SEO Basics - Don't Get Google Slapped

Trying to keep up with how Google works can be hard work and if you are new to this game, then it could be very frustrating, especially when the big G decides your site is no longer worthy of its position in the search engine rankings. The next thing you know all that free traffic you were getting is gone. You could be doing everything right as far as you know and then bang, that steady flow of traffic has turned into a trickle. Whether you had your SEO basics in perfect order or not, if you don't play by Google's rules then there is a good chance you'll get punished.

SEO Basics A Change is Going to Come

Google makes slight changes to the search and placement algorithms it uses all the time, this is to combat spam and to try to stop people playing the system. Another clever and I would say naturally accruing thing that holds back the spam sites is the fact that any changes you make to your site, like back links or the on-page SEO basics, can take a long time to register. If we placed a link on site-A linking back to our site then Google would have to crawl that page to see the new link and then calculate the importance of that link before making any changes to our sites/pages position. This could take months, so it makes it nearly impossible to measure. I read somewhere that Google looks at around one hundred different variables to determine where it places a page in the rankings. With these variables changing all the time, it makes it impossible to measure exactly what you're doing and the results it is producing. That being said, a few SEO basics have been proven to make a big difference time and time again.

SEO Basics Poor Quality Content

Why would any of Google's customers want to read poor quality content? Why would any of Google customers want to read (try to read) badly spun content? What would you do if you were searching for something and through Google and you landed on page where the content didn't make any sense? I would just hit the back button and look for something else. If I type something into Google, then I want Google to give me good quality relevant results not a load of spam garbage. This is exactly what Google strives to do and that is exactly what they were trying to achieve with the last major algorithm change.

SEO Basics Stick to the Rules

Back in the last week of February Google made one of the biggest changes to its search algorithms to date. If you were unfortunate enough to have bent the rules slightly with the quality of your content then your site or your articles may have been dropped in the search engine rankings or worse, disappeared completely. Some of the big article directory's were hit heavily and as a result they are now very strict on approving articles. Auto blogs, content farms and small websites with weak content were also hit hard. What can we learn from this? The first thing is, you should never have all your eggs in one basket and by that I mean; if the internet is your main source of income or you would like it to be, then spread out your business don't just rely on SEO and Google. Here are some of the rules to stick to, to make sure that no matter what Google does then you'll always have a good chance of staying in the big G's good books.

SEO Basics Rules for Keeping Google Happy

1. First and foremost, use your best content on your site and DON'T reproduce it anywhere else until it has been fully indexed on your site. Google doesn't punish duplicate content; it just won't show it in the search results. What I mean is, this article that you're reading now will get published, then once Google has indexed it can then be taken and published in an article directory. Google has already seen that this one was the original and so when someone searches for one of these keywords they will find this page and not the article in the directory. I will get visitors from the article directory though because they will find it surfing around the article directory. The main lesson here is writing the best content you can for your site, give you readers what they are looking for and not some rehashed garbage that doesn't make sense.

2. Make sure your site has all the Pages required for which you choose to monetizing your site. The main page to have is a privacy policy page and if you are selling affiliate products then you need to also have an affiliate disclosure page. A contact page will look good to Google as it proves that you not hiding from anyone.

Good quality, user-friendly, interesting content that your readers want to link to. Add to that some well-organized SEO basics and Google will love you for it.

I don't think many people even consider how Google works but when you think about what it is that search engines like Google are trying to achieve from a business point of view then it can make understanding Seo Basics a lot easier.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Ariadne_Webber

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6363042

The Best SEO is Social Bookmark Backlinking

Two of the most important things for a marketer that is serious about making money is making sure that their website is quickly indexed and that they rank well. You know that, which is why you are looking for ways to make it happen. You probably have wasted a lot of time on tactics that just haven't worked. Instead of wasting your time and losing money because your site is still sitting on a server somewhere not indexed or ranked it is time to learn the best SEO, with social bookmark backlinking.

Look the biggest problem with all of the advice you are getting from supposed gurus is that it is costing you money... and it isn't working. So not only are you losing money by not being indexed and ranked well, you are wasting the money you have on things that don't work. What if there were things you could do that wouldn't cost you a single penny?

You read that right, the best SEO tactics which have to do with social bookmark backlinking, won't cost you anything. Not only will you not have to spend a cent, these techniques will work. Your page will be indexed quickly and increase the traffic to your site. Social Bookmarking Backlinks is a program that shows you how to use the best SEO practices to make money.

This is one program that is going to help you get your site indexed in the matter of hours, yes hours. It will teach you how to avoid the infamous Google Sandpit and have your site skyrocket up the search engines. The step by step guide teaches you everything about social bookmark backlinking. You may be wondering why you need to know how to do this. The reasons are numerous but here are a big ones:

Effectively outsourcing your social bookmarking
Getting natural social bookmarks for pennies
Learn how to effective avoid any penalties for spamming the bookmarking sites and get hundreds of bookmarks at the same time.
Getting bookmarked on 50 social bookmarking sites for FREE

There are so many more reasons as to why you need to get the Social Bookmark Backlink program. Don't worry, you don't have to sit and read a long ebook to get this valuable information. The best SEO program comes on video, 12 videos actually. The videos are nicely broken into segments which will make it easier for you to review over and over again, as many times as you need to get the tactics down.

You start with an introduction and move at your own pace through each step from what Social Bookmarking is to why you need to do it. Look, you are in business to make money. Smart marketers know that the best way to make money is to use the best SEO techniques available and use them the right way... and it is even better if the tactics aren't going to cost them any money.

You won't be able to get your hands on this information anywhere else. If you really want to take your website to the next level, with better indexing and higher ranking... so that you are making real money you need to learn the best SEO tactics through Social Bookmark Backlinking.

To explore the secret of Social bookmarking backlinks visit http://www.socialbacklinksformula.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bennie_Ramos

How to Get Backlinks Using Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com, Delicious and Sphinn.com allow marketers or site owners, like you, to place bookmarks of your favorite sites on them, including your own sites, and it's all free. They've been known as one of the fastest ways to get a blog post ranked on the first pages of the top search engines, including Google. Imagine, with social bookmarking sites, you'll get backlinks to your website easily and have your site sitting on the first page of Google within just a few hours or so.

Basically, here's what's required of you: you sign up with your email and desired user name. Once you've signed up, you'll have an email sent to you (to the email address you provided) requesting that you verify that the information you provided is correct. Click on the link provided in the email, and you're ready to go. Remember, though, you'll have to do this for all of the major bookmarking sites to get numerous backlinks pointing to your website.

By now you should have signed up with many different bookmarking sites and are ready to get going. If your site is a Wordpress blog or similar, install a social bookmarking plugin like ShareIt or OnlyWire's Auto Posting Plugin. I recommend the latter as this will automatically post your new blog posts to the major social bookmarking sites for you.

If using the ShareIt plugin, go to your site and choose a post you want to get backlinks to. You should see a button or link that says "Share It" at the end of the post, click on it and you'll see a list of all the social bookmarking sites available. Then, visit each one and post a short sentence describing your post. Remember to insert your keywords and website URL so as to get the backlinks you're working for. Click the submit button once you feel happy enough about it, and you should get the backlinks pointing back to your website almost immediately.

If your site isn't a blog, you can still use this method to get backlinks, except that you'll find it more tedious. This means you'll either have to use social bookmarking software or use a site like socialmarker.com. Regardless, whether you choose to use this or the plugins described earlier, you can still rank high on the first pages of search engines building backlinks via social bookmarking.

Get Backlinks from high PR sites without social bookmarking or any of the other usual tedious tasks. For more internet marketing tips and resources, visit Alan Mater's Work From Home Resources blog.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alan_Mater

Optimizing Your Meta Tags for SEO

Meta tags are special HTML tags that do not modify the look of the webpage, but provide the search engines with information about the webpage. There are some attributes of the Meta tags that are super important and some that are not. You should include Meta tags on each and every page of your website, so that search engines can index those pages easier. Google does not require you to place Meta tags on your site, but some search engines will rank you higher if you do. While Google does account for over 60 percent of all search traffic on the internet, the other search engines still count for at least 40 percent. If you are looking for traffic, then every qualified visitor counts. It does not matter if a sale came from Google's traffic or Yahoo's. Also, why rely on just 60 percent when you can rely on closer to 100 percent, and Google will rank you slightly higher for having your Meta tags match your webpage's content.

