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Thursday, April 24, 2008

Why? - Page Rank

What is Page Rank ?


In short Page Rank is a "vote", by all the other pages on the Web, about how important a page is. A link to a page counts as a vote of support. If there's no link there's no support (but it's an abstention from voting rather than a vote against the page).


How is Page Rank Used?


Page Rank is one of the methods Google uses to determine a page's relevance or importance. It is only one part of the story when it comes to the Google listing, but the other aspects are discussed elsewhere (and are ever changing) and Page Rank is interesting enough to deserve a paper of its own.


Page Rank is also displayed on the toolbar of your browser if you've installed the Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/). But the Toolbar Page Rank only goes from 0 - 10 and seems to be something like a logarithmic scale:


Toolbar Page Rank:


(log base 10) Real Page Rank

0 0 - 10
1 100 - 1,000
2 1,000 - 10,000
3 10,000 - 100,000
4 and so on...


We can't know the exact details of the scale because, as we'll see later, the maximum PR of all pages on the web changes every month when Google does its re-indexing! If we presume the scale is logarithmic (although there is only anecdotal evidence for this at the time of writing) then Google could simply give the highest actual PR page a toolbar PR of 10 and scale the rest appropriately.


Also the toolbar sometimes guesses! The toolbar often shows me a Toolbar PR for pages I've only just uploaded and cannot possibly be in the index yet!


What seems to be happening is that the toolbar looks at the URL of the page the browser is displaying and strips off everything down the last "/" (i.e. it goes to the "parent" page in URL terms). If Google has a Toolbar PR for that parent then it subtracts 1 and shows that as the Toolbar PR for this page. If there's no PR for the parent it goes to the parent's page, but subtracting 2, and so on all the way up to the root of your site. If it can't find a Toolbar PR to display in this way, that is if it doesn't find a page with a real calculated PR, then the bar is greyed out.


Note that if the Toolbar is guessing in this way, the actual PR of the page is 0 - though its PR will be calculated shortly after the Google spider first sees it.


PageRank says nothing about the content or size of a page, the language it's written in, or the text used in the anchor of a link!


Definitions


I've started to use some technical terms and shorthand in this paper. Now's as good a time as any to define all the terms I'll use:


PR:
Shorthand for PageRank: the actual, real, page rank for each page as calculated by Google. As we'll see later this can range from 0.15 to billions.


Toolbar PR: The PageRank displayed in the Google toolbar in your browser. This ranges from 0 to 10.


Backlink: If page A links out to page B, then page B is said to have a "backlink" from page A.


Visit us:
http://www.halfvalue.com/top-articles/seo-resources.html


The author is a regular contributor to halfvalue.com where more information about SEO Resources and other more accessories is available.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

How to Improve Page Rank!

PageRank is one of more than 100 factors Google uses in the ranking of you website and your resulting position on their search engine. You get PageRank (PR) by having backward links from other website pages that have a higher PR rating than your site page the link is to. The PR of your site is updated about once of month when Google updates their database of web pages.


For example if you have a backward link from a site that has a PR of 5, some of that PR be will transfered from their website to your website page they linked to. These links are called backlinks.Sites with high PageRank will get crawled by the search engine bots more often, and the crawls will be deeper.


While Google takes into consideration the PageRank of your site, high PR doesn't always equate to a higher Search Engine Results Position (SERP). You can have high PR and have a low SERP on a certian keyword phrase, while some other site can have low PR but have a high SERP on the same keyword phrase.


In your pursue for a high PR keep in mind that numerous relevant keyword anchor texted backlinks will get you a higher SERP than just raw high PR and that with numerous relevant keyword anchor texted backlinks will come PR.


You aim shouldn't be just for high PR, but for proper backlinks that will bring with them a higher PR.


Page Rank Algorithm:


The following will give you an idea of how many inbound links and what PR those inbound links need to be, for you to obtain the desired PageRank for your pages. The following pagerank algorithm equation is the relationship between two pages A and B, with the below example page A receiving an inbound link from page B.


PR-A = (0.15) + (0.85 x PR-B / TOL-B)


PR-A is the PageRank of Page A, PR-B is the PageRank of Page B, and TOL-B is the Total Outbound Links of Page B.


For example if you get a inbound link from a page that has a PR of 6 and on that page there is a total of 6 outbound links (counting the one to your page), a PR of 1 will be added to your page: 0.15 + (0.85 x 6/6) = 1. If that one inbound link adds a PR of 1 to your page, and you wanted a PR of 5 it would take 5 similar inbound links.


By similar I mean pages that have a PR/TOL ratio of 1. That could be a PR of 5 with 5 outbound links, or a PR of 7 with 7 out bound links and so on. A PR/TOL ratio of 1 will add to your page a PR of 1. Using the PR/TOL ratio simplifies the RageRank algorithm equation and makes it easier for you to evaulate what PR a inbound link will add to your page.


When you are looking for inbound links just divide the PR of the page by its outbound links and this will give you a general idea of the PR a inbound link from that page would give you.

How To Improve Your Profit With A Better Google PageRank

GOOGLE PAGERANK


Every one with a business web site knows that the lifeblood of their business is the traffic that they can get to it, and that the Search Engines are a sure and economic way of getting it...


If...


Your web site shows among the first 20 or 30 results when someone looks at a Search Engine For the keywords of your web site.
Google is one of the biggest Search Engines (or the biggest) and that´s why Google is one of the most used ones.


If your web site has a big PageRank, that´s one of the easiest ways to reach the first places on a Google´s search, so many people think that what you should look for, is to have a BIG Google Page Rank.


And what is the PageRank?


PageRank it´s a measure of a site´s reputation according to the quality and quantity of it´s in pointing links.


How can you get in pointing links from the expert sites on your market?


You can do it with a link exchange campaign, but most of all you can achieve it:


Having good content!


So for the same keyword, the page with higher page rank will rank higher on the searches, and a page with higher page rank linking to your site, will help you more to get a better page rank for your site.


To determine the relevance of a web page, Google looks for keywords in various places of each web page, plus many other things and one of them is the PageRank, meaning that Google has a ranking where the best pages about each keyword have the bigger Page Rank.


So the marketers and search engine optimizers started to manipulate the keywords, in order to have a bigger page rank, and soon the Search Engines noticed it and started to counteract creating extremely sophisticated algorithms to evaluate each web site´s real page rank and banned the the cheater´s web sites.


And this is an endless dance, the search engine optimizers keep studying better ways to optimize the web pages, and the search engines keep evolving and creating evaluation methods that will tell them the truth about each web site´s content and value.


Many search engine optimizers will tell you that they know how Google evaluates the web site, but the real truth is that no one of them knows it! Maybe two or three people at Google really know it, and they will never tell it to any one because that will ruin their business.


And which is Google´s business?


Google´s business is to recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it, because they want to sell advertise, and they do it providing the best results on each search (including the page ads on the results). So their business is to provide targeted surfers to their advertisers.


People find that the results are really related with what they are looking for, they click over the URL (sometimes over the free ones and sometimes over the ads) and they keep on using Google as their favorite search engine.


To recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it sounds reasonable and easy for a human being, but it´s not easy at all for Google´s robots.


So Google creates algorithms to evaluate the sites and from time to time changes their algorithm in what it has being called "Google´s dance". This "dance" of course irritates many people (the ones that try to discover what the algorithm is about) because when they get near to know how to artificially inflate a web page´s value, Google changes the relevancy criteria.


But the fact is that Google does the right thing. The want to be able to recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it, without mistaking good content web pages with well "optimized" web pages.


Search engines as Google need to recognize reality and to give the proper page rank to each web site, and how do they do it?


They check the on-page criteria and the off-page criteria...


* On-page criteria evaluates the content of a web page (keywords, title, meta tags, body, images, alt tags, etc.)

