Software & reviews

Backlinking strategies for your web page

2011-04-01T12:56:00.001-07:00

The SEO factors that influence the ranking position of your web page can be classified as on-page factors and off-page factors. You can directly control on-page factors, such as content relevance, by implementing SEO techniques. You can also indirectly influence off-page factors, such as web page popularity and authority, by creating unique, high-value content that benefits users.
An example of on-page SEO is a situation where you repurpose legacy content to solve user problems in the specific context of users. For example, you may create an FAQ page and link it back to an enterprise knowledgebase comprising numerous pages of content. You may frequently update the FAQ to address ongoing user queries and add keywords as metadata to make the FAQ searchable. The FAQ provides a search-friendly interface that quickly points users to the most relevant topics using links.
For more information on on-page SEO improvements using Adobe® Technical Communication Suite 3 (TCS3), see Using TCS3 to implement authoring guidelines for search-engine-optimization (SEO).
In this blog post, we will focus on influencing off-page factors to boost your page rank.
In addition to on-page content relevance, search engines rely on off-page factors to distinguish between valuable content and irrelevant content created solely to achieve a high rank. Search engines consider the number and quality of backlinks to your page as the greatest indicator of popularity and authority. The more people link to your page from relevant websites naturally over time, the more search engines consider your content popular and reliable.
Search engines also analyze the anchor text people use to reference your content to determine the relevance of your content. For example, people may link to your TCS3 online Help topic Rich media using phrases, such “rich media publishing”, “Flash PDF”, and “rich media PDF”. Search engines will rank the topic higher if the content reflects the referenced phrases and builds around them.
Here are some backlinking strategies that may help attract links naturally to your web page.
Write to the webmasters and site owners of popular websites in your niche, requesting them to link to your content. Be polite, professional, and clear in your communication with them. Provide a brief description of your web page content and explain how it relates to their site.
Write personalized emails to each webmaster. (Do not send blanket emails).
Try to convince the webmasters that you actually read through their site and appreciate it. Explain how they might benefit by linking to your content. You may probably receive a number of similar linking requests in return. Exercise your judgment before you oblige.
Link to your content from your profile pages on social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. Consider creating a special-interest group that people can join to get information about the topic. For example, create a special-interest group to provide information and updates about for your topic “Rich Media Authoring using TCS3”. Post a synopsis of the content on YouTube and Slideshare to let people searching for the topic on these sites know about your web page.
In addition, bookmark your content on sites, such as StumbleUpon, to create a dynamic audience for your content. The more people see your content, the more likely it will attract links.
Use social networking sites to establish long-term relationships with key social media influencers, who can help your content travel far and wide. You may also use their recommendation to promote your content in social networks to attract traffic and links.
Write guest posts on popular blogs and other content sites to prepare the background for links back to your web page. Contribute valuable content that benefits users. Generous content contribution enhances your reputation and prompts users to link to your web page.
Include a link to your web page in the byline of your blog post. Some websites may also let you link to your web page from within the body of the content of your blog post. Use this strategy only if the content in your web page is absolutely relevant to the context.
Identify popular websites that discuss your topic and link to them from within your content. Proactive linking may help draw the attention of the site owners and key influencers in your field. They might return the favor by linking to your content.
However, linking out casually does not help much. To make an impression, contribute something useful on these sites by way of comments. Mention about your web page naturally in the context of your conversation to bring it to the attention of the influencers.
Publicize your content on social media news sites, such as Digg and Technorati to drive traffic to your web page. If your content is engaging, many people may be prompted to link to your web page. Subscribe to blog aggregator services to create more exposure for your content.
Moreover, you can publish your content on other websites relevant to your niche to drive quality traffic to your web page. For example, if your content pertains to a specific technology, publish it on technology news websites, such as SlashDot.
Submit your content to article directories, such as Go Articles for publication. Publishing content on article directories showcases your content and drives traffic to your web page. Steady flow of traffic creates opportunities for your content to be referenced in other posts and articles. Backlinks from reputable sites greatly enhances the popularity of your content.
Submit your content for listing on link directories, such as DMOZ and ExactSeek. Listing your content in these directories causes new backlinks to flow to your web page quite rapidly.
Reputable link directories usually have a strong and clear editorial policy to review all submitted content to identify quality content. They only list websites/pages that have high-quality content.
Achieving a high page rank depends not only on content relevance (on-page) but also how well you showcase your content in relevant ecospheres by influencing off-page SEO factors.
If you implement the backlinking strategies effectively, you can carve out an impressive web presence for your web page. However, you must supplement this effort by supplying valuable, up-to-date content to achieve maximum impact.
Use all avenues and media (albeit judiciously) to ensure that your web page attains a high mindshare. Look out for changes in page ranking methods used by search engines, and re-adjust your SEO strategies accordingly to ensure your page always ranks high.
Last but not the least; always use ethical SEO techniques to achieve search engine ranks.
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Scroll lock: Hoodlum or helpful?