Format of the Meta Tag

I will dissect a Meta tag and its attributes so that we can get a better understanding of what a Meta tags does for a website. If we look at the attributes of the Meta tag, then some may apply to the website and some may not. In order to make your Meta tags you need to decide what your page is about. It is not enough to just decide on a title. You need to pick keywords that best describe your content. Your keywords need to be descriptive of the content, or if you have not written the content yet, your content should be about the keywords. There are many aspects to keywords, and this part of your SEO could literally take months if you are not careful. For simplicity, I will give a quick method of choosing keywords. This is not in full detail, but it should help.

What is a Keyword?

Keywords are words or phrases that a searching party types into a search engine's search bar. If you did a search for golden eggs, then golden eggs would be the keyword. If you want to make sure you are writing articles that will be both useful to the reader and useful monetarily to you, then you need to do some keyword research. Simply go to the Google Keyword Research tool and type your keywords into the space provided. The results could be around 800 keywords, and you can manipulate the output for the desired information. You should look for keywords that have over 2000 global searches. Once you find a keyword that passes the global searches, then you need to click the keyword to do a Google search on them. You are searching these keywords to see the page ranks of the competing pages. You will need a tool bar to see the page ranks of the search results. A really good and free tool bar is made by SEO Book called the "SEO Toolbar." Just install the toolbar and you will be able to find a lot of the information you will need for your optimizations. Now when you do your searches on the keyword results in the Google Keyword Tool you will notice a lot of new information appended to some of the search results. That is information about the website's traffic, links and page rank. Just click the "?" next to the information you want and it should appear in its place. If the appended information is not there, then you simply open each page to see its page rank in the toolbar. SEO Book has extensive information about how to use their product, so I will limit my explanation. You are trying to find the page ranks of the top ten web pages that Google has on the keyword. If all ten pages are a page rank of 4 or higher and use the exact keyword in their content then you will want to find a less difficult keyword. There is a whole bunch more information on keyword research than this, but this will help you get started.

Here is some sample Meta tags:

< title >Optimizing Your Meta Tags for SEO< /title >

< meta name="description" content="Internet Marketing is easier to do if you plan for SEO. Optimizing your Meta tags for SEO can be confusing. " >

< meta name="author" content="Charles Ross" >

< meta name="copyright" content="Universal-Marketer Inc." >

< meta name="keyphrases" content="Internet Marketing, Optimizing your meta tags for SEO, Search Engine Optimization with Meta tags" >

The above is a group of five Meta tags that could be located in between the head tags on a page that hosts this article. Let us look at each one.

1. Title- This is the title that is in the top bar of the browser. You should try to fit your keywords in the title. You should limit your titles to around 64 or less characters in length. Keep it to the point. Do not try to just stuff words in the title.
2. Description- This is what people see under the hypertext results when they search for something. You should use your keywords in complete sentences to provide your description. This will allow you to prove to the reader that you have what they are looking for too. You want to keep your description to around 155 or less characters, and you want to use your keywords in them.
3. Author and Copyright- This is just to help protect your copyright, but it may also help with branding your name too. It is not necessary though.
4. Keyphrases- This is the plural of keywords. You will not want to put just one word keywords in your Meta tag, so you simply use the "keyphrases" attribute to allow you to place your keyword phrases into the Meta tag.

Those Meta tags are what I consider the most important, but there are some optional ones that may be of interest to you.

Examples of the optional ones to consider are:

< meta name="googlebot" content="follow,index" >

< meta name="robots" content="all" >

< meta name="revisit-after" content="1 days" >

Here is the listing for the above tags:

1. googlebot- This instructs the googlebot what to do when it reaches your site. You only use this if you just want to talk to the googlebot and not the other robots.
2. robots- This is the same as googlebot except it is for all the robots and crawlers not just Google's.
3. revisit-after- This is the frequency that you want the robots to crawl your site. If you are adding stuff daily then you want it to set "1 days" to the attribute. But if it you only add stuff weekly then "7 days" or "1 weeks" will do.

You will use these only if you want to tell the search engines what to do when they come to your website. If these tags are not used then the default is that the googlebot and robots tags are set to "all" and the "revisit-after" tag is set to 1 month or what ever the search engine has them set to.

There are still many more Meta tags you can use on your website, but the ones that I have provided will work in most cases. You can find the other Meta tags by doing a search for "full list Meta tags" or something of that nature. You should now be on your way to a good foundation for the SEO of your site.

Hello my name is Charles Ross. I am a full time internet marketer. I have been studying internet marketing off and on for years. I have seen many opportunities come and go right before my eyes. I have watched the internet grow into a teenager. I have sat on the side lines for far too long. I have decided it is time for me to seek out the truth, so I am dedicating my site Universal-Marketer to finding the Truth About Internet Marketing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_E._Ross

SEO Meta Tags Do Work

SEO or search engine optimization is an ongoing battle for all of us, as we fight to have our web pages get higher ranking in the big search engines like Bing, Yahoo and of course Google. But did you know there are a few things that you can do on your site to not only increase ranking, but also ensure the people searching will click your site.

At the top of any websites or blogs source code Meta Tags if written well can help drive targeted traffic to your site. There are two main tags that webmasters should make sure to utilize when creating new web pages or posts for their site. The first is the description tag, this is a short introduction to your website or blog that will be placed under the title of your web page or blog post whenever your site comes up in the search engines results for a key word or phrase. Even if you manage to get your site ranked well it is essential that both the title and description tags will ensure your website gets clicked.

The second tag of important is the key word tag, this tag let you place words or phrases held with in your pages. Due to a phrase know as key word stuffing many search engines do not consider these tags as important as they did in the past but it can't hurt to add a few relevant words or phrases within this tag it may just help.

If you guys need any more information about getting links to your site or just want to make some extra cash online make sure to check out my site. http://www.howtomakerealmoneyonline.org

SEO Basics - Link Building

After the role of content in SEO, it is now time to focus on the other equally important SEO tactics. The second most important strategy is link building. As the name suggests, link building is all about building back links to your website. More the number of links to a website, the better it is considered to be by search engines. If you are new to the concept of link building, then here are a few pointers for you to get started.

What is link building?

Every website is rated by search engines using several parameters before it is listed on the results pages. The position at which the website is listed depends on a lot of factors and the number of quality links that come into the website is one of these factors. So, as part of search engine optimization, SEO experts will create a network of back links to your website using legitimate link building methods. This will help your website achieve a much stronger position in search results pages.

Illegitimate link building methods

When link building became one of the key factors affecting the position and ranking of a website in search results pages, then some 'smart' websites started to offer link exchange services. As the name suggests link exchange services worked by exchanging links. Website A would link to website B in exchange for a link back to A. This method worked initially and this prompted some people to go one step ahead and start link farming. A link farm is a huge database of one way links. When you join a link farm, your website will immediately get 10000 back links causing your ranking to surge.

When link farms came into the picture, the quality of search results started to suffer. Websites that had little or no relevance to the term searched for by the users started to gain top positions in search engines, courtesy these illegitimate SEO techniques. So, search engine developers went back to the drawing board and modified their search algorithms. Link farming is now considered to be spam and any website that participates or joins a link farm is banned for three years from leading search engines. So you see, you'll end up doing more harm than good.

Legitimate Link Building Methods

Alright, so how do you build back links using legitimate techniques? There are many ways to do it. But they all lead you back to the same old tried and tested method.

1. Build a quality website: There is no denying the fact that quality always helps. If you have a superbly designed website or have the best content in the website, then other webmasters will automatically link to your website.
2. Article Marketing: Most people undermine the effectiveness of Article marketing. But for me, it is the most powerful form of free internet marketing. You write articles or get them written by a content writer and then distribute it over the internet. Everybody needs quality content on their website and when they get it for free, they will never hesitate to give you a link back to your website. Do ensure that the resource box at the end of the article contains a link back to your website.
3. Forums: Once again, you can do this yourself with a fair amount of ease or hire a professional who can do it for you. Online forums are like a professional beehive seeming with contacts. All that you have to do is start interacting with people. So how do you build the links? Well, the forum board will let you create your own signature which will show up at the bottom of every post that you make. This signature can contain a coupe of lines about you or your business and a link to your website. Start making quality posts and you will have quality links building up.
4. Blog: If you don't know what a blog is, then you have probably woken up after a decade in suspended animation or were away hibernating in a cave. Nevertheless, a blog is one of the best ways to build back links. Keep updating the blog frequently and you will have a network of links in some time.

