The success of a search engine optimization campaign depends greatly upon link popularity. Getting a Web site listed in directories, distributing press releases and submitting articles for syndication are three ways to gain a slew of legitimate backlinks from unique IPs relatively quickly. This will keep the site out of the “sandbox” and give any SEO campaign a sound link structure to build upon.

News Source : target=blank>http://www.andyhagans.com/Jump-start_Your_Link_Building_WEB.php

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The executive said negotiations between the three companies reached a fevered pitch on Thursday night when teams from Google and Microsoft were in separate rooms of the Time Warner Center in Manhattan and executives from the media company walked back and forth between them.

Finally, around 9 p.m., Richard D. Parsons, chief executive of Time Warner told Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, that he would accept Google’s recently sweetened offer. Google, which prides itself on the purity of its search results, agreed to give favored placement to content from AOL throughout its site, something it has never done before.

The deal helps Google fend off what could have been a significant challenge from a combination of AOL and Microsoft and cements its position as far and away the largest seller of search advertising.

According to the executive, Mr. Parsons called Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, this morning to give him the news that the deal that Microsoft had so eagerly sought – and had thought it had won – was going to Google, which it sees as its most potent long-term rival.

Microsoft had proposed that it and AOL form a joint venture to sell advertising on their own sites and eventually on other sites as well. Now Microsoft will compete in the search business as a distant No. 3 behind Yahoo.

Representatives of Time Warner, Google and Microsoft declined to comment.

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How Keyword Density is Determined
Keyword density is figured by using a simple formula:

Number of times keyword is used / Total word count on page = Keyword Density

How Keywords are Counted Up While the formula is generally simple, there is a variable that keeps determining keyword density and optimizing for engines an exciting game. How keywords are counted up varies depending on the search engines criteria.

For example: some engines count keywords used in the meta descriptions, image tags, title tags and the text on the page while others count up keyword usage from the body copy only. (We’ll leave the discovering of which engines count which ways up to you.)

The Right Ratio
The most essential part of optimizing keyword density is using the correct ratio of keywords-total words on your page. Keyword density ratios are discussed as a percentage. A good range for keyword density for a target keyword is 2% to 6%. Meaning, when you divide the number of times you used a keyword on your page by the total number of words on your page you should get a percent somewhere between 2 and 6.

The Wrong Ratio
Having a too high or too low keyword density can be to your page’s detriment. If the density is too low your page will be considered an irrelevant result for that keyword phrase. But don’t be fooled into thinking a higher keyword density equals a more relevant result. Search engines combat spam pages by penalizing pages with a too high keyword density, or keyword:total word ratio.

Help for Figuring Keyword Density
Calculating keyword density can get to be a real chore if you are trying to do it by hand or with a calculator alone. Luckily, there are keyword density services online that can help. There is software you can purchase, however we like to use the free service, Keywordcount.com.

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To most in the search industry, it is common knowledge that Google values “off-page” optimization (backlinks, in-bound links), while Yahoo seems to prefer on-page optimization (title tags, keyword density). Although there are some indications that Yahoo is placing more value on links.

“Time was – and it was quite some time – Google was the best place to do most any search. The kind of people who send spam to our Inboxes quickly realized that sending spam to our search results was even better.

[In this regard,] Google’s reaction [has been similar to] email networks trying to filter out virus messages. For several months earlier this year, they were filtering out more legitimate emails with attachments than viruses? If you want to see all of the best results, you’ll need to get a second opinion. In your case, it’s Yahoo.”

Several forum participants share Strike’s opinion with comments like; “Google is slowly dropping the ball” and “I agree that Google is not the same it used to be”.

Yahoo’s results didn’t necessarily receive the highest marks either. On ihelpyou, moderator Chrishirst said, “IMO, Yahoo results seem to be more about the $$$ than relevancy and notably the same site doesn’t even appear in the first couple of hundred results at Google.” If you take a quick scan of the SEO forums, the Yahoo categories are littered with topics like, “I’ve just lost all my Yahoo listings. Please help.” These situations indicate that each engine still has some growing pains to work through

To be fair, Google results aren’t the only ones being taken to task. In a post on WebmasterWorld, Isitreal offered a scathing evaluation of search engine users, “Who uses Yahoo/MSN? People who don’t change their default browser search settings. IE is set to MSN. Yahoo website users [use Yahoo search], and that portal [has] heavy traffic? People who know nothing about search engines, and just [search with] what they’re used to.”

Another poster on WebProWorld defends Google, saying, “Until MSN and Yahoo can update their results daily (like Google does) they will not compare to the big G.” However, the point made about results updating is disputed in the HighRankings forum, where Semko says, “Yahoo search results are very dynamic, they get updated nearly every second, as tons of info are constantly added to Yahoo.” The truth undoubtedly lies somewhere in between.