* Off-page criteria evaluates how the people react about it:


what URL gets the click

how much time people spends reading each web page

how many URL link to that page, and how relevant (how big is the PageRank) are the pages that link to it

etc.


And there´s only one way to generate off-page criteria: with good content!


It´s you who know your business, and you are the best suited to write your web site´s content and this is the basic idea.


1) Create web pages with excellent content about your topic. This will tell the search engine´s robot what your page is about.

2) Once you create a professionally designed web page as the ones that "How to Sell on the Web" helps you to create, don´t loose your time tweaking it to reach better places with the search engines, use your time to create more good content web pages. Keep on creating good content web pages until you have 20 or more.

3) Submit your web page to the search engines
4) Start a links exchange campaign. This will not only help you reach a higher pagerank but some search engines do not allow you to submit your web site to them and will only be able to find you through your inbound links


This plan works as a snowball...


* You write 20 or more good content web pages
* You exchange links with some good content web pages
* The search engines find that people is linking to your web pages and give you a page rank
* You write more good content web pages
* People find that your web site is a really good one and start asking you to exchange links
* Search engines find that you have more good inbound links and give you a higher pagerank for more of your easy to win keywords (without tweaking your pages)
* The higher pagerank gives you a better position on searches, this brings more visitors to your site, some of them buy your products or services and some others ask you to exchange links with them as the snowball keeps on rolling and growing you will get higher pagerank for your most competitive keywords too and without having to tweak your pages


Is this an easy and fast process?


It should be easy for you to write about your topic, but it might take months to get a decent pagerank. You will find yourself writing pages and exchanging links without noticing any results...


Don´t worry!


* Keep on building good content pages
* keep on looking for good inbound links
* Keep on building good content pages
* keep on looking for good inbound links


Don´t worry, persist...


And you will succeed for sure!


If you want an automate reciprocal link exchange program like the one I use to build my Easy Home Business Ideas site, you can download your free copy of from here: http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/hts/zeus.html


And if you want to "Make Your Links Work" and grow your site to the first 3 % download this Google PageRank Profit free ebook:
http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/RB.html


Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi


Catalogue: Internet Business | Seo
Title: How To Improve Your Profit With A Better Google PageRank By: Dr. Bonomi

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Free Web Traffic Through Page Rank

Copyright 2005 MHG Consulting


Many surfers use the Google or Alexa bar that integrates into their web browsers which consequently makes it easier for them to search and navigate through Internet. However, how many have the "overall page rank" indicator on these bars which shows either a ranking or the importance of the page?


The overall page rank in directories like Google, Yahoo or Alexa is the key factor while doing a search. It decides which website or page deserves the top places in the results of the search of a keyword. The search engine basically calculates the importance of the webpage.


For example, let's say that you prepared a webpage supplying the users with focused, detailed and understandable info. You think your page deserves a high importance, therefore when you search for the theme of your website, you believe it should be shown in the top 20. Well, sometimes life is cruel. If you don't optimize your webpage for a specific keyword, if you don't get enough inbound links directing the user to your site, you would be disappointed by the 1/10 importance rating in Google. Don't give up! It's still worth fighting for. There are several factors which decide the page rank of a website.


First of all, Internet is not like the streets of a city: if you put your "shop" in a busy street, people will drop by your place. No visit on Internet is a coincidence. You have to create your links from other sites (inbound links). You also have to increase the internal linking of your website so that visitors can just "hang around" in your site. So your first factor for the page rank is the linking of your page.


Secondly, pages which attract more users (i.e. number of unique daily users) are obviously more important in the "eyes" of the search engines. This, being the dependent variable in our equation, grows directly proportional to the inbound links. So, page rank also increases with the number of unique users.


At last, relative, focused content increases the importance of your page (page rank). Initially, every page you add to your site increases the overall page rank of the whole before you start adding in-context hyperlinks; "in-context" hyperlinks because according to Google authorities, the hyperlinks that you place inside the content of the page are accepted more valuable.


One of the best things you can do is add a Site Map. Google and other search engines love them! It their robots/spiders find your pages and properly index them. I have found an easy and free way to do this. Download Google's Free Site Map Generator here.


http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html#download


Briefly, on the web, there are no lucky days, no coincidences or no serendipities. If you want traffic on your page, you have to create it yourself. You have to put quality, focused and original content, you have to increase the number of the inbound links. The traffic on your site will increase automatically depending on the other variables. Finally, one day you will look at your site and see that the page rank has jumped from 1 to 4 or even higher. Then you will understand that "La vita e bella."


------

Dan is offering a free report, "Amazing Traffic Formula" that is a viral tool to generate free and targeted web traffic. To get your copy go to:
http://www.1st-affiliate-marketing.biz/atf.htm


Page Rank - A Quick Overview for Beginners

What is a Page Rank? No need to be ashame to ask! Here goes the outline...


Page Rank (PR) is a specific value for a website page given by Google. It is Google's measure of the importance of a certain site page. The scale is between 1-10. Google gives your website high PR if it is popular. It's based on the number of votes other websites give for your website.


Those websites give votes to your site by putting a link to it on their websites. When you link your site to another website, that means you vote for it.


From this information, if you want your site to have a high PR, then you have to get as many votes as possible from other websites. In other words, make as many links as possible to your site and you will have higher PR!


This is important because PR is one of the many factors that Google takes into account when ranking websites.


If you want to find out your site's PR (and others' too), you must download and install Google's Toolbar to your browser. Go here to download the toolbar for free:


http://toolbar.Google.com


After installation, then you will see a small white and green bar. That is the Page Rank indicator. If you run your mouse pointer over it, you can see the PR of the current page you are opening. A PR of 6 is considered good for a website.



About the Author



Farid Aziz is a full-time Internet Marketer. He gives FREE tips and strategies on Internet Marketing. If you want to know How to Make Money Online with Your Hobby, grab the FREE strategies here >>> Internet Marketer Sells

Monday, April 21, 2008

Increase Web site Traffic:Increase Your Traffic And Page Rank in These Easy Steps

I want to honestly tell you that there are no hidden secrets to internet marketing.Do not listen to the gurus who tell you that there are hidden secrets for you to learn.


However, there are some tools and proven steps that you can use to explode your traffic and make tremendous amount of money.


Now you might have been frustrated simply because you don't have enough traffic to your site. Well, no need to worry.Follow the instructions and see your traffic increase at the speed of light.


Here are some steps to put you through.


Create a Blog


One of the most effective way is to create a blog.You can create one at blogger.com. Then you would have to post some useful content there.Make sure that what you post is relevant to the topic of your blog.


Submit Articles


As soon as you create your blog, you will have to write articles related to the topic of your blog and you have to submit this articles to article directories or article banks.


Write a Keyword Rich Content


When you have finished writing your articles, check through for spelling mistakes and correct them. Next, check your article for available keywords. You might have to re-write some sentences so that they fit to the keyword you want to use.


Submit Articles to high traffic article directories


It is better to submit more articles to a high traffic site than submitting to hundreds of directories.


Do all these and see your traffic explode to the roof.


Get more information now to help you grow your traffic using articles.
See mytips for article writing blog for more information.


Increase Page Rank with Search Engine Optimization

Utilizing effective search engine optimization techniques will improve the page rank of your website.


Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which webmasters or online business owners utilize strategic copy to increase their website’s popularity. Given that the internet has grown so rapidly over the past decade, the competition for the best search engine position has created an enormous market focused on how best to position a website for better rankings on Google, Yahoo and other prominent search engines. Therefore, understanding the fundamental elements of SEO is critical to online business’ success.


