Search Engine Visibility - The Mantra of Corporate Profitability


The corporate fundamentals are par excellence! The product is unsurpassable and the website is a web designer's dream in creativity and design ? but there is a vacuum ? of potential online customers! ? The website lacks the basic ingredient of success ? Search Engine Visibility! ? which is what search engine optimization is all about.

Increasing the search engine visibility is vital to any online business. To illustrate Google alone gets as many as 250 million searches a day ? visualize the magnitude of the potential market out there if one were to get the all important visibility factor right!

Search engine visibility is not merely about obtaining top positions in search results ? rather it is about designing, writing, conceptualizing and creating a website. This is done exclusively for the site visitors and helping them find what they are searching for using the modality of search engines ? the basic navigation tool over the internet.

The concept of building the site first and focusing on the visibility factor later is like building the car first and worrying about the quality index later! This fallacy can translate into a financial loss to the Corporate amounting to thousands of dollars.

Web designing should be executed with in - built user and search engine friendly parameters.

The reason to exist for any business enterprise is profitability both financial and social. The cornerstone of financial profitability is predictably maximizing profits, which is governed by an array of management and marketing tools.

The exponential growth of the web into an ocean of information has ushered in the era of the potential online customer turning to exploring the websites.

The corporate of today then is anonymous without a corporate website. The website provides an insight to the corporate profile, information and services. A strong website without search engine visibility is an untapped potential, which can only hurt the corporate bottom line and the stakeholders. Consequently, a strong website coupled with high search engine visibility is a near invisible weapon in the hands of a dynamic corporate.

The search engines are the basic navigation aids for the potential online customer and are entrusted with the daunting task of selecting from millions of web sites and pages when responding to online queries. The search engines undoubtedly favor "search friendly" sites and this is where search engine visibility comes into play.

Search engine optimization and increasing the visibility is then the order of the day if the corporate visibility is to sustain and co ? exist.

The search engine centric approach cannot be utilized in isolation. It should ideally strike a delicate balance between being a search engine friendly and a user-friendly website.

Increase that Search engine visibility and watch the queries pour in, then work on the conversion index for without the potential customer queries there will be no conversion Index!

Arun Tibrewal is an online marketing promotions specialist since 1998 and owner of I-wayhost - Web Hosting and its network sites. I-wayhost is dedicated to provide top class hosting services with there straight forward plans. Permission is granted to reprint this article as long as the resource box should keep intact with the following links.

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Search Engine Optimization: Get the Low-down


Been hearing the words Search Engine Optimization lately? I know I have. But what is it, you wonder? Well, that's what I'm here to talk to you about.

Search Engine Optimization is a type of pull marketing that uses keywords to boost your search engine rank. What's pull marketing? It's what you might call passive, or viral marketing, where instead of aggressively seeking out your customer, you position yourself someplace where they can find you. The most likely place where you might be found is the first place they'll look: the search engine listings. You know: Google, Yahoo, Dogpile... those guys! But how do you jockey for the best placement? Read on for some helpful tips and tricks.

1. Optimize Your Articles

Article marketing is one of the newest and hottest ways to boost your search engine rank. To check out SEO article marketing in action, go to Ezinearticles.com. Sign up as a member, and start writing and submitting articles that other web marketers will "receive" via an RSS article feed, and promote on their own websites. With every article you write, a link to your personal website is included.

Why does this work to boost your search engine rank? Well, if you add keywords to your web article titles and text, people who type those same keywords into search engines will find your articles before they locate those of another person who wrote about the same topic but didn't use popular keywords.

For prime search engine optimization, your article headline should include keywords in the BEGINNING (the first 2-4 words- not at the end.) You can find out which keywords are most often typed into Google and other search engines by entering each keyword into the Overture Keyword Selector Tool. Want to know more? Paste in the link below for a crash-course in Keyword Article Writing.

http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Keyword-Article-Writing:-the-Key-to-Your-Success!&id=21236

2. Optimize Your Website

Not everyone knows about the advantages to making your website keyword-rich. But if YOU know, then that means you're one-up on the next person! So many folks use copy/paste web design programs, paying no mind to title and header creation. As a result, their websites may look pretty, but they're not primed for top of the search index. When designing yours, incorporate the most frequently used keywords into the HTML title tags. If you do this, web crawlers will be able to 'find' you through your keywords and secure you a pretty sweet location in the search engine rankings.

Use the Overture Keyword Selector Tool to research your keywords for popularity and relevance, and then add them to your TITLE, metatags and headers (H1, H2 and so forth). Meta-tags... hmm. What was that again, you wonder? Metatags are keywords used to help identify your web content. These words are listed at the beginning of each page source of your website. A visitor who clicks the page can't see your metatags, but web crawlers can, and that's how you get bumped up on the search engine ladder.

You should be meta-tagging EVERY page of your website, not just the homepage, so you can ensure that every section gets indexed properly. Each of your pages contains unique content, right? Well, chances are somebody out there is hunting for it. Let yourself be found.

More about page titles: web marketers are realizing they can make their websites more easily searchable by standardizing their page titles. Some examples: About Us, Services, Contact, Links. Web researchers and web crawlers both know to look for these words when searching for information on the net. Add these to your pages to make them easy to index.

