SEO Blogging Tips

Last Gasp Of Black Hat SEO!

2009-10-27T19:10:00.002+05:30

Yes indeedy! Judgment Day is visited unto the black hat seo brethren with a mighty vengeance that was foretold from the day the first scroll of code was writ in script!

Okay, enough with the pseudo biblical babble and down to business. Just in case you are not conversant with the term black hat seo, here's a brief explanation:

Black hat seo methods are search engine optimization techniques and strategies that fall outside the guidelines and purview of the major search engines with the intent of manipulating the position of one's website to a far more strategic location on those search engines' results index.

The objective of this type of seo is to game the search engines in order to attract a ton of internet traffic in as short a time frame as possible. The opposite of black hat seo is known as white hat seo. Most cream-of-the-crop black hat seo practitioners have cloaking, coding and programming skills and employ(ed) self-designed software to game the search engines.

Black hat seo techniques by their very nature are short-lived and the black hatters are well aware of this. You see these techniques involve (or at any rate used to) capitalizing on a weakness or loophole in the search engine algorithms or manufacturing such a weakness and then aggressively exploiting that flaw before the search engines caught on. In other words black hat seo has always been a race against the search engines, with the black hat webmasters ever trying to stay one step ahead!

OLD SCHOOL BLACK HAT SEO TECHNIQUES

Being a step ahead of the search engines used to be relatively simple for the sole reason that the search engine algorithms of the day really were rather basic and crude compared to the situation of today. Some of the more pervasive and better known techniques were keyword stuffing which quite often went hand in hand with the application of invisible text.

Invisible text is merely text that is the same color as the background color of the web page on which that text is located, thus being invisible to the human eye, but readily accessible to a search engine robot. People who used such techniques would stuff their website homepage (or any page whose position on the SERPs they wished to manipulate) with their most sought after keyword, in some cases inserting that keyword hundreds of times as invisible text.

Of course the search engines got smarter, caught on and quickly fixed such loopholes.

Generally, as a rule, black-hat seo webmasters never used their main sites to pursue their shady techniques because they were well aware that the penalty if caught was death; death in the sense that any website found employing such black hat seo methods, was banned and forever removed from the universe of know search! So as mentioned previously, the black hatters never adopted such shady techniques on their main websites but instead used disposable websites with multiple back-links pointing back to their main sites.

Which naturally begs the question, since the search engines were quite capable of crawling those back links, why didn't they then penalize the destination website huh?

Good question indeed, and here is the answer; because then it would be very simple for a competitor to get rid of their competition by getting that competitors website banned by setting up such a black-hat operation with the destination URL being that of the competition and not that of the black hatter's website!

With that comforting piece of knowledge in mind the black hat seo webmasters were able to conduct their business, traipsing a step ahead of the search engines and making a killing. Besides when the search engines caught on the black hatters didn't have to close shop right away for that particular black hat op; there was still plenty of money to be made from gullible marketers who believed in overnight success and riches.

All the webmaster had to do was provide evidence (screenshots and testimonials) of how much money they were making from their system, and before you could say ka-ching, more money was rolling in from that defunct system through sales from people eager to duplicate the black hatter's success.

THE BIGGEST NAMES IN BLACK HAT SEO RESIGN THEMSELVES TO WHITE HAT TECHNIQUES!

Alas for the black-hat seo brethren, soon enough the search engines had closed the one-step-ahead gap to a half-step ahead! Fast forward to today and there is no step-ahead gap! The search engines are way too smart and getting even smarter still, so much so that there really is no profit to be had anymore from darker-than-shade-of-grey seo techniques. Perhaps that explains why so many cream-of-the-crop black hatters have finally conceded to pursuing white hat seo techniques.

But remember what I said about extra-monetization of defunct seo techniques; there are plenty of gullibles out there who are willing to shell out hefty sums in hopes of fast-tracking their internet marketing campaign. And make no mistake black hat seo software usually commands a hefty price sticker on the premise that it is going to make the purchaser a bucket load of money in next to no time at all. But you and I of course know that such will not happen!

REMEMBER TO BE FOREWARNED IS TO BE FOREARMED!

So if you stumble upon some advert that makes obviously outrageous claims yet still seems seductively appealing like the following example: "Internet Marketer Gets $67 Million In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free" just rein in that raging beast of temptation deep inside you that can barely restrain itself and recite the following: "A Fool And His/Her Money Are Easily Parted!"

Keyword Articles: http://www.keywordarticles.org

7 Tips To Increase Sales With Your Ecommerce Web Site

2009-10-06T20:26:00.000+05:30

Ecommerce is just exploding right now on the Net. More and more people are doing their shopping online. Some Internet retailers are even beating out their offline counterparts. So what does this mean to you? It’s important that you are taking full advantage of your web site to get your share of the billions of dollars spent online every year. In this article we are going to cover 7 tips that you can put into practice immediately to increase your sales and revenue with your ecommerce web site.

1: Introduction
Make sure to have a brief introduction on the homepage of your web site. Your introduction should be concise and clearly identify the benefits of your visitors shopping at your site.

2: Navigation
Make sure that your site has clear and easy navigation, such as a visible search box on the top part of your web site, clear categories to browse through, a FAQ page that clearly explains your shipping and return policy, and etc.