Search engines are sophisticated pieces of technology that allow users to quickly find relevant websites by searching for a simple word or phrase (e.g. “day spas”). While there are many tricks that can be used to increase page rank, the most effective methods must include providing consistently high quality online articles. This seems like a simple concept, but there are many websites that fail to provide content that visitors find interesting. If you can set your website apart from these boring, lifeless sites, then you’re already a step closer to achieving high page rank via search engine optimization. Sites that provide articles that are informative, well-written, and regularly updated create highly engaged online visitors who are more likely to return to the site I the future.


The second critical component of effective search engine optimization is to include key words and phrases within your articles. These keyword phrases should mirror the phrases that website visitors use when traversing the web. Visit your site’s traffic report to determine what keywords are drawing visitors to your site already, and make an effort to incorporate those words into your articles. Alternatively, study your competitors’ websites to determine what words they use to attract traffic. Be sure to use simple titles that clearly state what the article is about, and try to include a keyword or two in the title if possible. The more key words you use in your articles, the more likely it is that visitors will find your site when they conduct a search with those words. If you are consistent with these methods, your overall search engine optimization will increase, which will in turn boost your page rank.


Next, when writing articles to post on your site, make sure you develop a clear means of organizing their content. This can often be done by simply adding a new page to your site. This will allow room for more articles to be added as you write them, and allow you to develop an archive of articles that will continue to draw unique visitors. Be sure to include your archived articles in a directory that is near the root web of your site, to ensure that search engines effectively index your online articles. Don’t forget to add the pages to your site navigation, and include links to and from the main page and the articles page. Creating an articles page that is easy to find not only makes your content more readily accessible, but also allows spiders searching the web to tag a larger percentage of your sites’ information.


Finally, consider allowing others to link to your website. Not only does this provide free advertising for your site, but it creates the impression that your site is important because of its affiliated links. Just be sure that you avoid linking to pages that have a lower page rank than your own; it actually could reduce your site’s popularity within the rankings.


Search engine optimization strategies are important in developing your site’s popularity. Therefore, write high quality, keyword rich content and link your site to and from a strategic family of other sites. In so doing, you will help improve your site’s popularity and, hopefully, drive increased business through your online business.


Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entirety, including links and resource box. © John Doetsch 2005.


John Doetsch is SEO specialist at Websition.com where you will find additional articles and free web site content written by the Internet's most gifted authors.


Visit his site http://www.websition.com .

Google Page Rank Explained

Page Rank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google to compute the relative importance of a particular webpage on the internet and assign it a numeric value from 0 (least important) to 10 (most important). This value is calculated through an iterative analysis of the backlinks to the webpage. If webpage A links to webpage B then webpage B would receive 1 "vote" towards their page rank.


Fact: Page Rank is calculated on a webpage by webpage basis not on a website by website basis


The importance of the webpage casting a vote and the total number of outgoing links on the webpage casting a vote are the primary factors which determine how much "voting share " this webpage will transfer to each of the outgoing links on them. Google calculates a webpage's page rank by adding up all of the "voting shares " for that webpage through an iterative calculation.


Page Rank is one of the factors Google utilizes to help determine their Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERP's). It should be noted that this algorithm is only one part of their overall ranking scheme and not necessarily the most important one as many website's would have you believe. The general internet user has no idea about the concept of page rank and are unable to tell what a particular page's PR is unless they have the Google Toolbar installed (or use an online page rank checker). Since page rank is part of Google's search ranking algorithm an understanding of the concept is still important for any webmaster concerned with getting traffic to their site.


Fact: Not all links pointing to a webpage are counted as votes for that webpage


As soon as Google introduced the concept of page rank unsavory webmasters developed ways to manipulate the rankings. These webmasters began creating web pages with the sole purpose of increasing the amount of incoming links pointing to their website.


Common Black Hat SEO Techniques:

  • Link Farms - pages containing long lists of unrelated links set up for the sole purpose of manipulating search engine rankings and page rank
  • Doorway Pages - orphaned webpages either on the same website or distributed throughout the internet stuffed with keywords containing links to the offender's site. Used to artificially inflate the back link count for a website.
  • Free For All Links Pages - a type of link farm where, as the name implies, anyone is free to post their link. Once a valuable way to spread the word about your website, abuse through auto submissions has rendered these sites worthless and are now viewed as search engine SPAM.
  • Automated or Hosted Link Exchanges - sites that offer to provide "hundreds" of back links to your site instantly. Generally you will have to install some html code on your website to display their directory and in return anyone else who has this code installed on their website will be displaying your link. This is a case where "if it sounds too good to be true it is". The search engine's are wise to this technique and watch for unnatural "spikes" in the number of backlinks pointing to a website. In actuality it is possible to inflate your page rank with this technique but if the search engine's wise up to your practices (and they always do eventually) you risk being dropped from their index or black holed in their rankings.


How is Page Rank Calculated?


When Google introduced the concept of page rank they published the algorithm they were going to use to calculate it. The formula in it's current form is known only to the engineers at Google but it is fair to say it closely resembles the following formula.


PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(t1)/C(t1) + ... + PR(tn)/C(tn))


While at first glance this equation can seem daunting, in actuality the concept is not that hard to understand. Let's take a minute to break down the formula and see what conclusions can be drawn.


PR(t1)...PR(tn) - the page rank (PR) of each page from page t1 to tn. (each value of t represents 1 link to webpage A)


C(t1)...C(tn) - the number of outgoing links (C) on each page from page t1 to tn


d - damping factor


Quoting from the original Google Page Rank white paper:


The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85.


Knowing what these parameters mean and knowing the value of the damping factor we can simplify the formula from above:


PR(A) = 0.15 + 0.85*(A "share" of the PR of every webpage linking to page A)


The "share" each webpage passes to webpage A can be computed by dividing the Page Rank of the webpage linking to page A by the number of outgoing links on that page. Each outgoing link on that page would receive an equal voting share from the total available page rank of the page containing the outgoing link. The total available page rank each webpage has available to transfer to outgoing links is a little less than the total page rank of that page (PR of page * 0.85) which can be easily derived when the damping factor is known.


Implications


Having a basic understanding of the algorithm we can now draw a few conclusions about page rank and it's implications to your website. For instance, it is very possible to have a link on web page X that has a high page rank transferring less page rank voting shares to your website than a link on web page Y with a lower page rank.


How is this possible? Let's analyze an example:


Page X - page rank 4, outgoing links 10


Page Y - page rank 8, outgoing links 100


Page X would transfer 0.85(4/10) = 0.34 page rank voting shares to each outgoing link


Page Y would transfer 0.85(8/100) = 0.068 page rank voting shares to each outgoing link


Even though Page X has a much lower page rank value, due to the fact that the number of outgoing links on Page X is so much smaller than on Page Y it actually transfers more page rank voting shares to each outgoing link than Page Y .


Pages with no links back to them would still have a modest page rank value of 0.15 derived from the (1-d) portion of the equation. It is important to note that while this value holds true according to the equation, only Google engineers are privy to the knowledge of whether actual page rank voting share is transferred in this scenario. Google could easily say that pages with no incoming links transfer a page rank voting share of 0 with a click of a mouse and no one would know for sure except them.


Fact: The Google Toolbar displays Page Rank as a base 10 log scale that is not the "actual" result of the Page Rank calculation


The average page rank of all pages in the index is 1. It is possible to have an "actual" page rank value in the millions or much smaller than 1 using the page rank formula but the Google toolbar only displays integers from 0 - 10 on it's pr meter. Only Google knows how the scale is split up and where the basepoints for each level are. For example, it may take an actual page rank of 10,000 using the formula above to achieve a page rank of 4/10 on the toolbar scale.