A final tip on website optimization: the savvy marketer knows not to put a Flash intro on his homepage... because Flash designs aren't keyword-friendly. If you'd like to smarten up your look with one of these, go ahead and use it on another page, but save your homepage for standard, keyword-rich content. It's the best chance of improving SEO rank so don't waste the opportunity!

3. Optimize Your Web Ads

Here's a neat trick: if you advertise your URL on another website that holds a high SEO rank, you can 'get your name out there' by piggybacking on their popularity. This works for print ads and banners just as well as it does for the article marketing I mentioned earlier. Attaching your link to one of the top ranked websites increases hits to your site, resulting in better search engine position for you! The idea, again, is to run ads that are full of those popular keywords, so they'll be picked up by the website indexers.

In short: Search Engine Optimization is really the snowball effect in action... momentum gaining on itself. It's worth learning all the tricks that will bring your website up the ranks and keep the hits coming! If you're still new at web marketing and website design, why not get a brief tutorial from someone who's well-experienced and well-versed in the topic? After that, the only place you can go is up!

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Dina Giolitto is a New-Jersey based Copywriting Consultant with ten years of industry experience. Her current focus is web content and web marketing for a multitude of products and services although the bulk of her experience lies in retail for big-name companies like Toys"R"Us. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for rates and samples.

New Site and Sandbox: How to Get Rid of It


You have put lot of sweat in making your site. Now you want it to engender revenues and only source of traffic is search engines. You have completed your seo optimization well but there is no precursor of any traffic. Yes Google places new sites in "Sandbox" and this means that your site would not rank well for high traffic keywords for a certain period. This phenomenon is called as "Sandbox". What if your site is in "Sandbox" or on hold? Should you hang around or is there any way out. Lets look at few of them:

Have a slow and sturdy link campaign (taking Google new patent into consideration)

Google's new patent indicates some of the point clearly why many sites are thrown into sandbox for long. By keeping below points into consideration, you could shorten the time span of sandbox for your site.

# Go for everlasting link exchange. Don't buy links, which will evaporate once you stop payments.

# Have a slow and steady enlargement of links. Don't do it fast.

# Have a permanent anchor text in your links. Think well before you make use of one.

# Use multiple anchor text

# Have links from the pages, which are updated regularly

Start a PPC campaign

Get traffic from PPC campaign starting from Google Adwords and you could get instant traffic from the day you launched your site. You could work on your budget and come up with a figure where you could make some money after spending on Pay per click. In the mean time, you could make the list of keywords, which works, for you in the Adwords campaign and incorporate them into your site.

Add new pages

Get into habit of adding minimum of 1 content rich page to your site every day. This will not only prepare your site for higher traffic but also get your site crawled by search engines regularly. This could bring your site out of sandbox faster.

Amitabh Shukla, Personal blog for the author is at Seo Expert India

Use Search Engines For A Guaranteed Web Site Promotion


For your web site to succeed, you must use is search engines optimization. Web sites definitely need top rankings in major search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN. The higher the ranking, the more likely viewers will come and visit your web site. Your site should stay in one of the top positions in the search engines to draw the largest amount of customers.

Guaranteed web site promotion needs you to use keywords strongly within the text of your web site. Keywords help not only viewers find your site but the web crawlers the search engines also. They scan your site's content and pick up on keywords. If you use the keyword or phrase several times within the body of an article, the web crawlers notice. The most your web site relates to the keyword to the search engine, the more likely it will rank high when that keyword is used in a search by a consumer.

Another guaranteed web site promotion is the use of Meta tags within your web site. That's the heading at the very top of the page white letters on a blue background. Inside the HTML code, you place a Meta tag that describes your web site in a few words. Using the keywords again is a must. These Meta tags are also read by the web crawlers to determine the content of your web site.

Search engine marketing programs can also provide a guaranteed web site promotion. Search engines such as Google and Overture sell advertising that allows your site to pop up at the front of keywords searches. You pay to have an ad come up with a hyperlink to your site. Most of these types of programs are on a per keyword click basis. You can limit the amount of money you spend on a daily or weekly basis. This type of promotion is especially good for web sites that haven't been online for a long time.

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How MSN and Yahoo Sells Your Traffic


Yes, it really happens. Now you might find it hard to believe butyou will understand after I explain.

Prior to late 2004, Google undisputedly ruled the search engineworld. During the second half of the year things took a dramaticturn when Yahoo and MSN decided to challenge the Big G for someof their lucrative market share.

Search engines are a big source of revenue especially when itcomes to advertising and for many this is their bread and butter.With the emerging prominence of both Yahoo and MSN, advertisershave more channels through which to advertise their goods andservices.

What marks Google apart from it's two big rivals in this area isthe way they display their ads. They deliver their ads through asystem called Adwords which is unobtrusive to viewers. The adsare placed to the right to clearly distinguish them from thesearch results. Occasionally they will place ads above the SERPS.

Overture is the company which handles the placement of ads forboth Yahoo and MSN. Now if you should search for a popularkeyword in either of them, you will notice that the ads are abovethe results, to your right and at the bottom of the page justabove the Next button. This is where it gets interesting.

