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Gear Up Your Site For Social Media Marketing Gear Up Your Site For Social Media Marketing By Deepak Dutta The year 2006 saw the emergence of social media. If you are engaged in operating a website, you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media sites for increased traff? You should also introduce social media components to your site because web users are experiencing these new forms of interactions on more and more sites and they may have an expectation of the same from your site also. The first step is to declare who you are to the online community. People should be able to relate to you. Unless they know more about you, you will be just an unknown identity and most people don't like to deal with unknowns. Create an About Us page and l? your achievements and skills. Create a MySpace page and link your bio in the About Us page to the MySpace page. Also provide a link back from the MySpace page to your website. Spend an hour every week to develop your online social network in MySpace. Invite a few of these new friends to write blog articles at your site about your products or services. If you want to attract repeat visitors and want them to stay longer, your focus this year should be on the social aspects of your site. Social media uses technologies like RSS, blogging, podcasting, tagging, etc.... more.. The Importance of Meta Tags Providing the Human Touch The Importance of Meta Tags Providing the Human Touch By Matthew Coers For the uninitiated, meta-tags are pieces of code within your website that contain information about each page. These tags are supposed to tell search engines and users what the page is about. If you're a little rusty on your Internet jargon, here's a primer. There are essentially three types of meta-tags that concern most marketers: Title - This is the text that appears in the title-bar of your web browser. Description - This is a quick summary of the information on the page. Keywords - These are words that are important in the page.... more.. How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 1) How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 1) By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 In this article, I'm going to show you step-by-step how to create search engine optimized Titles and META Tags.   The TITLE Element TITLE elements, (commonly called TITLE Tags), are one of the most important factors that search engines "look" at when it comes to determining the relevancy of a web page against a search query. In their ranking algorithms, nearly all the major search engines attribute a high relevancy we?t to the content of the TITLE tag. In the HTML code of a web site, TITLE tags look like this one (for a fictional florist): <TITLE>Miami Florists - beautiful floral creations made to order.</TITLE> To view the HTML code of any site, choose "View, Source" from your browser toolbar or right cl? anywhere on the page and choose "view source code". The META Description Tag META Description Tags are designed to describe the content of web pages. Search engine robots will gather up this information when indexing web sites and often use it when referencing web pages in the search listings. While not all search engines continue to utilize the META Description Tag, a majority of search engines rely on the content of this tag (together with a site's visible content) to provide information about a site that... more.. BigDaddy Means Big Changes at Google BigDaddy Means Big Changes at Google Jan 25, 2006 11:19 AM , By Brian Quinton   One of the most popular forms of exercise among many search engine optimizers?both the third-party firms that do it for others and the advertisers who spiff up their own Web pages for better natural search rankings?is a periodic workout called ?chasing the algorithm?. The race begins when Google or Yahoo! updates some portion of the software that determines how they look at Web pages and decide which are most relevant and valuable to a searcher. The engine makes that change; Web operators see their rankings rise or fall as a result; and they, or their outside search engine optimization (SEO) firm, scramble to get back the old rank by providing the new elements the search engine now needs. After a few months, the engines make another change, and it?s off to the races again. Well, optimizers on Google are lacing up their running shoes for another race. Only this one promises to be more a marathon than the usual sprint. Google is testing a new data center infrastructure, a feat much bigger and comprehensive than an algorithm change. Dubbed ?Big Daddy? both in the search marketing blogs and forums and by the friendly folks at Google, this new data center?still in shakedown mode?will reportedly add new ground-level capabilities into the Google search function and drive those powers deep into all the algorithms with which Google searches, studies and indexes the Web. more.. How to Fire up Your Link Building Skills How to Fire up Your Link Building Skills By Jeremy Morgan (c) 2008 You know you need inbound links to your site to succeed in SEO. What you may not know is, you don't need to spend a dime to get them. In fact, I would advise you not to purchase links. The recent Google shakeup is all about paid links. Stop paying for links now! Google is now "punishing" websites for having paid links, because they feel it's cheating the algorithm. You might be upset by this, but they are doing it to improve the quality of their results. Here is how you can take advantage of it. Google is moving towards algorithms that favor sites that are "naturally" linked to. What is "natural" linking? These are links that a webmaster puts up because he or she wanted to, not because they were paid to. They saw something they liked, and put a link to it. This means all those shady SEOs who were buying links up by the hundreds can't cheat good sites out of the rankings anymore. So how you do get natural links? Focus on Your Subject There is a saying in marketing, if you market to everyone, you are marketing to no one. Maintain your focus, and keep your content within your niche. Don't... more.. Website Content By Jerry Bader (c) 2008 Website Content By Jerry Bader (c) 2008 Every week I get asked to look at business websites and tell the owners why they're not getting the results they want. Some of these sites are straightforward brochures, others are e-commerce catalogs, and some are those direct-mail-style pitches reminiscent of old mail-order magazine subscription schemes ported-over to the Web. Some have incorporated do-it-yourself audio and video and some even had this media professionally produced; still the results stink. Why? 'The Close' Is Always Found In 'The Why' Certainly part of the problem stems from a very narrow definition of what a website is: by casting your site in terms of a brochure, catalog, e-commerce-site, blog, or portal, you are falling into the trap of concentrating on 'The What' rather than on 'The Why'. This focus on 'The What' is exacerbated by some search engine optimization techniques intended to drive traffic, not to brand product, sell services, or convert traffic into customers. Don't get me wrong, traffic is important, but converting that traffic into paying customers is more important. Even the best and brightest search engine optimizers will tell you that their job is to deliver traffic not orders - closing the deal is your job, and anybody who tells you that closing can be done by means of some... more.. Effective SEO Through Good Code Structure Effective SEO Through Good Code Structure By Adriana Iordan (c) 2006 For a successful Search Engine Optimization strategy, take into consideration that search engines look at content and also at the structure of the markup. They emphasize the importance of text content, page titles, keywords rich text, meta descriptions and information architecture. A website where quality of content and code prevails will rank higher in the major search engines. There are many Search Engine Optimization tactics, but try to find the best combination and don't sacrifice the usability and performance of your website. Here is some basic information about improving your source code from an SEO perspective: Avoid Classical 404 Error Pages The 404 - File Not Found - page is presented to the user by the server as an error page. The user gets this message directly from the server of the website he is trying to visit. This error page is supposed to appear only when the server cannot find the requested location and is unsure of its status. In the vast majority of cases, the 404 error emerges for pages that were moved or even deleted or the layout of the site or page information changed. Many host? companies offer a 404 redirect page. This means that when a user enters the URL of any page of your domain, and that page does not... more.. 20 Must-Have Tools to Automate an Online Business 20 Must-Have Tools to Automate an Online Business By Donna Gunter (c) 2007 With all the information online about tools and techniques available to help someone effectively manage and run an online business, how do you ever decide which ones are truly useful to have in your business management toolkit? Here's my listing of the 20 indispensable tools that I cannot live without: 1. Article Marketing: SubmitYourArticle.com automates the article submission process by allowing you to submit up to eight articles each month and then distributes the articles to hundreds of web sites, article directories and ezine publishers. Without a doubt, this has been my most effective online marketing tool that has produced tremendous results for my business. 2. Audio Recording/Podcasting: AudioAcrobat.com makes audio streaming fast and simple, whether you want to add an audio greeting, audio testimonials, podcast or videos to your website or send out an audio postcard or record a teleclass. 