You hear so much talk about RSS these days on the Internet and in
the media. Everyone is acknowledging it’s importance in boosting
your site’s presence on the web. Not to mention how it can increase
your site’s traffic and ranking. But what exactly is RSS and how can
I actually use it on my site? Try these Five Easy Ways…

First, just what is RSS?

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. Basically, RSS allows
you to directly deliver your content to all interested parties…
don’t come to us; we will deliver the information to you or your website.

It syndicates your content. It lets you send updated headlines and
brief summaries to your subscribers. In a nutshell; it’s simply
a more efficient way to get your content ‘out there’.

Many people associate RSS with Blogs or Blogging because Blogs
are usually written in XML or RSS format (code like html) so that
these headlines and postings can be easily read and accessed.

RSS has been around for awhile but it really didn’t catch
on when users had to use RSS readers or aggregators but with
the increasing popularity of MyYahoo, the Firefox Browser
and Blogging…RSS is becoming: more popular, more accessible
and more mainstream.

That’s great –you say– but just how do I put the
stuff on my site!

If you’re wondering how to actually use RSS and Benefit from
it — Try these Five Easy Ways…

1. How do I Get My OWN RSS Feed?

First, you need to get an RSS Feed for your site. There are
several ways to do this. Let’s just stick with the easiest.
You can use a site like http://www.blogger.com and start a Blog on
your site’s topic or any topic that interests you.

Creating a blog with sites like Blogger (owned by Google)
or Bloglines (recently acquired by Ask Jeeves) is quick,
fast, and painless. Within minutes you can have your own blog
up and running.

This Blog will also supply you with an RSS Feed that you can
place on your site. Get a XML or RSS orange button and place
it on your site. Link it to your RSS Feed url – this is your
atom.xml link if you’re using Blogger.

You can also use a MyYahoo button so visitors can add your
feed to their MyYahoo. Each time a subscriber opens their
MyYahoo site; your RSS Feed will be updated.

You can also add ‘MyMsn’ and ‘Bloglines’ buttons on your site.
Plus others, give your visitors every opportunity to subscribe
to your RSS Feed or Blog, and you will see a marked increase in
visitors to your site.

Of course, you can also get your own blogging software and install
it on your site. For those who want to choose this route, it might
be helpful to check out this comprehensive comparison of the different
blogging software here:
http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm

2. How Do I Place Other RSS Feeds On My Site?

Have a cool RSS Feed from your favorite site and you want to
place that Feed’s content on your own site. How is it done?

It’s a lot easier than you think!

There are several ways, but we’ll again stick with the
easiest way. If you just want to place headlines on your
site – try a free service like http://www.feedburner.com and you
will get a headline animator. This will display the RSS feed’s
headlines with links to the content.

If you want to place other content from a feed on your site
- one of the easiest ways I found is to use this free site:
[http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/]

This site will generate the source code (html or javascript)
that you need to place into your webpages. It’s good because
it gives your code in several options: Javascript, Php file,
and Iframe.

Keep in mind that Search Engines cannot or don’t read
javascript so if you want this daily updated content to be
indexed please be aware of this.

Just take this code and add it your webpages where you
want this content to go.

3. How do I place MSN Search Results Directly on My Site?

MSN has come out with their Beta Program using RSS in their
search. You can now place RSS search results directly onto
your website. It can enrich your site with daily updated content.

And it’s quite simple to use; just add “&format=rss” at the end of the
URL in your MSN search engine query. For example, to get an RSS Feed for
‘tsunami relief’ you would use this url: http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=tsunami+relief&format=rss

4. How do I place Yahoo Results on my site?

In Yahoo the URL would be slightly different:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=tsunami+relief&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt

Of course, in both cases you can change ‘tsunami+relief’ with the keyword
or phrase of your choice to suit your website’s content.

Yahoo also has an RSS Search Directory here:
http://news.yahoo.com/rss

5. What are Tags? How can I use them on my site?

Tags are more or less keywords for blogs and you should
take advantage of them to bring targeted traffic to your
site or blog.

Tags have hit the radar lately because Technorati, which
indexes 4.5 million blogs, started sorting blog posts by
using tags.

They have created a folksonomy, drawing tags from
different sources, mainly Flickr.com which sorts or
groups pictures and from del.icio.us — where you
create a tag when you bookmark a page.

Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will
be recognized by Technorati as a tag.

If you want to create a ‘tag’ it’s very simple; just place
this code in your blog:

Computers
(remove asterisks in actual code)

and you will have created a tag for computers.

Conclusion

You have just discovered five easy ways to put RSS on your
website, but you have to implement this newly acquired information
in order to see any results. You don’t have to try all five — just
pick a few and put them on your site. Just take action and do it.

It’s fairly easy, and you will see the benefits of RSS
almost immediately. You will also see what all the fuss is
about!

Copyright © 2005 – Bizwaremagic.com

This article may be freely distributed if this resource

box stays attached.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: How Electric Pressure Cookers Work

So, you want to be in the Google Top Ten? Then this Seo Elite Review on the Top Ten things to avoid when designing and optimizing your website will ensure your website gets maximum exposure without incurring penalties. Seo Elite Experts Worldwide have graciously contributed to this Google top ten article and at this time agree that the following list of optimization no-no’s are valid at the time of writing.

Seo Elite Review To Title Tag Stuffing

Stuffing the title tag within your website code is possibly one of the quickest way to drop out of the Google top ten. Titles such as “Keyword Stuffing, Stuffing Keywords, keyword stuffings, keyword stuff” is simply not going to cut it in the eyes of Google, and with so many word repetitions is almost a guarantee of getting a Google demotion. This tends to happen when Google’s ’secret police’ suddenly throw up a red flag against your website’s structure and demote or in the worst case scenarios, totally ban your website for such practices. Our Seo Elite reviewers continually find this type of practice being utilized to try and influence the search engine algorithms. Seo Elite Advice – Title tag stuffing is a No-No !

Seo Elite Review of Image Alt Tags

There seems to be a prevalence these days to using the alt (alternative text) tag on images. Repeat a keyword phrase more than once within this alternative text and on more than three to four images in total for a page, and it is in our view a sure fire way to drop out of the Google top ten search results. For maximum benefits using the alt tag, the seo elite reviewers agreed to choose the initial four images within a page and add not only targeted keyword phrases but to take into account the new LSI algorithms. Seo Elite Advice – Image Alt Tag Stuffing is a No-No !

Seo Elite Review To Keyword Stuffing Within Website Content

Attempting to raise keyword density percentages by continually repeating keyword phrases within the content of your website will have a two fold effect. Firstly it will affect the flow of words to be read on the page by your visitors, and more times than not will just be a visual turn off. secondly it will drop your website like a stone from the Google top ten, even possibly sending your site back to the Google black hole. I personally find that a keyword density of between 1.5 and 2 percent is sufficient to beat your competitors in keyword density. Seo Elite Advice – Too High a Keyword Density is a No-No !

Seo Elite Review To Comment Tag Stuffing

Comment Tags are used to include design notes in the background source code when creating a website page. Comment tags are supposed to be used only for adding instructions or reminders to your html code; previously, these tags were used to artificially increase the keyword phrase count / proximity for targeted keyword phrases.

There was some time ago arguments that this comment tag stuffing technique worked, but it has always been a Black Hat SEO technique which could result in a drop out of the google top ten. These days this type of seo technique will not help your website, if anything it will either be ignored completely by Google or produce a negative search engine placement result. Seo Elite Advice – Comment tag stuffing is a No-No !

Seo Elite Review To Hidden Text

Text that is hidden from the view of website visitors by blending in the same colour text as the background colour was once, a very long time ago, a viable asset to building your website, these days it is generally regarded as the quickest way to see your website plummet out of the Google top ten and into oblivion. Seo Elite Advice – Hidden text is a resounding No-No !

Seo Elite Review To Reciprocal Linking

Linking to other websites has long been an effective way of gaining links back into your website. Reciprocal linking is where you have to give a link back in return for the privilege of linking to other websites. This in itself is a valid seo strategy, however, we have found that using this method exclusively to return links to your website can and does have a negative effect on being in the Google top ten search results. It is far better and more productive to use this strategy leniently, mixing in other methods of gaining one way back links into your website. Such strategies as article submission, directory submission and good old fashioned begging and pleading for a back link is more advantageous. Seo Elite Advice – Reciprocal linking on it’s own is a No-No !

