My world of SEO

(SEO) Myths

2009-07-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

SEO Myth: Your top ten search engine ranking can be guaranteed
The Truth: Some SEO firms will advertise a "guarantee" to have you listed in the top ten rankings. No one other than the search engines themselves can guarantee any ranking. Don't believe it. Trust their results for other clients and make your decision from actual client successes, not empty promises and guarantees.

SEO Myth: In-House SEO Is Cheaper
The Truth: SEO professionals can get higher rankings faster because Search Engine Optimization and Marketing is complex, technical and has a steep learning curve. We also place a team at your disposal, including a copywriters, developers and SEO specialists and unless you have a room full of marketing staff dedicated to SEO it is hard to keep up. How much is 10, 15, 20 hours a month worth to you in a dollar amount? SEO professionals make you money by saving you that time and effort, at a cost you can afford.

SEO Myth: Search Engine Leads Are Worth Less Than Other Leads
The Truth: Search Engine leads are the probably the most qualified leads, because they come from people searching for the exact products and services which the search engines have you indexed. They are looking for you, not the other way around. Keep in mind you must be targeting the right keywords, but that is the job of your SEO firm, to help you choose the right keywords.

SEO Myth: Websites are optimized while they are being developed.
The Truth: A small percentage of designers and developers actually optimize pages for the search engines while they are building. Most search engine optimization is done after the fact, if at all. As many as 60% of all sites are not properly optimized to rank high in the search engines, so anything you do to optimize your site puts it ahead of your competitors who don't.

SEO Myth: Simply inserting keywords in the keyword meta tag will help list your site for that keyword
The Truth: Most major search engines do not spider or index the keyword meta tag and those that do, if the keyword is not also in the copy of the same page, it's considered spam which could lower your rankings, not raise it. At best the keyword tag is used by directories when submitting your site.

SEO Myth: The more times you repeat the keyword in the page, the higher it will rank.
The Truth: This is a little tricky since each algorithm uses different factors for ranking. A keyword density of 3 to 15% is recommended for tweaking the page for higher placement (depending on the individual search engine). Combined with other optimization efforts and tweaks, the proper keyword density will get listed higher. A keyword density that is too high will get listed lower or penalized.

SEO Myth: Hidden links or text in a page can get your page ranked higher.
The Truth: Keyword stuffing and hidden links in the page can get your site penalized or banned if detected. It is considered spamming by some engines. Most people think it's not worth the risk.

SEO Myth: The more reciprocal links to other sites you have, the higher your Google page rank goes.

The Truth: Outbound links to related and unrelated sites are factored into page rank. Unreciprocated links count higher than reciprocated links. The more quality inbound links to your site, the higher the PR, but nobody knows exactly how Google factors their PR and their algorithm is constantly adjusted. A million links to and from unrelated sites could drop your PR and if your site is found linking to obvious FFA or link farms, your site could be penalized as being 'guilty by association'.

SEO Myth: You don't need to update your site to keep your rankings.
The Truth: By routine maintenance (removing outdated material, fixing broken links, queries, etc.) and updating your pages regularly, you are signaling the bots and crawlers to come back and re-crawl your site for changes to their listings. To maintain high standings, you need to keep at it and tweak the pages for better results if necessary. If neglected, your standings could easily slip out of the top rankings as new competing sites get indexed and optimized.

SEO Myth: You can achieve higher rankings on a keyword without changing the code or content of the pages in your site.
The Truth: Not likely for long. Any elevated results will be temporary. If you want to steadily improve your ranking, you must make changes to your site that help the search engines spider it. You might temporarily raise your ranking by running regular queries and reports on search engines for your keywords but steady results are dependent on your willingness to optimize and tweak the code and content of your pages. A simple thing like fixing broken links can contribute to elevating your listings. It's one of the most overlooked search engine tweaks. Search engines will not continue to spider a site when it runs into a number of broken links.

Inbound Link building

2009-04-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hopefully you will have read the fascinating story of search-advantage and how they have used Ecademy to boost their search engine ranking by linking.

This story alone proves the success sites are having with boosting their Search Engine positioning using links. However, once you have built your Ecademy link, what next? What else can you do to build quality inbound links?

The keywords here are quality and inbound. Preferably one way links, so they link to you and you don't have to link back. This kind of link is seen more as an endorsement rather than a two way link which is seen more as a commercial transaction.

So how do you get one way quality inbound links?

To be really honest, it is a fairly simple process yet will take time and you will want it to take time. Having no links one day and have 2,000 links the next does not look natural to any search engine and could flag your site as a bit spammy. Use the four techniques below to drive links to your site slowly. Make sure you do all four techniques, as in this way, you will be building a huge array of links for different sources. Some of these sources will take on a life of their own and you will start to get links automatically.

Technique 1

One of the best ways to get quick inbound links and traffic is to write and submit articles to Article Directory sites. There are lots of sites which are set up just to collect content. They allow visitors to copy the content and use it on their own websites.

You will add a resource box at the bottom of each article and it is here that you will be able to add links directly to your site. Normally you can have two links so use one for the home page and one for a product page. Keep them relevant to your business.

There are literally hundreds of article databases on the web where you can submit articles too. There are even tools to do this automatically for you.

Technique 2

Press Releases are a great way of getting inbound one way links for Newswires and it may also get picked up by Google News. You will not only get inbound links but real traffic directly from the stories you publish.

The best place to start submitting Press Releases is to PRWeb.

Technique 3

Submitting your site to Web Directories. These are a great way of building inbound links. Some charge a fee and some are free. For fee paying links, pay to be listed in the Yahoo! Directory. You can easily find hundreds of directories relevant to your site by searching Google. All the links for Web Directories will link to your home page but still mix up the link text. This works better than anything else and shows you are building links naturally.

Technique 4

Finally, you can buy inbound text links. Now while this sounds like the easier option, do not solely rely on this source of links - you still need to implement the other techniques to really make it work. They vary in price and are usually charged on a monthly basis. Make sure any links you do buy are only from topic related sites. Having links in from sites outside your industry will not do you any favours. You can find other Link sellers on Google if you search for Link Brokers.

In summary, these techniques are easy to implement into your marketing strategy and there are many ways to outsource all of this work.

SEO Three Essentials

2009-02-18T07:19:00.000-08:00

There are of course many factors that go into your online success; everything from lead generation to having the proper advertising system in place. However there is one element which you will find indispensable to your online success and that is web site search engine optimization commonly referred to as SEO.

SEO refers to the process of constructing your website in such a way that it is looked at favorably by search engines like MSN, The Google and Yahoo. This in turn leads to higher rankings, more internet traffic and free advertising for your website. What makes seo optimization so important is the fact that over 80% of your site traffic will arrive via the search engines. For this reason alone, having a good web site seo strategy in place is essential.

There are a variety of factors you need to consider when putting together your strategy but these three standout in particular:

1. Keyword Prominence

Where do your keyword search terms show up first? Usually the closer your keywords appear to the top of the page, the more prominence search engines give them. This is because they crawl the html code of your site before the content. Putting keyword search terms into places such as your title can give you a distinct advantage over other webmasters who only use keywords in their content. The trick is not to overdo it by stuffing too many keywords (or worst keyword search terms that have no relation to your web content) into the head tags of your html code.

2. Inbound Link

Back in the day, it was vital to get reciprocal links to your website. Search engines placed a lot of importance on who you were linking to and vice versa. Not anymore. Instead of link exchange, search engines are placing more value on inbound links commonly referred to as backlinks. In essence, search engines view this as a kind of referral system. One site is recommending another without having to reciprocate.

To make backlinks really work, you must get them from sites which already rank well in the search engines. All of this does not mean reciprocal links are of no value. A quality link exchange is still looked upon favorably by the search engines and you should definitely use this technique for your website. But concentrate on getting those inbound links first and foremost.

3. Web Site Content

While search engines do value your keyword prominence and amount of backlinks to your site it still comes down to what's on your webpage. The internet is at the dawning of a video revolution but that only means more information will be required. Content is king and will be for a long time.

Write as many unique and quality articles as possible and place them on your website. If you want to, you can outsource this process or just visit the article directories and find content related to your niche and use it on your website. Be sure to read the term and conditions in regards to using other people's articles. Grow your web content slowly, so it looks more natural to the search engines. Update the information frequently.

