Search Engine Optimization
How sitemaps are gaining importance
A sitemap is set up to know the web site’s position in the search engine listings. It will not bring in thousands of new visitors overnight but it is important count in the toolset. This article will improve your search engine position in sitemaps.
What is a sitemap?
Sitemap refers to two different things.
1) Many large web sites create a visual sitemap which can be used by visitors for quick navigation.
2) But this article is about how search engines like google are used to index your site.
Why do you need a sitemap?
Google, yahoo, msn and other search engines can see your site even if you don’t have a sitemap.
There are four advantages of having a sitemap:
1. If your site uses non-HTML links like the JavaScript menus it might be complicated to track these links, because of which all the pages will not be found.
2. A sitemap tells which sites are more significant and which are less to the search engine. This prevents the less significant pages from contending with your own pages in the listings.
3. A sitemap helps the search engines in knowing which pages on the site are updated more frequently. This enables the search engines to show the current data in the important pages and to ignore less important pages.
4. A sitemap tells the search engines when you have updated your site’s content. This makes the user to find the new pages more quickly.
There are three different things to notice about each entry:
1) LastMod: try to tell the search engines the date and time when you last changed this page. This will tell them which ones they ought to index right away, and which ones they can ignore.
2) ChangeFreq: if the sitemap is not updated frequently, this will give an idea to the search engines as to how often they can check each page.
3) Priority: this tells the search engines as to which pages are important. On a scale of 0.0 to 1.0 determines which pages are very significant and which are less important in your site.
It’s very easy to know which pages in the site have least importance. Some examples are privacy – contact us – About us
It is not that the privacy policy page is not important. Privacy policy page can be taken for granted. But for search engine purposes, it is important to direct them to the pages where you actually do your business.
There are a lot of software tolls that will create a sitemap by reading your site’s content. The results have to be adjusted according to “priority” settings. Search the web for free tools like the sitemap generator, sitemapDoc, XML-Sitemaps-AuditMyPC Google sitemap generator.
The three important things that have to be done are:
1) The root directory of the web server has to be placed in the sitemap file and the main index file. Each time it is updated, place the new copy there.
2) Notify the major search engines of the new sitemap file each time it is updated. For Google submit it from within webmaster tools.
3) Place a reference to the sitemap file in the robots.txt file as Sitemap: http://www.freelancesubmit.com/sitemap.xml. Through this the search engine will find it, even those that you did not submit it to directly. This has to be done only once, unless there is change in the name or location in the sitemap file.
Once the sitemap is created and submitted you must maintain it. Every time a page is added to the website, in sitemap also it has to be added. Each time a page is updated in the website the “lastmod” setting has to be updated in the sitemap. Try adjusting the “priority” of the pages from time to time to see if it improves the performance of that particular page. And each time it is modified in the sitemap, resubmit it to the major search engines
Tools can you use to maintain the forward dynamic
Get your own website. Most affiliate marketing programs provide referral pages to receive responses from advertising. Your own website enables you to compete with successful internet business owners. It gives you the ability to develop a mailing list, the core of your marketing success. Developing link popularity, many website owners use link exchange or partner directories, linking to similar websites. This not only increases traffic through the added links, but also improves search engine ranking.
Tips for Blogging
URL vs. Title: The URL of the post doesn’t have to be the exact same as the title of the post. Creating a convention URL allow you to include additional keywords which can benefit the post from a search engine view.
Interlinking of Top Posts: You will occasionally write a post which will significantly best your other posts. For both cases, a good idea is to hard code keyword rich links to these posts on the blog’s side menu or in the footer so that they obtain added attention from search crawlers and readers.
Re-Ignite Past Posts: Staying on the topic of hot posts, it is often a good idea to keep the momentum rolling on popular title by updating their content. What has worked well for me in the past is to create a 3 or 4 part series on a trendy topic and then join all the posts into a PDF which readers can download.
Yahoo/Google Finance: When writing about openly traded companies it is a good idea to refer to the company’s full name or even their stock sign. Many times these types of posts get aggregated into a given company’s news part of their Google/Finance page which leads to more readers coming back to your blog.
The Importance of Variety: Offering posts which vary in length, topics, format, or content type can extend the life of your readers. Mixing up your posts will stay your readers coming back rather than being bored by the same old content day after day.