The key is to build quality links from quality websites. Remember, the link popularity of the website that is linking to your website also matters. So accept incoming links only from quality websites that will help you.

Sanjay is a freelance content writer. He likes to twiddle around with words and ends up weaving out readable, compelling articles ! To peek into his world of articles, visit http://www.sanjaynair.com now!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sanjay_Nair

Optimizing Your Site For Better Search Engine Ranking

SEO is the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines.

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. Another class of techniques, known as black hat or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Some search engines have also reached out to the industry, and are frequent sponsors and guests at SEO conferences and seminars.

Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. You should never have to link to an searche engine. Avoid marketers that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. Some marketers may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.

The objective of Search Engine Optimization is to increase web visitor counts by ranking very high in the organic results of searches using the most appropriate keywords describing the content of your site.

Search engine can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. They look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indexes.

Webmasters and content providers began optimizing sites for search engines in the mid-1990s, as the first search engines were cataloging the early Web. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves a combination of free website submissions and paid search engine listings, to ensure your website reaches customers using search engines to research purchase decisions. Search engines work for you non-stop 24/7. The answer is entirely dependent upon your web site's visibility amongst the search engines. The goal of web optimization is to create consistent and targeted traffic through search engines and directories to your web site. Search engine optimization is not just to rank in search engines but mainly to achieve a good click through rate from the targeted visitors. This means that your web site should come up in the search results of the search-engines with targeted keywords that are related to your content or theme of your site. If your web pages are dynamically created from the database, it's likely that many search engines have difficulty to crawl and index them. Disadvantage of dynamically created pages are that many search engines like Google for example don't like dynamically created pages because the crawlers might get in an infinite loop on your server if they follow dynamically created web pages with a query string in it.

SEO [http://www.domainhostinfo.com] helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.

Milan Stapar

For more information visit our site:- [http://www.domainhostinfo.com]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Milan_Stapar

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/990572

Page Rank Vs Alexa Rank - What Benefits Your Internet Business the Most?

In a world with just ten sites for the keyword "Hotel", there is no need to perform any ranking on any of the sites and return the results as such. But with millions of sites for a generic keyword like "Hotel", it is inevitable to come up with ranking algorithm to be fair to the good sites. There are several ranking schemes to rank a website, each having their criteria of ranking. So a web site developer should not be bamboozled by the numerous jargon and end up producing a messy site. Before developing a site, the developer must identify the precinct in which the site is going to fall and design the site according to that particular ranking scheme. So Alexa rank and page rank being the major ones, need to be analyzed to determine the way to go.

Alexa rank is a system where a site's rank is determined by the traffic received by a site by people with Alexa toolbar installed whereas page rank designed by Google is largely based on link building. A high amount of inbound links will increase the page rank although page rank is not solely based on links. It is influenced by other factors too like keywords. The exact number and kind of factors contributing to page rank still remain hazy. But it is largely based on links, keywords and tags.

A superficial glance would reveal that Alexa rank does not count the mass appeal of a website; rather it acts as a tool that ranks sites with more technical users. Alexa rank does not give the true rank a site deserves. This is because, it measures rank based on the traffic from users who have the Alexa toolbar installed. A normal web user may not install Alexa toolbar, or may not even know what it is. A site that is frequented by such users will be at disadvantage than a site that is frequented by webmaster and tech users, who know enough to install Alexa toolbar. So the former is ranked far lesser than the latter even if the number of users and credibility is higher.

Page rank is a comprehensive ranking algorithm that takes into account, not just that traffic it generates, but also the usability of the site. In other words, page rank takes the responsibility of increasing the traffic of a deserving website on its shoulder by listing it in the top search results. Page ranking is used as a gauge for professional link building services.

But this should not deter one from ignoring Alexa rank. Because Alexa rank, imperfect though it may be, is used by webmasters and commercial ad networks to determine the worth of a site and the Alexa rank fixes the price of advertisement on one's site.

If advertisement revenue holds the key to monetary gain from building the site then Alexa rank is the key factor that should be considered more important than page rank. But to all the others, page rank is still the best out there.

Bob D Williams has been involved in the seo field for over ten years. Working in various SEO services but specializing in link building services. And in search engine optimization, professional custom videos and more.

http://www.googlelinks.net
http://www.spike.cc/blog

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bob_D_Williams

The Importance of Your Site's Alexa Rank

Why is the Alexa ranking of your website or blog so important?

How reliable is the Alexa ranking system?

According to Alexa, they gather web traffic statistics from web surfers who have installed the Alexa Toolbar, or from website pages that display an Alexa Widget.

This means, that visitors to your site that do not have the Alexa Toolbar installed will not contribute to your ranking unless you address this by adding a simple to install graphical widget to your website's sidebar, header or footer. This way, when any of your sites pages are visited a request is made to Alexa's system to retrieve your site's current rank and at the same time Alexa will record the request as a qualified visit to your site and your Alexa rank will be adjusted accordingly.

All Alexa ranks are based on the preceding three months traffic data collected and an average trend rank is calculated when comparing this data against all other sites contained in the Alexa database.

The trend rank of any site is calculated according to the following criteria:

1. Reach - the percentage of global internet users who visited the site.

2. Pageviews - the percent of global pageviews the website received

3. Pageviews/user - a calculation of the pageviews per visitor to the site

4. Bounce rate - the percentage of visitors to the site that closed the site after visiting only a single page.

5. Time on site - an average calculation of the time spent on the site by each visitor

6. Search percentage - the percentage of visits to the site that were referred from a known search engine.

Alexa have recently stated that its toolbar has achieved over 10 million downloads worldwide, but I am unsure as to the duration this claim refers to. I am confident to assume that a very large percentage of toolbars will remain installed are being installed and therefore continue to contribute to the accuracy of the Alexa ranking system. But, this does however highlight the need for webmasters, who wish to gain the best rank possible, to install an Alexa widget on their sites.

Although not everyone in the web development industry believes that Alexa is a reliable popularity ranking system, Alexa (an Amazon company) remains at the forefront of the website ranking world and receives worldwide recognition of this. I recently searched Google with the keyword "website ranking", and the results were clear. It was Alexa.Com who was at the top of the search results.

In contrast to Google Pagerank systems, the lower a site's Alexa rank number, the higher the rank is. Google operate a system in reverse where a higher number indicates a higher rank. At the time of writing this article, Goole ranked no. 1 on Alexa's Top Sites list, closely followed by Facebook, Youtube and Yahoo.

But, with all this said, what does having a high Alexa rank do for your site?

Your site's rank is very important for recognition and website monetization. Many website flipping businesses use Alexa to assist when making a calculated decision regarding the financial potential of a website on the open market. There are also websites that provide website value estimations, and once again a website's Alexa rank is used when making their calculations. Businesses such as these feel that the Alexa rank to be a very useful tool in determining the overall popularity of a site and in turn the potential financial viability of the site.

A high rank could imply high traffic and this often attracts advertisers when looking for potential advertising space. For those looking to move into the affiliate marketing industry, a high rank is often required by product and service sellers before they allow membership to their affiliate programs. This way they feel confident that their products or services are being advertised by sites with good traffic and therefore a good reputation. Websites with lower ranks are often rejected.

Tracking the movement of a site's Alexa rank is a very important practice for any web developer or blog owner. By keeping a close eye on the movement of the rank in relation to changes made to the site, a web developer or blog owner can make informed judgements on the effectiveness of changes or additions to the site and then act accordingly. But Alexa.Com does not offer tracking facilities to any websites that are ranked over 100,000 and as a result the only way to track changes has been to visit Alexa.Com every day to obtain the results yourself and record them in your own way. Perhaps as a spreadsheet or in a note book. A Google search of the term "Track Alexa" can provide some great tools for doing this for you.

