithm update named ‘Vince’ is responsible for the sudden boost in rankings for big companies for major keywords.


As Matt Cutts explains in the video, this is not a major Google update, but just one of the over 300 changes which Google carries out a year to enhance the quality of their search results. He further explains that this change does not favor any specific brands, but rather gives a boost in rankings based on relevant criteria such as trust, authority, PageRank or reputation.
Here, you can read the complete transcript of Vince Update.

Technorati Tags: Google, algorithm, ranking, update, Vince, PageRank

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The Facts About Title Keyword Density

If you’ve done much SEO work for your website, I’m sure you’ve realized just how important it is to include the right text in the <> tag of each page.


As discussed in this article, it is a good idea to build each of your pages around its own primary keyphrase, and somehow incorporate that keyphrase into your <> tag. The question is, of course, what’s the best way to integrate it? The problem is that each search engine has its own unique answer.


MSN (aka Live.com) is generally thought to reward very high keyword density, and often grants top-five rankings to pages with 100% density in the title (that is, pages where the primary keyphrase is the only thing in the title bar).


Google, on the other hand, seems to make a point of devaluing pages on keywords that exactly match their <> tag. This measure was most likely introduced as a way to fight search engine spammers who over-optimize for a single phrase, by excessively placing it in their content, headings, and title.


Overall, you need to make an informed decision about which optimization route you want to take for each of your sites. As mentioned in the algorithm summaries, MSN is a good choice for driving short-term traffic and revenue, while Google has a lot more potential for long-term sustainable content websites.


If you want to optimize for Google, my advice would be to go for title keyword density of around 50%, and no greater than 75%. For example, if your primary keyphrase is three words long, you many wish to add another three-word phrase to your title, consisting of secondary keywords.

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Guide On Article Writing : How to make outlines

Making outlines if a fundamental writing skill. Outlines can be useful for anything that you write including articles, essays, and research papers. Outlining is one of the most basic and first techniques taught to young writers to help them organize their thoughts and structure their arguments. Unfortunately, although outlining is one of the first skills we learn, not all people make them while writing.


The Internet has placed a new emphasis on writing. Most websites rely on the written word to get across their messages. Writers that write clear, concise, and to the point articles get rewarded. All of these reasons reinforce the need for people to gravitate to writing better by using outlines. Yet some people still do not.


Although challenging, writing could be a very rewarding career. It is indeed funny to think that some people would choose to work at some sort of menial job rather than sit down with a pen and write. Those who do write, enjoy the freedom of being able to work wherever they choose to along with unlimited potential for creativity.


Creating outlines before immediately starting to write is a good way to gather your ideas and organize your thoughts. Having a well-prepared outline makes writing go smoothly because of the prep time you already put in to carefully plan the sequence of your thoughts.


An outline serves as a framework for your article. It helps you in structuring the introduction, body and conclusion of your article. While outlining, you can and should write down just about anything that comes to your mind about your topic. The next step is to organize this collection of ideas.

Here are some tricks on how to effectively outline :

Jot down everything in your head. Do not worry about it making sense. Just go ahead and squeeze out all you can from your brain. Take all the time you need but remember you might have a deadline, so manage your time wisely.

Label your thoughts. After gathering your ideas on a subject matter, think about what would make these ideas pop out to the reader. In this stage, go for captivating words for your subtitles.
Connect the dots. You now have everything you need to start working on the article. So start on sequencing your collected thoughts and make logical sense of them.

Write a draft. This is your trial and error stage, and with practice, eventually you might end up just doing this once.

Proofread your work. A good writer always make sure that the message you want to be delivered to your readers are perfectly conveyed, which is why you need to recheck for grammatical errors and place the right punctuations in stressing out your point.

Have fun making your outlines and most importantly, enjoy writing!

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SEO is Changing - For better? Or For Worse?

It has begun (it begun a few months ago, just a little late on the blog update , Google is slowly changing the way we look at search and search engine optimization.

A few blog posts on SEOmoz speak to this directly. Here are some things to look for that lead to this conclusion.

1) On the top right of the search results, above the number in the keyword index, you will see “personilized search results” or “search results for X(X=metropolitan area).

What does this mean for you? What does this mean for SEO? Two quick throughs:

1a) Your personalized search results will show sites that Google belives you will like. So in theory, if my clients are showing up on your personalized search results, my clients will be directly infront of the people they want to be….the consumer. This is not a bad thing

1b) If geo targeted search results are appearing based on target market and demographic information, then we are in a win win! My clients might see less traffic because their not ranking in the same positions all across the nation. However, if people in Montana buy WIDGET X more than people in Washington. My client is ranking in Montana and not Washington, thats where i would want them to be anyway.

So….As Google changes….as long as your wearing your white hat i believe everything will work out for the best!

Enjoy, and more info to come on this subject.

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Web page design

Promoting a poorly built site is much like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in it with water. You'll never succeed unless you plug the holes before pouring the water in. In order for your site to 'hold water', you must succeed
in creating a good, clean web page design and interesting & original content. I will not discuss web page design in depth here, because there are plenty of other sites devoted entirely to that subject in the Net. However, I thought it might be useful to include some general suggestions on how to fine-tune your design.

