Tips SEO

WordPress 2.6.5 released to fix security problem

2008-12-07T10:51:00.001+07:00

WordPress has just announced the release of version 2.6.5, which fixes one security problem and three bugs.

According to WP :

The security issue is an XSS exploit discovered by Jeremias Reith that fortunately only affects IP-based virtual servers running on Apache 2.x. If you are interested only in the security fix, copy wp-includes/feed.php and wp-includes/version.php from the 2.6.5 release package.

2.6.5 contains three other small fixes in addition to the XSS fix. The first prevents accidentally saving post meta information to a revision. The second prevents XML-RPC from fetching incorrect post types. The third adds some user ID sanitization during bulk delete requests. For a list of changed files, consult the full changeset between 2.6.3 and 2.6.5.

Sounds like it’s worth upgrading. You can download the latest version of WordPress at the link below

Link : Download WordPress

SEO & Security for Bloggers

2008-12-07T10:48:00.001+07:00

Whether you just want to get your personal brand out there or make money as an affiliate blogger, you’re going to want to attract organic traffic. After all, new visitors means a wider audience and/or more potential buyers. If you’re using Wordpress on your own domain, however, there’s a very good reason to make sure that you have the most up-to-date version.

One of the things that Google takes into consideration when determining your PageRank is how secure your site is for users to use. For example, if your site uploads spyware or executes malicious scripts, Google is going to penalize you in a hefty way — i.e. your site is not going to show up in the first 300 pages of search results, or may be banned from Google results altogether. The result is that you won’t get anymore organic traffic for the world’s biggest search engine.

Blogger Security

What does this have to do with affiliate bloggers, you ask? Well if they are using Wordpress as a blogging platform, it has a lot to do with them.

You see, Wordpress is an open-source platform. That means two thing: (1) you don’t need a license to use it, and (2) everyone has access to the source code. Because everyone has access to the source code, security can be more of an issue.

Everytime Wordpress releases an update, they publish the reasons why you should update, and often one of the reasons is a security bug fix. The problem is that once a security update is released, everyone knows what that security bug was. If you don’t have the most recent version of Wordpress, then, hackers can easily find a way to exploit your blog.

Common Security Attacks

A common exploit for hackers is to find a blog with decent traffic and hack it so that they can insert their own malicious scripts. These scripts can execute an array of malicious actions, from installing spyware to cookie stuffing — which can outright steal referrals from you by overwriting your affiliate cookies with their own.

The real danger, however, is from an SEO point of view. If a hacker exploits a security bug in an older version of Wordpress that you’re using to power your blog, you stand to lose a lot more than just a referral commission. Your blog can get buried in or banned from Google’s search results, and you can lose one of the largest sources of your traffic.

How to Monitor and Protect Your Security

The first thing you want to keep on top of any security breeches or changes in your SEO is to monitor your PageRank. The easiest way to do this is through Google Toolbar for the Firefox browser. If you see your PageRank drop to zero, then you know that something is up.

Yous also want to make sure that you keep up-to-date in your versions of Wordpress. You can usually get easy, one-click upgrades if your blog is hosted by a hosting provider that has cPanel. But you should also probably consider these 9 SEO Security Tips from AnteZeta.com:

1. Know Your Plugins
2. Use a Recent Version of Wordpress
3. Change the default Admin Account user from “admin”
4. Password protect your Wordpress admin interface at the server level
5. Rename your Wordpress database tables
6. Hide your plugin directory from prying eyes
7. Remove the Wordpress version number from your blog and any active plugins
8. Watch for PHP error reporting
9. Do a Wordpress Security Scan

The original post has ample explanation about each of these items, and is definitely worth checking out.

Having your blog hacked can often be something you don’t even notice. That is, of course, until you’re banned by Google, and your traffic dwindles off into nothingness. Having that happen can seriously suffocate your personal brand, and cut off a lucrative revenue stream if you’re an affiliate blogger.

Are You in SEO Denial?

2008-03-11T07:26:00.000+07:00

I’m frequently surprised how often I hear bloggers and even seasoned Web writers say they don’t know much about SEO. Or say they do know about SEO, and it turns out they simply know what a meta tag is. Even more often, I hear writers say they don’t even want to know about SEO. They think it isn’t necessary.

If you’re one of these people, guess what? You can go through your blogging life with your head in the SEO sand, but ignoring it won’t make it go away. Unless you think people will suddenly stop using Google and Yahoo. Yeah, I didn’t think so.

I understand your apprehension. The creative impulse to write is a completely different desire than the analytical, scientific act of optimizing content for search engines. This is exactly why artists need managers.

If you’re in SEO denial, here are some reasons you should make your peace with SEO (and why it doesn’t have to be painful… really!):

You write because you want to be read. You want to be read, right? Well, you need to make sure people find you. Oh, and those people should be interested in what you have to say.
You write because you want to make money (well, at least some of you do). The more people read you, the more potential you have to make money. The fewer people find you (and it wil be fewer minus the SEO), the less money you will make.
You can write for SEO without being a total sell-out. Consider it writing for the medium, just as you would write in a certain style for a book that is a completely different style than you would use when writing for a magazine. Writing for SEO is just part of the style of writing for the Web.

You can be a creative writer and an engaging blogger, while still working a little SEO in there. See, that didn’t hurt.

Create a Research Topic on Your Blog For a High Google Ranking

2008-03-11T07:25:00.002+07:00

Google’s Search Engine Spiders Analyze Your Blog by Defining Your Blog Content as a “topic”. Use that to Your Advantage by Defining Your Topic in Clear, Concise Web Content

WHAT IS A RESEARCH TOPIC ANYWAY?
In the world of Google, a research topic is any article or blog in your main web site’s pages that is defined by Google as being the main subject matter or theme of your web page.

For example, if your blog site is all about science fiction movies, every web page on your site should discuss and review a variety of science fiction movies from years past and current ones out now, but the main research topic of all your pages would be science fiction movies.

The research topic or theme of your blog pages makes all the difference in the world when it comes to a Google page ranking. By making sure that all of your blog content never detours in the main research topic theme of science fiction movies, Google will reward you with a higher ranking than another similar science fiction site that includes other research topics strewn all over their collective web site rather than the main research topic, “science fiction movies”.

If you do own a blog site that is about science fiction movies, you should include the words “science fiction” on ALL of your web pages to ensure that Google knows your main theme or research topic is used through out your many web pages.

HOW TO AVOID DILUTING YOUR RESEARCH TOPIC BY CREATING NEW WEB PAGES

When you start creating new web pages with the theme of horror movies, for instance, while you are giving your web visitors more variety in movies that they can read about for greater reading pleasure, you are also diluting your research topic for your site as well. If another site comes along that has more web pages than you do that only highlights science fiction as their main research topic, you will immediately be degraded to a lower page ranking than theirs.

You need to weigh out the balance between giving your blog readers what they want at the expense of earning a higher Google ranking for your blog site. A good way to combat that negative flaw of giving your web readers variety while decreasing your page ranking is by creating four or five new web pages that will be grouped together by science fiction movie topics. A good example would be for you to write four web pages about science fiction movies that were produced in the 1980’s with a horror theme instilled in the science fiction movies.

Since these new web pages are all about just one subject matter generated around your main research topic theme, science fiction movies, you are now generating a much stronger theme towards science fiction movies themselves.

There is no dilution now to any of these new pages since they all still revolve around your same research topic that your web site will be known for, thus allowing you to create more web pages about horror-themed science fiction movies from the 1990’s and beyond.

STRENGTHEN YOUR MAIN RESEARCH TOPIC BY LINKING YOUR SUBJECT PAGES TOGETHER

When you start linking your group of pages together by subject topic, such as horror-themed science fiction movies from the 1980’s all together, you will essentially strengthen the research topic of your main blog site.

The way Google ranks your new pages will be by attributing the link text to the next page it is linking to. When a science fiction movie entitled “Alien” is linked to another page where the science fiction movie titled “Bladerunner” is the main subject matter, the link text strengthens the overall science fiction research topic.