Having the privilege of working in a public computer lab, Idecided to run some experiments. When customers came in andrequested information on various topics I instructed them to useYahoo or MSN for their search enquiries. The first one looked for"bridal gowns" and another looked for "tourism in Jamaica". Inboth cases they click on the first available information which ofcourse is the relevant ads displayed.

I continued my experiment for a week and came to a decisiveconclusion. Some search engines are selling our traffic rightunder our noses! The only time I observed the top rankingwebsites getting regular click through was when the keywords arenot that competitive to involve ad placement.

This leads me to question the quality of traffic one receivesfrom Yahoo and MSN. For every visitor you receive what is theratio for that which you lose to a sponsored result? And what isthe use of optimizing your website for them?

Now mind you, I enjoy a few good rankings on both Yahoo and MSNbut they are for keywords that are not that too competitive. Forthese I enjoy consistent traffic flow but I think that thequality is something to take another look at.

I didn't write this to bash these guys on how they choose to dotheir business particularly how they choose to place their ads.My aim is to point out to you that while you may enjoy a top tenresult on Yahoo and MSN, chances are you are not getting theamount of visitors you should and could receive.

© Oceanroc Web Publishing

Nicholas Dixon is a Jamaican webmaster, writer and affiliatemarketer. Visit my blog for feature articles from selectarticle writers at http://WWW.Oceanroc.Blogspot.com

The Power of Topic Specific Search


What are Topical Search Engines?

Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic.

While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific search engines. What many don't realize is that these engines do produce traffic, and they often contain traffic that is very targeted. Anyone who has taken the time to analyze weblogs and track sales sources will likely see that targeted traffic converts at a significantly higher rate than non-targeted traffic.

A savvy online marketer realizes that often, the quality of the visitor is far more important than the quantity of visitors. Web marketers should focus their energies on attracting targeted traffic whenever possible.

For example, if you sell saddles, advertising on a site related to horses or advertising on a topical search engine like http://www.horse-stall.net will bring significantly more sales than advertising on a generic web site or search engine.

Niche engines are considerably smaller than general search engines but they can still be quite lucrative. The small size of a niche or topic-specific engine ensures that the there are few competitors, and advertisers are generally willing to pay a little more for the focused traffic. Advertisers appreciate the unique benefit of reaching a very targeted audience who have a higher likelihood of purchasing their product or service. As a result, topic-specific search engines and directories are a burgeoning market. There is far less competition in niche directories and dominating a specific market segment and establishing brand recognition is significantly easier.

It is virtual suicide to attempt to compete with the behemoth search engines like Google. Web-surfers are interested in simplicity and efficiency, which translates to as few clicks as possible. This is an area where Google really cannot compete with a topic-specific search engine. Creating a simple, clear navigational structure of related content while cross-promoting related products or services will increase the site's value.

Advertisers will also flock to search portals that are industry-specific, as they appreciate the unique benefit of reaching a very targeted audience who have a higher likelihood of purchasing their product or service.

Consider the niche search engine, Alarm Tools - http://www.alarm-tools.net. The traffic this portal attracts will be of significant interest to manufacturers of security equipment or emergency supplies. Imagine the targeted traffic that an alarm company could receive from a link in the above search directory.

Comtemplate the quality traffic a financial planner could glean from an RSS search directory focussed on finance and investing at http://www.finance-investing.com.

Locating topic-specific search engines is not all that difficult. Consider using the resources provided by Search Engine Watch, Web Search Engines, and Search Engine Guide to locate engines that are topic-specific:

Search Engine Watch - http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156351
Web Search Engines - http://www.web-search-engines.net/directory/topic-specific.html
Search Engine Guide - http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html

Qualified 'clickers' or interested buyers is what it is all about; whether you are selling a product or advertising, the more targeted the traffic the better the fit. As an advertiser, consider topic - specific search engines. As an online marketer, consider creating a niche search portal, as the market is ripe.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

How to Get One Way Backlinks


Don't be fooled into believing that all backlinks are created equal because their not! Why, you may ask? It's no secret that many webmasters trade links left, and right, for the benefit of a higher ranking in the search results, but search engines have caught on to this technique, and are very aware that this is major threat to the relevance of the search results.

Search engines such as Google have took steps in an effort to prevent this from becoming major problem by placing more importance on one way backlinks. So, how do you get one way backlinks to your web site? Well, there are number of ways to go about this, but the most effective techniques are listed below.

1) Having a useful, and valuable web site, especially if your web site is free, (Such as providing articles, tools, games, and software.) will cause other web sites to link to your web site. Why? Because by linking to useful, and unique web sites offer value to their own web site's visitors, and therefor increases their own value. This one can take while to really pay off because like all new web sites, you won't get much traffic.

2) Getting listed in directories, especially related ones, won't only bring you tons of traffic, but will also improve your search engine ranking. The two most important directories to get listed in are the ODP (Otherwise known DMOZ), and Yahoo's directory. You can also find directories that are related to your web site by searching with your favorite search engine with your keyword, and adding at the end resource or directory.

3) Writing articles, and submitting them to Ezines, and article directories, which are than picked up by webmasters looking to add content to their own web site, which will get you tons of one way backlinks. You can also find web sites that are related to yours, and ask them to publish your articles. When writing these articles make sure they are related to your web site, so that the link will appear more relevant to your web site's theme to the search engines.