With the increased search engine bot activity Google and Yahoo may be trying to streamline their indexes in order to root out spam and provide more relevant results. In the end, it comes down to preference. The search engine gives you the results you are looking for, no matter your level of experience, is likely to be the one you use.

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I’ve publicly complained about the lack of click-through traff?c of top ranked sites from both Yahoo and MSN search. Even though most of my web sites and those of clients are very highly ranked in all three search engines, Yahoo and MSN send less than one quarter of all search traff?c to any of those sites. Google sends the rest – over 75% of search traff?c referred comes from searches originating on Google’s English speaking sites in the UK, Australia, Canada, etc.

Is that because nobody can see past the PPC ads (Overture Sponsor Ads) on MSN search? No, the “Sponsored Sites” aren’t that dominant on the SERP. Is it because only one fourth the number of people search at MSN and Yahoo? No, it can’t be explained that way either. Who knows? Maybe those who search at MSN and Yahoo simply want to search without bothering to visit those top ranked sites? Could it be that the blue color and the “Sponsored Sites” label actually dissuades people from dropping down to the organic results or those sponsored links are more clicked at MSN than at Google? I just don’t know.

If the test I ran today proves to be a reflection of where they are going with their new search technology though, I’ll be nothing short of ecstatic on public unveiling of the “New” MSN search. As a matter of fact, I may be about to fall in love with MSN search.

In this test, I did some searches for several terms I am targeting for myself as well as several other phrases I’m targeting for SEO clients. ALL of those searches rank our sites in the first page or two at all three of the top tier search engines. The search I’ve emphasized in this test though, was for the phrase “Domain Name Tutorial” at: http://www.website101.com/Domain_Name/.

I chose that phrase because, inexplicably, it doesn’t rank well for me at the current official MSN search and may prove to be a perfect example of the difference between the new and old versions on public launch of MSN search later this year or early in 2005.

Google ranks our domain name tutorial at #-1 in results, the current “official” MSN search ranks it somewhere in sludge of all castoff sites. In other words, I couldn’t find it in the first 200 results at the current “official” MSN search and wasn’t in the mood to click-through any more results pages to find it.

A search for Domain Name Tutorial at the public beta of MSN search ranks it at #-1 as does Google, but Google delivers a full 90% of all search engine referred traff?c to that Tutorial.

I use a web traff?c statistics service to monitor my web stats and the report I spend the most time pouring over a couple of times a week is the “Search Phrase” report, which shows what search phrase brought the click-through to my site from the search engines.
The current MSN search shows visitors in ones and twos for several of my top ranking search phrases, while Google sends hundreds per day on several of those searches. If MSN made the beta search site official, would we see any higher traff?c numbers from them?

I’ll be very happy if my test results do reflect where MSN is headed, since it’s hard to beat number one for those search phrases I tested today! This test leads me to believe that MSN is emphasizing directory and filenames that include keywords and are weighing inbound links pretty heavily. Page structure, title tags and text links also appear to be weighted substantially in their new algorithm.

Yahoo currently shows two “Sponsor Results” offset in blue, at the top of the SERP’s when you’ve done a search for anything that has PPC bids at Overture, as does Google with Adwords ads. (Yahoo adds three more at bottom of the page and Google none). MSN shows three PPC ads labled “Sponsored Sites” offset in a very pale green at the top of the SERP’s and one at the bottom of the page following organic search results. Will MSN continue showing more ads than everyone else and, consequently lower organic search click-throughs?

All I can do at this point is to cheer MSN on and hope they continue on their current path as demonstrated at the beta site. It will make everyone (webmasters relying on organic search) happier if MSN starts sending more search traff?c to their sites, rather than to the “Sponsored Sites.” Conversely, Overture advertisers may start wondering where their PPC traff?c has gone. Maybe then those heavy PPC players will start to see the value in organic SEO, you nev?r know.

Maybe MSN is toying with their very own PPC program

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It’s important to note that Google PageRank is not the same thing as link popularity. PR is actually a subset of link popularity. Whereas PR focuses strictly on the quantity and popularity of links, link popularity adds a “quality factor” into the equation. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly use the terms “link popularity” and “PageRank ” interchangeably, which has served to confuse the issue further.

All major search engines place some emphasis on link popularity in their ranking algorithms. There appear to be 2 main types of links that work best to increase your link popularity: links from other sites that focus on the same keyword phrases your site focuses on, and links from relevant categories in major directories and industry-specific portals. “Free-for-all” (FFA) sites do not constitute quality links, so don’t waste your $24.95 submitting your site to 500 of them. Links from sites that focus on topics that have nothing to do with your site probably won’t help you w?n any link popularity contests, either (although they may temporarily boost your PR).

How Does Link Popularity Work?

