SEO Expert

Google’s New Algorithm Update Impacts 35% Of Searches - 2012

2012-01-04T12:05:00.002+05:30

Today, Google announced a change to its search algorithm that the company says will impact 35% of Web searches. The change builds on top of its previous “Caffeine” update in order to deliver more up-to-date and relevant search results, specifically those in areas where freshness matters. This includes things like recent events, hot topics, current reviews and breaking news items.

Google says that the new algorithm knows that different types of searches have different freshness needs, and weighs them accordingly. For example, a search for a favorite recipe posted a few years ago may still be popular enough to rank highly, but searches for an unfolding news story or the latest review of the iPhone 4S should bring the newer, fresher content first, followed by older results.

For searches about recent events and news, Google may now show search results towards the top of the page that are only minutes old, the company says. For regularly occurring events, like the Presidential election, the Oscars, a football game, company earnings, etc., Google knows that you’re likely interested in the most recent event, even if you don’t specify keywords indicating that.

That means a search for “Apple earnings” won’t (in theory) require you to also type in “Q4 2011″ in order to see the latest information. It will be implied that you meant this latest quarter, without the need for the extra text. Of course, Google was already ranking news items and stock symbols at the top of the page when users performed financial-related searches or searches for current information, but this algorithm change has an impact on the organic search results, too, not those from the verticals (search, finance, images, etc.) which have been integrated into Google’s Universal search.

For items that see regular updates, like consumer electronics reviews, reviews of a particular kind of car and more, Google will also feature the most current and up-to-date information above the rest.

This “freshness update,” is an extension of what Google begin last year with Caffeine, an under-the-hood improvement that, among other things, helped Google index content quicker, so results were more realtime. This year, Google also brought out its Panda update, which was meant to decrease the rankings of so-called “content farms” – SEO-optimized entities that critics said filled Google with low-quality results.

Now, it’s clear that Google understands that the most relevant search result is more often the one that’s relevant now – the one that’s bringing you new information. The update’s impact on Google Search is fairly substantial, with Google claiming that roughly 35% of search results will be affected by the changes.

Google used to have a search vertical specifically for the most recent updates at www.google.com/realtime, where it was indexing Twitter updates. However, when the contract with Twitter expired, Google shuttered the site (it now redirects to the Google homepage). Google said at the time that it planned to re-open the site with Google+ search results alongside other realtime sources of information. But with the new Google search update, a specific vertical for realtime information feels less necessary.
By,

Sarah Perez

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Google Adwords New Algorithm!

2011-11-06T00:10:00.002+05:30

Google recently rolled out changes to its AdWords algorithms after successfully tested them on its users in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

To be successful in online marketing, you have to look beyond this immediate response and understand what Google is trying to achieve here. Google has always ranked ads according to two criteria: the “Quality Score” of what you’re offering and the price you’re prepared to pay. The Quality Score is, itself, made up of three factors – the historical performance of the ad (primarily, what percentage of searchers clicked it); the relevance of the ad text to the search term; and, finally, the quality of the landing page.

The changes Google is introducing have the effect of increasing the importance of the landing page in the Quality Score. Google’s explanation is that too many searchers are being sent to pages that aren’t entirely relevant to their search. They get frustrated and leave the site, which is bad news for both the advertiser and Google.

Your Google Adwords Control Panel will tell you what your Quality Score is and specifically how your landing page rates.

The peak shopping period is upon us and, for most online shops, the effectiveness of their Google AdWords campaigns can make the difference between a fruitful festive season and a bleak new year.

If you’re finding that your ad is appearing lower than it previously was, now is the time to check whether your Quality Score has dropped and, if it does, go through Google’s landing page guidelines.

www.adwordsbuzz.com

List of Indian B-2-B Portals!!!

2011-10-20T11:07:00.000+05:30

As all of you know always i have shared a very important and rare information with you. Today i am sharing List of Indian B-2-B Portals, That may help you to grow your business in Indian market & you will reach to the exact targeted audience. Keep reading this blog i will come up with more interesting things in next comming days...!

List of Indian B-2-B Portals

Sr. URL

1 www.globalsources.com
2 www.hktdc.com
3 www.tradekey.com
4 www.made-from-india.com/
5 www.ec21.com
6 www.gofrugal.com
7 api.e-point.co.in
8 www.importersdirectory.co.in/Directory
9 www.thaitrade.com/signup
10 india-b2b-portal.int.ask.com
11 www.itrademarket.com
12 www.promarket.in
13 www.indiamarkets.com
14 www.indiamart.com/
15 www.infobanc.com/
16 www.seekandsource.com/
17 www.tradingbiz.com/
18 www.tradeindia.com/
19 www.nsicindia.com/
20 www.eworldtradefair.com/
21 www.b2bchannels.com/
22 www.eindiabusiness.com/
23 www.clickb2bindia.com/
24 www.bizxchange.in/
25 www.sme.in/
26 www.thegreatindianbazaar.com/
27 www.b2bbyte.com/
28 find4sites.com/
29 www.trademart.in/
30 www.mfgtrade.com
31 www.worldmart.in
32 www.webdir.biz
33 www.citiconnect.in
34 www.iq197.com
35 www.tradeguruindia.com
36 www.indiandefenceindustry.com
37 www.thegreatindianbazaar.com
38 www.motalala.com/
39 www.globalsources.com
40 www.inworldoftrade.com
41 www.olx.in
42 www.kompass.in/
43 www.business-india.in/
44 www.tradekeyindia.com/
45 tradejumbo.com
46 www.b2bindiamart.com/
47 www.tradetong.cn/B2B-Directory/Asian_B2B.html
48 www.fibre2fashion.com/
49 www.indiantrademarket.com/
50 betavine.mobi/bvportal/forums/index.html?threadId...
51 ww.slideshare.net
52 www.indiaexport-import.com/
53 www.indiacon.com/
54 www.impexonweb.com/
55 www.exploreglobalbusiness.com/
56 www.goldenline.pl
57 www.internetworldstats.com
58 hi.baidu.com
59 advij.com
60 www.tradeb2b.net
61 www.latrades.com/
62 find.informe.com/marketplace_b2b_portal/
63 www.indianb2bmarket.com
64 www.businessportalindia.com/directory/
65 www.adoos.in
66 www.webportalsindia.com
67 who.stsoftware.biz
68 www.workinfo.info/
69 www.websitevalue.us/www/tradeindia.com
70 www.dialnsearch.com/
71 stuffgate.com/tradingbiz.com
72 www.indianebiz.com
73 www.needb2b.com
74 www.investmentnetwork.in/
75 www.indianmanufacturersclub.com
76 indiaetrade.com/
77 www.b2btradeindia.com/
78 www.ezsearch.co.za
79 www.webmarketingwar.com/
80 indiancommercials.com
81 www.webcitymarketing.com/
82 www.thehindubusinessline.in/
83 www.abc-directory.com
84 dir.exportersindia.net/
85 www.ipfonline.com/
86 www.cityit.in
87 www.panomtech.com/panomtechb2bmarketplace.aspx
88 www.pharmasuppliers.net
89 website.informer.com/
90 www.vcsdata.com/
91 www.clickindia.com
92 www.pinnaclepixel.com/b2b-b2c-portal-development.html
93 www.dreamznetsolutions.com
94 mumbai.quikr.com
95 www.b2bwebdevelopmentindia.com/
96 www.atcomaart.com/
97 www.toboc.com/
98 www.tradeportindia.com/
99 www.virtualsplat.com
100 www.intrawebsolns.com
101 www.technowizpvtltd.com/E-Commerce.aspx
102 www.creativewebsolutions.in/
103 www.companiesinmumbai.com/
104 www.antya.com/topic/b2b-portal/mumbai
105 www.provab.com/
106 www.asklaila.com
107 www.bangalorebusinesses.com/
108 www.sahipasand.com
109 b2b-dir.com/
110 www.radical.co.in/
111 www.ads2india.com/
112 www.bangalorebased.com
113 www.mason-summers.in
114 www.nsic.co.in/
115 www.hotfrog.in
116 indialist.com
117 locanto.in/
118 www.clickmavis.com
119 www.computex.biz
120 www.all-firms.com
121 ncrads.com/footer/b2b.php
122 www.bizplenty.com/Hydraulics_Information
123 www.smeworld.org
124 www.pragyanet.com
125 www.webdhoom.com

How to Set Up a LinkedIn Company Profile for Successful Solopreneurs

2011-10-19T14:52:00.002+05:30

Before we dig in, you must meet one very important requirement: you need to have an email address with your company domain. And, this email address must also be listed on your profile. Addresses tied to free email services like yahoo, gmail and hotmail don't count.

