Feb
25
Search Engine Optimization Demystified Part 1 - The Players Search engines like Google, Yahoo, Altavista, MSN Search, and others, have become indispensable as personal and business tools for finding what we all need on the World Wide Web. As web site owners, we know that to take advantage of this reality we must optimize our web sites for search engines. However, there is a lot of confusion, misunderstanding, myth, and even fraud in this area. To demystify this topic, and provide the tools to make intelligent, well-informed decisions for our web sites, it is useful to identify the main players, understand how search engines actually work and follow the money. By understanding the motives involved, one can get a big picture understanding of the issues. In business there is no bigger motivator than money.
There are two main players in the search engine optimization field - the Search Engine companies (like Google), and the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies (they are numerous, no big names stand out).
Search Engine Companies:How do search engine companies (Google) make their money?Primarily with paid advertising.Why would advertisers use a search engine\’s web site to promote their product?Eyeballs… lots of them!How does a search engine company get those eyeballs?By providing a tool (the search facility) that works really well, giving reliable, useful, relevant, and current results on keyword searches. It is in the best interest of a Search Engine company to index as many sites as possible, as often as possible, and to have a ranking mechanism that will provide accurate results for key word searches on those web sites.
This bears repeating: yes Search Engines want to list your site in their index! Furthermore, they want to rank it as accurately as possible. There is no need to trick the search engines into finding or ranking your web site. In fact, several practices commonly employed to fool search engines into ranking a site higher than it should be can have quite the opposite result. Search Engine companies actively research such techniques and develop ways to counter them in the interests of maintaining the accuracy and integrity of their search results. So if the Search Engine companies want to rank your site well, why does getting good results seem so difficult and mysterious?
There are three major reasons for this: The exact ranking algorithm used by Search Engine companies is a closely guarded secret. So we, as web site owners or developers, cannot know precisely how to cater to it. In addition, different search engine companies may use different algorithms and they upgrade these algorithms regularly. The result of any web site optimization effort is always a trade off between maximizing your results for a particular set of terms and narrowing your potential scope. In other words, one cannot have both; every key word possible for your product or service, and a specific set of key words optimized to the fullest. The total amount of traffic to a web site is not solely determined by search engine optimization. Traditional marketing can significantly affect results and these would be difficult to separate from results derived from SEO.
Confusing the issue further are the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Companies.It is in the interests of the SEO company to \”appear\” to be able to increase traffic to a web site in ways not available to a web site owner and seemingly being able to exceed the capabilities of web site designers and developers. In short, keeping the methods they use as a mystery is to their advantage.
We at Back2Front - The Web Site People, have worked with clients who have opted to use SEO companies in addition to the optimization we provide as part of our management service. We have also heard reports from new clients who have tried these services before coming to us. In both scenarios we have seen that there is rarely a perception of a good return on investment. Why is this?
Web site optimization for search engines should be done as an integral part of the development of the web site. The way the site is built, coded, and written affects the results - often dramatically. Most SEO companies (since they usually do not build web sites) come in after the fact, and may have no control over how the site was built. Trying to optimize a web site with key word adjustments on a poorly built site is like trying to shore up the foundations of a building with more coats of paint.
Optimization is an ongoing process, something that should be looked at regularly as part of the management of a web site. As new competition comes online and your business develops, changes should be made to your site\’s SEO to compensate. Most SEO companies do not have the necessary long-term association with their clients to accomplish this.
Expectations of web site owners (partly driven by the SEO company\’s promises) are often unrealistic. Search engine optimization companies often charge $500 or more for their service. For this kind of money, expectations are understandably high. But know this: if an SEO company promises number one placement of your web site on Google, don\’t deal with them. Such a claim is misleading at best and down right fraudulent at worst. Just for fun you could ask them: \”number one for what search term?\” If their answer is your domain name, i.e., \”back2front.ca,\” well duh! Of course they can guarantee that! You will get that regardless, since domain names must, by definition, be unique. If they say they can get you number one for some good search terms, for example, \”web design,\” then ask, \”what do I get as compensation if I do not get number one?\” Hope they say money, because it\’s a sure bet they will be paying! Think about this: this is a company guaranteeing results from a third party they do not have any control over.