Page Rank Voting Share - A simple example


Pages that have only a few inbound links to them have little or no page rank voting share to transfer to outgoing links. To calculate the page rank voting share of a webpage with no incoming links to it we need to focus on the second part of the page rank forumula. Assuming a damping factor of 0.85 from Google's whitepaper our calculation would have the form 0.85(0.15/# outgoing links) which will always equal something close to zero. The 0.15 in the equation was found using this calculation 0.15 = (1-0.85) + 0.85(0). As the number of outgoing links on this page increases the webpage will transfer even less page rank voting shares to each outgoing link.


Understanding this makes it clear why links from link farms and free for all links pages don't help your page rank. Since no one is linking to these FFA pages they will have a "low" page rank value with a small page rank voting share to distribute. Busy free for all links pages have several hundred or thousand outgoing links on them. If we perform some quick math (being generous and giving the ffa page a pr value of 0.25)


Calculation of Page Rank Voting Share Transferred to each outgoing link on an FFA Page


Number of Outgoing Links On FFA Page: 50

  • PR Voting Share Calculation: 0.85(PR FFA/Outgoing Links FFA) = 0.85(0.25/50) = 0.00425 PR Voting Shares Transferred to each outgoing link


Number of Outgoing Links On FFA Page: 100

  • PR Voting Share Calculation: 0.85(PR FFA/Outgoing Links FFA) = 0.85(0.25/100) = 0.002125 PR Voting Shares Transferred to each outgoing link


Number of Outgoing Links On FFA Page: 500 (common for FFA pages)

  • PR Voting Share Calculation: 0.85(PR FFA/Outgoing Links FFA) = 0.85(0.25/500) = 0.000425 PR Voting Shares Transferred to each outgoing link


Number of Outgoing Links On FFA Page: 1000

  • PR Voting Share Calculation: 0.85(PR FFA/Outgoing Links FFA) = 0.85(0.25/1000) = 0.0002125 PR Voting Shares Transferred to each outgoing link


From the calculations it is easy to see that there is negligible page rank voting share being transferred from FFA links pages to their outgoing links and you would need several thousand links from pages of this type to see any actual page rank value! That is assuming that Google does not blackhole these pages in their index and actually allows page rank voting shares to pass from these pages in the first place, which is by no means a gaurantee and solely at the discretion of Google.


Page Rank in Complex Networks


The example above does not actually duplicate a real world example since it is only computing the page rank "voting share" of the ffa page in an idealized situation where the page rank of the page is already known. In complex networks with links in and links out of webpages the actual page rank for a webpage cannot be known due to the interdependencies each web page has on one another to calculate their page rank.


Think of it as a "chicken and the egg" situation. The problem can be solved by taking a best initial guess for the page rank value of each webpage in the network and plugging it into the page rank formula. The results of these calculations are then used to calculate the next incremental page rank values for the webpages in the network. This calculation is repeated over and over again until the page rank value approaches a limit. This limit is then the actual page rank for that page. In a complex network like the internet finding the page rank for all webpages can take millions of iterations.


Click here for more detailed examples and an online page rank calculator


It is also worth noting that when a webpage transfers page rank voting shares to another webpage the page rank of the contributing page is not reduced in any way. There is no actual page rank transfer, only a weighted "vote" is passed to the outgoing links.


Links on webpages with a high page rank and little or no other outgoing links on them but yours will provide the best opportunities to improve your page rank (if that is your goal and it shouldn't be, link for traffic not pr). Make sure to work on your site content and design before approaching other webmasters for links. The bottom line is you need to have a site worth linking to in order to get people to link to it.


Resources


Google Page Rank Whitepaper


Complex Page Rank Examples including Calculations

Sunday, April 20, 2008

SEO Versus PPC: What is More Useful?

There has been a continuing debate on the efficacy of Search Engine Optimization(SEO) versus that of PPC Advertising Management.


My two cents on the topic...


SEO Positives:


More visitors to search page are likely to click on these links than sponsored or paid links (we have observed that the ratio is 2:1) Since, this involves a lot of website tuning and making the website search friendly, the website that ranks high on organic listings(through SEO) normally has (arguably) a higher relevance and greater chances of conversion.


The long term costs are lower. The only cost involved is the (other than the obvious time cost) SEO consultation fee (typically, $50,000 to $200,000 for a 25 page SEO work). If averaged out over 24 months, this would mean $3000-$4000/month(average).


SEO Negatives(cons):


SEO takes time. Even the best SEO in business would take a minimum of 4-6 months to get your site up on the search listings for an averagely competitive category.


Unpredictability: This is the BIGGEST NEGATIVE. There is no guarantee that a top position site would retain it’s top position for a sizable time span. Google changes the logic for compiling and displaying the search results once a year (approximately) and keeps updating its index(regular since mid-2003). (Useful articles: http://dance.efactory.de/; http://www.webworkshop.net/florida-update.html)


Ethical Search Engine Optimization firms: This again poses a big challenge to the industry. The ratio of ethical SEO’s who know their trade to the unethical ones who indulge in unethical practices to get the site up in the organic listings, is 1: 1000!


Good SEO is NOT CHEAP - it CAN NOT be CHEAP: Typically, SEO means a lot of hard - continuous - effective work to get the site up on the listings. NO ONE can guarantee a position within a definite time period. Typical engagement fee ( annual) starts from $50k and depends on the number of web pages being optimized and the number of keywords these are being optimized for. Also, this is continuous work... it has to be, because of the regular changes that Google does in the way that it compiles and displays sites for keywords.


Pay-Per-Click(PPC) Search Advertising -Positives:


PPC is IMMEDIATE: The website ad can be up in Google sponsored links (https://adwords.google.com/select/) within minutes. In Yahoo Search(Overture) the ad is live within 4 days(max).


PPC is MEASURABLE: The click and the resultant action can be tracked back to cost,


PPC ad is more useful to an online buyer: The websites that advertise here pay to get listed. Normally, any website would do this only if they can SELL SOMETHING to the visitors. ROI matters.


PPC results CAN BE CONTROLLED: It’s hard work - it’s 24*7 work - however, it is far more controllable and predictable than organic listings. PPC impacts the "brand profile". This is a statement that is being tested for veracity. I believe in this because: If I am searching for widgets using certain keywords and one particular website’s ads pop up for each keyword and when I click on the ad it takes me to the relevant location on the website... I tend to form a connect between visibility - relevance - usefulness - all these impact the website/brand profile.


PPC Negatives(Cons):


PPC Can be EXPENSIVE if not managed well


PPC is threatened by CLICK FRAUD (something that can burn budgets very quickly if the campaign is not managed rigorously)


PPC space is very competitive and the bid prices are rising, literally every month


Only 1 out of 3 "search page visitors" are likely to click a sponsored link/paid ad


Like in SEO space, there are many firms that promise more than they deliver. Fortunately, the results are easily measurable and thus the ineffective firms can be sorted out.


I would not like to bias the reader with "what I think is better". Every business owner has a need - or at least should have a need - to get her site listed on the search engines.


Based on the pros and cons of SEO and PPC, it’s up to them to make the decision.


Tulika Bose is a Director in NetElixir Inc. NetElixir specializes in Real Time Paid Search Campaign optimization. The firm is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. NetElixir manages campaigns for search advertisers in travel, telecom, retail, and financial services sector. The firm has consistently lived up to its claim of delivering a 20% higher performance rate than any comparable service or tool available today.


Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Where to Find Affiliates For Your Niche Website

To make money with articles that you place on websites, you will also need a variety of good affiliate links that will help to generate revenue. It is important that you know where to find affiliates and that you choose the best affiliates for you and your niche site.


When you pick an affiliate, it is important that you determine which companies you will profit best from based on the frequency that the product is likely to sell. There are several types of affiliates and some will offer you more money from a sale than others will. Before you get hazy-eyed by dollar signs, however, remember some products are bound to sell more than others. If you sell on product four times a year from a little known company that gives you $100 per sale or sell a well known product 3 times a week at the rate of $10 per sale, then you will make much more money with the $10 per sale product. Often times large well known companies will offer a very small profit per sale because they are established and know that their product is likely to sell well. Small, unknown companies, on the other hand, need all of the promotion they can get. Also, because they are unknown, their products are likely to sell less frequently.