The greatest way to use research topics and themes for a great Google ranking is by splitting your main blog content pages into various groups and by making sure you link all those groups together by using relevant page links to the exact same research topic that your blog is all about.

Try to set up your navigation category bar so that the Google search engine spiders as well as your web visitors can easily access all of your blog’s content that cover your web pages main research topic. By using this great SEO technique, your future success as a blog owner will be ensured.

Long Tail SEO Keyword Targeting Tips

2008-03-11T07:25:00.001+07:00

The wonderful thing about blogs is that they are such naturals for long tail SEO keyword targeting. Many blogs are already niche in focus, so they are born to target those long tail keywords. When you then get down to the level of an actual post page on a niche blog, it can be almost effortless to go after the long tail. Here are some tips on long tail SEO keyword targeting.

Long tail was a term coined in Wired Magazine in 2004, and it refers to targeting several smaller, niche markets instead of the most popular, highly competitive markets.

Here’s an example.

This post could target those who search for the term, “SEO.” The problem with that tens of thousands of people search, “SEO” monthly, which means there is way too much competition for that search. Odds are good this post will get buried in the search rankings for a search for SEO, but it could instead to well with several less-searched phrases, such as:

long tail SEO
SEO keyword targeting
keyword targeting tips
long tail SEO tips
SEO targeting tips
long tail tips

You get the idea. Instead of targeting one uber-popular keyword that is extremely competitive, the idea is to target a series of less popular phrases.

The nice benefit is that people who find this post by searching, for example, “long tail SEO tips,” will be more content when they arrive at this post. If they just searched SEO and found this ranking first, they might instead be seeking information on SEO services or even just a basic definition of SEO.

The long tail is also a nice way to build traffic for newer blogs. Long tail keyword phrases have a lot less competition, so it’s much easier to rank well in search engines and build a following.

How To Get Old World Media Coverage

2007-11-29T19:33:00.000+07:00

I just completed an interview with Entrepreneur magazine. The piece will be in the February issue, which will be available on newsstand around the middle of January 2008. The article will also be online at Entrepreneur.com. Read by 2.4 million people every month, Entrepreneur is one of the biggest business magazines in the world and being featured by them can only bring good things.

Every time I am featured by “old world media,” I get many emails asking how I did it. A full page ad on Entrepreneur cost tens of thousands of dollars. An editorial feature would be worth at least that much, if not more. Here are some tips to getting yourself some old world media love.

Start At Home

Magazines and Newspaper are always looking for news story. It’s what drives their business. Without content, they can’t run. Generally speaking, the bigger the magazine is, the easier it is for them to find content because they’re bombed with story ideas all the time from people or companies wanting to get coverage. Your best bet is to start at home with your local papers and magazines. Once you’ve been featured locally, you can leverage it to get featured nationally and internationally.

Send your local paper an email to the editor and tell them your story. Every editor loves a story about a local boy doing good. I recommend you start with the biggest local newspaper instead of the smallest. It takes the same amount of effort talking to a 1 million circulation paper as it does for 10,000 circulation tab. Aim high locally to get maximum bang for the buck. Another reason for doing this is it makes it a lot easier to get coverage from the smaller papers once you’ve been featured in a big one. If the biggest paper in town says no, then move to the next biggest and so on. Starting from the top down is much better than going from the bottom up.

Have a Story To Tell

I got the Entrepreneur interview because the editor downloaded and read my ebook. What caught his eyes wasn’t the moneymaking techniques I wrote about. It was my story at the end of the book. Magazines are looking for stories.

Everyone has a story to tell and your story is a lot more interesting than “place the ads in the most visible spots on your blog.” The best place to tell your story in your about page. If you don’t have one, then you better make one. People visit a blog for the writer as much as the information. I visit Shoemoney not just because he tells me how to make money but because he’s an interesting guy as well.

It’s All About The Brand

In order to get tier 1 media coverage, you have to stand out from the 117 million other blogs in the blogsphere. You can’t do that if you don’t have a brand. What makes your blog different from all the other? If you can’t answer that question, then you can forget about getting readers much less getting in a national magazine or major newspaper.

When you have a brand, you have an advantage over the blog next door. Even if the two of you write about the same thing, you will be the one who gets the press because you are a brand name while the other guy is a no name. At a minimum, building a brand means you must have your own domain name and custom blog design. Read my post on how to brand your blog for more information.

You can be the most knowledgeable person in the world on a topic and the media won’t care because you have no brand and no story to tell. Those two items are the foundation on which on great press coverage is built on.

SEO for Money

2007-11-29T19:23:00.001+07:00

Just in case you think SEO is something you don’t need to think about, keep in mind that your level of SEO skills relates directly to how much money you can make from your blog. You don’t need to become an SEO whiz, but if you want to make decent revenue from your site you really should at least learn the basics. Here’s why.

SEO Brings People

If your site and your posts aren’t optimized for search engines, you will be that much less likely to get readers. The majority of people find the majority of pages by searching. You will be missing those readers who are seeking something out by search.

Sure, you might develop a loyal readership just by participating in the web community, or by slowly attracting a following with great writing. You are counting on people typing your site in specifically to come see you or subscribing to your feed (and returning). That’s a big gamble.

Alternately, you could pay for visits by advertising yourself or using pay-per-click advertising. That’s really the hard and expensive way to do it.

SEO Brings Advertising

Bring more people, and your site is more attractive to advertisers. One of the first questions a potential advertiser will ask is what kind of traffic your site gets. That traffic is, in large part, a result of optimizing your site and content for search engines.

It will also impact the amount you can charge for advertising. A scrappy but well-written blog with 200 page views a day won’t bring in much for an ad, but a well-optimized site with high rankings that attracts thousands of visitors monthly will.

SEO Brings Adsense Revenue

If your pages are well optimized for search engines, they will by default also be well optimized for Google Adsense ads. The same basic principal applies, in that Google’s spiders will read the page and deliver ads that are relevant.

The more relevant the ads are, the more likely people are to click. The more they click, the more you make. If you write a blog post on HDTVs, and you decide to be clever with title like, “Seeing Things Clearly,” you may just get ads on contact lenses that won’t remotely interest your readers.

Site Navigation Tools: Make it Visitor-Friendly!

2007-11-27T00:01:00.000+07:00

Often times, visitors from search engines just leaves your site after they have found what they wanted but wouldn't you want them to continue reading your other good posts too? Well, this is where your site navigational tools will determine if they'll stay longer or not; and I'll attempt to analyze them by showing some of the ways the popular bloggers do it

1. Art of Linking to Your Own Posts!

This is the simplest thing you can do without tinkering with the template or install plugins! If you are writing something related to what you've written before it makes sense to link to it, wouldn't it? This can be done in a few ways:

a. In-Line Linking:

*Example from proBlogger

Conveniently drop a link in your sentences with the following tips:

Spread the links away from each other in the article, you get a higher clickthrough!
Avoid link crowding too i.e. do not put too many links until it confuses your reader!
Have a different readable color for your links to separate from the rest of your article

b. Power of Suggestion:

*Example from Get Rich Slowly

Top of article: Suggest that a visitor look through your Most Popular Posts/subscribe to your more feed!
End of the article: Suggest a similar post.

2. Random Posts

*Example from DownloadSquad

Random post is a great way to get your visitors to check out your other posts and explore more of your site! You could be lucky and probably gain another subscriber! You might have noticed SEOnoob also has its own Random Post box right above every article. Here's the code if you want to put it up in your template:

*Download text version here - Link

3. 404 - Not Found: Not a Dead End!

Sometimes visitors might have clicked on an old link which might have been deleted already or someone linked to your site but did not type the address correctly. These visitors will end up in your 404 pages! But this is not a dead end! You can still convince the visitor to explore your site by:

a. Showing a Tag Cloud - gives visitors a quick glance at what your blog's mainly about! I did it here by using Ultimate Tag Warrior which I recommended in my earlier post and the following is the code you need to add:

UTW_ShowWeightedTagSetAlphabetical("coloredsizedtagcloud","",0); ?>

b. Showing Tag List - complementing the Tag Cloud would be a tag list that gives all the tags you've used in columns! This would ease in-page search of what the visitor wants. Uses Tags-in-Columns plugin by cre8d!