Here’s an example of how I believe link popularity works:

Let’s say that Bob’s Pizza Palace Website has a link to Joe’s Men’s Clothing store site. If the link uses the keywords “men’s clothing store” in the anchor text (the clickable part), it may help Joe’s link popularity a little bit for those keywords. However, Joe would benefit a lot more if the same link came from a site that was more related to Joe’s site than a pizza palace. For instance, a more related link might be from a woman’s clothing store, a men’s shoe store or any other type of store that relates to clothing in some way

An even higher-quality link for Joe might be from “Sam’s Clothing Store Directory,” which lists a whole bunch of clothing stores that can be found on the Internet. That is exactly the kind of link that the search engines would want to cred?t toward link popularity. Again, the key is in having that common thread between the sites.

Where Do Reciprocal Links Come In?

The other popular misconception floating around is in regards to reciprocal linking. Since so many people think that exchanging links with sites is the easiest way to get them (it may or may not be), new people learning about link popularity are under the mistaken belief that they *must* have links that are reciprocated on their site (e.g., “you-link-to-me-and-I’ll-link-to-you”-type links). Still others are saying that reciprocal links are dead and you won’t gain *any* benefit from them.

Both camps are wrong. You certainly don’t *need* to get reciprocal links, but you can if you want to. Remember, it’s links pointing To your site that are the helpful ones. Links pointing From your site to other sites are wonderful to have because they help your visitors find related stuff, but if your site doesn’t lend itself to linking to other sites, then by all means, don’t do it. You need to do what’s right for your company and your site visitors, first and foremost.

Should I Care About Link Popularity?

In general, there’s no need for the average site to obsess over link popularity. Yes, you’ll want to keep it in mind, and yes you should make sure that your site is what I like to call “link-worthy.” However, from my experience (and contrary to popular belief), link popularity constitutes only a portion of most search engines’ ranking algorithms. Arguably, Google places more emphasis than most other engines on incoming links at this point in time. How much these actually boost a site’s ranking is debatable and truly depends on the site. It also depends on the words that are placed in the anchor text. I have found that just a few highly relevant links with strong anchor text can go a long way towards link popularity for many sites.

For sites that want to take it to the next level and are trying to rank highly with extremely competitive keywords, it may be necessary to actively seek out links from other relevant Websites. This doesn’t mean you should go out and create a whole bunch of domains yourself and link them all together because it sounds easier than getting others to link to you. (Yes, that trick has been tried before!) It simply means you should look for sites that are related to your site in some way, and see if they might be interested in promoting your site to their users.

Whatever you do, do not send automatically generated link requests to any site. Most Webmasters consider them a nuisance at best and sp@m at worst. Certainly, a personal email may be welcome, and it also doesn’t hurt to pick up the phon? and begin a dialogue with a potential link partner. Remember, very often these links from relevant sites will bring more traff?c to your site than a high search engine ranking will bring.

How To Get Linked Without Even Trying

My favorite way to get links (but the most time-consuming) is to simply have the best site on the Internet in your specific niche. Interestingly enough, if your site is well written, provides tons of useful information and is constantly updated, you often won’t have to seek out links at all. Other sites will link to yours of their own volition.

Without actively requesting any links (other than a few major directories), hundreds of highly relevant sites have added HighRankings.com to their list of recommended sites related to SEO. Some people link to my home page, others to the main newsletter page, and still others to my forum. Some will link directly to an article or newsletter they’ve enjoyed, and some will ask if they can republish some on their site, while also including a link.

This is the ideal, and not every site is going to have the time or inclination to get to this stage. However, I firmly believe that any kind of site in any type of business can use this method if they are willing to work at it. I know of no other method that can even bring links from direct competitors! Personally, I’d rather spend my time creating a link-worthy site than sending out repetitive reciprocal link exchange requests…but maybe that’s just me!

Your homework for this week is to think about how you can make your site so good that others will be only too willing to link to it — without your even having to ask for it. If you can figure it out and actually spend the time implementing the strategy, eventually you won’t have to worry about link popularity, reciprocal links or PageRank ever again!

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According to an article written by Karon Thackston that appeared on HighRankings.com called The Magical Keyword Density Formula, keyword density is only part of the total SEO package. Karon says, “Copywriting, in my opinion and the opinions of respected search engine optimizers, is 1/3 of the puzzle; but there are other pieces to the puzzle, too.” Because of this, Karon states that there is no magical keyword density formula to determine how much is too much and how much isn’t.

Which brings us back to the WebProWorld discussion. Jade456 posed this request: “I’d like to get some opinions on the best keyword density percentage. I’ve heard some people say to keep it under 10% and other say the higher the better. I’m thinking that it should stay under 10, for fear of being dropped for spamming. Anyone have any thoughts?”

