Friday, May 2, 2008

Google Optimization - So You Want To Get To The Top?

By Noel Swanson

How do you do it?

Here we will help you develop a sensible strategy for promoting your website by weeding out all of the nonsense, myths and hype.

First things first, how does a website achieve top rankings?

Through use of top secret algorithms, Search Engines rank sites based on relevancy, accuracy and up-kept status of information. This counters SEO experts whose sole purpose is to get clients at the top of the rankings.

Top rankings can be achieved by two "strategies":

"Black Hat Optimization" and "White Hat Optimization"

White Hat optimization is designed to deliver accurate, timely, relevant and quality information - essentially working WITH the Search Engines.

Black Hat refers to strategies that try to get around that by various ways of cheating. Black Hat techniques can work, but usually only for a short period of time until all the PhD's at Google figure out what you are doing and find a way to plug that loophole - and ban you while they are at it.

Though nobody can verify what works best as far as ranking factors. Given the goal of Search Engines, there are a handful of strategies that have survived the test of time, make logical sense, and have been physically proven:

1. High quality content relevant to your theme. The more content present on a site, the better it will be recognized. Search engines use AI programs known as "latent semantic indexing" programs to decipher what websites are about, as opposed to just what keywords are within the content. Keywords still play a vital role but now other content that relates to your theme is also relevant as it is now taken into account by the artificial intelligence.

2. Links pointing to your site. Links coming from Authority sites are generally worth the most, as they are trusted sources of content. Links from so-called "bad neighborhoods" count for very little. Theme sites related to yours are worth more than non-related sites, ie political sites won't help you nearly as much as a pet site if you are likewise, a pet site. Search Engines don't penalize you for bad links coming into your site, but they certainly don't reward you for links from Free-For-All pages (FFA), link farms or other sites dubbed "bad." Google Page Rank is a good rough indication of how valuable a site is, the higher the better. PR is probably going to become theme specific, meaning that you may have a low PR for one theme but have a high PR for another theme.

3. Sites that have been around a long time - If all factors are equal, Google Page Rank will rise with time. This makes older sites more worthwhile due to this reason.

4. New sites - New sites generally get initial priority as they may have some recent, hot news, which is after all what Search Engine's are looking to deliver. Links pointing to new sites are also worthwhile as they may indicate recent news on the site being linked to.

5. Links OUT to authority sites are also worth points. But don't have too many. While you are not penalized for any bad links coming in, you can be penalized if you link out to bad neighborhoods.

6. Keywords - Set your goal to get ranked for specific keywords before all else. Tag the name of your area or town to the end of the keyword if you are a local business. Keywords vary in competition. Some much more than others.

7. Original Content. Don't just use the same article everyone else is using. Search Engines are quick to filter out content that they find multiple times. One needs unique content, both on sites linking in, as well as your own. Search Engine's don't want the public to find the same information in multiple places.

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success using article marketing

By vidah

The greatest benefit of article marketing is that is an absolutely free method anyone can use to get free traffic to their site. The number of locations articles can be placed is enormous with each one containing a link back to a site of your choice.

Top sites are also viewed by search engines as authority sites so it is to your benefit in many ways to have your content accepted; by improving your standing, you will by default, also improve the level of trust people have for you.

Article marketing carried out regularly can bring fantastic rewards as people begin to see you as an expert in your field. The purpose is to convince people of your abilities in the particular fields you write in. Although it can take a while, this traffic from people that trust you will help your own search engine ranking; by default this will increase the number of 'organic' visitors you receive that have searched for something your site has information on. The more websites that link to yours, the more traffic you will achieve; more importantly, none of this traffic actually costs anything at all!

One of the major benefits of article marketing is the links that can be contained within not just the text body but also the 'bio' box at the bottom of the page. When your articles are good, they get spread around the internet and of course each version will have links back to your own so the more links you have, the more your ranking will grow.

Just how quickly you will be visited by a search engine and listed can vary enormously from a day to months! However if you are submitting articles that are relevant to your website, the process of listing your site is usually much quicker which increases traffic.

Article marketing helps to improving the ranking of a site but in addition to this it also helps increase the amount of content at the same time which again improves rank. For the most part, people who are directed to your website are not expecting to buy or be sold anything. There is no reason why you cannot be truthful about what you are doing once they reach your website provided you have useful information.

It is at this point that the sales promotion can be used. This procedure is almost like a safety net because you are explaining the process to them so they will not misunderstand. The last thing you want after making the sale is to return the money so by doing carrying out this process you lessen your chance of it happening.

It is this type of article marketing ensures visitors are always coming to your site; this does require you to understand that all of this cannot be achieved with just one article. Remember, if you have an interesting site you will also receive links from other website owners who may also use your article as well; don't forget, your article will contain information that people are searching for. There are no charges to article marketing and is still the number one way to get traffic to your site; all you need is to keep supplying them with the information they are looking for in the form of articles.

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

How to Help Your Business Stand out on the Internet

By Jason Pearson

Knowing which market you plan to sell to is an essential part of a successful internet business. Part of knowing your market is familiarizing yourself with any and all competition. This way you can shape your business and marketing plan to target a narrow category of people that are most likely to buy your product or service.

You have to start by knowing your competitors around the globe intimately. You must also make sure that when people are seeking to spend money in your market you are a prominent contender for their business. These qualified leads are people who are already interested in purchasing something like your product when they come to your website.

This kind of prospect is also known as a qualified lead. They are the consumers who are most likely to spend their money upon arriving at your website. The key to making this work is to make sure your company is listed above most or all of your competition with search engines.

Do this with keywords strategically placed and repeated throughout articles. You can hire people to do this for you or do it yourself. The key is to generate new content on a regular basis, prompting search engine crawlers to recognize it and in turn boost your placement within search engine results.

After you have a well-researched product and are consistently high in the search engine listings, you should make sure your website is appealing to consumers. If they are turned off by a cheap display or cannot find what they need, all your efforts have been wasted. Consumers will quickly move onto one of thousands of other options if they can't find what they need immediately.

Look at server statistics to know where your traffic is coming from. You may even want to hire professionals to do this for you or to conduct further market research if necessary. This data and a proper analysis of it will help you determine which of your marketing strategies are successful and which ones are not.

With this kind of information, you can tailor your marketing plans in the future to fill in gaps that currently exist and do away with ineffective strategies as well. You should always be willing to change your website to match current market developments. Doing so also proves to your clientele and prospects that you are on top of your game.

Being visible and profitable on the internet takes close monitoring of several factors. Your competition, your website design and functionality, and how you generate leads are all important aspects of your overall marketing plan. In addition to these core concepts, you should also strive to ensure that each client has positive things to tell their friends about their purchase on your website.

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