2011-03-29T05:55:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a blog post called What's up with these crazy keyboard keys? In it, I answered a question from a lady named Barbara in Cape Cod ("The Cod" call some friends of mine, it lived it) on some of the keys on your keyboard, which mystified (read: upset) her: SysRq, pressure, and roles.

Apparently some of you, I am reluctant to name (Keith and Rayney) which, wrote in on in the following question: if they were in Excel, why were the arrow keys do not jump from one cell to another? Why were they just all move the table up, down, left or right? She asked this question in the form of a comment to a post I wrote last September called change where move the cursor after entering data in Excel. In this post, I explained how to change the direction of the cursor when you press the Enter key. But as Keith said in his comment: "the top you mention above seems close, but no cigar."

Now, even though I was right there on the post, your question answers Keith and Rayney, I'm never really sure whether someone checked back. I mean, I know we are all really busy and we have a lot, what to do, but if you want a question and answer... Now, as always, the very complex answer is here:

Disable the Roles (roles), important press it so little does not light green light on the keyboard. (On my keyboard - which you can here- the roles key to ON set is little green light is lit on an arrow; just press the roles key few times and see, where it indicates whether it turn on or off), it can be on your computer.)

I'm almost 100% positive that works.

And so, you could be questions if this button is so much chaos why it still exists? What is it for? I do not really know. And do I researched on the great Oracle of information and disinformation: the Internet.

Now, we already know that it keeps you from a cell move to the other. And on the note, it is out, many of the computer keyboard with did removed it because it is only a remnant of the old IBM PC keyboard meant to block all scrolling techniques. But why? Why lock scrolling altogether? When should ever do to you? Keith and Rayney don't want to do it and I can imagine that most of you either. (I know that I'm not;) (I enjoy the freedom - no, that right - leaves as I want.)

This is what I found:

The roles functionality is used only for a very few programs, and Excel is one of them. So...Keith, Rayney: What is when you go from cell to cell? What if you over, move up or down a large table? Then, the roles is useful.But what if you ever use Excel? (Use not Excel?) Are you anyway? My grandma? Just kidding! Simmer down - stop composing this e-Mail me!)In the Opera Web browser, you gets voice integrated the roles key in "Listening mode" for that recognition. This seems useful.It is used also for certain behaviors in Linux computer.Macs not used, have the roles key but I read that they do it now. People in this camp apparently thought so, this small function as may also be useful.

And so, as it turns out, a hooligan and helpful friend is the roles button. Depends on only what you want to do today.

The Crabby Office Lady look of the week: I love photography. While not a * real * author me, I do have a * real * recognition for people who are. Todd Selby is one of my favorites and I wanted to share with you some of his extraordinary work.

Office partner

Must not to help you find out the different channels you have tried? Answers Microsoft is where you are most likely to solve your nagging problem.

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Adobe MAX 2011!

2011-03-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

Adobe MAX – Save the date!

This year’s MAX will happen October 1-5, 2011, once again at the Los Angeles, CA convention center. I will be there!