In conclusion, although a million or two Alexa toolbar users and Alexa widgets cannot give us an exact ranking on the popularity of every website currently being served to the world wide web, the information Alexa provides can give us a basic idea on the general traffic a site receives and where the traffic is mostly being referred from. Alexa rank is important to any website because it provides recognition, increases the potential of monetization and provides important information that will help web developers improve the quality of their sites by improving the sites visitor experience. So tracking your site's rank is exceptionally important.

Colin Cunningham
Founder of TrackAlexa.Com
http://www.trackalexa.com

TrackAlexa.Com - Track Alexa Ranks For Domains Ranked Over 100,000

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_J_Cunningham

SEO Basics - SEO Methods For Traffic Building

Read this article on SEO basics that can benefit any website owner regardless of location, service or product sold on the website, in enhancing the website's prominence on all major search engines for greater traffic building.

To begin with, SEO or Search Engine Optimization, is the combination of best industry practices for traffic building to websites or blogs by helping these be found easily on top search engines. However, many new website owners get intimidated by the number of SEO techniques floating on the web and fail to pick the effective elements of a good SEO campaign from all the hype generated by millions of Internet Marketers.

This article aims at simplifying SEO basics that any website owner can use for saving time, energy and funds for traffic building by helping them get a clear picture of SEO writing.

Now, whether you hire an experienced SEO writer for writing articles for your website or choose to do it yourself, the importance of these basic SEO tips as your best marketing tool cannot be emphasized enough. But, remember to use this strategy correctly if you desire long-term traffic results!

White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO overview

There is no need to sift through the complex SEO techniques out there if you hire a professional article writer who has a strong background in effective SEO writing and can provide you ethical, original and informative white hat SEO for your web traffic building efforts. However, the other kind - black hat SEO - a popular but unethical traffic building technique is deceptive and can cause adverse publicity and cause your website to be banned by the top search engines, so beware of article writers and SEO specialists offering you this type of service.

When hiring an article writer for applying SEO basics for developing relevant human traffic to your website, confirm use of white hat SEO methods, which follow the guidelines of major search engine guidelines since black hat techniques, such as using link farms, article spinning and keyword stuffing, etc. can cause you loss of your online reputation and your website too.

For best white hat strategies, consult with your chosen SEO article writer for proven techniques like unique content, proper density for best long tail keywords and keyword optimization, proper placement and checks for links and strong meta tags integration in your website promotion articles.
Finally, remember to continue applying proven SEO methods for traffic building on a regular basis, such as posting fresh, informative content relevant to your website on blogs, forums and top article directories so your search engine rankings as well as a steady stream of quality website traffic is assured ethically and effectively!

Hire Deepanjolie Figg, professional Article Writer and experienced Internet Marketing author at http://www.ewriterz.com for enhancing your business presence online.

Contact the best Ezine Article Writer today for high quality original articles across diverse genres!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Deepanjolie_Figg

What is Alexa Ranking, How Does It Affect You & How Do You Improve Your Ranking?

Alexa.com defines themselves as "the web information company," but to webmasters and bloggers, they are so much more. Essentially, Alexa is a company that measures web traffic on almost every website on the internet through their increasingly popular toolbar plugin. This becomes an important element in leveraging your blog's ranking as a sell point to advertisers, sponsors, buyers, readers and whoever else wants a piece of your material.

Why is this important? Alexa rankings can make or break your business.

Before you freak out, let me explain how this plays out. Essentially, the way Alexa.com is measuring your website's traffic is one of the most unfair surveys around. Why? Well they only record hits on your blog if it passes through their systems... meaning that your visitors need either the Alexa.com toolbar installed or you need to have a widget displayed on your website.

Advantage internet/technology bloggers. As a whole, the tech readership crew is much more likely to have an Alexa toolbar installed than your typical user. What this means for non-tech focused websites is that they are going to be seen as having less traffic than others.

So I have less traffic according to some company... who cares!?

You need to start caring about your Alexa.com ranking if you aren't already. As much as it pains me to say this, they have a monopoly over the sector. As advertisers move away from the unreliable "Google Pagerank" service, Alexa Ranking is the next logical sell point to move towards (and eventually destroy :D ).

Your Alexa ranking is used as a big factor in valuing the advertising space on your website by, I would say, about 85% of advertisers. A higher positioning means more money in your pocket. Alexa rankings are being used increasingly to leverage blogs, despite the fact that the numbers can be horrendously manipulated. More high paying reviews, better advertising offers, more press coverage, it is a must have.

What can you do to improve your ranking?

So you have a less-than-stellar rating, don't worry... you can improve and manipulate this pretty easily. Here are the top three things you should be doing, anything else is water under the bridge... so when you read a post "the top x ways to improve your Alexa ranking," they are making most of it up out of thin air.

1. Place an Alexa.com widget/plugin or chart on your website
2. Install the Alexa toolbar on your own computer and encourage your readers to do the same on their computers
3. Write popular content and get SEO optimized for traffic

Pretty self-explanatory, throw an Alexa widget up on your website. Why? This logs your visitors even if they don't have a toolbar. Essentially, this can make up for visitors not having toolbars of their own (though not entirely). I have heard reports of HUGE gains after installing an Alexa chart or widget. They offer them to you on the website for free, so you should be taking advantage of their offer.

Other than that, you need to have the traffic to push your ranking up, so keep writing interesting content that is dense with information so you get the search engine positioning and page views that you need. Your ranking is based on your last three months of traffic average traffic, so while my weekly average is currently under 100,000, I am registering a 273,000 Alexa ranking. This will take some time, so be patient and keep writing.

Alexa.com ranking is important, so you definitely shouldn't underestimate its influence on your earnings. Don't get freaked out if your rating isn't so hot, because there is more to life on the web than statistics alone. But if you simply don't care, you need to start caring because you are missing out on potential income by having a poor rank.

-The Net Fool

The author of this article is Jim "The Net Fool".

He is owner of theNetFool.com If you'd like to learn more about blogging, you can visit http://www.thenetfool.com You'll find all the information you need!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_R_Regan

Increase Google Page Rank And Alexa Page Rank

What is Google Page Rank?

Google Page Rank as Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, said it is an instrument designed to classify sites that are indexed by the Google search engine. Page rank can range from 0-10, 0 is the lowest score possible for a site, while 10 is the greatest. The bigger the page rank of a site with both receiving a greater number of visitors. A page rank grater then 2 is ok, page rank over 4 is excellent!

Ok, now you know what is Google Page Rank. But how exactly is it calculated?

Google uses a very complicated mathematical formula to determine the rank of a page.

When Google evaluates a site, taking into account several factors. The first is the general layout of the site and how is it complete. Google do not like sending the search engine to map incomplete websites, you should only send your site map when it is completely finished.

The second major factor is the use of keywords. Google favors sites with good use of keywords. They like a keyword density of 5-7%. Another important factor are the external links. Google loves when other sites send backlinks to your website. Another important factor is how often your site is updated. Google hates old sites, so be sure to update your site very often. All these factors are the basis of what is called Google Page Rank.

What is Alexa Rank?

Alexa rank ranges from 1 to 1 billion, or even more, depending on the number of existing sites. Each site found on the Internet is included in the Alexa network, so you're basically competing with everyone. The main goal is to have a rank as high (usually 1-700.000 is considered a good ranking). You can find your Alexa rank directly accessing Alexa.com and searching for your website.

How can I increase Google Page Rank?

The good thing about Google Page Rank is that it can be improved quite easily. Apply the following suggestions to improve your rank:

1. Create a site that is optimized for search engines. Your site should be full of quality content and your main keywords. Try to reach a keyword density of 3-5% and make sure that all keywords and content are in line with goal.

2. Use proper title and meta tags. One of the important factors in search engine optimization is the titles and meta tags. When you use them make sure the title is appropriate to your site and META tags are describing your site very well.

3. Submit your site map to Google. Do this only when the site is complete.

How can I increase Alexa rank?