The importance of web site search engine optimization cannot be overstated. A site that is ranked favorably can bring in tons of free internet traffic. Evaluate your keyword prominence; focus on getting good inbound links while concentrating on providing useful web site content and the search engines will start bringing more and more internet traffic to your website.

Search Engine Friendly

2009-02-02T05:22:00.000-08:00

When you have an Internet business, you need to prepare a quality website. This is actually quite easy to do, and this article will explore 5 methods that the experts use to build a search engine friendly website.

"Search engine optimization" is a term that you want to become very familiar with. Your website will be continually optimized by the search engines, based on what you do with your site. When you create your website, you will want to pay attention to things like keyword phrases, design and layout.

Here are several ideas to optimize your website so that your business and the search engines will both benefit.

1. First, the amount of time that your domain name has been registered makes a difference. When your domain name passes over the 2 year mark in age, the engines will like this.

Search engines like to see domains that have been around for a while and have withstood the test of time.

2. Niche marketing is a favorite term these days and it is an important consideration when designing your search engine friendly website. You will want to focus on a niche market with targeted visitors.

3. You need to pick keyword phrases that coincide with your site's theme. In doing so, you will rank higher for those keywords and your site will be more search engine friendly.

Find out what keyword phrases your potential visitors are searching for and build a keyword list based on this. You will need to build a large keyword list that you can add onto. You will need these keywords as you continue to add pages to your site.

4. Keep your target market in the back of your mind when you are creating your website. Your site will follow a general theme and this theme should be consistent from page to page.

If a person moves between pages on your website, they should feel like they are on the same site. You want to make sure that things like font style, font size and background color are the same throughout your entire website.

5. Professional Internet marketers will create an SEO friendly website that has good and unique content. This is what the engines love. A website that contains original quality content will consistently rank high with the search engines.

Remember also that you can always create unique content by adding your own affiliate links, PPC text links and banners.

This is 5 ways that the pros will use to build an SEO friendly website. Follow these 5 methods and your website will generate lots of income for you.

2008 Seo Tips

2009-01-01T18:04:00.000-08:00

SEO Tip #1: Make Google Alerts Your Personal Online Spy

Google Alerts is a great way to let the world's biggest search engine be your personal online spy. This takes search engine optimization insider info to whole new level. Here's an excerpt straight from Google....

"Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

* monitoring a developing news story
* keeping current on a competitor or industry
* getting the latest on a celebrity or event
* keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams"

As you probably guessed, it's the second one we care about most, "keeping current on a competitor or industry."

Here's how it works... Each time Google finds a reference to the query or topic you request you will be sent an email with the details. This is like having an online spy to make sure competitors are not using your protected keywords (trademarked names, company names, etc.) It's also an instant identifier to know when your site or product is mentioned in a news story or even when a topic is hot so you can take advantage of the situation. It's the easiest way in the world to stop competitors' dirty tricks and identify trends that you can take instant advantage of.

It's fast, free and works every minute of every day. Let Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) do your most time consuming legwork while you reap the rewards!

SEO Tip #2: Optimize Your 404 Page and Always Be Found

"Error 404: Page Not Found" is a blessing that most Webmasters curse. Why? Getting a visitor on any page of your site is fantastic! Don't blow the opportunity. Not only can you make your "404" page a valuable sales tool, you can use the following search engine optimization techniques to attract customers in droves.

A.) Use your main keyword in your title, add a "pipe" (usually above the Enter key) and then use your secondary keyword. Here's as example for an SEO site "SEO - Search Engine Optimization Tips"

B.) Add some keyword rich content using one to two keywords for the page. If you have less than 250 words on the page, just use one keyword and use it no more than three times total. Bold the first use and italicize the second or third use. Keep in mind this is an "inactive" page so simply tell the visitor what your site is about and whet their appetite with a good description. Something like this works well... "Thank you for visiting SEO (bold) Group, Inc.

We are sorry you landed on a missing page but don't worry, if you're looking for the very best search engine optimizations tips (bold), you're at the right place..." This will go on for a couple paragraphs or as long as you'd like then end it with something to the effect of "Please Click Here (link) to visit our site map or click any link to the left."

C.) Add your site's standard navigation system (bar, column, etc.) as mentioned above.

D.) Make the look and feel of the customized 404 page match your main site as closely as possible with a template, matched palette, cascading style sheets, etc.

E.) Create a link to the site map page if available, and make the link easy to find. You want your visitor off the 404 page and into your main content as quickly as possible.

Setting up a custom 404 page link usually takes less than five minutes on most major Web hosting companies like Godaddy.com. But whatever it takes, it's worth the effort.

SEO Tip #3: Get (Even More) Serious About Linking

I saved the most important for last. If you want to do well on any search engine, especially Google, linking is THE single MOST important thing you can do. It's that simple.

Here are the five things you MUST do to make your site #1 on Google:

A.) Find the highest page rank sites linking to your site AND your competitors' sites.

B.) Run monthly link campaigns and snatch up the best of the above identified Web sites.

C.) Run regular checks on what pages are still linking back to your site. Alsomake sure they did not move you from a high page rank page to a lower one (don't get cheated!)

D.) Eliminate any penalized sites you link to; ASAP!

E.) Check your search engine ranking AND your competitor's for each of your keywords every week. Do this, at the minimum, for Google, Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista.

Inside Tip: Keeping up can be a lot of work so a lot of SEO Consultants use SEO Elite to do all the most difficult and time consuming work.

One last thing to know is that Google was originally a college student's project created for the sole purpose of defining a Web site's value by the sites that link to it. Twelve years later this is still it's main job. Linking is EVERYTHING to Google.

These few SEO tips are the very best of the best so use them wisely. Best of luck!

Search Engine Positioning Strategy

2008-11-27T09:02:00.000-08:00

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that search engine optimization is a hit and miss proposition. It is a fine marketing art that anyone can learn and search engine optimization techniques. They are used to exponentially increase sales and membership conversions. To make a big profit on the Internet it is crucial that you try and maintain your site within the top ten page rankings in search engines and directories. Eighty percent of all web traffic comes from Internet searches done on these engines and directories.

To get your site within those top ten rankings you need to follow a progressive SEO strategy. The general approach is to include your search engine optimized language in the form of key words in your web page’s titles, descriptions and Meta tags. A meta-tag is a piece of HTML cod that is created specifically to help bring your web page to a search engine spider’s attention. The spiders and bots will notice these tags but they are not visible to people who view your site.

However to make life complicated there is some debate about whether or not you actually need to use meta-tags on your web pages. This is because there is a belief out there that the major search engines are changing the way they search pages as inserting meta-tags in your copy is considered to be an unfair advantage over sites that might be just as legitimate as yours. Still to be on the safe side the insertion of meta-tags into your copy should still probably be an essential component of your search engine positioning strategy.

Yet another strategy is to also put in as many links as you can to other websites as the search engine spiders love sites that contain lists of links to other sites and rank them higher in the search engine ranking pages. The higher your ranking is, the more money you will make as a web business as you will maximize the number of visitors to your web site.

DoFollow VS NoFollow

2008-10-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been doing any kind of reading about link building, then you’ve probably seen people mentioning “nofollow” and “dofollow” links. These are very important terms to understand when you are trying to build great links back to your site in order to increase your search engine rankings. But, to the person who is new to all of this, it may be kind of confusing. I am going to help break it down for you.

When creating a link on a webpage using HTML, the standard code,

It includes the HTML tag, the URL the link will be going to, the text that will be shown on the webpage for that link, and the closing HTML tag.

You are able to add more HTML to the code above, in order to tell the search engine spiders whether or not you want them to follow the link when crawling your website. You may be thinking… “Why wouldn’t I want the search engine spiders to see all of the links on my site?” This is a very valid concern, which I will address further down. First, I am going to show you how to modify the HTML in order to tell the search engine spiders to crawl a link or not.

To tell the spiders to crawl a link, you don’t have to do anything. Simply using the format shown above, the search engine spiders will crawl the link provided.

To tell the spiders to NOT crawl a link, you need to add the following code to the HTML code above:

rel="nofollow"

It would then look like:

Basically, there is no true “dofollow”, it is just NOT using the “nofollow” tag.

Why does this matter?
When you are using different methods (hopefully from this site) in order to build links on other websites (to increase your search engine rankings), you need to determine if the websites you are attempting to get your site listed on use the “nofollow” tag or not. If they do, it may still be a good idea to try to get that link there, but it is generally regarded as not the best use of time since the search engines don’t follow that link and you don’t get any increase in search engine rankings from that link.