To add your company, click on “Companies' in the navigation bar near the top of the home page. At the Companies page, click the “Add a Company' link in the upper right. If you've never been LinkedIn's Companies site before, here's a quick introduction to how this site works.

Did you know LinkedIn allows people to follow company updates? When you to go the Companies page, updates for all of the companies you follow will be here. This is also a good place to search for new clients and connections. A link to follow each company appears when you mouse over the space in the upper right corner of each search result.

How to Complete Your LinkedIn CompanyListing

As a successful solopreneur, you already have everything it takes to set up your company profile in 30 minutes or less. Read through this checklist to save time and make sure you're ready to complete all the information when you log in. In addition to the company overview page, you'll see tabs for career, products and services, and analytics. Here's the information you'll need to complete your company overview page.

Company Name
Make sure the company name listing matches the name you use in your profile. For example if you use LLC or Inc. on your personal profile, your company site must be the same.

Admins
LinkedIn wants to know who will administer your company profile. You have two choices: either all employees with a valid email address registered to your domain or designated users only.

Logos
Logos can be uploaded as a standard logo as well as a square logo that will be used for network updates.

Company Description
In the company description section, you have the opportunity to describe who you are and what you do. Think big[ger] picture. You may be a successful soloist now, but if you're planning on growing your business or going after big companies, present your company as an entity.

Specialties

Include keywords that describe what you do in this section. You have 256 total characters to describe specialties. Two or three word descriptions are okay.

Twitter and Company Blog RSS Feed
Bringing in your twitter updates and blog feed keeps your company page active, relevant and current.

News Module
Adding in the news module displays search results that share news about your company. But, be prepared to see stories that don't relate to your company, except in search terms. If your company is not making news, it's best to select “don't show news about my company.'

Company Type, Size, URL
Under company type and company size, you'll select from the options that describe your status. Your company website URL link can go to your home page or to a services or gallery page.

Industry, Operating Status, Year Founded
Main company industry allows you to choose from any within the LinkedIn categories. Then, you will select company operating status and the year founded, which is an optional entry.

Locations

The last step is locations. You can add up to five different location addresses, then click publish and your LinkedIn company profile is active.

Careers
If you ever want to add employees, you can post a job on your company's careers page.

Promoting Your Products and Services on LinkedIn

The next tab, products and services, gives you the opportunity to promote who you are and what you do in the course of 11 steps. Only the product/service option, category, name and description are required.

First, you'll choose between a product or service. Next, you'll select a category. Then, you'll name your product or service, add a logo, write a description, list key features, post a disclaimer, add a URL, list a company contact, add a promotional link and link to a YouTube video.

While you don't have to complete every step, you can see how much opportunity LinkedIn gives you to promote your business from within a company page. The best part is you don't have to pay someone to design it or write it, unless you want to.

Monitoring Traffic and Audience Analytics on LinkedIn

The last tab, analytics, is a rich resource and adds insights and value. Here, you can track page views and unique visitors for your overview, careers and products and services pages. You can even compare how your company is doing with similar companies.

Inviting Connections to Follow Your Companyon LinkedIn

Now that your page is all set up, you're ready to invite followers. You can add a follow button to your website or blog. LinkedIn makes it easy with a line of code. If that seems too complicated, you can always add a “follow our company on LinkedIn' call to action with the company page URL to your email address and in other promotional materials. Congratulations! You and your business are on your way to being found and followed in a network with over 100 million members. How's that for being a Successful Soloist?

Author of the LinkedIn chapter in “Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars,' Barbara Rozgonyi is a recognized 3D thought leader who enjoys showing organizations and people how to attract attention, build business and connect with communities by integrating social media, content marketing and digital PR strategies with the WIRED system. Founder of CoryWest Media, LLC and publisher ofwiredPRworks.com, Barbara invites you to learn more at http://savvysocialmedia.com

How to Redirect a Web Page

2011-10-10T12:39:00.000+05:30

301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection. It's not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page. If you have to change file names or move pages around, it's the safest option. The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently". You can Test your redirection with Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker Below are a Couple of methods to implement URL Redirection:

IIS Redirect

In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect Select the radio titled "a redirection to a URL". Enter the redirection page Check "The exact url entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource" Click on 'Apply'

ColdFusion Redirect

<.cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved permanently"> <.cfheader name="Location" value="http://www.new-url.com">

PHP Redirect ASP Redirect

<%@ Language=VBScript %> <% Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently" Response.AddHeader "Location","http://www.new-url.com/" %>

ASP .NET Redirect JSP (Java) Redirect

<% response.setStatus(301); response.setHeader( "Location", "http://www.new-url.com/" ); response.setHeader( "Connection", "close" ); %>

CGI PERL Redirect

$q = new CGI; print $q->redirect("http://www.new-url.com/");

Ruby on Rails Redirect

def old_action headers["Status"] = "301 Moved Permanently" redirect_to "http://www.new-url.com/" end

Redirect Old domain to New domain (htaccess redirect)

Create a .htaccess file with the below code, it will ensure that all your directories and pages of your old domain will get correctly redirected to your new domain. The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website (i.e the same directory where your index file is placed) Options

+FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L] Please REPLACE www.newdomain.com in the above code with your actual domain name. In addition to the redirect I would suggest that you contact every backlinking site to modify their backlink to point to your new website. Note* This .htaccess method of redirection works ONLY on Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled.

Redirect to www (htaccess redirect)

Create a .htaccess file with the below code, it will ensure that all requests coming in to domain.com will get redirected to www.domain.com The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website (i.e the same directory where your index file is placed) Options +FollowSymlinks RewriteEngine on rewritecond %{http_host} ^domain.com [nc] rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc] Please REPLACE domain.com and www.newdomain.com with your actual domain name. Note* This .htaccess method of redirection works ONLY on Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled.

How to Redirect HTML

Please refer to section titled 'How to Redirect with htaccess', if your site is hosted on a Linux Server and 'IIS Redirect', if your site is hosted on a Windows Server.

Google Insights For Search !!!

2011-10-08T12:27:00.000+05:30

See what the world is searching for

With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. See examples of how you can use Google Insights for Search. Categories Narrow data to specific categories, like finance, health, and sports. Examples: Entertainment category in Australia (last 90 days) | The top vehicle brands in France (last 30 days) Seasonality Anticipate demand for your business so you can budget and plan accordingly. Examples: cricket in 2008 vs. 2007 | christmas presents, 2004 - present Geographic distribution Know where to find your customers. See how search volume is distributed across regions and cities. Examples: news in different Australian states/territories | champions league in the UK, Brazil, Australia and Switzerland Properties See search patterns in other Google properties. Examples: puppies vs. kittens, Australia (image search) | Rising image searches (last 30 days) More examples

Micro-Site/Blog Strategy for Link Building and Brand Awareness

2011-09-28T11:57:00.002+05:30

Microsites

A microsite is an Internet web design term referring to an individual web page or a small cluster (around 1 to 7) pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website. The microsite's main landing page most likely has its own domain name or subdomain.

They are typically used to add a specialized group of information either editorial or commercial. Such sites may be linked in to a main site or not or taken completely off a site's server when the site is used for a temporary purpose. The main distinction of a microsite versus its parent site is its purpose and specific cohesiveness as compared to the microsite's broader overall parent website.

Microsites used for editorial purposes may be a page or group of pages that, for example, might contain information about a holiday, an event or similar item which gives more detailed information than a site's general content area may provide. A community organization may have its main site with all of the organization's basic information, but creates a separate, temporary microsite to inform about a particular activity, event or similar.
Often, microsites will be used for editorial purposes by a commercial business to add editorial value. For example, a retailer of party goods may create a microsite with editorial content about the history of Halloween or some other holiday or event. The commercial purpose of such editorial microsites, (beyond driving product sales), may include adding value to the site's visitors for branding purposes as well as providing editorial content and keywords allowing for greater chances of search engine inclusion. Normally, microsites do not contain web applications.

Microsites may be used for purely commercial purposes to create in-depth information about a particular product, service or as editorial support towards a specific product, such as describing a new technology. A car manufacturer, for example, may present a new hybrid vehicle and support the sales presentation with a microsite specific to explaining hybrid technology.