To improve your Alexa rank you need to improve your traffic received by your site. There are many programs on the net who claim they can improve your Alexa rank, but generally they are not effective and may do more harm than good in terms of rank your site. Do not try to register your site to 300,000 search engines, it's the worst thing you can do!

There is a software called eMarketing Helper, with the help of this software you can increase your website rank on auto pilot, I suggest you should try it: http://www.emarketinghelper.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stoica_A_Bogdan

Google Sandbox for New Websites

Webmasters or blog owners spend their precious hours, days or months to build their web pages. They prepare their content, try to set an eye-catching design, struggle with possible software and hosting problems and finally make their pages ready for the exciting launch night. However, they confront a nightmare right after they launch their brand new web pages.

The mighty Google does not help them for traffic.

The right question to ask before getting frustrated is; "Have you heard of the Google Sandbox concept?"

It is called sandbox because your website is put in an area where you are isolated from others. If you are sent to sandbox, you can't compete with old and established ones till your lovely website proves itself. You need to play with other children and you will need time; you will need to grow before playing with adults. If you grow up and gain Google's trust, then you can rank well on SERPs.

Why is Google doing that Aging Delay?

It was first observed after the update in 2004. (By the way "Google Sandbox" is not an official term agreed by Google, it is called like that by the web community) Before that change, spam websites were using Google as a ground for earning easy money overnight. There were lots of abuse, spam was everywhere. Spammers were preparing websites with copy/paste, getting good rankings for competitive words quickly on SERPs, taking huge amounts of traffic easily and search engines were helping them a lot. At that time it was getting hard for search engine users to find quality websites because of this "earn easy money online" strategies.

So starting from that update, Google changed its algorithm and started to apply some filters to prevent this kind of tricky business. New websites no longer rank well easily on SERPs.

I should also mention that older websites are also sent to sandbox if they are penalized. That is a different topic and there are lots of differences between being in sandbox as a young website or an old website. This article is only about new websites and I will write another article about older websites in future. So you may ask "Am I penalized and sent to sandbox or am I waiting in sandbox because I am a newcomer?"

How can you understand that your new website is in Google Sandbox?

These are some symptoms if you have a new website and waiting in sandbox:

• Usually this sandbox filter affects new websites which are 0-12 months old.
• Most of the time this aging delay is for new registered domains. However in some cases it is observed that using older domains are also not a solution for this delay if its content and web pages are newly created.
• When you try "site:www.yourcutesite.com" in Google, your pages will be shown in the results. That means you are not banned totally, bots can visit and index your webpages. (Also give search engines some time for indexing your new pages; search their index after 1-2 weeks from website launch)
• When you look at your analytics programs or server logs, you will see that you are getting visitors from Google only with your brand or company name as search keywords.
• When you search for your targeted keywords in Google, your website won't be in SERPs or will be between 30th-50th pages.
• Other search engines might send you traffic with your targeted keywords. (Though you can read differently elsewhere, I believe Yahoo and Bing also started to use some similar filters in their algorithms for new websites, they are also fighting with spam, right?)
• Your website will not rank well for highly relevant keywords or even long tail less competitive keywords.

What can I do, how can I get out from sandbox?

You will not like my answers for this question. Essentially the solution is time. You need to wait, wait and wait. Most likely you will wait for 3 to 12 months after your website launch. This duration is changing with the competition on your targeted keywords. If you are planning to rank well in a competitive market, you will have to wait longer.

People say this kind of filter does not exist. But in my opinion every website passes through this kind of filter. Some stays very long in sandbox since they are aiming highly competitive markets. Some does not wait, even feel a sense of waiting since their targeted keywords are not so popular and challenging for ranking mechanism.

I know it is hard to wait but be patient. Use this time for your advantage. Don't ever use black hat SEO techniques. Just try to improve your content, do your white hat SEO work, increase your brand value with marketing, use social media to promote your pages. Avoiding this filter is impossible so don't believe in some tricky articles or videos.

My ultimate advice, always try climbing the hard path, it will be worth it.

Don't forget, it is just a probationary period to prevent spam. If you are planning some good business with your website or blog, you will be glad about this sort of filter in future. Because when you pass this "frustrating" time, when you start playing with adults, this filter also will protect you from spammy competitors.

Aykut Pehlivanoglu lives in Ankara, Turkey. He is Co-Founder and CEO of PB Bilisim since 2007. His company owns a website network which includes well-known ones like Gametator, Worth Of Web and Suggest Me Movie.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aykut_Pehlivanoglu

The Google Sandbox - What is it and Does it Really Exist?

The Google Sandbox is basically a time period that websites must wait in order to start ranking for high competitive keywords. It's a filter system that Google places on new websites which have little to no trust.

There are many theories on the internet regarding the Google sandbox as it's not entirely clear, however, we do know that some sort of filter system exists which lasts between 3 to 9 months (some claim even longer). This filter system will affect highly competitive keywords and will not show them in the SERPS.

It's important to mention that the sandbox affect is keyword related only and will not affect the whole site. It will affect the site if all of your keywords are highly competitive which require extra trust by Google in order to show the results in their SERPS.

Can I avoid the Google Sandbox?

I'm afraid this is not possible, Many people claim that doing this or that can reduce the chances of your site getting sandboxed. To avoid being sandboxed is never going to have a clear path. Some of the many claims are very useful to your website and rankings even if they will not actually get you out of the sandbox.

If there is a way to get out of the sandbox then you will need to:

Earn Google's trust - this is done by getting some high quality backlinks from sites such as dmoz - yahoo and other sites with high page rank including .gov and .edu domain.

Write quality content - write quality content so that it will become very popular - people will bookmark it - it will appear on delicious, flickr, and on many blogs. Google loves content and if you keep producing excellent content which gets syndicated and used by others then it should speed up the time your website spends in the sandbox.

Some people even say that by building backlinks slowly will also get the site out of the sandbox or avoid the sandbox altogether. To be honest this isn't a factor which will affect the sandbox.

What to do while I'm in the Sandbox?

To come out of the sandbox requires patience and no one knows this better then webmasters who have been in the sandbox for their competitive keywords. If you are in the sandbox then don't give up.

Keep promoting your website -when you get released from the sandbox filter you should have some great rankings.

Target long tail keywords - Remember that the sandbox only affects competitive keywords - optimize your articles to target long tail keywords - you will start to rank for them quickly.

Points to consider:

Being caught up in the sandbox filter is one of the worst experiences that any webmaster can have. The period ranges from 3 to 9 months - some people say that this period focuses on the site age and others say that it focuses on the age of backlinks. Either way when you get a new site make sure to start creating backlinks to it asap so that the backlinks can also age with the domain. A quality aged backlink has great power.

Remember to keep working on your optimization for the website as when you will come out of the sandbox you should benefit from great rankings.

If you have found this article useful then please feel free to bookmark it.

Big Seo Techniques is a UK based SEO company providing SEO services with many clients benefiting from page 1 rankings. Visit us today for a free website valuation and quote.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adam_R

Surviving Google's Aging Delay

Google has always been the search industry's innovator and that's just what Google's aging delay symbolizes, the evolution of search innovation... yet another significant step forward for Google.

Google's success as a search engine can undeniably be attributed to its ability to consistently return the most relevant search engine results. That's what kept the search giant on top of the pack and leading the multi-billion dollar search industry & that's what's going to keep them there!

Now that said, is it any wonder why Google incorporated the infamous aging delay into their ranking criterion? The simple truth is, Google's aging delay is a full frontal assault on artificial link inflation.

With the induction of multiple clever off-page reciprocal-linking strategies engineered to artificially inflate link popularity and PageRank, Googles aging delay wasn't only necessary and long overdue; it was the next logical step in the evolution of search.

The confusion and misunderstanding of the aging delay among site owners is nothing short of amazing. Many of my clients are confounded because their new sites are well positioned in Yahoo, MSN & the other large search engines while they're site is no where to be found in Google's search engine result's pages (SERPs)... except for perhaps on the most obscure search terms.

Current and unconfirmed speculation has been misplacing the blame on Google's 'sandbox' effect. While this is a possibility I believe it's also highly improbable.

The sandbox holding period is typically anywhere between 90 to 120 days, the aging delay appears to be much longer. I've seen new sites delayed for up to 6-8 months.

