I've always been a big time press release aficionado.

And up until recently I've steadfastly taken the low tech route by sending them out via snail-mail. Yeah, I'm a little old-fashioned when it comes to certain things. But long-time habits are hard to break when they produce great results.

Anyway, I was in the midst of launching a new piece of software August 2005. As I prepared to begin my press release prepatory ritual of labeling and stamping envelopes, it occurred to me that since it's the summertime, and people are always in and out on vacation, perhaps I should give online press releases a spin.

(Okay the REAL reason I wanted to try it is because I was feeling particularly lazy, and I didn't feel like labeling and stamping hundreds of envelopes. A girl has to get her mandatory poolside hours in before the leaves start falling.)

In the back of mind I kept thinking what a waste of time this online press releasething was going to be. But I decided that it couldn't hurt... I hoped.

I went through the web sites of around half a dozen press release distributors.

Major fixtures like PRNewswire didn't give me any toe curling experiences. The price washigh and they tend to deal with a lot of corporate press material. My software is geared towardsJoe and Jane Q. Public, so I didn't feel that it was going to be a compatible match.

There were a few press release distributors that specialized in software. And their prices werewell within my targeted range.

However I decided against them because most of the outlets they'd be mailing to weren't within my target audience. I could've compiled my own little media list for a lot cheaper.

But that wouldn't work either. I had a chaise lounge with a slowly fading butt imprint. I needed to fill it upagain - STAT. Compiling a list just wasn't in the cards.

That's when I arrived at PRWeb.com. I've known about this site for several years now. But I'venever given it much thought, as I really hadn't heard any super stellar reviews about it.

Now in case you're wondering, PRWeb distributes press releases in a variety of topical categories. You can submit your release for free. You can contribute up to $80 and get some extra perks. Oryou can use their $119 PRWeb Direct service, which gets your release in prestigious positions likeYahoo News and Google News.

I opted for the PRWeb Direct service figuring that's where I would get the best results.

I wrote my own release, submitted my order to PRWeb, then took out my Troll doll and rubbed himon the computer for good luck.

The next morning I got up and logged into my PRWeb account. They have a stat's program thattells you how many pageviews your press released has received, and I was curious to see whetherI'd gotten 5 or heaven forbid 20 clicks. (I'm such a pessimist at times!)

Well you could have pushed me over with a calm summer breeze after I saw those numbers. At7:30 am EST my press release already had 40,000+ pageviews. By the end of day, that numberhad surpassed 96,000.

Did that translate into thousands of dollars worth of software sales? Well actually, it didn't. But that press release wasn't my best work. It was good, but not great. Silly me.

However, I did get a nice little surprise.

Two days after the release I happened to be doing some searching on Google using one ofthe major keyphrases mentioned in my press release. Low and behold, there on page 1 wasmy press release holding it down in the #5 position.

A similar search at Yahoo showed the release in the #8 position.

The number of keyword optimized sites for my targeted phrase (which is "ebay seller software") is 24,100 at Yahoo, and 531 at Google. But that's irrelevant news to me.

The point here is...

#1 - My marketing message made it onto the coveted first page of Google for a nicely targeted phrase. No sandbox. No waiting for my brand, new site to get spidered.

#2 - My marketing message made it onto the coveted first page of Yahoo for a nicely targeted phrase.No trying to figure out Yahoo's algorithm, rhyme or reason.

#3 - The press release was delivering traffic to my web site BEFORE it even got listed inthe top 10 at Google and Yahoo. In fact, the release was featured on many different auctionresource and news sites.

PRWeb is what I like to call a Back Road tactic. It get's you a top 10 rank, without havingto go through the usual SEO channels. And it's probably some of the best traffic you can get,short of somebody clicking directly on your site.

There aren't many reliable and consistent Back Road's. This is only the second one I've comeacross that fancies both Google and Yahoo. So it's definitely worth taking advantage of.

So now back to my original question... Press Release + PRWeb = Top Google Rank... True or False?

True.

Now excuse me while I soak in the slowly diminishing rays of summer. PRWeb has got my back.

Alexis Dawes is the author of "Taking The Back Road To Get On Google's First Page" an electronic report that shows webmasters how to use intermediary web sites like PRWeb to get their marketing message top Google rank. She has been successfully using these tactics since November 2004. You can get more information at (http://www.Get-In-Google-Now.com).

In very simple words, the link popularity of your site meansthe amount of links coming to you from another sites.

Every major search engine heavily weighs the link popularityof sites when ranking sites. Some engines even claims theywon't index sites that don't have at least one link pointing tothem from another site.

Why they are doing that ? Just because zero popularity meansthat nobody has an interest related to your site content. Sincenobody is interested, why search engines should consider it ?From their point of view zero popularity is a time wasting.

Under the above circumstances, the link popularity of your sitebecomes very important to you, especially if you aim to earntraffic by indexing your site in search engines directories.

Let's see what you can do in order to increase the link popularity of your site. First of all you should concentrate on finding sites having a similar content to yours. This is the most important point of your campaign because all those links incoming from sites with similar theme will reinforce the credibility of your site.

Then you should act on the following three ways:
# Link exchanging.
Contact the owners asking for a link exchange.

# Sign in guestbooks.Many website are inviting visitors to sign in guestbooks. Go there and leave an appropriate comment and do not forget to add the link to your site. Take care what email address you'll provide, as many spammers are scroling guestbooks to collect addresses.

# Post in forums or message boards.A lot of webmasters have developed forums and message boardson their site. First read the terms of use. Most of the times you have to sign in and to provide an available email address. Then watch the sense of discussion and post an appropriate comment together with your link. Some forums do not accept links inside of your message but they accept signature files.

Valerian Dinca is the owner of the newest online business tutorial. Everything you need when you need it.