3: Gift Certificates
People love getting gifts at certain times of the year, so make sure that you have gift certificates that your visitors can purchase right on your web site.

4: Customer Loyalty
Instead of just focusing on getting new customers why not take advantage of repeat business? Why not give your customers an incentive to come back and do business with you again? You can easily do this by offering coupons and special discounts to ones who have already purchased something from you. This is a lot easier than acquiring new customers since they already know you and feel comfortable shopping at your site.You can also add more value to your customers by adding live customer support to your site.

5: Special Offers
Make sure to have a section on the top part of your home page devoted to featuring your current special offers and sales items. In fact if you happen to have a lot of special offers you can just feature the most popular ones and then make a separate web page that shows all of your sales items.

6: Shopping Carts
People want the checkout process to go as quickly and smoothly as possible, so make sure that your visitors are always just one click away to checkout. Try to reduce the checkout process to as few steps as possible. Make sure to offer multiple payment options such as credit cards, Paypal, online checks, mail orders, and such. When you no longer have a product in stock make sure to either remove it from your site or clearly mark it as “out of stock”. There is nothing more irritating for a customer to go through the whole checkout process only to find out that you no longer carry the item they ordered.

7: Affiliate Program
Do you have your own affiliate program? The most successful web sites have one and you should too. By starting your own affiliate program you will develop an increasing online sales force where you only pay them when a sale is made. There is really no risk and it is one of the best low cost effective advertising methods that you can use.

If you put these tips into practice you will notice a drastic increase in your sales and web site revenue.
About the Author
Jordan Williams is the Owner of WebCashLink.com which gives you the resources, tools, and software to succeed with an online business.
http://www.webcashlink.com

Linkbaiting Isn't A Bad Word

2009-09-30T19:19:00.000+05:30

There's a new word in the online world's that's gaining a lot of attention as of late. Linkbaiting has fast become a buzz word to describe a host of practices that can help publishers increase their incoming traffic. While the practice itself is a matter of contention in some arenas, the simple reality is the concept works and it isn't always shady or underhanded.

Linkbaiting might be a relatively new word, but the practices it encompasses are not new at all. The term is an umbrella descriptor for a variety of methods that many publishers use to gain incoming links to their sites. Some of the practices involved include such things as hosting contests and giveaways, creating solid content, inventing or designing tools others can use on their websites that link back to another site and even writing articles and posts that attack other's.

The word itself might have a shady rap in the web world, but many of the measures involved are not bad. It's a simple fact that most publishers enjoy earning incoming links since they can increase traffic. In turn, the traffic spikes can boost a site's money-making abilities. Due to this, many search engine optimization businesses are even providing linkbaiting services to help their clients gain links. The reality is linkbaiting in and of itself isn't good or bad... it's all in how it's used.

In spite of its rocky reputation, linkbaiting has become a fairly popular practice. The reasons for this are many. The biggest is the traffic and potential income gains that can be realized. The second factor involves this practice's ability to help increase a site's page ranking. Since part of the page ranking formula involves incoming links, this practice can be very valuable.

Before diving into a linkbaiting campaign, it's a good idea for publishers to understand a few things. The first is that an increase in traffic is great for a website. The second is an increase in traffic that sends people to pages that are not useful, interesting or informative is not. For linkbaiting to really pay off, new traffic needs to be encouraged to return.

There are many different techniques that fall under the linkbaiting category. Some of the most common include creating tools for other websites to use that link back to yours, crafting surveys, quizzes and tests (people love these) that are fun and interesting, offering contests, writing a very unique and in-depth piece on a specific topic, creating awards programs and even adding interesting lists or humor to your blog or website. There are many other options to increase incoming links. Many of them, as you can see, just involve creating a fun, relevant or useful site.

Some of the undesirable methods for gaining incoming links can also be beneficial. These include writing attack pieces about other sites or issues, going for controversy or trying to drum it up, focusing on the shock factor and more.

Linkbaiting itself is not really a bad word. Although the term can describe some methods few enjoy using, the idea behind the concept is a good one. Those who tend to do very well when using some of the practices are publishers that happen to offer something for a visitor's trouble in stopping by.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

Boosting Traffic Should Go Beyond Reciprocal Links

2009-09-28T19:18:00.000+05:30

The value of incoming links to a website can be almost incalculable. They assist in generating traffic, Google PageRank and can even help with search ranking and revenue generation. The problem most publishers run into is figuring out how to get these links placed.

There are a variety of ways to generate incoming links to a website. Some work better than others, but they can all be effective to an extent.

One method many publishers use involves reciprocal linking. This is nothing more than putting another person's site link up on your pages and handing them off yours to post, as well. This is achieved either through mutual agreement via e-mail conversations or with the help of services designed to help sites gain links.

The types of services available vary greatly. There are those that can automate the entire process for your site and others. Some services just put people on track with other sites that do link swaps and still others will keep checking to make sure a link remains in place. If it goes away, these services will let you know. Which service is best really depends on how much time a publisher wants to spend on working link exchanges.