So, when you are looking for sites and blogs that you could leave your link on (through reciprocal links, commenting on a blog, directory submissions, buying links, etc) figure out if the links in the particular section of the site you are aiming for uses “nofollow” or not.

Why wouldn’t I want the search engine spiders to see all of the links on my site? (Or, Why would I use “nofollow”?)

There are many reasons you would want to use the “nofollow” tag, such as:
1) Paid Links: This is recommended by Google. Essentially, your sites page rank give a small amount of rank juice to the sites you link to (which helps their search engine ranking, which is the purpose of link building, to get that juice from others). If you have a paid link on your site, it’s essentially buying a higher rank in Google. They don’t like that.

2) Maybe in your blog’s comment section (if using most blog software, this is automatic). It is up to you if you want your commentators to get link juice back to their site. It is personal preference.

3) When linking to major, very popular sites. If you are linking to google.com, yahoo.com, digg.com (the front page), cnn.com, or whoever else, they are already popular, so you might as well use “nofollow” since your link won’t make or break them.

I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to comment...

Tools for SEO

2008-10-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

SEO tools enable you to cut down the amount of hours it takes to provide quality keyword research, analyse your competition and backlinks. They allow you to spend the extra time you have been given to optimise your website more, focus on increasing the amount of backlinks you have to your website in turn allowing you to increase your search engine ranking quicker.

SEO tools give you a large amount of flexibility and choice, providing you with large quantities of useful information to make your job easier. For anyone that doesn't currently use SEO tools now is the time to start.

I use a variety of SEO tools, they have helped me exceedingly since I first started performing SEO on my websites and other websites. These next 5 SEO tools are the tools which I use on a daily basis.

The first tool I advise you to use is Keyword elite now you may be put of by the price of the software. However don't be if your really focused on achieving that number one spot on the search engines you are going to need a piece of software or SEO tool which will be able to find you quality keywords for you to take advantage of.

Keyword elite is built by one of the best SEO guru's Brad Callen he is also the creator of SEO elite which I shall talk about later. Keyword elite allows you to do several things, and it helps to cut down your work load. With Keyword elite you can quickly and successfully using one primary keyword find 100 to 10,000 related keywords which will help for you to become the number one competitor in the market.

The second tool I recommend is SEO quake, now SEO quake is free to download and comes as a firefox plug in don't worry if you don't use firefox then you can also download it for internet explorer to. What SEO quake allows you to do is obtain and investigate important SEO parameters of any internet project you have going. This means you can easily check how many pages Google has indexed on any website, the alexa rank and much more.

The third tool I recommend is Wordtracker now this is another Keyword research tool which has held the largest market share for keyword research tools in the past. Wordtracker is available at a monthly or yearly rate unlike Keyword elite which is a one of fee. So if you don't have the money for Keyword elite then perhaps this is a better option.

Wordtracker allows you to mine and extract thousands of keywords to uncover hidden keywords which have low competition and high amounts of daily searches. This allows you to increase traffic by exploiting these keywords in the search engines. With a very easy to use interface Wordtracker does not fail in appearance and overall structure, it is definitely a keyword research tool that I recommend.

The last tool I am going to recommend is the one I mentioned earlier, SEO elite again by the SEO guru Brad Callen this tool does not fail to shock you and surprise you. It has everything you need to create the best optimization strategy and plan to knock everyone else out of the way and ensure you get that top ten ranking you have wanted for ages.

Search Engine Ranking

2008-09-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

How high does your website currently rank on search engines? One of the most important things that a company should focus on when it comes to promoting their website is their rank on the search engines. It’s the rank that is going to decide how they listed in search results and what number they are on the search results. Having a better rank is something that every business owner strives towards for their own website because they know how important it is and how much it can affect their business. Here are some ways that you can increase your search engine rank.

Title bar

One of the most overlooked SEO techniques in increasing your search engine rank is the title bar. If you want to increase your search engine rank, you should make it so that the title bar contains the keywords that are most important on your home page. Click on the links on your website and see if the words in the title bar change. They should change depending on what page of your website you are on. Another thing about the words in your title bar - they shouldn’t repeat more than one time, and the repeated words shouldn’t be appearing next to each other. Look at your title bar and see if these guidelines are followed.

Content

Something else that affects a search engine rank is the content that is on a webpage. So that means you are going to want to focus on words on your webpage instead of a lot of flashy graphics. Make sure that the text on your website has the keywords that are important and the ones that your potential customers are going to type into a search engine. You should have at least 250 words per page. If you think that isn’t possible, you can even get by with 100 words if they are well written.

Links

The last thing that will affect a websites search engine ranking is the popularity of a website’s link. In fact, nineteen out of the twenty search engines use it in the algorithms of ranks. What does this mean? It means that search engines boost the rank of websites that are linked from quality sites that are related to the other site. Are you interested in finding out what sites link to yours? Do a search for free tools that check your link’s popularity. If you find that you aren’t being linked to a lot of sites, you want to start a campaign to increase your links.

Search engine ranking is something that every business owner on the Internet should think about, because it’s a very important Internet marketing tool. When you have a better search engine rank, more people are going to be able to find your website and therefore people are more likely to buy your products and services. Use the tips above to increase your search engine rank and you will find that people are going to be coming to your site and your customer database is going to increase. Search engine rank is something that everyone should concentrate on and remember.

But , keep in mind, that nothing comes easy, it can take months of hard work to get search engine rank.

Seo Techniques for Search Engine Ranking

2008-09-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

There are some very simple SEO techniques available for you to improve your search engine ranking. In the course of my normal analysis of competitors' websites, I find an amazing number that does not employ all of these techniques, yet every one can help you get closer to that coveted #1 position.

Using these will not in itself allow you reach the top position for your keyword, but they definitely help, and there is no single factor that will enable you to hit the top. A #1 position on Google is attained by a combination of many factors, such as internal and external linking strategies, relevance of your content to the keyword and the overall look and feel of your site. Plus those detailed below.

So let's get started on these: these are the nuts and bolts of SEO, and if they are not right then you are starting off on the back foot. These are the essential SEO techniques that you must have as a minimum if you want to improve your search engine ranking, and although intended mainly for beginners, many established web pages do not contain every one of these.

I write 'pages' deliberately, because Google and the other main search engines list web pages, and not entire domains. That means that every single page in your website should be optimized in the same way: each should contain every single one of the SEO techniques listed below.

TITLE TAG

The title tag is contained within the 'HEAD' tags of your HTML, before the 'BODY' tags. This states the title of the page, and must contain the major keywords of the page. The contents of your title tag do not appear in the text of the page: its purpose is to inform the search engine spiders what the topic of your page is, and what words are important (i.e. your main page keyword). For example, the TITLE tag of a page based on this article would be "SEO Techniques - Improve your Search Engine Ranking".

DESCRIPTION TAG

The description Meta tag is used by Google, and other search engines, in the search engine listings. I have tested this with them all and Google uses it as is, while Yahoo uses part of it. You should provide a description of what the web page is about, and a simple check of the descriptions in other sites using your keyword on Google will show you how many words you can use to have the whole description included. About 20 words are fine.

KEYWORD TAG

Search engines rarely use the keyword Meta tag: Google ignores it completely. However, it doesn't hurt, and can help in a small way. Include your brand name and your own name. That way some engines might show your pages if somebody is looking for your name. The other Meta tags have no SEO value, and do not help to improve your search engine ranking whatsoever.

HEADING H TAGS

Heading tags (H1, H2, . . .) are used by Google to determine the importance of the text contained in your headings. Use H1 tags for the main title of your page (you also use it in the TITLE tag, but that isn't seen by readers, only by the spiders). Put subtitles in H2 tags. You can change the font size of the text within these tags.

TEXT FORMATTING

Text in bold, italics and underscored are seen by the search engines as having greater weight, and so will be used in determining the relevance of your site. Always bolden your titles, and it also helps to underline it if it doesn't make it look out of place.

WRITING STYLE and CONTENT

Do not write for algorithms (spiders): write for your readers. Always write for humans and you won't go wrong. If your page content reads well, and has good vocabulary relating to the topic, then it will have a better chance of a higher listing than if you stuffed it full of keywords. I rarely use more than 1.5% - the keyword densities of the terms 'SEO', SEO techniques' and 'search engine ranking' (the main keywords) of this article are 1.5, 0.87 and 0.87 respectively. Too many keywords is bad SEO, and could result in a poor listing for your page - if it is listed at all.