Bringing visitors to your site from the main Search engines is more of a process than one event. The first step is to make sure your webpages are'Search Engine friendly'. This process is also called 'Search Engine Optimization(SEO). You can begin by checking your keywords and making certain you have the appropriate balance in the main body of your webpage, and that these keywords are in your title as well. The title may be the most important area of your site to put your primary keywords or keyword phrases. Be sure that you do not try to target more than a few keywords or keyword phrases.

Meta tags, which are the invisible tags at the top of your html code, are of less importance nowadays. But you should probably include your keywords there nonetheless, as the tags are still used by some search engines when 'spidering' your site for inclusion in their database. When making your Alt tags for your images, be careful not to place too many keywords there as the search engines appear to be getting wise to this practice. This is often called "keyword stuffing and it is a shady or "black hat" seo practice. In severe cases it could possibly lead to your website being banned from the search index. Not a good thing. It is vitally important to have your site properly optimized before they are submitted to the primary search engines. Many individuals optimize each specific page for a different search engine, but I suggest that you focus on the biggest Search indexes like Google and Yahoo (which should not be confused with the Yahoo Directory, an entirely different entity although a part of the same portal). Some major Search Engines such as Lycos appear to be fading in relevence rather quickly so try to focus primarily on the big players for the time being. After the Title tag the next most important component of your site for putting keywords is in the body, the main part people see. As a general rule of thumb, you should have around six to seven hundred words in the body of your home page. A search engine optimization method that works well is to analyze the web pages that currently have a high ranking for your targeted keyword. Then find the ratio of keywords are in the document and then be sure your page has a similiar ratio. A good place to find more information in this regard is searchenginewatch.com.

When designing html pages, be sparing with java scripting and particularly flash, because certain search engine have difficulty reading it properly. Google even advises this in it's webmaster guidelines: "If fancy features such as [...] Flash keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site.". Whether the Search Engines recognize flash pages or not, you might decide not to use Flash regardless since many of your visitors may use slow connection and they will not necessarily be thrilled about waiting for your animated company logo to load. They may even be a tad upset about it. And then there are those who have yet to install a flash player. But If you are truly bent on using it then at try to at least provide links to other pages which have enouph text and keywords that the search engines can readily find.

On that note, also be wary of images when making your site map. If your site navigation employs image links, add text links so that search engines can find your pages. Another thing to be wary of in your site design is frames. Generally speaking, I advise agains them since the possible negative results seem to outweight the benefits. After you have optimized your html pages, the next step is to submit them. You can submit your web url by going to the "Add URL" pages of each search engine you want to be added to. It is probably best to do this yourself because each search index has it's own instructions. You can find detailed information about this at searchengineguide.com. In many instances you can simply submit the homepage (index.html) and the rest of the website will be spidered thereafter. Web directories such DMOZ, Yahoo, Joe Ant and Web World Index will ask for a description and possibly some other data, while many search engines (like Google or Alexa) only ask for your URL or a URL plus email contact info. If you do not have time to submit your site yourself, there are a number free automated submission sites which can help, although they may not be as effective. Addme and Submitit are popular. If you go to Google or Yahoo just type "free url submission" and a variety of these sites will come up in the search results.

For related articles go to articles go to Home Business Resources and find more useful tips.

Ryan Joseph is a writer/researcher. More info athttp://www.home-business-match.com/

At One Time Local Searches were reserved for services like City Guides and Online Yellow Pages. But the BIG 3 (Yahoo, Google and MSN) have all jumped into the Local Search Market. According to some Estimates Local searches represent 20-25% of all Internet Searches either implicitly or explicitly)

1 - Local Content

Create a web site with a few pages that contain local content.

    * If you sell Life insurance in Missouri you may want to have information on how to file a Dispute with the Missouri Department of Insurance.
    * If you have mortgages you may want to discuss a Missouri State Government Loan Program for low income first time Home Buyers in Missouri
    * If you sell flowers you may want to discuss the best time to plant Roses in St Louis Missouri

2 - Local Yellow Pages

Get Yourself listed in the local online Yellow Pages both free and Paid. Currently much of the local Search results for the Local Searches perfromed by the Big 3 Come from Yellow Page Listings

3 - Local City Guides

Get Yourself listed in the local City Guides both free and Paid. Currently much of the local Search results for the Local Searches perfromed by the Big 3 Come from City Guides.

4 - Local Blog

Get Yourself a Local Blog. If you sell Insurance in Florissant MO call your Blog 'Insurance-In-Florissant-MO' Try and Post one or 2 times a Week with topics relevant to your Local Market. See Step 1 for Ideas on what to post.

5- About Us Page

Create an About us page on Your Web Site. Make sure your about us Page has your Name, Local Information and the Products or Services you offer. An About us page can be as simple as

    * About US:Mike Makler located in Florissant Missouri in North St Louis County Missouri offers Financial Services such as Life Insurance, Annuities and Mortgages.

    * One or more paragraphs with inforamtion about You or your company.

    * Contact US:
      Mike Makler
      Florissant MO, 63031
      314 398-5547

6 - Contact Information on All Pages

Place you contact Information on All of your web pages. At a bare minimum include

    * Your Name
    * Your Company Name
    * A Brief Description of Services Offered
    * City, State and Zip Code (Street Address Optional)
    * Contact Information (E-Mail Address and/ or Phone Number)

7 - Article Resource Box

When You Submit Articles you should create a Resource Box that includes the same information from Step 6 above. You should also have a Link to your web page.

About the Author
Mike Makler is a Financial Consultant in Florissant in North St Louis County Missouri Specializing in Real Estate Loans (Mortgages), Life Insurance and Annuities. To Learn More Call Mike at 314 398-5547 or Visit Mike's Web Page: http://ewguru.com/finance

Get Mike's Newsletter Here http://ewguru.com/fin-news

Copyright © 2005-2006 Mike Makler

[You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated getarticles At Ewguru .Com]

The first step to developing any search engine optimization effort is picking keywords. The general consensus is pick keywords with solid amounts of traffic and a minimum of competition. At the risk of being laughed off the Internet, here's a different view.