Relationships with Companies/Bloggers: It is main to have relationships with companies or their PR firms because they will potentially release information to you before it goes to the public giving you an edge on your contest. Additionally, companies can offer you access to services during test periods before it is officially released. Relationships with other bloggers is key because they can help you increase the word on your most strong posts as well add value to your blog by visitor blogging from time to time.
For More info: searchengineguide.com/manoj-jasra/6-tips-for-blogging-in-2008.php
10 methods of Writing Articles Can Improve Your Business
Here is some SEO Tips for you to know on how to write articles that could improve your business.
1. Present them to e-zines and web sites for publishing. Put your resource box at the end of the article to get free advertising.
2. Join your articles into a free e-book. You could place your business ad in the e-book and give it away to visitors to allow them to do the same to multiply your advertising.
3. Create an article directory on your site. People would visit your web site to find the free information.
4. Submit your articles to print publications which pay for submissions. You can also make extra income getting paid as a freelance writer.
5. Combine a few articles together into a free report. You can give away the free report as bonus for buying your main product or service.
6. Publish a book with all your articles and make additional money by selling the book from your web site.
7. Give peoples an instant article directory. Also tell visitors they could instantly add a free article directory to their web site by linking to yours. All those links could add up to a large amount of traffic to your site.
8. Post your articles in linked online communities. This gives you free a advertising in newsgroups, forums and e-mail and discussion lists.
9. Allow people to incorporate your articles in their free e-books. Your article can end up being in 20 to 30 e-books in no time. You don’t even have to promote the e-books.
10. Allow people to access your articles by autorepsonder. Also include your full page e-mail ad with the article.
Become an SEO Pro by 3 Simple Strategies
Google is all on linking. If you want to grab a top spot in Google’s search results you must link like a pro. Linking is a lot easier today than it was ago. Experience has taught us a lot and with the information here you won’t need to be anxious about endless trial and error. Let’s take a look at the linking strategies that Google give you the most credit for…
Link Strategy 1: harvest the Most Benefit from Anchor Text
You perhaps know that anchor text is the clickable word that makes up a hyperlink. But what you may not yet fully grasp how powerful anchor text is. Do a simple experiment…
Go to Google.com and look for “click here”. Did you get a link for Adobe Acrobat Reader at 1st number? Why is that? Verify the page. They have no mention of “click here” anywhere on the page.
Why does it rank number 1 on Google for “click here”? It’s all due to anchor text. More particularly, it’s since the countless pages that have “click here” as anchor text that will links to Adobe’s Acrobat Reader download page.
Did you observe how many opposing pages there are for “click here” on Google? Almost Two Billion! Anchor text is really important. Here are a few rules to get the most from yours…
A. Use your three important keywords for your anchor text. Particularly, you’re most important word 60% of the time; you’re second important keyword 25% and your third keyword 15%. That is for every page you link to.
B. Use “long tail” keywords when suitable.
C. If your anchor text is element of a paragraph, like a signature block, make sure the surrounding text is optimized for the keyword you desire or close variations. And make sure that the text is varied. You need to have plenty of versions of the surrounding text block so Google doesn’t ding it as duplicate content.
Link Strategy 2: Make Your Target URLs Laser correct
URL accuracy is extremely important. Be sure to use the same URL whenever you request for a link. Though a URL link beginning with “http” or “www” may resolve to the same webpage, Google looks them as different destinations.
Find out for yourself? Go to Google.com and enter “Links: http://” followed by www… any domain name you want. This will offer you the inbound links for that particular domain.
OK, now jot down the number of links. Now try it again WITHOUT the “www.” And see the number of links. Again try it a third time with the “www” but NOT the http://”. Do you get different numbers? This is for the reason that Google sees them as different link destinations.
Link Strategy 3: Go ahead of Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal links aren’t enough anymore. Google is now discounting the importance of simple link swaps so that reciprocal links alone will not do the trick as they used to. With a little time or money or both, you could have the best links imaginable.
The two fastest and least expensive ways are submitting your site to directories or paying a link service, except NOT a reciprocal linking service. Let’s begin with directories…
Links from directories might not be all they used to, but still help your SEO efforts. There’s a page I like to test out that has the top directories listed as well as links to the site, their GRP, cost and more; StrongestLinks.com
You could click on the column headings to sort by any type you want. This makes finding the top GPR sites quick and easy. This site also seems to have some sort of paid membership obtainable, but I use the free link and it does all I need and more.