4) Write a unique testimonial for products, or services, and put a link to your URL in it. Many webmasters will accept the deal because this will cause more visitors to buy their products, or services. If they decide to publish your testimonial you'll get a free backlink to your web site. Before you write the testimonial make sure you understand the product.

5) Participate in forums that are related to your web site's subject, which also allow you to link to your web site in the signature, make sure to read the rules first though. They will send you visitors that are interested in your web site, and will provide a related backlink to your web site.

6) Anytime you first start a web site, add a new product or service to your web site write a press release about it. Submit your press releases to news sites such as PRWeb. Make sure that the press release is attention grabbing, and unique, this will make other webmasters add the press release to their web site.

Matt Colyer began as a SEO Specialist in 1997. He founded Superior Webmaster in 2004 as a source of articles and tutorials for Web site owners looking to improve their Web site.

What is Google Pagerank?


PageRank is one of the factors that Google uses to evaluate your web site and determine its position in the Google search engine results. PageRank is a number from 0 to 10.

Generally, if your web site has a higher PageRank, it will appear earlier in Google search results pages, all other factors being equal. In fact, you can see a significant improvement in where your pages appear in search engine results when your PageRank increases.

How do you find your PageRank? Install the Google Toolbar. You can get it for free at this link:

http://toolbar.google.com

After you install the toolbar, you will see the PageRank in the middle of the toolbar. It may have a small green bar. Hold your mouse over the green bar to see the Google PageRank for the site you are viewing.

So how does Google determine your PageRank?

Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes a page receives, however. Google also looks at the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves important weigh more heavily and help to make other pages important.

How can you improve your PageRank?

By getting votes from important pages (or, links to your web page from other web site pages that themselves have a high PageRank).

You can also be sure to include plenty of relevant, useful, fresh text in your pages. This is useful for Google, since you are providing information for the search engine to index, and it is useful for the people who visit your web site too.

Herb and Monica Leibacher operate Web Builder Express. Create a professional web site for your business or non-profit organization with Web Builder Express. At http://www.WebBuilderExpress.com, you can request your free Quick Start Guide that tells you how to create a great web site.

Search Engine Essentials


What are Search Engines?

There are numerous different search engines, and all are essentially huge databases containing information about web pages from the internet. A web-based user interface then allows the user to search the contents of this database. The user enters a search-term into the search engine and is presented with a list of web-pages that relate to the search-term. Note that search engine databases have separate records for each web-page, not each website.

Some well known search engines are:

    * Google
    * MSN Search
    * AltaVista
    * Ask Jeeves
    * Hotbot
    * All the Web
    * Yahoo

Although they function in essentially the same way, each search engine varies in the amount and type of information it stores about each web page and the way in which it 'decides' which pages relate to a particular search-term.

How Do Search Engines Work?

Spiders and Robots.

Search Engines gather information about Web Pages using automated software that 'crawls' through the World Wide Web visiting every web-page that it can find. This software is usually referred to as a 'robot' or a 'spider'. When an individual submits a website to a search engine they are requesting that a search engine robot is sent to that page. When a robots visits the page it records not just the URL of the page, but varying amounts of information about the page. The robot then follows every single hyperlink within the page and catalogues those pages, and on it goes following links throughout the internet, cataloguing every page it comes to. Once a web-page has been submitted to a search engine, or has links to it from pages that already get spidered by the search engine robots then there should be no need to re-submit the site to the search engines as the robots will come crawling on a regular basis.

The exact information that robots store within the search engines database is kept a secret so as to prevent 'spamming' of the search engines as much as possible. Despite this, it is fairly easy to decide which elements of the page that the search engines are most likely to record.

SERPS

When a user performs a search within a search engine, the results are presented as a list of web-pages that relate to the search-term. These pages are known as 'Search Engine Results Pages' or SERPS. Search Engines attempt to place the most relevant pages to any given search-term at the top of the SERPS. Therefore, the aim of all Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques is to get a web page as close to the top of these SERPS as possible.

The complex algorithms used to calculate which web pages are most relevant to a given search-term are kept a closely guarded secret by the search engines. Once again this is to prevent spamming of the search engines as it is within the search engines interests to make sure the results presented in the SERPS are as accurate and therefore as useful as possible. Search Engines make money by selling advertising space on their web-pages. Advertisers will only pay to advertise if the pages are viewed by millions of people, and people will only continue to use a search engine if it provides them with useful results. It is therefore important that the pages listed in the SERPS as accurate as possible and not influenced by Search Engine spamming techniques.

Features of some Specific Search Engines.

Search engines have much in common with each other, but each also has its own unique features and peculiarities. It is also worth noting that many search engines share the same database or use the same algorithms, so all are inter-related to varying degrees.

Google

Google is at the moment the most popular and therefore most important of the search engines. It generally provides users with highly relevant SERPS, has a wide coverage and has a clean, easy to use interface. It also offers the ability to search for things other than just web pages, such as images, the contents of newsgroups etc.