Going Big?Going VERY Big

Should you do research to identify keywords receiving lots of traffic? Absolutely. Of this group, should you identify the keywords with the lowest amount of competition? Again, yes. After all, who would be foolish enough to try to attack keywords with a few million competing sites? Well, me for one.

People that go for a keyword phrase like "for sale by owner" [2 million plus searches a month and KEI of 0.000000000?] are often dismissed as amateurs with unrealistic expectations. For those of us that have been in the business for some time, this bias deserves some reconsideration. The motivation is greed?pure and simple greed.

Seo greed is arises when one achieves top listings in Google, Yahoo and MSN for a site. Using the example above, assume the client is a car-listing site and you've conquered all the listings for "car for sale by owner." Yes, it took 15 months, but the client is happy and so are you. Or are you?

After a few weeks, you start thinking, "Damn, I should have gone for the phrase 'for sale by owner' and the extra 700,000 searches a month." You start getting visions of changing the site, but the anchor text in links and so on is already set. In the end, you feel dissatisfied because you want more, damn it!

A Different Approach

Okay, I am not advocating you throw competition analysis out the window. You should absolutely find keywords that have solid traffic and low competition. If nothing else, you need short-term carrots to keep you motivated. That being said, you must also plan for the inherent evil greed in your twisted little seo soul. Don't even try to deny it.

Here it comes?

I am advocating you go for keywords with monstrous amounts of traffic, competition analysis be damned! Yes, I know. What a fool.

Throwing caution to the wind, I am even going to argue that?[drum roll]?you consider one-word keywords! I know? Blasphemy!?Insanity!?Stupid Moron?etc. But think about it. When you've accomplished your goals with low competition keywords, why not have a go at the biggies? What if you get them?even a few?

Putting it all together, my theory is this. Identify the low competition keywords, optimize your site and so on. Just make sure you also throw some "wishful thinking" keywords. If the optimized site survives for three or four years, you might just be thankful you did.

I'm off to optimize for the keyword "travel." Lets see, Expedia is listed number 1 with a page rank of 8 and 67 thousand back links on Google.

Ha! Expedia I mock thee!

Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing and advertising company in San Diego, California.

Keyword Selection

The most important component of search engine optimization is keyword selection. Search engines use key words and phrases to find and rank websites. The crawler or spider-based search engines, so called because they sift through websites and add them to their databases, sort through millions of websites by following an algorithm, or set of rules.

The algorithms for the various search engines are not exactly the same (which is why a search of the same keyword brings different results). However, they follow very similar processes. Most of the search engines rank websites based on where and how often a particular keyword is used on the website. They will rank a website higher if, for example, the keyword is used in the title, placed near the top of the page, and if it is used often.

Choosing the right keyword or phrase and placing it properly is an art that is refined through practice and trial-and-error. In the e-market, time is money and competition is fierce. Your business cannot afford to languish while you get up to speed on the latest SEO technology. The use of a good e-marketing professional makes good economic sense.

Keyword Expertise Now

Valiss has the SEO expertise you need now. We know how to get the best results in the shortest amount of time. With Valiss, the keyword selection process is quick and efficient. Your search engine utilization is maximized to bring more visitors to your site who are interested in what you have to say or sell.

Search Engine Listing And Optimization

In the world of website marketing, search engines are an essential key to success. They are the most important way to bring traffic to your website. Understanding how search engines work and what they require is an important first step to harnessing their marketing power.

The two types of search engines can be characterized as active and passive. An active engine utilizes crawl technology that constantly searches out websites, adds them to its database and creates listings automatically with what it finds. Passive engines require registration of your website directly with them and rely on editors to add your site to their directory. As search engines have evolved, many have adopted a combination of passive and active strategies.

Search engine optimization is the utilization of techniques that will assure that search engines find and include your website in their databases. There are proven methods to search engine marketing involving website design and content adaptation, and keyword strategy. The primary goal of these methods is to bring traffic to your site. The secondary goal is for that traffic to be targeted to your product. In the internet marketing game, exposure is essential. But marketing efficiency requires effective exposure to the right prospects.

Customer Delivery By Search Engine

Valiss's knowledge of search engines and how to position your website for optimal exposure can help your website top its market. Search engine optimization must be a central part of your internet marketing plan. By refining your website, Valiss will enable search engines to deliver more of your prospective customers to your site.

Ted Prodromou spent over 25 years in the computer industry working for IBM, Digital, and Cellular one. Today he's the owner of Valiss IT, a consulting firm that provides small business coaching and marketing help. He's also a certified personal and professional coach.

Ted has created and led many coaching workshops and today is helping small businesses automate their marketing with his latest coaching program, "Attract Clients While You Sleep". For more information visit http://www.valiss.com/specials.

If you would like to download his free report "How To Attract Clients While You Sleep" visit http://www.valiss.com.

You are free to distribute this article, providing it remains unchanged and with the resource / bio box attached.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. If you rely on search engines to bring visitors to your business website, you need to rely on more than luck. Your business will lag far short of its potential unless your site is optimized and re-optimized for search engine results.

What is search engine optimization?

SEO is optimizing your website for search engines, acquiring inbound links, and monitoring your traffic and referring links to use them optimally. SEO is also studying and monitoring your competitors' techniques.

The goal of SEO is to bring in targeted traffic that is organic, i.e., from search results. When people type in a keyword or phrase that you've optimized your site for, you want your site to appear on the first page, preferably high on that page. Good SEO results in increased traffic without the cost and time spent on advertising.