4. Digging Up Your Archives!

*Example from Lifehacker

What better way to drum up interest in your old posts than recycling your old by highlighting them as a weekly special or something fancy like "On this site: One Year Ago? Not only do you get to recycle your old post but you get to save some time writing too!

Duplicate Content Filter: What it is and how it works

2007-11-24T01:15:00.000+07:00

Duplicate Content has become a huge topic of discussion lately, thanks to the new filters that search engines have implemented. This article will help you understand why you might be caught in the filter, and ways to avoid it. We'll also show you how you can determine if your pages have duplicate content, and what to do to fix it.

Search engine spam is any deceitful attempts to deliberately trick the search engine into returning inappropriate, redundant, or poor-quality search results. Many times this behavior is seen in pages that are exact replicas of other pages which are created to receive better results in the search engine. Many people assume that creating multiple or similar copies of the same page will either increase their chances of getting listed in search engines or help them get multiple listings, due to the presence of more keywords.

In order to make a search more relevant to a user, search engines use a filter that removes the duplicate content pages from the search results, and the spam along with it. Unfortunately, good, hardworking webmasters have fallen prey to the filters imposed by the search engines that remove duplicate content. It is those webmasters who unknowingly spam the search engines, when there are some things they can do to avoid being filtered out. In order for you to truly understand the concepts you can implement to avoid the duplicate content filter, you need to know how this filter works.

First, we must understand that the term "duplicate content penalty" is actually a misnomer. When we refer to penalties in search engine rankings, we are actually talking about points that are deducted from a page in order to come to an overall relevancy score. But in reality, duplicate content pages are not penalized. Rather they are simply filtered, the way you would use a sieve to remove unwanted particles. Sometimes, "good particles" are accidentally filtered out.

Knowing the difference between the filter and the penalty, you can now understand how a search engine determines what duplicate content is. There are basically four types of duplicate content that are filtered out:

Websites with Identical Pages - These pages are considered duplicate, as well as websites that are identical to another website on the Internet are also considered to be spam. Affiliate sites with the same look and feel which contain identical content, for example, are especially vulnerable to a duplicate content filter. Another example would be a website with doorway pages. Many times, these doorways are skewed versions of landing pages. However, these landing pages are identical to other landing pages. Generally, doorway pages are intended to be used to spam the search engines in order to manipulate search engine results.
Scraped Content - Scraped content is taking content from a web site and repackaging it to make it look different, but in essence it is nothing more than a duplicate page. With the popularity of blogs on the internet and the syndication of those blogs, scraping is becoming more of a problem for search engines.
E-Commerce Product Descriptions - Many eCommerce sites out there use the manufacturer's descriptions for the products, which hundreds or thousands of other eCommerce stores in the same competitive markets are using too. This duplicate content, while harder to spot, is still considered spam.
Distribution of Articles - If you publish an article, and it gets copied and put all over the Internet, this is good, right? Not necessarily for all the sites that feature the same article. This type of duplicate content can be tricky, because even though Yahoo and MSN determine the source of the original article and deems it most relevant in search results, other search engines like Google may not, according to some experts.

So, how does a search engine's duplicate content filter work? Essentially, when a search engine robot crawls a website, it reads the pages, and stores the information in its database. Then, it compares its findings to other information it has in its database. Depending upon a few factors, such as the overall relevancy score of a website, it then determines which are duplicate content, and then filters out the pages or the websites that qualify as spam. Unfortunately, if your pages are not spam, but have enough similar content, they may still be regarded as spam.

There are several things you can do to avoid the duplicate content filter. First, you must be able to check your pages for duplicate content. Using our Similar Page Checker, you will be able to determine similarity between two pages and make them as unique as possible. By entering the URLs of two pages, this tool will compare those pages, and point out how they are similar so that you can make them unique.

Since you need to know which sites might have copied your site or pages, you will need some help. We recommend using a tool that searches for copies of your page on the Internet: www.copyscape.com. Here, you can put in your web page URL to find replicas of your page on the Internet. This can help you create unique content, or even address the issue of someone "borrowing" your content without your permission.

Let's look at the issue regarding some search engines possibly not considering the source of the original content from distributed articles. Remember, some search engines, like Google, use link popularity to determine the most relevant results. Continue to build your link popularity, while using tools like www.copyscape.com to find how many other sites have the same article, and if allowed by the author, you may be able to alter the article as to make the content unique.

If you use distributed articles for your content, consider how relevant the article is to your overall web page and then to the site as a whole. Sometimes, simply adding your own commentary to the articles can be enough to avoid the duplicate content filter; the Similar Page Checker could help you make your content unique. Further, the more relevant articles you can add to compliment the first article, the better. Search engines look at the entire web page and its relationship to the whole site, so as long as you aren't exactly copying someone's pages, you should be fine.

If you have an eCommerce site, you should write original descriptions for your products. This can be hard to do if you have many products, but it really is necessary if you wish to avoid the duplicate content filter. Here's another example why using the Similar Page Checker is a great idea. It can tell you how you can change your descriptions so as to have unique and original content for your site. This also works well for scraped content also. Many scraped content sites offer news. With the Similar Page Checker, you can easily determine where the news content is similar, and then change it to make it unique.

Do not rely on an affiliate site which is identical to other sites or create identical doorway pages. These types of behaviors are not only filtered out immediately as spam, but there is generally no comparison of the page to the site as a whole if another site or page is found as duplicate, and get your entire site in trouble.

The duplicate content filter is sometimes hard on sites that don't intend to spam the search engines. But it is ultimately up to you to help the search engines determine that your site is as unique as possible. By using the tools in this article to eliminate as much duplicate content as you can, you'll help keep your site original and fresh.

Jumping Over the Google Sandbox

2007-11-24T01:13:00.000+07:00

It's never easy for newcomers to enter a market and there are barriers of different kinds. For newcomers to the world of search engines, the barrier is called a sandbox – your site stays there until it gets mature enough to be allowed to the Top Positions club. Although there is no direct confirmation of the existence of a sandbox, Google employees have implied it and SEO experts have seen in practice that new sites, no matter how well optimized, don't rank high on Google, while on MSN and Yahoo they catch quickly. For Google, the jailing in the sandbox for new sites with new domains is on average 6 months, although it can vary from less than a month to over 8 months.

Sandbox and Aging Delay

While it might be considered unfair to stop new sites by artificial means like keeping them at the bottom of search results, there is a fair amount of reasoning why search engines, and above all Google, have resorted to such measures. With blackhat practices like bulk buying of links, creation of duplicate content or simply keyword stuffing to get to the coveted top, it is no surprise that Google chose to penalize new sites, which overnight get tons of backlinks, or which are used as a source of backlinks to support an older site (possibly owned by the same company). Needless to say, when such fake sites are indexed and admitted to top positions, this deteriorates search results, so Google had to take measures for ensuring that such practices will not be tolerated. The sandbox effect works like a probation period for new sites and by making the practice of farming fake sites a long-term, rather than a short-term payoff for site owners, it is supposed to decrease its use.

Sandbox and aging delay are similar in meaning and many SEO experts use them interchangeably. Aging delay is more self-explanatory – sites are “delayed” till they come of age. Well, unlike in legislation, with search engines this age is not defined and it differs. There are cases when several sites were launched in the same day, were indexed within a week from each other but the aging delay for each of them expired in different months. As you see, the sandbox is something beyond your control and you cannot avoid it but still there are steps you can undertake to minimize the damage for new sites with new domains.

Minimizing Sandbox Damages

While Google sandbox is not something you can control, there are certain steps you can take in order to make the sandbox effect less destructive for your new site. As with many aspects of SEO, there are ethical and unethical tips and tricks and unethical tricks can get you additional penalties or a complete ban from Google, so think twice before resorting to them. The unethical approaches will not be discussed in this article because they don comply with our policy.