Although link swapping services can help increase incoming links, they don't always produce results. Unfortunately, many of these services fail to check to make sure swapped links are actually accessible to the viewing public. There are many examples of links that have been swapped that show up on pages not connected to sites' home pages. This issue can be sidestepped by personally checking links. Should a site not provide a link that's easy to find, contact the webmaster for action. If nothing happens, remove their reciprocal link.

When it comes to increasing traffic and rankings, reciprocal links can help. It is not, however, the only game going. There are many other options publishers can try to increase the number of incoming links their sites enjoy. Perhaps the most solid route to take is creating good, old fashion content. The more engaging, balanced, interesting or even funny the content, the better. The notion here is to actually build a site that's useful so others really want to link to it.

Creating content that is high quality and has purpose is the ultimate key to gaining incoming links. It doesn't matter whether the content is a funny cartoon series, news articles, rants or even reviews, if it's of decent quality and visitors don't feel like they've wasted their time reading or viewing it, natural links are likely to come all on their own. Do make sure content is SEO optimized in key spots, such as the title. Don't go overboard with keyword stuffing though.

There are a number of other ways to boost incoming links. Some of the best ways include writing posts in forums with URL signatures included, retaining others to write blog posts about your content, running awards programs and contests and so on. The key with these ideas is to be creative and have a little fun.

When it comes to generating incoming links, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Exchange programs can help, but they shouldn't be the only tool used.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

What if you could triple your website traffic in just 30 days?

2009-09-26T19:17:00.000+05:30

Think about the increase in income from your website. 3x the traffic = 3x the income! Truthfully, I understated the potential of the seo techniques I am releasing here. I used these techniques to catapult my website from 80 unique clicks per day to over 800 uniques a day in just under 30 days. I hate disappointment so I decided to promise less than these techniques, if followed, can deliver.

Its no secret. More indexed pages = more traffic. I was able to triple my traffic in a week (the time it took for the search engines to include the newly translated pages). Someone once told me this was a blackhat technique, but that is ridiculous since it is only good customer service to offer your website in all the languages possible. To find a free translation script just search in google for "translation script".

You need links to rank highly in the search engines. The search engines have changed their algorithms but you still need links. One of the most powerful ways to get links and instant traffic is through social bookmarking sites. You might have heard of digg and others. If you tried using them you may have discovered you got a boost of traffic for a week or two which then trailed off. That is the nature of these types of sites, but that is NOT what I am suggesting you do here. Digg and the other big sites do NOT give you real links. They give you links with a NOFOLLOW tag which tells the search engine to ignore them for all purposes you care about. What if I was to show you a way to help yourself to a real PR6 link? Visit searchallinone.com and post an article. Signup with 5 different ID's and vote for your article 5x and presto you have a link from a PR6 page. What I have found more powerful though, is that your article also gets its own page and often ranks in the top 10 for the title in about 3 days. Now you have succeeded in getting a top 10 placement without even getting your website to the top of the engines, and you even got several valid links (PR6 homepage + a link from every tag page + a custom page with your posting on it). Nice. Now what if I was to give you a list of lots more sites like that. Here they are: . searchallinone.com tagne.ws clipmarks.com corank.com searchles.com clipclip.org marktd.com mister-wong.de plugim.com riffs.com butterflyproject.nl Uvouch.com www.rawsugar.com www.barksbookmarks.com www.clipfire.com linkarena.com yigg.de unrumor.com . Don't believe me? Just try this. Create an article on your website. Post it to searchallinone.com and all the others on the list above. Wait 3 days. Now go to google and type in the title. You might be surprised that you now dominate the top 10 listings for that title (unless it is competitive of course - try this using at least a 5 or 6 longtail keyword type title first).

Write some articles about your site's subject and submit them to article directories. You can do it manually or buy some software to do it but I recently found a service that has saved me hundreds of hours because they create the accounts at each for you! The software I bought never worked for me because it was always out of date. This site is a monthly subscription type service but well worth the money because they continually maintain their system to make sure all the submissions are being accepted. Let me say it again. They create the user ID for you! Anyone who has travelled this road knows this is one of the most painful part of submissions. Oh and the most important feature of all. They make every article you submit unique and completely human readable. This drives webmasters wild because they always want unique content. They submit to 741 article repositories as of this writing and are adding all the time. This is probably the most powerful technique out there today. Oh, I almost forgot, their article creation wizard shows you how to create articles that will drive traffic to your website, and go after long tail search phrases first, etc. (If you don't understand what I have wrote just go ahead and try it for yourself. You'll thank me I assure you.) Their signup is here: articlewiz.radpages.com

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

SEO And Sophisticated Doorway Pages Generators

2009-09-24T19:16:00.000+05:30

Doorway pages are used to enhance the ranking of web-pages in search results. The doorway page can be a keyword filled page primarily for the search engines. They are also known by the terms jump pages, portal pages, bridge pages, internet doorway pages, gateway pages and entry pages considering the cloaking scripts in the doorway pages redirects the user to the content page that the search engine has missed.

Adult doorway is the approach of creating adult related keyword well-defined search engine cloaking pages, to redirect a user to an adult-content website through the search result link. Doorway domain is the approach of search engine optimizing with the creation of a fresh website with links and redirecting scripts to the content page. Powerful doorway page software and determined doorway page script can produce multiple doorway pages.