The SEO industry

Where there's a need, there's an industry ready to help you spend money on that need. SEO firms charge from a few hundred dollars up to six-figure amounts to optimize your site for search engines.

If paying thousands of dollars to an SEO firm isn't in your budget, consider using SEO packages to optimize your site yourself.

A combination of SEO tools is needed to get the best results. The SEO packages described below offer a variety of tools to help you optimize your site for search engines.

SEO tools compared

While we've listed numerous features of each SEO tool, these comparisons are summaries only.

Internet Business Promoter (IBP)

Known for their link popularity tool ARELIS, IBP also produces a three-step suite of tools to help you promote your website:

1. Page optimization
? Generate, analyze, and edit keywords
? Optimize for the top 10 search engine rankings
? Optimize the title, link texts, and other parts of the web page
? Validate the HTML
? View the site via a spider simulator

2. Page promotion
? Submit your site to search engines and directories
? Search for sites that might add a link to your site

3. Results tracking
? Verify search engine positions automatically

Price: $179.95 or $349.95.

LinksManager

Links Manager is designed to help users manage reciprocal linking. It doesn't require any software downloads, and current links pages can be imported into it. Some of its features:

Link organization and formatting
? Organize your links into multiple categories, subcategories, and "most popular links" lists
? Store the links on your own server
? Highlight newly added and featured links

Link management and tracking
? Remove dead links temporarily via a dead link checker
? Check whether or not reciprocal links at other sites exist
? Rotate links automatically
? Deny link submissions according to the criteria you set via a blacklist
? View the most popular keywords on your links pages

Price: $19.95 a month.

SEO Administrator

SEO Administrator automates website promotion with tools that can do these tasks:

Keywords and site visitors
? Track your site's position for your keywords in over 30 search engines
? Report on the keyword weight and density of your site as well as of competitors' sites
? Suggest keywords that are relevant to each page
? Analyze your site logs to find out about site visitors, keywords used, referrers, and more

Search engines and directories
? Check which pages at your site have been indexed by various search engines
? Check Google PR, the number of inbound links, and whether or not the site is listed in the DMOZ and Yahoo directories
? Show the automated descriptions that search engines display for your pages

Price: from $70 to $150, depending on the version.

SEO Elite

With SEO Elite, you can find out exactly what your competitors are doing and copy their strategies. You can find out about your competitors' web pages:

? Keyword density and prominence
? Their and headings
? Their meta keywords
? Whether their site is listed in the Yahoo directory
? Which websites your competitors are advertising on

Concerning link partners and search engines, SEO Elite can:

? Find thousands of possible link partners
? Track details about pages with inbound links
? Check whether or not reciprocal links at other sites exist
? Indicate which of your pages search engines have indexed
? Keep a record of where your site is ranked for search terms

Price: $167.

SEOToolset

The focus of SEOToolset is to provide data to help with website promotion. The toolset includes:

Your website
? Keyword density analyzer
? Keyword selection tool
? Reports on rankings for keywords, page names, and indexed page counts
? Link partner finder

Search engines and directories
? Engine-specific keyword research
? Traffic checker for keywords
? DMOZ category selector
? Search engine submission tool
? Search engine ranking monitor

Your competition
? Keyword research summary
? Link analysis of inbound links to competitors' websites

Price: $90.00 per quarter per site.

Web CEO

The 10 tools in the Web CEO package are designed to help you promote and maintain your website, improve search engine results, and analyze site visitors. A summary of these tools:

At your website
? Keyword research
? Website optimization
? Inbound link tracking
? WYSIWYG website editing and file uploading
? Link checking
? Website monitoring
? Stats analysis to track visitors, ad campaigns, transactions, and more

Search engines and competition
? URL submission to search engines
? Search engine rank checking
? Tracking who links to the competition

Price: $295 for one person. A free version is also available.

WebPosition

WebPosition, one of the oldest and most popular SEO tools, offers a five-step SEO process:

1. Determine your position in search engines
? Create search engine ranking reports
? Monitor your site's placement in search engine results

2. Research and choose keywords
? Identify the most searched and least competitive keywords

3. Optimize your pages
? Compare your pages to those of top-performing sites and specific competitors
? Detect when your competitors' pages have changed
? Be alerted to changes that could affect your site rankings

4. Design and submit your pages
? Use Page Builder and Upload Manager to design and maintain your site
? Submit your site to search engines with the Submitter tool

5. Analyze your results
? Track the correlation between search rankings and revenue
? Import top-performing keywords

Price: $149 or $349.

How to hire an SEO firm

If you'd prefer to hire an SEO firm instead, do your research. You'll be spending a minimum of a few hundred dollars, more likely thousands of dollars for a medium-sized or larger website.

While many SEO firms are good at what they do, the field unfortunately has its share of scammers as well. They may tell you that a variety of tricks such as hidden text or cloaking will improve your site's position in search engines. In reality, these techniques may get your site banned from search engines. More information is at these pages at Google.com:

? Webmaster Guidelines
href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

? Search Engine Optimizers
href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html

If you're considering an SEO firm, ask how they measure success. Will your site hits be organic? Look at the sites of SEO firms' clients and the site for the SEO firm itself. Do the sites rank well for keywords at these sites? The search engine results for relevant keywords will indicate how successful an SEO firm is.

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

Reciprocal linking scams have increased immensely during the past year. Initially we thought that this problem only related to gambling and casino related websites but an audit of our commercial link partners suggests that it is a serious problem within the broader online community.

Over the past eighteen months, we noticed that our page rank was slowly declining despite the fact that we were continually adding new link partners to our link directory. We had slipped from a five down to a two before we finally identified the exact cause of the problem.

Out of the first 100 links on our anchor site, only seven were still being reciprocated.