Before we delve into more detail about particular techniques to minimize sandbox damage, it is necessary to clarify the general rule: you cannot fight the sandbox. The only thing you can do is to adapt to it and patiently wait for time to pass. Any attempts to fool Google – starting from writing melodramatic letters to Google, to using “sandbox tools” to bypass the filter – can only make your situation worse. There are many initiatives you can take, while in the sandbox, for as example:

Actively gather content and good links – as time passes by, relevant and fresh content and good links will take you to the top. When getting links, have in mind that they need to be from trusted sources – like DMOZ, CNN, Fortune 500 sites, or other reputable places. Also, links from .edu, .gov, and .mil domains might help because these domains are usually exempt from the sandbox filter. Don't get 500 links a month – this will kill your site! Instead, build links slowly and steadily.

Plan ahead– contrary to the general practice of launching a site when it is absolutely complete, launch a couple of pages, when you have them. This will start the clock and time will be running parallel to your site development efforts.

Buy old or expired domains – the sandbox effect is more serious for new sites on new domains, so if you buy old or expired domains and launch your new site there, you'll experience less problems.

Host on a well- established host – another solution is to host your new site on a subdomain of a well-established host (however, free hosts are generally not a good idea in terms of SEO ranking). The sandbox effect is not so severe for new subdomains (unless the domain itself is blacklisted). You can also host the main site on a subdomain and on a separate domain host just some contents, linked with the main site. You can also use redirects from the subdomained site to the new one, although the effect of this practice is also questionable because it can also be viewed as an attempt to fool Google.

Concentrate on less popular keywords – the fact that your site is sandboxed does not mean that it is not indexed by Google at all. On the contrary, you could be able to top the search results from the very beginning! Looking like a contradiction with the rest of the article? Not at all! You could top the results for less popular keywords – sure, it is better than nothing. And while you wait to get to the top for the most lucrative keywords, you can discover that even less popular keywords are enough to keep the ball rolling, so you may want to make some optimization for them.

Rely more on non-Google ways to increase traffic – it is often reminded that Google is not the only search engine or marketing tool out there. So if you plan your SEO efforts to include other search engines, which either have no sandbox at all or the period of stay there is relatively short, this will also minimize the damages of the sandbox effect.

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs - SEO

2007-11-21T23:40:00.000+07:00

Search Engine Optimization is something that makes many blogger’s heads spin - I know this because every time I write an SEO article I get comments from bloggers telling me that its too big a topic and that they’d rather just write ‘quality content’.

Whilst I’ll never argue that quality content should be anything but a first priority in blogging, the fact is that there are many millions of pages of great writing languishing around at the bottom of search engines results pages that deserve to be read by many but which rarely see the light of day because their authors have failed to understand that just a few simple tweaks in the writing process could see them ranking considerably higher.

So it’s time for another series - this time on Search Engine Optimization for Blogs!

People often ask me ‘how do I get ranked number one in (((insert favourite search engine here)))?

My answer usually starts with - ‘I don’t really know what I’m talking about….but….’

You see whilst some of my blogs rank very highly on different search engines - I often don’t really know why. Much of what I do is educated guessing and experimentation. I do read a lot of other people’s advice on the topic, but the more I read the more I realize that I’m not alone in my guess work - virtually every article I read is a ‘best guess’ of some kind.

My main advice to people wanting to optimize their blogs for Search Engines is to keep it simple. Start with quality content on a specific topic and then tweak it using the best current advice going around.

When I think about SEO for my blogs I tend to divide the things I focus upon into two parts - offsite and onsite search engine optimization techniques. Offsite techniques are more about what others do on their websites in linking to you, onsite techniques you have more control over as you write.

Off Site SEO Techniques

Off site SEO techniques are as the name suggests factors from outside the site itself (ie from other sites) that impact the blog’s ranking in search engines. Many of these factors are outside the blogger’s control - however they are useful to know. The most obvious and probably most powerful offsite factor are Inbound Links (something I’ve already referred to above).

It is generally agreed that the links that point to a website are one of the most powerful way of climbing Search Engines results pages (in fact many argue it is THE most important factor). - To put it most simply - every link to your site is seen by the search engines as being a vote of confidence in your site.

Ideally Speaking - The best inbound links have three main qualities to them:

they are from higher ranked sites than your own
they are relevant to the topic you are writing about
they link to you using relevant keywords to your page

Whilst you may not have complete control over who links to you these are the types of links that you should be dreaming of.

How to generate quality inbound Links?

Of course whilst most of us know this it doesn’t make getting such links any easier - its in the hands of others in many cases. So how do you get such links?

Quality Content - There are all kinds of link generating systems out there but in my opinion the best way to get links to your blog is to write quality content that people will want to read. You can solicit links with others or sign up for different link building programs or even buy text links on other sites but the cheapest and probably safest approach is to build inbound links in a natural organic way as others link to your quality content.
Notify Relevant Bloggers of your content - Whilst I don’t advocate spamming other bloggers and asking for links - I would recommend that if you write a quality post on a topic that you know will interest another blogger that it might be worth shooting them a short and polite email letting them know of your post. Don’t be offended if they don’t link up, but you might just find that they do and that in addition to the direct traffic that the link generates that it helps build your own page rank in the search engines (more on letting other bloggers know of your posts here).
Directories - Another way to generating inbound links is to submit your links to directories. I know of webmasters who swear by the benefits of such a strategy - the first thing that they do when starting a new site is to do the rounds of directories - submitting links to key pages with appropriate keywords in the links. There are loads of directories out there - many of which offer a free submission. Ari Paparo has compiled a list of blog directories that you might want to start with.
Inter-link your Blogs - Increasingly bloggers are starting or joining blog networks to enjoy the benefits of multiple sites and writers working together. One of the advantages of networks of sites is that they usually link to one another. In doing so you have complete control over how your sites are linked to from multiple domains. It is worth noting that you should be careful with this approach - if all your sites are hosted on the one server many think that Search Engines will work out what you’re doing and the impact will be lessened.
Buy Links - Many professional web masters have a budget to purchase links from other highly ranked and and relevant sites. I won’t go into this too much here but you might like to read more about it in my recent post On Buying Text Links. update: I’d encourage anyone wanting to buy links to think very carefully about this. Google have been cracking down on sites that use this practice. They can’t catch everyone but some have been caught and seem to have been penalized for doing it.
Swap Links - Similarly many bloggers swap links with other bloggers. Sometimes this happens pretty naturally (you see someone linking to you so you link back) but in many cases the links are strategic ones and formally arranged between site owners. I get daily requests for such reciprocal links (I rarely act on them). Whilst there is some benefit in such link swapping I would again advise caution here as many SEO experts believe that the search engines have methods for tracking such strategies and devaluing the links. Some try to get around this by doing indirect or triangulated links. ie instead of site A and B doign a direct swap they involve other sites. So A links to C in exchange for D (also owned by C) linking to B (also owned by A) - makes your head hurt doesn’t it!?! There are also a variety of systems around that say they’ll take care of such interlinking for you - I know many who use Digital Point’s Free C0-Op Advertising system. Personally I tend to avoid such schemes and have a policy of linking to sites I think are valuable to my readers. If they link back then so be it.

42% of Searchers Click the First Result

2007-11-21T07:15:00.000+07:00

A recent study examining the behavior of search engine users, and led by Professor Thorsten Joachims of Cornell University, has uncovered some interesting findings.

The study showed that 42% of users click on the first available result when conducting searches, while only 8% click on listing #2. Although it has long been known that the #1 result is favored by searchers, these figures do a good job of illustrating how strongly so.

Where the findings got really interesting though was when SERPs were fed through a script to reverse the order of the top two results. In these cases, 34% of users still clicked on the top result, while 12% clicked on #2.

This demonstrates that the exact same search result can go from a CTR (click through rate) of 12% to a CTR of 42%, by moving up a single spot. A very staggering difference, to be sure, and it seems to suggest that search engine users care more about positioning than actual relevancy.