The doorway pages employ techniques like doorway cloaking or page cloaking to redirect a visitor to the respective website. IP cloaking is the algorithm of showing the search engine spiders a keyword rich page and showing yet another content page to the users. The search engine cloaking prevents the search engine from seeing the real intended page. Cloaking software and cloaking script used in doorway pages are intelligent enough to flash unequal pages to search engines and users.

Sophisticated Doorway pages generators like the TrafficBoosterProV2 employ the about advanced science in cloaking and redirection that is entirely stealth from search engines and humans. TrafficBoosterPro for reference has managed to construct a redirection set of rules that can be ajusted to your needs. A set of rule could be like this: You have for case created 10,000 pages in your server but you want only to redirect visitors from a certain country, or visitors that have installed a certain language in their browser, then you will have only these visitors to be redirected and no one else. If you want to redirect Japanese visitors from Japan, but also Japanese visitors who lives in Europe and have installed Japanese browsers in their computers then this is the result you will reach. If you want to redirect only visitors that have installed windows 98 operator system in their PC's then only those visitors will be redirected. The same if they have MAC computers or Linux.

Now you can set rules that can redirect Japanese visitors that come from Japan and have windows 98 and MAC computers and not any Japanese visitor with Windows XP system. I could go on with examples to infinite but I think that you turn the general picture here. You can set your own rules and sets and of course you can choose to apply those rules in any number of single pages or alike folders or to the whole domain by using also wildcards like * for reference *domain.com* or domain.com/folder/index*

Of course not again one rule will be applied if the visitor's IP is a search engine cause of the IP cloaking protection. This way the domain will not be banned. The software I mentioned before can also attach new IP's in it's database as soon as it spots them. So Search engines bots like Googlebot if it comes to your pages from a new IP it will be logged (alike if it hides the user agent). This is a protection measure called ARGM (Advanced Robot Guard Mechanishm) and it is a TrafficBoosterProV2 invention.

Doorway pages created by doorway pages generator wizard or cloaking script and the distinguished application of doorway cloaking techniques can act in favor of improved search engine rankings.

Doorway pages and/or your web-pages have to have to be search engine optimized to pass maximum exposure.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

High Google Ranking SEO

2009-09-22T19:16:00.000+05:30

How much do you know about Google ranking SEO? This is a very important factor in making your website the one that more people will visit when using keywords to search the Internet. The more you learn the better chance you have of receiving a high Google ranking SEO.

The key to having a successful website and getting it noticed is learning as much as you can about Google ranking and placement and how this works with other search engines as well. Most all users will click on the first pages that show up when they are searching keywords, so you can see how important a high ranking can really be for your website.

Using the right keywords and phrases is just as important as having a high ranking. You may need assistance with targeting the right keywords that will be best for marketing your website. Not only do want to target the right keywords, but you are searching for the ones with the least competition. Therefore, you also need to know as much as you can about your competition.

Proper SEO for high Google ranking is about more than just knowing what words to use. An experienced SEO web designer can help you optimize your website to its fullest potential so you get noticed fast and maintain the high Google ranking that you want for a long time to come.

You can enlist the help of people that have experience with SEO and how keyword ranking works on Google and similar sites. You can also do research on some of the studies that have been conducted to provide you with information on this topic. Hiring a professional is also a great idea to help you exceed in this area.

As mentioned above it is important for you to learn as much as you can about SEO ranking to have a successful website, but the next step should be enlisting the help of a good dependable web designer. Just make sure you always check the background on anyone that you use to make sure they are trustworthy.

Don't be swayed by some of the tricks that can get you a high ranking, but that are not legitimate as these can also result in your site being banned from the Internet. This is another reason why working with an experienced web design company who specializes in SEO is a good idea. They will know the legal way to get the results you want.

As you can see, having a high Google ranking is very important to the success of your website. It's time for you to enlist the help of a professional web design company so they can help your website attain a high Google ranking.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

Is your website banned by Google?

2009-09-20T19:15:00.000+05:30

Sometimes their website doesn't even rank for their own web site's name. How did this happen? Read below to find out some of the reasons why a site may have been banned from Google and what to do to get back in the rankings.

Usually there is no warning for being banned or penalized by Google except for the steady drop of sales and visitors to your site. Many site owners and search engine optimization firms are left with little to no idea why they were removed and can be left scratching their heads as to how to get back in. While there are many reasons why a site has been banned, here are a few of the more common reasons. If your site has been banned contact your SEO company or give Big Oak a call to help you get back on the right track to high Google rankings.

1. Robots and Meta Tags

The first and simplest solution many be that your robot.txt file has been changed to prevent search engines from entering your site. Or your meta tags could be directing the search engine robots to exclude your site. While this would be highly unlikely, it is best to rule this out. So check your robot.txt file (if you have one) and your meta tags. Unless you want your site hidden, you should never read this in your meta tags: . If you see this, you are blocking your site from Google.

You can also ban your own site by having a robots.txt with the wrong code. Two examples of robots.txt code are below.

This example allows all robots to visit all files because the wildcard "*" specifies all robots.