We recrawled the sites where no link was found with a second spider and got exactly the same result. Then we started manually checking the sites where no link back was found and started discovering patterns of deliberate link fraud.

The scams in order of popularity amongst the scammers ?1. The link on the home page to the link directory remained but clicking on it or specific directory links produced a template style page with a few casino banners or simply a page with no directory content ? This scam was most popular with the owners of multiple domains with the .co.za and .co.uk suffixes

2. The link on the home page to the link directory remained but clicking on gambling or casino related links returned a list of links to sites owned solely by the same person or company. The worst offenders in this group preferred domain extensions of .biz, .us and .md

3. The link directory index page remained but the link directory had been severely pruned and most remaining links were to the site owners other sites or to casinos. This one is common across all suffixes.

4. Links not clickable ? links to the directory and various pages within the directory remained intact. At the time of their link exchange campaign, their links were clickable but at some stage after that the code that makes the link clickable was removed and the site name was placed in bold text so at a glance it appeared to be a legitimate clickable link. This scam is most favored by sites that place a miniature screen shot of the index page of your site beside your back link.

5. A variation of the previous scam. When you run your mouse pointer over the page, the 'links' change color but no URL displays in the search bar at the bottom of your browser window. Right click has been disabled on the page so that most people looking at the page cannot see the code. If you use Dreamweaver MX or later, highlight the part of the page you want to look at and then using Control C copy it to the clip board and then use Control V to paste it into the design side of a basic Dreamweaver page. When you click on code you can see what they were attempting to stop you seeing. It may work in the later versions of similar authoring programs. Worst offenders are a poker room and a media company operating out of India.

6. One way link exchanges ? usually you are contacted by a search engine optimization company or the SEO person for a large group of websites offering you multiple one way link exchanges with half of their sites if you will link back to the other half of their sites. After a few weeks or months the links to your sites are deleted. The worst offender in this group is a prominent search engine optimization company located in India.

7. Your link starts out on a page with fair page rank usually attached to a domain with high page rank. But after a few weeks is moved to a boon docks page with no page rank that will never be indexed. ? common amongst higher PR sites.

8. The link directory is on another domain with no page rank. When you click on the link to the directory on the home page, always watch the bar in the bottom of your browser window and see that the link you clicked is in fact on the domain with which you are exchanging links ? watch especially for domain names that are very similar e.g. one letter different in the spelling or a .net instead of a .com and link pages that are hosted on the domain of a link management company. Also watch for redirects. If suspicious go back and click the link again. Often the redirected URL flashes up for only an instant or it just takes an inordinate time for the page to load compared to other pages on the site. If in doubt search for a site map - very popular with some owners of multiple bingo sites.

9. Sub domains of domains with no page rank. Sub domains are supposed to always rank lower than the parent domain. (Of late I have found a few sub domains with up to PR3 attached to a domain with no page rank) If the parent domain has a page rank of zero then link pages attached to that sub domain will almost always be zero so why trade a good link for a dud link?

10. We have never fallen for any in this group but many novice webmasters do so regularly. Beware of high PR sites offering you a link exchange on one of their inconsequential internal pages with the same PR as your index page in return for you placing a graphic link to their index page on your index page. This is a deliberate attempt to steal your hard earned traffic. A variation of this one is they have a number of new sites listed on their index page each month and visitors are encouraged to vote for the site they consider to be the best and you are asked to ask your visitors to vote for your site at the high ranked domain. The purpose is still the same as in the first example in this group.

11. We no longer trade links with sites using Linksmanager unless the link to our site is to be on a hard coded page. You can search in their search box for their link to your site and if they are still linking to you, your URL and site description will be returned but no information to show which page your link is on. Google usually indexes only a few pages in each category of dynamically generated link directories. If your link has not been added to an indexed page, it is unlikely to ever end up on one. When we had a large number of indexed back links, no link manager links were ever returned in a back link querry.

12. Be wary of link exchange requests from webmasters using anonymous e-mail addresses because when they delete your back link they also delete the anonymous e-mail address.

13. Beware of webmasters with PR 5 or above sites offering you a link exchange with a high PR site and an inspection of their link directory suggests that your link will end up on a non indexed page i.e. a useless link that is unlikely to ever improve. If the link exchange was with a PR 2 or 3 site there is at least reasonable potential for the PR of the page to increase if the link directory has been fairly constructed.

Reduce exposure to link scams

To reduce your exposure to such scams it is essential to carefully vet all potential link partners in the first instance. Enter link back partner details in a database. As an absolute minimum, enter their URL, the location of the link back on their site, the page rank of the page on which your link is located, the date of the link exchange and a real e-mail address for the contact person.

Use a good link checking program monthly and contact offenders as soon as you find your link is missing from their site. This is now essential to keep link partners honest. This problem is a direct consequence of the current page rank system and fierce competition for top rankings. It is easier to retain existing link partners than to continually find new ones.

Points to look for when Assessing Potential Link Partners

Before trading links, look carefully at the other site ?1. If there is no link to the link directory on the index page ?Reject. You will get no traffic from that site.

2. Look at the structure of their link directory and count the number of clicks from their index page to where their link to you is likely to be located and then deduct that number from the PR of the site's index page. If that page is PR3 and there are three clicks to get to the page on which your link will be located, that page will have a PR0. That link will be worthless unless the site gets a minimum of a PR4.

3. If you have not already done so, download Google's tool bar. If the page rank bar is grayed out, when you are looking at a site, never trade links with that site. The grey bar is said to indicate that the site is banned by Google. I do not know if that is true but I have only ever seen two sites produce grey bars.

4. A growing number of sites with dynamically generated link directories have no page rank on any link pages even though the directories are often constructed in such a way that you would expect the page to rank to be 2 points below the home page. I do not know how most are achieving this. The visible way is to have multiple folders and index pages leading to the links pages and the number of clicks from the home page destroys any potential page rank for the link page. A rare method is to add a no index command for the link directory in their robots.txt file.