With the prevalence of keyword contextual advertising, (more commonly referred to as Pay per click or PPC), microsites may be created specifically to carry such contextual advertising. Or along a similar tactic, they're created in order to specifically carry topic-specific, keyword-rich content with the goal of having search engines rank them highly when search engine users seek such content topics.

An additional benefit of a microsite is that it can lower your PPC cost because the microsite can focus on specific keywords improving your Quality Score therefore lowering your cost per click.

Creating a network of micro-sites for the sake of link power manipulation is a controversial technique; hence it has become risky to interlink your own websites even for very “white hat” purposes (e.g. to let your readers know about your other relevant sites). Nonetheless, link building with micro-sites can be a highly effective technique if done correctly.

My main idea is that creating micro-sites around your main web resource is not necessarily done for the sake of interlinking and spreading the link power. When done wisely, the strategy can aim at multiple great purposes:
build link power of several resources simultaneously ( = if the microsite is closely associated with the main site, many webmasters will link to the both resources when talking about either of them). Michael Martinez in
his recent post on one-way link building put it greatly:
satellite site networks succeed because each site brings enough unique content and concepts to the user experience that it makes sense for people to link to them all be on the safe side: aggressive (or any other) link baits can be both fail or win, that’s always hard to predict; if you host your link bait on a separate site, you will always keep your main site protected from the campaign (probably dangerous) circumstances;
create multiple / additional positive / sticky brand associations (citing Michael, “split a brand value across multiple sub-brands“);
reach broader audience or attract some particular audience – that might be hard for a well known site that is strongly associated with one age group, for example, to rebrand so that it could appeal to much younger / older audience. Creating a microsite and optimizing it for a new audience group you want to target can be a better idea than relaunch your established site.

broaden your link building scope (e.g. promoting a corporate site in social media could be tough as it is not “social media friendly” enough for the campaign to be successful).

get people promote your site: by encouraging customers’ active participation, you will enroll most Internet-savvy audience; almost all representatives of this audience run websites and blogs of their own where they will be glad to promote your site.

See how others use micro-site strategy to both build links and brand awareness (examples from Mashable and WOMMA):
host relevant but different content: Coca-Cola Conversations blog focuses on Coke collectibles.
encourage viral marketing: a social network of photo enthusiasts around Fujifilm newest camera.
host link bait: to promote its new T.V. series “Back to You,” Fox Broadcasting created a micro-site where users can upload photos of themselves to create an image that shows them seated at the anchor desk between the show’s stars, Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer.host different type of content (e.g. user-generated content): Southwest Airlines employees and customers share the “Nuts About Southwest” on a separate blog.

Sales Funnel in Google Analytics

2011-07-15T10:47:00.004+05:30

If you are a hard core Google Analytics user (like me), you are probably already familiar with Goals.

What is a Goal?

In simple terms, A goal is something that a site/business wants to achieve. So for instance, If its a E-commerce website, one possible goal can be the orders or sales that take place online. For a consultation firm, the goal can be to get the contact information of the client and so on.

In a typical buying process, a buyer actually goes through a series of steps to complete your goal. These steps, in traditional marketing are often referred to as AIDA model. AIDA stands for Attention > Interest > Desire & Action.

So basically in order to complete a Goal, a prospect will often go through these 4 steps or in other words will go through a sales funnel. At the top of the funnel, you will often find a lot of prospective customers who are probably paying attention to your market & also probably interested in your product, however as they go deeper into the buying process, many of them feel disconnected and lose their desire which results in them taking no action (no purchase/order/sales).

How can Google Analytics help with Funnel Visualization?

Google Analytics has everything that you need to keep track of your Website goals as well as to track whatever that is happening inside your Sales Funnel.

So for instance, a company like Dell comes up with an online offer almost every other day. One of their primary goal is to get as many order as they can for each of the respective models/units. With hundreds and thousands of visitors coming to Dell’s website everyday for various reasons, not everyone is actually becoming their customer (placing an order). Some visitors are probably just browsing, some goes deep into the order page and then leaves probably because they didn’t find the right configuration that they were looking for and some are probably just confused in the order process etc.

Unlike a physical store, where the sales person has the ability to communicate with the buyer and also read his body language to better understand the needs and wants, a website just doesn’t have that luxury!

It’s bascially up to you (the webmaster/owner), to look at what happens during each step of the sales closing process (i.e. conversion / sales funnel) and find a way to make each page in the process as helpful and painless as possible.

So how can Dell identify the visitors that goes inside the sales funnel but doesn’t complete the whole process? How can Dell find out why some of their visitors are leaving their site in the middle of an order process?

Google Analytics Funnel Visualization is the answer!

How to Set Up Google Analytics Funnel

There are plenty of tutorials (including the official help pages from google) that shows you the steps for setting up a funnel in Google Analytics [I included some of them at the end of this article].

So instead, I’ll share a video with you that sort of demonstrate the Google Analytics Funnel Visualization report in just 60 seconds! [Source: Google Analytics Blog]

Posted by Saad

SEO Interview Questions.......

2011-03-25T16:51:00.005+05:30

Interview Questions listed below are most frequently asked questions when you attend for seo job Interview, it is important to concentrate on how an answer is given rather than the actual answer.
They often scare interviewees, practice well by reading seo articles, to get a good opportunity in seo field and shine in this industry.

1. Did you work on PPC?
2. Is sitemap usefull for Seo?
3. Do you know HTML Coading?
4. Explain your seo Experience?
5. Can you write HTML code by hand?
6. What Seo tools do you regularly use?
7. Explain importance of meta tags in seo?
8. Why are you leaving your current seo job?
9. Have you attended any seo conferences?
10. What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
11. Give me a description of your general SEO experience.
12. What role do social media play in an SEO strategy?
13. Explain what META tags matter in today's SEO world?
14. What kind of SEO strategies do you normally implement for back links?
15. What do you think is different about working for an SEO agency vs. doing SEO in-house?
16. To what extent do you think seo is effective?
17. As a seo consultant Do you consider yourself as creative?
18. Have you ever prepared proposal for seo clients? if yes can you give me one proposal now? 19. What are the problems you face in seo industy?
20. How do you evaluate whether an seo campaign is working?
21. In what area of seo are you strong ? And what area of seo you are weak?
22. What seo blogs and Forums do you read ?
23. Do you have experience in social media optimization?
24. How far do you think social media optimization help a website to achive top position in search engines?
25. As a seo consultant what do you prefer google / yahoo/ bing ?
26. Do you have Knowledge of Static as well as Dynamic Website Optimization ?
27. Do you have experience in copy Writing and can you provide some writing Sample?
28. What is the role of social bookmarking sites in Seo?
29. What do you mean by social networking Traffic? How do they help for website seo?
30. Have you done any Videp Submissions and Video Promotions.?
31. Explain what is page rank and explain page rank algoritham?
32. Explain me the steps you follow for optimizing a website?
33. For what clients you have done seo? Are you successful in doing seo for them?
34. What is link building ? Link buying?
35. What kind of activities do you normally implement for genrating back links for a website?
36. Why do we use nofollow on an internal link?
37. What do you mean by competitive analysis and what techniques do you use?
38. How many target keywords should a website have? Or how many target keywords do you suggest for a website?
39. How do you help your client to decide budget allocation for seo and pay-per-click?
40. Do you have your own blogs? Do you do any seo freelance works ?
41. How do you handle your client if he do not want to implement your seo recommendations?
42. Could you briefly explain the Page Rank algorithm? And what do you think of Page Rank?
43. What do you think of using XML sitemaps?
44. Do you have experience in copywriting and can you provide some writing samples?
45. Explain various steps that you would take to optimize a website?
46. Have you ever had something you've written reach the front-page of Digg? Or Stumbled?
47. Why might you want to use no follow on an internal link?
48. What do you think about link buying?
49. What areas do you think are currently the most important in organically ranking a Web Site?
50. Who are the two key people - who started Google?
51. What is the difference between PageRank and Toolbar PageRank?

How to Use Latent Semantic Indexing...?

2011-03-03T12:50:00.006+05:30

People get worried when they hear about terms such as SEO and LSI, and when they try to find out how to use latent semantic indexing, they get even more worried when they get conflicting messages. On the one hand some say that LSI doesnâ€™t exist and therefore canâ€™t be used, while others, on the other hand, state that it is critical to your websiteâ€™s success with the search engines.