Important Note: There is also a third possible risk that comes from link farms, sometimes very similar to certain link services. That risk is having so many inbound links upcoming from a single IP range (Internet Protocol address). Google HATES this and would discount all these links, or worse.
As for reciprocal linking services, I suggest you to avoid them. However there is a good solution called “3 way linking” that will still allow you the set it and forget it option. Here’s a service I’ve had great results with…
3WayLinker.com will not link sites back to each other reciprocally. Instead it will create a series of one way links that are purely counted as inbound links by Google. Even more it helps to eliminate duplicate content in your link text and make sure all the inbound links are from a wide range of IP addresses.
Here’s how it will work… Site “A” links to site “B”. Site “B” links to site “C”. And then site “C” links to site “A”. So each one is a true one way link. This also gives the system more choice regarding which sites form a group. With reciprocal links, if both the sites use the same hosting provider, there is a high chance that you will be linked within the same IP range. With three way linking this problem could be eliminated.
So to recap,
1. Get the majority out of your anchor text;
2. Be very reliable with your link URL, and
3. Do more than reciprocal linking.
Now go and get that top spot you’ve been after!
Robots file
User-agent: *
Disallow:
The User-agent field is for specifying robot name for which the access policy follows in the Disallow field. Disallow field specifies URLs which the specified robots have no access to. An example:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Here “*” means all robots and “/” means all URLs. This is read as, “No access for any search engine to any URL” Since all URLs are preceded by “/ ” so it bans access to all URLs when nothing follows after “/ “. If partial access has to be given, only the banned URL is specified in the Disallow field.
For detailed information http://www.redalkemi.com/articles/robots-tutorial.php
Optimization Techniques success of Email Marketing
It’s a general trend that internet marketers will do anything they to get the e-mail address of the people visiting their site. Online, you have a small window of chance to convert a visitor into a client and if they’re not prepared to buy whatever they’re browsing on your site, at least find out whom they are so that you could try a various sales approach on them on another day. Just because they are not concerned in what you’re selling today will not mean you can’t find something else to tickle their fancy.
There are a lot of ways to do this such as:
– present a free report with information they’ll find valuable
– Ask them to go for your newsletter or subscribe to your website for update
– plot them with entry into a free draw for a prize.
Once somebody has signed up you’ve got a valuable e-mail address that you could use to build your list of potential customers. Once you get that e-mail address, you should be very careful with it since otherwise it won’t do much for you.
How can you stay out of the spam filter?
It’s an excellent idea to have someone validate before you give away anything. Many will put a false e-mail address just to get something for free. You could involve them to confirm by receiving an e-mail from you and clicking a verification link. Remind them to check their junk folder and if they spot your message as not Spam, their email software can then automatically whitelist you so that you do not land in the spam folder in future. By requesting verification, you also make sure that you are getting a real e-mail address.
Autoresponder software is a good investment for anybody marketing online. Buying a package AutoResponsePlus or something related would help you manage easily your mailing lists. The thing is, once you have a mailing list in place and a plan that include autoresponders, you should work on your email content and deliverability.
Each contact you make in future with prospective client should do two things:
1) The e-mail needs to present them something precious otherwise they’ll unsubscribe. Give information or tips that will have that person anxious to open future emails from you.
2) You require a call to action line at the end that will entice them to do something you need after they close the email. This could be to visit your site with a handy link, sign up for another service, refer their acquaintances to you or even offer a purchase link so they could buy what you’re selling.
Deliverability is certainly a key factor. You need to know that your e-mails arrive at their recipient’s email box so here are a few things you can do so as to increase the probability of your target audience actually opening your e-mail. People are fed up with Spam and using all kinds of techniques to ensure they’re not having to go through spam to get to the important e-mails.
People use domain keys and SPF records so that they are not getting phishing e-mails by those posing as their bank or PayPal.
People use spam filters to help them build the trust in their incoming messages. Once you make it, you’re set.
By getting yourself whitelisted, you could increase the probability of being delivered to an e-mail inbox instead of Spam folder and buying an autoresponder product that’s hosted on your server, you could more easily get past Spam filters since if you’ve done your bit to get whitelisted, you’ll be trusted by your recipient’s e-mail server which would increase the chances of your brilliant and persuasive copy being taken seriously.