Seo Elite Review To IP Addresses

Interlinking various website addresses (url’s) together that reside on one server (IP address) has long been a strategy used by webmasters to either attempt to get their websites indexed earlier or as a cheap way of getting back links into a site. Money of course plays a part as many people cannot afford the expense of more than one hosting account, especially when first starting out on their internet adventure. We have found that this type of strategy is totally worthless and will in no way help your website gain anything other than a swift exit from the Google top ten. Seo Elite Advice – Using one IP address for several websites and then interlinking them is a No-No !

Seo Elite Review To Buying Site Wide Links

Buying Links from websites is a quick way of getting your website noticed on the world wide web, however, buying site wide links such as footer or sidebar links across a website with over 100 pages has been found to be another way of dropping out of the google top ten. Currently it is unclear as to how the Google algorithms work out such a strategy and our Seo Elite Advice – Buying site wide links is a No-No !

Seo Elite Review To Link Relevance

Relevancy seems to be the ‘buzz’ word abounding the internet at this time, especially within the seo community. Gaining links back to your website solely from irrelevant web pages will not assist you in either getting your website to the Google top ten or even keeping it within the holy grail of search positions.

An example would be similar to this … Mr. Jones has a website relevant to ‘bread making’, Mr. Jones in his wisdom sets about gaining links back to his site from all and sundry. he finds that his back link count is increasing exponentially, however, all of these links are from off topic sites such a car mechanics, hairdressers, dog kennels etc. This scenario is one that will definitely in the long term not assist with his Google ranking. if anything Mr. Jones now finds himself in the depths of page 40 on Google with little or no prospect of ever gaining those Google top ten positions. Seo Elite Advice – Getting all your links from irrelevant websites is a definite No-No !

Seo Elite Review To Link Anchor Text

Anchor text is widely used by webmasters to add relevancy to their link text on websites. This can and does increase the keyword relevancy of any website wishing to rank well for a chosen keyword phrase. The major drawback to this type of strategy comes when the same link anchor text is used repeatedly across a large number of websites. We would suggest that you mix and match different keyword phrases into your anchor text links. This is again where the word relevancy comes into play and is far more advantageous to getting those Google top ten positions. Seo Elite Advice – using the same keyword phrase repeatedly in your anchor text is a No-No !

This article is by no means the final installment on ranking your website in the Google top ten, since search engine algorithms and resources are continuously evolving and refining. However, it is our intention to keep you informed of the most relevant information, we hope you have enjoyed our seo elite review of Google top ten no-no’s and that the information contained within assists you in gaining those top positions within the Google search results.

Author: David E. Edwards
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Wordpress plugin Guest Blogger

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Search Engines: A Brief History III. Web 2.0: The New Internet

IV. Web 2.0: The Technical Landscape

V. SEO Linking Strategy in Web 2.0

VI. Social Media Optimization: A Piece of the SEO Puzzle

VII. Usability vs. Searchability: The RIA Search Challenge

VIII. Googles Personalized Search: The End of Traditional SEO?

IX. Search Behavior R&D: Customized Engines and Long Tail Keywords

X. Conclusion

References

I. Introduction To those of us whose passion for the growth of the World Wide Web is exceeded only by the marketing possibilities that emerge from that growth, the Internet has become a playground for the imagination. There is a large number of marketers, however, who are fascinated by the Web but approach its marketing capabilities more out of necessity than lifestyle. The Internets capacity has advanced in so many areas in the past few years that marketers playing catch-up are at a significant disadvantage. Marketing directors and account managers with traditional media backgrounds need to expand their breadth of knowledge in order to make informed decisions in todays e-commerce. This article provides clarification surrounding the fairly recent buzzword Web 2.0 and focuses on the evolution and future of the search engine born occupation of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO and its implications are expanding so fast and in so many directions that it has never been more important for C level professionals and traditionally oriented marketers to fully understand the world of Internet search.

II. Search Engines: A Brief History When the first search engines began cataloging the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, obtaining a high rank on search engine results pages (SERP) was not particularly difficult or secretive. It was the webmasters who submitted URLs to the engines and communicated a pages relevancy to a keyword search through keyword meta tags in the HTML code. Early engines, like AltaVista, struggled with providing relevant search results because webmasters, who were paid on a cost-per-impression basis at the time, wrote inaccurate meta tags using high search volume keywords in order to increase visits to their websites.[1]

It was Google who finally answered the call for a more complex ranking algorithm that would greatly improve the relevancy of SERPs. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, invented the concept of PageRank, an algorithm which helps rank web pages based on the probability that a random person surfing the Internet will find a given page.[2] The PageRank algorithm assigns a numerical value to each web page by analyzing the quantity and quality of the pages that link back to a given page. Known as a backlink, each link represents a vote for the page it links to by the page on which the link appears. The significance of each vote depends on how relevant the page giving the link is to the page receiving the link, as well as the PageRank of the linking page.

Along with the changing search engines continually trying to provide more relevant search results to the user, the entire Web has been evolving to meet the needs of the massive Internet population. In conjunction with the growth of the Internet and the popularity of search, a unique profession known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was born. SEO tactics and skills have evolved alongside the changing Internet, but such changes have never been as significant as the most recent. We have entered into a second phase of the Internet, and as a result SEO is taking on a new face. This second generation of the Internet, often referred to as Web 2.0, has moved away from the old model based on static websites, clicks, and impressions and burst onto a cyber playing field built around communities, participation and open cooperation towards better products and services.[3] An unprecedented level of interaction between consumers, businesses, and interest groups exists in this new Web. Due to the existence of a new social presence, vehicles for driving organic traffic to ones website have expanded far beyond the major search engines. While obtaining high rankings on the major search engines is still an SEOs main objective, the means by which this positioning is achieved requires a much broader capacity for creativity than ever before. Many of these new tactics also provide additional avenues of incoming traffic, which has significantly expanded the big picture view of the SEO professional.

PDF version of SEO White Paper at http://www.bkv.com/search-engine-optimization.jsp

III. Web 2.0: The New Internet

Defining or labeling the new Internet is often met with a considerable amount of critique due to the expansive reach of such a description. There are so many different things that have changed about the Internet in the past several years; a concise definition is difficult to come by. In addition, the term Web 2.0, while perhaps the most accurate term, is typically scoffed at by the skeptical industry veteran who is wary of a vendor or brass employee attempting to sound Internet savvy. The World Wide Web has existed for almost twenty years. What is so significant about the changes in the last few years that distinguish the current Web as an upgrade from its previous omnipotent self? The simple answer to this question is you. Web 2.0 represents the users needs, hopes, and desires finally manifesting into a definable force of voluntary motivation.[4] The blogosphere, social networks, wikis, and other new forms of expression on the Internet have captured the Web population by harnessing their goals, skills, and interests onto a platform of collaborative creation and production. Websites are reflecting an up-to-the-minute common voice rather than a collection of static informational documents. The Web has never before experienced this level of effective interaction between its users, and that reason alone warrants its 2.0 designation.

Ease of self-expression, now apparent on the Internet through the popularity of websites like MySpace and YouTube, is generating massive amounts of original content. Critics of this tremendous increase in creativity and public opinion complain about the dilution of reliable quality content on the Internet. Many social networks, however, naturally weed out undesirable content, and promote popular, well referenced content to the top of searches. In Web 2.0, popular content emerges via a user-generated ranking system that determines the positioning of articles by the number of user votes they receive. This model was made most popular by Digg.com, which joins several community-based popularity websites like Slashdot.com and Reddit.com in providing a user-edited resource for finding news stories, blog entries and other websites. In Web 2.0, up-to-date, reliable content is produced by the editing abilities of the wiki. Wikipedia, the Internets user-written and -edited encyclopedia, boasts an accuracy level not far from the widely accepted Encyclopedia Britannica. In a study that compared forty-two science entries in both resources, Wikipedia had only four inaccuracies per entry compared to Britannicas three.[5]

Social network websites in the new Internet also have a way of allowing like-minded people to find each others favorite content through a system called social bookmarking. Del.icio.us.com is the most popular example of a social bookmarking website. This system of classification, known as folksonomy, involves users assigning labels, or tags, in the form of keywords, to content on the web. Through this collaborative form of tagging, web content becomes grouped by recognizable categories. Continuous tagging and creation of categories by users increases the contents ability to be searched by a wider range of people. This social phenomenon happens because stable patterns emerge in tag proportions [allowing] minority opinions [to] coexist alongside extremely popular ones without disrupting the nearly stable consensus choices made by many users.[6]

IV. Web 2.0: The Technical Landscape

Aside from the collaborative aspect of the new Internet, there is another reason the Web has earned its 2.0 upgrade. The users interaction, not with other users but with the interface of the Net itself, has changed significantly. Technical advancements in web navigation and design, as well as increased penetration of high-speed and broadband connection, make the new Web a foreign landscape compared to its older version. Web applications have continued to improve, providing a profoundly different user experience. The implementation of rich internet applications (RIA) is gaining ground. RIA technologies, such as Flash, Ajax and Java, are leading the Internet in the direction of a Web without web pages. Websites are traditionally made up of networks of static pages linked together by text in the form of the computer language HTML. These pages behave in a synchronous manner. That is, after the user clicks on a link, there is a short period while the server processes the input, in turn triggering the browser to download the requested page. RIAs operate in an asynchronous fashion, allowing response time to be much faster. RIAs increased responsiveness results from the following five factors: [8]

Information can be obtained from a server by anticipating certain user input.