User-agent: *
Disallow:

This example keeps all robots out:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Read more about this at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt

2. Cloaking (A Big Google No-No)

Straight from Google's website: "The term "cloaking" is used to describe a website that returns altered web pages to search engines crawling the site. In other words, the web server is programmed to return different content to Google than it returns to regular users, usually in an attempt to distort search engine rankings. This can mislead users about what they'll find when they click on a search result. To preserve the accuracy and quality of our search results, Google may permanently ban from our index any sites or site authors that engage in cloaking to distort their search rankings."

If your website or web pages are set up to display different information for a search engine spider versus a real person, then you are cloaking. Cloaking delivers one version of a page to an Internet user and a different version to a search engine. The cloaked page is packed with keyword and terms that the site wants to be highly rank for so, in essence, they are cheating. There are good reasons for cloaking as well, such as targeted advertising, but if you are trying to manipulate your rankings you should put an end to this immediately.

3. Duplicate Content or Websites

If Google finds multiple web pages have the same content they may penalize each website for this. Of course, someone may have copied your content and Google banned you even though it was your original content that was taken. Make sure no other site is using your content. You can do this by performing a Google search using some of your text with quotation marks (") around it. If you do find someone is using your original copy visit here to learn more about copyright infringement: http://www.google.com/dmca.html.

You can check here to see if your site has been duplicated unbeknowst to you: http://www.copyscape.com

4. Hidden Text and or Links

How can text been hidden? Well, there are a variety of ways - some are more sneaky than others. But is boils down to this: it is considered hidden if the text or link is invisible to the website visitor but can be seen by search engine spiders. This used to be done quite often, such as making your text white on a white background or using cascading style sheets (CSS) to hide your text, but search engines can easily spot this today so it is best to avoid it altogether.

5. Keyword Spam and Keyword Stuffing

Ever seen a web page with a very awkwardly written first paragraph where a certain word is repeated ad nauseam? Here's an example:

"We sell the best father's day gifts for father's day. If you like to celebrate father's day we can help with the best father's day gifts for father's day."

Care to guess which keywords are being targeted? This is keyword spamming or stuffing but it is just the tip of the SEO iceberg. This is just the content on the page, there is probably keyword stuffing happening in the code: in the meta tags, invisible text, alt tags, title tags and comment tags. etc. If the word or phrase is repeated too often Google can place a filter to reduce the site's rankings or simply ban the site. Keyword density can be tricky but, as a general rule, Big Oak shoots for 1% to 5% of all text on a page to be our targeted keywords. Ultimately you must write for the reader not the search engine. Be sure the keywords flow naturally.

6. Doorway Pages

Defining a doorway page can be difficult so here is our definition that could potentially ban your site in Google: pages that are created in order to attract search engine spiders and be ranked highly for their targeted keywords. Real visitors find this page and then continue to the "real" website from there. Hence the name "doorway page". These pages aren't in the navigation most of the time. If you come across a page where much of the information is duplicated from other pages on the site but it is different in terms of keywords only, this is most likely a doorway page.

As you can see this can be a gray area. Some pages on a website may focus on a particular subject and be innocent of trying to lure search engine spiders only for high rankings. Err on the side of caution and make sure the page is useful and part of the your site's navigation.

7. Redirect Pages

Sneaky redirection pages are set up in groups from 5 to hundreds. They all target similar and related keywords or phrases. Usually, the only links on these pages are links to other pages in the same family creating a false sense of related linking.

These pages don't necessarily contain content that any human would be interested in. These pages may show up high in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS), but when you click on one of these pages from the SERPS, you will be redirected to another page. In other words, the page you click to see is not the page you actually get to read.

The redirect can be automatic, done with a meta refresh command or through other means such as a the mouse moving while on the redirect page.

8. Buying Links

While buying links may not get you banned, they can certainly hurt your page rank. Google has slowly been catching on to this fad and has measures in place to put your site in limbo for 6-8 months (known as the "sandbox effect") so you can't instantly benefit from buying links to your website. Many sites that sell links are being devalued by Google, making an investment in this strategy a waste of money and time. Ultimately, stay away from buying links to increase your ranking.

9. Linking to Bad Neighborhoods

Link campaigns are good thing when done correctly; we would say they are a necessity in today's SEO world. But linking to bad neighborhoods are a sure way to lose your rank in Google. If you aren't careful about who you are linking to you can easily disappear overnight. Basically, while you may be ethical and do everything right linking to someone who isn't can be considered guilt by association. Always verify your links to other sites. Make sure they have page rank in Google and are indexed by Google. Try searching for their URL to see if they are indexed. Avoid linking to any sites that use spamming techniques to increase their search engine rankings. Regularly checking outbound links from your site and removing any offenders is a good idea.

A few site types to avoid:

* Free-for-all link farms
* Adult sites
* Gambling sites

10. Code swapping

Optimizing a page for top ranking, then swapping another page in its place once a top ranking is achieved.
What does Google say?

"Don't deceive your users, or present different content to search engines than you display to users," Google says, and they list some bullet points on avoiding being banned.

* Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
* Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.
* Don't send automated queries to Google.
* Don't load pages with irrelevant words.
* Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
* Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

Google also states:

"Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, 'Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?'"