How to Properly Utilize Headings in SEO

2007-11-21T07:14:00.001+07:00

So we all know that the title is the most important single element to optimize on a page, but it’s all to easy to forget the power of headings. Headings are like little titles that can be worked into a site’s content, and while no one heading can affect rankings as much as your title, having several keyword rich headings on your page can be an extremely powerful optimization strategy.

It is important to remember that there are actually six different kinds of headings ranging from H1 to H6. H1 tags have the most effect on your ranking followed by H2, and so on. To turn a piece of text into a heading you simply need to place it between and tags (where * is the heading value of 1 to 6).

The best way to use headings in the optimization of a page is to include a single H1 tag near the top, containing a word or phrase similar to (but not necessarily the same as) your primary keyphrase.

In addition to this, it is a good idea to scatter a few H2 (and possibly H3+) tags throughout the page containing as many of your secondary keywords as possible.

A word of caution, however: it’s not a good idea to overuse headings on any one page as search engines might see this as spam. In the vast majority of cases, you should be using only one H1 tag per page, and include at least two paragraphs of content for every H2 tag.

Overall, heading optimization is just a matter of common sense. Just write a good page of content, then spread a few relevant, keyword rich heading tags throughout your page, and your search engine ranking should be affected for the better.

A Very Unusual Pagerank Update

2007-11-19T23:12:00.002+07:00

Last week, many webmasters noticed that Google’s public pagerank system (a rough measure of each site’s importance in the search engine) was displaying higher than expected rankings for some sites.

Many virtually unlinked and unheard of sites rose significantly on the scale, without any official explanation from the search giant. Two of my sites that were affected were handsetreviews.com carriermix.com. Both were ranked 0 out of 10 before the change, but rose to PR6 afterwards. Other sites have been known to rise as high as PR8 as a result of this update. and

The strange thing is that this was not a normal update, as it only made a difference to newly created PR0 websites, and didn’t affect most internal pages (at least in my experence). Reaction from other webmasters can be found at this SitePoint forum thread.

Many webmasters believe that this unusual update could further devalue the meaning of PR (which is meaningless enough already for SEO purposes), but I am currently mulling a theory that Google could have a different opinion altogether.

I find it somewhat unlikely that the world’s biggest search engine would deliberately destroy the entire PR system. Rough and inaccurate as it is, the PR scale is the only way to get a simple reading of a site’s backlink weight, directly from Google.

Instead, my theory is that Google is turning PR itself into an elaborate experiment. They could be attempting to make it a more accurate measure of a site’s value, updated on a frequent, or even constant basis. Such a figure can’t be expected to be totally accurate right away, but if Google is trying to introduce such an improvement, I commend them for it.

Now, I must warn you, this is just a theory, and I make no guarantees that it is correct, but it’s quite a possible explanation in my opinion. Whether Google has success in implementing it is another matter altogether.

Google Strives to Further Improve Search Functionality

2007-11-19T23:12:00.001+07:00

Despite Google’s dominant position in the search industry, the internet giant’s decision makers insist that search is not a “solved problem,” and that there is still much room for improvement.

“Our position is that search is a very hard problem. We have still a lot of work to do,” commented internal engineer, Douglas Merrill, noting that 70% of Google’s efforts still go into improving search, as opposed to developing other services.

“It is not enough to have the information, the information should be right,” Merrill went on to say. “Sometimes the problem is figuring out what the users mean, not what the user said.”

At this point, some of Google’s main projects include improving mobile web search, personalized search, and language translation features, as well as finding new ways to combat SEO spam.

By keeping its focus on core search functionality, the internet giant is demonstrating its belief that no search algorithm can be “too good,” while recognizing the continual progress of competitors. This goes to show that even the mighty Google must work hard to maintain the upper hand against rivals like Yahoo and Microsoft.

SEO tips

2007-11-19T23:07:00.000+07:00

This page is meant to help our readers, users and clients better understand the world of search engines, as they relate to the proper positioning of websites. For much more detailed information on this important topic, please consult our SEO articles and resources section, which is constantly updated on a regular basis.

Additionnally, it is recommended that you subscribe to our free weekly SEO newsletter, published on every Saturday of every week. On this website, you can also keep informed on all the latest developments and industry news in the field of search engines, by clicking here.

SEO Tips:
Did you know that, before search engine users visit a specific Web site, they already have made four separate and distinct choices:

Choice number one: They choose to use the Internet to find a specific product or service, to research an issue of interest to them or solve a problem, as much in their professional careers as in their personal lives.

Choice number two: They choose one of the five to six major search engines on the Internet to launch their search, the most popular by far being Google.

Choice number three: They choose a particular keyword or phrase as the basis of their search, trying to narrow it down as best they can.

Choice number four: They discriminate among the first ten search results on the same, first page. Then they take their final decision as to wich web site (or company) will get their business.

These are your ultimate targeted site visitors. These web visitors are already fifty to sixty percent of the way toward reaching a final buying decision as a result of having taken the initiative to use a good search engine to investigate or research a specific product or service.

This is exactly the visitor that you want to attract to your web site. These are real, serious buyers.

Your ultimate strategy
Did you know that, after investing thousands, sometimes hundred of thousands of dollars developing a Web site, businesses often discover that the site is invisible in the major search properties. Failing to take your Web site's search engine and directory visibility into consideration when making site development decisions is an untimely and very expensive mistake.

As a direct consequence, companies must either reinvest in a post-launch redesign of their site, or accept the extremely limited results that they will achieve with their site, if any.

By recognizing both the importance and the need of search engine optimization in the development of your Web site, you hold a significant advantage over your competition. As an example, after making the decision to implement a website positioning strategy, one Rank for Sales client now maintains a sizeable advantage over its competitors.

Boasting significantly more and higher rankings in every major search engines including key players such as Google, AltaVista and Yahoo! Because of their decision to implement a website optimization strategy, our client has since closed a number of new business deals through search, including a recent $1.1 million sale that they acquired directly through a targeted search referral.

Users of Internet search engines are on a "mission" to solve a "problem." How quickly they are able to find an answer to their problem is directly related to customer satisfaction. How quickly they are able to find your website, if they are searching for you by name, is directly related to their opinion of your brand.

Where and if your website places itself in a priority position on top of the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) is entirely up to your site's optimization features, or lack thereof. So a lifetime relationship with your brand is very literally at stake every time someone conducts a query via a search engine.

Divide and conquer
Did you know that, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a very controversial and hotly disputed subject and is actually a discipline finding itself in a constant state of movement. Major search engines such as Yahoo!, Google, AltaVista and the others are relentlessly changing their search engine ranking algorithms and related criteria on which they determine what factors they consider important for delivering the most relevant results to user search queries.

Search engine optimization and positioning is an art as well as a science. These criterias have an extremely powerful influence on your search engine rankings. What's more, partnerships change, new search properties emerge, mergers or buyouts happen and others disappear altogether. All of these changes can directly impact your search engine rankings.

Fortunately, there are a number of helpful resources where you can learn more about increasing and maintaining your website's search engine rankings and keep up-to-date on the latest trends and changes in the search engine industry.

Learn the importance of reciprocal link exchange programs and their direct impact on your Google page rank by clicking here.

Learn how the professionals engage in an effective reciprocal link exchange campaign that can be tentamount to the actual success or failure of any web site. Learn all what you need to know about RLEP's and the right way professionals do it by

Tips on Finding Right Search Engine Optimization Company?

2007-11-17T19:09:00.001+07:00

A Search Engine Optimization Company can be an invaluable asset in your Internet marketing campaign. They specialize in knowing how to raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on the regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in any given month.

Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to maintain high search engine positions on your own.

However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.

When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions.

Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine’s index.

A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position.

Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never employ any company that uses this technique!

Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you.

Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.

Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company’s track record of results. However, don’t take the company’s word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you.

To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.

Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to see good results on.

Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It’s easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword “cat leashes” will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it.

What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker, available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year.

This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.

Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for.

You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for.

This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.

When you are checking out SEO companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company’s results in order to get you to sign on with them.

If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their SEO company.

It’s important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases.

This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should keep it always in the forefront of your marketing strategy.

Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months.

Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.

Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month.

Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site.

This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.

Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a SEO company is crucial in the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory.

If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.

