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An SEO Checklist
Would you like a checklist of the important steps to take in optimizing a web site? Well, here it is:
1. Use a keyword research tool to find profitable phrases (i.e. those that are actually being searched for).
2. Build each page optimized for a single keyword phrase. Also sprinkle in some secondary keywords relevant to the main keyword.
3. Link your web site together so that all pages are only a couple of clicks away from the homepage.
4. Use text links instead of fancy graphics or buttons to link to your pages.
5. When you add a link to a page where the main keyword phrase for that page is "blue widgets", make sure the links to that page include the phrase "blue widgets".
6. Build a sitemap.
7. Add articles / Content to your web site and add links from these articles to your important pages.
8. Get quality link partners.
Once you have completed these 8 steps, repeat steps 7 & 8 over and over again. I would say that 80% of your time on a new site should be steps 7 and 8. Add content & find link partners. A great way of getting links into your site is writing and publishing articles on article submission sites. When webmasters take up your article and publish it on their site, you get an incoming link to yours.
As your site climbs in the search engine rankings, you can decide when you are happy with your rankings and reduce the amount of time spent on 7 & 8.
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Andy Williams is author of the free, ezSEO internet marketing newsletter,
offering subscribers up-to-date information on all aspects of internet
marketing. His search engine
optimization website offers unique, no
BS information, for free.
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Sales And Crawlers, Update! Update! Update!
The importance to the algorithmic web crawlers that speed throughout the web is crucial to the successful marketing campaign of your site. Your site would simply be a pretty compilation of HTML, XML, Java and the sort if search engine crawlers did not come around and look over your site. These amazing little creatures are absolutely incredible software inventions those only purpose in life is to "crawl" the web.
Search Engine Optimization Lies & Misconceptions
In a perfect world, everyone would be honest.
Search Engine Optimization that Works in the Long-Term
Search engines are constantly tweaking their ranking algorithms and when that happens some pages lose their top ranking positions. One such event was the infamous Florida Update. Many pages were practically kicked-out of the top 1000 pages for competitive keywords.
Finding The True PR Of A Page?
I had an email "conversation" this last week which I feel others may benefit from "listening in" on. Here it is in summary:
Writing SEO Copy ? 8 Steps to Success
We all know that the lion's share of web traffic comes through the search engines. We also know that keywords and links to your site are the two things that affect your ranking in the search engines. Your keywords tell the search engines what you do, and the inbound links tell them how important you are. This combination is what determines your relevance. And relevance is what the search engines are after.
Great Site Ranking in Google The Secrets Out
How many years did you register your domain name for? If it was only one then Google could hold that against you.
Keep Your Content Fresh with this Quick and Easy Tip
Some of the Search engines want only original content. So if the Search Engine Get's to your web Page on your Site and realize they have already seen this Page they won't Index it again, This can be a real hazard if you submit Articles for free Re-Distribution. It is not only possible but highly probable that a site with a higher Page Rank then yours will get your page Indexed First.
London Bombings and Number Patterns
Firstly, let me say that I am sure all our thoughts went out to the victims, their families and friends of these bombings, and other incidents where innocent people lose their lives. Secondly, an SEO ezine is not the place to debate the rights and wrongs of such events.
Commonly SEO terms and Jargon used by Search Engine Gurus
What does all this SEO jargon mean.
Search Engine Position Report
Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally.
Local Search Optimization - A Guide to Getting Started
While searching the web these days, it's hard not to notice all those little Local tabs sprouting up in the vicinity of the search field on virtually every major search engine. Within the past year, the race has been to integrate a plethora of advanced features into local search capabilities.
How To See What Pages Of Your Site Google Has In Its Index
There is a lag time between the indexing or updating of your site, and the time it takes to show new results in the database. Depending on your site, where it was linked from, who it was linked from, and who knows what other factors, the amount of time varies.
Screwed: Is this an inevitability in the SEO World?