The screen can be refreshed in pieces instead of all at once, eliminating the need for entirely different pages to load when navigating content.

More than one users input can be collected and validated before it is sent to the server.

Some responses to user input can take place without any server communication.

Certain processing that was once handled on the server end can be stored on the user desktop.

Growing implementation of RIA has important implications on search engines and optimizers alike.

V. SEO Linking Strategy in Web 2.0 The Blogosphere & RSS The common SEO adage continues to be valid in the 2.0 world: content is king. It is the content boundaries and means for dispatching content that have truly taken SEO to another level. Since the inception of the blogosphere a term that describes all blogs as a social network of public opinion rumblings of the peoples voice via the Internet have quickly risen to a powerful roar. Beginning in the form of an online diary in the mid 90s, the blog has since developed into a simple vehicle of communication for anyone who desires to send content across the Web. The dissemination of information through blogging has become so mainstream that one can find a blog from an authority source on virtually any topic. The blogosphere, centered on the concept of original content, has provided a link rich venue for the SEO to plan his or her linking strategy surrounding good content.

So what is good content, and what does it have to do with good linking strategy in Web 2.0? In this new era of the Internet, good content is viral. Whether this content is a written article, a homemade video or a podcast, if it grabs, provokes or tickles the user, it will travel, and it will travel fast. From the contents eye-view, the Internet has become much easier to navigate following the advent of Really Simple Syndication (RSS). RSS allows for a program called an aggregator (or feed reader) to notify users of new content added to a website, retrieve that new content, and present it to the user in an easy-to-use interface. RSS and blogging go hand-in-hand because of the constantly updating nature of the blog. As a result of RSS, people are discovering new content on the Internet, passing it along, and linking to it at an unprecedented rate.

Baiting the Link

The SEO practice of producing content in hopes that people will link to it from their own website is known as link baiting. Good link bait has the same qualities as good content. From a well written controversial article to a video clip of a bulldog on a skateboard, website owners will link to any and all content as long as it is interesting and catches peoples attention. There are no boundaries surrounding the types of content one can use to bait a link. In fact, the very name of a new kind of link baiting suggests an indefinable quality. This new link baiting tactic is called widget baiting. Nick Wilson, CEO and senior strategist of the social media market agency Clickinfluence, declared that the holy grail of linkbaiting in 2007 will be the widget.[9]

In reference to computers, a widget is an element of user interface that displays information or provides a specific way for a user to interact with an application. A widget could be a calendar, a stock ticker, a quote of the day, or an icon that collects the most popular YouTube videos. To get an idea of the limitless widget possibilities, check out Yahoo! Widgets (http://widgets.yahoo.com/). In its most basic form, a widget is a downloadable interactive virtual tool made up of simple bits of code that can easily be added to a webpage. When a widget is added to a webpage, if coded correctly, it will act as a crawlable link pointing back to its page of origin. These links can help to boost a site in the search engine rankings, but they also represent great potential for organic traffic.

Creating a popular widget could, in some cases, outweigh traffic from the major search engines. One example of traffic generated by a widget is a blog editor Firefox extension created by the professional blogging company, Performancing, that received close to half a million downloads when it was first released.[10] The brand awareness that widgets can promote has also made advertisers extremely enthusiastic. One would be hard pressed to find a better method of exposure than a logo attached to a button that sits in front of a users eyes daily.

VI. Social Media Optimization: A Piece of the SEO Puzzle

In this new age of the Internet, people have been quick to deviate from the title Search Engine Optimization when describing the organic promotion of a website. In August 2006, Rohit Bhargava, VP of Interactive Marketing for Ogilvy Public Relations, coined the phrase Social Media Optimization (SMO) and defined it as the following:

[The act of implementing] changes to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati), and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs.[11] On one hand, Bhargavas point is well taken. If the tasks one is performing to drive traffic to a website are not intended to do so by improving search engine rankings, but rather by building a presence in social networks, than perhaps SEO is not the appropriate definition of their occupation. There is no doubt that SEO has undergone, and will continue to undergo, a certain level of compartmentalization. As different areas of SEO continue to experience the growth of specialized services, such as blogging, widget baiting and social networking, the future SEO will spend a large part of his or her time moderating and collaborating with more outsourcing opportunities that are not, by themselves, SEO related. In the end, however, SEO is a sum of its parts, and from the perspective of a company looking to pay for SEO services, all methods of driving organic traffic will reside under the umbrella of Search Engine Optimization. Notwithstanding the new coinage, SMO is an important component of SEO in Web 2.0. An SEOs intention in a social network is to create the illusion of natural links that occur during the interaction that takes place on networks such as Kaboodle.com, MyBlogLogs.com and Flickr.com. It is these links that search engines value the most because they happen as a result of real interests, not paid or reciprocal contracts. These links often lead to spikes in traffic, which have been criticized for only providing unqualified visitors and using up bandwidth. While these spikes continue to be a topic of debate on SEO forums, traffic after the spike does typically return to a level higher than it was before. The more authentic the illusion of natural interaction created by the SEO, the better the results. SEO in Web 2.0 introduces a new skill set of creativity that was previously not present. The space for this creativity, which ties in with the above link baiting topic of quality content, is especially exciting for the SEO of the future. The possibilities for attracting genuine links and organic traffic are limited only by the SEOs imagination.

To read the last four sections of this white paper — Usability vs. Searchability: The RIA Search Challenge, Googles Personalized Search: The End of Traditional SEO?, Search Behavior R&D: Customized Engines and Long Tail Keywords, and the Conclusion — visit the following URL to download the PDF version of the paper: http://www.bkv.com/search-engine-optimization.jsp

References

[1] Doctorow, Cory, Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia. Version 1.3, 26 August 2001. http://www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm

[2] Brin, Sergey and Page, Larry, The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, Proceedings of the seventh international conference on World Wide Web 7, 1998, Pages: 107-117 [3] Tapscott, Don and Williams, Anthony D. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. London: Portfolio, 2006, Page: 19 [4] Tapscott, Don and Williams, Anthony D. Page: 68

[5] Tapscott, Don and Williams, Anthony D. Page: 75

[6] Golder, Scott A. Huberman, Bernardo A. “The Structure of Collaborative Tagging Systems.” Information Dynamics Lab, HP Labs. Aug. 18, 2005. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.DL/0508082. Cornell University Library. [8] Loosley, Chris. Rich Internet Applications: Design, Measurement, and Management Challenges. http://www.keynote.com/docs/whitepapers/RichInternet_5.pdf. Keynote Systems, 2006.[9] Wilson, Nick. 2007 Guide to Linkbaiting: The Year of Widgetbait? http://searchengineland.com/070118-074231.php. January 18, 2007. [10] Wilson, Nick. January 18, 2007

[11] Bhargava, Rohit. 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO). Influential Interactive Marketing blog. http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/5_rules_of_soci.html. August 10, 2006.

Author: Will Fleiss
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Pressure Cooker

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the art and science of making search engines rank your site high in the natural search results when someone types in a query. That’s the intent of SEO, however. Since SEO is still an emerging field, there is no “governing body”, and the rules sometimes change. A good SEO professional understands these changing rules, and knows how to properly apply them. A bad SEO specialist generally makes mistakes, or purposely tries to deceive the system to win “fake” high rankings.