3. Backup: Carbonite.com offers an unlimited amount of data storage for $50 per year. Carbonite is very intuitive and went directly to my email files and Roboform files to back them up without me having to manually select the backup files. I frequently use this service to find the original version of a file that I've accidentally overwritten, as well.... more.. Top 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking Top 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking By Darren Dunner (c) 2007 My top 10 ways to improve search engine rankings are based on 7 years of banging my head against the world wide web's search engines and reading numerous books on top 10 SEO tactics. Let me say first of all that there are a lot of books, sources and tutorials that make promises of getting your website into the top 10 spots on the major search engines. Most of these are self promoting and the end result is that you have to hire these people to accomplish the things they say you can do on your own. So I want to preface this by saying that this article on how to improve search engine rankings is not necessarily a do-it-your-self guide. In fact, the art of SEO can be time consuming and irritating to say the least. Some methods require the help of companies like mine so I write this in hopes that you will understand what it really takes to gain exposure, realize what you can do on your own and determine when you need assistance. One final point I want to make is "Don't use any SEO Company that can't explain what it is doing and that makes claims of using secr?software that you can nev?see or use". Yes, SEO can be complex but not to... more.. What is Link Bait and How Can It Help Me? What is Link Bait and How Can It Help Me? By Philip C (c) 2008 Specifically, linkbait is used to attract visitors to your website whether through interest, anger or knowledge seeking. Linkbait is content that is specially written to either educate, entertain or inflame your readership and prospective readers. These articles create buzz, and the buzz spreads virally from site to site in the form of links and comments that others make about what is written on your site. These inbound or back links are used by search engine algorithms to rank a website. The higher the rank, the higher the listing, the more traff?that arrives at your website. More visitors create more buzz which in turn creates more visitors. Linkbait creation is a marketing campaign on steroids and falls under the task of link building. Its sole aim is to increase the quantity of high-quality, relevant links to a website. Search engine optimized on a specific keyword phrase, linkbait comes in two flavors: specific, helpful, useful content written by an authority in a niche market or content that will incite discussion and sometimes argument on a niche subject. Either way, linkbait articles attract visitors to your website. Here's the difference. Your content is supposed to generate links from other websites, right?. That is the goal. You want people to like or hate your article/post/rant enough... more.. Web Communication, "Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign" Web Communication, "Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign" By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 Your business success depends on your ability to communicate effectively to an interested audience. Driving appropriate traff?to your site is important, but the tactics that generate visitors are not the same tactics that get visitors to stay on your site. Web-communication is a series of elaborate multi-sensory sign languages; signs being the words, images, audio and videos that constitute the range of presentation vehicles that like all forms of communication have their own grammar, context, and relevance as interpreted from personal experience by each member of your customer-audience. Websites that consistently under perform and that don't meet business expectations generally suffer because they are not designed to hold viewers attention long enough to communicate a clear concise marketing message. When Words Lose Their Meaning Marketing is one of those words that has lost its currency because it has been tossed about with little respect for its meaning. To many, it's merely just another word for advertising, which of course it is not. To the more sophisticated it takes in all the disciplines of branding, positioning, identity, advertising, and more. Above all marketing implies a strategic approach to implementing these tactics. For companies interested in using the Web to further their business objectives, Web-marketing is the execution of a communication strategy through the creative implementation of multi-sensory signature... more.. Click Fraud, Six Things You Should Be Aware Of Before You Buy Click Fraud - Six Things You Should Be Aware Of Before You Buy "Guaranteed Traff? By John Young (c) 2006 Bill was getting frustrated and desperate. He'd being trying to promote his website for months with little or no success. Adwords didn't seem to be working. He'd devised the most fiendish ads he could think of and set them up on Google only to find that nobody clicked on them. He had written several articles and, using an automatic article submitter, had placed them on hundreds of Article Barns across the web. There had been an increase in his Alexa Ratings, but that was it. Maybe there was a slight flurry of hits when he first placed the article, then nothing. He'd set up a blog, made a press release announcement, and done everything except don a Shaman costume and dance around his computer. He'd purchased ebooks on increasing his traff? and tried every idea he ran across. His budget was beginning to show the effects, and he had the chilling realization that if he didn't come across something that worked, he was simply going to run out of mon?and go bankrupt. In other words, he was about to become one of the 90 per cent of the Info Marketers on the web who fail. That was when he ran across a site that guaranteed traff? Little did Bill know he was... more.. Google's Supplemental Index - What You Need To Know Google's Supplemental Index - What You Need To Know By Titus Hoskins (c) 2007 If you run an online website or business you have probably already heard about Google's Supplemental Index. You may have even heard it being referred to as Google's Gulag, Google's Digital Dungeon, or the moniker that seems to have stuck: Google Hell. Hate it or love it, webmasters are passionate about the big G. There's no argument on that point for one good reason: Google simply delivers the most search engine traff?on the web. For any webmaster with at least a few white SEO connected brain cells Google can supply 60% or more of their traff? Therefore, suddenly getting the majority of your pages thrown into Google's Supplemental Index can result in a correlating drop in business. A few examples of this were reported in a recent Forbes article by Andy Greenberg entitled "Condemned To Google Hell". It recounts how two online jewelry businesses lost traff?and sal?by having their pages falling into Google's Supplemental Index. They speculated on what had caused this to happen: duplicate content? buying links? Matt Cutts, Google's main spokesperson (some say pacifier) to worried webmasters everywhere, responded in his own blog: "Having urls in the supplemental results doesn't mean that you have some sort of penalty at all; the main determinant of whether a url is in our main web... more.. Cracking the Google Adsense Code By Kim Roach Cracking the Google Adsense Code By Kim Roach (c) 2006 Google Adsense has empowered web publishers of all shapes and sizes to make money from their web sites. Whether you own a hobby site that gets 100 visitors per day or a popular finance portal that is flooded with millions of visitors per month, you can benefit from the Google Adsense program. Simply sign up for a free account, grab your Adsense code and paste it up on your website. Well, it sounds good anyway. In reality, that's not the whole story. Maximizing your adsense earnings requires a little more care. Fortunately, you can quickly increase your earnings by reading every word of this article. I will cover the basic necessities and also reveal advanced tips that you won't find on every digital corner. So, if you're looking to put more money in your pocket with a few tweaks of code, I urge you to read on. As you are reading, keep in mind that Google is actually one of the best resources for finding information on Adsense optimization. Think it's hard to believe that Google would give good advice? Well, it makes sense when you think about it. The more you make as a publisher, the more they will make. Google has a big incentive to help you perform well. Not to mention, they have tons of data to research what works... more.. Anatomy of a Web-Advertising Campaign Anatomy of a Web-Advertising Campaign By Jerry Bader In The Beginning There Was Marketing Anyone in business who has any interest in using the Web to further his or her business is well aware of "search engine optimization." Not a day goes by that my email in-box isn't loaded with information on how to get the best search engine results, and not a week goes by that a client or potential client doesn't request that their website be not just search friendly but search engine fanatical. For some time we have been preaching the importance of delivering the marketing message and that your message should not be corrupted or distorted by techniques aimed at attracting search engine robots while driving away real people who may actually be potential customers. Now I realize that in many circles this attitude is considered outright heresy, but hopefully there are a few marketing types around that understand websites have to deliver more than miscellaneous random eyeballs; websites have to deliver a message that is memorable, understandable, useable, and if you're really good at your job, information that can be incorporated into your audiences' belief system. With that in mind we were pleasantly surprised when Google the primary target of this SEO obsessive compulsive frenzy of technical slight-of-hand announced that they were instituting Google Video Ads and to add a little icing... more.. Putting The "Ad" Into Adwords Putting The "Ad" Into Adwords By Peter Astley-Sparke (c) 2008 When you're new to AdWords, it's tempting to devote far too much time and energy in trying to craft that "killer" ad. But the truth is that writing ads is a science, not an art. Here are a few of the rules. 