Jade’s request was almost immediately answered by cbp, who said, “I have some pages that (accidentally) have keyword density’s of >50% and still manage to rank high – I have seen all the different advice all over the place. My approach is to make sure that the keyword(s) I am targeting have the highest density on the page, but kept as low as possible (yes 10% preferably) – but most importantly the use of language should be natural. Google is getting smarter.”

cbp’s point illustrates what Karon was trying to say. There is no set standard with which to adhere to when it comes to creating search engine-friendly text. However, Webnauts, offers some information that serves as a caution:

“I learned that the average keywords density should be between 3 – 7 to every 100 words.” The reason Webnauts doesn’t go past this mark is because he knows of other sites that have been banned because they were considered spammers. This indicates that while there is no standard, there is definitely a point where the search engines will consider too many keywords as a spam technique. However, determining what constitutes as spam is where the trick lies.

Spam can occur when your density exceeds what is the necessary amount to gain a respectable ranking. WPW moderator bhartzer explains this thought a little further, “Every keyword phrase is different. One might do well with a 3.2 percent keyword density and another whereas the average density for another keyword phrase is close to about 6 percent. And if you were to use the 6 percent keyword density on your page to try to rank for the 3.2, then you’d be way too high, on the border of spamming.”

With keyword density, there doesn’t appear to be any rules that are set in stone. Most advice surrounding the topic centers on keeping your web text as natural as possible by not stuffing keywords into the text. Karon finishes this thought by saying:

“I focus on natural language. If the copy sounds forced after including keyphrases, I scrap it and start over. Read your copy out loud. If it sounds stupid or redundant to you, it will sound stupid and redundant to your site visitor. Don’t compromise the flow of natural language for the sake of search engines.”

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But, there are headings and there are headings! Appearances are deceptive.
Google cannot read an image, so you need to use text headings

How best to create a heading
You need to create a heading within a heading tag.

In the HTML code it looks like this:

<H1>This is how to create a heading</H1>
or,
<H2>This is how to create a heading</H2>
or, for smaller font size…
<H6>This is how to create a heading</H6>

<p>Alot of designers will use classes to make their headings look different
from
the body text.

By example:
<p class="heading">This is a heading whose style is defined

by a class

These are not as effective as heading tags! But, you can use a heading
tag and create a style for that heading tag in your style sheet.

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]]> http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/07/using-heading-tags-to-optimise-your-website-for-google-2/feed/ 0 http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/07/ten-web-site-promotion-tips-for-dmoz-open-directory-project/ http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/07/ten-web-site-promotion-tips-for-dmoz-open-directory-project/#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2004 13:50:16 +0000 wiredgorilla The dmoz directory is not a search engine. It’s a directory, like a phonebook. It has been categorizing the Internet since 1998. Dmoz currently has over 590,000 categories and sub categories. The main directory itself has sixteen main categories. All subcategories fall under these top sixteen. Imagine, everything in the known universe able to be categorized under a mere sixteen main subject headings. Seems impossible, but it’s true.

The project has a lot of help categorizing the sites submitted to it. There are currently 64,739 human volunteer editors, which give freely of their time to help bring organization to the chaos. How would you like to pay that payroll each month?

Although there is a built-in search function in dmoz, within a directory the idea is to cl?ck your way down inside of it, until you’ve found what you want. You can move forward, backward and even sideways and up and down. Within several seconds you should have arrived at the intended category and will be presented with a list of relevant sites. You decide, (not the search engine) which site looks like the best and cl?ck the related link. Sound simple? It is simple! So why don’t more people use it?

Probably because we’ve become spoiled by the big search engines. All you have to do is type in a search word and get a whole page of results. Much quicker and more accurate. Right?

Before you answer that question answer these ones:

How many times have you clicked on a search result presented by a popular search engine and had to scroll way down the page or view several deep pages of results to find something close to what you intended to find? How often are the top 10 results not what you were looking for at all, because your search term was not accurate enough?

One point for the directory. Search engines can only return data based on specific search criteria. They are after all machines. Within a directory you get to decide which category is the most appropriate and the fastest way to get there. Search engines pick results on the relativeness of the search term, usually putting a heavier emphasis on the first few words. In dmoz however, your own brain tells you to choose from the list. Brains work better than machines.

How many times have you clicked on a link from a popular search engine to find an abandoned or missing page or an expired URL at the other end?

How many times have you reached a page and had to cl?ck backward to try another listing?

Although you might have to do this in dmoz as well, I have found that I can usually find -exactly- what I am seeking within one or two back clicks.

This is subjective of course. See the next two questions.

How many times do you have to retype your search query more than once to try and narrow down the search?

Come on admit it. The big search engines are very sophisticated but how often do you use any of the advanced search features? That’s worth a lesson in itself. You can quickly narrow the parameters of your search this way, but most folks I know simply retype the original query in a different order and hope for the best.