Brand Strategies for Search Marketing - Part 1

2007-11-17T19:07:00.000+07:00

"Why would I buy my own brand terms?" asks . "Aren't we are already listed at the top of the search engines?"

Sound familiar? Of course it does. Whether you're an agency, consultant, or in-house expert, at some point you will need to effectively answer this key question.

Before you answer, remember: when dealing with clients or executives, it's best to use terms they can easily understand rather than confuse and frustrate them with technobabble. So, the next time you're asked this question, the following analogy should help.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Let's say you own a clothing store. You have two entrances to your store -- a front and a back. The front entrance is on a nice, well-lit street that is very busy. Each day, 700 people come in through the front door.

What's the search marketing equivalent of a front entrance? Organic search results.

On the other hand, the back entrance to your store is not well lit. A seedy, dark alley greets potential customers looking for your store. The 700 people streaming in through the front door seem like a pretty good crowd, so you invest nothing to improve your situation. As a result, your store has zero patrons entering through the back door.

The back door represents paid search results.

The 300

Meanwhile, a rival clothing store has a back entrance adjacent to yours. Same back alley, similar back door. However, they've recently paid to light their entrance and hired a security guard. Fancy signage touts how their clothes are more stylish and a better value than your offerings.

Your rival store now receives plenty of traffic through this back entrance.

If your store made the same investment toward improvements, you'd receive 300 profitable patrons through this entrance. Not only that, but you can also control the messaging people see when they walk by. With your new signs, you can highlight how your clothes are the best around.

These 300 patrons will also tell others of the great experience they had at your store and your front entrance traffic will increase from 700 patrons to 800 patrons. Hence you've increased traffic to your store by 400 profitable patrons (300 from back entrance + 100 from front entrance) and have also planted effective messaging about your clothes with these patrons who are subsequently telling their friends. Who wouldn't want to make this profitable investment in the back entrance?

The Doors

Wait.

You're worried some of the 700 customers (who've been coming in the front door) might start using the back door. Or, you're losing sleep because some of the 300 now using the back door would've used the front door if only you'd locked the back door.

Sound silly? Sure it does.

You've already forgotten the most important fact: a short time ago you never had those 300 customers.

Control the Message

Studies that have shown buying paid terms synergistically increases your organic clicks.

Couple this with the fact that paid listings give you control over exactly what message you want to convey about your brand. That's invaluable, particularly when coupled with the synergy of paid and organic search.

What could be more important when you're spending millions on traditional media (TV, print, outdoor) to launch or promote a new product or service. With search, you can guarantee your branding efforts are embedded in the new product, service, promotion, or sweepstakes.

Now that we've convinced our CEO to buy our brand terms, our job has just begun.

Next time: how to effectively manage brand listings and measure success.

What Causes Subscribers to Read Your Blog’s Feed?

2007-11-17T19:05:00.001+07:00

As you’re flipping through your feed reader, reading some feeds and skipping others, have you ever stopped to think about what influences your decision on which feeds are worthy of your attention? More importantly, have you ever thought about what makes your feed appealing enough to your subscribers that it actually gets read?

Most of us subscribe to more blog feeds than we will ever read in a single day. The decision to read, scan, or skip is determined in an instant. To have an effective blog you’ll need to address the issues that will cause your subscribers to read, or at least scan, your feed before moving on to the next one.

I looked at my own habits as an RSS subscriber and I found these factors:

1. Title

The post title is important for a number of reasons. You probably read a lot about the post title affecting your search engine rankings and your success with social media, but it is equally important for helping to get your feed read by more of your subscribers. Compelling and captivating titles will generate interest and intrigue while boring titles will lead to less interest. Other common methods include using questions and numbers in the title.

2. Timing

Timing can impact the readership of your feed in a few different ways. Many subscribers will not check their RSS reader over the weekends and as a result their feed reader will be overflowing on Monday morning. In this case, feeds are unlikely to actually be read. Knowing specific times that are likely to be good or bad for your readers and timing your posts according can be a big help.

Other aspects of timing will influence the reader’s decision but will be out of your control. Your post may come right after a vacation or at another time that is bad for a subscriber. On the other hand, the timing could be perfect if you address an issue in your post that the subscriber has been interested in recently. In this case, of course, your post is very likely to be read.

3. Pictures

Some bloggers use pictures and images very effectively in their posts and feeds. While pictures help on the actual page of your blog, they can sometimes have an even bigger impact within the RSS feed, which is typically pretty bland. Pictures are one of the best ways to help your feed quickly stand out from the others.

4. Reputation

This is a big one. All of us have our favorite feeds that we read on a regular basis. These feeds are unlikely to get skipped over. Likewise, most of us have feeds that we hardly ever read. We’re basically in the habit of skipping over these feeds, so it’s unlikely that they’ll be read. We all need to be striving to build a reputation that makes our feed one that subscribers look for and read every time.

5. Recommendations

Have you ever subscribed to a blog that was recommended to you by a friend or by another blogger that you trust? In these situations we tend to value the recommendation, which influences the reputation that the other blogger has in our mind. Although we have no personal experience or reason to appreciate this feed, we take the word of someone else. Successful bloggers benefit from recommendations all the time. Make your blog worth recommending and your feeds will be read by more people.

6. Topic

So maybe a particular blog post’s title isn’t especially attention-grabbing, but it gives you enough information to see that the post is on a topic that is of particular interest to you. Chances are, you’ll read. As a blogger you can benefit by knowing what topics pique the interest of your readers and writing accordingly.

7. Consistency

If your blog posts come in a regular and predictable pattern, readers will grow to expect and anticipate your posts. Daily Blog Tips is a great example of this. I know that Daniel is going to post something every day, and when I go to my feed reader I’m looking for it. Because of this there is a much better chance that I’ll read the post. While you don’t necessarily need to publish a post every day, some type of consistency can help.

8. Frequency

In some cases frequency can cause posts to be ignored. Although many of the top blogs post numerous times each day, many subscribers don’t have time to read that many posts. Each post individually is not that likely to be read by most subscribers. This works ok for news services like TechCrunch, but if you’re publishing the type of content that you want to be read by a majority of subscribers, don’t flood their RSS readers with too many new posts.

9. Full Posts or Excerpts?

Just about everyone has an opinion of whether you should publish full posts or excerpts in your feeds. I strongly prefer full posts because that’s what readers tend to want. Personally, I hardly read any feeds in my feed reader that use partial posts. The point of using a feed reader is to save time and increase convenience. Partial posts in feeds do neither. If you publish full posts in your feed you are more likely to be read.

10. Readability

The formatting of your posts can impact how many subscribers pay attention to your feed. Most readers want to be able to scan feeds and then read those that really interest them. You can accommodate them by using white space, bold text, lists, headers and sub-headers, etc.

11. Curiosity

Some bloggers are very effective at creating curiosity with their post titles and introductory paragraphs. The human nature of readers is to keep reading to satisfy there curiosity.

12. Colors

While most RSS feeds are black and white, there are some options for sprucing up your feed by adding some color. We already mentioned that pictures can help to get your feed read by more people, and one of the reasons is because of the color that pictures can add. Another option is to use color in the text. The latest version of WordPress gives users the option to add colored text very easily, which I think may prove to be a valuable addition.

13. Their Own Interests

You may be able to increase the readership of your blog by catering to the desires of your subscribers. For example, contests have become increasingly popular recently. One of the reasons that contests are effective is that they get your readers involved and lead them to read your posts. In this case they are partially motivated by a potential prize to read, but they are still reading. Another example is removing the nofollow tags from links in your blog’s comments. Readers who are interested in getting real links to their own blog may be more likely to read your posts and comment since they have something added to gain.

These are just some examples that I find to be influential. What other factors cause you to read a post or skip over it? And how do you address this in your own feeds?

Wordpress Plugin: Wordpress Petition Plugin

2007-11-15T19:37:00.000+07:00

Now you can integrate or run a petition on your Wordpress based blog. Freecharity.co.uk has released a special plugin called Wordpress Petition plugin to help you run a simple web based petition through your WordPress based site or blog. The custom petition text can be embedded into any post or page. To protect your petition from spam and false entries, signatories are asked to verify their signing of the petition through a confirmation link sent to them by e-mail.