So there you are: six simple SEO techniques to improve your search engine ranking. It is surprising how many experienced webmasters fail to apply all of these: there is no excuse, and they are failing to get the nuts and bolts properly fitted and tightened on their web pages.

Apply these to every page and not only will you improve your SEO, but also your chances of a good search engine ranking. It is amazing how many web pages lack these basic SEO techniques.

Get Listed on Google and Yahoo

2008-08-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

After development- designing of a websites in order to get it ranked top on major search engines submission is a great tool to be applied. Websites are submitted to the search engines in order to get listed and obtain the traffic that is the common goal of every web master. Since every search engine has its own strategy of ranking websites depending on their algorithms.

So what is the best approach in website submission when it comes to Google and Yahoo, the great internet kings of modern time? Simple steps involved in search engine submission are as follows:

• Submit Directly: Submit your website via Google’s free submitting form.
• Submit your sitemap to Google
• Submit your website to DMOZ, the Open Directory Project. It can take some time time before you are listed and a submission does not guarantee listing as DMOZ is a volunteer’s directory.
And , from what Ive seen, just a few websites get listed in DMOZ.

• Get qualified Back links from reputed websites that search engines crawl regularly. Google's robots jump from page to page on the web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to your pages; the more likely it is that the robots find them quickly.
• To fully index a website Google usually takes about a month so relax, just wait and watch...
Google dominates the World Wide Web; it isn’t the only search engine on the web. Yahoo Search is one of the major search engines and directories online as well. Submitting a website to Yahoo, can also be a great idea in order to get better traffic and search engine position for your website. Steps towards your Yahoo Search engine submission are as follows:

• Submit your website to Yahoo’s Directory
• It could take eight to ten weeks before you are listed in Yahoo.
• Yahoo Site Explorer allows exploring all the web pages indexed by Yahoo Search. siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
• One can submit feeds to the Yahoo! RSS Browse-by-Topic Directory. http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/my/cgi_rss_submission

Getting listed in the major search engines alone doesn’t guarantee traffic but it is a way to optimize your website. Your website content and your services guarantee that. Regular updating, providing interesting content will bound visitors to come as well as the spider bots.

SEO Directory Submission

2008-08-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization companies know the advantages that registering clients in popular directories can bring. Link building via directory submission has been one of the mainstays of the SEO business for years, but today there is increased doubt over the future of this once highly effective form of optimization. First, a brief history of web time-

From the dawn of time (the early 90’s in web terms), listing in directories was a great method to get visitors to your site. Directories like Yahoo prospered and could charge high fees for companies to list with them. The web grew, directories grew, websites grew and everything was fine. Then the world changed - The search engine was born!

Search engines took over the web, and Search Engine Optimization was born. It may interest you to know that the first recorded mention of the term Search Engine Optimization was in a message posted on Usnet on July 26th 1997. It is highly ironic that whilst the search engine was destroying the directory, the Search Engine Optimization community would breathe new life into the concept. The missing part of the puzzle was Google.

Google arrived in 1998 and introduced the concept of Page Rank. Most people think that Page Rank refers to the rank of a page, which is an understandable misconception. According to Google it is actually named after one of its founders - Larry Page. The concept of Page Rank (where a site improves its position in Google by getting links from other sites) soon became very popular. Many other engines incorporated the concept into their methods.

Search engine optimizers had previously concentrated on usage of ‘on page’ keyword optimization techniques. They needed to change fast to the new Page Rank concept and get inbound links for their customers. There were lots of methods for getting links, from link-exchanges, to blogging, to link purchasing. One of the simplest and fastest ways was to list their clients in directories. Search engine optimizers and directories walked hand in hand into a golden future.

It’s a bit manipulative isn’t it? The web should be natural said Google. These Search Engine Optimization companies are listing customers in directories for unnatural reasons. Some of these directories have barely any human visitors but have huge amounts of companies listed. Even worse, people are paying to get listed in these directories. It’s not natural usage. We are being manipulated said Google, and we must stop it! So this is what they did.
September 1st 2005 Google Guy Matt Cutts stated in his blog “Google does consider buying text links for Page Rank purposes to be outside our quality guidelines” and “Google has a variety of algorithmic methods of detecting such links”.

Nothing appeared to happen for a while, but then some of the directories that offered paid links started having no visible Page Rank on their sites internal pages. This was true even of directories that had free links, but on the same page had paid featured listings. Bad news for those people who followed Google’s webmaster guidelines and got free links, but far worse for those who paid for them and ended up with nothing!

As well as cracking down on paid links, search engines have also enhanced their detection of web sites that link to what are considered bad neighborhoods (low quality spam filled sites). Many of the directories that are not carefully edited end up with low quality listings and as a result search engines discriminate against them.

Since the creation of search engines the fortunes of Search Engine Optimization companies and directories have been solidly, inextricably linked, but if Google doesn’t like directories anymore, these back-links won’t be any good. It’s all not true. Google loves directories. In Google’s webmaster guidelines it says - when your site is ready:
“Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.”
Google still likes directories it just doesn’t like those that are poor quality listings and those that sell links. After all how can Google discriminate against directories when it has one on its site (Google Directory).

How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Directory. The important thing with directory submissions is to make the most of your efforts by listing your clients in the right directories. You need to list your clients websites in directories that are free of charge and decent quality (human edited).

A good place to start with directory submission is the Open Directory Project. This is the biggest directory to submit your clients’ websites to. This is not a quick strategy. Each section is edited by volunteers and the acceptance times vary dramatically. It has been know for sites in less popular categories to wait for a year or more to be accepted! Another large directory is Yahoo.com which will cost you $299 to list in. If you work in markets outside the USA you can often get listed for free. Yahoo.co.uk is now free for UK companies in the majority of categories. Again there can be a delay before applicants are put live.

Don’t ignore the advantages of local directories. Listing in directories for your state or country can provide very positive benefits, both in terms of Search Engine Optimization and finding local customers such as the Canadian Regional Directory. Also look at regional niche directories that not only find local customers but also customers in particular industries.

There are a couple of great websites for finding suitable directories such as Top Directories and Vilesilencer. The Top Directories site provides a lot of useful information on web directories including their Page Rank and the change in page rank at the previous update. There are also details on submission times, gathered from user feedback. Vilesilencer provides huge lists of categorized web directories including a handy download of directories in Excel spreadsheet format.

Maximizing your efforts by selecting the right directories should ensure that the time spent writing directory submissions adds the maximum benefit to your business. This is true not only in terms of human visits, but also with regard to Search Engine Optimization.

Meaning Of Seo

2008-07-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Spend much time on the Internet anymore and you’re likely to see the SEO acronym tossed around pretty casually. While the term may not mean much if you’re just a casual browser, if you’re an Internet marketer then the term is something you need to not only pay attention to but understand.

First, you need to know what SEO stands for. The phrase is Search Engine Optimization. The full name gives you a hint as to what the acronym is referring to. Basically, search engine optimization is a method of increasing the rankings of your site. Obviously you want your site to rank as high as possible in search engines for the keywords associate with your site.

For example, if you sold a course on guitar playing then you might want your site to score near the top of the results when someone searched for “learn to play guitar.” You see, those rankings aren’t random. They are based on a complex algorithm used by the search engines. While each search engine uses slightly different elements to determine their rankings, search engine optimization is fairly standard.

Why SEO?

If you’re wondering why it’s important to do SEO in the first place, the easy answer is to go to Google and do a search for any key phrase associated with what you are selling or promoting through your web site. Chances are you’re going to come up with dozens of pages of results. You’re going to be competing with all of those other sites for your ranking.

Does it matter where you rank? Absolutely. Think about your own search habits. If you’re looking for something particular, you probably don’t go past the first or second page of results to find what you want. That means the pages which rank the highest are also going to be the ones which generate the most traffic. More traffic means an exposure to more potential customers. The more potential customers you have visiting your site the higher your revenue is likely to be. Basically, if you use SEO effectively then you are likely to have greater success with your web site. It’s that simple.

Can I Handle My Own SEO?

Many Internet marketers make the mistake of thinking they need to hire someone to handle their SEO. While search engine optimization is important, you can usually do this on your own without the extra expensive of a professional. All you need to know is which keywords to optimize your content for and how densely you want your content to be optimized. Another important point though is SEO is not just about writing a whole bunch of words and randomly throwing in a few keywords. The content needs to be strong.