Blackhat SEO: Defend Yourself by Recognizing The Bad Guys
Over the years, webmasters were told that they should avoid Blackhat SEO techniques that are in connection with their own websites. In general, I can agree with this statement. But, after obtaining a deeper understanding of Blackhat search engine optimization, one can really learn a bit regarding how better his or her own positioning in the search engine results.
White Hat vs. Black Hat Search engine Optimization
Whitehat and Blackhat SEO is a comparison which is a take-off from the old cowboy westerns, where the good guys will wear white hats and the bad guys wore black hats. So, theoretically, we could assume that the Whitehat practitioners are the good guys of SEO, and Blackhat practitioners are the bad ones of the industry.
But, the truth is a bit more opaque than this. SEO is not a pure “white vs. black” issue. Just as in the Mad Magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy” succession, sometimes the white spy whips the black spy, and vice versa, sometimes the black spy was successful.
But, it is really fascinating to me when I visited a website such as http://www.blackhatseo.com/ and discovered the world-renowned SEO expert Aaron Wall owns the site. In case if you were not aware of it, Aaron Wall is the owner of SEO Book and is recognized as one of the world’s foremost leaders in SEO technique.
Blackhat SEO Is a Learning chance
For me, the study of opposites offers a greater understanding to mankind.
1.One can’t know “altruism”, until one learns about “selfishness”.
2.One cannot truthfully appreciate “wealth”, until they have experienced “poverty”.
3.One can never announce something “easy”, until they have faced something truly “difficult”.
4.A “slow” driver will rarely be noticed, until the “fast” driver passes them by.
These are the theoretical ramblings of Bill.
I have always argued that if we want to see light, one should be able to identify the darkness. That is why when I am told to keep away from something; I go to it, so that I could see what it looks like, for the sake of recognizing it.
So, whenever I learn more about SEO, I search out Black Hat SEO forums and sites to learn how to distinguish the dark, when I am in the light.
After all, if you can’t recognize the darker side, how you could expect that you protect yourself from it?
Things that will Motivate Web-Audience Response
Web success is based on the creative performance of the basics, and here your Web-marketing presentation should begin.
1. Web-Audience Response is demanding Communication
Though Web has a lot in common with television there are fundamental differences; it is vital for Web-entrepreneurs to know these differences and similarities. Television and the Web both are communication environments, but televisions are primarily advertising platforms. Of course there are a lot of websites that follow the advertising financial model, but for the average business site, depending upon the third party advertising not only dilutes their marketing message, but also makes for a confusing visual presentation.
Just because your site presents information, it will not mean it’s communicating it to your audience in any meaningful way. The way in which you communicate your is as important as the message itself.
2. Web-Audience reaction Demands Content
You must have heard the comment, ‘content is king,’ but we assume, ‘communication is king’ since without communication content is meaningless. Your information is basically advertising, as you’re in business, and business is about selling something. So the real purpose of your site is to make that advertising message worth listening, and for that, you need to turn it into content.
To twist advertising into content you have to accept that sales take time. You have to be patient. You can’t hurry a sale, you first should build confidence; start thinking of selling as a courtship.
3. Web-Audience Response needs Courtship
No one makes a substantial financial commitment without getting some level of comfort with you and what you do, and that require some repeated contact: a courtship.
There lies the similarity and difference between websites and television. The achievement of a television program is based on habituation. If you catch people to tune-in every week, at the same time to see their preferred program, you would be able to keep delivering your marketing message throughout the commercials that pay for the content. In the same way, if you can make your site interesting through the compelling presentation of content, you get visitors, each time gaining confidence and admiration for what you do and sell.
The difference is people admit television commercials as the price that they pay for free TV programming, but the same is not for the Web. People need free information on the Web, so the challenge for website owner is to turn their message into forceful programming that create habituation, just another form of courtship of potential clients.
4. Web-Audience Response also Demands Consistency
You hear the word strategy with little relevance to its exact meaning. Successful companies seldom change their strategies, which are the various methods used to apply strategy in order to secure the ultimate objectives.
Business has to be elastic and open-minded to adapt to an ever-changing business environment by regularly updating tactics, but strategy wants to be a constant, for implementing action. Staying on course requires confidence in the strategy with a watchful eye on the big picture.
Websites that are not anything more than brochures of product that anybody could purchase at the local mall is a tactic that delivers little significance to today’s Web-savvy consumer. The new multimedia communication-based Web requires new presentation tactics to successfully implement marketing strategy.