The most important rule when picking affiliates to promote on your site is to pick products that would be of interest to those who would likely visit your niche site. Otherwise you will be promoting a product to a group of people who do not even want nor need it. If your niche site targets parents of young children, then promote baby products. If you niche site targets gardeners, then promote gardening products. If you promote baby products to gardeners, you are almost guaranteed to not make a profit no matter how much money the affiliate company offers for a sale.


Lastly, there are two main ways to find an affiliate company for your niche website. You can sign up with a company that manages the accounts of hundreds of companies, big and small, and apply for the products within these accounts or you can do a web search for companies that would match well with your niche, visit their websites, and see if they advertise an affiliate program.


Article by ArticleShine.com
Visit http://www.articleshine.com/ for more articles. Webmasters can submit their articles and Visitors can browse through the quality articles.

Profit Pulling Niche Blogs That Pull In Cash Like Clockwork...

When it comes to building and creating profit pulling niche blogs
(niche sites) Wordpress really shines and really beat Blogger.com heads down.


Wordpress is more than just a blogging software.


In the past when blogging first evolved, marketers did not give it much thought...
until they discovered the power of syndication through RSS feeds.


With Rss feeds, they can now reach out to a target markets they normally would
not have been able to.


Wordpress has an in-built syndication function, unlike Blogger.com where it still needs
some configuration.


In addition, Wordpress has some powerful features that make it a marketer's dream tool:


(a) Automatic Pinging


Wordpress will automatically ping the blog directories listed each time you publish a
post.


(b) Categories


It might not seem like a big deal, but when you realize that you can name the
category using keywords you want to target, then BAM!


It hits you like a rock. You can have multiple categories named using keywords
you want to target, and write your post under that category. With proper planning
and carefully spreading the same keyword in your post, you can achieve higher
Search Engine rankings easily.


(c) Plugins
Plugins give Wordpress additional functions and features. All you need to do is
upload the Plugin file, Activate the plugin file and you're set to go.


(d) Easily change the theme of your blog (site)
With Wordpress, everything is just point and click (or plug N play). You can easily
change the theme and layout of your Blog without having to learn about web design.


Wordpress is easy to master. Visit www.wordpressvideos.com where you'll find a
collection of expert video tutorials with Monthly Updates and other bonuses to
help you in your online business.


Brandon Hong
www.Wordpressvideos.com


Brandon is author of "Wordpress Videos". Learn the strategies, techniques of
building your profit pulling niche blogs with Wordpress. He is also author of Clickbank's
best seller "Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS" Videos and Audio e-book "Blogs and
Rss Revealed".


Powerful Four-Step Method To Easily Discover And Profit From Niche Markets

Do you want an easy way to find profitable niche
markets online?


If you answered yes to that question then you
should focus your market research efforts on
peoples wants and problems.


You need to realize that one of the most common
reasons people use the Internet is to find
solutions to their most pressing problems and
to find ways to fulfill their deepest wants
and desires.


You can profit from niche marketing by providing
these people with information, products and
services that helps them get what they want.
The following method will help you uncover several
of these problems, wants, and desires in several
niche markets.


Step 1. Find A Good Keyword Suggestion Tool


There are many keyword suggestion tools online
but the only one I use is a paid service offered
at...


http://www.wordtracker.com


In my honest opinion it's the best niche marketing
research tool on the planet.


With this service you get to see how many times any
keyword or phrase has been searched for within their
vast database over the past few months as well as a
prediction of how many times a keyword or phrase will
get searched for across all major search engines over
a twenty-four hour period.


They even have a free trial so you can test their
service.


There are also several free keyword suggestion tools
available online. I recommend the one available at
Digital Point Solutions since it returns the first
fifteen results from WordTracker's database and even
more results from Overture's Keyword Suggestion
Tool at the same time.


You can find this free tool here...


http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion


Step 2. Do The Research


In this step you will discover several problem and
want types of keywords. You can do this by entering
broad keyword terms into either of the keyword
suggestion tools mentioned above.


Here's an example of some broad of keywords...

- tutorial
- guide
- how to
- instructions
- plans


Go and do some keyword research on any of these and
you will get lots of data showing you exactly what
people want to find "tutorials" about, "guides" to,
and "how to" information for.


Here are some other broad keywords that will help
you discover what consumers are looking for online.

-buy
-purchase
-learn
-training
-need
-step by step
-problem
-solution
-want


Using this very simple strategy you'll be armed with
a literal gold mine of niche marketing information
that you can use to build more profits by creating
products and services that solve some of the problems,
wants, and desires of people all around the world.


Step 3. Ignore Non-Profitable Markets


During your research you'll come across some keywords
that have very little or no market value. Many of
them may even have extremely high search counts but
as the saying goes quality is more important than
quantity.


Some examples of niche market keywords you may want
to avoid are celebrity names, fads terms, song lyrics
and adult oriented keywords. Those markets are very
hard to sell to profitably since they are focused
more on entertainment rather than problems, wants
and deep desires.


Step 4. Don't Ignore Tiny Niches


Many people may ignore a keyword or phrase that only
gets a small amount of searches per-day on the major
search engines when this is exactly where the easy
profits are. These are the markets that everyone else
is overlooking so it is a lot easier optimize your
pages to rank highly for they keywords that you want
to target since there is less competition.


And even more importantly there are probably very
few websites that are actually selling to these
specific markets so your competition factor
dwindles even more.


About The Author:

James Jackson's free newsletter gives you real examples of profitable niche markets and he will even use his own private database of over 2.4 million keywords to uncover hundreds of targeted niche markets for you at http://www.findhotniches.com?4step

Monday, March 10, 2008

How To Start Marketing Correctly

A Problem For Marketers -----------------------


Very often new marketers lack a solid success plan.


Many start with high hopes and great expectations, but in
"failing to plan, they plan to fail".


Here is how to start correctly...


Step # 1 - Planning -------------------


Your first task is a modified SWOT analysis.


* Strengths - Note your personal strengths in terms of skills,
knowledge, experience, and personality. How can you use your
strengths to give your business a competitive avantage ? Be
realistic and objective.


* Weaknesses - What are your weaknesses ? What personal and
business skills do you need to improve on ? How will you remedy
these ?


* Opportunities - What business opportunities will you exploit ?
For instance are you interested in selling digital or "real"
products ? Are you going to work largely alone or are joint
ventures your forte ? * Threats - What issues do you forsee ?
Identify the competition, consider your cash flow, think about
targeted traffic and search engine ranking etc. How will you
cope with each issue ?


Your next task is to create a business plan consisting of :


* Financial Plan - Here you write up your borrowing
requirements, your own capital stake in the business, and
general business budgets.


* Marketing Plan - Detail your marketing and advertising
strategies. Set budgets for these key activities.


* Sales - Estimate sales levels and timescales when you
anticipate the sales.


For more details on constructing a business plan consult


* An accountant


* Your bank


* Your local small business advisory service or


* Use Internet resources such as :


The small business administration for US businesses
http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html
Business Plan for UK businesses http://www.businessplanning-4-
you.com/businessinfo/business_plan_uk_.html


International business can start at http://www.bplans.com


Above all, your business plan must be realistic in the sales
estimates and it must not under estimate your time and money
costs.


Step # 2 - Research and Find A Niche
------------------------------------


If planning is the "road map", research shows the "destination".


Research and planning are simultaneous, parallel activities. One
is incomplete without the other.