1) Don't Fly Blind... In over five years developing AdWords campaigns, we've haven't ever seen a profitable example that didn't track conversions. AdWords Conversion Tracking is simple to install and a "must" for measuring ad performance. Remember, by itself the Cl?-Through- Rate (CTR) of an ad tells you nothing about the ROI it's delivering. We've seen many examples of ads with a lower CTR, but higher conversion rate. Google Analytics obviously adds a great deal more data, but takes time to master. However, one feature worth using immediately is its ability to tell you which ad position yields the best results. Finally, don't forget the AdWords Reports section. This has improved significantly over the past year, and the Search Query Performance report is a real asset in optimizing keywords and ad copy. 2) Cut out the Middle Man... In this case, the "middle man" is Google. When developing and testing your ads, it's vital to put yourself in control as far as possible: Delivery Method: By default, Google spreads the delivery of... more.. Top Six Internal Linking Tactics To Get Top Google Rankings Top Six Internal Linking Tactics To Get Top Google Rankings By Jason O'Connor (c) 2008 If you own or run a website and are not following these six tactics for properly linking your website together then you're losing Google traffic as you read this. First some definitions. Internal linking is the links on your website that point to other pages within your same website. External linking is when you link to another website. Tactics are specific things to do to achieve desired results, or any mode of procedure for gaining advantage or success. There are things you can do when developing or refining your internal linking structure. If you carry out the following tactics, you're going to achieve two things. One, you'll make your website better from a user's perspective. Two, you'll rank better in Google. And it's no coincidence that Google rewards you for doing things that make the website user's experience easier and better. In fact, the most important thing I can recommend is that you create, design and link your website together in a way that benefits the visitor first. Your visitors are most important, not Google rankings. One last thing before I get to the tactics. Have you heard that links from other websites that point back to your website are essential in getting top search engine rankings,... more.. Internet Marketing Blogs that Beg to be Bookmarked Internet Marketing Blogs that Beg to be Bookmarked By Merle (c) 2008 PayPerClickResearch.com Let's face it, Blogs on the topic of Internet marketing are a dime a dozen. Everyone and their dog seems to have one. I'll be the first to admit it takes a lot to impress me. Some blogs are just boring and uneventful. But then there are some that make me want to come back again and again. So, what are the qualities of a great blog? Well, for me it's one that offers me something of value, whether that be in the form of valuable information, or points me in the direction of free products or services. It's all about me. By the same token, I do appreciate a blogger with a sense of humor or strong personality. If you're stiff and mechanical it's just not for me. Show me who you really are and what makes you tick. One final point. Don't forget about design. Blogs that are easy on the eyes, uncluttered and simple get my vote every time. If it has a black background and white text, I'm out of there in a big hurry. So, who has some of the best blogs online today? So glad you asked. Listen closely as I enlighten you and point you in the right direction. 1) more.. 7 Characteristics of a Great Webpage 7 Characteristics of a Great Webpage By Titus Hoskins (c) 2006 What makes for a great webpage? Wouldn't you like to know the main ingredients for creating a superior webpage? What basic elements you must have if you want a solidly designed webpage? A webpage that will stand out and be noticed by your visitors. One that will keep those visitors returning to your site, again and again. An effective webpage that is 95% better than most of the other pages on the Net. Follow these simple design features when creating your next webpage and you will have the answer: 1. Good Keywords The nucleus. The conception. Good keywords are the very first building blocks you must consider before your webpage even becomes a dim notion in your head. Picking the right keyword or keyword phrase is the ultimate factor that will determine the success or failure of your webpage. You must do major research on the keyword or keyword phrases that will be the focal point and drawing card for your webpage. You must get this right. It is vital. It is the single most important element of a webpage. You can use keyword research software and sites such as GoodKeywords, Wordtracker.com, Nichebot.com, or superior keyword research software such as Brad Callen's Keyword Elite. Regardless of what process you favor, you must choose your keywords very carefully.... more.. The State of Search Engine Advertising Reality and Alternatives The State of Search Engine Advertising Reality and Alternatives By Mel Strocen (c) 2007 The herd mentality nev?fails to amaze me. When the pay-per-cl? concept was first pioneered in 1997-98 by GoTo.com (now Yahoo! Search Marketing), it was years before the model was widely accepted. GoTo virtually created the market for pay-for-performance search single-handedly and redefined how businesses market online while other search engines sat on their collective hands. Then, when it was obvious that there was "Gold in Them Thar (PPC) Hills" hundreds of search engines entered the PPC arena and hordes of advertisers followed suit. As a search engine advertising model, pay-per-cl? was, and is, brilliant in its simplicity. In theory, it is a perfect way to bill advertisers based on consumer interest in their advertisements. Unfortunately, in real life mon?can bring out the worst in human, and business, nature. In today's search engine reality, pay-per-cl? should be on its last legs. But, as anyone with a knowledge of the search engine industry knows that simply isn't the case. Let's first examine the main reasons why advertisers should be abandoning PPC in droves: 1. Cost According to the Fathom Online Keyword Price Index, the average keyword price paid by online advertisers reversed a downward trend and increased 16.5% percent to $1.48 in the third quarter of 2006, up from a $1.43 per cl?... more.. URL Submission to Search Engines URL Submission to Search Engines by Azani Getting indexed in the Internet search engine is very important if you want everybody to know the existence of your web site. Imagine, the Internet is like the earth, and you web site is like a shop on earth. Unfortunately, unlike the real world, your shop is not visible; nobody's shop is visible. It is only visible after we enter the shop. So how would anybody know about your shop? In order to let everybody knows the existence of your invisible shop, you have to tell eveybody about your shop's address.In the early of 1996, I have developed a homepage, which I dedicated to a kind of music I really like. The homepage is hosted on Geocities(home of the longest URLs' homepage repository) free hosting service at that time. It is almost impossible for anybody to visit my site by accident because of the long URL. I tried to let everybody know the existence of my homepage, send emails, sign guestbooks, join forums, but I forgot( or I did not know that we have to submit our URL to) the search engines. The homepage got very few visitors, until I gave up and just let it be. And now, for your information, the homepage still exist, but I have already forgot the password. I do not know how many visitors it got per day now because the web counter service is... more.. 5 Tips for Writing Website Content - That Gets Results! 5 Tips for Writing Website Content - That Gets Results! By Brandon Cornett (c) 2008 I'm going to ask you to use your imagination for a moment. Think of a topic that interests you. Maybe it's your favorite sport or hobby, for example. Now imagine that you're searching the Internet for information on that topic. The first article you come across is related to the topic you're researching, but it doesn't offer much in the way of value. It's too general and full of pointless "fluff." It makes obvious points that a third-grader could grasp. And it fails to offer any related information or resources. The second article you come across is much more in-depth. It explains several aspects of your topic with refreshing insight. It is helpful and useful, and it links out to many related articles and resources on the subject. If you could only bookmark one of these pages for future reference, which one would it be? It would be the second page, right? You, like most people, would probably prefer the second page to the first. It's an easy choice, and that's because the author of the second article understood (and delivered) the most important concept of website content development -- the value factor. 5 Benefits of High-Value Web Content This kind of content has value for the reader, obviously. But it also benefits the author... more.. Top 10 Internet Marketing Tips for 2008 Top 10 Internet Marketing Tips for 2008 By Gillian Meier (c) 2008 Internet Marketing has grown phenomenally over the last few years but the shift has quite clearly moved to a market that is driven by the consumer and that is no longer dictated by journalists and corporates. Online consumers are responding more favourably to non-intrusive, relevant and socially attractive campaigns and have quite frankly had enough of intrusive, forced online advertising campaigns. The top 10 internet marketing tips for 2008 are: 1. Optimize your website's content 2. Create a content development strategy for your website 3. Invest in a paid search (pay-per-click) campaign 4. Publicize your website through article marketing 5. Develop a social media marketing strategy 6. Create a Company Blog 7. Experiment with video marketing 8. Engage your audiences with web widget marketing 9. Discover the benefits of mobile marketing 10. Create an effective email market? strategy Let's look at each of these in more detail:- 1. Optimize Your Website's Content: First and foremost, get your website content right. Make sure it is easily read by both humans and search engines. An essential variable applied by Search Engines in the way in which they rank websites is based on the relevancy of the content that the search engine is indexing. 