The premise of the sandbox delay theory suggests that new sites are being penalized for gaining too many links too fast. To date I haven't seen a scrap of evidence to support that claim.

The sandbox theory is further disproved by the fact that newer sites engaged in procuring relevant links experience the same delay in climbing Google's SERPs as other new sites utilizing scores of purchased text links. This lends credibility to my thought that new sites are not being penalized on the premise of acquisition or quantity of inbound links and; supports my theory that it's the reciprocated links that are being delayed by an aging filter.

It just doesn't seem 'reasonable' for Google to penalize sites for acquiring legitimate directory listings & building an optimized reciprocal link based network. In my opinion, mainstream SEOs are confusing the existing sandbox effect, with Google's new 'aging filter' that arrived on the search scene earlier this year.

It seems more likely that Google's aging filter is weighing the 'maturity' of inbound links and not the new site itself. Meaning that in addition to the traditional ranking criterion, the age of a sites inbound links are also now considered.

My own theory is that newly acquired inbound links are placed on a 'probationary' status until they've 'matured' before they're considered. For example, a new and relevant inbound PR 6 link would not be given the same weight or consideration as a 'grandfathered' PR 6 link until the aging delay expired.

By placing newly acquired links on a probationary period and delaying the ranking of newer sites Google has effectively offset the instant free ride to the top of their SERPs. Purchasing volumes of brokered links to that end is now a moot point. After all, your site will still be delayed regardless of the amount of links you purchase and you won't see any return on investment (ROI) for at least 6 - 8 months.

Existing Site owners interested in immediate (ROI) are now strongly motivated to build new pages or expand existing sites in order to avoid Googles lengthy aging delay. With the 'all-the-rage' mini-network strategy shifting to more of a long-term commitment it seems likely that's exactly what will happen!

Whether by clever design or not, the only alternative to riding out the aging delay that produces immediate results in Googles SERPs is to advertise through Google's AdWords Program. So it seems that Google's solution vis-à-vis the aging delay has turned out to be an excellent vehicle to promote Googles own AdWords Program as well. Hmm...

How do you survive Google's aging delay? By taking pro-active action!

I haven't seen any new sites with new domains appear at the top of Google's (SERPs) since early to mid 2004. I've consulted with and tracked many of my clients' new sites and despite the fact they have hundreds of #1 positions in Yahoo, Alta Vista, AllTheWeb & MSN for their keywords I've yet to see any remarkable results in Google until the 6 - 8 month period.

The trend I've noticed suggests that new sites are initially indexed; ranked accordingly in Google's SERPs for a week or so and then literally vanish from the SERPs for several months. In most cases they can't even be found with the most obscure search terms... including their own name and address.

If you're launching a new site don't panic. Once you've registered your domain name and configured the hosting, you should set up a few temporary pages. Obtain links to them from other sites in Google's index to start the aging delay count down. I recommend launching a site immediately with enough content to set up and facilitate the requirements for directory listings to start. The sooner Google is aware of your domain the better. Just don't hold your breath waiting to see results... It could be as long as 6 - 8 months!

Gauge your optimization efforts by where your site ranks in the other search engines. Provided you're not engaged in unethical practices and followed Google's Webmaster's guidelines this should give you a ballpark indication of where Google will rank your site after the aging delay, just be patient.

To that end, don't keep tweaking and changing your pages source code and trying to manipulate your rankings until your site has been in Google's index for at least 6 - 8 months. In other words, there's no need to reinvent the wheel here because it doesn't seem to matter what you do, your site will still be delayed regardless.

Don't keep submitting your pages to Google either! It won't make any difference.

Check your server logs to confirm Googlebots' crawl and then forget about it. Googlebot will find your site again if you're actively reciprocating links so your time would be better served building an optimized reciprocal link network to get your site out there and linked to as early as possible.

If traffic from Google is crucial to your marketing and promotion plan, and I don't know anyone who would argue otherwise... budget to run an AdWords campaign for a few months until the site is indexed and positioned. You might even consider running an Overture campaign as well!

If you purchase non-directory links, reallocate that budget to Adwords advertising.

It's pointless to purchase links when you can invest in an AdWords or Overture campaign. Purchasing links is an investment you won't see a red cent ROI for at least 6 - 8 months while an Adwords campaign will drive targeted traffic to your site that can convert immediately. Keep in mind that Lycos, HotBot, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Iwon, Netscape & Teoma also receive paid results from Google! MSN, AllTheWeb, AltaVista & Yahoo receives paid results from Overture.

Do other search engines have an aging delay?

Google provides primary search results to other search engines. It only seems reasonable to expect that your site may be delayed in Google's partner sites as well.

One-way you may be able to work around this, and I can't emphasize this enough; is to make sure you submit your site to DMOZ, the open source directory. Google, in addition to the other major engines, receives directory results directly from DMOZ.

Yahoo and its partner sites don't seem to be utilizing an aging delay, nor does MSN, so focusing your early efforts on these search engines might give you a competitive edge in the Yahoo network.

At the end of the day when it's all said and done surviving Google's aging delay is just a matter of time. The days of purchasing instant link popularity and PageRank are over and in due course you will see Google give your site the recognition it deserves.

Copyright 2005 Lawrence Deon

Lawrence Deon is a Search Engine Optimization/Marketing Consultant, Author and Developer of the popular search engine optimization and marketing model Ranking Your Way To The Bank. http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lawrence_Deon

Anchor Text: How Much Power Does It Have in SEO?

We all know the power an article may have in Search Engine Optimization but have you noticed the little aspects within the article that can make it more powerful? They are called anchor texts and you will know more about them and how to utilize them in this write-up.

Anchor text are the highlighted texts on the web page that link an online viewer to another site or page which is mostly the main page of the owner of the article. They are used to featuring the title and subject of the page and mind you, Google and other top search engines give importance on an anchor text that might come up along the way.

Anchor text consists of keywords that are related to your main page, these keywords are what people usually write that eventually lands on your site. And with relevant keywords with more clicks from online users, you are most likely to land on the top spot of high profile search engines.

One effective way in using anchor text is generating a keyword phrase in their anchor text. It must be relevant to the nature of your business or else, you will find it hard to rank on search engines with the irrelevant anchor page, or worst, you might be penalized by top search engines.

Moreover, in formulating such keyword phrase, think of what people will type to be able to land on your site. Anchor text will only serve as portal but they must have to be found out by users before they work.

Many people, especially newbies on the SEO industry, have their website name or URL put in a page or article as anchor text. It is OK, however, they are not that useful and search friendly.

Another mistake is that they usually use "click here" rather than using related keywords. Remember that it will always be effective to carefully generate right related keywords and use them as your anchor text to make it appear more professional.

In deciding what keywords you would use, also try researching what keyword phrase has the less competition with other keywords so you can dominate the search engine. After you have decided what keywords to use, then it is ok to start linking.

Without these, it will be hard for online marketers to send their viewers and prospect clients to their main page. Also, article marketing will not be that effective if people can't find the right service or goods they are looking for.

Just don't forget to explore a lot of possibilities since we are in today's internet realm that has no boundaries in discoveries. Don't hesitate to experiment as lessons from experience will be your best guideline in the SEO industry.

What if you can't get more website traffic? Here's a "secret snowball traffic system" that has generated over 1,175,000 visitors for my tiny websites. Click Here Now to get this free video that will show you how to make it happen for your sites. http://www.jasonnyback.com/ezine

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Nyback

SEO for Mobile Websites

Mobile websites are the new trend of the future. There are now so many cell phones in use that you would be missing out on a lot of traffic if you did not utilize these types of websites. These sites have their own search engines and need their own form of SEO or search engine optimization. Search engines for these sites are still quite new so this means that you must take a few steps to fully optimize your mobile website.

The first thing to do is to make sure that your site loads quickly and the content comes up correctly on a mobile phone. In order to do this you will need to make sure your content is optimized and be sure the files are as small as possible. Use all the usual SEO white hat tactics that you would use with a regular site. Be sure to insert the right HTML tags.