If you are not familiar with Adobe MAX, it is a once a year dream to be up close and in person with those who drive Adobe, from product management to engineers to sales & marketing. Adobe MAX showcases the latest tools and technologies that are shaping the future of digital experiences. Learn directly from industry leaders and Adobe experts and connect with peers. Make sure you get MAX updates as they are announced and sign up for the mailing list today.

Other action items:

http://twitter.com/#%21/adobemax

Hit us up on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter - (Hint – there may be some exclusive offers coming from my account!)

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Learn From Stunning Photoshop Tutorials

2011-03-28T07:21:00.001-07:00

The best way to learn to use a certain piece of software is to first try its tutorial. A tutorial is basically a step-by-step guide that helps you understand how to use a particular software for performing different sort of tasks.

Similarly, if you want to know the art of operating Photoshop, you should start with some Photoshop tutorials.

The Photoshop tutorials can help you understand a lot of things:

The Photoshop tutorials can help to form a foundation so as to use all the operations and all the features offered in the Photoshop.
Once you are familiar with the foundation building stuff, you can start to build on it. After that you can learn the various advanced tools and techniques. These advanced tutorials, like the Photoshop model retouching tutorial can teach you to perform very complex tasks. This way you will be able to design the graphics that are comparable to the graphic design sported by the various websites. These tools will also teach you how to combine graphic design with animation in a smooth manner.
You can opt for different type of tutorials according to their use and accessibility.

Here is a look at the different type of Photoshop tutorials available:

1. Internet Based Tutorials: there are a lot of websites that offer you tutorials on how to use Photoshop for a number of tasks. By paying a particular fee, you can explore the various tutorial options offered on the website and learn everything you have to.

2. Tutorial Demo: there are a lot of tutorial demos available for Photoshop. They can be downloaded for free. Since these are just demonstrations, they can only offer a limited amount of information. For an instance they may only contain a few basic chapters.

3. Tutorial CD: You can also buy a Photoshop tutorial CD. This way you can always learn to use Photoshop, without the need to log onto the internet.

Visit website to know more about photoshop tutorials and photoshop model retouching tutorial.

Windows at CES 2011

2011-03-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

It’s been an exciting day for Windows with lots of news shared. I did however want to take a few minutes to share with you a bit more about the rest of the Windows story and the things we will be talking about this week at CES.

At last year’s CES, it was just a little over 2 months after the launch of Windows 7 and we saw a lot of early excitement from customers for Windows 7 and Windows PCs. At CES this year, Windows 7 is a little over a year old now and the excitement continues with over 240 million licenses sold – selling over 7 copies a second. Windows 7 now represents almost 20% of all PCs connected to the Internet. That’s amazing.

And we haven’t stopped working to deliver innovation to Windows 7 customers – further improving their Windows PC and providing the best place to experience the modern Web.

In September, we launched the beta for Internet Explorer 9. Internet Explorer 9 enables developers to use the combination of HTML5 and great hardware to create amazing and modern web experiences. 20 million people have downloaded the IE9 Beta. If you haven’t yet tried the IE9 Beta, you can do so by heading over to the Beauty of the Web website where you can download the beta and check out examples of how developers are building a “more beautiful” web with HTML5. IE9 also provides seamless integration with Windows 7 by allowing people to “pin” their most favorite websites to their Taskbar. Try pinning The Windows Blog to your Taskbar!

Also in September, we shipped new Windows Live services and products to 500 million people. That includes the new Hotmail and Windows Live Essentials 2011. Hotmail is the #1 email service worldwide. The new Hotmail integrates Office Web Apps right in and just within the first 100 days – more than 20 million people were using Office Web Apps through Hotmail! With Windows Live Essentials 2011, people can create, connect and share with their PC to the cloud. With Windows Live Messenger, people can connect easily with Facebook to see what their friends are up to and even chat with friends on Facebook. Windows Live Messenger is already the #2 app on Facebook today. Windows Live Photo Gallery lets people sync their photos from all their devices including their Windows Phone 7 phones, and share them easily whether it’s on SkyDrive or in an email message via Hotmail or Facebook. Millions of people are connected to the cloud with their Windows 7 PC and Windows Live.