The best tag management for Wordpress 2.3

2007-11-15T19:23:00.000+07:00

It’s good to have a builtin native tagging in the new Wordpress 2.3. The tagging can import from other famous tag plugin like Ultimate Tag Warrior and Bunny Technorati Tags too. However, the new builtin tagging feature seems not enough. I’m talking in terms of tag management. The builtin feature seems not enough if you have a blog with so many posts and all the previous posts were not tagged yet due to late installation of your tag plugin. Besides, its kind of heart to do other tag management too such as renaming tags.

Luckily there is a solution and i really recommend this plugin. It’s called Simple Tags. HereWithMe from France has released a very nice plugin to manage the tag, including manage the built in tagging feature in the new Wordpress 2.3. Simple Tags features:

AutoCompletion
Simple Tags has an autocompletion script. When you begin to tape a letter or more, a list a tags appears : you have only to choose !

Suggested tags
Simple Tags has a suggestion list tags to save time.
To realize this, it looks between your content and your tag database, and create clickable links to add easily the tags into the article.

Manage Tags
This is what i like the most, Simple Tags can:
* Raname one or many tags
* Merge many tags on one new
* Delete one or many tags
* Add a tag for all tags, or only posts matched by a searching tag.
* Edit slug one or many tags

Content Not Tagged
Simple Tags lists easily all content (page/article) which isn’t tagged inside your WordPress blog.

Mass Edit Tags
Ver useful! Do you have a not yet tagged blog ?
Edit mass tags options is perfect for you : tag 20, 30 or 50 articles with autocompletion in one step !

Ten Questions for a CEO Blogger

2007-11-14T21:58:00.000+07:00

1. Have you always considered yourself a writer?

Answer: I have always been a writer, but the blog has helped me continue to refine my communications skills and have an unfiltered, multi-directional and transparent dialogue with the community, which is invaluable and immeasurable.

2. How much time do you spend weekly on your blog and when/where/how do you write (i.e. blackberry, laptop, longhand, dictate)?

Answer: People always want to know whether I write blog entries myself, how much time I spend and where I write the entries. Let me assure you that I'm the author and I mostly write the entries in the evening sitting at my kitchen table.

3. What has been your most difficult moment as a CEO blogger?

No answer.

4. Why don't more CEOs blog? Lack of time? Fear? Inability to write well?

Answer: The best advice I have for anyone that's considering blogging: blog only if you feel compelled to communicate in writing [the italics are mine], through the good times and bad, and to always be authentic.

5. What is the measurable ROI for your blog?

Answer: anyone reading, or writing a blog, will find an immediacy and an authenticity of interaction that is hard to create in any other way except during a face-to-face interaction. [Also see answer to #1.]

6. How important are Comments left by readers? Do you measure the success of an entry by number of Comments?

Answer: One of the great things about writing a blog is the participatory aspect of it. Readers in different industries, professions, and geographies have an opportunity to offer their feedback and lend various perspectives that we can learn from. And, yes, I do read all the comments, both the gruff and the gracious.

7. You've said that blogging will become mandatory for CEOs and senior execs, just as email has. Do you stand by that? Any further thoughts?

Answer: I believe that the primary role of every leader is to communicate. It's true in every sector, public or private, and at every level. Through my blog, I can directly reach and cultivate important communities -- employees, customers, partners, investors and developers.

8. Does a CEO need to use Twitter or Facebook or any of the other social networking platforms? Which ones do you use, if any?

No answer on this.

9. Is an open corporate culture a prerequisite for a CEO to blog?

Culture does matter -- both the culture you're a part of and, as a leader, the culture you're trying to drive. Sun's culture is known for its technological innovation, openness and particiaption -- from the executive team and throughout the entire organization.

There are really smart people everywhere in our company and open communication and community participation are an important part of how Sun does business. Sun employees are our most passionate promoters and supporters.

They have unique insights into the strengths and advantages that our products, services and technologies provide. They are engaged with the communities, passionate about products, and they want to talk about them.

By reading the 3,000 or more Sun blogs, you can peer into the heart and soul of the company and see the passion and talent of our people.

10. What are your top three tips for writing a really successful CEO blog?

If you believe, as I do, that leadership is about communication then I can think of no more valuable tool. The Internet's having a profound impact on communcation and leadership and more interactive tools are emerging every day.

But leadership isn't about fads, so I'd advise folks to be crystal-clear on their goals and objectives, authentically participate in the way that works best to meet them, and steer clear of things simply because they're fashionable.

Gaming with Trust, Relevance, and Usefulness

2007-11-14T07:14:00.000+07:00

There is an old study from 1961 that looked at how people determine relevance of documents. The researcher selected technical documents and gave them to qualified individuals to sort on the basis of relevance. Some of the documents were sorted on the basis of title and some of them were sorted on the basis of abstract. The researcher found that no statistical difference existed between either method.

In that study, none of the documents would have been deceptive. That is, no one was trying to assert relevance (either real or artificial) through keyword injection, a very common practice on today’s Web. Best practices SEO advocates the inclusion of specific keywords into Web copy (titles, meta data, visible copy, and page URLs) so that search engines (and visitors) will “know” a document is relevant to those keywords.

Since we can use links to tell search engines documents are relevant to specific keywords, the inclusion of keywords in on-page factors matters more for people than for search engines. That is, there is no benefit to humans in seeing link anchor text that points to another page because the humans don’t know what lies at the other end of the linking relationship.

Today we find ourselves playing a game of Liar’s Trust with the search engines. Every link is a potential lie intended to deceive the search engnies, and the search engines have to determine for themselves (and us) which links (potential liars) can be trusted enough that we have to accept the links’ anchor text (or not).

In Liar’s Trust, you have two players: the person doing the lying and the person being lied to. The Liar wins if he tells either a lie or a truth and the other person believes him. The other person wins if he only believes the truth or distrusts the lie. You cannot have a deadlock in Liar’s Trust. That is, there is no scenario in which no one loses. Either player can win or both players can win.

The liar’s objective is to influence the other person to believe whatever the liar says. The other player’s objective is to influence the liar to tell the truth. The best outcome is where both players get what they want (the liar tells the truth and the other player believes him).

Our links are liars. They may tell the truth or they may be lying. The search engines are the other player. They may believe our lies (we win), or they may disbelieve our truths (we both lose), or they may believe our truths (we both win). In this special case of Liar’s Trust, there is no scenario in which the other player can win without the liar winning. That is, Link Liar’s Trust requires that if there is are winners at least one of them must be the Liar.

That’s not a very fun game to play if you’re not the liar, as the odds of winning are stacked against you.

But that is one way search engines today determine relevance: they play Link Liar’s Trust with Web documents and their only means of leveling the playing field (for themselves) is to try to disqualify the most dishonest liars before letting them play in the game. In other words, search engines can only hope for a win-win scenario where they trust the right liars (the ones who happen to be telling the truth).

With such a lop-sided methodology, any third player who has to wager on which outcome is most likely (no winner, liar wins, both win) needs to know something about both players in order to make something other than a random guess.

If the third player knows that the liar is always dishonest then he can say the liar has a 1-in-3 chance of winning and the search engine has no chance of winning.

If the third player knows that the search engine always trusts the liar, then he can say the liar wins 3 times but the search engine only wins 1 time.

If the third player knows that the liar tells the truth 2 out of 3 times, he knows the liar will only win 1 time if the search engine can tell the difference between a lie and the truth. The search engine can win at most only 1 time out of 3 regardless of whether can tell the difference between a lie and a truth.

If we take links out of the picture and go back to using only titles and abstracts to describe documents, we find we may still be playing a game of Liar’s Trust. Without access to the primary document, we have to blindly trust that titles and abstracts tell us something useful and relevant about a document’s content.

So if the titles or abstracts are deceptive, we once again find that the liars have the advantage. That is why search engines have to keep liars from playing the game because once the liar sits down at the table the advantages are all his.