How much time (on average) do you spend during each session on a “Major” search engine?

Think about it for a moment. Sometimes you get lucky and find an answer in less than ten seconds. Sometimes you’re on there reviewing results for over a minute before choosing one. Other times you can spend quite a chunk of time going back and forth between selected sites and presented search results.

Add up all of the aforementioned time and effort and you may come to the conclusion the big engines are not quite as ‘convenient’ as you thought.

Compare this to a dozen or so -accurate- clicks from within a directory structure and using your own brain for the elimination process. You might find it faster using a directory.

Many of the Major search engines use the dmoz directory as a foundation for search results. You may ask, if dmoz searches are already part of many search results, why use dmoz by itself?

Type this search query into Google, then dmoz: “chile recipes rattlesnake”. You’ll get different results because Google uses many different criteria to weigh their results while dmoz takes a web site at face value.

Tips on Getting your site accurately placed within the dmoz Directory.

Because dmoz is staffed by volunteer editors, it can often take a while to get your web site included. Here are a few tips to speed things up.

1. Find a category WITH an Editor
First of all, when you reach the category in which you would like to include your web site, scroll to the bottom of the page and find out if it has an ‘Editor’s’ name or handle…. Should you find a text line which says “Volunteer to edit this category,” it means the category you have selected has no direct Editor. Thus, it could take even longer to get your site listed. Find a category WITH an Editor to improve your chances.

2. On the very bottom of each category page you can read the date the last time a page was updated. Very important tip. If it says August 2001, pretty good chance no one is going to be updating that page quickly. Find one with a recent date. It shows someone has actively been updating that category.

I found my category but it has no Editor, now What?

3. Go back to the top of the page and select the next best category or backstroke to the main sub category. All dmoz main categories have ‘Meta Editors’ which are in charge of several (if not hundreds) of sub categories. Submitting to the general category often gets the Meta Editor to pass it along the line. Bet you didn’t know dmoz editors could do that. They often pass or redirect submissions along to each other. I happen to be a dmoz editor and I find my ‘inbox’ always has several new entries from other Editors of similar categories.

Still no luck, now what?

4. Did you know you are allowed two (yes two) listings within dmoz? The first is subject specific. The second is Geographic. Drill down through the “Regions” portion of the index to find an appropriate category. e.g. business/northamerica/us/ohio . Chances are, the regional portion of the database will list your site based upon your country, village, town or city. Enter your listing there. (when you do, don’t forget tip #-1)

Still no luck, now I’m getting frustrated!

5. Relax. Find the closest category that does have an editor and write them a -very pleasant- email explaining your situation. Most editors I am aware of will write you back. Write a nasty email and you’ll get no response. We volunteer our time. They don’t pay us to take abuse. You can find how to email an editor by simply clicking on their name at the bottom of the page.

Other Tips and Suggestions.

6. Read the category description before submitting your site. Yes, more reading. Most Editors have taken the time to write a description for their respective categories and often supply tips and hints for helping to process the submission faster. Suggestions such as “20 words or less,” means 20 words or less, not 50, 40 or 30 or 21. Writing long flowing paragraphs for your description defeats the purpose and it might take longer to show up (if it shows up at all). Why? Because the editor has to go and personally review your site to maintain the quality of the database. They must then manually edit your description so it makes sense and fits on the page. Bottom line. You are wasting their time by not adhering to the rules. Remember, these are real people doing the work, not machines. The easier you can make it for them the better. Read the category description first.

7. Recently there has been some inaccurate speculation concerning dmoz Editors which are in charge of categories similar to their own business interests, thus not allowing competitors into the same category. This has always been taken into consideration by dmoz administration. In fact, there are new rules and a review process to address this very issue. Each current dmoz editor (or requests to become an editor) are now required to state which URL’s they are personally involved with or work for, especially in business. This ‘association’ review process will assist dmoz administrators in selecting or rejecting editors from conflict of interest categories. All editors are currently under review.

8. Dmoz is fair. There is no “race to the top” of the listings. You can’t buy your way in, nor purchase auctions or paid listings or clickable advertising. You can’t hire someone to try and get you a number one listing. Everyone in dmoz is on an equal playing field. The listings are in alphabetical order. It may be argued that sites beginning with “A” get more viewing than those beginning with “Z” but the listings are not presented this way within the search results, so there really is no distinct advantage. You’ll only find them in alphabetical order if you drill down through the categories.

9. Why go through all this work to get your site listed in dmoz? It’s worth it. At last count dmoz was supplying its database to over three hundred and twenty-two other engines, directories, intranets, and databases. That’s pretty good coverage for a free listing.

10. Volunteer to become an Editor. Find out how the project works from the inside. It’s been an interesting and rewarding experience for myself and I’ve gained a much better understanding of how to market more effectively online. It doesn’t take much of your time and quite frankly, it’s fun.