From a SEO point of view, Google is incredibly important, but it is also very frustrating. The sandbox effect means that new web pages are often not listed in the Google SERPS for many months after Google first becomes aware of them. This can prove frustrating for webmasters of new websites and makes analysing SEO techniques specifically aimed at Google very difficult in the early months of a websites existence. Google also change the algorithm they use on a regular basis. This process is known as the 'Google Dance' and can result in some unexpected and quite dramatic changes in the ranking of a particular page within the SERPS.

Google also offers paid adverts in addition to its unpaid listings. Some of these adverts are also placed on the pages of its partners. It also provides SERPS for other search engines.

Yahoo

Yahoo used to be a web directory where human editors organised websites into categories. However in 2002 it made a shift to robot-based listings and used Googles database. Then in 2004 Yahoo started using their own database and algorithms. Yahoo has also purchased many other smaller search engines and directories, including some bigger names like Overture (which provides Yahoo's Pay Per Click ads), AltaVista and AllTheWeb. Technology from all of these has been used to build the Yahoo robot.

Ask Jeeves (Ask)

Ask Jeeves was originally marketed as a tool for finding the answers to specific questions on the internet. Because of this users often use it to search for information using whole sentences as questions rather than simple search terms such as 2-3 word phrases as used in most other Search Engines. Other than this it works in much the same way as other Search Engines. It is however fairly popular when users are looking for answers to specific questions and can therefore be an important search engine for websites containing lots of factual information and answers to specific questions. The results actually come from the Teoma Search Engine that it owns.

Teoma

Teoma is a robot-based search engine owned by Ask Jeeves. It has a smaller index of the web than Google. In addition to its SERPS it also provides a "Refine" feature, which offers suggested topics to explore after you do a search. The "Resources" section of results is also unique, pointing users to pages that specifically serve as link resources about various topics.

MSN Search

Although not as popular as Google, this is certainly one to watch. Here in the UK Microsoft are promoting MSN Search heavily with numerous prime-time TV adverts. Microsoft cleary wants a piece of the Search-Engine cake at the expense of Google, and what Microsoft wants in the IT world, it usually gets. MSN Search now has a revamped user interface and a much improved algorithm and is providing very relevant SERPS.

It also seems to react very quickly to changes and new websites get listed very quickly. This means it can be useful for tracking and analysing the effectiveness of SEO and promotion campaigns.

AOL Search

AOL search uses the Google database and is very similar to Google. It is of course used by AOL users, but doesn't have as many features as Google.

Which Search Engines Should I be Concerned about?

From the point of view of a webmaster doing his best to get good organic listings and therefore increase traffic to his website, ALL search engines are important. Every single one is used by real human beings, and any of them are capable of sending the next paying customer to your website. However, due to its popularity Google is at the moment the most important.

Don't however put all your eggs in one basket and aim only to get good listings in Google. Yahoo is also important as its database provides results for a number of other smaller search engines with different user-interfaces. Ask Jeeves may well be important for your content-rich websites due to the nature of the 'complete sentence' search-terms that are often used. And never forget MSN, It is pretty big already and getting bigger all the time. It has the might of Microsoft behind it and is a very useful gauge of your SEO and promotion techniques due to its rapid reaction to changes.

Alan Cole runs http://www.pixelwave.co.uk, a one-person web design studio. His aim is to provide cost effective website design production and maintenance by offering professional web solutions that stand out from the crowd. His services also include copywriting, SEO, hosting, web promotion and training.

A Real Example of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Success


The term, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), refers to a set of techniques by which web sites and web pages are constructed for maximum recognition and ranking by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search. Using the right techniques can guarantee top listing positions for keywords and keyphrases that are related to a site.

Search engines have one simple objective: To deliver results that are relevant and meaningful to its users. If this objective is kept in mind, building web pages that help search engines meet this objective is not difficult. Most SEO "tricks" generally don't work because search engines quickly discover and ignore them - or worse, penalize the site than uses them.

LeaseGuide.com uses a number of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods to lock in its #1 position for "car leasing" and many other search terms on Google, MSN, Yahoo, and others.

Here are the primary SEO techniques used:

- Keyword or keyphrase in HTML page title.

- Keyword or keyphrase in the text title at top of page.

- Keyword or keyphrase in ALT parameter of appropriate IMG tags.

- Keyword or keyphrase in first paragraph of text on page.

- Keyword or keyphrase in name of HTML page file.

- Keyword or keyphrase used frequently (but too frequently) in text of page.

- Keyword or keyphrase in text of all links to the page.

Notice that I haven't mentioned using META tags in HTML headers. Although you'll find them on many of our pages, they were placed there in the past when these parameters were more important than now. Although Google sometimes uses the contents of the META DESCRIPTION tag in its site summary description, it's apparently not used in determining search results.

It takes a little time for SEO techniques to work, so be patient and don't expect overnight success. Once you begin getting good rankings on your site, any new pages you add will automatically enjoy easier and faster results.

Al Hearn is owner and operator of LeaseGuide.com, a popular and highly ranked automotive consumer web site. It has helped thousands of visitors since 1995.

Search Engine Optimization: Who Do You Trust?