We all know what computer people are like, the way they try to make acronyms of everything. LSI is one of these, although not quite what you would call an acronym. LSI does exist, but not in the form that Google would have us believe, and not in any form that you can use to make your website â€™LSI compliantâ€™. Anybody claiming that they can do that are simply playing Googleâ€™s trick and using big names for what is a very simple thing to do.

LSI or LSA?

Without going into any detail as to the mathematical background of LSA, it can be used, and is used, to determine the relevance of a passage of text to any given topic based upon a keyword or multiple word search term. LSA was, incidentally, patented by a group of people in 1988, although the basics were known prior to this. LSI is nothing more than the use of LSA in the indexing and retrieval of information. It is therefore a concept, and you cannot make a â€˜concept compliantâ€™ web page.

However, it is all semantics (ha-ha!) and the meat of this article is not to knock holes in the way the terms LSA and LSI are being wrongly used by SEO experts, but inform as to how you can make your web page more likely to be considered relevant to the main keyword for which you want your page indexed. This is very simple and does not warrant all the books now being offered on the subject.

The Development of Adsense

Latent semantic analysis is used by Google primarily to detect spam, in respect of excessive repetition of keywords in order to fool the search engines into providing a high listing for that keyword. There was a time when smart people could indeed achieve this simply by writing a meaningless template with rotating synonyms into which any keyword could be multiply inserted by means of software. Thousands of pages could be generated in minutes, each targeting a different keyword. Some were making $thousands daily from Adsense using this method.

In fact the principles of LSA to determine the content of web pages were used by a small company called Oingo that changed its name to Applied Semantics who developed a search system to determine the relevance of page content for specific advert placement. They called this Adsense. This company was in turn bought by Google in April, 2003, and Adsense used to replace their own system which was still under development. Adsense, then, was not developed by Google, but purchased by them.

BigDaddy and Character String Analysis

The principles were also applied to determine the relevance of on-page text to specific search terms and used in the web indexing algorithm called BigBaddy, used by the Googlebot to index your web pages. BigDaddy appears to view links and relevance as the two major factors among many others that determine your listing position in the index for any specific search term as used by a Google customer.

Back to spam. Your web page content is now analyzed by the statistical mathematical analysis tool known as LSA/LSI and indexed according to the meaning of the words in your text. It goes further than just checking for the excessive use of specific words, and no longer searches only for indices of your stated keywords. LSA informs Google of the true meaning of your text, and you cannot hide this by repetitions of a single key phrase. Letâ€™s call it LSI because thatâ€™s what Google calls it. LSI analyzes the character strings in your text and compares them to a large database of words, the meanings of which have been defined.

Same Words â€“ Different Meanings

LSI is used to determine the true meaning of homonyms, heteronyms and polysemes. Homonyms are spelled and pronounced the same, but have different meanings, such as lock, with three meanings. A heteronym is a word spelled the same as another, but with a different pronunciation and meaning, such as lead: a metal or to be in front. Polysemes are words spelled the same, and from the same root, but used differently such as a mole â€“ a burrowing animal, or a mole â€“ a spy deliberately placed in an organization. Both moles have the same root, but the words are used in different contexts. LSI or LSA can be used to determine the difference by means of analysis of the other words in the text.

If your page has been written around the keyword lock (my usual example of a homonym), without any decent content the reader would find it difficult to tell what type of locks you were writing about. The LSA algorithm would be looking for words such as canals, keys or hair to tell the difference and know where to list it.

All you need do is to look up thesaurus.com, and then use plenty of alternative vocabulary in your content that explains its meaning precisely. You can also use the tilde (~) in a Google search for your keyword. While Google does not highlight exactly correct synonyms, it will give you an indication of what vocabulary it regards as being equivalent. If you do that with â€˜locksâ€™ all you get are â€˜lockâ€™ and â€˜locksâ€™, and all are security locks. Interestingly, when you do it with â€˜canal locksâ€™, Google also highlight â€˜narrowâ€™. This indicates that if your topic is on canal locks, using the word â€˜narrowâ€™ will be to your advantage.

Semantics and Vocabulary

If you keep in mind that the main purpose of the LSI component of BigDaddy is to detect keyword spamming, and to determine for what search term the page should be indexed, then it should be obvious to you that the sue of contextually related vocabulary will reveal the semantics of your page. Semantics is nothing more than the meaning of the words you are using, and where your keywords could have more than one meaning, you have to make the meaning clear through the use of related text. Nothing more than that.

If you write naturally, as you would if you were talking to somebody, and trying to explain your subject, then you will not have any problems with the LSI algorithm. There is no need to use an SEO expert, since they are not necessarily qualified in their knowledge and use of language. A thesaurus will do the job fine.

Keyword Density is not What it Was

Do not overuse your keywords, and the old adage that you should have between 1% and 3% keyword density on your page no longer applies. Use it often enough to stress its importance, which means as the page title, as the heading in H1 tags, and in the first 100 characters and in the last paragraph. Google will check all four of these, and will regard any words it finds there, other than fillers and stop words, as being important. Use it again every 300 words or so and that is enough.

SEO and LSI are not really related since the term LSI is used in the wrong context here. However, in the way that it is used, if you use good vocabulary, contextually relevant to your keywords, then you will also be using good SEO. How to use latent semantic indexing properly is irrelevant in pure terminology, since you canâ€™t use it on your web page. Google can use it in their algorithm, and you should make your vocabulary as understandable as possible by means of simple words that express the meaning of your text.

Pete has his own theories of the way that SEO and LSA can be used to improve your web page listing positions, and more information is available on his website SEOcious and his blog SEOscopy where you will find how to use these concepts to their maximum effect.

Posted by Peter Nisbet

AOL uses the Open Directory Project as its backbone..!

2011-01-17T13:54:00.004+05:30

AOL uses the Open Directory Project as its backbone. The Open Directory Project has approximately 2 million web sites, collected and organized by more than 20,000 expert editors worldwide, with more than 3,000 new sites added daily. These editors and America Online are dedicated to an open-source volunteer effort to make the best human-edited Directory on the Web.

Inktomi offers, next to the directory listings of dmoz, crawler based results to AOL. Google will deliver "Sponsored Link" results to AOL (as from May 2002).This year AOL celebrates its 25th anniversary as a leading global Web services company. Twenty-five years ago, the company was known as Quantum Computer Services offering an online service named Q-Link. Quantum launched its first instant messenger service in 1989 and welcomed users with that familiar saying 'You've got mail!'.

It wasn't until 1991 that Quantum was renamed America Online through an employee contest. The following year, America Online, commonly called AOL, went public on NASDAQ. Starting in 1993, our disk mailings connected thousands of households to the Internet, and two years later we reached our one million member mark. In 1995, AOL extended its service internationally and launched AOL Germany.

As more and more users connected to the Internet, AOL began expanding its products and services. In 1995, AOL debuted the AOL.com homepage. The next year AOL reached five million members and introduced a flat-rate pricing program. That same year, AOL launched the Buddy List for chatting and welcomed the Running Man as a new AOLer. Two years later, the Buddy List was inducted into the Smithsonian collection.

While our user base grew, so did our company. In 1998, AOL acquired CompuServe and ICQ. The following year, Moviefone and Netscape joined our suite of products. MapQuest became AOL's trusted mapping source in 2000. Then, in 2001, AOL merged with Time Warner to create AOL Time Warner. In 2004, AOL connected advertisers to users using the newly-acquired Advertising.com.

America Online made history in 2005 by becoming the first Internet company to win an Emmy. The very next year, we officially changed our name to AOL and began offering our content and services free of charge. Over the next three years, AOL launched new content sites totaling more than 80 sites by 2009. In 2009, the Running Man was inducted into the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame and was also recognized in the Advertising Icon Museum. Later that year, AOL Inc. became an independent, publicly-traded company. In 2010, we look forward to many more historical moments.

Google Slap.......!

2010-12-22T11:27:00.002+05:30

Basically, the Google Slap accomplishes several things at once. First, it drives up the price of your pay per click amount, sometimes asking as much as $10USD per click, which most small vendors cannot afford to pay. Second, they may reduce your page ranking (PR), which will automatically mean you have to pay more to have your ads featured through AdWords.

Google obviously has a right to determine which pages represent the greatest quality and most match to keywords, but in 2008, a round of Google Slap actions on small vendors took considerable toll, driving many companies out of business quickly. Many argued that their pages conformed to Google’s AdWords recommendations for pages, and yet they still receive very low PR rankings. This meant the enormously high pay per click fees were prohibitive, and comparable to banning certain vendors from using AdWords, though searches for information on these pages might still be revealed in a regular Google search, just not in ads.