It is not true that you have no control over what appears in the search engines. The content that you put on your site determines where you appear in the search engine results page (SERP). If your site is about “widgets”, you’re probably not going to appear in search results about “bus fares”. The most important thing you can do on the web is to represent yourself honestly. If your site is about “widgets”, and the content on your site talks about “widgets” then you’ll probably appear somewhere in the SERP for “widgets”. A good SEO professional can help you rank higher for “widgets”, among other well-researched, and relevant keywords.

What is the Difference Between a “Good” SEO Service, and a “Bad” One?

A bad (“blackhat”) SEO marketer is like a vendor walking down the street selling snake oil. You may think you’re getting a deal, but you can’t be sure of the consequences. A good SEO marketer is like a pharmacist. They have studied all the tried and true techniques to solve your problem and probably have a good idea of how to safely and effectively address your issue.

The Benefits of Hiring bad SEO:

• Your site could shoot straight to the top, ranking #1 for your keywords
• You could earn a few new customers quickly and make a quick buck
• The cost is far less than what your friends and competitors are paying for SEO

The Costs of Hiring bad SEO:

• When the search engines catch on, your site could be penalized (drastically downgraded) in the rankings, ending up worse than before
• Your site could be temporarily banned from the search engine (completely unfindable – expect 6-12 months)
• Your site could be permanently banned from the search engine (completely unfindable – for good)
• When any of the above occurs, there will be lost productivity from having to remove all the search engine spam from your site
• It could be hard to track down all the tricks the SEO marketer used to artificially boost the rankings, and therefore it could take a long time to get back into the results pages
• Once penalized or banned, you will lose all the potential customers you would have gained had it been done correctly
• A professional SEO consultant will probably have to be hired at additional cost to fix it and do the job right

Don’t believe it? In February 2006, BMW was given the Google Death Penalty for employing blackhat SEO practices. They presented a slick design to anyone with JavaScript, and showed everyone else (that means the search engines) a keyword-rich page. Showing one content to visitors and another to Google is a no-no. BMW Germany was banned from Google.

The Costs of Hiring Good SEO:

• The initial cost will be higher
• There will probably be an ongoing subscription fee
• The implementation time will be longer (for the site to rank high)
• There will be changes to the content of the actual site, and probably the structure, as well

The Benefits of Hiring Good SEO:

• Higher rankings overall
• The high rankings tend to stay there
• The keywords you are ranking high for are relevant to your organization and the people who are trying to find you
• It is more cost-effective in the long-term
• Future pages that you add the the site will be easier and faster to rank higher
• No blackout periods or customer loss because of penalty

What Is “Bad” SEO, and Why is it So Undesirable?

First, let’s examine some of the techniques available to the blackhat SEO marketer. Here are just a few:

• Doorway Pages: Many pages stuffed with keywords are placed on the web, and all link back to your site
• Cloaking: Showing one version of the site to visitors, and another to search engines.
• Dynamic Content: Not all dynamic content is bad; in fact, most is perfectly legitimate. But having the server generate large lists of keywords that change frequently is generally a bad idea.
• Scraping: Some sites visit high ranking sites, copy bits of the content that has the keyword they want, and post it on their site. This is a very good way to really annoy other websites.
• Hidden Text: Keywords on a page that are the same colour as the background, or that are hidden by CSS are a bad idea
• Setting up links pages that use the keyword-rich link text of other sites to gain ranking. This makes the link page appear to be more relevant for the desired keywords. This annoys not only the search engines, but also the visitors.
• Keyword Stuffing: Writing almost meaningless text in the site that is basically a long list of keywords. Responsible SEO will use keywords carefully in the text, but like all things, you can overdo it. Search engines appreciate good grammar.
• Overdoing RSS: Go ahead and syndicate large portions of your website. But syndicating all of your website may raise a flag. There are rumors suggesting that there might possibly be changes in the way Google indexes RSS in the future.
• Bait-and-Switch: Submitting the search-engine friendly page to the search engine, then after it’s indexed, uploading the “real” page. This is a very temporary boost in your rankings.
• Irrelevant Keywords: WHY would you promote the keyword “sex” on your site about “widgets”? Do you honestly think someone looking for “sex” will see your site and say, “oh wait a minute, I think I wanted a widget”? If you sell “widgets”, then promote “widgets”, so people who want to buy “widgets” can find your “widgets”.

Why do Search Engines Dislike All This?

Search engines are in the information business. Specifically, search engines provide helpful answers to questions. Sites which use these techniques dilute the relevancy and usefulness of the search engines. The search engine that allows their results to become irrelevant is useless and out of business. No-one will search that engine, no-one will click on their ads, no-one will want to buy or display their ads, and eventually no-one will want to invest in them. Search engines are protecting their investments and their future by ensuring the continuing relevancy and usefulness of their results.

How to Hire a Good SEO Professional

Let’s first look at some of the signs that indicate the possibility of a blackhat SEO marketer

• If you hear anything like “we guarantee top placement”, don’t hire them. A good SEO marketer cannot guarantee you a good ranking any more than your broker can guarantee you a great return. All they can do is a good job, or not.
• If the company representative talks to you about the advantages of Meta Tags, don’t hire them. Meta Tags are very obsolete in terms of search engine marketing (SEM).
• Get a list of previous clients and check their current site and rankings. If their rankings are now low, or if the client sites seem to have spammy content, or little content, don’t hire them.
• If first contact with the SEO company is made through an unsolicited phone call or email, be wary. Why? SEO is not an aggressive marketing technique. SEO is the art and science of providing people with what they were looking for anyway. It is fulfilling a need in response to a request about that need. In a sense, it is an entirely passive marketing technique, because it is only triggered when a person is actually seeking it. Be wary of search engine marketers that seem overly aggressive.

My personal pet peeve is the ones that call and announce that we are not at the top of the search engines but they can “help” us. Rest assured, we are listed at the top for every keyphrase we’ve ever really targeted. When they are informed that we are at the top, they start demanding to know which keywords we rank high for. Such valuable keyphrases should not be given away so cheaply. I politely hang up on these people.

These are a few signs of a good SEO marketer

• A good SEO marketer will insist on content changes to the website, and perhaps the structure of the site
• A good marketer will thoroughly research the keywords they are going to be targeting, making sure that the keywords or phrases are relevant to the people trying to find you
• They will generally provide you with regular reports, or at least suggest a strategy for collecting reporting data
• Good SEO marketers will probably charge an ongoing subscription fee. This is because the web is a growing, organic network, and web marketing is an ongoing process.
• Good SEO should be able to provide client names & sites from a few years ago that you can look up online. If you are unsure, then feel free to contact the owners of the site for a reference.

Life provides us with so few quick fixes. As in all things, hard work and dedication pay off, and those looking for the “quick buck” generally get it, and not much more. If you are serious about your online business, or the ongoing “findability” of your website, it is absolutely worth investing in long term strategies for search engine success. After all, search engines are not going away any time soon.

Author: Helen Overland
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital TV, HDTV, Satellite TV

Based on my experience in executing SEO projects for over half a decade, I am posting a blog entry which deals with the suggestions for a client working with any SEO professional or SEO firm for optimizing his website.

Have complete faith in SEO professional:

Once you finalize SEO professional or SEO Company, trust their skills. Also you need to trust their knowledge and experience. Do give them freehand to work on their methodology and indulge yourself in learning basics about their methodology and approach. You can discuss the blueprints they prepare for your website, in detail with them. This will help your SEO professional in gaining your confidence and also will help you in reaching a comfort level with your SEO professional.

Have reasonable / realistic expectations about your SEO project:
SEO can’t work miracles irrespective of their experience and past track record. Especially if the site is new, it may take months to really see traffic building up because of SEO work. So its quite unfair on your part to expect your website appearing in top 10 search results within a month of SEO work done. This is the reason why a good SEO professional DO NOT guarantees any results for the SEO job.

Be patient with the results and be realistic:
SEO is not a fuse wire which can trigger a chain reaction and your site will be bombarded with huge traffic in a matter of time. You need to be patient with SEO. It takes time to implement SEO as it’s a scientific approach and can be implemented after taking a series of steps, each requiring thorough analysis. The approach implemented by a SEO professional may take time to get indexed properly and it may take a little while to get appreciation by search engines in terms of rankings.

Work in detail with SEO and treat him as a partner:
You need to detail SEO about every minute thing related to functionality of your business so that he can come up with a decent research on keywords. Talk to him about the nature of business, customer behavior, product range, your competitors, target group / area. Based on the information provided by you, SEO can pick right sets of keywords and can boost your website rankings and get the right traffic.