While creating a page without a thought to search engines is probably going a little too far, optimizing your site for an organic search, as long as it conforms to their standards, is perfectly acceptable.
How to get back into Google

Visiting this old link I used to reccommend http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py shows no option for “I’m a webmaster inquiring about my website” any longer which allowed you to request reinstation.

However, logging in to Google Sitemaps now shows a direct link at the bottom of your main account page to “Submit a reinclusuion request” which takes you here - https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/reinclusion?hl=en

This means you will have to register your site to do.

From there you get to check boxes that let you admit guilt, acknowledge modification, agree not to do it again, and even a box to explain yourself.

You don't have to contact Google but it can't hurt. They will eventually spider your site again and see that you have cleaned up your website. You may have to wait a few months for Google to re-index your site so be patient and don't tinker with your website too much unless dictated by your site's products or content needs.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

The Role of the SEO in Your Local Business

2009-09-18T19:07:00.000+05:30

Search engine optimization or SEO is an important factor that you should almost always consider before trying any promotional campaign online. The main aim of every business is to obtain maximum traffic through effective content strategies. If your pages use acceptable standards, then small business SEO is fairly easy to attain. Search engine optimization increases the traffic to a web site through the use of algorithmic results. When a site ranks high on the list from searched results, it usually receives a higher number of visitors. In terms of marketing, SEO is used to determine how people search for things – or what keywords they use to perform a search.

Why is SEO important? Consider what it would be like if no one could easily find your place of business, or even your telephone number. Most businesses could not continue for long in such a situation. The same thing can happen with your web site if people cannot easily locate it. Traffic volume, if it existed at all, slows to a crawl. Potentially valuable customers never even know you are there.

Search engine optimization uses knowledge and observation of exactly 'how' search engines and web directories decide which web sites to return as results for queries. Without SEO you are quite possibly throwing away up to 85 percent of your potential customers and visitors, and a full 80 percent of your potential customers will find their way to a rival business instead.

Search engine spiders will easily find your pages if you have used appropriate keywords and common page titles. You will most definitely want to use many keywords that pertain to your business like the business name, services you provide, and other important words that have meaning to your company. In addition, you may want to use combinations of these keywords like your corporate name and service. To gain local search traffic, you can use the services of a professional SEO provider. Many web sites such as local business portals offer these services at a nominal cost. The SEO professional will be able to gather important information about your business and then advise you on the keywords to use which will ideally draw business to your site.

Getting a top ranking is the primary objective of these search engine optimization techniques, because when the search results come up, people are more apt to visit the first few links that are listed. Ideally, you will want your business to be listed among the first five companies, but even if you are further down the list, you will increase traffic to your site. You have to make sure you submit your business listings by category during the submission process. More traffic means more business, and categorizing your products in the correct areas is quite important.

Search engine optimization not only brings high-quality traffic to your business but it also indirectly leads to an increase of sales revenue. Local merchant success highly depends on the techniques that you are adopting to make your page more web friendly.

A local business portal that creates optimized pages for you is a terrific alternative since there are many requirements to follow. Instead of trying to understand the fine print, you will have more time to focus on the core competencies of your business. It’s a benefit to you, so try it.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

Google got Better at Analyzing the Real Value of Directories

2009-09-16T19:06:00.000+05:30

Imagine that you happen to run a search engine, and no matter how good your bots are performing, you just can’t deny the need for the human touch. There are many ways for Google to find human active and pull data from it to rank the sites according the appreciation they get from humans. Complex algorithms don not create the rankings, they just reflect the value the sites received from human beings. Directory reviewers are without any doubt part of it.

What I’ve noticed the last few months; google has managed to really ‘understand’ what the directory owners 1 by 1 are up to. And those that used ‘smart’ tricks got their asses kicked. While most of the quality directories haven’t changed much. But, most of the fake-directories, networks, link-farms, mailing traps, and a whole bunch more sites that have no other intention, but to parasite on the internet, lost all there pages from the google index. Google is of course totally free to do so.

Directories have always been a source for Google to find web sites and get a basic value tag for them, as long the human reviewer does his job well. Many directories are very well maintained, many directories have whole teams of people who actually rewrite each description to make sure the directory has 100% unique content.

Of course, we all know that there are thousands of directories online. Much more then what makes any sense. Most of them exist purely for the whole link building industry. Obviously Google is fully aware of it. Still, even after removing thousands of directories out of their index; they still accept a couple of thousand more directories to remain in the index. Why. Well, for a bunch of reasons of course. The most important reason; because google needs these directories! Google uses the directories to find new sites themselves and to have a tool to get a first impression of the new sites. For google to determine which directories they can trust is of course crucial. Well, they achieved it!

How hard can it be for Google to know that a site is in fact a directory? And categorizing them and labeling with their value system, that’s just work, not much more. For Google to know whether or not the information they can get from those directories is reliable, is just as easy as any of the other steps Google needs to take to have thousands of human directory reviewers working for them also human filter … for free. Believe me, Google loves directories.

What about those hundreds, even thousands of totally crappy bad directories? Just ignore them! Even if that means you can only use about 20% of the directories, we’re still talking about hundreds, even thousands of directories. Ok, niche directories included. In fact, the average value of just a few niche directories is much higher than those thousands of crap general directories all together.