Internet search engines exist to organize the seemingly immeasurable amount of information available on the web. They direct people to pages that are relevant to their searches, pages that discuss the exact keywords they are looking for. For a business that receives the majority of its clientele from search engines, search engine rankings can make or break an e-commerce company.

Search Engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the marketing technique of enhancing a website and its content in order to increase the chances of achieving a high rank on search engine result pages (SERP) under relevant keyword searches.

Search engines are very secretive about their criteria and ranking systems, they continuously update and revise their algorithms (a mathematical formula used to determine which web pages are displayed in search results), and therefore, there is less likelihood of webmasters and search engine optimizers being able to achieve higher rankings by manipulation and spamming.

Each search engine has its own formula and criteria for indexing and ranking pages. One can analyze SERPs and backward links (all the links pointing at a particular web page) and attempt to determine a search engine's indexing criteria, however, there is a lot of risk involved in relying on a limited number of optimization techniques.

Because of the unpredictable nature of search engines, a website can easily move from a top ranking position on a SERP down to the third or fourth SERP or even banned from the search engine altogether.

To Trust or Not to Trust

There are so many unethical SEO companies that claim to be able to achieve your website #1 rankings, they use overwhelmingly aggressive marketing techniques, and attempt to manipulate search engine results, that they give the industry a bad name.

The main problem with SEO companies is that they base their methods and techniques on research, trial and error, and speculation. As a result of the secretive indexing criteria of search engines, webmasters and SEO companies can only make an educated guess about the ranking systems and possible algorithm revisions.

SEO companies may be able to achieve high rankings in search engines for your website, they are good at what they do, however it is the way they do it that is precarious and dangerous.

Some SEO companies may use 'black hat', techniques to manipulate search engine results to their advantage. These techniques are high risk or illegal and can get a site banned from search engines. Black hat techniques can cuase seevere damage to the business of an e-commerce company.

A few examples of 'black hat' techniques:

? Hidden text/hidden links: stuffing your pages with keywords or links too small to read or the same color as the background, so viewers are unable to see any difference in the aesthetics of the page.

? Cloaking: using browser/bot sniffers to serve the search engine spiders a different page than the page visitors see. It is used to show an optimized page to the search engines and a different page to viewers.

? Mutiple submissions: submitting your domain and pages to search engines, for example submitting http://www.logobee.com and http://www.logobee.com/samples as two seperate urls.

? Link farms: sites created soley for the purpose of search engine ranking. These sites are nothing more than random links which have no relevance to one another.

? Selling PR: sites that sell their high PR links for a fee through direct advertisement and for the sole purpose of increasing link popularity.

? Doorways: having one page stuffed with keywords that re-direct to another more user friendly page.

? Meta tag abuse: having too many keywords in the meta tag description, title and keywords.

I am not implying that all SEO companies use 'black hat' techniques, there are some that use safe techniques, however I am only pointing out that relying on an SEO company to achieve top rankings for your website is a gamble.

As Easy As ABC

You don't have to be a computer genius to achieve higher search engine rankings for your website. Effective search engine optimization can be done by anyone who has the time and determination. There exists hordes of information, suggestions, ideas, methods and tehnicques about successfully optimizing your website for search engines. SEO companies do not use any 'special' tactics that we don't already know or that we can't easily research on the internet.

Safe SEO techniques:

? Content: Add valuable and relevant content to your site. The more content the better. Keep your paragraphs brief and to the point.

? Continuously update your website: Add new information and new pages to your site. Create a section on your home page containing up-to-date news items relevent to your business.

? Link popularity: Participate in link exchanges that are relevant to your business or that compliment your business. The more inbound links, the more important your website is perceived to be by the search engine spiders. Progressively build your links. Do not add 500 links to your site at one time.

? Site maps: Include a site map on your site. Site maps can help your visitors easily surf your site.

? Meta tags and Alt tags: Meta tags contain information about the website, placed in the HTML header of a web page, that is not visible to browsers. The most common meta tags relevant to search engines are title, keyword and description tags. Title tags are the most important tags because they contain the information that a viewer sees concerning your website on a search engine results page. Choose a title that clearly represents your business. Make sure that your all your tags contain relevant keywords. Alt tags describe the graphical elements in a web page.

? Header tags: Header tags (H1, H2, H3?.) are tags used to represent headers and important titles. Use H1 tags for the most important headers, H2 for the next, etc?As well, use bold, italics, underlines, and different font sizes. Spiders and bots give high value to sites that contain a variety of text and font sizes.

? Keep it simple: Make your site simple and viewer friendly. Make you site easy to surf, eye-catching, informative and interesting. Keep in mind that surfers have a short attention span.

? Stay away from large images and Flash images. Spiders have a preference for html text sites.

? Keyword density: Keywords should exist in your title tag, headline tag, description tag and throughout the content of your home page as well as other internal pages. Be careful not to over do it though.

? Informative and authoritative: Include authorative articles pertaining to the topic of your business, FAQ, tips, how-to's, etc..

? Participate in SEO and webmaster forums to keep up to date on SEO techniques and search engine criteria revisions. Read websites and articles on various SEO suggestions.

? For other safe optimization techniques see Google's guidelines for webmasters (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html).