Be ready to pay for quality work:
Choose a SEO professional / SEO company based on the track record. Once zero in on any professional based on the capabilities, then be ready to pay for the quality work which you expect from him. “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”. There are plenty of people who are ready to do SEO in a couple of hundred dollars. Their job is just to stuff keywords and create metas and they are done. So my advise is be cautious while picking SEO and be ready to pay for quality work as it is something which is going to bring in more MOOLAH to your business and your growth depends on this.

Do not hesitate taking an elementary class from SEO professional about SEO approaches and methodologies: Learn the basics of SEO from SEO professional working on your project. It takes little efforts but the reward is quite satisfying. You will not be in dark about the SEO progress and you will attain a comfort level with your SEO professional.

SEO is not a one time effort:
SEO is not doing a one time job and then sit and wait for the results. You can equate it with the regular marketing and sales efforts. You need to keep refining the approach based on the results which you get crawl after crawl. You need to measure finite parameters and make changes in your website / content / visuals accordingly so that you get better and better visibility. After the work is done, its about putting in time & efforts to sustain rankings and continue taking actions for improve rankings.

The success of your business does not depend entirely on SEO:
This is one of the most important points. Do not rely on SEO for generating more revenues and increasing your business reach among the potential buyers. A SEO can drive targeted traffic to your website, however he can not force visitors to buy from you whether its service or any product. The actual SALE entirely depends on your product line, service levels you offer, after sales service, product / service pricing and many other factors. So its unfair to hold SEO professional responsible if you are not getting desired jump in sales even after increase in traffic to your website.

Author: Singh Himanshu
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

The job of a Search Engine Optimizer, popularly referred to as an SEO helps the visitors to acquire the required information from the visited website. So, an SEO plays a major role as far as research and development are concerned. Both, the clients availing of the services of an SEO as well as the visitors to the website, many a times, prove to be too demanding for the Search Engine Optimizer. Well no pains, no gains. An SEO’s job seems to be based on this pattern rather too strictly.

The SEO’s Job vs. Sales

The SEO’s role is quite important not only for researching a particular subject or idea, but more so when it comes to sales. The Optimizer in the majority of the cases provides his services to help the visitors to the website research about the products of the company.

The products may vary from biscuits or other eatables to cosmetics to electronic devices including almost any saleable product, object, idea etc., that exists upon the earth. An SEO understands well that basically his job aims at optimizing the sales for the company. He would not like to displease the company or those who visit the company’s site. So, most of the SEOs prefer a little sentence at the bottom of the page to the effect that the visitor’s search results may vary from site to site. After all, an SEO, like any other professional prefers to play safe!

Expectations from an SEO vs. A Few Realities

As the company’s demands from an SEO are sometimes even unrealistic, he has to be extra smart (that of course, is different from being over smart). When it comes to selling a new product, the Search Engine Optimizer is not just asked to optimize the sales, in such specific cases, he has to initialize the sales for the new product first, more so if the business house happens to be a small one or a newly opened one.

If an SEO’s services are hired by a small or newly opened business, the Optimizer is expected to optimize the sales of the products (if they are new, then even to initialize the sales) so that the business comes closer to the big rivals and then gradually goes ahead of them. Now, anyone can understand the kind of expectations regarding the sales from an SEO. When the expectations are not met with (that may be the case sometimes), the resulting picture may be a sad one.

As if that is not enough, even the sales department of the company loves to transfer the major share of its responsibility to the shoulders of the SEO, once his services are hired. The department’s attitude, most of the times, sends the message across to the SEO, in no implicit terms that it is his responsibility to optimize the sales of the popular products, initialize and optimize the sales for new products and reinitialize the sales even for those that had previously failed in the market.

In other words, it is the SEO rather than the sales department who is expected to optimize and maintain the market. The Optimizer is left only with two options: either fulfill all the expectations or if he fails to do so even once, then provide an absolutely convincing explanation to the company that has hired his services.

SEO: Catering to the Clients’ Expectations

Though the contract letter as provided to the SEO clearly reads the terms and conditions related to the responsibilities and even ranking, traffic, ROI, and conversions etc., it is the result of the work that counts in the long run rather than the job profile as discussed in the contract letter.

An SEO’s Perception of His Job: Risk Factors

Thus a potentially existing, but not a very explicit (and hence not very frequently realized) risk factor is that most of the SEOs focus on executing the operations as specified in the contract letter rather than laying stress on the results. The result: the sales for the company for which an SEO’s services are hired are far from being optimized. In some cases, the SEO fails to maintain even the previously existing sales. It can even tell upon his professional relationships with the sales department of the company. Eventually, he may be sacked and replaced by another SEO, in most cases, a tried and tested one by one or more reputed or established companies. So focusing upon the result is the key factor for any SEO. He must focus on the TARGET.

Services Provided by An SEO: How Do the Clients Evaluate Them?

A large number of the companies hiring the services of an SEO are extremely conscious of their web ranking. Naturally, they want the ranking to shoot up faster when they hire an SEO. A sensible client would allow at least a reasonably period of time to the SEO as even a highly intelligent and professionally smart Search Engine Optimizer would require at least a little bit of time to increase the number of the visitors to the website of his client.

Even if the search engine is optimized making it several times more effective than it originally was, the improvement will catch the notice of the net surfers within a little time only. Given the time (a reasonable one, of course, and not an unusually longer span), the web ranking of the client’s site can be expected to shoot up the popularity charts.

Moreover, the requirements of the visitors to the website of the clients vary from time to time. Thus the SEO is expected to be on his toes all the time. Further, the phrases searched by the visitors most of the time would never be an all time favorite with the net surfers. They may change with the changing requirements of the surfers. Thus the client would obviously expect the SEO not only to make the web ranking go higher, but even to maintain it. Not a very easy job, indeed.

How Does Web Ranking Effect A Company’s Sales and An SEO’s Performance?

Though a smart SEO can employ a number of ways to make the web ranking shoot up, the point is that whether the people who visit the web site actually get converted into the customers buying the products of the company or not. So even if the SEO manages to attract a large number of visitors to the site of the company, what actually counts is whether they are the targeted visitors or not. The SEO must never forget that as far as the results of his work are concerned, the web ranking is to be used as a means to enhance the sales for the company. After all, it is for this purpose that the client has hired his services.

In some cases, a client’s website may already be enjoying an excellent web ranking, but a poor conversion rate. In such case, the SEO is expected even to a greater extent to focus upon the conversion rate. A greater chunk of the traffic visiting the site is to be converted into actual buyers of the products of the company. This is what the SEO is expected to achieve.

The Job of an SEO: A Few Tips

The SEO may suggest the clients to alter a few links in the SERPs i.e., the search engine result pages. It can make it easier for the visitors to the site to find what they are looking for? When a visitor himself/herself refers the site to other surfers, it counts. Because making the web ranking move up, it definitely increases the conversion rate.

Finally, the SEO must take care that the desired, if not higher, conversion rate is achieved within a specific time. Though there should be synergy between the client and the SEO and the required time should be allowed for achieving an excellent web ranking as well as conversion rate, the SEO must not forget that he cannot delay in producing results beyond a certain time period. He is fully responsible to make the client progress in the business as fast or even faster than expected by the client.

Finally, the SEO should be focusing on improving upon the sales for the company. After all, this is what that actually counts for the client. It is the result, the result and the RESULT ONLY that will matter in the long run, as already discussed in this article.

Author: Bibhash Sharma
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty tariff

Okay, you have a website setup to promote your books, music, and other products you wish to sell. With a bit of Internet savvy, you have created an attractive design to catch the Internet user’s eyes, and with your expertise on the subject at hand you are able to provide thoughtful, provoking content. You are confident your site is optimized for good search results, with a good saturation of keywords in your content. Your site is simple to navigate, fun to read, and yet informative enough to be highly regarded by engines. You are ready for the world!

Yet, you feel as though what you are doing is not enough. Perhaps you enjoy a steady increase in traffic through traditional online marketing means, occasional tweaking of metadata and e-mail advertising. Offline advertising is not in the budget right now, and you want to try other, cheaper alternative before delving into pay-per-click advertising. What else is there to do?

Have you considered creating an RSS feed for your website? If you are in the business of promoting and selling many products and services, having an RSS feed attached to your website may be beneficial in attracting new visitors to your website. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and it is a specific format for aggregating news and information to other websites and Internet users who read news through special aggregators, or readers.