Just remember links to such sites are one way links from your site to their site. You give them a good link and they give you a worthless link. A link on a page with a PR0 is a non indexed link and carries no value regardless of the page rank of the index page of the site to which it is attached. When you do a back link check on your domain in Google, you will notice that very few links to your domain that are on Google indexed pages with a PR of less than four are returned in your list of back links. This is why I and others consider that Google now discounts the value of such links.

For indexed pages, count the number of links on the page. The first factor in determining the value of the link is the page rank of the page on which it is located. The second factor is the number of links on the page. The value of the link to you is roughly the page PR divided by the number of links. Of course no one outside of a chosen few at Google knows the actual formula but that is a rough approximation and the reason most webmasters will not trade links with sites with more than 40 links to a page unless the page has a very high PR.

A link on the bottom of a good content page is always better value than a link on a directory page as more people are likely to click on it.

When on the receiving end of a link exchange request, do not hesitate to ask for your link to be placed on a specific page and do not hesitate to reject link requests from sites that do not adhere to basic acceptable linking practices.When considering link requests from new sites, look at any other sites that belong to or have been built by the webmaster proposing the link exchange. Most importantly, look to see if existing link pages have been indexed and the structure of the directory. This will be a good indicator of what to expect for the new site.

When you create your own link directory, consider a hand edited directory with the links at the same level as the rest of the pages on your site. That way your link pages will be only one point below your index page and you will attract more link requests because of that. Many high PR sites will not trade links with you unless you can place their link back on a minimum of a PR4 page. That way you can start shooting for the top once your index page makes a 5 as opposed to a 7 with the way many link directories are set up.

When you are shooting for the top, it helps you get those high pr links you need to make it to the top.

Article by Brian Osborne.Brian is an I.T. professional and the webmaster at http://www.winnersrun.com, a site focusing on gambling strategies that also includes some articles of interest to webmasters.

The advent of Internet has affected lives of almost the entire world and websites, e-mails and chating on net none need any introduction even for young kids. There is an outpour of websites throughout the Internet all offering numerous services to attract the potential visitors online. The question actually matters is what's the foolproof way to keep visitors glued to a particular site and not jump to other numerous sites that are upcoming each new day. What makes one of the web pages much more popular than the other when both are based on almost similar theme. The answer lies in the way of presenting the information and the simplicity with which the users can avail services offered.

One site that has proved to rise at a highest pace in the web world in a shortest span of time is unarguably the google. It's been a hot favorite amongst the search engines on web and the one that is most preferred by web users. It's simple design targeting only the specific service that it intends to provide and a very efficient scripting language behind the scene has won a top position among the most popular sites in the web world. Google the name actually does not require any introduction it's already headed on top of the list for advertisers and regular or casual visitors on net.

Some time back the Google team started the service of e-mail even that caught the fancy of online visitors in a very short time. It offers its users with lots of free space on Internet around more than 2000 MB and still amount of space is increasing each day. One more aspect that makes it different from its counterparts is membership-acquiring process, which is possible only through invitation by anyone already using Google.

Next, good news is that the Google team is shortly coming up with its new venture for offering instant messaging services for its users. Just as the earlier performances by Google this too promises to be a messaging service with a difference. It definitely would offer newer facilities and opportunities for its visitors something quite better than what the existing chatting services offer. The facility would be readily available for existing users of gmail account and others can also avail this opportunity to create a gmail account and register themselves at the Google site.

Just as e-mail has been popular around the globe similarly the instant messaging system captured the hearts of frequent visitors on web. A client "Gaim" in required to be installed on the computer that wants to use the Google instant messaging services. This client program is capable of performing various tasks required by its users. Apart from the new registrations pouring in by the advent of Google talk current gmail members would also be more than happy as now they would not need two id's on their computer one for e-mails and the other for instant messages. Google talk makes it easy for all its members to manage their entire Internet requirements at one single place i.e. the Google site and to add flavor to already existing recipe is the news that all of this is free

Mansi aggarwal writes about google talk. Learn more at http://www.ugfc.org/2005/08/google_talk.html

Last week a client called me excitedly exclaiming that theirGoogle PageRank had jumped a notch and their targeted keywordterm now ranked #23 (up from #45) for their competitive searchphrase. I asked the client if he'd been notified by Yahoo thathis site was now included in the index after we had submittedit three weeks ago. "Yes," he said, "but why are you changingthe subject?"

"I'm not changing the subject. Inclusion in Yahoo Directory isthe most likely reason for the jump in both your searchposition and your PageRank. Remember when you doubted thevalue of inclusion in the Yahoo Directory and I pushed forsubmission anyway? Now you know why I insisted."

That seemingly expensive Yahoo Directory listing has onelittle known benefit to your website. It is the most importantand valuable text link you could ever purchase. That one linkfrom one source will do your ranking more good than any othersingle link (except possibly the Open Directory).

Many webmasters look at potential traffic referred from theYahoo Directory as the determining factor for submissions,when that is not the best reason for inclusion - It's the linkvalue that matters above all else in this case.

I've had several SEO clients see a leap in ranking fortargeted search terms a week or so after that Yahoo Directorylink goes live for them. Many clients have argued with meabout the value of that Yahoo Directory text link. But at$299, the yearly fee is cheaper than many of those commercialtext link ads sites and does far more for your ranking insearch engines OTHER than Yahoo.

Why? It's purely the value of that link. Search engines knowthat only sites of a certain quality level will submit and getaccepted into Yahoo Directory. They know that seriousbusinesses will pay that yearly fee, while marginal or hobbysites will not pay that $299 every year. Surely there is somelevel of value assigned in search algorithms to inclusion inthe Yahoo Directory.