Despite the fact that design can heavily affect the success of a site, I'm one of those who believe that a site rises or falls depending on its content. Jakob Nielsen's Useit.com has become very popular despite the visually unattractive design he uses. Users will forgive many design issues if the content is good, but if it's bad, no design tricks can save you. Thus, we'll take a look at creating content first before moving on to the design stuff..

Good content is essential in website promotion
When you are starting to build your site, it's important to choose a topic that you are interested in and are familiar with. If your site is about something that doesn't interest you at all or you aren't really familiar with the topic, the user can usually see it and deem your site to be worthless. Besides, building a site about a topic you're not interested in will be a pain, and updating it will be even more frustrating. But if you want your site to be popular, in addition to interesting you the site must interest other people.

If your site is about yourself, or a special topic with limited interest to the vast majority of population, it isn't going to be a big hit. So explore what people are interested in, and if you happen to be interested in the same thing, try building a site about it. A good place to find out what other people are interested in is Search Engine Watch's "What people are searching"-section.

When you have decided on the topic of your site and start to write, keep in mind that spelling is an essential part of good content. Even if your thoughts are brilliant, a bunch of typos might ruin the professional look of your site. So try to use a spell checker if possible and fix any errors you find. Also make sure that the text flows naturally and is easy to read. It is annoyingly easy to write a grammatically correct text that is nearly impossible to read - forgetting to divide it into paragraphs and use sub-headings every now and then is a good way to achieve this.

Unfortunately, creating content is unlike creating a web page design in some ways. A nice design can be used for several years, but even the best content tends to get stale after a while. You have probably stumbled upon some of those funny articles that were written in 1998 and just forgotten on the web. They might have been top-notch at the time they were written, but time has degraded them into little more than a joke.

What I'm trying to say is that static content is dead content; you should try to update old articles with new information every now and then. This rule applies to most sites, but not all - a site reviewing the newest computer hardware would probably want to archive its articles for users to browse, but there would be little sense in updating the older articles at a later date.

While this process of keeping old information up to date is important, it should not prevent you from creating completely new articles. People that regularly visit your site love to see completely new stuff, so you should try to give it to them. Don't think that the building process of your site ends when you put it on the web - think that it has only just really begun.

Polishing your web page design
As stated above, I tend to focus more on content than design, but no siteowner in their right mind should completely forget the design aspect. While a bad design might not drive away your regular visitors, provided that your content is good enough, new visitors might be so 'shocked' from a poor design that they won't even take the time to actually read your articles. I'm not going to write about issues like how to choose the best colors, or how to create nice-looking graphics. Like I pointed in the beginning of this article, there are specialized sites for that purpose. But nevertheless, let's take a look at some of the basics:

The first objective is to ensure that the users can easily and quickly access your content. If possible, you should aim for the possibility to move from one page of the site to any other page on the site with one click. I have implemented this by placing links to most of the content pages on this site to the left side of every page.

Naturally, sites that have very large amounts of pages cannot use the same method, but you should at least make sure that users don't get lost on your site. It's usually very useful to have someone other than yourself test the navigation system and give their opinion about it. I've often created navigation systems that seem to work perfectly, but later noticed that I'm the only one who knows how to use them :).

If it's broken, fix it
The second objective is to correct any broken images and links. In my opinion, broken images make a site look like a house that has two broken windows and a lawn that is never mowed - either there has been nobody to take care of it for a long time, or that someone is damn lazy.

Broken links on the other hand won't damage the visual appearance of your site, but they will make using the site a pain in the ass. Broken links within your site are a very bad mistake, and you should try to do everything in your power to prevent them from appearing. One good way to do this is to try to change the filenames of your pages as rarely as possible.

You should try to constantly keep an eye on your in-site links, but especially when you have just made changes that have required you to change the filenames of your pages. For people who have access to their site's log files, this task is a bit easier - the log file shows if some page was requested from your site but was not found, usually meaning that you have a broken link somewhere on your site.

Links to outside your site get broken more easily, since you have no control over the pages of other sites. It is understandable if your site contains some broken links to out-site material, but try to correct them as soon as you are made aware of their presence. A nice method is to use an automatic link-checker to check all links on your pages for possible broken links; there are several free programs that do this out there.

A few more hints
The third objective is not to overload your pages with stuff. Many people fill their pages with blinking banner ads (often 3 or more), several different font types and sound files. Remember not to stuff too many things on one page, because not everyone has a T3 connection at home. If it takes too long for pages to load, users will not wait, they'll leave. I'm not saying you should only have plain text, but do think before you start adding more and more stuff. Sometimes less is more!

Fourth, validate your HTML code. It ensures that your site works on all browsers and platforms. Unfortunately, it will not ensure that your web page design looks good in all screen resolutions, so I suggest you test your pages in different resolutions. A page that looks extremely good in 1024x768 might be annoying to use in 800x600.

The final thing I'd like to say is: Get someone else to look at it. There are many places on the 'Net where you can find people who are willing to look at your site and comment about it for free. The Usenet newsgroup alt.html.critique is an example of a place where users may request feedback about their site, but several others exist as well. Use them to your advantage, because it's often hard to look objectively at one's own creations. I can't count the times the advice of other people has greatly helped my design work

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