When some companies receive a Google Slap, just about the only thing they can do is completely change their domain because it is very difficult to challenge Google on their ratings or assessment of pages. There are Internet horror stories on known pages, with excellent authoritative and original information being slapped, and being unable to recover. If you decide Google AdWords is for you, you should definitely read all information about what Google looks for to avoid receiving a Google Slap.

A few things that Google consistently appears to look for include original and significant content on landing pages (the page a person goes to when they click on your ad), transparent business dealings and upfront information about how you conduct business, and easy methods for searching your website from the landing page. To avoid a Google Slap you’ll want to not create a landing page that is just a table of contents and plenty of ads for other vendors, and you have to make sure your page conforms to any of Google’s Editorial Guidelines, too.

Location of keywords on a page

2010-12-06T11:20:00.009+05:30

SEO Expert Advise

A very short rule for seo experts – the closer a keyword or keyword phrase is to the beginning of a document, the more significant it becomes for the search engine.

Text format and seo Search engines pay special attention to page text that is highlighted or given special formatting. We recommend:

Heading Tag

use keywords in headings. Headings are text highlighted with the «H» HTML tags. The «h1» and «h2» tags are most effective. Currently, the use of CSS allows you to redefine the appearance of text highlighted with these tags. This means that «H» tags are used less than nowadays, but are still very important in seo work.;

Anchor Text

Highlight keywords with bold fonts. Do not highlight the entire text! Just highlight each keyword two or three times on the page. Use the «strong» tag for highlighting instead of the more traditional «B» bold tag.

«TITLE» tag

This is one of the most important tags for search engines. Make use of this fact in your seo work. Keywords must be used in the TITLE tag. The link to your site that is normally displayed in search results will contain text derived from the TITLE tag. It functions as a sort of virtual business card for your pages. Often, the TITLE tag text is the first information about your website that the user sees. This is why it should not only contain keywords, but also be informative and attractive. You want the searcher to be tempted to click on your listed link and navigate to your website. As a rule, 50-80 characters from the TITLE tag are displayed in search results and so you should limit the size of the title to this length.

Keywords in links

A simple seo rule – use keywords in the text of page links that refer to other pages on your site and to any external Internet resources. Keywords in such links can slightly enhance page rank.

«ALT» attributes in images

Any page image has a special optional attribute known as "alternative text.” It is specified using the HTML «ALT» tag. This text will be displayed if the browser fails to download the image or if the browser image display is disabled. Search engines save the value of image ALT attributes when they parse (index) pages, but do not use it to rank search results.

Currently, the Google search engine takes into account text in the ALT attributes of those images that are links to other pages. The ALT attributes of other images are ignored. There is no information regarding other search engines, but we can assume that the situation is similar. We consider that keywords can and should be used in ALT attributes, but this practice is not vital for seo purposes.

Description Meta tag

This is used to specify page descriptions. It does not influence the seo ranking process but it is very important. A lot of search engines (including the largest one – Google) display information from this tag in their search results if this tag is present on a page and if its content matches the content of the page and the search query.

Experience has shown that a high position in search results does not always guarantee large numbers of visitors. For example, if your competitors' search result description is more attractive than the one for your site then search engine users may choose their resource instead of yours. That is why it is important that your Description Meta tag text be brief, but informative and attractive. It must also contain keywords appropriate to the page.

Keywords Meta tag

This Meta tag was initially used to specify keywords for pages but it is hardly ever used by search engines now. It is often ignored in seo projects. However, it would be advisable to specify this tag just in case there is a revival in its use. The following rule must be observed for this tag: only keywords actually used in the page text must be added to it.

-Guidelines By

Gaurav Mulherkar

(SEO Expert)

List Of Yahoo Services

2010-11-29T18:14:00.005+05:30

Flickr

Flickr is a popular photo sharing service which Yahoo! purchased on 29 March 2005.

Yahoo! Advertising

A combination of advertising services owned by Yahoo!.

Yahoo! Answers

Yahoo! Answers is a service that allows users to ask and answer questions other users post. It competes with Ask MetaFilter. Yahoo! Answers uses a points system whereby points are awarded for asking and answering questions, and deducted for deleting a question or answer, or getting reported.

Yahoo! Avatars

Yahoo! Avatars allows users to create personalized character images, also known as avatars, which are displayed on

Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Answers and the user's Yahoo! 360° profile.

Yahoo! Babel Fish

Yahoo! Babel Fish is a translation service.

Yahoo! Bookmarks

Yahoo! Bookmarks is a private bookmarking service. All Users from Yahoo MyWeb were transferred to this service.

Yahoo! Buzz

Yahoo! Buzz is a community based publishing service much like that of Digg, where users can buzz about certain

stories and allow them to be featured on the main page of the site.

Yahoo! Developer Network

Yahoo! Developer Network offers resources for software developers which use Yahoo! technologies and Web services.

Yahoo! Digu

Yahoo! Directory

Yahoo! was first formed as a web directory of web sites, organized into a hierarchy of categories and subcategories, which became the Yahoo! Directory. Once a human-compiled directory, Yahoo! Directory now offers two methods of inclusion: Standard, which is free and only available for non-commercial categories, and Express, which charges over US$300 for a quick inclusion in the directory.

Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo! Finance offers financial information, including stock quotes and stock exchange rates.

Yahoo! Games

Yahoo! Games allows users to play games, such as chess, billiards, checkers and backgammon, against each other. Users can join one of various rooms and find players in these rooms to play with. Most of the games are Java applets, although some require the user to download the game, and some games are single-player. Yahoo! acquired a one person effort called ClassicGames.com in 1997, which became Yahoo! Games.[citation needed]

Yahoo! Groups

Yahoo! Groups is a free groups and mailing list service which competes with Google Groups. It was formed when Yahoo! acquired eGroups in August 2000. Groups are sorted in categories similar to the Yahoo! Directory. Yahoo! Groups also offers other features such as a photographic album, file storage and a calendar.

Yahoo! Kids

Yahoo! Kids is a children's version of the Yahoo! portal. It also offers some online safety tips.

Yahoo! Local

Find local businesses and services and view the results on a map. Refine and sort results by distance, topic, or other factors. Read ratings and reviews. Uses hCalendar and hCardmicroformats, so that event and contact details can be downloaded directly into calendar and address-book applications.

Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo! acquired Four11 on 8 October 1997, and its webmail service Rocketmail became Yahoo! Mail. Since Google released Gmail on 1 April 2004, Yahoo! Mail has made several improvements to keep ahead of the competition, which also includes MSN Hotmail and AOL Mail. Yahoo! Mail is the only web-based email service that offers unlimited storage for all users. On 9 July 2004, Yahoo! acquired an e-mail provider named Oddpost and used its technology to create Yahoo! Mail Beta, which uses Ajax to mimic the look and feel of an e-mail client. On 19 June 2008, Yahoo Mail introduced its 2 new email domains: ymail.com and rocketmail.com ("@ymail.com" and "@rocketmail.com" athttp://mail.yahoo.com).[1]

Yahoo! Maps

Yahoo! Maps offers driving directions and traffic.

Yahoo! Meme

Yahoo! Meme is a beta social service, similar to the popular social networking site Twitter.

Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger is an instant messaging service first released on 21 July 1999, which competes with AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ and QQ. It offers several unique features, such as IMvironments, custom status messages, and custom avatars. On 13 October 2005, Yahoo! announced that Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger would become interoperable.

Yahoo! Mobile

Yahoo! Mobile is a mobile website used predominantly in the UK. It offers mobile downloads such as ringtones.

Yahoo! Movies

Yahoo! Movies offers showtimes, movie trailers, movie information, gossip, and others.

Yahoo! Music

Yahoo! Music offers music videos and internet radio (LAUNCHcast), a for-fee service known as Yahoo! Music Unlimited and the Yahoo! Music Engine- which has been sold to Rhapsody on Oct. 31st, 2008.

Yahoo! News news updates and top stories at Yahoo! News, including world, national, business, entertainment, sports, weather, technology, and weird news.

Yahoo! OMG

OMG is a Yahoo! Entertainment online tabloid with most content provided by Access Hollywood and X17.

Yahoo! Parental Controls

Yahoo! Parental Controls are special controls given by parents for their children, closely associated with Yahoo! Kids.

Yahoo! Personals

Yahoo! Personals is an online dating service with both free and paid versions. However, the free service is limited, as only paying users can contact users they meet through Yahoo! Personals and exchange contact information.