We’re hard at work on making sure we continue to deliver innovation. We’ve got the Release Candidate (RC) of Internet Explorer 9 coming in early 2011. And earlier today, we gave a little sneak peek at work we’re doing on the next generation Windows operating system.

If you missed the Microsoft CES Keynote with Steve Ballmer tonight, you can watch it on-demand on the official Microsoft Facebook page. And be sure to keep tabs on the Windows Experience Blog. Ben the PC Guy will be taking you behind-the-scenes at CES this year and on the exhibit floor visiting hardware partners and shooting videos. He’ll be showing you a bunch of new stuff from our hardware partners. Be sure you follow @BenThePCGuy and @WindowsBlog on Twitter for the latest updates. And for all the latest on Microsoft’s announcements from CES be sure to check out the CES page on Microsoft News Center.

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Your workplace: Navigating the curves and styles

2011-03-28T06:00:00.001-07:00

Let's talk about the workplace and its influence over your work style, your worklife, your outside of work (space) life, and even your psyche.

I'm riffing on this today (literally, just riffin') because earlier this week I had a really interesting and illuminating conversation with a fellow named Tom in Seattle who is an "executive coach" and who is going to write a guest post for me in mid-April. (Since he'll be introducing himself and telling us what he does and why it relates to this blog at all, I don't want to give you his info quite yet; I'll let him do that in his post in the manner in which he wants.)

If you're a regular reader, you know that I've written a quite few posts and columns about workplace life, and what it means to work in an environment where there are others around you who also have agendas:

And several years ago, when I had just started writing the Crabby column (and loving the idea of being free with my language and topics), I wrote a column called Collaborate with difficult people the Crabby way. Now that I'm older, wiser, a mother, and yes, had that conversation with Tom earlier this week, I'm wondering about the value of that column, particularly the bits about how to avoid certain people and even certain types of people. Sure, I used the column it to talk about some of the collaboration software that Office offers (SharePoint, OneNote, LiveMeeting, Office Communicator—now called Lync), but still, it harped on avoidance, and now that I know better, in-person avoidance while working on a project is NOT collaboration. Of course not everyone is going to be happy all the time; that's not the point. (And I do have to give myself some credit for that column: I did wrap it up by saying that working it out with prickly coworkers and managers in person is better than avoidance.)

But after my conversation with Tom (that obviously stuck with me, maybe because we talked about some personal, familial issues, too), I've been thinking about how coworkers and even their managers and upper managers treat each other, in email, in instant messages, in meetings, and in person—in the hall at an ad hoc conversation, in the kitchen, in the dining room, even on the soccer field. (That last one: At Microsoft anyway; yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking but there are reasons why this company works.)

I really believe that the workplace is changing, and now that we're in a time and place of trying to climb out of this recession and the damage it's done to our nation's workers, it'd behoove us to consider how we want to work, with whom, and what sort of opportunities come from this new way of looking at things.

(And yes, I know all too well, that this post may seem irrelevant for a great many of you who are out of work; you're hoping and trying to take what you can get in order to feed your families and keep a roof over your heads. I'm talking about the future because I'm an optimistic person and believe things CAN and WILL change. In the meantime, check out our Career Center which might help you get started; too little, too late for me?)

And finally, I do realize I'm being obtuse in this post; it's a hazard of the job in ways that would take many long posts to explain why. Look for Tom's guest post—sorry, couldn't resist to link to something, Tom— sometime in mid-April. I think you'll understand more of what I'm saying here after reading what he has to say.)

(By the way, a little secret between me and you: I write the Monday posts on Friday afternoon OR if I don't, they get done Sunday night. Who wants to write a blog post on a Sunday night or before 6 a.m. Pacific Time—when the post is published—on a Monday morning? Not I, said the lazy crab.)

To end: A quote from that aforementioned column I wrote about working with difficult people:

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials." — Chinese proverb

— Crabby

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