Some search engines can tell when you’ve written a bunch of fluff for SEO purposes. Even if you do manage to score a high ranking with poorly written material, you won’t be able to hold the interest of those potential customers long enough to close the deal.

SEO Keywords

2008-07-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization is the key to achieving high rankings with top search engines. Without good SEO skills, your site simply won't show up near the tops of those rankings and you won't be connected with a good supply of potential customers. Even if you understand what SEO is, you still need to understand a few more important points about how to do search engine optimization effectively.

Choosing Keyword Phrases

Any SEO activities must begin with you selecting specific keyword phrases with which to work. These phrases are important because they will be at the heart of your content. More importantly, these are the words you predict people will enter into search engines in order to find the types of products or services you offer. The good news is you don't have to be psychic to choose these keywords. You'll find several free tools on the Internet and many Internet marketing products come with keyword finding tools.

Here's how it works

Think of a phrase you might use if you were a potential customer for your site. Go to the tool and enter the phrase. Let's say you sell an ebook on dog training so you naturally choose the phrase "dog training" to enter into the keyword tool. Usually, the tool will give you the search engine volume for the phrase you've entered.

That lets you know how frequently people are using the term in their searches. For "dog training," you'll probably good average to high volume results. That means it's a good possibility but most keyword tools also show you how many of your competitors are also using that keyword for their optimization. If that number is very high, your chance of ranking well using that keyword phrase with your SEO is going to be reduced.

The good news is that the keyword tool should also show you a list of alternative keywords that you could use in addition to or instead of the one you initially entered. For example, "best dog training" may still have good search volume but it may not be used by as many competitors. If you optimize for that word, then you stand a better chance of achieving a solid ranking thanks to your SEO. You might also choose a phrase like "pet obedience school" which has almost no use by your competition but does have low search volume. That means some people are searching for the phrase but not many sites have utilized the term. It could be a good bet for decent rankings as well.

Next SEO Steps

You should choose more than one keyword for your efforts. Remember the more words you optimize for the more you increase your chances of scoring high in the rankings for at least one of the terms. Plus, showing up in search engine results for multiple terms means you'll have even greater exposure to potential customers and leads.

After you've chosen several words, you'll need to begin constructing your content around those words. Although a little tricky, SEO isn't as challenging as you might think.

Once you have picked the right keyword, that's half the job done.

SEO Services to Succeed Online

2008-06-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

You might have heard how SEO services are marketed these days. Almost every website that provides services and has products to offer requires SEO services.

These sites needed visitors to promote their products and to continuously improve their sales. Due to these reason, almost all website owners are now applying and working with the SEO companies of their choice. Website owners are becoming more familiar with the benefits of the SEO services to their clients.

Through search engine optimization or the SEO services are the manner wherein a certain website is enhanced and improved in order to achieve its full function. There are several SEO services that a SEO company provides its clients. These includes the analyzing the client's website, analyzing the competitor's website, working on the improvement of the client's website and continuous maintenance of the website to retain its ranking in the search engine.

SEO services start when they analyze your site. This is where the SEO services providers learn every part of your site. They study its present PR rank, competitors, links and most especially the contents. They also find the flow of the audience going to your site. From these alone, they can analyze if your site is an effective site. This leads to the reason why SEO services are needed, to be able to generate traffic. The traffic is the life of a website.

Remember, the more visitors that come and visit your site, the greater chances that they can spread the information to others and it can also lead to greater sales and revenue.

There are several ways on how the Montreal SEO services help in increase the traffic of a website. These are through the Internet marketing strategies like the pay-per-click, link building and organic search engine optimization (SEO). The pay-per-click strategy depends on the keywords that you use in creating your advertisement.

Further, the better the keywords that you use with respect to your products, the more chances that your site will be visited. Example, your products are jewelry. With the use of SEO services strategies, you can use keywords like low priced diamonds, pure gold jewelry or even wedding rings and engagement rings in order for your site to be discovered first during the search. On one hand, if your products are related to travel, you can use keywords such as group package or cheaper seasonal rates and the like. SEO services providers would give you reasons why you need to use these keywords must be written well in the contents of the site.

What are all these SEO services strategies mean? Primarily, the more informative your sites is, the more and frequent the visits that you will receive from thousands and millions of online users globally. You'll get all the help you need in optimizing your site's contents through valuable support of the SEO services providers. What do these providers do actually? For one, to make the keywords more effective, SEO services try to find the keywords that are related to your products.

You can also use the keywords that individuals frequently use when searching for your products through the search engines.

Another way on how to increase traffic in your website is with the use of link building strategy. Remember, SEO services aim at increasing your site's traffic or visitors thus allow your site to be accessible whenever possible. SEO services determine that this strategy can either be paid link or free link.

The paid links are usually associated with the membership for joining a certain directories or sites which offers linkage. The websites under these directories are usually high-ranking sites that make profit by accepting links. They allow newer sites to be linked with them but require payment in return. These sites usually have an area within their site where links are associated interchangeably.

On the other hand, other sites actually allow free links, as long as the site owners provide an exchange links to their site or they have to share the free links with other merchants as well. There are other sites that also offer free links but the exposure of the link is not usually that long compared with the paid sites. These sites are alternately paced with other sites that wish to be linked as well. This interlinking strategy is one of the best Internet Marketing promotion and strategy of the SEO services providers.

Finally, SEO services providers have this organic search engine optimization. This is the slow but sure strategy for websites. It is the most effective strategy among the three. This works by achieving a decent rank from the search engines and from that rank, you will slowly move upwards.

The website is enhanced and improved by the SEO services applied for to be able to achieve a rank in the search engine. From its initial rank, it will slowly acquire traffic and will slowly increase in rank over time.

This may take a long time compared with the previously mentioned strategies but it will last longer too. To invite traffic, your site must be attractive and filled with information needed by your target audience. It is important to consider the information written on it because it will help in the ranking of your site in the future.

SEO services needs to be continuous in order to maintain the rank of your site.

Look back at Search Engine Optimization

2008-06-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

Did you recently learn what search engine optimization means? Learn a brief history behind this new industry, including which search engine first implemented what later became known as search engine optimization, and how initial unethical SEO practices forced the search engines to tighten their measures on how their robots rank and index Web sites.

As long as the Internet has been around, it has remained a mystery to the mainstream public how Web sites are listed at the top of search engine results. There are many theories of how search engines and search engine optimization (SEO) initially began.

The 1990s

Alan Emtage, a student at the Montreal University of McGill, created the first “search” program in 1990 called Archie (still in use today), to archive Web documents. The following year, Gopher started at the University of Minnesota, and this is when the concept of search engines began. In 1993, Matthew Gray created the World Wide Web Wanderer, the earliest known search engine robot that assists with ranking Web sites. But search engines as we use them today were born in 1994. In that same year, Galaxy, Lycos and Yahoo! were all started, two of which are still widely popular search engines today.

Yahoo! was among the first to implement SEO techniques, even though at the time they were unaware of the potential growth the industry would soon have at the turn of the century. Yahoo! Founders David Filo and Jerry Yang were trying to get their site seen by others on the Internet

by giving it more exposure. Some excellent structure and tricky hand-coding, their site became more available for new visitors. They were not questioned about ethical business practices because nobody was sure what was considered ethical or unethical – there were simply no standards in place yet.

As the initial search engines were cataloging the early Internet, many business owners soon learned to appreciate the value of their Web site being listed in the search engines, as they first saw increases in visitors to their Web sites. They began submitting their URLs on a continuous basis, and changed their sites to support the needs of search engine robots. SEO companies started showing up, when they began experimenting with the concept of search engine optimization, with the emphasis initially on the submission process alone. Soon afterwards, the first automatic submission software was released, and it was then the notion of Spam came into existence.

The 2000s

SEO professionals have been seen in a negative light over the last five years, due in part because in early 2001, enthusiastic webmasters quickly realized they could overwhelm search engine result pages by over submitting Web sites. Unfortunately, as the Internet industry developed, search engines quickly became cautious of new SEO companies attempting to generate visitors for their clients at any cost, however unfair or unethical. Tactics such as keyword spamming, doorway pages, cloaking, and hidden white text placed on white backgrounds proved too much for the search engines to tolerate. As a result, the search engines replied with numerous countermeasures, created to filter out any techniques considered spam. That is good news, although it forced ethical SEO companies to start using more subtle techniques to assist their clients Web sites with obtaining rankings in the engines.