2. Create a Content Development Strategy for Your Website: In addition to optimizing the existing content on your website,... more.. If You Want To REALLY Promote Your Site, Here's How... If You Want To REALLY Promote Your Site, Here's How... By Steve Shaw (c) 2006 Site promotion gimmicks and traff?techniques come and go, but the ones that really work are those that stand the test of time. This article highlights what I consider to be the most effective methods to promote your web site of all time. 1. Get Your Site High In The Search Engines Getting your site linked high in the search engines for your keywords and keyphrases. One of the best ways to do this is to ensure your site has a good number of incoming links from quality sites - I discuss how to achieve this with relative ease below. Also make sure that your site reflects the keywords/keyphrases that you are looking for -... more.. More Freeware SEO Tools for the DIY Webmaster - Part 2 More Freeware SEO Tools for the DIY Webmaster - Part 2 By Mel Strocen (c) 2007 In Part 1 of this article , some of the better, freeware keyword, sitemap and ranking tools available to webmasters were listed. Part 2 covers meta tag generators, link popularity apps, link checkers and general SEO tools. Again, all of these tools can be found in the SiteProNews Webmaster Tools Directory along with new additions as we find them. Let's start with a look at meta tag generators. Since meta tags lost their SEO relevance several years ago, most of the freeware programs in this category are either no longer supported or haven't been updated for several years. But, then again, not much has really changed in meta tag usage so the apps listed below should still be useful. Meta Tag Generators 1. BHead 4.1.1 (1.0 MB) is an advanced meta tag generator that can create your entire HEAD section, including CSS style sheets. Generates the code for all popular meta tags and also has an option for custom tags. Keywords and description can be imported from files. Comes with a basic Style Sheet editor that includes a color picker. Other features include spell ch?, search replace, syntax highlighting, etc. For Windows 9x/NT/ME/2K/. 2. Metty Meta Tag Maker 1.31 (2.5 MB) is a meta tag creator with support... more.. Successful Internet Marketing Without Search Engines Successful Internet Marketing Without Search Engines By Bill Platt (c) 2007 Believe me or not, a business can survive and thrive on the Internet without good search engine placement. That does not mean that a Webmaster should not strive to get good rankings in the search engines, but it does mean that a Webmaster should not throw his or her entire advertising budget towards search engine optimization (SEO). The SEO guys are rolling in their Ferrari's as you read this. I would have said that the SEO guys are rolling their graves, but they are not dead, yet. There Can Be Only Ten How many web pages will be listed on page one of the search results at Google? How about on Yahoo or MSN? That is right; there can be only ten web pages listed on page one of the search results. According to the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org), there are currently 85 billion web pages on the Internet. But, if you have ever used the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, then you know as I know that they have not archived everything that is out there, so that 85-billion number is actually smaller than the real number of existing web pages. With only ten listings on page one of the search results, there are going to be a lot of disappointed... more.. Develop Quality Content to Rule the Web Develop Quality Content to Rule the Web by S. Housley Fresh content The age old question keeps coming up, how do you retain website visitors, how do you make visitors return to your website? The answer should come as no surprise, fresh content. Content is truly king, the fresher the content the better the site. What many webmasters fail to realize is that there is an endless supply of content on the web that is freely available to webmasters. Not only can public domain material be freely used and syndicated on websites, but a number of content publishers provide content in exchange for a link back to their websites. A variety of contents related to the website theme that is integrated into the website will attract the interest of both search engines and web surfers. The key to taking advantage of free content is integrating or including content that is directly related to the theme of the website. 1. Articles Article repositories exist that categorizes content articles. Searching the repositories using keywords that are related to a websites theme will result in a wide variety of articles available for publication that are related to the site's existing web content. Articles in the repositories are available for syndication, which means webmasters can freely include the articles on their websites as long as they include the author resource box with valid links. Use the following to locate topic... more.. A Slippery Slope: Google Owns a Search Engine Optimization Company A Slippery Slope: Google Owns a Search Engine Optimization Company By Scott Buresh (c) 2007 Medium Blue If you own or work with a search engine optimization company, or even if you're just hoping to better your search engine placement, then you are probably aware of the recent acquisition frenzy that took hold among the major search engines. Google paid $3.1 billion for DoubleClick, Microsoft paid $6 billion for Aquantive, and Yahoo paid $680 million for the 80 percent of Right Media that it did not already own and another $300 million for BlueLithium. The companies purchased are all intended to help widen the advertising range of each of the engines in question, and to take advantage of increasingly sophisticated behavioral-based ad-serving technologies that the acquired companies owned. What many people failed to realize was that when Google purchased DoubleClick, it now was also the owner of a very large search engine optimization company called Performics, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of DoubleClick. This fact is of course raising some eyebrows in the industry. Google has consistently maintained that there is no way that people can pay for better search engine placement in the organic index, a stance that the company still claims applies despite this recent purchase. In fact, a portion of Google's published guidelines about SEO says, "While Google doesn't have relationships with any SEOs and doesn't offer... more.. Is Your Business Website Old School - 5 Reasons To Redesign With CSS Is Your Business Website Old School - 5 Reasons To Redesign With CSS By Linda Bustos Many small business owners have a hard time seeing the value of a website redesign. They believe "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." And this is understandable. Unless you are eating, breathing and sleeping technology and staying up to date with the moving target of Internet business, you're not likely to know intuitively if your site needs a redesign. And as a small business owner, you may be concerned about the up-front costs of a website redesign. But once you understand how a redesign can help you drive traff?to your site, convert more users and even save mon? you'll feel more positive about making the ?estment in your business. Old School Web Design - Tables-Based HTML Not long ago, fax machines were the best way to deliver business documents fast. But now it's so easy to scan and email documents, and even capture digital signatures through email, the fax machine is quickly going the way of the typewriter. With email, recipients can choose to read and archive the message online, or print it out themselves on their own desktop printer. No need for individual telephone lines for the fax machine, taking up desk space, replacing toner, uncurling fax paper and listening to screeching fax machine tones! Tables-based HTML websites are... more.. The Top 10 Tools for Monitoring the Success of Your Website The Top 10 Tools for Monitoring the Success of Your Website By Steven Snell (c) 2007 One of the most important aspects of running a website is monitoring the site and its progress. By monitoring your website you will be able to see how it is performing and how it can be improved. This article covers 10 fr?tools that can help you to optimize your site for maximum results. 1 ? Google Analytics Google Analytics has become the preferred option among fr?statistics programs. Like any other stats program, Google Analytics provides data on the number of visitors, and page views, referral sources, entry and exit pages, and more. Unlike most other programs, Google Analytics includes the ability to track and monitor pay-per-cl? (PPC) campaigns. Other useful information includes the geographic location of your visitors, their internet connection speed, and their screen resolutions. You can sign up for Google Analytics at: http://bizsolutions.google.com/services/ 2 ? Google Webmaster Tools Want to know how the largest search engine in the world sees your website? Google's Webmaster Tools will give you loads of information such as the pages that are indexed, errors found by the Googlebot (dead links), your search engine rankings for specific search phrases, your anchor text on inbound links, internal and external link data, and robots.txt and... more.. Social Networks - Search Engine Marketing for Web2.0 Social Networks - Search Engine Marketing for Web2.0 By Warren Pattison Social networks are getting a lot of attention these days including Wikipedia, del.icio.us and MySpace. Along with the buzz, these sites are also generating a lot of traff? How can you integrate links for these types of social network sites into your search engine marketing program? While there are an increasing number of social networks, this article will stick to the above as they are kings of their domains so to speak. I recently had the opportun? to attend Search Engine Strategies in New York City