Think of RSS as a distant cousin of the news tickers you see on your favorite 24-hour news or sports network. As new information is made public, the wires pick up the story and syndicate the content to interested third parties seeking information to distribute. An all-sports network, for example, would select only the most recent sports news from various syndicates to put on television. RSS works in a similar way.

Not sure how? Next time you log onto the Internet, take a look at your start up page, if you use My Yahoo or My MSN or anything similar. What do you see? Maybe you have updated news bytes from Associated Press or Reuters, daily comic strips, weather and horoscope, and so on. You know, of course, that such pages can be customized to show only what you want to see. If you’re interested only in entertainment news, you would adjust your page so you only receive movie gossip and reviews, and news from the top entertainment magazines, right? All of this information is syndicated, and your start up page acts as an aggregator, collecting only the relevant information you want it to collect and display.

Now, stay with me, because here’s the fun part: by creating an RSS feed, you can become a syndicate! Say you are a romance author and offer a series of passionate stories you know romance fans will love. You can create an RSS feed using news about your books and information related to writing, the romance genre, and the publishing industry to create usable content for aggregators. With proper promotion and distribution, users interested in romance novels can either add your feed to their private readers, or even their websites, thereby increasing your exposure. This in turn can increase traffic to your site, and account for more sales!

Sounds like something you want to do to further promote yourself on the Internet? If so, great! But if you are new to the concept of RSS and are not sure how to start, don’t fret. Once you learn the basic of creating and promoting an RSS feed, you will find it is as simple as creating a website. Here follows a basic step by step for creating a simple feed. Once you get the hang of RSS content and wish to work with something more advanced, a good instruction manual on Real Simple Syndication can help you achieve much more for your books, music, and products.

For now, though, let’s get the basics down pat.

1) Content

Before you even think about messing with RSS software or hand coding the proper markup language, you need to consider carefully the type of content you plan to use for your feed. Syndicated content in this context will differ from standard website content in that it needs to entice readers to click through to your website and buy your books or take advantage of your services. If you give too little, readers may not be interested enough to visit your site. Give too much, and readers may be overwhelmed, or think they don’t have to click your links.

Study RSS feeds that typify what you plan to distribute. Especially if you are trying to promote a book, a CD, or other items, you want to look at shopping RSS feeds in particular to see how they are executed. Think of your content as a 30-second commercial: depending upon the types of aggregators used to collect your feed data, users may see only a headline first, so think of one that grab attention. Use easy to understand language in your content: sharp, peppy and to the point. Emphasize the purchase links and any sales or discount incentives.

Some RSS aggregators accept code for images, so take advantage of that. Display your book or CD cover, a picture of your product, or your logo. For readers that don’t aggregate images, be sure to use the ALT option and describe the item.

Plan ahead for your feed. An RSS feed should be treated as a regular newswire. So if you feel you do not have enough content to necessitate a regular feed, consider supplemental information related to your site and map out when you plan to add new items to your feed. Once you have a working schedule, now you can into the work of creating your feed and having some real fun!

2) Creation

If you are completely new to the idea of RSS and have only moderate skills where website development is concerned, you can still build an attractive, effective feed for your site. Before you do, bear this one thing in mind:

An RSS feed is a file hosted on your server, identified by either a .rss or .xml suffix rather than the .html extension. Most updates to browsers will allow visitors to see the feed as it is supposed to look should a link to your feed be clicked. Don’t panic, however, if somebody clicks on your feed link and claims to see “gibberish.” They are likely seeing only the raw code.

Now that you are ready to create a feed, it is highly recommended to use software designed for this purpose. An Internet search for “RSS freeware” or “RSS software” will point you in the right direction. I personally use RSS Builder to create my feeds. It is user friendly and simple to install. As you learn more about RSS, you may want to test a few programs before deciding on one to use regularly.

Choose a name for your feed that is indicative of your products or site. The romance author may want to use romancenovels.rss or romancebooks.rss, while a freelance consultant may want to try consultingnews.rss. There’s no guarantee having such a name will boost search referrals, but to have a relevant keyword in the filename may help readers in their search for content to aggregate.

Check your RSS program to see if there are options to input metadata, or your feed’s description. This is important, as the metadata in a published feed helps RSS spiders determine the relevancy of your feed against various searches. As the Internet grows, so does the ability for search engines to mine things like blogs and feeds for data, so you want to be thorough in this respect. If the metadata options ask for a URL and an image logo, provide them.

Now, depending upon your program, you have the options to add and delete topics, set times for their publication, and to order them by appearance. This is the heart of the feed, where the information goes. If you approach this part of RSS creation as would with a weblog, you will find it remarkably simple.

Each topic is a new post. Depending upon the volume of news you wish to distribute, you can create new topics daily or several in a day. Don’t give away too much information in your posts. Enticing text should prompt readers to click through to your main site, where the action (and point of sale) is. Use keyword rich text to attract those spiders that mine data from RSS. As your catalog grows, as you write more books or take on new projects, you will have more material for your feed.

3) Distribution

Once you have a few entries in your feed, now you can upload your RSS file for readership and distribution. Depending upon the RSS building software you are using, you may be able to upload directly to your site using the software. Otherwise you may need to use an FTP program to do this.

Make sure you know your ID and password for your website, and make sure the file for the feed is correctly named with the .rss or .xml extension. Once it’s live on your site, check the file in an RSS aggregator or in a web browser that reads RSS to make sure it is working to your satisfaction. If so, congratulations! You have just published an RSS feed.

But, you are not finished yet. In order to help site visitors know that you have a feed you need to do things. First, you need to place links on your website indicating that you have a feed. You would do this the same way you would create a hyperlink to another URL. In the HREF anchor tag, indicate the full URL of your feed with a note saying “Subscribe to our RSS feed.” You may also want to use a small graphic to bring attention to your feed. Many sites use a small, orange rectangle with RSS or XML in white letters, to direct visitors to feeds.

To direct RSS aggregators and spiders to your feed, you will need to place a LINK REL tag in the HEAD section of your HTML code. It will look like this (just place carats before and after

link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”RSS” href=”Your RSS URL goes here”

This lets the spider know there is RSS content available.

4) Promote

Once your feed is active, you can actively promote it. A quick Internet search for “RSS Search Engines” will led you to many resources where you can submit your feed information. You would submit your feed the same way you would submit a website, just make sure to provide all necessary information.

In addition, you may want to consider some viral marketing of your feed. Include the feed URL in your e-mail signature, or contact other websites of relevant topics and let them know you have content for distribution in RSS. Websites similar to yours looking for material may wish to aggregate your feed and place the content on their sites. You, in turn, get free exposure and increase your chance for sales.

5) Ping

If you know where to look, there are websites and software available designed to notify, or “ping,” RSS directories and search engines when a feed is updated. This is believed to expedite the updating process on their end. The sooner they know new information is available, the sooner they will mine your feed for data. A quick Internet search for “RSS pinger” will lead you information on how to regularly notify users of updates to your feed. Some sources will let you notify several engines at once, and it can be a helpful tool in your promotion.

From writing content to publicizing your products, using RSS feeds to enhance your website can be very helpful in increasing exposure to your books and music, services and products. Syndicate your content and watch your site traffic, and sales, grow.

Author: Kathryn Lively
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Netbook, Tablets and Mobile Computing

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization, which is also known as SEO, is the process of increasing the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via organic or search results. The higher your company’s website ranks on Search Engine Result Page (SERP), the more searchers will visit your site.

As a marketing strategy for increasing site’s relevance, SEO consultants consider how search algorithms work and what people search for. A SEO process may involve a site’s coding and structure, content and copywriting, site presentation, as well as fixing other problems that will prevent search engines from indexing your company website. If your company’s website is not indexed by search engines, there will be no chance at all for your site to get high visibility rankings on search engines. Therefore, it is extremely important for businesses to take note of SEO and make sure that their websites are properly indexed by search engines.

The term “SEO” can also refer to “Search Engine Optimizer”. This is an industry term that refers to agencies and consultants that carry out search engine optimization process on behalf of their clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Every agency and consultant has their own SEO methodology; therefore they may use different methods to achieve high organic rankings for websites. In most cases, in order to have effective SEO, it may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics will be incorporated into website development and design. That is why almost all credible SEO agencies and consultants will first look at the design and back-end architecture of a website before starting any SEO process. This will ensure that SEO is carried out effectively.