* Product Centric Research :


Based on your SWOT analysis, define the business, products or
services you want to focus on.


For instance if you have a strong interest and experience in a
sport, or the breeding of a type of pet, you may choose to cater
for others with similar interests.


Being easier, most new marketers use a Product Centric approach
to define their business interests.


* Market Centric Research :


This is the difficult, but more likely to succeed, approach.


It focuses on identifying clear market needs and then finding
very specific products to satisfy those needs.


This approach is based on market research techniques such as
interviewing people about their needs and then finding out how
best you can satisfy those needs.


With this approach you know your business will succeed before
you commit money !


Your aims in finding your niche are to :


* Identify a "hungry" market


* Find out the exact nature of the "hunger"


* Determine how best to satisfy the "hunger"


Step #3 - Create a Feature Rich, Content Site
---------------------------------------------


Most people will not buy from you at their first visit, even if
they have previously expressed an interest.


Visitors must learn to trust you, before they will buy from you.


It takes time and communication to build trust.


A content rich website is an invaluable tool for building trust.


Building and marketing such a site achieves two goals :


* Depending on your advertising strategy, it attracts targeted
traffic, and builds good double-opt in mailing lists.


* It encourages "pull" marketing where customers come looking
for you, rather than the more costly "push" marketing where you
go looking for customers.


Step # 4 - To Be An Affiliate Or Not To Be
------------------------------------------


The content rich website is the top of your marketing funnel. A
mechanism for pulling in highly targeted visitors who have
expressed an interest in your product or service.


This builds trust, but little hard cash.


New marketers are often concerned about what to sell, real money
comes from "Back End " products.


* The first and easier option is to research and join good
affiliate programs. These not only pay good money for hard work,
but they provide high quality, good value back end products.


An excellent example of such a program can be found at
http://shmyl.com/bgz


A good affiliate program, such as http://shmyl.com/bgz, not only
provides you with products, they also provide web templates and
sites for you to use immediately.


You can be marketing in the time it takes to sign up !


* The second more difficult option, but one which offers you
more flexibility and control, is to create your own products.


Until the end of March 2004 we are offering a FREE e-book at our
website to show you how to create your own info products in less
than two hours.


(If you read this article after March 2004, contact us and we
will send a copy of the e-book to you.)


If you choose the do it yourself option, you will need to build
a professional product web page, per product, along with all the
merchant facilities such as credit card processing required to
make the site operational.


Visit http://www.iprobuilder.com/14127 for the easiest currently
available point and click, "No HTML Required", professional web
site building and hosting program.


Step #5 - Get The Sale ----------------------


Whichever option you choose, you need excellent copywriting to
market your products and services.


Even if you use Market Centric research, do not fall into the
trap of thinking that your market will buy whatever you show
them on your product sales page.


The copy must be compelling and drive the prospects to take the
action you want i.e. buy from you.


Copywriting is an art almost anyone can learn. However, if you
feel your skills are not yet good enough then pay for a
copywriter to do the work.


Good copy can sell almost anything. Bad copy cannot sell the
best product in your chosen business line.


Step #6 - Mind Set ------------------


>From discussions with other marketers, many people get to step 5
ready to sell products, typically 6 to 9 months after setting up
business.


Frustration begins when sales fail to materialise and your cash
flow is more out than in !


Be prepared, pre-plan and you will avoid this frustration
because :


* Your business Sales Plan will indicate a realistic timeframe
and level of sales.


* Your SWOT analysis will have prepared you for business issues
as well as opportunities.


The planning you carried out up front is your insurance against
frustration, and disappointment. It is also an excellent
yardstick by which you can measure your progress.


This focuses your mind and effort on attaining small successes
which build up over time into major career successes.


This is why it is critical to go through the planning and
research stages in fine detail, realistically and objectively.


------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion


Use this outline blueprint to create your own detailed business
road map and put success in your own safe hands. Guaranteed.


About the author:


Charles Kangethe was educated at Warwick University in Coventry in the United Kingdom. He graduated with honours in Economics in 1985. He has been involved in direct response marketing since 1982 when he started by reading Joe Karbo's "The Lazy Man's Way To Riches." He now lives in Suffolk County and spends most of his time working on new Online Marketing campaigns such as his new web site at http://www.simplyeasier.com

What You Must Not Forget When Writing Articles

We should all know the importance of articles to internet based companies as a method of website promotion. They contribute in driving traffic to your website and ultimately determine the success of the site. A good website owner needs to understand the benefits and undertake a constant article promotion strategy. The results can be very beneficial in relation to the amount of work involved. Link popularity, an increase in search engine results, and surge in traffic are the more well-known benefits. Becoming an authority in your niche is another major benefit that can be obtained if article marketing is carried out correctly.


Articles can have a great effect in giving a site high rankings in search engine results. The likelihood then is greater website exposure resulting in greater traffic and sales/profit.


However, there are important factors to remember when writing articles to obtain the maximum benefits that an article can provide for your site. So what are the main criteria that all articles should include? We will go through a few of them here.


Good Quality Content:


The most obvious requirement is for well-written, informative articles that will benefit the reader in some way, and help them further understand the topic that you are discussing. There is little point in just filling your article with keywords, but instead must provide good reading material. Whilst being informative, try and make your article entertaining, and one which will stick in the readers mind, rather than something that a reader may read a paragraph or two of and then disregard.


If possible, provide figures, facts and statistics on your topic. People like to see accurate stats, and will begin to trust you more as an expert in your niche should your content and stats be helpful to them.


It is important to read through your article once it is finished and also to check through for good grammar and any spelling errors.


Relevant Keywords and Phrases:


Throughout your articles, remember to center the information around the keywords and keyword phrases related to your topic. When people search the internet, they are usually searching for something specific rather than just browsing. It is highly likely that the majority of traffic being driven to your article will be from a search on google, yahoo, or any other major search engine, so ensure that you keep this is mind when writing.


Do not try to include keywords that are irrelevant to your article, merely to drive traffic to your article from search engines. If your site is about automobiles, then use keywords that are related, such as cars, car parts, truck accessories, and any other relevant terms. There are many tools on the internet that provide keyword analysis to determine what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. Use these tools to create a list of terms that you wish to target in your article.


Keyword Density:


Now that you have identified your keyword phrases and specific keywords to use, you must use them fully. It is very unlikely that a search engine will "get to grips" with what your article is about if you only use a keyword once throughout the entire article. You must have good keyword density in the article content in order for the search engines to rank your article high in the search results. Aim for between ten to fifteen percent of keyword density within the content.


For those that are unsure what keyword density is, it is the number of times that a keyword or a keyword phrase appears in an article. Although it is important to have good keyword density, it is equally important not to go too high or too low with keyword density, as it results in either the essence of the article being lost, or being too low for the search engines to pick up the terms.


Article Links:


Do not forget to include a link to your website. There is no use in writing an informative article, if the reader can not then click on a link to your site to find out more. Your website will not benefit without one!

Catalogue: Writing & Speaking | Article Writing
Title: What You Must Not Forget When Writing Articles By: Justin Brown

Why Niche Marketing Yields Good Profits

Have you ever been told to find your niche? In business, finding your niche can prove both profitable and personally rewarding.


Niche Marketing is the key to many successful organizations. From the small company that focuses on their niche, putting all their efforts towards it, to large companies with countless product lines, niche marketing is extremely important.


For example, if you are a company that produces fishing products, you may have several different product lines and market segments or niches that you sell to. You have fresh water fishing, deep sea fishing, fly fishing, etc. You don't want to market your Fly Fishing gear in a publication whose niche is deep sea fishing or vise versa. Therefore, it is important to focus your marketing dollars in each individual niche.


There are certainly larger publications that cater to a much general audience rather than a niche one. However, are you going to capture your niche market as well as if you practiced niche marketing?