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo Pipes is a free RSS mashup visual editor and hosting service.

Yahoo! Publisher Network

Yahoo! Publisher Network is an advertising program, which is currently in beta and only accepts US publishers.

Yahoo! Real Estate

Yahoo! Real Estate offers real estate-related information and allows users to find rentals, mew houses, real estate agents, mortgages and more.

Yahoo! Search

Yahoo! Search is a search engine which competes with MSN Search and market leader Google. Yahoo! relied on Google results from 26 June 2000 to 18 February 2004, but returned to using its own technology after acquiring Inktomi and Overture (which owned AlltheWeb and AltaVista). Yahoo! Search uses a crawler named Yahoo! Slurp.

Yahoo! Search Marketing

Yahoo! Search Marketing provides pay per click inclusion of links in search engine result lists, and also delivers targeted ads. The service was previously branded as Overture Services after Yahoo! acquired Overture in 2003.

Yahoo! Shopping

Yahoo! Shopping is a price comparison service, that allows users to search for products and compare prices of various online stores.

Yahoo! Small Business

Yahoo! Small Business offers web hosting, domain names and e-commerce services for small businesses.

Yahoo! Smush.it

Yahoo! Smush.it optimizes digital images by removing unnecessary bytes and reducing their file size.

Yahoo! Sports

Yahoo! Sports offers sports news, including scores, statistics, and fixtures. It includes a "fantasy team" game.

Yahoo! Travel

Yahoo! Travel offers travel guides, booking and reservation services.

Yahoo! TV

Yahoo! TV offers TV listings and scheduled recordings on Tivo box remotely.

Yahoo! Video

Yahoo! Video is a video sharing site.

Yahoo! Voice

Yahoo! Voice was formerly known as Dialpad. It is a Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service.

Yahoo! Web Analytics

IndexTools was acquired by Yahoo! and re-branded as 'Yahoo! Web Analytics'.

Yahoo! Widgets

Yahoo! Widgets is a cross-platform desktop widget runtime environment. The software was previously distributed as a commercial product called 'Konfabulator' for Mac OS X andWindows until it was acquired by Yahoo! and rebranded 'Yahoo! Widgets' and made available for free.

Yahoo! 360° Plus Vietnam

Social networking services. Popular in Vietnam.

General Search Engine Information....

2010-11-27T10:38:00.007+05:30

History of search engines

In the early days of Internet development, its users were a privileged minority and the amount of available information was relatively small. Access was mainly restricted to employees of various universities and laboratories who used it to access scientific information. In those days, the problem of finding information on the Internet was not nearly as critical as it is now. Site directories were one of the first methods used to facilitate access to information resources on the network. Links to these resources were grouped by topic. Yahoo was the first project of this kind opened in April 1994. As the number of sites in the Yahoo directory inexorably increased, the developers of Yahoo made the directory searchable. Of course, it was not a search engine in its true form because searching was limited to those resources who’s listings were put into the directory. It did not actively seek out resources and the concept of seo was yet to arrive. Such link directories have been used extensively in the past, but nowadays they have lost much of their popularity. The reason is simple – even modern directories with lots of resources only provide information on a tiny fraction of the Internet.

For example, the largest directory on the network is currently DMOZ (or Open Directory Project). It contains information on about five million resources. Compare this with the Google search engine database containing more than eight billion documents. The WebCrawler project started in 1994 and was the first full-featured search engine. The Lycos and AltaVista search engines appeared in 1995 and for many years Alta Vista was the major player in this field. In 1997 Sergey Brin and Larry Page created Google as a research project at Stanford University. Google is now the most popular search engine in the world.

Currently, there are three leading international search engines – Google, Yahoo and MSN Search. They each have their own databases and search algorithms. Many other search engines use results originating from these three major search engines and the same seo expertise can be applied to all of them. For example, the AOL search engine (search.aol.com) uses the Google database while AltaVista, Lycos and AllTheWeb all use the Yahoo database.

Common search engine principles

To understand seo you need to be aware of the architecture of search engines. They all contain the following main components:

Spider - a browser-like program that downloads web pages.

Crawler – a program that automatically follows all of the links on each web page.

Indexer - a program that analyzes web pages downloaded by the spider and the crawler.

Database– storage for downloaded and processed pages.

Results engine – extracts search results from the database.

Web server – a server that is responsible for interaction between the user and other search engine

components. Specific implementations of search mechanisms may differ.

For example,

the Spider+Crawler+Indexer component group might be implemented as a single program that downloads web pages, analyzes them and then uses their links to find new resources. However, the components listed are inherent to all search engines and the seo principles are the same. Spider. This program downloads web pages just like a web browser. The difference is that a browser displays the information presented on each page (text, graphics, etc.) while a spider does not have any visual components and works directly with the underlying HTML code of the page. You may already know that there is an option in standard web browsers to view source HTML code.

Crawler.

This program finds all links on each page. Its task is to determine where the spider should go either by evaluating the links or according to a predefined list of addresses. The crawler follows these links and tries to find documents not already known to the search engine.

Indexer.

This component parses each page and analyzes the various elements, such as text, headers, structural or stylistic features, special HTML tags, etc.

Database.

This is the storage area for the data that the search engine downloads and analyzes. Sometimes it is called the index of the search engine. Results Engine. The results engine ranks pages. It determines which pages best match a user's query and in what order the pages should be listed.

This is done according to the ranking algorithms of the search engine. It follows that page rank is a valuable and interesting property and any seo specialist is most interested in it when trying to improve his site search results. In this article, we will discuss the seo factors that influence page rank in some detail.

Web server.

The search engine web server usually contains a HTML page with an input field where the user can specify the search query he or she is interested in. The web server is also responsible for displaying search results to the user in the form of an HTML page.

List of Google services

2010-11-19T12:35:00.004+05:30

1. Google search
2. Google Adword
3. Google Adsense
4. Google apps
5. Google Analytics
6. Google map
7. Google webmaster tool
8. Google sites
9. Google feedburner
10. Google Picasa
11. Google orkut
12. Google Gmail
13. Google labs
14. Google earth
15. Google local business centre
16. Google books library
17. Gtalk
18. Google Blogger
19. Google docs
20. Google trands
21. Google global
22. Google checkout
23. Google pack
24. Google Calendar
25. Google Desktop

Do you know about Clickthrough rate (CTR)..?

2010-11-19T12:27:00.002+05:30

Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions). Your ad and keyword each have their own CTRs, unique to your own campaign performance.
A keyword's CTR is a strong indicator of its relevance to the user and the overall success of the keyword. For example, a well targeted keyword that shows a similarly targeted ad is more likely to have a higher CTR than a general keyword with non-specific ad text. The more your keywords and ads relate to each other and to your business, the more likely a user is to click on your ad after searching on your keyword phrase.
A low CTR may point to poor keyword performance, indicating a need for ad or keyword optimization. Therefore, you can use CTR to gauge which ads and keywords aren't performing as well for you and then optimize them.
CTR is also used to determine your keyword's Quality Score. Higher CTR and Quality Score can lead to lower costs and higher ad position.

Dynamic content used to be a red flag for search engine friendly design

2010-11-11T10:47:00.005+05:30

Dynamic content used to be a red flag for search engine friendly design, but times have changed. Search engines now include dynamically-generated pages in their indexes, but some particulars of dynamic pages can still be obstacles to getting indexed. Whether it’s keeping in synch with inventory or updating a blog, more than likely if you’re a website owner you have some level of dynamic or CMS-managed content on your site (and if not, you should really be looking into it for your next redesign). Follow the guidelines here to avoid major pitfalls and ensure that your dynamic body of work is search engine friendly from head to toe.

Rule #1: Be sure that search engines can follow regular HTML links to all pages on your site.

Any website needs individually linkable URLs for all unique pages on the site. This way every page can be bookmarked and deep linked by users, and indexed by search engines. But dynamic websites have an additional concern: making sure the search engine robots can reach all of these pages.

For example, suppose you have a form on your website: you ask people to select their location from a pull-down, and then when people submit the form your website generates a page with content that is specifically written for that geographical area. Search engine robots don't fill out forms or select from pull-down menus, so there will be no way for them to get to that page.

This problem can be easily remedied by providing standard type HTML links that point to all of your dynamic pages. The easiest way to do this is to add these links to your site map.