this past February, 2006. While attending a session in regards to community marketing tactics using both Wikipedia and tagging, the panel asked the audience, "Who here knows what Wikipedia and tagging are?" - less than half the room raised their hands. Let me give you an overview of these concepts. Wikipedia is a fr?community content driven encyclopedia. I have included an excerpt about Wikipedia from their about section located at About Wikipedia. "Begun in 2001, Wikipedia has rapidly grown into the largest reference website on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is fr? written collaboratively by people from all around the world. This website is a wiki, which means that anyone with access to an Internet-connected computer can edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, simply by clicking the edit this page link (with... more.. Google's Orion -The Next Shining Star or a Burnt Ember? Google's Orion -The Next Shining Star or a Burnt Ember? By Rob Sullivan (c) 2006 By now you have probably heard that Google bought a new algorithm developed by a university student down under. Many in the industry have speculated on what this could mean. Will this transform Google yet again? Or, will it merely be just another piece of technology they buy but don't appear to use. In this article, I look at the implications of Orion and what it could mean to the future of search. In order to understand the issues at play, we must first understand just what the heck Google bought. Orion is a new algorithm which in a nutshell works like Ask or Clusty in that it will not only match results based on keywords but also similar... more.. How to Troubleshoot Dropped Search Engine Rankings How to Troubleshoot Dropped Search Engine Rankings By Ross Dunn (c) 2008 Are you baffled about a recent drop in your search engine rankings? Do you know where to start and get a handle on what the problem might be and how to remedy it? One option to consider is using search engine forums as a resource. They are full of questions from people who have experienced similar situations and are great resources for an answer or two. But let's say you really want to get to the bottom of the problem and you want to do it yourself. The following are some of the beginning steps StepForth takes when evaluating dropped rankings. Retrace Your Steps Write a list of everything that anyone has done to your site within the past 3 weeks. Now look for anything that could have negatively impacted your content, site structure, or the reliability of your URLs. Once you write down the course of events the answer might pop right out at you. Here are some common situational culprits: You just moved your website to a different hosting provider: did your site experience much, if any, downtime during the switch over? Quality hosting companies will allow you to setup your site on their servers before the switch takes place so that downtime is minimized if... more.. Back to the Future SEO Back to the Future SEO By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 Recently I took on a new SEO client who had a major problem. They had a very popular portal site in a competitive industry but for 3 months running, their Top 10 search engine rankings for major keywords had taken a consistent dive. The position drops ranged from 1 or 2 places up to 20 places. They hired me to try and address the issue quickly because their advertising revenue relied on the top 10 visibility of their brand in the SERPs. I looked for the usual suspects, a Google penalty, dodgy code, hidden text, new competitors, 404 errors, keyword stuffing, fast acquisition of links, domain issues, major host? outages, over-optimization and code bloat. Nothing - the site checked out clean. There had been a major Google algorithm update in the past 6 months, but that had occurred weeks earlier to the downward trend. So then I asked about the design history and if any major changes had been made a week or so prior to the sudden ranking drop. The client couldn't recall any major changes so I went about the business of improving the site as best I could and integrating a link building campaign to obtain links from high quality sites in the same industry. But I couldn't shake the idea that there must have been some major change to... more.. Organic SEO or Pay-Per-Click Advertising... Which Should You Choose? Organic SEO or Pay-Per-Click Advertising... Which Should You Choose? By Scott Buresh (c) 2006 When people hear about online marketing, they often think of two of the more popular methods that a company can use to enhance its visibility on the Web: organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. In an ideal world, you would use both strategically to maximize your site's profile. However, budgetary constraints often make this impossible, and trying to do both on a limited budget or with minimal resources can result in neither campaign producing ideal results. In this case, it's usually better to focus on one or the other. But which is best for you? Organic Search Engine Optimization Organic search engine optimization campaigns offer several distinct advantages over pay-per-click advertising campaigns, as many recent studies have shown. What follows is a brief listing of some of the findings. Propensity to Cl? Study after study indicates people are less likely to cl? on paid search ads rather than on results from organic search engine optimization. For example, one study found that search users are up t?x times more likely to cl? on the first few organic results than they are to choose any of the paid results [1], while an eye tracking study [2] showed that 50 percent of users begin their search by scanning the top organic results. Other studies have shown... more.. Dreaming of Pay Per Cl? Sausage Dreaming of Pay Per Cl? Sausage By Jim Hedger (c) 2007 The problem might have been that Jeffrey had heard the same set of quest?s once too often or it could just be the night noises one hears when traveling in strange cities. It could have been an undigested slice of deep-dish pizza from the evening before or a phantom blues-riff floating in his head. Whatever it was, it was 4AM on the morning of the last day of the Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference and Jeffrey K. Rohrs was wide awake. At 9:00AM he was scheduled to moderate a panel titled In House: Big SEO. Two hours after that he was to moderate another panel, the one that was keeping him up at night, In House: Big PPC panel. Five hours before presiding over two long sessions, and Jeffrey wasn't able to sleep. He wasn't nervous. Jeffrey is an SES veteran having appeared on or moderated large-attendance sessions for several years. The day before he had moderated for panels: Search Arbitrage, Dealing with Affiliates, Auditing Paid Listings and Cl? Fraud, and Search and Regulated Industries. So what could be running through his head at a time when he clearly should have been fast asleep? Jeffrey was thinking about PPC, Von Bismarck, Garlinghouse and sausages in that lucid but dream like state that comes when you wake from your sleep with a start.... more.. Advertising in RSS Feeds Advertising in RSS Feeds By Sharon Housley   As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds, there have been vibrant discussions as to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it appears that many are discussing the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to examine the options available for inserting advertisements in feeds. Ultimately the advertisements served are going to determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed. Take a closer look at some of the ad serving options currently available for RSS feeds. Review of Current Options Google AdSense for... more.. Social Media Optimization - The Power Of Popular Opinion Social Media Optimization - The Power Of Popular Opinion By Brian Easter (c) 2008 Why should I care about Social Media Optimization? You should care about Social Media Optimization (SMO), because you care about your company's image. There's an old saying that goes something like, "A happy customer will tell one other person about his good experience. A disgruntled customer will tell ten people about his bad experience." Good or bad, that's powerful marketing. Social Media Optimization gives you the power to take an active role in managing your brand by interacting with your current and potential clients by discussing your products, their comments and concerns and continually promoting your brand. Social Media Optimization Defined In its most basic form, Social media optimization is any method used to raise your website's online visibility through meaningful communication. SMO opens a dialogue between you and your clients, using the power of popular opinion to fuel your marketing campaign. The open format strengthens your search engine optimization efforts by fostering a mutual connection with your clients through the myriad of online communities, also called social media sites. Current examples of SMO include: Creating profiles in social media communities such as MySpace, Facebook, and VIRB. Participating in and/or creating blogs. Disseminating your blogs or articles using RSS feeds. Creating and sharing content... more.. Google's SEO Advice For Your Website Content Google's SEO Advice For Your Website Content By Joel Walsh (c) 2005 The web pages actually at the top of Google have only one thing clearly in common: good writing. Don't get so caught up in the usual SEO sacred cows and bugbears, such as PageRank, frames, and JavaScr?, that you forget your site's content. I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web. Of course, that shouldn't be a surprise, considering how often officials at Google proclaim the importance of good content. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing. Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really ignore traditional standards of quality in the publishing world? Does Google, like so many website owners, really get so caught up in the process of the algorithm that it misses the... more.. Designing Websites That Appeal To The Senses Designing Websites That Appeal To The Senses By Jerry Bader (c) 2006 Taking Advantage of The Experience Factor We read the newspaper, we watch television, and we listen to the radio, but we experience the Web; this is what makes 'The Website' one of the most powerful marketing tools available to today's marketing executives. Unfortunately conventional wisdom has stifled the 'experience factor' on most website presentations. Traditional circulation based advertising biases and pitch-mandated direct mail practices from metric-minded agencies have limited businesses' ability to take advantage of the Web's capacity to provide a more active, creative, and penetrating sensory experience aimed at furthering marketing objectives. As consumers of information we all filter what our mind considers irrelevant. When we go to a website we quickly recognize where banner and text advertisements have been placed and proceed to ignore them for the rest of our visit. Even television ads are becoming increasingly less effective, even as their cost increases. Yet people will watch and even look forward to creative, entertaining advertisements that capture our imagination and inform our ability to make better decisions about what we buy and who we buy from. Does Anybody Really Know What Works? It is easy to rely on after-the-fact number crunching and projected head-numbing statistics to justify how marketing campaigns are constructed rather than on the less... more.. Google's Paid Search vs. Organic Results, A Rickety Wall of Separation Google's Paid Search vs. Organic Results, A Rickety Wall of Separation By Scott Buresh (c) 2007 Medium Blue "Chinese Wall - The ethical (not physical) barrier between different divisions of a financial (or other) institution to avoid conflict of interest..." Investopedia.com "While Google nev?sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results." Google's Webmaster Help Center FAQ "NO pay for inclusion, and a complete separation of the search index part from the money part." Google Chief Engineer Craig Neville-Manning, Search Engine Strategies 2004 The good people at Google have long maintained that there is a Chinese Wall between paid search results and organic results ? that is, the department responsible for advertising is completely separate from the department responsible for organic search engine placement. The company insists that Google Adwords is a completely separate entity than the Google search engine, and nev?the twain shall meet. This all sounds very good, in theory. But do they live up to this ideal in practice? You don't hear Google talking much about Chinese Walls these days. This is certainly in part because they have had great difficulty gaining traction in the literal and very competitive Chinese market (headlines such as "Google Hits Chinese Wall" or even "Google Advance Halted at Great Wall of China" were commonplace). But might there be other,... more.. The Best Page Layout and Design for Content Websites The Best Page Layout and Design for Content Websites By Miles Galliford (c) 2007 I was chatting to a veteran print publisher who had been producing magazines for over thirty years. He shook his head in despair, as he told me that every year he sees new magazines hit the newsstands with the publications' titles placed vertically on the magazine cover. "Whenever I see this," he said, "I know it has been produced by a new publishing company that does not understand the industry. Anyone with any experience of periodical publishing knows that publications with vertical titles fail, or at least have to change quickly to survive. The market has taught us this lesson hundreds, if not thousands of times, but still people make the same mistake." This message is just as relevant to website layout as it is to magazine design. The web has been around for long enough that rules and best practices have emerged from years of tr? and error by thousands of website owners. You can either go with the flow and be grateful that you can learn from the experience of others, or you can swim against the tide and try to convince the market that you are right and they are wrong. I would suggest that swimming downstream is far easier and will give you a much greater chance of success. To understand which layouts work you... more.. Six Proven Secrets to Writing a Trash-Proof Press Release Six Proven Secrets to Writing a Trash-Proof Press Release By Bill Stoller (c) 2008 PublicityInsider.com In baseball, it's said that you know an umpire is top-notch when you never notice his presence. If he's doing his job, he won't call attention to himself in any way. It's much the same for the writer of a press release. When the recipient of a press release focuses only on its content -- and not on its creation -- the writer has succeeded. With that in mind, here's how to develop a style that can help give you a big edge in placing your press releases. 1) Master News Style By Reading News Stories The folks who write wire copy for the Associated Press are masters at presenting information without calling attention to themselves. Read all the AP wire copy you can and get a sense of the rhythm and flow of their writing. Examine their choice of words and sentence structure (typically, they choose the simplest way of saying things) and their overall tone of solid objectivity. This is the style to which you should aspire. 2) Write a Great Lead The lead paragraph in a press release should, theoretically, be able to stand alone as a news item. A standard news lead answers the Five W's -- Who?... more.. Using Internal Linking To Get Better Search Engine Exposure Using Internal Linking To Get Better Search Engine Exposure By Randy Zlobec (c) 2008 Anyone who runs a website should be aware of a few basic search engine linking tactics. Used properly you can interlink your website so that Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines will rate you higher in both page rank and search engine results for your keyword/key phrase niche terms. If you're unaware of what internal linking means, here's a basic overview. Internal linking involves the links on your website that point to other pages on your website. Internal linking is very important because it allows the search engine spiders, those automated bots that scour the Internet looking for information, to find all of the pages on your website. In comparison, external linking are links that are on your website which link out to other websites, and there are specific tactics for those as well. In this article, however, we're going to cover a few simple tactics and strategies to get your internal linking up to speed. When you're developing your website, you will tend to put a whole lot of pages of similar information tailored to a specific niche or subject that you want to convey to your visitors. You probably will have information, news, how-to articles, tips and sales pages, where informed visitors can buy... more.. Key Marketing Methods For 2008 Key Marketing Methods For 2008 By Sam Law and Julian Stone (c) 2007 ProWorkFlow ProActiveSoftware - Julian101.com (c) 2007 Isn't online market? by definition, expensive? Not necessarily. Online businesses are coming to the realization that in an organic environment like the Internet, organic marketing is required; paying for traditional or static marketing only gets you so far before it becomes ineffective. The consumer now controls your marketing. What is Wrong With the Old Methods? Old marketing methods are failing because users are beginning to wise up (Rise Up) against the old brute force advertising that tries to win users over through sheer volume, using abrasive web-page banners, unrelated Adwords displayed on the page, or repeated newsletters (most being restricted by anti-spam laws). The old methods no longer work effectively for two key reasons. One is the fact that they are a "flash in the pan", directing users to websites only so long as you continue to pay for the campaign, the second reason is consumers are now at the stage where they either ignore them or go out of their way to block them (with plug-in based browser or email filtering). Let's quickly run through some of the "traditional" ways to market on the web, and their failings. Paid Campaigns - (These only work while active) Paid campaigns may lure... more.. How to Write Articles for Improved Search Engine Rank How to Write Articles for Improved Search Engine Rank By Peter Nisbet (c) 2008 If you are looking for improved search engine rank for any page on your website, you have to learn how to write articles in order to make use of one of the major and most useful resources online: article directories. Just as website directories can be used to promote your website online, article directories can be used to publish your articles. These articles can in turn be used to promote a specific page on your website, and in this respect are more useful than a website directory listing that promotes only your home page. You have few opportunities to direct search engine spiders directly to a page of your choice, and when one arises it should be made good use of. In fact, other than article directories and links on your website, you are unlikely to find such an opportun?, and it should be seized whenever it arises. However, very few people actually know how to make best use of such an opportun? and to use their articles intelligently to drive masses of traffic to their site. You can use your Author's Resource to achieve that, but in order to get the Resource read, you have to get the article read. For that to happen, you have to write... more.. Knowing Your Visitors Through Website Traff?Analysis Knowing Your Visitors Through Website Traff?Analysis By Don Resh (c) 2007 Analyzing your web traff?statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data. Most web host? companies will provide you with basic web traff?information that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don't understand how to apply it to your particular business and website. Let's start by examining the most basic data - the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traff?you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site. Traff?Analysis There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality traff?to your site. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit... more.. Search in Internet Marketing The Importance of Search in Internet Marketing By Claudia Bruemmer (c) 2007 For long-time search marketers it will come as no surprise that search has become a media darling. Pay-per-click advertising is the most popular online marketing strategy, and organic search engine optimization provides top click-through and conversion performance. Search is more popular than display ads and ema?marketing because of its excellent performance and ROI. Internet marketers should take note of the development in the search marketplace in order to better focus their advertising budgets. Search is Evolving As the Web grows exponentially, search engine databases suffer from information overload. As a result, technology and consumer search behavior adapts and changes. One of the early attempts to make search easier was the use of metadata in search. The search engine, Clusty came out in 2004 to "deliver groups or clusters of similar results rather that mill?s of search results in one long l?." The clusters were supposed to help users see search results by topic so they could more easily find what they were looking for. Another of the early changes to search was the development of multiple databases within general search. Whether you go to Google or Yahoo, you'll see category choices such as Web, video, images, local, news, etc. These are all different databases that can help you target specific queries. Google aptly... more.. Does Your Website Need a Magic Act? Does Your Website Need a Magic Act? By Jerry Bader (c) 2008 In preparation for an initial meeting with a new client, we were asked to preview their website to see if we could come-up with some ideas for re-branding the company, and invigorating product sales. The client was suitably impressed with our thoughts but there was one problem, the product line that we stressed was not the focus of the company. The client explained that despite the fact most of their current website was devoted to a particular product line, it was not the product that differentiated them from the competition, nor was it the product that made them the most money. Once this was explained our entire focus shifted, and we were able to develop a website concept, and webmedia presentation that focused attention where it belonged. The experience drove home the fact that many websites confuse potential customers by inadvertently leading audiences down the wrong path, hindering profitable sales rather than promoting them. Pick A Card, Any Card Most companies sell a variety of products or services, but they are not all created equal, some are more important, and more profitable than others. At the heart of any website design project is the underlying goal of attracting attention, and directing that attention to the product, service, or concept... more.. What?s worse? The spam itself? Or how anti-spam solutions block legitimate mail? What?s worse? The spam itself? Or how anti-spam solutions block legitimate mail? Posted by David Berlind After being in New York City last week and being busy almost the entire time, I spent a good part of the weekend catching up on e-mail. I have more inboxes than I care to admit and use more technologies than I should be using to see access them (Via the Web, Thunderbird, Outlook, etc). Somewhere on my to-do list is a day or two?s worth of purging and consolidation. These e-mail marathons usually include the tedious job of searching junk mail and spam folders for any legitimate e-mails. When it comes to e-mail, most of us (e-mail users and the e-mail solutions providers that serve them) have lost our sensibilities. The facts that (a) legitimate e-mail finds its way into our junk mail folders, (b) we must spend our time searching through junk mail folders for that legitimate e-mail, and (c) we somehow think this is normal, is proof that we?re gluttons for punishment. So, let me make this abundantly clear: the very second you must access your junk e-mail folder to make sure there?s no legitimate e-mail in it is the very second in which your anti-spam technology has become entirely useless to you. After all, the whole idea of anti-spam technology is to make it so that you don?t have to wade through illegitimate e-mail in order to read your legitimate e-mail ? all... more.. How search engine marketing tools can work for you: or, searching is really all about finding, first of three articles How search engine marketing tools can work for you: or, searching is really all about finding, first of three articles   How does one go from being a librarian and independent information professional to a specialist in search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing? In my case, it was almost inevitable. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As the Internet became more and more of a repository for crucial information, an increasing amount of my work involved sifting through hundreds of Web sites, searching for pertinent information on a wide variety of projects in a very short time. Because it was so hard to find the information on many of those Web sites, my frustration kept growing. I knew there were Web sites out there with great information--I just couldn't find them. When I did find a Web site, I couldn't find the information I was looking for in it. I'm a searcher. I know how to search and where to find information. I understand how search engines work. The problem? The companies and organizations behind these Web sites didn't understand how to have their information found by the people who were looking for it. Shortly after this realization, I started working on search engine promotion and optimization. So what does a search engine optimization specialist do? I am currently the SEO specialist at EBSCO Subsidiary Web Services (ESWS), a department within EBSCO Industries Inc. that provides Web design, development, maintenance, and Internet marketing for the company's... more.. 9 Practical Reasons Why Web-Audio Is A Necessity 9 Practical Reasons Why Web-Audio Is A Necessity By Jerry Bader (c) 2006 1. Limited Screen Real Estate Computer screens have increased in size over the years but website designers still have to deal with the problem of how to get all a client's information presented 'above the fold' so visitors don't have to scroll too much. It's hard enough to get prospects to read anything, let alone copy that drones on. This problem isn't being helped by SEO tacticians promoting inflated text presentations often amounting to exercises in key-phrase diarrhea. If you have a lot to say, turn some of it into audio, so prospects can sit back, listen and absorb what you have to say, rather than hunt desperately for the information they're looking for. The single most important thing that effects a user's Web-experience is how fast they find what they came to learn and what could be easier and faster than pressing an audio button. 2. Computer Screen Readability We have all been raised with the eight and half by eleven format permanently implanted in our heads. Unfortunately computer monitors' four by three aspect ratio is horizontal and the new breed wide-screen monitors use a sixteen by nine format - great for timeline editing and spread sheets, not so great for reading. Computer monitors have nev?been all that... more.. The Role of Memory In Website Content and Advertising The Role of Memory In Website Content and Advertising By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 The primary goal of all advertising, including website content is to be remembered. No matter what other marketing goal you want to achieve, if your audience doesn't remember your presentation, it is a wasted effort and lost opportun?. All the mon?spent on attracting people to your website goes right down the drain if your content is instantly forgettable. With that in mind it is hard to believe how little thought is put into creating content that people will remember. In order to create content or advertising that people will remember, we have to understand a little about how memory works. Professor Daniel Schacter of Harvard University is an expert in the study of human memory and has written numerous books on the subject, including 'The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers'. In this book Schacter describes seven characteristics of human memory that all marketing people need to be aware of in order to construct content and advertising that website audiences will retain. Transience Transience refers to the fact that memory degrades over time, our recollections become generic and what we are left with is a sense of expectation rather than specific features. If you overload your website visitors with a shopping l? of features or a series of b-school banalities,... more.. How to Find Free Content for your Web Site How to Find Free Content for your Web Site By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 I see a lot of webmasters complain in forums and chat rooms that they don't have enough content on their web sites, but they don't have the means or the knowledge to find more. There are actually many ways to obtain more web site content. You could hire someone to write it for you. You could purchase some ready made content about your site topic or you could spend some time and write content yourself. But did you know that there is a way you can get hundreds of pages worth of high quality, fresh content every day without paying a cent? There is. It's called article syndication. Article Syndication Articles relating to thousands of topics are freely available for syndication on web sites. Authors provide them for this purpose to gain a wider audience and achieve more back links. Generally, the only requirement for webmasters is that the author's by-line, resource box and link are included with the published article. In terms of copyright, you simply need to follow the author's publishing guidelines when republishing their article. This usually involves an "About the Author" paragraph at the bottom of each article with a sentence and link to the author's site. These syndication requirements are generally specified in the article itself. How to do it: more.. The Impact of Social Media on Search Rankings The Impact of Social Media on Search Rankings By Susan Esparza (c) 2007 Over the past few years, the