With this kind of misleading information, it is no wonder that SEO is mysterious for many people. But search engine companies like Google do make public the criteria used in their algorithms and provide basic web master guidelines for successful search engine optimization. If you are curious, go check it out… http://www.google.ca
In the second part of this 3 part series of articles I will explore how the search engines actually work. ReadSearch Engines Demystified Part 2.
www.back2front.ca
by Candace Carter, Back2Front-The Web Site People, 2009
By: Candace CarterAbout the Author:
Candace Carter is an artist, web designer, computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, and public speaker. Candace was educated in Fine Art and Agriculture at the University of Guelph and in Computer Programming at the University of Ryerson. She worked in web development for high-tech firms Sun Microsystems, MCI-WorldCom, and Tucows until the high-tech meltdown in 2001.
Candace launched Back2Front - The Web Site People with a partner in 2002. Leveraging the power of the Internet, Back2Front’s growing team of web designers and developers work on-line, reducing environmental impact by eliminating the need for a daily commute. Back2Front is one of the most successful web site management companies in the GTA, providing long-term, fully managed web site services for a large roster of business clientele. Candace credits Back2Front’s success to an innovative business model of providing unlimited service for a flat, per-page fee.
Candace is an accomplished public speaker, with a friendly and knowledgeable style. Candace is a passionate crusader for excellence and value and it shows in her lively presentations. Candace is an expert in human/computer user interface, web design, and search engine optimization. The Back2Front team continuously conducts research, testing, and development that keep the company and Candace at the top of their field.
Buying Car Insurance
Feb
22
Getting a Search Engine Optimization Specialist depends on what stage of development your website already is in. Many website owners err by creating the website first then hiring a Search Engine Optimization Specialist to implements his expertise so that the website ranked higher in search engines like Google and Yahoo! A much better way of using the services of a Search Engine Optimization Specialist is to hire him even as far back as the website design planning stage to get much better results.
How do you know if the Search Engine Optimization Specialist you hired is competent in this field? Your Search Engine Optimization Specialist might simply do the usual integration of multiple keywords and phrases with those keywords into the content of the website (and into the HTML coding as well). Since this Search Engine Optimization Specialist practice is already being done by many, the effectiveness of this tactic is watered down significantly.
Choose a Search Engine Optimization Specialist team that can write content for you, assess the statistics of the website, are well-versed in HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), know how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be applied to websites for different industries and occupations, and can monitor the latest on search engine developments for you. This may entail several skills so you know you’re getting more bang for your buck when you hire a Search Engine Optimization Specialist team.
It is important that your Search Engine Optimization Specialist team be aware of the difference between directory enhancement and a search engine optimization effort. Directory enhancement means your Search Engine Optimization Specialist team will select the categories under which your website seems to be most related to. The Search Engine Optimization Specialist team will then create concise descriptions about the content of your website (excluding the keyword stacking tactic which we mentioned earlier.) Search Engine Optimization, on the other hand, requires skills in the design, writing and then encoding into HTML of pages from your website so that your preferred search engines will rank your website highly enough so when Internet users search for certain keywords, your website will appear in the top search results.
The Search Engine Optimization Specialist should be able to tag for you the specific keywords and phrases which seem to be used most commonly in most Internet searches. A little known fact is that search engines do not use the same algorithms for very long – these search
engines actually switch to new algorithms frequently. This practice helps keep spamming Search Engine Optimization Specialist from mastering the search engines and allows them to produce better search results for Internet users over time. So, apparently your search engine ranking is not cast in stone and may need to be pursued constantly by your Search Engine Optimization Specialist to insure that people will find your website among the millions out there on the Net.
If the web page uncovered by the search engine spider seems to differ from the web page viewed by the end user, that web page will be deemed spam and your website will be eliminated from the search engine database. This is tantamount, actually, to copyright infringement
whose Search Engine Optimization Specialist rely on the cloaking practice to get away with their stratagem. Unfortunately for these people, search engines are trying to get the practice of cloaking by any Search Engine Optimization Specialist to be banned altogether because cloaking does not benefit the search engine and may even have detrimental side effects on search engines.