5. Web-Audience Response Demands hope
Successful marketing is, about creating a series of deliverable expectations.
If you are expecting a product to be easy to use since that’s what the marketing communication states, then it is easy to use. Effective marketing presentation not only prompts action but they create a set of realistic, deliverable expectations.
Ask yourself, why people suspect politicians, car salesmen, and telemarketers? We know the answer: many would say, and promise, about anything to get your vote, and the result is a disgruntled, cynical voter or customer.
6. Web-Audience reaction Demands Trust
When customers’ expectations are met, you create trust, and it is one of the hardest things to attain on a website that lack human connection to the audience.
I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve visited make no effort to civilize their presentations, and consequently their businesses. When you leave for a contact page all that’s there is a form to fill-in, with no contact information, it says to people, ‘I actually can’t be bothered talking to you.’ Hiding behind email tells public not to trust you, and if they don’t believe you, they are not going to do business with you.
Business is about linking to people. If your website is not having some kind of human element like a video Web-host, audio message, or contact name, how could you expect to connect and build confidence, and trust in your intention to satisfy their needs?
7. Web-Audience Response also Demands Personality
By building trust with your Web-audience you are building your brand and defining your personality. Here again we have dichotomy because personality is a human-based feature, so how can we create a personality and instill human characteristics into an lifeless entity like a business?
Corporate personality will not derive from a logo, packaging, or your site’s aesthetic qualities. It is the total of the collective experiences your audience has with your corporation. In the brick world, corporate personality is a product of dealing with people, receptionists, and telemarketers; in short personality is resultant from interaction with real human beings.
Well written website copy could help create personality as long as it is written in a characteristic human voice, but we know 70% of all website text is not read; people usually skip to bulleted points and captions. But the same material delivered by a genuine person either through Web-audio or video, delivers the marketing message in the memorable and compelling fashion, but it will also define the business personality and humanizes the website.
Two caveats are not people, and unless you could afford to employ the creators of the Simpsons to develop your animation, you better forget it; as well as, using yourself as a spokesperson or Web-host is an unsafe practice, and it speaks more to ego than to effective business development.
8. Web-Audience Response also Demands Motivation
At last your website should communicate content that excite and motivate people to do business with you. The ability isn’t about what you’re selling; it’s about how you are presenting it.Motivational speakers, whether in the field of business, personal coaching, entertainment or sports arenas, all convey a similar message; but the ones that really stimulate people to act, are the ones that know how to present their thoughts in a exciting and compelling manner. If you want to motivate your audience to respond, your presentation should be delivered by a real human being: a professional with attraction, charisma, and a distinctive character.
Optimizing Search Box Tips by adsence
I got these 5 tips from Adsense team about how to optimize Search Box for Adsense publisher… Following these tips on AdSense for content optimization our Sydney team presented a couple weeks back, now let’s see AdSense for search. As you might know, Google recently included Custom Search Engine into AdSense for search to offer additional customization options and enhanced targeting. Whether you have already implemented an AdSense in your site or you’re getting started with this feature, we suggest these five optimization tips:
1.Place your search boxes in observable locations.
Incorporate your search boxes in easy-to-find location, like under the header or in your left navigation. Keep the placement of your search boxes consistent in all your pages, so users would know where to look if they need any help finding something.
2.Insert two search boxes to content-rich pages.
For pages with more content or which need scrolling, try to place one search box at the top of the page and one more at the bottom. A box at the top will allow users to do a search immediately, and the box at the base will provide a search option to users who would have just completed reading your content. You could also track and compare the performance of both the boxes by making custom channels.
3.Host search results on your own site.
Inorder to keep users on your pages, you could host your search results and ads inside your individual pages. If users don’t find what they’re looking for in the search results, they’ll be able to navigate to other sections of your site with your site’s template. In addition, you can further incorporate your search results into your site by customizing the color of the results page.
4.Add a search box to your search results pages also.
Similar to 3, try to place a search boxes in your search results pages so that users could perform more searches from your site.
5.Customize your commercial locations.
Place your ads at the top and right side of your results pages. This provides added visibility, and our also tests have shown that these locations can develop monetization.
Once you’ve optimized where the search boxes are placed in your site, do not forget to try new targeting options like keyword refinement and vertical search. To generate AdSense for search code and gain advantage of these features, sign in and visit your AdSense Setup tab.