The “big 3” search engines, Google, MSN and Yahoo!, have recently come to the realization that SEO as an industry is here to stay, and to maintain effective results, they needed to accept the industry, even embrace it, and engines eventually partnered with successful, ethical Montreal SEO companies to establish typical standards for fair and ethical optimization. This is important to help keep information relevant and beneficial to visitors while still being unbiased to people who create the content on their Web sites.

The Current State of SEO

Today, there are major differences in how search engines work and how to get ranked in them. With the assistance of proper search engine optimization, Web sites can now have a equal fighting chance of obtaining high rankings. Because SEO is a highly specialized trade that requires both technical skills and business marketing knowledge, it is only through the combination of these two skills that one can properly implement SEO techniques to obtain high search engine rankings. Many SEO specialists have since now realized it is “search engines or bust.”

Market business website

2008-06-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

When it comes to your website, is it enough to simply build it and wait for customers to come? The answer is a resounding no and this is great news. How could this be good news? Most small business owners build a website and forget about it. Those that take proactive marketing steps will soon understand what all of this internet excitement is about.

The first step is to build a professional, attractive website that discusses your service or product. Update the content frequently with the goal of adding value for the potential reader. Avoid common design mistakes. Once satisfied, spread the word.

Include Your URL on Stationery, Business Cards, and Print Advertising.
This is a no-brainer that is sometimes overlooked. Make sure that all of your cards, stationery, brochures, and literature contain your company’s web address (URL). Continue to leverage print advertising that has proven successful, capture the reader’s attention, and then refer them to your URL for more information.

Free Business Listings
Add your website URL to popular online maps and free business directories. Here are just a few:
http://www.maps.google.com
http://www.listings.local.yahoo
http://www.kayak.com – travel site
http://www.hotfrog.ca
http://www.tourismpartners.com – Official Ontario Travel Guide Search Engines

Submit your site - Submit your site to all of the major search engines. Simply type in this term “Submit my site” into Google, Yahoo and MSN. Include a submission to open source engines such as DMOZ.org as well.
Create a sitemap - A sitemap is a list of web pages that make up your website usually presented in a hierarchical format. With a sitemap you can tell search engines about all of your web pages, not just your homepage. For more information check out www.sitemaps.org

Optimization - Perhaps you have heard that you need special skills to “code” web pages with keywords, metadata, alt tags, etc. to improve your website rankings. If you have these skills, excellent! Go forth and build code. For the rest, here is the big secret to search engine ranking. Drum roll please…
#1 - Build a professional, attractive website that discusses your service or product. Update your content frequently with the goal of adding value for the potential reader. Sound familiar? Attempts to fast track your search engine ranking with the latest scheme can be hazardous. Google and the others are very smart and may even penalize you for trickery.
#2 – Have patience.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising - Your website listing appears as featured link to the right of “natural” search engine results. Your position in the list is determined by how much you’ve bid for a particular search word compared to other businesses. This can be a cost-effective way to get targeted traffic, since you only pay when someone actually clicks on the link. For more information check out http://www.adwords.google.com
Resources - One of the best sources of information for both the novice and advanced web designer comes from search engines themselves.

Google AdSense

2008-06-12T05:15:00.000-07:00

AdSense may be one of the fastest and easiest ways to monetize traffic to your web site whether you have products or services for sale or you simply provide free content to your visitors.
Simply stated, Google AdSense enables website operators to place some code on their site that connects to Google’s ad server content database and pulls keyword-relevant advertising onto the web pages.
The webmaster gets paid a percentage of the fee that Google receives from the advertiser every time a visitor clicks on an ad. There is no charge for the webmaster to participate in AdSense. All costs are covered by the advertiser who participates in the AdSense sister program called AdWords.

Google’s sends out digital “robots” which use proprietary algorithms to parse the host web page and analyze the content in an effort to determine what keywords are relevant. It reports its findings back to Google’s ad server which then serves ads matching those keywords. Given that the entire process is automated, the “ad robots” do a pretty good job of getting the advertising content right most of the time.

The History of Google AdSense

Google AdSense has its roots in the old “Google Content-Targeted Advertising” program which they introduced back in March of 2003. Although this program was similar in concept to AdSense, there was no automated way of participating. Each webmaster negotiated a deal directly with Google, and websites that served less than 20 million page views per month were not welcome to participate.

As Google grew, they began to see how much money they were leaving on the table by excluding the smaller sites, which greatly outnumbered the sites serving over 20 million hits that were willing to serve other people’s ads. Their answer to that problem was AdSense which has no minimum traffic requirements and is open to all sites meeting Google’s content and decency requirements.

How much can you make running Google AdSense?
The answer to that question depends upon three factors:
1. How much traffic your site draws
2.How many visitors click on your ads
3.How much those ads pay per generated click

With some ads paying as much as $5 or more, it’s possible that you can generate a serious income with AdSense. There are relatively well documented cases of some people earning as much as $500 per DAY and more. Numbers like that are rare exceptions however. Even so, there is no reason why you can’t earn somewhere around $1,000 per month, or more, once you get the hang of it.

But, there is something you have to remember- just 15-20 % of all the visitors for the selected keywords will click on your website in the advertising zone.

Google's Top Spots

2008-05-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

Ranking well on Google takes two things, good content and great links. But it's not an even split. Because Google assumes only a page with good content would get great inbound links it puts about 70% of the importance for ranking on links and only about 30% on content. That little tidbit alone will put you head and shoulders above all those competitors still messing with META tags and spamming keywords. But if you want a huge advantage over the rest of your competition, keep reading. I'm about to show you how the pros do it and win every time.

Part 1: Perfect Your Anchor Text Montreal SEO specialist

So just what is anchor text and why is it important? Anchor text is the clickable word or words that make up the hyperlink. You've seen anchor text a million times (the underlined words that are typically blue.) Google figures any words special enough to be used as a guide in a link are extra valuable, which makes anchor text extremely important for you to use properly.

Just how powerful is anchor text? More than most people dream. Try an experiment. Go to Google and search for "click here" (without quotes.) The top match for years has been a page for Adobe Acrobat Reader. So does that Adobe page have "click here" copied 50 times in the text? No. In fact "click here" does not even appear on the page a single time! Does it have "click here" embedded in its META tags. No; again, not even once.

So how can it possibly rank number 1 on Google for a term it never even references? Because of the thousands of Webpages that use "click here" as the anchor text linking to Adobe's free download of Acrobat Reader.

By the way, did you happen to notice how many pages Adobe beat out for a term they never optimized themselves for? Almost Two Billion! So yes, I have to say anchor text is extremely powerful.

Part 2: Build Linking Consistency by SEO Montreal

Most people don't realize that even though http://www.Wikipedia.com and http://Wikipedia.com lead to the same Wikipedia homepage, they are seen as two different links by Google. Let's take it a step further. If you keep the "www" and lose the "http" you have another link that goes to the same place but is treated as unique by Google.

All that said; be as consistent as possible when requesting links. Find one format and stick to it. One hundred inbound links to the exact same URL is much better than 25 links each, using four different URLs that lead to the same place.

Part 3: PageRank Leads to Page Rank

Google's PageRank algorithm can make or break your search engine optimization efforts and plays a big part in your eventual Webpage rankings. So PageRank and page rank? Here's a tip to end the confusion. When you see the single word "PageRank" it is referring to a trademarked name that Google owns. PageRank is a unit of measure that Google developed, and uses to determine the value of a Webpage. When you see the words "page rank" we are merely talking about how a Webpage ranks, or is positioned on a search engine for a given keyword.

So how does it work? A page with a GPR of 6 is considered very important by Google, while a page with a GPR of 0 is not so much. If you get links from pages with high GPRs you will build your own PageRank. If you get links from pages with no GPR, they can still help you but do not lend any additional PageRank credibility.

Higher GPR leads to more credibility with Google and possibly becoming what they consider to be an "authority" which can double your top placements, literally. To see what I mean, search for "cats" on Google (without quotes.) The number 1 match is Wikipedia.com and references furry little felines. The number 2 match is also from Wikipedia but is about a Broadway musical.