Passionate Fly Fisherman will more than likely respond more to articles in a Fly fishing specific publication then a general fishing publication. These niche publications are more knowledgeable and focused on their subject. It is sometimes better to know a lot about something then a little about everything.


Niche marketing is all about showing expertise and knowledge in your chosen niche. Also niche marketing is cost effective in that it is going to be less costly to advertise in a publication such as "Fly Fishing in Salt Water" magazine then in "Field and Stream" magazine.


For those trying to find their niche, the web is a great place to start. First think of what your niche is. What are you knowledgeable and passionate about that you can transform into a profitable business? How can you know if your niche is marketable and measure your competition? Web sites such as Inventory Overture (http://inventory.overture.com) are a great place to start.


At Inventory Overture, you are able to type in a keyword describing your niche and see how many people are searching that keyword in the past month. High amounts of searches, many times mean more competition and the need to narrow your niche. However, it also means a lot of interest in the subject.


After using Inventory Overture, go to a search engine and type the same keyword and see how many sites are already marketing you niche. Ideally you want the keyword to be searched enough on Inventory Overture to be relevant but not in as many Web sites that the competition is unbearable.


So find your Niche, narrow it, market it and start reaping the rewards.

Evelyn Lim is a writer, a market strategist and an online business entrepreneur. She also owns and manages an article directory site, with more than 100 topic categories and a growing database of quality articles. To submit your articles or if you are a publisher looking for reprint articles, please visit http://www.ArticleMap.com.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

3 Key Off-Page Search Engine Optimization Methods

On-page search engine optimization is definitely one of the key methods if a website owner would like to improve the results for his or her website's searchability. However, on-page SEO often entails technical skills. Why? Not a lot of people are HTML enthusiasts. This is often what needs to be tweaked to do an excellent job in optimizing web pages.

What if a geek friend already did the on-page optimization and now you want to know how you can contribute to the "search engine goodness" of your website? Off-page optimization is the next step. And the results you will have to pine for are one-way backlinks. Why? This is how many of the major search engines such Google, Yahoo! and MSN rank websites. The more backlinks from relevant sites with good page rank, the merrier.


So how exactly do you gather backlinks? It's not an easy task but it's definitely less nerve-wracking than HTML if you are not the techie type. Here are some off-page SEO tips:


1. Article Marketing


Quality content has been discovered to be real king. Everyone is hungry for fresh and quality info and providing it will make backlinks go pouring in. It helps a lot to be a keen writer to be successful on this endeavor. Also, practise the proper way of using a resource box. It should only include a website that contains information relevant to the article you submit to article directories.


2. Forum Participation


Look for forums that are relevant to your website's content and keep on sharing information that will be indispensable for the members of the forums. Your signature or that tag-along message at the last part of each of your posts is what will work for your off-page SEO campaign. Keep it simple and make sure that it conveys something about your website. Learn how to hyperlink to make it easy for the people who want to visit your site.


3. Blogging


Blogs or web logs are now the most popular weapons of SEO experts. Aside from being easy-to-update, they don't require a too formal tone, which is what many readers are into. Informal dialog which can be accomplished through readers leaving comments and the blog author replying to the comments is what also keeps blogs fresh and search engine friendly. Maintaining a blog that's again relevant to your website's content will keep the search engines in touch with your site. Don't forget to have a link on your main website from your blog.


The secret to be successful in carrying out these off-page SEO methods is to be consistent. Submitting quality articles to websites at least two to three times a week and regularly producing content for your personalized blog is a surefire way to make your website stand out. Forum participation should also be something done more frequently since it will not only help you up your website's popularity with the search engines but also make you learn new stuff from other forum members' participation. Also, if you discover that you don't enjoy these stuff, there's always a plan B - hire someone to do them for you!


Note: This article may be freely reproduced as long as the AUTHOR'S resource box at the bottom of this article is included and all links must be Active/Linkable with no syntax changes.


-------------------------
Informal SEO is the way to go: Isulong SEOPH
-------------------------

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs

Whether it's a corporate blog, a news-type blog, or even a personal blog, optimizing your blog for the search engines is a must. There are some simple changes that you can make to WordPress and Moveable Type that will make your blog more search engine friendly and make the search engines beg for more (more post and content, that is!).

Optimizing a blog is just like optimizing any other website. The content and pages (posts) must be unique, they must be search engine friendly, and it needs links from other websites. If it's a new blog, then you first need to make sure the blog software you're using is set up so that it takes advantage of all of the possible optimization features. Then, announce it to the world, work on getting some links to it, and start making posts.

WordPress Optimization
If you're using WordPress for your blog software, it's important to make sure that your site is search engine friendly, meaning that it can easily be spidered by the search engine spiders. Just like optimizing a website, it's important to have good title tags and meta tags. Keep in mind that blog software usually uses the title of your post as the title tag, so include keywords in your titles as much as possible.

It's important to set up your blog's software so that the URLs don't contain a lot of variables. Instead, use URLs that include the post title or post name in them. For example, if you're using WordPress you'll need to set the permalinks so that it uses %postname% in the URL. You can also set up a specific category for the post archives, and you might consider using a keyword that's related to your blog instead of the default, which is typically the word "archive".


Fintan Darragh of www.dech.co.uk has a great blog post called "Ultimate WordPress SEO Tips" (http://www.dech.co.uk/2005/11/ultimate-WordPress-seo-tips/). Mr. Darragh talks about permalink optimization and says, "The goal: stick more keywords up into the URL and remove the faff which nobody uses, to make the URL search engine and people attractive. Having keywords in your URL is an absolute must, especially when it's as easy as WordPress makes it." He also goes on to talk about getting rid of useless tags like the month, day, and year, as well as one important detail: whatever you do stick with the site structure you choose-otherwise you might end up with a lot of useless links to your site. Other tips that Mr. Darragh mentions are optimizing your page titles and your post titles--and installing a few plugins that are useful such as the "Related Posts Plugin" and the "Technorati Tag Generator".


There are several other places where you can get specific tips about setting up WordPress in a search engine friendly manner, including:
* SEO at Aleeya Dot Net - http://www.aleeya.net/category/WordPress/seo/
* The Best WordPress SEO Possible - http://WordPress.org/support/topic/49168
* Search Engine Optimization for WordPress - http://codex.WordPress.org/Search_Engine_Optimization_for_WordPress
* Search Engine Optimization for Blogs - http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-seo.htm
* DYI Search Engine Optimization - http://lorelle.WordPress.com/2006/01/15/dyi-search-engine-optimization/


One of the best tutorials out there is one called "DYI Search Engine Optimization" by Lorelle VanFossen. Specifically, Lorelle (lorelle.WordPress.com) has some great tips, including how to optimize your code, develop strong intrasite links, write with strong keyword usage, use categories and tags, and how to use ping services. Lorelle says that "the goal is to help search engine crawlers move through your website collecting information to be stored in the search engine's database. The key to your blog's data making it successfully into a search engine's database is to:
1) Make sure there are no road blocks in the path of a search engine crawler.
2) Make sure the crawler can move through your blog, examining all your web pages.
3) Provide adequate keywords and key phrases which clearly help categorize your content.
4) Provide clearly labeled tags and categories recognized by tagging service crawlers and many search engines today.
5) Take advantage of pinging services."


There are several WordPress Plugins available that will help you take advantage of internal linking (like the Related Posts Plugin) which will link to other posts in your blog that are on the same topic. Other plugins that might be helpful are plugins that automatically generate a Google Sitemap file as well as plugins that help you categorize the site such as the WordPress Subdomain Plugin (http://www.webguerrilla.com/WordPress-subdomain-plugin/).