Rule #2: Set up an XML site map if you can’t create regular HTML links to all of your pages, or if it appears that search engines are having trouble indexing your pages.

If you have a large (10K pages or more) dynamic site, or you don’t think that providing static HTML links is an option, you can use an XML site map to tell search engines the locations of all your pages.

Most website owners tell Google and Yahoo! about their site maps through the search engines' respective webmaster tools (Links: Google Yahoo!). But if you're an early adopter, you should look into the new system whereby a site map can be easily designated in the robots.txt file using sitemap autodiscovery. Ask.com, Google and Yahoo! currently support this feature. Cool!

Rule #3: If you must use dynamic URLs, keep them short and tidy

Another potential problem - and this is one that is subject to some debate - is with dynamic pages that have too many parameters in the URL. Google itself in its webmaster guidelines states the following: "If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few."

Here are a few guidelines you should follow for your website parameters:

Limit the number of parameters in the URL to a maximum of 2

Use the parameter "?id=" only when in reference to a session id

Be sure that the URL functions if all dynamic items are removed

Be sure your internal links are consistent - always link with parameters in the same order and format

Rule #4: Avoid dynamic-looking URLs if possible

Besides being second-class citizens of search, dynamic-looking URLs are also less attractive to your human visitors. Most people prefer to see URLs that clearly communicate the content on the page. Since reading the URL is one of the ways that people decide whether to click on a listing in search engines, you are much better off having a URL that looks like this:

rather than this:

We also think that static-looking, “human-readable” URLs are more likely to receive inbound links, because some people will be less inclined to link to pages with very long or complicated URLs.

Furthermore, keywords in a URL are a factor, admittedly not a huge one, in search engine ranking algorithms. Notice how, in the above example, the static URL contains the keywords “discount” and “church bells” while the dynamic URL does not.

There are many tools available that will re-create a dynamic site in static form. There are also tools that will re-write your URLs, if you have too many parameters, to "look" like regular non-dynamic URLS. We think these are both good options for dynamic Intrapromote has a helpful post on dynamic URL rewriting.

Rule #5: De-index stubs and search results

Have you heard of “website stubs?” These are pages that are generated by dynamic sites but really have no independent content on them. For example, if your website is a shopping cart for toys, there may be a page generated for the category “Age 7-12 Toys” but you may not actually have any products in this category. Stub pages are very annoying to searchers, and search engines, by extension, would like to prevent them from displaying in their results. So do us all a favor and either figure out a way to get rid of these pages, or exclude them from indexing using the robots.txt file or robots meta tag.

Search results from within your website is another type of page for which Google has stated a dislike: “Typically, web search results don’t add value to users, and since our core goal is to provide the best search results possible, we generally exclude search results from our web search index.” Here’s our advice: either make sure your search results pages add value for the searcher (perhaps by containing some unique content related to the searched term), or exclude them from indexing using the robots.txt file or robots meta tag.

Bonus Points: Handling duplicate content

While it's not a problem that's specific to dynamic sites, this rule is one that dynamic sites are more likely to break than static ones. If multiple pages on your site display materials that are identical or nearly identical, duplicates should be excluded from indexing using the robots.txt file or a robots meta tag. Think of it this way: you don’t want all your duplicate pages competing with each other on the search engines. Choose a favorite, and exclude the rest. [Editor's note: we no longer (2009) recommend de-indexing duplicate content. A better approach is to either redirect your duplicate pages to the primary page using a server-side, 301 redirect, or to set up a tag for any page that has been duplicated. A good explanation of best practices for handling duplicate content in 2009 can be found at Matt Cutts' Blog]

Dynamic content is usually timely and useful, which is why users love it, and the search engines want to list it. And now you know how to help your dynamic website reach its full search engine potential.

Web Crawling.............!!!

2010-11-01T16:17:00.004+05:30

When most people talk about Internet search engines, they really mean World Wide Web search engines. Before the Web became the most visible part of the Internet, there were already search engines in place to help people find information on the Net. Programs with names like "gopher" and "Archie" kept indexes of files stored on servers connected to the Internet, and dramatically reduced the amount of time required to find programs and documents. In the late 1980s, getting serious value from the Internet meant knowing how to use gopher, Archie, Veronica and the rest.

Today, most Internet users limit their searches to the Web, so we'll limit this article to search engines that focus on the contents of Web pages.

Before a search engine can tell you where a file or document is, it must be found. To find information on the hundreds of millions of Web pages that exist, a search engine employs special software robots, called spiders, to build lists of the words found on Web sites. When a spider is building its lists, the process is called Web crawling. (There are some disadvantages to calling part of the Internet the World Wide Web -- a large set of arachnid-centric names for tools is one of them.) In order to build and maintain a useful list of words, a search engine's spiders have to look at a lot of pages.

How does any spider start its travels over the Web? The usual starting points are lists of heavily used servers and very popular pages. The spider will begin with a popular site, indexing the words on its pages and following every link found within the site. In this way, the spidering system quickly begins to travel, spreading out across the most widely used portions of the Web.

Google began as an academic search engine. In the paper that describes how the system was built, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page give an example of how quickly their spiders can work. They built their initial system to use multiple spiders, usually three at one time. Each spider could keep about 300 connections to Web pages open at a time. At its peak performance, using four spiders, their system could crawl over 100 pages per second, generating around 600 kilobytes of data each second.

Keeping everything running quickly meant building a system to feed necessary information to the spiders. The early Google system had a server dedicated to providing URLs to the spiders. Rather than depending on an Internet service provider for the domain name server (DNS) that translates a server's name into an address, Google had its own DNS, in order to keep delays to a minimum.

When the Google spider looked at an HTML page, it took note of two things:

The words within the page
Where the words were found

Words occurring in the title, subtitles, meta tags and other positions of relative importance were noted for special consideration during a subsequent user search. The Google spider was built to index every significant word on a page, leaving out the articles "a," "an" and "the." Other spiders take different approaches.

These different approaches usually attempt to make the spider operate faster, allow users to search more efficiently, or both. For example, some spiders will keep track of the words in the title, sub-headings and links, along with the 100 most frequently used words on the page and each word in the first 20 lines of text. Lycos is said to use this approach to spidering the Web.

Other systems, such as AltaVista, go in the other direction, indexing every single word on a page, including "a," "an," "the" and other "insignificant" words. The push to completeness in this approach is matched by other systems in the attention given to the unseen portion of the Web page, the meta tags. Learn more about meta tags on the next page.

Use Of Robot.txt file ................. !

2010-10-28T16:25:00.003+05:30

Web site owners use the /robots.txt file to give instructions about their site to web robots; this is called The Robots Exclusion Protocol.

It works likes this: a robot wants to vists a Web site URL, say http://www.example.com/index.html. Before it does so, it firsts checks for http://www.example.com/robots.txt, and finds:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

The "User-agent: *" means this section applies to all robots. The "Disallow: /" tells the robot that it should not visit any pages on the site.

There are two important considerations when using /robots.txt:

• robots can ignore your /robots.txt. Especially malware robots that scan the web for security vulnerabilities, and email address harvesters used by spammers will pay no attention.

• the /robots.txt file is a publicly available file. Anyone can see what sections of your server you don't want robots to use.

So don't try to use /robots.txt to hide information.

How XML sitemap is useful in Search Engine Optimization?

2010-10-27T11:53:00.004+05:30

Search engine sitemaps are organized structures of websites' pages, usually useful to search engines for better content indexing. A search engine sitemap (meant only for search engines to see) is a tool provided by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN to allow webmasters to suggest how often, and in what order, a search engine should spider each page within their websites.

Google Sitemaps has become a popular tool in the world of webmasters. The service helps them continually submit fresh content to the search engine.

How to build Sitemaps?

Creating a search engine sitemap is quite simple thanks to a free online tool atXML-Sitemaps.com that will automatically spider your website and create the sitemap for you. They offer up to 500 webpages maximum spidered for free.

Alternative tools :

1. Simply create a sitemap with the free Search Engine Sitemap Generatorand upload it to your server.

2. The Google Sitemap Generator is an open source online application that can help you build a sitemap from scratch. It's a Python script that creates valid search engine sitemaps for your sites using the Sitemap protocol.

Upload the generated script (say sitemap.xml) to your Web site, and tell Google how to find it. Note the file name, and which URL you will use to find it. If you upload it to the root of your domain, then it will be http://www.seo-expert-gaurav.blogspot.com/sitemap.xml.

Now log into your Google sitemap account (Google Webmaster Tools), and point Google to the sitemap stored on your site, using the URL that you already know.