So what? Notice how that second match is indented? That means it was not meant to be number 2 and might have actually been number 10 or 16 or more. But since Wikipedia.com is what Google considers an authority, it gets little bumps like this. Pretty nice huh? And trust me, you don't have to be Wikipedia to become an authority. Everything you need is in this article. I've done it many times.

There are different ways to see a page's GPR. If you don't already have it, visit Google and download their "Google Toolbar." It will show you the GPR of any page on the Web.

Part 4: Use the Best Tools

Last but not least, SEO is like anything else, if you use the best tools for the job your results will be faster, better and longer lasting.

Back in the day, search engine optimization professionals and do it yourselfers had to do everything by hand. It took forever and one simple mistake could mean weeks of work down the drain. Today however, there are plenty of software tools to help get the job done in a faction of the time. Just find the BEST one for what you want to accomplish.

For our particular needs, were looking for an app than can help with linking and build our "authority" status and check ranking progress. Over the past six or so years I've used nearly a dozen pieces of software claiming to be the best. Some were pretty good. Others were a waste. The one I most often recommend to my SEO seminar students is SEO Elite (http://www.SEOeliteWeb.com) because it gets amazing results and is one of the most affordable options at $167.

Even if you're not ready for a tool, you might want to check out the above link and go through some of the video tutorials. They show you how to find "authority" link partners, get special insights on anchor text and how to best spy on your competition.

That's it for now. Good luck and keep at it!

How to find a SEO Professionals

2008-05-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical for online and offline businesses of all types and sales. When people fail to find your website you lose money. Therefore ever more companies and website owners are looking to hire dedicated SEO professionals who will take their website to the top of Google’s SERP (search engine results pages). If you don’t have an in-house SEO team or it’s too busy with other projects and you need expert advice or professional SEO services the best possible solution is to outsource the job to an offshore company.
SEO outsourcing can be easily arranged once you’ve found a SEO that is ready to do the job. The first place to look is to ask your friends about SEO professional-what they know- maybe they have been already in touch with one and got what they wanted.
Then you know where are you going- and what you gonna get at least.
You can simply go to your favorite search engine and type in ‘SEO Montreal’, ‘Montreal seo’, ‘search engine optimization consultants’ or whatever you think will be the most appropriate search term for your query. However, you will be given so many result pages that the choice will hardly come easier. Here are a number of tips that might lead you to a reputable SEO practitioner.
Know what you want ....
First of all you need to compile a detailed list of your expectations of a Montreal SEO expert. Naturally, they should have a profound and up-to-date knowledge of SEO and be abreast with the latest search engine optimization and Internet marketing techniques. One of the best ways to prove it is by checking the results of the SEO’s past work. You might also want to talk to their previous clients to learn about their experience of working with your prospective SEO service provider.
Determine the budget
If you want to hire EO professional you need to realize that dedication and quality do not come cheap. We always get what we pay for, so do not expect your website to show up #1 on Google in a matter of month and for a couple of dollars. Thoroughly estimate you budget and be realistic about what you can have for the money you wish to pay. The desire to save money is natural, but saving at the cost of the quality is more of wasting money rather then being economical.
Manage the risks
When you hire a SEO professional for the first time you can’t be 100% sure as to how dedicated they really are. So the most reasonable thing to do is to protect yourself by signing a contract that would spell out all the terms and conditions of your cooperation. This will also speak of you as a reliable client who won’t run away without paying for the work, so both the parties benefit.
You will find the abovementioned tips equally useful when hiring all kinds of services, not just SEO.

Marketing Strategies to boost your sales

2008-05-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

If you don't create a successful strategy for marketing your web site, you can't build a profitable online business. It's therefore imperative to drive thousands of visitors to your web site, then convert them to paying customers. How do you accomplish this?

Use several marketing strategies

Don't put all your eggs into one basket by only employing one marketing strategy. You could see evidence of this during the latest Google update in which many commercial web sites which once had top rankings, dropped out of existence, thus instantly losing sales.

By creating more than one strategy to market your web site, you can soon see which one works the best by attracting the most visitors.

Market with consistency

Set up a clear daily, weekly, monthly and yearly marketing plan for your web site and stick to it. It is the lifeblood of your business.

Test marketing

Continually test all your web site marketing strategies to see which one works the best. Eliminate those that are not profitable.

6 successful marketing strategies:

Montreal Search engine optimization

Here are the locations where you should include your most important keywords or keyword phrases:

1. Meta tags (invisible)

Title tag

Description tag

Keyword tag

Alt tag

2. Page content (visible) - Weave your best keywords throughout the content of your pages. Focus on the first 250 words on your page and only use one to three keyword phrases per page of content. Include keywords in your H1 tag (main title) and H2, H3 tags (subheadings) as well as the hyperlinks in your site or and in outgoing links.

Search engines and directories

3. Submit to major search engines - Google is currently the main search engine to get listed in. If you get listed there, you will also get listed in AOL, Netscape, and Yahoo and it's still free. This may change in the near future as the competition heats up. Other free listings also include directories such as ODP. Do a search on Google to seek out your niche directories ie for sunglasses, look for sunglass directories.

4. Pay per click (PPC) search engines - if you wish to generate traffic to your web site immediately, set up a Google AdWords or Overture campaign.

Email Marketing

5. Create a newsletter - most folks don't buy from you immediately but need to be contacted several times to put them in the buying mood. Place a subscription box on every page of your web site. Send out your newsletter every two weeks to keep in touch with your subscribers. Be sure to include original content (not rehashed content) along with new products you wish to introduce to them.

6. Email Course or tutorial - set up an autoresponder that will deliver quality information over a period of seven days. This means you have multiple chances of contacting your visitor and promote your product or service at the same time.

SEO Strategy

2008-05-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a process of manipulating a website for the purpose of achieving desirable search engine rankings through the use of an seo strategy.

Search engine optimization is really the way to go if you can actually craft a strategy that will effectively boost your search engine ranking in search results that are displayed for internet users who are seeking what you have to offer.

The reason that search engine optimization is so important is that the majority of internet users use the search engines when looking for products, services or information on the internet.

Also, if you achieve a good ranking through the process of search engine optimization, it is said to be an "organic" listing in the search engine.

That means that your website is listed in the search engine results for free and you are not paying for the listing. Thus, organic placement in the search engines is truly free advertising.

Because search engine results are based on keywords and keyword phrases that the internet user uses to find websites they are interested in, the traffic that is generated to a website from the search engines is usually highly-targeted traffic which is extremely beneficial to a website operator because they will receive website visitors from their target market who, in many cases, are ready, willing and able to make purchases from the website or to take other actions that result in revenue generation from the website.

In order to take advantage of these benefits of search engine optimization, an effective SEO strategy is necessary.

While there are many things that contribute to an effective seo strategy, it should definitely take into consideration the techniques that are constantly productive in the search engines.

You see, the search engines change their rules about how websites are ranked in the search engine results quite frequently.

However, there are a few techniques that remain constant in producing positive results and these techniques should most definitely be part of every seo strategy.

The techniques include the use of appropriate keywords and keyword phrases that are relative to what the website provides and are popular in terms of their use by your target audience.

The keywords and keyword phrases need to be strategically placed in your website's html and meta tags as well as being included in your website content.

Keyword research can be conducted using tools provides by pay- per-click advertising services such as Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing, or by using independent keyword research tools like WordTracker.

These tools will enlighten you as to the popularity of certain keywords or keyword phrases as well as letting you know what people are paying for the use of them in the pay-per-click programs.

The tools also make suggestions for alternative keywords and keyword phrases that may be easier for you to optimize.

Another continually effective search engine optimization technique that should be included in an seo strategy is a linking campaign.

The number of links coming into a website from other websites, and the relevance of those websites to your website has an impact on your website's potential for getting listed in the top of the search engine results.

Trading links with websites who offer products, services or information that is related to the content of your website is one way to increase your link popularity and link relevance at the same time.

Another strategy that is effective for increasing link popularity and link relevance is to write expert articles which contain a link to your website and distribute them as free content giving other website owners the right to republish your article.

Organic SEO

2008-04-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

In the old days of the Internet, there were no SEO Consultants, automated systems, or all that high technology stuff. A few years ago, in fact, the term "Search Engine Optimization" did not even exist! Website owners struggled with ways and means to get the much-needed hits to their website (never mind if it was not targeted) to hopefully generate the needed revenues. Those were the days of IBM (or "It’s Best done Manually) and Organic SEO.