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]]> http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/07/ten-web-site-promotion-tips-for-dmoz-open-directory-project/feed/ 0 http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/10-ways-to-indirectly-get-to-the-top-of-search/ http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/10-ways-to-indirectly-get-to-the-top-of-search/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2004 12:02:53 +0000 wiredgorilla There are millions of web sites trying to get listed in the
top 20 spots of the major search engines. That amounts to
a lot of competition! I say if you can’t get listed at the
top, indirectly get to the top.

How do you do
this?? Look up the top 20 web sites on the
major search engines under
the keywords and phrases people
would find your web site. The key would be to
then
advertise on those web sites.


The most expensive way would be
to buy ad space on those
web sites.? If you don’t want to spend any
money, you could
use the ten strategies below. These strategies may
not
apply to every web site.


1. Participate on their discussion
boards. You could post
questions, answer other peoples questions, and join in
on
conversations. Just include your signature file and link at
the end of
your messages.


2. Ask the web site owner if they would like a free
ebook
to giveaway to their visitors. You could have them link to
your web
site or include your ad in the free ebook.


3. Submit content to their
web site. You could write
articles for their web site and include your
resource box
and link at the end of the article. If they publish
it,
you’ll indirectly be at the top of the search engines.


4.
Write an excellent article review of their web site,
products or services.
Then publish the review on your web
site. E-mail the web site owner and tell
him or her about
it. They may link to your web site so their visitors
read
it.


5. Ask the owner of the web site if they would want
to
trade advertising. If you don’t get as much traffic as they
do, you
could throw in some extra incentives.


6. Propose a cross promotion
deal with the web site. You
both could promote each others products or
services
together in one package deal. This means a mention and link
back
to your web site.


7. Give the web site a testimonial for their
product or
service. Include a little text link for your web site with
the
testimonial. You never know; it could end up on their
ad copy.


8.
Post your advertisement on their free classified ad
section on their web
site. You want to be sure you have an
attractive headline so they will read
your ad.


9. Post your text link on their free-for-all links
page.
You want to go back and post your link regularly so it
stays towards
the top.


10. Sign their guest books. You could leave a
short
compliment about their web site on their guest book. Just
include
your signature file and link at the end of
your
message.

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]]> http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/10-ways-to-indirectly-get-to-the-top-of-search/feed/ 0 http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/comparing-msn-and-yahoo-optimization/ http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/comparing-msn-and-yahoo-optimization/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2004 05:57:06 +0000 wiredgorilla With the enormous potential of Yahoo! and Microsoft to place major financial and marketing support behind their search engine efforts, there is a strong possibility of some serious search competition. It would be prudent for search engine professionals (SEOs) and other website owners to be certain they are prepared for any upcoming search engine battles for market share.

Two fast rising search engines — the Yahoo! search engine and newly revised MSN Search — both have huge corporate backing, which some people say is more than sufficient to challenge search leader Google.

With the enormous potential of Yahoo! and Microsoft to place major financial and marketing support behind their search engine efforts, there is a strong possibility of some serious search competition. It would be prudent for search engine professionals (SEOs) and other website owners to be certain they are prepared for any upcoming search engine battles for market share.

In many ways, the search optimization techniques that work well in Yahoo! will serve you very well with the MSN Search algorithm. Many of the same optimization methods work for both search engines. The emphasis placed on creating keyword rich on page and off page content, by both algorithms, lets you get double value from your optimization efforts.

We will examine the similarities as well as the differences in optimizing for both search engines. There are a number of techniques that work extremely well for both algorithms. We will also look at the differences between the requirements for high rankings in Yahoo! and MSN.

If you take care to follow some basic steps, your site will score high search engine rankings in both MSN Search and Yahoo!.

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]]> http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/comparing-msn-and-yahoo-optimization/feed/ 0 http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/getting-high-rankings-in-msn-search/ http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/getting-high-rankings-in-msn-search/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2004 05:36:57 +0000 wiredgorilla With the launch of Microsoft’s MSN search engine, make sure your site gets a piece of the action. Along with practicing strong Google and Yahoo Search optimization, you will want to add MSN Search optimization to your list of priorities.


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The giant Microsoft Corporation has made a renewed entry into the search engine fray with the launch of its new MSN search engine. Microsoft has achieved rather limited success, up to this point, in its quest to compete with the dominant search engine Google. This new and revised MSN search vehicle may place Microsoft back in the race for the hearts and minds of the search public.

Should a significant portion of the search traffic choose to log onto the MSN Search interface, you will want to be certain that your site gets a piece of the action. You will want your site to ranked highly in MSN Search. Along with practicing strong Google and Yahoo! Search optimization, you will want to add MSN Search optimization to your list of priorities.