It's a little known technique for gains in ranking which isbased purely on empirical observation over time. But theresult of inclusion in the Yahoo Directory is the same forevery client, every time - their PageRank ratchets up andtargeted search terms suddenly take a big jump just a week ortwo after inclusion. The same is true of inclusion in the freeOpen Directory Project at http://DMOZ.org .

I've seen client sites jump from positions on page three atMSN search to top 5 positions on page one of the MSN SERP'sfollowing inclusion in the Yahoo Directory. Now we aresubmitting this same client to the Open Directory for the 5thtime in as many months hoping for elusive editors to add thesite, leading to another jump in search position and PageRankif and when they get around to adding the site to the DMOZdatabase.

You do know that Google uses that Open Directory listing intheir own directory, don't you? It's worth submitting andresubmitting until they finally include your site. It reallyis worth the trouble to keep trying, no matter how long theyignore your submissions.

One caveat always applies to Directory submissions! They mustbe done with great care applied to keyword phrases used in thesite description. That single line of text you submit in the"Site Description" text box on the submission page willstrongly affect your keyword phrase ranking in OTHER searchengines for a very long time.

Take care in crafting a keyword rich and effective descriptionfor your site. I always request that clients either have mesubmit for them or use text I've written for them in thatdescription. If you do it badly, it will be re-written by aneditor who cares more for categorization than keywordrankings. Be Careful!

Before you run off begging for reciprocal links from slickwebmasters or purchasing text links of dubious value from textlink outfits, submit to Yahoo Directory and pay the $299 (or$24.92 monthly) for the most undervalued text link available.Then swallow your pride and re-submit to the Open Directoryuntil they finally include your site.

Rock your rank with dynamite text links! Yahoo Directory and theOpen Directory Project.

Copyright © August 23, 2005

Mike Banks Valentine operates http://Publish101.comFree Web Content Distribution for Article Marketers andProvides content aggregation, press release optimizationand custom web content for Search Engine Positioninghttp://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htmRSS: http://RealitySEO.com/atom.xml

The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting traffic to your site. There are plenty of companies who promise to send traffic your way. Sadly, most of this traffic is not qualified. Yes, your hit counter will move higher, however, if its not qualified, you may find you have unhappy visitors to your site. Unhappy visitors will not click on your ads or purchase your products.

Once you have optimized your site, consider submitting it to every search engine. If you want to get spidered quicker in Google, have a web page with a PR of 4 or higher point to your site. Your site will be spidered within a couple of days!

One myth I would like to bust is that PR is a measure of a web site. Its not. I receive countless emails offering a reciprocal link with their PR5 or PR6 site. Unless my link is appearing on the main page, or a page that has PR6, I am not getting a share of PR6. Most likely, my link will appear on a page that has a PR2!

Page rank is Google's ranking of that specific page's relevance. Just because the main page has a PR of 4, does not make every page on the site a PR4. Beware of sites who claim that they will exchange links with you and its to your benefit since they have a PR5 or PR6. Where is your link appearing? If its on a page that has a PR of 4 or 5 or 6, great!

Reciprocal linking, if done properly, will ensure that your keywords are at the top of the search engine. If you have a popular keyword, youll need to have more back links. Pick your link partners properly, and ensure that they are linking to your keyword.

For example: if your site is www.joesdinner.com, consider sending out requests to relevant higher ranking pages to start with, followed by lower ranking pages and ask web designers to link back in the following manner:

< a href= "http://www.joesdinner.com" >best dining in new york - joes dinner is the only place to eat when you're staying in New York.

Presuming their keyword is "best dining in new york", having links pointing to your site with an anchor tag incorporating your keywords will improve your search engine rankings dramatically.

Once you have established a collection of sites pointing to your site using your keywords, you will start receiving reciprocal link exchanges from other sites. This is where you can start to be particular.

If you want to maintain an effective PR and attract better sites for linking, follow these tips:

a) Is it indexed?

While their site may be indexed, the page where they are placing your link, is it at least indexed by google? If you type in allinurl:www.sitename.com/links/right_here.html and there are no results, consider declining their offer. If the page your link appears on has not been indexed, there is no benefit whatsoever to you. If your pages have PR, they may consider placing your link on another page. If the page your link appears on is indexed, but does not have PR, consider accepting their offer. While the page today may not have PR, it will in time.

b) How many neighbours?

The value of the page rank is shared with each of the links on that page. If you are splitting that PR with several other sites, your share of PR will be small, which doesnt help you. Reconsider accepting any link exchanges if your site is 1 of more than 30 - 40 sites that will appear on that page, unless its a very high PR. Further, if there are too many links on that page, Google may consider the page to be part of a link farm, which may end up penalizing your site.

c) Is it relevant?

Google is big on relavancy. Ensure your links pages are relevant. If you operate a site about golf, having links from cooking sites will not help you establish your page rank. It may cost you more than you get in return.

How to Find Good PR sites:

a) Do a search for them by typing in your keyword and start asking for reciprocal link exchanges. Take a look at their PR and go from there. Remember, its the number of sites that backlink to you that matters, not strictly the PR of the page. I would rather have 50 pages that have a PR1 pointing to my site, than to have 5 sites that have a PR5. Of course, if you can get 50 pages that have a PR5 pointing to your site, you are laughing!

b) Take a look at your existing link partners and check out their links pages. Its clear the people appearing on those links pages are interested in reciprocating.

c) Purchase software that will help find quality link partners.

It is important to attract higher PR sites when you are on a reciprocal link campaign. However, its not the most important thing when it comes to search engine rankings. Its the backlinks that point back at you that are key. The more of those, the better off you will be for your keyword.