Organic SEO still refers to the processes and strategies that are undertaken to optimize a website so that it gets good relevance ratings based on the keywords that the site is responsive to. The only difference between Organic SEO and the SEO we now know is that Organic SEO is a manual process vs. the current automated processes of page submission and alteration that characterizes “modern” SEO. Organic SEO focuses on promoting websites on the Natural search engine results also known as organic results in contrast with sponsored links (Pay-Per-Click/PPC). Organic SEO, if you really think about is a "purist" approach to website optimization because nothing is a "black box". As an expert in Organic SEO, you know optimization; you don’t just blindly trust it.

Organic SEO is based on a clear understanding of fundamental concepts, including:

• Search engines and how they work

Obviously, you cannot practice Organic SEO if you don’t even know how the first two letters of SEO (i.e., Search Engine) works. A search engine is a web site that provides the visitor a list of recommended websites to go to, based on a specific keyword or keywords. The rank of a website is statistically determined by what is termed as "key word density" or the ratio of keywords to the total number of words of content in a website. Inbound links and their relevance is another factor that determines your rankings. The gatherer of this statistical data is what is called a "spider" or "spider bot", which is a program whose function is to count the number of times a keyword appears in a website through a process called "crawling".

• Search Engine Optimization

You can’t have Organic SEO without the SEO part, which stands what Search Engine Optimization. SEO’s main goal is simple: bring as many visitors to your website as possible by exerting influence on the search engine to position your website as close to the top of the list as possible. As a result of having more visitors, it is hoped that your website will generate business for you. This result is every Organic SEO practitioner’s clear measure of success.

• Viral Marketing

This is an important concept to understand if you are serious about becoming a good Organic SEO expert. Viral Marketing is a strategy to exponentially increase the number of visitors to your website from a small base that you have developed from your initial Organic SEO strategy. An example of Viral Marketing is to offer visitors to your website an opportunity to generate income from their own website by simply putting in your website’s link on theirs so that when people visit their website, then there is a good chance that they will visit yours. This strategy is certainly a handy component of the arsenal of a practitioner of Organic SEO.

• Optimized Domain Names

One of the simplest concepts to understand, yet also one that is not as easy to implement. Getting a keyword-rich domain name is every Organic SEO consultant’s dream because it carries so much weight in the relevance scale. If you domain name is exactly what you are selling, you will be able to smoothly sail on without much of a problem in the rankings. The problem, of course, is that there is a very high likelihood that the “good” domain names already belong to someone, and this makes an Organic SEO specialist life more difficult.

• Keyword Research

This is the first step on the list of to-dos for an Organic SEO practitioner because it plays a major role in determining your optimization strategy. Since it takes months for any optimization strategy to take effect, an Organic SEO expert’s efforts will be wasted if he makes the mistake of optimizing a website based on keywords that are not as popular as he assumed.

Becoming an Organic SEO specialist is not an easy task at all because it requires a deep understanding of the fundamentals that those utilizing automated systems take for granted. There is a major advantage, however, of Organic SEO vs. the “lazy man’s” SEO: A clear understanding of the concepts allows you to analyze SEO situations more accurately and come up with strategies that are more appropriate and responsive to your website’s needs.

Search Engine Optimisation

2008-03-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a part of search engine marketing (SEM) and it requires complete understanding of search engine algorithms and their workings. Today almost all webmasters are performing search engine optimisation methods to improve websites, so that the visibility of the website is improved when a search is performed with a related keyword. If a website is ranking higher for specific search results, it will deliver high volumes of traffic to the website. The traffic delivered through natural search engine queries is high quality traffic and it is also known as organic traffic.

Before starting SEO services, the search algorithms used by various search engines for indexing the web pages should be well understood. Search engines generally start spidering the website once the website is registered at the search engine, for inclusion in the search results. If a website has unique content and the contents are written, keeping in mind the search engine algorithms, the web pages will probably get indexed more easily and at the same time it should be ensured that these contents are useful for the general public, so more and more visitors come to the pages again and again.

Search engine optimisation not only requires changes and regular updates in valuable content, but sometimes it might also require changes in the actual website design and source coding. The most advanced search engines use crawlers for finding web pages that meet their algorithms criteria. These search engines include Google and Yahoo, however Yahoo also has paid inclusion that guarantees crawling and page indexing of the website for a fixed fee or a fixed amount per click. Yahoo has a paid inclusion program however it is still not preferred by many advertisers. Google does not have any such program so far, however Google sitemaps allows free submission of XML type feed for indexing those web pages which are not automatically indexed.

Search engine optimisation is a process to divert more organic or natural traffic to a particular website; however it is more difficult and confusing. There are a number of processes required that should have been tried to increase the visibility of the website and some of the more common useful processes include excellent website design, analysis and selection of suitable, relevant keywords, well written fresh content and good meta tags.

Search engines love fresh content, therefore you should ensure that you keep the content updated by adding to it regularly, so that search engines spider your site more regularly. There are various guidelines provided by a number of search engines about what to do and what not to do and you should follow these guidelines to stand a chance against all the competition on the internet.

Robots.txt files are the first file crawled by search engine crawlers and after parsing it, the search engine crawler follows the instructions provided there. Internet marketing can be a tough task and SEO experts have to not only increase organic traffic, but also meet search engine expectations and keep up-to-date with the constantly changing algorithms.

Make Your Website Visible

2008-03-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

Making money with your own website requires an important necessity: traffic. You need it. Not just any low quality traffic that you buy from online advertisement businesses, but high quality visitors interested or ready to buy from you. Search engine ( SEO ) traffic can offer you this, simply because visitors who find your site have searched for what you are selling. In order to ensure that you do not miss out on this valuable source of traffic, your website must be highly visible to the search engines.
Search engines are extremely vital to many Internet businesses that depend on traffic from them to earn money. You can take advantage of what search engines can offer you by ensuring that your website is visible to the engines. These search engine companies use software known as spiders or search bots. These programs crawl the web and simply record websites that will be indexed into the search engines. There are several easy steps that you can take to avoid common mistakes and problems that will make you invisible to the search bots.

Did you know that search engines ignore images, graphics and videos? It's true, they are only able to sort through text. So, if your website contains large amounts of pictures and animation with a small amount of text visible, you might as well just unplug your computer from the Internet because the search engines won't find you anyway. Keep in mind too that text imbedded in image files can't be read either. If your not sure if the text in your website is readable, you can look at the source code of your site. If you don't see the text in the HTML code, then guess what? Search bots won't see it either. Text is key. The more text your site has the better off it is. So resist the urge to "pimp your site" with all of those fancy graphics and animation and stick to basic text with fewer graphics. Besides, a website heavy with graphics and animation can be very annoying to visitors.

The most important text that you should have in your website is your keywords. You must analyze what keywords are relevant to your site and predict which one's people will type in the boxes of the search engines to find you. Keyword analysis is beyond the scope of this article but is something that you should research thoroughly. The most important thing you should know about keywords is where to place them in your website. Your title should contain your best keywords. Search engines base what keywords are the most important for a site by determining it's relevance. The more relevant it is, the higher the rank it is given and the more likely it is to be displayed when someone searches for it. Therefore, it makes sense to put good keywords in the title since it usually describes what a website is all about. The description of your site should also contain your top keywords. As a general rule, the closer a keyword is to the top of the page, the better chance it has to rank well with the search engines. However, you shouldn't ignore putting keywords in the middle or bottom of the page. Search engines also look at how frequent the keywords appear throughout the webpage before determining their relevance. Do not over use keywords. You could be penalized by the search engines if a keyword is repeated several hundred times within a page. Be moderate but consistent when placing your keywords.

Finally, don't waste your money on companies that claim to give your site a top ranking in the big search engines or the ones that will submit your site to thousands of engines saving you time. No one can guarantee you a top listing. Ranking well is determined by factors outside of any companies reach. In reality, you only have to submit your website to a few of the many search engines. A majority of searches done on the Internet come from Google, Yahoo and MSN alone. These are the only search engines you really need to pay attention to.

You don't have to shell out loads of cash on low quality traffic that just doesn't convert to profits. Search engines can produce much better quality traffic for you. Being highly visible to the search engines is critical to ranking well with them. The better you rank, the more likely it is that people will find your website, and that of course means making more legitimate money online. If you create a highly visible website that the search engines love, then you will benefit from a constant flow of interested visitors. Good luck to you and your success!