Internet has increasingly become a participatory social network where user-generated content is just as important as traditional advertising messages. This means your articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts, and other comments on the Web are now critical sources of information about your company, your products and services. This phenomenon has given consumers a voice and weakened the power formerly held by advertising media. Social media, therefore, becomes increasingly important to a Web site's success and its visibility in search engines. Not long ago, search engine optimization focused on fine-tuning your on- and off-page Web site elements in order to achieve better rankings in the search engines. While on-page elements remain the fundamental building blocks of your SEO campaign, it is no longer the entirety of the puzzle. With the rise of social media, it is more important than ever to create and optimize many different types of content in order to dominate the SERPs. The ?rease in user-generated content, and implementation of Google search personalization and universal search, has helped bring this about. Search Personalization In personalized search, individual user search results are reordered based on their previous search behavior and other indicators. Pages can move up or down based on the influence of a user's Google home page content,... more.. In the click: want all the right people to notice your business? Then you need to make the most of today's hottest marketing method?search engine optimization In the click: want all the right people to notice your business? Then you need to make the most of today's hottest marketing method?search engine optimization You can't resist the temptation. Fixated on your computer screen, you anxiously type keywords relevant to your business into your favorite search engine. A list of search results appears. You cringe as you spot several competitors, then grumble because your company's Web site is nowhere to be seen. Where is it? That depends. Where is your search engine marketing strategy? Gone are the days when adding keywords in meta tags to your site produced rankings. Search engine marketing has evolved into a complex and competitive program. It's also profitable--according to a March 2003 report by Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Safa Rashtchy, online search is the most cost-effective direct-marketing method. The average cost per lead from search is 29 cents, far less than e-mail (50 cents), the Yellow Pages ($1.18), banner ads ($2.00) and direct mail ($9.94). Gather your Web design and marketing staff; both teams are required. Understanding search engine marketing basics will help your team execute a strategy in-house or outsource it to specialists. The sooner your site is visible for relevant keywords, the sooner future customers will find your company. HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK? Many business owners are unaware that search engines feed their results to each other. For example, if you type a keyword into MSN Search on Microsoft's... more.. How To Effective Link Building through Link Baiting How To Effective Link Building through Link Baiting By Rob Sullivan (c) 2006 There is a tactic out there embraced by bloggers but rarely used by typical websites. It is called Link Baiting. In this article I explain what link baiting is and how everyone, not just bloggers, can use it to build quality links. This is a topic that's been around for a while but I don't think a lot of people know what it is, or how to use it to their advantage. I think the name "Link Baiting" could be considered a black hat technique which is why most people wouldn't consider it as a legit?te organic tactic. However link baiting... more.. Making Your Site Search Engine Friendly - Spiderability Making Your Site Search Engine Friendly - Spiderability By John Buchanan (c) 2007 One of the keys to obtaining top rankings, or ANY rankings for that matter is making sure that the search engines can properly spider and index your site. This means doing whatever you can to make sure the search engines are able to reach each page of your site as easily as possible. When I talk to my clients about spiderability, I'm generally referring to two things... 1) Are all the links in the site true hyperlinks that can be picked up properly by the search engines. 2) Are all the pages within the site reachable within 2-3 clicks from the homepage. So let's go over the above two areas of concern. 1) Hyperlinks. This may seem almost silly, but you would be amaz?at the number of sites I run into when doing consultations and website analyses that have non-standard hyperlinks. By "non-standard", I'm referring to javascr? generated hyperlinks or hyperlinks embedded within flash files. There is nothing inherently wrong with javascr? or flash when used properly, but the simple fact is that javascr? and flash are NOT search engine friendly. Google is pretty much the only engine that is able to pick up links within javascr? or flash code. At this time, I have seen no evidence that either Yahoo or MSN have this ability. While Google may... more.. Your Guide to Top Search Engine Rankings Your Guide to Top Search Engine Rankings By Trent Brownrigg (c) 2006 Does it seem like no matter what you do your website just won't climb up in the search engine rankings? If so, your web site may not be optimized well enough for the search engines to increase your rankings. There are some very important factors that determine where web sites are ranked. These factors are referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and they can make all the difference in your site's rankings. Here are some of the most important factors that the search engines use in determining your rankings: 1. Web Site Content Content on your site is one of the most important factors for successful search engine optimization. Your web site should provide valuable information on specific subjects relevant to your web site. Furthermore, your content should be updated regularly. It's not enough to just put up a few content pages full of information on your site and then nev?add to it. This is a continuous process that will help your search engine rankings if done correctly. It's also important that you don't try to trick the search engines by flooding them with multiple versions of the same page, repeating the same content over and over. Doing that will not help your rankings and will eventually lead to your site getting banned... more.. Is Your Website an Asset Or a Liability? Is Your Website an Asset Or a Liability? By Nick Yorchak (c) 2007 Remember back in the good ol' days when having a website was something every company needed and wanted? Websites were the wave of the future, and the dream of transitioning to conducting business onl? filled our heads with visions of a revolution in the way commerce was conducted. With a website, a company could reach clients and interact with potential customers on a global scale. A website was indicative of a company's technological prowess, symbolic of the desire to innovate and evolve with developments in the industry. Today, this mindset has changed drastically. We all know that we need a website, but many of us think that simply having one is enough. In fact, there is research indicating that many firms with an online presence haven't touched their websites in years. They haven't spent any time improving functionality and appearance, and they have yet to consider the basics of website usability and the inherent potential of search engine optimization. Of course, we all recognize by now that having a website is an essential business asset, if it's done correctly. It's easy to see that if your site is an outdated eyesore, it becomes a liability that hurts you more than it helps you. Conversely, a well-designed site can make... more.. Secrets Your Web Designer Isn't Telling You Secrets Your Web Designer Isn't Telling You By Kalena Jordan (c) 2008 If I was to ask you right now "Are you absolutely certain that your web site is optimized for high visibility in search engines?", what would you say? What if I was to ask "What position in the major search engines does your site appear in for your target search terms?" Or how about "Does each page of your site have tailored Title and META Tags?" If you would answer "No" or "I don't know" to any of these questions, you would be amongst the 60% of web site owners whose web sites are missing out on traffic because they are not designed for search engine compatibility. Has your web designer optimized YOUR site for your target keywords? Have they made sure it is visible in Google and the other major search engines? More than likely, you don't know because they haven't told you. Ask them today! But what exactly is search engine optimization? Simply explained, it is the technique of attaining a high ranking in search engines and directories via changes to your site code to make it more search engine compatible. In my experience, web designers keep a lot of secrets. One of the biggest ones is that they have no clue about what makes a web site... more.. Using Images for SEO Using Images for SEO By John Case (c) 2006 Humans vs. Search Engines Human visitors and search engine robots that visit websites and index information about them look for different things in a page. People like to see an attractive layout with nice pictures and graphics, animation, easy-to-locate navigation, and friendly greetings like "Welcome to Annie's Online Shop" at the top of a page. Search engines, on the other hand, like sites that have lots of textual content, good site structure (sitemaps, consistent linking style), and a meaningful phrase such as "Chicago Area Florist" as the heading of a page. While search engines can read the "alt image" tags of graphics, they cannot "look at" pictures the way a human visitor can, and far prefer text. Replacing Text with Images One way to work around this paradox is to shift some of the text that search engines have no interest in over to graphics. For example friendly greetings like "Welcome to Our Site" or "Annie's Online Shop" work best as header graphics. Creating a header graphic in a graphic editing program like Photoshop, Illust