Search Engine Optimization as a Marketing Strategy for Businesses

So how should businesses use SEO as a marketing strategy? The primary objective of implementing SEO to a company’s website is to drive targeted traffic to it. Eye tracking studies have shown that searchers scan a search result from top to bottom and left to right, looking for relevant results. Therefore, if your site is near the top of organic listings rankings (organic listings refer to the web results that are listed on the left hand side of the SERP), it will most likely increases the number of searchers who will visit your site.

A successful online marketing campaign may usually involve SEO, but it also consists of the use of paid advertising on search engines, building high quality websites to engage and persuade site visitors take action either through enquiries or online sales, setting up analytic programs to allow site owners to measure their successes and improving a site’s conversion rate.

Benefits of SEO for Businesses

Businesses can benefit from SEO in a lot of ways, be it to increase brand awareness, get sales leads or increase sales revenue. The following is a list of benefits that businesses can get from SEO:

Get more targeted traffic. SEO can increase the number of visitors to your site who are actively searching for your product or service.

Increase brand awareness. SEO can give your brand a high international profile. You can also use SEO to create brand awareness for any new service or product by optimizing related product/service key phrases to rank higher on search engines.

Marketing your brand 24/7. With SEO, your website will get exposure 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – without stopping.

Higher sales. As SEO brings you targeted traffic, it can mean increased sales of your product or service.

Long term positioning. Once a properly optimized & designed site is in place, rankings on organic listings should be consistent whereas the cost for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising is ongoing.

More value for dollars. Once your company’s website has achieved high organic rankings for various key phrases, you will not have to pay for each visit. Whereas for PPC Advertising, to enjoy high ranking visibility on search engines, you need to pay for each click or visit to your site.

However, to make sure that you have a successful SEO implementation, you need to make sure that your dedicated SEO agency abides to the guidelines of search engine when optimizing your site…

White Hat SEO VS Black Hat SEO

When it comes to SEO, there are 2 schools of thoughts – White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO. White hat SEO is techniques that search engines recommend as good practice and black hat SEO is those techniques that search engines do not approve of. For SEO consultants who practise white hat SEO, they tend to produce results that last a long time. Black hat SEO techniques may get a website to rank well initially, but the site will eventually be banned either temporary or permanently once search engines discover what they are doing.

So it is very important for you to know the best practices in the SEO industry and make sure that the SEO agency that is handling your account uses techniques that conform to the search engines’ guidelines and involves no deception.

White hat technique is generally summed up as creating content for users, not the search engines. The content that is created should be easily accessible to search engine spiders, rather than intending to trick the algorithms from its intended purpose. So, the general rule of thumb is to stay on the safe side by creating content that is relevant to your target audience. Search engines value relevancy – they will definitely want to rank a site higher their organic listings if the content on the site is what searchers are looking for.

Black hat technique usually involves techniques that attempt to improve rankings that are disapproved by search engines, or involve deception. One common black hat technique is to use hidden text, either as text coloured similar to the background of the website, or positioned off-screen. Another common technique known as cloaking is to load a different page depending on whether the page is accessed by a human or a search engine spider.

Search engines will penalize sites which use black hat techniques, either by reducing their organic rankings or even eliminating them from their database completely. This is a very costly mistake on the business point of view as you will lose out a lot of grounds as your competitors are enjoying free organic traffic from search engines due to their high rankings for major key phrases. One infamous example was in February 2006, whereby Google removed BMW Germany from its database for use of black hat methods. However, the company has quickly apologised and cleaned up the offending pages and were eventually restored to Google’s database.

Therefore, it is very important to make sure that your SEO agency is moving away from black hat methods. You will not want to be blacklisted by search engines which will translate into loss in sales and profits.

Keyword Research – The Key Factor to Successful SEO Implementation

Major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN Live and AOL get a lot of searches every day. Before you implement SEO to your website, you must know what key phrases or keywords your target audience is using to search for the product or service that you offer.

Whether you like it or not, there is a good chance that many people have never heard of your company. These people might be your customers, if only they can find you on search engines and buying from you. It is well accepted that building awareness is the first step to land a new customer. For example, when someone sees a TV advertisement about that new car, you hope that he or she is in the market for a car at the moment. However, relatively few people are in that situation at any one time. Majority of people who saw the TV advertisement have no interest in buying a car at the moment. But someday they will. So advertisers know that the messages – the model of the car and company name in their commercials will stick in viewers’ minds, who might remember the message later when they are ready to buy a car. It is the same for SEO.

Searchers might not know that your company offers a particular product or service unless they see your site listed on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Unless they see your listings, they will not think of you. Most of the time, searchers looking for a product or service for the first time might not be aware of any specific company or brand name as they are just gathering information. However, according to a research done by search marketing consultancy iProspect, more than 55 percent of searchers expect to see big brands listed at the top of search results. The same study also shows that over 66 percent of searchers believe that sites that are listed at the top of search results are the top companies in their field. So can you imagine how this affects your company’s brand awareness? If your company’s website is not listed at the top of search results, they will not see your company as a “big brand” in their mind. Therefore, it is extremely important for you to optimize keywords or key phrases that your target prospects will use to find the product or service that you are offering.

So what types of keywords or key phrases should you choose? Businesses should target keywords that are relevant to the content of their websites. Basically, keywords can be categorized into 3 types, which are: “Too Hot Keywords”, “Just Right Keywords”, and “Too Cold Keywords”. Too Hot keywords are single word search terms like “Aircon” and “Translation” which do not seem to be targeted enough to get conversions. These keywords usually bring in high search volume (which is naturally tempting to optimize) but the conversion may not be as ideal as targeting keywords which falls into the “Just Right” category. (For examples: Aircon Servicing, Translation Agency Singapore”) By optimizing those “Just Right” keywords, businesses can get more targeted traffic to their websites and increase the chance of conversions.

Choosing the right keywords is the real beginning of any SEO effort. After you have determined the right set of keywords to target, you can start the work of search engine optimization.

Why do you need to outsource SEO?

SEO is a very time-consuming process as continual fine-tuning and monitoring need to be done. Therefore, it is advisable for you to hire a search engine optimization agency to plan out the optimization plan for your company.

A professional SEO agency will look at your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. Once they start to optimize your website, they will provide recommendations and monitoring reports for you to know the progress of it.

Last but not least, in order to achieve successful optimization results, it is very important for your SEO agency to work closely with your website designer if you have your own IT department. This is because your company website needs to be both visually appealing and search engine friendly in order to achieve high organic rankings, as well as conversions.

Author: Cheow Yu Yuan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera News

The question comes up often. Many people have been burned by SEO Services, but many have also been rewarded by SEO Services. Like any business transaction or purchase you should only spend your money when you feel comfortable. Your comfort zone should pull from various dependencies, such as how well do you know this business, how long have you been doing business with this person or entity, what is your first impression, how do you personally feel about this person or entity ability to provide this service, and how well have you done your homework.

The truth about SEO services is that it is normally not hard work, but that doesn’t mean its easy. It still takes time, dedication, effort, strategy, technique, method, skill, and experience to perform quality SEO services. Anyone can use SEO services because it is within your reach to learn, but not everyone can apply sensible strategy to make SEO work. That is why SEO engineers are needed to accomplish the almost impossible, but the question is how do you know you are making the right choice and not overpaying for SEO services?

I can honestly say for the most part SEO service providers are on the up and up who want nothing more than to do professional business and provide quality SEO services. Identifying every shady SEO service may not be possible, but I have some recommended advice which should help anyone get a fair and quality rate for SEO services.

- Set yourself a “realistic” marketing budget and goal

- Shop around

- Don’t buy until you feel comfortable

- Remember “cheap does not always mean better”

- Ask for references / referrals / portfolio

- Verify references / referrals / portfolio

- Ask for statistical growth and progress reports

Set Yourself a Realistic Marketing Budget and Goal

This simply mean do not kid yourself and think you can pay $200 and overnight you will make thousands. Instead, create a budget depending on your marketing needs, competitive industry, projected outcome, and length of time. If you are looking for your website to rank in the Top 10 search engine result page for a particular keyword or keywords then expect to pay in the thousands, often times tens of thousands, for quality, professional, and reliable SEO services, almost always depending on the competitiveness of the keyword. If you want to rank in the top 10 for the keyword “Google”, this in most cases impossible, but I am sure there are some SEO companies who will accept the challenge, but will charge in the thousands if not millions to attempt this insane marketing goal.