Movable Type Optimization
If you're using Movable Type for your blog software, then it's also important to make sure that your site is search engine friendly and can be spidered by the search engine spiders. Just like optimizing a website, it's important to have good title tags and meta tags. Keep in mind that blog software usually uses the title of your post as the title tag, so include keywords in your titles as much as possible.


Miles Evans (http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20060310Movable TypeSEO.html) says that "Movable Type is optimized quite well out of the box, but there are a few quick tricks to easily providing the spiders with some dynamic content." He goes on to say that you need to optimize your template. "For my main home page and category index pages I hardcode most of my meta data. Your meta tags will be at the top of the template within the tag. You can get fancy on your index pages but I cannot really see why. Optimize these two templates by hand for whatever keywords you are targeting site wide." Mr. Evans also has another article titled, "Best Movable Type Plugins" (http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20060310BestMovable TypePlugins.html) that talks about his favorite plugins that help him get great search engine rankings. His favorite Movable Type Plugins for SEO are Dashify, MTPaginate, MT Blogroll, MT InlineEditor, MT-Textile, BigPAPI, as well as Ajaxify (a set of plugins that adds several ajax/javascript widgets into the Movable Type interface), CheckLinks, FormatList v1.0, and Better File Uploader for uploading files.


Nicholas Carvan (http://www.nicholascaravan.com) has a great article about Movable Type optimization called "Optimizing your Movable Type blog for Google" (http://www.nicholascarvan.com/blog/optimizing_your_Movable Type_blog_for_google.html). In it he talks about PageRank (and how it relates to your internal linking on your blog), having keywords in your URL (which is important for all blog optimization) and blogrolling. He defines the term blogrolling very well, saying, "Blogrolling: Inbound links are gold, but in Google's eyes, not all links are equal. In particular, Google isn't wild about links contained within JavaScript - apparently they can index them, but that doesn't mean they always want to."


Once you've set up and configured your blog's software, it's important to make sure that you leave it alone-if you change your page URLs then any links that you've received from other bloggers may not be valid anymore. If you need to change your site's structure (perhaps you've been blogging already and wish to use the tips from this article to optimize your blog), then you might want to take a look at the Objection Redirection WordPress Plugin(http://WordPress-plugins.biggnuts.com/objection-redirection-WordPress-plugin/) if you're using WordPress. The Objection Redirection Plugin gives you a simple interface to redirect users (and search engine bots) to the proper page, especially if you've changed your site's structure.


Start Blogging

The best thing you can do is to start blogging. Go ahead and post to your heart's content and write, write, write about your topic. The more content you can provide the better-and it seems as if adding content on a regular basis really helps, as well. Feel free to link out to other blog posts that are related to the topic you're writing about. For example, before you publish a post, go on over to your favorite blog search engine and find another recent post on the same subject-and link to the post. Linking out to other bloggers will get their attention, and hopefully they'll end up linking to you as well. If other bloggers have trackbacks turned on then their blog will link back to your post. Some trackbacks are moderated, so it might take some time before your link shows up on the other blog. And some bloggers have trackbacks turned off, so a link back to your site might take some manual intervention.


Categorize your posts as much as possible, and feel free to add categories as you blog-it will help the internal linking structure of your site, and help the search engines and users find on-topic posts.


Promoting Your Blog

Whenever you make a post in your blog, your blog software will attempt to ping certain sites to let them know that you just updated your blog. There are many blog ping services out there, including Ping-O-Matic and Pingoat. Your blog software can be configured to ping sites automatically, and I've posted a list for WordPress of ping services on by blog (http://www.corporatewebsitemarketing.info/cwm/WordPress-ping-list).


If your blog is new or you would like to get some more links, you can submit your blog to blog directories as well as other sites that will list your blog (don't forget to submit to DMOZ.org, Yahoo! Directory, and the Best of the Web Blog Directory). About.com has a great article about promoting a blog (http://weblogs.about.com/cs/blogpromotions/a/promoteblog.htm) and even Biz Stone has great tutorial about promoting your blog (http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1060). Lastly, don't forget to turn on your blog's RSS feed. And if you're looking to promote your RSS feed, try searching your favorite search engine for "promote rss" to find a lot of good tutorials.


Promoting your blog is just like promoting a website-you need good spiderable content, links to your content, and you need to set up your blog software to take advantage of all the great features. There are also plugins that will help make blogging easier for all of us.


Bill Hartzer manages the Search Engine Marketing division of MarketNet, Inc., a leading full-service interactive design and development firm in Dallas, Texas. Hartzer recently joined MarketNet, where his vast experience significantly bolsters MarketNet's already robust search engine marketing offerings.


Hartzer is a successful writer and search engine marketing expert. During the past fifteen years, some of his many accomplishments include:

* Search Engine Optimization Strategist, Intec Telecom Systems PLC
* Webmaster, Intec Telecom Systems PLC
* Founder, Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association
* Owner/Author, Corporate Web Site Marketing
* Administrator, Search Engine Forums
* Frequent Speaker, Search Engine Strategies Conferences
* Frequent Speaker, WebmasterWorld's PubCon Search Engine and Internet Marketing Conference


Hartzer has infused MarketNet with his enthusiasm and vision for search marketing. Together with the company's leaders, Hartzer is focused on developing results-oriented paid and organic search marketing programs to help clients increase visibility, broaden reach and maximize their return on investment.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Important Things to Know When You Submit Your Articles to an Article Directory

Article writers are submitting their articles to hundreds of article directories to offer publishers with free content and to provide themselves with a marketing tool for their website. As an administrator for one of the fastest growing article directories on the web, I review hundreds of articles submitted a day. I have the joy of reading and approving quality articles. I also must decline those that do not meet site standards. I have noticed many mistakes by writers that wind themselves up with an 'article denied'. It can be unfortunate because the articles can have rich content, but minor problems will result in a rejection. Let's take a look at some of the very basic ways you can guarantee that your article gets approved and submitted to the article directory.

1. Unique Article Content - One of the most important things is to make sure your article is unique to the article directory. Article directories are looking for unique article content. Do not submit duplicate articles. That is a sure way to get your article declined, but an even surer way to get your account deactivated. Run a search before submitting your article to see what kind of content is being offered.


2. Choose a Descriptive Title - Along with writing a unique article, choose a title that describes your content well and targets your article keywords. Some articles I receive will include only one or two words. It is not a good idea to be vague. Be as specific and detailed as possible. Select a title that will draw your reader in! Another important thing to note is that a title marked in all capital letters is usually frowned upon by article directories.


3. Format Your Article Properly - Many article directories prefer that you do not use hard breaks. In other words, as you write your article lets your text automatically wrap to the next line instead of pressing 'Enter' after every line. Also, pay attention to what the article directory requires as far as coding goes. The key is to make it easy on your reader to read the article. A formatted article also portrays professionalism and quality. Part of professionalism and quality is to use the spell check. A poorly spelled article will result in a rejection.


4. Length - It is vital before you even think of submitting your article to an article directory to make sure your article is the appropriate length. It is a safe assumption that the article needs to be at least 500 words. In the process of making sure your article is a good length, do not spam the article with nonsense.


5. Keywords - Do make sure you choose appropriate keywords that relate to your article. Keywords are vital for your article. Keywords allow for your article to be found by users searching for those words in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search. Keywords are very important for gaining maximum exposure for your article.


Along with these five principles, take the time to read the submission guidelines for the article directory. This may seem like a very obvious principle, but I do not have the feeling many follow it. Usually the submission guidelines are not lengthy. The four principles above are pretty much standard for gaining an inclusion into an article directory, but it is always wise to read the site rules so you are sure to meet the article directory's standards.


Brett McQueen is freelance author, web designer and programmer, and the administrator for the Article Cat free article directory and catalog.


Brett McQueen is freelance web designer and programmer and the administrator for the Article Cat article directory at www.articlecat.com.