SEO companies are by the dozen, attempting to lure you in, convincing you to believe that they, and they alone, can help you attain top position results on search engines. While you consider whether to go with an SEO company or not, you may want to do some research on the SEO industry. You can find some helpful information at http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html.Instead of spending big bucks on achieving big results, take initiative, do it yourself. Don't spend endless hours worrying about search engine results and crawling spiders. While keeping in mind basic SEO techniques, customize your web site for your human users and not for spiders and bots.

Bio: Colleen Ryan is the Art Director of Logobee Inc., a logo design firm that designs high quality logos and corporate identity design for businesses worldwide. Logobee Inc. was founded in 2000 and since then the company has grown at an exponential rate. http://www.logobee.com

Search Engine Ranking - What Works Now


The methods employed to increase your search enginerankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you haveprobably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tellyou - the time has come to face your website! A high searchengine ranking for your website is so essential that if youhave the slightest desire to actually succeed in yourbusiness, there is no way you can continue to avoid thisissue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services onthe Internet find websites through search engines such asGoogle, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pagesfor high search engine rankings is to attract targetedcustomers to your site who will be more than likely to makea purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engineresults, the greater the traffic that is directed to yourwebsite. That's what search engine optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical informationavailable online to figure out how to optimize your webpages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a fewsimple items on your pages, make some small adjustments,and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. Thefirst item you should examine is the title bar on yourhomepage.

The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page.Look at the words that appear there when you access yourhome page. To increase search engine rankings, the words onyour homepage's title bar should include the most importantkeywords or phrases, one of which would include yourcompany name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars onthe pages you access. Each title bar on every single pageof your site should contain the most important keywords andphrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid verylong strings of keywords, keeping them to six words orless. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the titlebars, and make sure that identical words are not next toeach other.

The next item to put under your microscope is your websitecontent. Search engines generally list sites that containquality content rather than scintillating graphics. Thetext on your site must contain the most important keywords- the words that potential customers will be typing intosearch engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this isnot desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a highranking on search engines, this text is essential. However,the search engines must be able to read the text, meaningthat the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take yourcursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are ableto do this, the text is HTML. If the text will nothighlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case,ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format inorder to increase your search engine rankings.

Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know thissounds like something out of science fiction, but it isreally just simple code. Many people believe that meta tagsare the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality,they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth addingthem in the event that a search engine will use meta tagsin their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you mustaccess the code. To do this, click the "view" button on thebrowser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up awindow revealing the underlying code that created the page.If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top ofthe window. For example, a meta tag would read: metaname="keywords" content=. If you do not find code thatreads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. Thismay not do much for your search engine rankings, but anylittle boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is afactor that is extremely important in terms of searchengine rankings. Almost all search engines use linkpopularity to rank your website. Link popularity is basedon the quality of the sites you have linked to from yourlinks page.

If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popularsearch engine, the search engine will then show you whatsites are linked to your site. In the case that therearen't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sitesthat are linked up have low search engine rankings,consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially,this entails contacting quality sites and requesting thatthey exchange links with your site. Of course, thisrequires checking out the rankings of the websites you wantto link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not onlyboosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs morequality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for asuccessful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go outand hire a search engine optimization company, try takingsome of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can'tboost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore thisall-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, thehigher your search engine ranking, the more qualitycustomers will be directed your way.

Article By Dan Meiyers - SEO Pro
[email protected]

Search Engines Revealed
http://www.eMarketingBooks.com/seosecrets

Increase Your Search Engine Ranking


There are methods to increase your search engine rankings which may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue.

I did once upon a time until I realised its not so bad after all! I am here to tell you - the time has come to face your website! A high search engine ranking as you can manage for your website is essential to get any free visitors rather than burn your wallet on pay per click such as adwords for example.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services onthe Internet find websites through search engines such asGoogle, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pagesfor high search engine rankings is to attract targetedcustomers to your site.The higher the pages come up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to yourwebsite.

That's what search engine optimization is about.

You can lose in all the technical information to figure out how to optimize your web pages. Or you can look at a fewsimple items on your pages, and quite likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should examine is the title bar on your homepage.

Look at the words that appear there when you access yourhome page. To increase search engine rankings, the words onyour homepage's title bar should include the most importantkeywords or phrases, one of which would include yourcompany name.

Next, click on all your links and examine the title bars onthe pages you click through. Each title bar on every single pageof your site should contain the most important keywords andphrases taken from the page itself.

Avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the titlebars, and make sure that identical words are not next toeach other.

Website content has much relevance. Search engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than amazing graphics. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your information etc such as your site.

Aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. For ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However,the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take yourcursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are ableto do this, the text is HTML. If the text will nothighlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case,ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format inorder to increase your search engine rankings.

Next I need to mention something called meta tags. I never paid much attention here previously as I did not really know what they are about in web page design.It is really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect.

Still, it's worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula.The rules always seem to change anyway! To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the browser menu bar, and select "source."

If there are meta tags, they appear near the top ofthe window. For example, a meta tag would read: metaname="keywords" content=. If you do not find code thatreads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. Thismay not do much for your search engine rankings, but anylittle boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is afactor that is extremely important in terms of searchengine rankings. Almost all search engines use linkpopularity to rank your website. Link popularity is basedon the quality of the sites you have linked to from yourlinks page.