Shop Around

Find the most appealing SEO services and compare those to other competitive SEO services. Don’t settle for “cheap” or “inexpensive”, but settle for “effective” and “strategy”. Anyone can do SEO work, but not everyone can improve results using SEO services. This is because, SEO is about technique and strategy. It’s not about just throwing thousands a links around the web and sitting back waiting for the explosion. Its actually a lot more complicated than that, as it is about having strategy, technique, and competitive edge. You must find SEO services which live by this principle and can offer you the strategic road map you need for success.

Don’t Buy Until You Feel Comfortable

You should always feel comfortable with entrusting your money into an SEO service provider paws. If you have special needs such as you want to sign a contract, you want a specific pay schedule, or you have any questions, make sure you get answers and are comfortable with the projected outcome then move forward. I personally suggest getting a contract which outlines the projected outcome and any other bullet points, then also exploring the consequences or possibilities if the projected outcome is not met.

Remember “Cheap Does Not Always Mean Better”

This is a buyer beware notice. When someone offers $20 SEO services or even $200 SEO services, I would say “buyer beware”. There may be a handful of highly skilled SEO providers who can offer you SEO services at a discount or for extremely low rates, but most of the time these providers either do not know their service worth or know exactly what they are doing, but may have had a lucky streak. You will have to pay top dollar or aggressively, yet still affordable for quality, strategic, and experienced SEO services. SEO engineers is what I like to call them. These are SEO’s who understand the SEO concept, who pioneer SEO methods, and who don’t always follow the trend, but know the trends.

Most of the SEO engineers are not going to be cheap, but well worth every dollar spent. If you take into consideration other marketing and advertising platforms, such as television broadcast advertising, print advertising, large tradeshow/fair booth advertising, etc. internet marketing and search engine optimization cost peanuts compared to these other advertising methods and have a farther audience reach. SEO services can easily cost between $5,000-$25,000, it can even be much more than this, depending on your needs, but this is far more inexpensive and cheaper than other advertising platforms. So, next time you think that SEO service cost too much, think about the other methods of advertising and their rates, along with return on investment (ROI). SEO services come out on top every time when compared against these other advertising platforms.

Ask for References / Referrals / Portfolio

Any SEO service provider should be able to point you to their qualifying work. SEO service providers should be able to present you with affectionate websites which they have performed SEO work on. This can even be the SEO service provider personal website, they should be able to point you to their rankings in the search engine as well as some result driven SEO work within the site or across the web.

Verify References / Referrals / Portfolio

Verifying information is not always easy or accomplishable. You should attempt to reach out and verify what you can. If a shady SEO business was going to scam, then I am sure this is where they would start, with testimonials. I suggest verifying what you can, but don’t get overwhelmed with referrals because it may be the shady SEO business giving self praise. I actually have some good verification tips, but that’s another article all within itself.

Ask for Statistical Growth & Progress Reports

The SEO service campaign should include periodic progress/performance reports so you can track your website progress. Tracking your website progress is important in many ways. First, it tells if the SEO engineer is doing their job. Second, it tells you if the SEO methods, strategy, and technique is working or not. Third, it tells you how well the search engines are reciprocating your SEO efforts. And lastly, it tells you how much progress is being made and at what rate. All of this advanced reporting information and trend tracking can give you an overview of your website potential while giving you the opportunity to design or redesign your landing pages to increase your return on investment (ROI).

Okay, to wrap it up, just be sure you stay out of shabby internet neighborhoods and when making any online transaction, do your homework first. Also, remember “cheap does not equal better”. Think about it, would you rather pay in the thousands to one SEO company for quality SEO work, which will produce results and increase your website overall performance or would you rather pay cheap $200 to many different SEO’s who don’t ever really give you the results you deserve. If an SEO engineer can increase your website sales and exposure by 80% without your site ever reaching the top 10 search results then you still got a good deal. This is the effect of skilled and experienced SEO services. The only difference between your website and the websites in the top 10, is those websites have SEO engineers working for them who understand SEO.

Author: Ant Onaf
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty

Search engine optimization is one of the most discussed and controversial topics on the internet today. Also, it is one of the most misunderstood topics.

In its basic form, search engine optimization (SEO) is act of altering a web site so that it does well in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines.

Now even this quick to the point definition of search engine optimization (SEO) can lead to spirited debates about the meaning and purpose of SEO.

So the question maybe asked, why is SEO such a popular and controversial topic that causes so much debate within the SEO community and the general internet population particularly website owners? In my humble opinion there are 6 reasons why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has the popularity that it currently enjoys.

1. Targeted Website Traffic If you ask the vast majority of website owners and people within the SEO industry what is the most important factor to a successful website business and/or operation. A large percentage of the people will say website traffic and even more specifically targeted website traffic.

Currently on the internet, the largest resource for targeted website traffic on a continuous bases are search engines. On a yearly bases stats show that around 75% – 80% of all purchases made by individuals on the internet originally started as a result of a search at a search engine and the vast majority of people who visit websites usually come via way of a search engine. Numbers so dominate cannot be ignored even by the biggest opponents of search engine optimization. Moreover, because SEO is focused on optimizing websites for ranking success related to search engines, it is only natural that people would be interested in the field and practice of search engine optimization (SEO).

2. SEO Controversy Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most controversial topics concerning internet website operations. The proponents of SEO can say that it provides a viable method for websites to be seen in search engines which is important for any website desiring traffic on the internet today.

However, opponents disgusted with SEO can also say that many websites achieve high search engine visibility without the use of SEO work and that SEO professionals only provide guess work high cost services that provide no assurances for search engine ranking success.

This situation, which has some merit concerning the arguments on both sides, generates heated debates between proponents of SEO and SEO opponents on a continuous bases which is fought out on a daily bases on forums, blogs, websites and newsletters across the internet along with exposure in magazines and on TV.

Simply put controversy produces attention and whether you like it or hate it, SEO really does provide a great deal of controversy. Moreover, as long as search engines play a dominant role in generating targeted website traffic, SEO will continue to be a popular topic.

3. Money Search engine optimization is a multi million-dollar business. Search engines generate billions of dollars each year through advertising. Websites earn billions of dollars for their owners each year via using search engines either through paid advertisements or organic (free) listings in search results.

It is no wonder with billions of dollars on the table on a yearly bases that anything that can provide an individual or company a competitive edge in the ultra high pace internet world will be a hot topic for discussion and debate.

Moreover, through a combination of perception and reality that highlights search engine optimization as a key to increasing internet sales, search engine optimization is a very popular topic for decision makers within many companies which provides additional attention to SEO in the business world and beyond.

4. No Standard SEO Rules or Regulations Search engine optimization (SEO) can be described as a modern version of the wild wild west. Basically almost anything can be said or done because there are no formal set standards for the industry as a whole.

Therefore, in a true sense, no one is really right or wrong concerning any thoughts, comments or decisions concerning SEO techniques and/or methods. Right or wrong is replaced by what is considered ethical by individuals and everyone has a unique set of ethics. What one person might consider unethical someone else might consider completely honest, well intended assistance. This is why you have labels such as white hat and black hat SEO within the SEO industry.

5. Search Engines Search engine optimization was created as a by-product resulting from the development, utilization and popularity of search engines. Without search engines, there is no SEO industry in its current form and format.

As statistics on a yearly bases confirm, the majority of the targeted website traffic on the internet is generated directly or indirectly via search engines and a very high percentage of internet sales are directly linked to visitors coming from search engines looking for products and/or services.

With the dominant role that search engines play on the internet and the fact that the success of search engines depend on the ability to provide accurate and reliable search results to its visitors, successful search engines tend to develop an informal relationship with the SEO industry.

Whereby a certain amount of SEO work on websites tends to help search engines provide what its visitors are looking for which is top-notch search results.

For this reason, sometimes search engines will provide SEO information and SEO recommendations to its visitors directly on the search engines. This helps the SEO industry tremendously by placing the industry in the forefront of the main people that are interested in organic (free) search results which are the search engine users looking for something specific and the website owners who want to be found in the search engine results.

6. SEO Mystery Almost no SEO professionals will explain what they do regarding SEO work in detail. Some will provide a little SEO information, which is mainly done as marketing efforts for the SEO professionals in forums, blogs and newsletters. Even the e-books and books that are sold only explain SEO in a general nature. Search engine optimization (SEO) is truly a mystery to the average website owner and/or people interested in organic search engine rankings.

This mystery produces a high level of interest regarding the SEO industry and helps feed the popularity of search engine optimization (SEO).

Author: E Brown
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Excise Tax