Should you get stuck at any point, feel free to browse through Google's official documentation and tutorials on the subject at Using the Sitemap Generator.

Advantages of search engine site map :

The advantage of Search Engine Sitemaps (or XML sitemaps) over a normal “page of links” sitemap is that you can:

1. Specify the priority of pages to be crawled and/or indexed.

2. Exclude lower priority pages.

3. Insure that Search Engines know about every page on your website.

Until today, only Google, Yahoo and MSN supported this protocol. Today however, there is a new member to the family. Ask.com.

No longer! Vanessa announced that all Search Engines have now agreed to accept Sitemap submissions through the robots.txt file on your server.

The robots.txt file is a Search Engine industry standard file that is the VERY FIRST file a LEGIT Search Engine will view when it first comes to your website. Now, you can simply add your sitemap URL to this file in the form of:

Sitemap: http://www.seo-expert-gaurav.blogspot.com/sitemap.xml

Simply create a sitemap with the free Search Engine Sitemap Generator and upload it to your server. Then open the robots.txt file on your server and add the address as above. This makes it as simple as ever to insure that all Search Engines know about your site, know about what pages are in your site and know what pages of your site to list in the search results.

How to Check Your Google Sitemap Reports :

Google will identify any errors in your site and publish the results to you in the form of a report.

Setps to check sitemap report:

1. Visit the Google Web master tools section of the site. This can be found at www.google.com/webmasters.

2. Add your site to Google if you haven't already done so.

3. Verify that you are the site's owner by either uploading an HTML file to your site or adding a Meta tag.

4. View the statistics and report that Google has already generated about your sitemap. It details the last time the spider went to your page. If your site is not new, then chances are Google has already crawled your site.

5. Change the option to "Enable Google Page Rank" when prompted in the install process of the program. Then hit Finish and wait.

6. Click the Add sitemap link to create a new Google sitemap.

7. Enter your sitemap to tell Google all about your pages.

8. Visit again to view the reports on your pages.

What is back link or inbound links ??

2010-10-22T10:59:00.002+05:30

Back links are link to a website or web page. Inbound links were originally important (prior to the emergence of search engines) as a primary means of web navigation; today their significance lies in search engine optimization (SEO). The number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page (for example, this is use by Google to determine the PageRank of a webpage). Outside of SEO, the backlinks of a webpage may be of significant personal, cultural or semantic interest: they indicate who is paying attention to that page.

In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node [1]. Backlinks are also known asincoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Search engine rankings

• 2 Technical

• 3 See also

• 4 References

[edit]Search engine rankings

Search engines often use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the most important factors for determining that website's search engine ranking, popularity and importance. Google's description of their PageRank system, for instance, notes that Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.[2] Knowledge of this form of search engine rankings has fueled a portion of the SEO industry commonly termed linkspam, where a company attempts to place as many inbound links as possible to their site regardless of the context of the originating site.

Websites often employ various techniques (called search engine optimization, usually shortened to SEO) to increase the number of backlinks pointing to their website. Some methods are free for use by everyone whereas some methods like linkbaiting requires quite a bit of planning and marketing to work. Some websites stumble upon "linkbaiting" naturally; the sites that are the first with a tidbit of 'breaking news' about a celebrity are good examples of that. When "linkbait" happens, many websites will link to the 'baiting' website because there is information there that is of extreme interest to a large number of people.

There are several factors that determine the value of a backlink. Backlinks from authoritative sites on a given topic are highly valuable.[3] If both sites have content geared toward the keyword topic, the backlink is considered relevant and believed to have strong influence on the search engine rankings of the webpage granted the backlink. A backlink represents a favorable 'editorial vote' for the receiving webpage from another granting webpage. Another important factor is the anchor text of the backlink. Anchor text is the descriptive labeling of the hyperlink as it appears on a webpage. Search engine bots (i.e., spiders, crawlers, etc.) examine the anchor text to evaluate how relevant it is to the content on a webpage. Anchor text and webpage content congruency are highly weighted in search engine results page (SERP) rankings of a webpage with respect to any given keyword query by a search engine user.

Increasingly, inbound links are being weighed against link popularity and originating context. This transition is reducing the notion of one link, one vote in SEO, a trend proponents[who?]hope will help curb linkspam as a whole.

It should also be noted that building too many Backlinks over a short period of time can get a website's ranking penalized, and in extreme cases, the website is de-indexed altogether. Anything above a couple of hundred a day is considered "dangerous".

[edit]Technical

When HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) was designed, there was no explicit mechanism in the design to keep track of backlinks in software, as this carried additional logistical and network overhead.

Some website software internally keeps track of backlinks. Examples of this include most wiki and CMS software.

Most commercial search engines provide a mechanism to determine the number of backlinks they have recorded to a particular web page. For example, Google can be searched usinglink:wikipedia.org to find the number of pages on the Web pointing to http://wikipedia.org/. Google only shows a small fraction of the number of links pointing to a site. It credits many more backlinks than it shows for each website.

Other mechanisms have been developed to track backlinks between disparate webpages controlled by organizations that aren't associated with each other. The most notable example of this is TrackBacks between blogs.

Page Rank Based On Popularity

2010-10-16T10:48:00.004+05:30

The web search technology offered by Google is often the technology of choice of the world’s leading portals and websites. It has also benefited the advertisers with its unique advertising program that does not hamper the web surfing experience of its users but still brings revenues to the advertisers.

When you search for a particular keyword or a phrase, most of the search engines return a list of page in order of the number of times the keyword or phrase appears on the website. Google web search technology involves the use of its indigenously designed Page Rank Technology and hypertext-matching analysis which makes several instantaneous calculations undertaken without any human intervention. Google’s structural design also expands simultaneously as the internet expands.

Page Rank technology involves the use of an equation which comprises of millions of variables and terms and determines a factual measurement of the significance of web pages and is calculated by solving an equation of 500 million variables and more than 3 billion terms. Unlike some other search engines, Google does not calculate links, but utilizes the extensive link structure of the web as an organizational tool. When the link to a Page, let’s say Page B is clicked from a Page A, then that click is attributed as a vote towards Page B on behalf of Page A.

GOOGLE Algorithm Is Key

2010-10-16T10:44:00.002+05:30

Google has a comprehensive and highly developed technology, a straightforward interface and a wide-ranging array of search tools which enable the users to easily access a variety of information online.

Google users can browse the web and find information in various languages, retrieve maps, stock quotes and read news, search for a long lost friend using the phonebook listings available on Google for all of US cities and basically surf the 3 billion odd web pages on the internet! Google boasts of having world’s largest archive of Usenet messages, dating all the way back to 1981. Google’s technology can be accessed from any conventional desktop PC as well as from various wireless platforms such as WAP and i-mode phones, handheld devices and other such Internet equipped gadgets.

Ultimate Benefits of SEO

2010-10-16T10:40:00.000+05:30

Selecting search engine optimization for promoting your business on the internet, one must knows the ultimate benefits of seo campaign.

Perspective (Global / Regional)
Selecting your keywords or phrases to target your audience, search engine optimization ensures that you and your company are found globally or regionally by those who require exactly what you offer. SEO has many benefits for any organization which wants to reach all potential customers locally or globally. You can reach the targeted customers of your own choice.

Targeted Traffic
Search engine optimization campaign can increase the number of visitors for your website for the targeted keyword(s) or phrase. Converting those visitors into potential customers is one of the arts of search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is the only campaign which can derive targeted traffic through your website. Essentially more targeted traffic equal more sales.

Increase Visibility
Once a website has been optimized, it will increase the visibility of your website in search engines. More people will visit your website and it will give international recognition to your products/services.

High ROI (Return on Investment)
An effective SEO campaign can bring a higher return on your investment than any other type of marketing for your company. This will therefore increase your volume of sales and profit overall.

Long term positioning
Once a website obtains position through a SEO campaign, it should stay there for long term as opposed to PPC (Pay Per Click). SEO is a cheaper and long term solution than any other search engine marketing strategy.

Cost-effective
One of the great benefits of search engine optimization is that it is cost effective and requires the minimum amount of capital for the maximum exposure of your website.

Flexibility
It is possible to reach an audience of your own choice through a seo campaign. You can get traffic according to the organizational strategy to meet the needs and requirements of your choice.

Measurable results
It is a unique quality of seo campaigns that you can quantify the results of seo by positioning reports of search engines, visitor conversion and the other factors of this nature.