Gaining added Internet search traffic via MSN Search could add huge dollars to your online business bottom line. To receive that much sought after visitor traffic, you will want to know a little about what works, and what doesn?t have much impact, when optimizing for MSN.

Gaining high rankings in MSN Search might add some much appreciated additional visitor traffic to your site. What you need to do is consider, is why MSN has become a growing search engine power, and how to take advantage of that future traffic flow.

Why is the MSN Search Engine Important?

While many search engine optimization experts discount the relative importance of MSN Search, no one should ever forget the potential marketing power that the Microsoft Corporation can bring to the search engine business. By bundling MSN Search into the home version of Windows XP and in the proposed Longhorn application, many new Internet users will be searching via the MSN search engine option.

It?s dangerous for an online business to scoff at the new and inexperienced Internet users who might simply use the bundled MSN Search box. Many of the searchers might be Internet shoppers from their first month on the Internet. Unlike previous Internet novices, new users arrive on the Internet already knowing that online purchases are a standard shopping choice.

Because of the enormous potential, especially in the burgeoning online consumer market, it would be a mistake to overlook the MSN search engine. To take advantage of the MSN Search possibilities you need to know how to achieve high rankings with that possible future search engine powerhouse.

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]]> http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/getting-high-rankings-in-msn-search/feed/ 0 http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/increase-your-web-page-traffic/ http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/increase-your-web-page-traffic/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2004 10:30:08 +0000 wiredgorilla Have you optimized your web pages in order to receive traff?c from the major search engines (SE) like Google, Yahoo or Msn?

If you have, then I’ll show you a simple method you can use to increase your traff?c further by up to 50% or 100%!

The most common practice is to optimize each page with one keyword and by “keyword” I mean a search phrase. The reason for this is that in order to be rated high in the SE, the keyword needs to be found in the page’s title, in the headlines and to be included a number of times in the main text.

You can have a maximum of two relevant but different keywords included in the title. If you include more than that the optimization for those additional keywords will dilute your result.

This is because the optimal length of the title is limited to only a few words for effective SE optimization.

The best option is to optimize for just one keyword per page.

The two most useful tools for keyword research are WordTracker and the Overture keyword inventory tool.

Both will give you an estimate on how many searches are made on keywords on the Web.

WordTracker is a pay service which also measures the number of competing web sites for keywords. Overture’s inventory tool is a fr?e service. The main purpose is to give bidders a way to measure how many times each keyword is being searched. Overture is the leading pay-per-click search engine. Its keyword inventory tool is not made for SE optimization research.

However, that is what a lot of people use it for. WordTracker keyword statistics are better than Overture’s. Overture uses an aggregation from Overture’s partners and often the traff?c statistics are diluted by automatic queries.

Of course the statistics from Overture and WordTracker are not always accurate. What is important is that from these tools you can extract a lot of extra words so the exact number is not so important. Use them together with your main keyword or spread them out throughout your page.

Any combination of your main keyword together with one of the extra words will give you a boost in ranking. This is because you have already optimized your page for the main term “backup program”.

If someone searches for “best backup program” and you have included “best” in front of “backup program” only once in the text you will show up high in the results. You will also probably show up high even if the word “best” is not next to “backup program”.

Extra words as candidates to include in our case are: “Free, computer, dvd, add, remove, software, data, drive hard, windows xp, cd, windows, recovery disk, installed, home edition, outlook express, backup, win2k and database”.

Special Note on Overture’s Tool:

The number of searches for “backup program” is 999. This number also includes “backup program”, “backup programs”, “program backup” and “program backups”. Both in singular and plural.

This gives a somewhat misleading figure for the keyword, especially for searches that include many individual words.

Which of the word combinations have the highest number of searches?

You just don’t know! You have to use your common sense.

Overture often lists the different words in alphabetical order which give misleading information. For example, people don’t usually search for “backup drive hard program”. They are much more likely doing searches for “hard drive backup programs”. Or “backup programs for hard drives”. Words like “to”, “for”, and “on” are ignored by the SE.

This method to include extra words works best if the page contains at least 400 – 500 words. A page that contains more words is better.

If you sprinkle the text with some of the suggested words on your page, you will increase the number of visitors you get from the SE substantially.

This does not mean that you should sacrifice the quality. Don’t use it for keyword stuffing.

Include words that fit in naturally on your page.

The advantage of doing this for the less searched phrases are:

1. There is less competition for those keywords.

2. Searches for the keywords are more specific, which means a more precise search. Visitors are more likely to cl?ck on your link and also to respond positively to your message.

3. Web users are more likely to look beyond the first search page. This is because the searches are more specific and other results on the list are more likely to be on target.

Recently, in November 2003 and January 2004, Google made changes on how it values web pages. Small web sites with few inbound links were hit hard. Many websites lost good ranking or worse disappeared all together for important keywords.