It is wise to make a mobile site map. You can do this at Google Webmaster Central. Here you will find some XML code to insert into your mobile websites which will help you to set this site map up. A key point to remember is to insert the HTML tag into the XML code. This will ensure that your site will get crawled by the mobile search engines. Read through Google's instructions carefully to get this right. Submit your site map to Google Webmasters.

Your domain name should be short and relevant. This will ensure that your site is remembered by visitors and indexed better. Try to use your main keyword for the domain name. Remember to submit your blogs to the mobile directories. This will help you to get noticed. Submit your mobile websites to the Google mobile site index. This is a little slow and will take about 2 weeks to be indexed. In the meantime try to submit blogs to the directories. It is important to do social networking SEO with your Mobile SEO as these two techniques go together and form a very powerful marketing tool.

There are many benefits of SEO for these sites. As mentioned with all the mobile phones and apps out there you will be drawing on a huge market. Mobile SEO ensures that you attract targeted people to your website. It is a little work at first but the extra traffic will be well worth it and once you have optimized your mobile websites you will not have to do it again. You should be on the lookout for new trends and techniques as this is a fairly new form of marketing.

John Ferrughelli is a founder and president of Potenture, a professional SEO company located in Roseland, New Jersey which specializes in search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click management, search engine marketing (SEM) website design and social media.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Ferrughelli

What Is Web 2.0 and What Are Some Web 2.0 Examples?

Web 2.0 is a term which you've likely heard before but may never have learned exactly what it refers to as I myself have heard it used in a number of different situations with different definitions tacked on to it.

Once considered a buzz term, the term Web 2.0 itself first surfaced 6 or so years ago when the way in which people used and were able to use the internet began to evolve and a number of sites in particular began to garner attention and popularity on the net.

The term can be used to describe this "second generation" of the internet which really took off in the middle of the last decade and is characterized as being decidedly more interactive, user centered, sharing friendly, and not least of all complex.

Web 2.0 Examples

Web 2.0 is best defined through examples, and you're likely familiar with most Web 2.0 examples I could give today because they're so engrained in our culture.

• Social Networks - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are all Web 2.0 examples as they all promote sharing, interactivity, and a personalized user experience.


• Blogs - This interactive blog site itself is a Web 2.0 example.


• Video/Image/Media Sharing Sites - Think YouTube or Flickr. These are sites which are made for sharing multimedia based content and are some of the best ranking sites around. YouTube, for example, is the number THREE ranking website on the internet according to Alexa.


• Wikipedia - Wikipedia is one of the quintessential Web 2.0 examples. This is a site where people can add their own information on topics for sharing with other people.


• Article Directories - EzineArticles, Go Articles, etc. These sites are known for sharing good informative content and despite taking a hit in the rankings through the Panda Update, these sites still rank very well and are taking steps to ensure they continue stay in Google's good graces every day by improving their quality.


• RSS Feeds - Website content syndication so that it's available in other contexts is another example in some circles.

Whereas the first generation of the internet was very one dimensional and a place more for reference than anything else (if anyone can remember back that far), this new generation of the internet is completely interactive, and ultimately the term Web 2.0 itself was simply implemented and popularized by those in the business of the internet/webmasters to note the substantial but otherwise unnoticed progression of the internet from one state to the next.

For a lot more Web 2.0 examples as well as dozens of other traffic sources to tap, click on this link for traffic sources.

OR you can sign up for my free 10 Day Fast Track Training Course which is a completely free email/video based course designed to teach anyone how to make serious money through affiliate marketing. Check out this video to see how quick and easy it is to make money in affiliate marketing when the path is laid out clearly right in front of you without costing you a dime.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_M_Ventura

Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Have you heard stories about legendary online entrepreneurs who hit it big after getting a #1 rank in several popular search engines? You probably wondered what it would take for you to achieve that elusive #1 spot in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in ensuring that your business gets the best possible search engine ranking, which can lead to increased sales for your online company.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization is the process of modifying web page content and meta-information to improve the search engine ranking of the page. Meta-information includes certain HTML tags (title, heading, emphasized text, keyword and description meta-tags), as well as the internal (links between pages on the same site) and external (links between pages on different sites) link structure of a web site.

Impact of High Search Engine Rank on Sales

Internet market research estimates that between 70% and 90% of online shoppers use search engines to find a specific product or service. Let's examine factors that influence sales to see how effective search engine optimization can boost your revenues.

Three metrics are required to forecast online sales: the average ticket, the conversion rate, and the amount of web site traffic:

* The average ticket is the amount of money spent by a customer on a typical transaction. Computer and electronics stores have high average tickets (hundreds or thousands of dollars), while bookstores have low average tickets (tens of dollars).

* Web Site traffic is measured by the number of site visitors, typically expressed as the number of page views per month.

* Conversion rate is the number of sales divided by the number of page views per month, expressed as a percentage.

Let's look at an example. The Ultimate Taupe Widget (UTW) store has an average ticket of $25, a conversion rate of 2%, and gets 5,000 page views per month. The estimated monthly sales are $2,500 ($25 average ticket * 0.02 conversion rate expressed as a decimal * 5,000 page views per month). Achieving a high search engine rank will increase the number of page views, and therefore increase sales. In this example, if traffic doubles to 10,000 page views a month, UTW's monthly sales should (approximately) double as well (to $5,000).

Keep in mind that a high search engine rank will produce a measurable increase in traffic only if there is significant marketplace interest in taupe widgets and your web site appears in the first thirty search engine results.

However, search engine optimization is not going to produce measurable results if there is very little demand for taupe widgets. The #1 spot in search engine result pages is not particularly impressive if only two people search for "taupe widgets" each month.
Role of Keywords in Search Engine Optimization

Keywords are words or phrases users provide to search engines to locate information. Search engines examine page content to determine whether a specific page is relevant for a particular search word or phrase. Thus, effective keyword selection is one of the cornerstones of search engine optimization.

Each keyword is characterized by supply (number of search engine result pages) and demand (number of searches). The easiest way to improve search engine rank is to select keywords that have favorable supply-demand characteristics; that is, ones with a relatively high demand and a relatively low supply. It is much more difficult to improve the search engine position of a page on a high supply, competitive keyword.

Good keywords must be relevant to your product line, as well as your line of business. A #1 rank for "navy widgets" is worthless if you sell taupe widgets exclusively. A potential customer will find your page, quickly discover that you don't sell any navy widgets, and promptly go elsewhere. In effect, the conversion rate for irrelevant search engine hits is very close to zero.

Using Keywords Effectively

Choosing a set of target keywords is the first step in search engine optimization. The second step is using them in the body, title, headings, and meta-tags of a page.

Include the target keywords in the text of the page. Don't overdo it, though --- the keywords should fit smoothly into the surrounding text. Search engines use several techniques to detect excessive keyword density, or too many keywords stuffed into very little supporting text, and will reduce the rank accordingly. A page has too many keywords if they interfere with the general flow of the text on a page and appear to be glaringly out of place

The title tag should contain information that describes the page. Unless you operate a multi-national conglomerate that is already a household name, your company's name is not a descriptive title. Most search engines use the title tag as the first line of your listing in the search engine result pages. Strive to make your title tag say "click me" to a prospective customer. "Superior taupe widgets - 50% off every day" is a good page title, while "Ultimate Taupe Widgets, Inc." is not.

Incorporate keywords into the headings on the page, as well as into emphasized sections (bold or large text). Even though search engines are de-emphasizing descriptive meta-tags, include keywords in them nevertheless. The description meta-tag should have an accurate description of your page, and the keywords meta-tag should contain a set of keywords (separated by commas) that list key concepts mentioned on the page.

Understanding the basics of search engine optimization is an important first step in creating an optimized, well-positioned web site.

Biana Babinsky shows you how to drive thousands of targeted visitors to your web site in her Step by Step Search Engine Optimization Special Report. Learn more about the report at http://avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zseo

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Biana_Babinsky

What Is Keyword Density And Why Is It Important?

When trying to optimize your website, you hear a lot about Keyword Density. It is a very important part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the process of getting your site a high rank on Google and similar search engines. This article will help you determine what Keyword Density is, and how you can use it to optimize your site for search engines.