Some software programmers will even resort to taking content owned by another site and putting it on their client’s website so that the Search Engine Optimization Specialist team can create “gateway pages”. Never resort to this because it does not produce the optimal long-term results you are looking for. Rather, your website should be dependent on original and excellent content produced specifically for it, as well as a spider-friendly navigation system applicable for search engine usage.
The best way for your Search Engine Optimization Specialist to work for you is still dependent on the basics:
1) Create a well-planned and well-designed website
2) Create web pages that your audience can follow, and
3) Rely on a navigation system that both end users and search engines can follow and use.
4) Have a good strategy increase you link popularity.
If you follow these basics, you not only assist in your users’ search activities but you also make life easier for the search engines themselves. In short, choose a Search Engine Optimization Specialist that really knows how to optimize search results for you the right way, rather than resorting to illicit tactics. Illicit tactics may work for a short time, but in the long term will only give you a bad rep among search engines and the wide, wide world of website owners.
By: Moe TamaniAbout the Author:
SEO Services
Feb
10
E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings in websites and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites. For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.
Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in.
But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.
So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.
With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let’s just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if not any at all.
So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.
Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.
You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.
You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.
Try to search the internet for many useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.
If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.
Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.
The Faceless Guru
http://www.thefacelessguru.com
By: thefacelessguruAbout the Author:
Here to help others make money the easy way like I do.
Your Family
Feb
9
A successful search engine optimization campaign will contain these listed points:. Sober CSS Design Sites that are successful in the search engine results have this in common-they are all simply designed, with a minimum graphics, slowly loading animations, and are easy to navigate. Simple, clean designs are what search engine spiders and search engine users like, because it enables them to get to what they’re looking for. Content is what makes search engine rankings higher, Content brings users to your site, and content, when distributed properly with keyword phrases, will help search engine spiders. Content is key in search engine optimization. Good Meta tags Meta tags-keyword, description, and title- are important but not so important, Meta tags are merely part of the overall success strategy. They need to be written with compelling, keyword phrase-heavy content that will make the user click through from the search results page. Search Engine Optimization Sure, you can get really complicated and technical with SEO, just like any other subject. However, search engine optimization at its heart is simple and clean. Don’t worry so much about the scary technical stuff if you’re just starting out. Start slowly, read, learn, read some more.Most of all, be patient with yourself. Learning search engine optimization takes time, just like any other subject.
Search Engine Optimization
There are two methods for search engine marketing or optimizing.
1. On-Page SEO Optimizing: This is most important aspect in SEO to get top ranking in major search engines like Google, Yahoo & MSN. On-page search engine optimization strategy is simply very elementary, and foundational. Onsite optimization consists of meta tags (title, the keywords, the description, h1), Robots crawl revisits, and the contents optimization - search engines read the source code of the page as according to your robots txt, the idea that the keyword emphasized and connotes the automatic assumption is that the web page has as its main premise.
2. Off-Page SEO Optimizing: In off page, hire Search Rank Professionals perform primarily that portion of SEO that is performed outside the realm (such as website and directory submission, forum posting, article writing and posting for promotion, Press Release submission, RSS feeds, classified, book marking and other organic and inorganic optimization. It is generally a creation or proliferation of inbound links that are themselves optimized for the web pages. The web pages are based on keyword and keyword phrases that work tremendously while searching on the web .
By: Sarah AdamsAbout the Author:
Disability Lawyers
Feb
7
Links are what seem to make the internet go ‘round and they certainly make it quick and easy to get from one page to another, or follow up on some background information on offer. However, when it comes to optimising your website and ranking well with major search engines like Google you will benefit from knowing as much as possible about the different links you can incorporate into your website’s design, and what each one can achieve.
The two main types of links your website should have to ensure its search engine optimisation, are one way links and reciprocal links.
One way links are exactly what they sound like, a link which is only a one way street, but the direction of that linking street is what is important to your website’s optimisation success, when all roads lead to your site. While one way links seem to be going against the grain of the interconnected nature of the internet, this sort of link building can actually be highly beneficial if you can achieve it in the first place.