What disappeared from the SE results was in most cases only the primary keywords for each page. In our example that would have been “backup program”.

By adding related keyword combinations together with your primary keyword you would still be found in Google’s search for a large number of keyword combinations. For example, in our case, we would be found for “best backup program”.

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]]> http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/increase-your-web-page-traffic/feed/ 0 http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/common-sense-search-engine-optimization/ http://wiredgorilla.com.au/2004/06/common-sense-search-engine-optimization/#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2004 13:01:05 +0000 wiredgorilla For years, when people thought about search engine optimization, in all likelihood, gateway pages, doorway pages or informational pages probably came to mind. If you’re a search engine optimization specialist, you’ve probably had clients requesting that you create these types of pages for them.


They may believe the following statements to be true:

Every search engine has a different algorithm (formula) to determine the ranking of a Web page, and therefore none of their “regular” pages will rank highly in all of the engines.





Keyword-rich copy that the search engines will like is not text they can visibly put on their site where people can see it, especially not on their front page!




Business sites need to be on the cutting edge and use Flash animation and/or lots of graphics, and they shouldn’t have to change this just to please the search engines.
Although there is a grain of truth to each of the above, let’s examine each point in more detail so you’ll have some ammunition the next time you get this type of request.




Dealing with Differing Algorithms




Yes, it’s true, search engine algorithms are varied and do change. There will always be SEOs who spend many hours poring over search engine results and statistics, trying to figure out each search engine’s current formula for high rankings. There have been many software programs written over the years to help crack the algorithms and automatically generate high-ranking pages for each engine.




One of the problems with using this method is that as soon as a new algorithm is in place, these carefully crafted gateway pages will often drop out of sight in the rankings. The new algorithm must be cracked again, and new gateway pages must be created. It’s truly a never-ending, time-consuming and expensive process that is very much against the best-practice guidelines put forth by the search engines.





The truth is that even though search engines do have slightly different algorithms (and they do change them at times), basically all engines appreciate the same things that real people look for in a Web site:





A simple, cleanly coded design
Well-thought-out, intuitive navigation
Well-written, descriptive copy
Titles and Meta tags that help identify relevant keyword phrases
Links that accurately describe what can be found at the site.
It’s really just common sense. Web sites with the above features don’t need to crack algorithms. These sites have the potential to achieve high rankings for many keyword phrases in all major search engines for many years, regardless of ever-changing algorithms. And more importantly, they will likely be a hit with their site visitors.




Writing Keyword-rich Copy




Clients (and even some SEOs) often justify the use of doorways and gateways by claiming that there’s a difference between good copy for search engines and good copy for their site visitors. That is simply not true. Good marketing copy can be written that sounds great, stresses the benefits to the user and also utilizes keyword phrases. There’s definitely an art to it, and you have to be a good copywriter to begin with, but it most definitely can be done. The key is to use a professional copywriter, not an SEO, for that aspect of the job.





Use of Flash Animation and Graphics at the Expense of Content




Over and over again we hear from companies that want high rankings and lots of traff?c and sal?s, yet refuse to forfeit their LUGs (large useless graphics) and Flash animation in favor of good content. Unfortunately, these pages don’t give the search engines much to go by when trying to determine what the site is all about. This forces the engines to figure things out solely based on the Title tags and the links. That may be enough in some cases, but the best indicator of what a site is about is through the content on its pages. Now, it’s true that some search engines have started reading the content of Flash files, but there’s generally not much “meat” contained in the ones I’ve seen!




Don’t forget that the ultimate goal of most business Web sites is to sell a product or a service. When you see a Flash presentation on a site, does that make you want to purchase their products or use their services? Sure, it might appear cool the first time you view it, but thereafter it only serves as an annoying distraction and/or waste of time. And if you’re on a dial-up modem (yes there are still some left!), you probably don’t want to wait around to view it. Besides, you can have your cake and eat it too by simply using small amounts of Flash in appropriate places, along with your great content.




When all is said and done, most people would rather be presented with information on the types of products or services offered in clear, concise language, right on the main page of the site they’re visiting. Luckily for us, that’s exactly what the search engines want to see as well!




Optimize Your Actual Site




You don’t need a second (or third or fourth) site for SEO purposes. Those companies that are willing to create useful content within the pages of their Web site can very often own long-term high rankings. Plus, they won’t have to rely on link popularity as much as the low/no-content sites have to.




In years past, convincing companies of this fact was one of the most difficult jobs we had to do. Thankfully, as the Web matures, more and more site owners are discovering that their fancy, cutting-edge sites don’t convert as well as the competitor’s informational site that gets right down to business. It’s usually at that point that they become more receptive to doing what it takes to make their site the best it can be for their visitors as well as the search engines.





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