So, what we conclude so far?
Although the vast majority of the directories out there are total crap, the small remaining minority is still, very, very big. At least 1.000 of the free general directories are still totally worth it to submit to. The top 300 are in fact very high value, quality directories of which a link still is simply a must. Is the link value less than before? Well, I honestly don’t think so. Why? Google has no interest in devaluing the decent directories, simply because big G needs them.

What Google is up to is very much the same as it did with the whole link exchange issue. Google is just weeding out the crap. Google is not discrediting the concept of a directory as a linking tool. Google has just become much better using the real value of the whole directory landscape. That’s all there is too it.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

How to increase traffic to your website?

2009-09-14T19:13:00.002+05:30

This article is specially designed for all of those who are looking for tips on how to increase their traffic. I am certain that this will be of help for the new ones and the existing experts in this field.

After creating a new website, the first thing that would struck on anyones mind is how to get traffic to this site. Why should it not be, when you actually created that site for that purpose; TRAFFIC. In the world of Internet Marketing, there are many tactics that can help you get the desired traffic.

Here is a list of some tactics that can be used

1. Directory Submissions - In this, you are required to submit the site to Directories and get listed in same. There are free Directories and paid directories.

Free Directories: While most of the people believe that submitting to high PR free directories can get them listed fast and get the results quick; the fact is something else. It takes long for a free high PR web Directory to get your site listed in their Directory. Reason being, it is a free Directory that has high PR. There would be many submissions made in a day; it needs to be checked first and then be added to the Directory. Now, we need to realize the fact that the way we wanted to get listed in such Directories, there are many other site owners who wanted to get their site listed. This causes a great delay in getting the site listed in the Directory.

Paid Directories: It is suggested that if you want your site listed quickly then you opt for paid Directory submission. As you would be paying money for the submissions, your site would be the first preference for any Directory. This gets you quick and fast listing in Directories.

2. Social Bookmarking - Every site that needs popularity and needs traffic can opt in for this tactic. You are required to visit different Social sites and bookmark your page in them. This way, there would be too many people visiting such Social Community sites and can get you the traffic. It is also important on how efficiently the job has been done. If you are bookmarking your web page in a category that is entirely different from what the site is about then the results would be 0 and at times can be negative. Make sure that the bookmarking is done in appropriate category for better results.

3. Blog Commenting - This tactic is the best way to get traffic. You can visit different blogs and start commenting about your site. Once again, it is important that the tactic is done efficiently. Selecting appropriate category and posting good comments that are informative and can be of help to people who visit that Blog is very important. You can go a step further and bookmark these Blog pages where you have made the comments. This will get traffic to that comment and this will then get traffic to the website.

4. Forum Commenting - This is just as Blog commenting. However, there are set rules of the forums that needs to be kept in mind before making any comments. Same as any other tactic, selecting appropriate Category is very important. If you see someone talking about related topic then you can go ahead and comment on it by providing more information. This will help the people visiting the Forum know about your opinion and the services that you offer.

There are some more tactics that can be of great help to you. However, it is important that these tactics are performed efficiently with no errors. Else the chances of site getting penalized would be high. I suggest that you perform these tactics only if you are confident about them. Else, just consult an expert today on www.therealtraffic.com and get it done efficiently.

Hope the above details were of help to you. I shall be waiting for your comments on this; please send them to prasen@therealtraffic.com

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

Four easy ways to boost your search engine ranking

2009-09-14T19:12:00.000+05:30

Search engine readiness is an important factor when aiming for top rankings. The process is quite straightforward if you adhere to the correct procedures. Below I have listed the four factors that you need to consider when building your website:

Tip #1 Headlines Are Important

We can expect our webpage to include several headlines. The most important headline is the one that appears at the top of our web page. This is referred to as H1 tag. It is important to include our main keywords or key phrase in this headline. More often than not if you do a search for a particular keyword, you will see it include in this main heading in most if not all the top ranking sites.

A second or third headline, H2 and H3, may also be included. Just make sure to have the right keyword phrase included in each of these, as well.

Tip #2 Using Keywords In Body Text

The actual impact of this technique is in my view not as important as it used to be and I would not spend too much time worrying about this. Indeed if you try to stuff your text with keywords this may be perceived as spamming, and is to be avoided. I would suggest a good rule of thumb is to include the keyword at the start, right near the end and once in the middle if it is a large passage

Having text on a page is more important than many realize. Search engines do not recognize keywords in javascript, graphics, flash or marquees. Pages that do best are between 100 and 400 words total. Web pages that only have images usually do not rank high on search engines, since they do not have text to index.

Tip #3 Page Title Keywords

Keywords can also help when they are added to the page Title. You will see the Title near the top of your HTML source code.

This is what appears in the browser window at the very top of the page above the menu. Most search engines display the Title as the top line in their listing. They have a propensity to list pages that have the searched keyword contained in the Title. Considering this, it is one of the most important parts of a page to include your primary keyword.

Tip #4 Using Alt tags for your images.

Alt tags need to be included in image descriptions. This results in more attention for your keyword and helps the surfer to understand what the image is about should it fail to load.