However, the reason why one way links are so beneficial is actually the same reason they can be so hard to secure – having one way links, coming into your website means that your site is somewhere worth being, and therefore somewhere worth linking to. This is what search engines like to see as they only want to rank sites well which will be helpful to their searchers and if numerous other web users have deemed your site useful enough to link to, then the search engine gives this a lot of weight when determining your ranking.
To achieve one way links to your website though, you have to put in the hard work as there are no shortcuts to make users think your website is useful and informative when it isn’t. But it’s not impossible, as a dedicated SEO expert should be able to help your website reap the benefits of one way links.
Reciprocal links to your website however, are those which you actively seek from other websites, in return for your site linking back to theirs too. In reciprocating links to and from your own website, you are actively choosing to be associated with these other sites. This is why reciprocal links can actually sometimes do more harm than good to your site, because quality – as always – is more important than quantity.
This means that the websites you reciprocate links with must be relevant to your own website, company, business and online presence as while linking between sites is seen as a good thing by most search engines, this is only true if it is helpful to your website visitors. Reciprocating links with websites similar to your own will mean that the sites you link to will be just as helpful and relevant to your visitors as your own site, therefore in recommending your site to search engine users by awarding it a high ranking, the search engine knows there is plenty of useful, helpful and relevant information there for its searchers.
Building links into, and into and out of your website can help you move steadily up the most popular search engine rankings for your keywords. However, if overused or used incorrectly, link building can actually have the opposite effect, so now that you know the benefits of increasing your link popularity, seek out expert SEO advice on how to make links work for your site.
Search Engine Optimisation is a UK based company dedicated to getting your business into the top results on all the major search engines and keeping you there. At Search Engine Optimisation we can work with you to improve and optimise your existing website design, or offer you a leasing package on one of our established websites, already fully optimised and continually updated with new content and fresh designs. Regardless of your industry, the size or nature of your business or where you operate Search Engine Optimisation is committed to building and maintaining your online presence.
By: search engineAbout the Author:
Parenting Tips
Feb
7
The Basics: How Search Engines Work?First, let’s look at how crawler-based search engines work (both Google and Yahoo fall in this category). Each search engine has its own automated program called a “web spider” or “web crawler” that crawls the web. The main purpose of the spider is to crawl web pages, read and collect the content, and follow the links (both internal and external). The spider then deposits the information collected into the search engine’s database called the index. When searchers enter a query in the search box of a search engine, the search engine’s job is to find the most relevant results to the query by matching the search query to the information in its index.
What makes or breaks a search engine is how well it answers your question when you perform a search. That’s based on what’s called the search engine algorithm which is basically a bunch of factors that the search engine uses to say “hey is this page RELEVANT or NOT?”. The higher your page ranks for these factors (yes some factors are more important than others) than the higher your page will get displayed in the search engine result pages.
What is SEO :-Search engine optimization (
SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The acronym “SEO” can also refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer
SEO service as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. So it needs
Search engine professionals.Why SEO is necessary :-
Building a website without search engine optimization is just like that a car without engine.It may look beautiful, have all the bells and whistles, and make you proud to know it is yours. But without the engine, without the guts, it will never get you where you want to go. Website optimization is essential to gaining traffic. Without traffic your website is just like that car without a motor. Pretty, maybe. But, chances are you wanted it to function as well.
Search engines are used daily by four out of five internet users. Of adults aged 30-49, 82% are internet users. Of those aged 50-64 70% are internet users. Internet use rises proportionately with education and household income. Your website must be found within the search engine results pages, to be an effective advertising medium for your company. Being found in the search results is absolutely necessary to drive traffic to your website.
80% of all internet users say they stop looking for a site after 30 results. That is typically 3 pages of search engine results pages with 10 results on each page. Eye tracking studies have shown, your best bet is to be ‘above the fold’ or on the top portion of the page, on the left.
It stands to reason that the higher your site is positioned within a search engine or directory, the more you will increase your website traffic. Optimizing your website for higher search engine ranking and strategically planning keyword inclusion is a measurable/traceable method of attracting self-qualified customers.
Its importance is critical. http://www.snvinfotech.com/seo.php
By: RemeshAbout the Author:
Children’s Behavior