If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popularsearch engine, the search engine will then show you whatsites are linked to your site. If there aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign.

Contact quality sites and request that they exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your website.

Only if its a relevant link will the traffic be of value.Oh.. by the way don't get upset if you get no response from a request to exchange links, its nothing personal and if you have low ranking, you need to improve it before someone might consider a link swap.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet marketing campaign. I have to admit to ignoring it for a long while mainly because it seemed like long and tedious work! There was a time maybe only a few years ago when you could show up in a search engine like google quite quickly like a month.

Well that day is over for many sites due in part to sheer volume of pages on the web from the very good to the very awful.Its easy to find or look for the latest SEO secrets some of which are recycled rubbish so why not, try takingsome of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can'tboost your rankings yourself.

This is a critical all-important factor in Internet marketing. Ok, we can't all have the number one spot but occupying the millionth listing is not so clever either.Remember, thehigher your search engine ranking, the more quality visitors will be directed your way.

Sure there are probably a few good people or companies on SEO but you can start off with the tips above and apply them if you have not done so before now.

Christopher Ruane

New to ecommerce and looking for a resource to help grow your online enterprise? For solid advice for digital money tips go to: http://www.Digitalmoneymakers.com

A Classified Way To Drive Business To Your Web Site


There are more than 105 million of them in the United States. Worldwide, there could be at least 250 million of them. Them, according to statistics from the Nielsen/Net Ratings service, is the number of active Web surfers. 250 million in the whole world? The figure is more than the populations of Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and a few non-English speaking countries combined. That's a lot of them!

With so many active surfers around, you would think Webmasters and site owners have an easy time attracting them. Actually, they face an uphill battle to bring visitors and, more importantly, consumers to their Web sites. And a Web site without traffic is like a store built in the middle of the desert. You could have the greatest products and most attractive Web design around, but they're worthless if no one visits them.

There is one way, however, to turn your Web site into an oasis of business, a way to drive as much traffic to your site as your server can handle: a classified ad.

More on that later. First, all Web builders and site owners should know the basic and time-tested ways to attract traffic to their Web site. The key to all of these methods is to attract the right Web surfers. You want what experts call "targeted visitors," or people who are actually interested in what you're selling. To guarantee that this happens, you should follow this checklist of Web traffic golden rules:

Step 1: Optimize your Web pages. Webmasters in the know take the time to set their meta tags. These tags, or codes, are hidden keywords in the Web page that tell search engines like Google and Yahoo exactly what your site is all about. A meta tag, for instance, could be "designer handbags," "sporting equipment," or whatever else you happen to be selling. These keywords tell the search engine to direct all handbag or sports shoppers to your site.

Step 2: List your site with every search engine out there. For this step, you simply need to surf over to Google, AltaVista, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines. Click onto their customer service page, where they allow Web builders and site owners to manually submit their site addresses.

Step 3. Spice up your site with interactive features. With articles, newsletters, offers, promotions, and discounts, you give your targeted visitors a reason to stay at your site once they find it. More importantly, you give them reasons to come back and tell their friends about the site. Word of mouth is one of the best, and cheapest, forms of advertising on the planet.

Step 4. Exchange banner ads with friends and with other companies that you do business with. Banner ads are those eye-catching designs at the top and bottom of Web pages. They're like the billboards of the Internet superhighway. But with these online billboards, a simple click transports the Web surfer directly to your Web site.

Step 5. Exchange Web links with friends and business associates. This, Webmasters and site owners, could be the most important way to drive Web traffic to your site. All of the major search engines rank sites by measuring how many links come to and leave from your Web site.

So links are a way to measure how worthwhile and how legitimate your site is. The better this measurement, the better chance your site will have to show up well in Web surfers' searches. In other words, these links could be the difference between your site being listed on page 20 of a Google search results, or on page 1.

Building better Web links and search engine results-that's where classified sites come into play. Some of the most savvy classified sites on the market now offer Web links in their ads. These links lead right to your business' home page.

Not only are these links convenient one-click ways for more customers to reach your site. They also boost your search engine rankings.

Of course, for business owners, classified sites have so many other benefits, too.

? Unparalleled exposure. Classified sites are like online malls. Not only will you get exposure from shoppers coming specifically to find your goods. You get "spill over" attention from shoppers who came for another item but then start browsing through all of the other ads in the classified "mall."

? A new arsenal of Web sites. Having online classified ads is like setting up multiple new Web sites across the Internet. Unlike your own original site, these classified ads come with low-cost IT support, security, and advertising.

? Incredible growth opportunities. Businesses and individuals selling on online classified sites pull in more than $1.95 billion a year, according to the statistics firm Kelsey Group. That figure does not even include money from eBay.

? Money for nothing. As valuable as classified sites are, many of the best ones charge very little or absolutely nothing to set up your ads.

Add up all of these numbers-250 million active Web surfers in the world, $1.95 billion in classified sales, and $0 cost-and your Web business is sure to come out in the positive.

Donald Lee is the public relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com. Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services for individuals and businesses to market their products and services online. For global and localized classifieds, please visit http://www.buysellcommunity.comFree Buy & Sell Classifieds