However, never use more than 2 - 3 keywords in any one Alt tag. Also, don't repeat the same keywords in different ALT tags. It's best to use related keywords or even mispellings.

This entire process should not take you too long and is well worth the effort to help improve your search engine rankings.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

The SEO Rip-Off

2009-09-14T19:05:00.002+05:30

I have decided to write this article as a result of numerous emails. It seems more and more people are falling victim to bad SEO. The main complaint is that they are paying entirely too much for little or no results. Additionally, many fall prey to bad SEO practices. If you plan to hire an SEO pro in the future, I suggest you use this article as a set of guidelines.

Before going with any SEO firm or individual, do the following:

A) Find out how established and experienced an SEO firm is before you negotiate.
Do they have a sizeable client list under their belt?
Are they published?

B) Scrutinize their portfolio.
What kind of results have they achieved?
Contact a few of their clients. Were they satisfied with the work performed?

C) Consider and confirm their methods?
How will they optimize your site to reach your keywords?
Do they use organic methods? Some individuals or companies use doorway pages, hide text in the background, utilize re-directs and other blacklisted methods. Stay away from these.

D) Get a least three proposals from different SEO firms.
Look at each one carefully. Are there similarities? Proposals will help you see which companies are honest and which are trying to sell you something you don't need.
What is the cost? The cheapest isn't always the best; however, the highest price may not be attached to a comprehensive and viable course of action. Try to find an individual or organization that will give you what you want within your SEO budget.

E) Contract, Contract, Contract.
Get everything in writing. Look over the document carefully. Be sure it covers everything you have discussed, including methods of achieving your desired results. Have the copies signed by both parties. If the job is a large one you may want to consult a lawyer.

F) Clearly state the terms of payment.
While most SEO firms will not do any work for free or agree to a results based pay scale, many competent SEO professionals will not shy away from a base plus performance incentive package. I am not a firm believer in prepaid contracts... Most SEO professionals will abide by the 50% up front, 50% upon completion standard. Make sure all financial terms are as clearly defined in your contract as the actual scope of work. This will protect all parties involved in the event that expectations are not met.

All in all, try to do your best to educate yourself on SEO. Have a basic understanding of SEO terminology and SEO methodology. Anyone offering SEO services should not have a problem explaining how they intend to get you results. If they fail gain your confidence or raise a red flag for any reason whatsoever, keep searching. You will eventually find someone who will help you reach your goals for a fair price. Happy hunting.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – What is it?

2009-09-13T18:10:00.000+05:30

Using Relevant Search Terms

Search Engine Optimisation is a process you employ to ensure top rankings in the search engines for the most relevant search terms on a website. When somebody is looking for a particular topic on the web they type in a relevant phrase. These phrases are the most relevant search terms. SEO processes target these search terms and high ranking will be sought for these search terms.

The first stage of the SEO process is to choose the relevant search terms for your website and put preferable one term per relevant page, but two per page is ok. Splitting large pages means you can make two pages and use a different search term on each page. Matching the search terms to the content of the page is very important.

Structuring the links within the site.

It is important that search engine spiders can find the all of your sites pages. The aim is to get your pages put in the search engines index. Indexing improves the chances of higher rating. Below are some things to remember to improve the chance of search engine spiders finding your pages.

Do not use links created by Javascript, spiders cannot read them.

When using Session ID's in URL's, check the rules about their use particularly if you are looking for Google ranking.

Make sure all pages link to at least one other pages.

Structure the internal links (page links) so that your targeted search terms are reinforced. This means making sure that the pages with sub topics of a topic link to the topic page using the correct link text.

Off page elements - Link Text
This element is one of two important points for good rankings. You can put link text on pages within your site or on the pages of other sites. Here’s the point, the main search term on the target pages should be included in the link text. Where possible, use different link text for every link that links to a page, but always include the target page's main search term in the link text.

On page elements
The aim here is to make sure that all page elements link to the target search terms on each page. Consider the following:

The Title Tag
This is the second of the two important elements for good ranking. Ensure the page’s search term is contained in this tag. Put it near to the front as possible. Make sure it reads well. Remember each page’s title tag should be different to that for other pages.
The Description Tag
Write an attractive description tag for each page and include the search terms in it at least twice. Make sure the search term
is mentioned at the beginning if possible.
The H Tag (Header Tag)
H tags have numbers from 1-6 with 1 being the biggest heading size. H tags carry more weight when read by the search engines. So include the H tag as near the top of the page as possible and include search terms in the tag at least once if not more on the page.
Text
Using the search terms in the text on the page as much as possible is important. Put the terms early on in the page and as much throughout the page as possible without losing the readability of the content. Search terms put in bold text carries extra weight but not as much as H tags. If a word from the search term words is found in the text but is separate from the other search term words. It can only help.
ALT Text
Make sure you put the search terms in the alt text of all images on the page.

So in summary, the key to effective search engine optimization is to initially choose relevant search terms. Then ensure you have search terms correctly placed in strategic elements of your website construction. These elements being at the point of link construction, in off-page elements and on-page elements. It is important to note that while search engine optimization is very effective it does not happen overnight. Be prepared to be meticulous in your implementation of SEO and patient in reaping the rewards.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com