The only way to avoid playing (Search) Liar’s Trust is to tie the link anchor text (or the titles and abstracts) to the document’s primary text. That is, we need to require that at least one word found in the link anchor text, title, or abstract is also found in the document’s primary text.

In today’s search optimization practices there is nothing really equivalent to a document abstract. Search engines don’t trust the meta description tag enough to include it in their relevance computations (at least, not so that anyone can measure the impact of meta descriptions on relevance). If we assume for the sake of discussion, however, that the meta description is most likely going to be seen by anyone who finds the document listed in search results, then the meta description plays the role of a limited abstract.

You can score a document for “trust” in three ways:

Documents you trust tell you about the document
Documents you don’t trust tell you something truthful about the document
The document’s meta data tells you something truthful about the document

Most people assume that trusted links are all you need to optimize a Web site for search, but you really need to optimize the site for searchers.

That is, you’re not just looking to earn algorithmic trust; you want to earn visitor trust as well. Some people call this “preselling” or “prequalifying” your visitors. You discourage irrelevant visitors who are least likely to convert and encourage highly relevant visitors who are most likely to convert. Your titles, meta descriptions, and inbound link anchor text (as well as the source documents you link from) all need to be relevant to your primary document copy in order for people to relax and feel like they have found the right thing.

One would think such a natural means of determining relevance would be simple enough to score algorithmically. But then we have to take context into consideration. A query for “dogs”, for example, may be relevant to four-legged furry creatures or it may be relevant to human feet. Still, it would be nice to know that search engines look at link anchor text and see if it really has any relevance to the destination document.

You need not worry about whether search engines do that if you actively build links using keywords in your anchor text that match one or more the keywords in your titles, meta descriptions, and on-page copy. The more matches you have between anchor text and titles, the better — at least for human visitors because they’ll at least see that you tried to tell them what the documents were called.

People may trust documents before search engines trust them. If people express their trust through links the search engines may decide to trust the documents. But what if every person who knows about and trusts a document is a known liar whom the search engines no longer trust? If Ralph Nader launches a new Web site and only 1,000 spammers whose sites have been penalized link to his site with trufthful, accurate link anchor text, should a search engine trust the new site?

It’s not in a search engine’s best interest to ignore 1,000 liars who are telling the truth any more than it is in the search engine’s best interest to pay attention to 1,000 usually honest people who decide to lie. In either scenario the search engine’s results prove to be less useful and relevant because the search engine is really blind to the truth and deception.

A search engine’s evaluation of the trustworthiness of a page is only as good as the information made available to the trust-assessing algorithm. Where does that data come from? Is the search engine watching Web pages, waiting to see how many spammy links they hold and how many links to non-spammy sites? If that is the case, then why do so many pages that don’t link out to spammy sites fail to earn trust?

Web directory design theory owes something to that 1961 study, even if the connection was only accidental and intuitive. If human-reviewed titles and abstracts are relevant to their associated documents then it follows that both the titles and the abstracts will be equally useful in determining relevance for queries. In practice, that is usually what Web directories do: evaluate listing titles, listing descriptions, listing URLs, and listing category names.

We can apply this principle (of being honest about good content) to our Web page design if we think in terms of being accurately informative. Now we (the Web site operators) are the liar and our visitors (both search engines and human visitors) are the other player. We lose if we convey inaccurate information and the other player doesn’t agree with us (the search engine fails to show our page or the visitor leaves immediately).

We win by accident if we convey inaccurate information or only partially inaccurate information and the other player shows our content (search engine) or clicks through on our call to action (visitor).

Everyone wins if we convey completely accurate information that is shown in search results and the visitor takes the call to action.

The distinction between an accidental win and an earned/community win is that our credibility as a resource is enhanced — everyone is likely to agree that we’re worth showing off and using again — in the third scenario. That is, the third scenario offers a stronger win because it provides a more satisfying experience for everyone.

If we score this game on a basis of 0, 1, or 2 we find we rack up points more quickly every time we earn 2 points rather than 1 point. How many 1-point shots do you want to take if your goal is to earn 500 points? How many 0-point shots do you want to take?

Quantifying what you do with your search engine optimization this way is a quick, easy way to determine how effective your efforts are proving to be. You don’t have to wait a year to know if someone sees your page in the search results or if you get any conversions.

Nor do you have to wait very long to see that whatever you did with a specific page will or will not work. Some SEOs beat their heads against the wall for anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. I once saw a message in a forum posted by someone who said their site had been banned for about 3 years and they still didn’t know what to do.

If your site doesn’t perform after 1-2 months, it’s time to try something different. You may not have to change the site itself, but you need to change your strategy because after 2 months either the search engine thinks you’re a liar or everyone else does.

Either way, you lose. And if you really do have useful content, everyone else loses, too.

What an SEO?

2007-11-14T07:09:00.000+07:00

SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, a few unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.

While Google doesn't have relationships with any SEOs and doesn't offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.

Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or through the Google Sitemaps program, and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.
You should never have to link to an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.
Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.
Most such proposals require users to install extra software, and very few users do so. Evaluate such proposals with extreme care and be skeptical about the self-reported number of users who have downloaded the required applications.
Choose wisely.
While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.
Be sure to understand where the money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.
Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they'd recommend the firm you're considering.
References are a good start, but they don't tell the whole story. You should ask how long a company has been in business and how many full time individuals it employs. If you feel pressured or uneasy, go with your gut feeling and play it safe: hold off until you find a firm that you can trust. Ask your SEO firm if it reports every spam abuse that it finds to Google using our spam complaint form at http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html. Ethical SEO firms report deceptive sites that violate Google's spam guidelines.
Make sure you're protected legally.
For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee. Don't be afraid to request a refund if you're unsatisfied for any reason, or if your SEO's actions cause your domain to be removed from a search engine's index. Make sure you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO to stay within the guidelines recommended by each search engine for site inclusion.

What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?

One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.

Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.

What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:

owns shadow domains

puts links to their other clients on doorway pages

offers to sell keywords in the address bar

doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results

guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway

operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info

gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware

has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google

If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580

If your complaint is against a company in another country, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.

Now Hiring - Director of Strategic Link Building ... $5,000 Referral Fee

2007-11-12T19:36:00.000+07:00

Position:

Director of Strategic Link Building - Textlinkbrokers.com

Referral Fee:

There is a $5000 referral fee for anyone who refers a winning candidate. Referral fee will be paid after completion of 90 day evaluation period and is only applicable to the Director of Stategic Link Building position. Must provide introduction to candidate and proof of referral.

Description:

Immediate opening for an experienced link builder who is geared up to work with one of the largest and fastest growing Link Building / SEO Companies in the world.

In business for nearly 5 years, TextLinkBrokers.com (360 Enterprises, inc.) provides a large variety of link building / SEO services to thousands of companies worldwide. We seek an experienced professional link builder who develops strategic, results oriented link building campaigns for midsize to large corporate clients. The Director will oversee our custom link building / SEO services department, which involves managing SEO Project Managers and Service Managers.

Requirements:

1. A minimum of 4 years hands-on experience building links via a variety of methods
2. Deep knowledge of the link building industry
3. Ability to create custom link building strategies using in-house resources/programs
4. The creativity to build custom campaigns and services from conception to ROI
5. Capacity to organize, manage and work with a team in order to meet deadlines and goals
6. Strong base in project management, research, metrics / analytics; budgeting and pricing
7. Desire to work with Executive Staff, Clients, Sales People and Project Managers directly
8. Advanced knowledge of on-site SEO
9. Social Media skills a plus
10. Must illustrate success on past projects

Location:

Phoenix (Mesa/Gilbert), Arizona

Remote work is possible during an agreed upon transition period

Salary and Compensation:

D.O.E - The right person will earn a lucrative 6-figure compensation package. Relocation expenses provided.

Contact:

Please send a detailed summary of your related work experience. Send a formal resume if you have one.

Troy Ireland, Troy --at-- Textlinkbrokers.com

or Jarrod Hunt, Jarrod --at-- Textlinkbrokers.com