Remember: every page starts off as a PR0. Just because its new doesnt mean it wont get a higher PR once google gets around to assessing a score. If the page your site appears on is indexed, and its a relevant site of quality, consider exchanging links. You'll grow a large list of link partners in a short period of time, and increase your search engine rankings in the process.

Christopher Smith has been helping people make money through Google Adsense by providing them with the Top Paying Adsense Keywords for his visitors to Adsense Heaven. http://www.adsenseheaven.com

Let me guess, you've read article after article on howto FINALLY get your site ranked at the top of the searchengines. In fact, your mind is probably spinning with info and now you are just flat-out confused.

Am I right?

Well, this article is going to erase that confusion andset you on the right path to higher search engine rankings...the easy and SECRET way!

Take a deep breath and clear your head. I'm going to give you 3 TOP tips to instantly help your rankings.

We will follow the K.I.S.S Method (Keep it simple stupid!)

Ok here we go...

1. Focus on the RIGHT keywords

Your website or pages on your site need to focus on one ortwo PRIMARY keyword or keyword phrases. But the trick hereis to not focus on keyword phrases that are almost impossibleto rank high for. An example? Type in "credit cards" in Googleand look at the amount of competing websites for that phrase.To reach the top 10 for that phrase will be extremely difficult.So pick other related phrases with less competition. They areout there, you just need to find them.

2. Put the keywords in the right places

Now that you have found the keywords or keyword phrases you wantto pursue high rankings for, it is VITAL you put them in the right spots within your website. Here are the important spots...

*Get your main keywords in your title of your site
*Get your main keywords in your H1 and H2 headings
*Sprinkle in your keywords in your text...but not overkill!
*Have images? Insert your keywords in the ALT Tags
*Don't forget...get your main keyword in the LAST spot on your page

DON'T be afraid to also mix in some secondary keywords with yourmain keywords. Do all of this in moderation. The last thing you want are search engines to think you are just spamming.

DON'T forget that CONTENT IS KING! Mix in your real, original content in with your keywords and watch your site take off!

3. Spy on your competitors

Ok, I'm going to let you in on a littlet secret tool that you really need to invest in. You can thank me later. In order to get high rankings for the keywords you selected, you need to spy on the websites that are already there...and then go the extra mile to get one step ahead of them. What you need to look at is their link popularity and also WHAT other sites are linking back. You also need to look at things such as Google Page Rank, etc.

Now that I've stated what you need to look for, I'm going to reveal to you a little tool that will create HUGE results for your own site with just the click of the mouse. This is the tool that those with high rankings won't tell you about.

Before you do anything else, go here to see what I'm talking about...
Here's the secret tool

In conclusion, if you follow just these three steps I've outlined above, you will be doing better than 90% of other webmasters out there! Just keep it simple, focus on your keywords and content, and spy on those that already are in the top positions. It won't be long and you will be "king of the hill" and will reap the rewards!

Do you want your site to get to the top of the search engines?

Then you need this secret SEO tool to get there!

Dayne Herren is a writer and webmaster

It is by now a proven fact that content is the most important element for getting better pagerank and, consequently, more traffic.

Furthermore, the best ranking websites have content that is better written than most other sites.

A common mistake is to think that Google spiders just consider keywords and layout in order to establish pagerank.

If you look at the top ranking pages for the most searched for keywords, you will see that the quality of the content has been essential for getting them better pagerank, not to mention the enormous amount of traffic that Google sends them as a consequence.

Let's look at some of the key areas that we have to keep in mind when producing content:

1. Updates

If you don't update your content frequently, your visitors won't have a reason to come back, and Google will not consider your site for better pagerank. You may get a good initial pagerank, but if Google doesn't see that the site is updated frequently, pagerank will surely fall as a consequence. The best frequency is once a week, when possible.

2. Grammar and spelling

Sites that are well ranked in Google have little or no spelling and grammar errors. Before uploading content, make sure to check for spelling and grammar mistakes. Microsoft Word's spell-check may even be more than enough for this task.

3. Paragraph layout

Not only on websites, but in any type of message that implies text, lengthy paragraphs are difficult to read and readers loose focus on the content. Google is also aware of this fact and prioritizes short 1 to 4 sentence paragraphs.

The same applies to sentence length. Keep sentences brief and to the point with only relevant information. If there is an extensive idea that must be included, you can break it up into two or more sentences.

4. Keywords

On well ranked sites, references are made throughout a page to keywords and variations of the keywords. Always keep content relevant to the keywords that are referenced to your site.

5. Lists

Whenever presenting lists of items, it is better to show them bulleted or numbered and not in paragraph format. This is visually much better for your visitors and Google will also give it better pagerank. For example, see the difference with the text from this section in both formats:

Example 1 ? Paragraph format:

When creating content, keep in mind updates, grammar and spelling, paragraph layout, keywords, and lists.

Example 2 ? Numbered

When creating content, keep in mind:

1. Updates
2. Grammar and spelling
3. Paragraph layout
4. Keywords
5. Lists.

Some final thoughts:

? Always make sure that you have quality content on your site.

? If you write your own content, try to have an editor or a professional writer look at it before uploading, until you gradually develop your own writing skills.

? Make sure you update your content frequently.

? Distribute some of your content freely to other websites. This will generate more links to your site and improve your pagerank as well.

? If you don't have writing skills and aren't willing to pay a professional writer to continuously create content for you, you can opt to acquire content databases that will provide you with extensive content that you can update regularly.

Once you have your site up and running, focus on content from then on. The design and layout of your site may be a one time only process, but content needs to be taken care of and nurtured to generate traffic and keep those visitors coming back for more.

John Tulus is Marketing Director at Web Marketing Experts, developer of internet marketing solutions to help companies increase sales and profitability online.If you would like to learn more about Internet Marketing, visit Our Website at Web Marketing Experts and Web Contents or email John at [email protected]