By about 2pm everyday, each of my team members has spoken to a good handful of clients and potential clients who have been speaking with other SEO firms. This an absolutely wonderful thing to see, as in the past in our industry, not enough of our consumers were questioning what they were purchasing. It is a sign that accountability will come and the bad guys will be weeded out.While this is a good sign, it's the cause of my having to answer the same questions over and over. The consumers in the SEO world are being fed out and out lies by some of the people who call themselves experts in the area of Search Engine Optimization. They hear these lies and while comparing prices, contact us at Abalone Designs. They then proceed to tell me everything that all of these other companies promised them and I am utterly astonished. Here some of the most asinine claims I hear through the grapevine."We can guarantee your rankings" Don't be fooled! Ask the company what you will be ranking for, immediately! 9 times out of 10, a company that guarantees you rankings, is guaranteeing that you will rank for your own company name, which means people on Google or MSN or Yahoo! would have to know your company name before searching. How does this produce new customers and visitors to your site? Chances are, as soon as these search engines index your site, you will rank within the top ten for your company name, if not first, because it is unique. Why bother paying someone for something that is already going to happen, anyway? Guaranteeing rankings is highly unethical. It is impossible to guarantee rankings unless you have access to Google's database itself, and even then I'm not sure it's possible. Keep in mind, we are working with a 3rd party, here. A highly guarded 3rd party that doesn't, under any circumstances, reveal it's secrets. No one outside of the companies that run these search engines knows what it is exactly that makes search engines rank sites high. Especially due to the fact that these search engines and the rigorous ranking filters they use to spit out search results change almost monthly. Even a former Google employee doesn't know how to guarantee rankings! If someone is telling you they'll guarantee top rankings, run fast! Those are some shady, shady claims. Google themselves have said:"No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google - Beware of SEO's that claim to guarantee rankings, or that claim a "special relationship" with Google, or that claim to have a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is by using the page at http:// www.google.com/addurl.html. You can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever." - http:// www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/seo.htmlAn ethical SEO company will not guarantee rankings. They will guarantee that their methods follow search engine guidelines, and they will guarantee customer satisfaction, but at no point in time will any SEO company with a conscience guarantee your rankings."Your site needs to be continually resubmitted to get on and stay on the search engines" When will I see the end of this one? How old is this method now? 5 years? 10 years? We're talking about the days when Webcrawler was the biggest search engine and all computers were beige! This claim is so fully untrue, had Pinocchio uttered it, his nose would have stretched from Rome to Poughkeepsie. And the good folks at Google will once again back me up on this one:"Submission is not necessary and does not guarantee inclusion in our index. Given the large number of sites submitting URLs, it's likely your pages will be found in an automatic crawl before they make it into our index through the URL submission form. We DO NOT add all submitted URLs to our index, and cannot predict when or if they will appear." - http:// www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/1.html#A2"Meta tags are not important anymore"Sure they aren't. If you don't want a decent ranking on MSN. The new MSN search places a lot of value on the keywords and description meta tags. Without these tags in your site's code, your ranking on MSN will suffer. Just as importantly, if your keywords and description meta tags don't use proper language, your rankings will suffer. The description tag is also what MSN uses as the visible description for a site in the search results. And of course, to prove I'm not the one blowing hot air, here is what MSN themselves say about it:"Site descriptions are extracted from the content of your page each time MSNBot crawls your site and indexes its pages... ...the best way to affect your site description is to ensure that your web pages effectively deliver the information you want to see in search results." - Click here to see the page this is found on. "Your Web Site Has Been Sabotaged" This one is truly unreal. I can't believe it's even been used as an excuse for why an SEO company hasn't achieved decent rankings for you. But alas, more than one SEO company has told potential clients of ours that the reason they are not ranking well, or why their search engine optimization campaign is not effective, is because someone else has been sabotaging the site. Some of the clients who have been told this are small businesses, like bed and breakfasts or pet sitters. We always explain to these potential clients that the likelihood of someone even having the initial idea to sabotage a web site, the site in question would have to be a fairly large one, and the target of a lot of hatred. Why? Because sabotaging a web site's rankings takes a massive amount of time and energy. We're talking months, maybe even years of hard, hard work. Why would anyone devote months or years of their life to taking down a pet sitting site? Or a bed and breakfast?Once again, these are some hefty claims and it is a clear sign that the company who is running your SEO campaign is unwilling to be held accountable for their actions or lack thereof.Don't Put Up With It. The bottom line is, your search engine optimization company works for you. You are paying them. Hold them accountable as you would any other vendor. Keep reading these articles, read info at the search engines, educate yourself and if something your SEO says smells a little rotten, don't be afraid to call them on it.Is being screwed an inevitability in the SEO world? Damn near. But thanks to the increasing interest of our consumers in self-education and their increased questioning, our industry will slowly climb out of the gutter and someday down the line, send this article into antiquity. In spite of my pride, I'd be overjoyed to see that day come.
5 Extremely Valuable Search Engine Optimization Tips
Search engine optimization is THE most cost effective way for a company to market their products and services. Below are 5 extremely valuable search engine optimization tips:
The Power of Topic Specific Search
What are Topical Search Engines?
The Need of Popularity
In very simple words, the link popularity of your site means the amount of links coming to you from another sites. Every major search engine heavily weighs the link popularity of sites when ranking sites. Some engines even claims they won't index sites that don't have at least one link pointing to them from another site. Why they are doing that ? Just because zero popularity means that nobody has an interest related to your site content. Since nobody 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 site becomes very important to you, especially if you aim to earn traffic 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.
The Search Engine Showdown
If you're anything like me, you have a favourite search engine and you're loyal to it. You never use any others (which made this research difficult for yours truly), insist yours is the be-all and end-all and you even go so far as to deny any shortcomings it may have. But is your search engine truly the best? Inspired by a great article at the BBC News (BBC News: Search Wars), we decided to compare the major search engines. Here's what we found.
How to Get a Website Indexed Fast
Get Indexed Fast
The Google Phenomenon: Greatest Hits Collection
As my readers know, I've been one of Google's harshest critics. However, I'm also a firm believer that it's okay to criticize, as long as it's justifiable and fairly balanced with deserved praise.
Internet Directory Submission Tips
Internet Directories and their Importance