Definition

Keyword Density just means what percentage of your content consists of your target keywords. So if you want someone to search Google for "dog grooming tips" to find your blog on dog grooming (for example), your main keyword would be "dog grooming tips". So if 18 out of 200 words in the main content on your website's homepage are part of the phrase "dog grooming tips", then you have a 9% keyword density.

Importance

Keywords help search engines like Google find your website based on people's searches. Continuing with the dog grooming example, when someone searches for "dog grooming tips", Google tries to find the most relevant pages. And how does it measure relevance? It is a combination of backlinks, which is a whole different ballgame (number of sites which have links to your site), and keyword matching. It uses the keywords in your main content to determine what your site is about. So if your site says "dog grooming tips" five times on the front page, Google is more likely to pick it up as a good result to show someone searching for "dog grooming tips".

What now?

Now that you understand Keyword Density, you should try to adhere to the following standard: keep it between 3% and 20%. It is important that your content contains your keyword at least a few times. If your content is 300 words (an appropriate length) and your keyword is the three-word phrase "dog grooming tips", you should mention that phrase at least 3 times and at most 20 times. But be sure to make sure your content is still readable - nobody is going to stay on your site if you just say "dog grooming tips dog grooming tips dog grooming tips" over and over! Your content needs to be readable and informative, but center around your keywords.

Get access to the best FREE SEO TOOLS on the web today! No registration required!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amanda_O

SEO Tips to Improve Your Rankings

I would like to share with you a few tips to make your site SEO friendly and to score better with no minimum SEO skills on your end. Positioning on search engines can rely exclusively but not wholly to a few critical factors known as onsite (internal SEO) and offsite (external SEO). Internal SEO can be all the content your website contains from navigation building, text, images, layout, structure and more) Below are a few factors that can help your site to score better with no minimum SEO skills on your end.

Keyword selection and research

Take all the time available to research for all your keywords and phrases to use for your SEO campaign; keywords that best describes your area of business, products/services you are trying to promote.

Amount of text per page

Search Engines love pages with a broad content. A website with a long text content and information is in a good chance to get a better ranking than a competitor website with poor content. It is best advised that you can increase your content and text up to 2000 words per page. Write as much as you can about your business, services and use at least 3-4 times the keywords that you are targeting.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is a combination of the number of times a keyword or a phrase appears on your page. The more times the keyword is repeated on your page, the more will its density will be. In a 100 word content, a keyword that repeats 6 times counts 6% in density. The less the density is means that search engine will ignore the term in a search on the particular keyword or phrase. It is best advised to keep your keyword density between 5-7%. Anything over can flag as spam, best known as keyword stuffing

Title and "Alt" Tags in images

When it comes to images used in your website, search engines do not have the ability to read images so it is very important to keep a clear and descriptive title on all your images used in your website, typically in a one sentence of 20-30 characters if possible.

Use text for navigation

As i previously said, search engines do not have the ability to read image content to your website. If your navigation menu consists of images for any reason, search engines will not be able to index the text used on images and it's links. It is best advised to build your navigation with text links instead of pictures.

Use a Breadcrumb Trail (Internal Navigation) for every page created

Breadcrumb Trail is a navigation aid that gives users a way to keep track of their location within a website. Using Breadcrumb trails on all pages is a clearcut, standardized way of backtracking from any page, back to the homepage or reversed. You follow the breadcrumb trail back home, so to speak. This is a great way of "explaining" your site structure to Google and other search engines. A breadcrumb Trail helps to keep your website well organized and structured to search engines

Choose a keyword rich domain to use for your website

Choosing a keyword rich domain related to your targeted keywords can be another significant and important tip to achieve better rankings on search engines. Search engines tend to trigger keywords used in your metatags (keywords,description,title) but also in your domain used for your website as well. Go and search for a term or keyword in Google or any other search engine and you will notice that some of your results are triggered exclusively on their domains used rather than their description and titles instead.

Header Tags

Header tags are heading tags in HTML that search engines pay critical attention to them. There are 6 predifined headings, ranging from to which tells a visitor and search engines the topic of the web page. It is best advised that you highlight your main titles and assign a header tag on each giving priority to your main title where H1 and H2 are the strongest and most significant header tags to use in SEO. It is also recommended that you use keywords in your headings for maximum visibility and exposure of your primary targeted keywords.

Avoid Hidden Text

Hidden text is when a text has a similar color to your background color and in result it is invisible to humans to see but visible to search spiders to read. Due to an increase use of hidden text by spammers to increase and boost their keyword triggers on a search, all major engines changed their policy when it comes to hidden text crawls. Consequently, the use of hidden text may result in banning your site from any search engine and should be avoided.

Andrew is an SEO expert and President of iTarget Media, an Orange County based SEO and Web Design Company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Kiriakos

How to Increase Page Rank and Build Link Popularity

Every website needs to have a high page rank in search engine results and to achieve this result; a website not only needs to contain good and creative content, but also needs to build link popularity. In any search engine submission, one of the most important factors is your link popularity, which may be achieved through directory submission.

The latest concept in the field of directory submission for increasing page ranking is bid directory. To increase traffic to your website, you can employ bid directories, which enables you to bid for a high page ranking in search engine submission. The entire concept of bid link directories has brought a new trend throughout the SEO industry.

The method is quite useful and the popularity if the link increases tremendously. But one has to be really careful and thoughtful while using the method of web directory. The major difference between traditional web directories and bid directories lies in the fact that, the earlier had listing criteria that used to involve listing date, alphabetical order etc. However, the latter gives lesser priority to the above mentioned points. To get a high position in page ranking one has to bid and the highest bid is located at the top.

The home page of the web directory consists of the highest bidding web links and thus, the benefit to any business website listed on the same is obvious. The advantages of bidding for a place in a web directory are:

o The search engines regard such websites which have a link from any other website to your home page much more. It shows that your website has been chosen by many. Another important feature to remember is that if the page rank of that website which connects to your home page is higher, then your web page's significance will automatically increase. Link popularity plays a major role in search engine submission and optimization.

o A bid directory has the upper hand from the web directory as many users may just follow the link and come to your web site. Better visible links always have higher bids. The traditional method of linking the links on the other hand is normally almost hidden in various categories, and their visibility diminishes.

In today's world which is constantly evolving and becoming competitive with each passing day, it's really important to have the upper hand in the competitive market. By employing bid link directories along with keyword search and article directories, one can actually increase page ranks and build link popularity.

http://www.sfive.org provides a complete detail of building link popularity and increasing page ranking.

For better information on SEO by page ranking and link popularity, visit the website http://www.sfive.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aunindita_Bhatia

Increase Page Rank with Three Simple SEO Techniques

Increasing your site's ranking in the search engines can dramatically increase the traffic coming to your website. Having your site rank in the top three slots for several highly searched key words can mean huge revenue for you. How did the top ranking spots get there? Is this something you can pay for? The webmasters who have the top ranking sites have worked hard to get there. They have kept up with SEO techniques and edged out over the competition every time.

The most important aspect of your website is content. Without informative content users will quickly exit your site and not come back. Having tons of quality content on your site's pages is a great way to develop visitor loyalty. By having returning visitors you will also increase your conversion rate because many people do not buy on their first visit. Content will get your pages ranked higher than similar pages with less quality content.

Once you have some good content on your site you will need to get some incoming links. Email other webmasters and ask if they would be willing to trade links. The more links your have coming to you from related sites the higher your page rank will be. Steer clear of link exchanges and link farms. These are being overused and the links you receive are usually worthless because those same sites link to thousands of others. Some search engines even penalize you for using these programs.

If your budget allows, pay for inclusion to a high page rank directory. I have heard stories of people who have gone from a PR 0 to a PR 5 in as little as two months just from getting listed in a high ranking directory. These directories also have lots of visitors so having a listing would also be good for increasing traffic to your web site.

Remember that increasing your site's page rank cannot be done overnight. It is a work in progress that will take a few months of hard work to get ranked highly. However, it is very much worth the effort. Imagine having hundreds if not thousands of visitors reaching your website every day due to organic search results. It is possible!

Want to learn how I draw large amounts of traffic to my websites?

I can show you the way! To start receiving your free information on how to get more web site traffic [http://www.6trafficsecrets.com] please visit [http://www.6trafficsecrets.com]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Holloway