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SEO Help From Google Webmaster Tools (Part 1 of 2)

Google Webmaster Tools is a suite of tools designed to assist the web marketer and website owner in ensuring their website is optimized for Google to access and crawl it properly. The tools are surprisingly beneficial and if you haven’t checked them out before, or it’s been a while since you last looked, you’ll probably be more than a little surprised.

Part 1 looks at the Overview, Diagnostics, and Statistics sections, while in part 2 next week, we look at Links, Sitemaps, and Tools and discuss how to use various aspects of Google Webmaster Tools to improve your marketing and site maintenance.

The quickest way to learn? Get in and get your hands dirty – you can’t damage anything by doing so.

Overview

The Overview tab displays a summarized report detailing when your site was last crawled, whether pages from your site have been indexed, and whether there were any errors when Googlobot attempted to crawl your site. It’s good information, and can give you an indication of how attractive your site is to Googlebot but it doesn’t contain the real meat of the Webmaster Tools.

Diagnostics

The Diagnostics tab gives a list of crawl types that Google may or may not have attempted on your site. Clicking on each of these will subsequently display a list of errors and problems that were encountered in the process. This can include links to your other pages that Google wasn’t able to follow so do check the errors and repair any broken links, pages that return errors, and so on.

>Fixing Broken Links

Fixing problems doesn’t just improve the experience for Googlebot it may mean more of your pages get indexed and ranked for your important keywords. One broken link can lead to a handful of other broken links although if you’ve submitted a Google sitemap then this should be less of a problem.

>Content Analysis

For a true insight of how Google is viewing the elements on your pages, pay particular interest to the Content Analysis section. The non-indexable content issues lists elements or pages that can’t be indexed largely due to the fact that Googlebot is predominantly a text crawler. Look at the pages highlighted and make sure that there is ample alternative text for the crawlers and for the sake accessibility – some users disable Flash in their browsers and they will fail to see these elements as well.

Every page should contain a reasonable amount of text for the crawlers and those that can’t view Flash, images, or other non-indexable items.

Statistics

The Statistics section is an Internet marketer’s heaven. You can view crawl data, index stats, link stats, feed stats, and your top Google search queries. We’re going to ignore the PageRank display that is offered in the Crawl Stats, because PageRank should not be your main consideration or a cause for concern – concentrate on your SERP ranking, your traffic, your conversions, and your profits. Don’t concentrate on a little green bar or other representation of a figure that bears no significant relevance to the performance of your online business (so much for ignoring it, huh?).

>Top Search Queries

The Top Search Queries displays the search terms that were used on Google and resulted in a visitor coming to your site. This is genuinely good stuff. No matter how much keyword research you do, no matter how well you optimize your pages, and no matter how many links you generate using keywords as anchor text, you will never optimize for some of the phrases that people use to find your site. This section lets you view those phrases and see just how well the long tail is performing for you. It should also prompt you into writing or adding more content to your site when you realize how effective the long tail of search can be.

>Subscriber Stats

Subscriber stats specifically shows you the number of visitors that have subscribed to your RSS feed using any of the Google owned feed readers. These figures can be used to show a rise or drop in the general popularity of a blog, but remember that Google readers aren’t the only readers that surfers use.

>What Googlebot Sees

What Googlebot Sees – this section gets special mention at the end of Part 2 because when it comes to improving your link profile, this offers some of the most invaluable information available about any existing links you have. Rather than just see the pages that link to you, using the Googlebot stats lets you see the anchor text that those links use – vital in SEO.

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Part 2 of the guide to Google Webmaster Tools will be online next week (subscribe so you don’t miss out). In the meantime let me know if any of you regularly use them and, if so, how?

WebWiseWords is a web content writer that specializes in SEO copy writing that also appeals to your visitors.

 

Tags: Google, internet marketing, seo, tools, webmaster

Sometime you have to go backward in order to move forward. What happens when you hit your keyword ceiling (when you have squeezed the last drop of traffic from your keywords) and the traffic plateaus? Just like an SEO sleuth, you have to dawn your research cap, break out the optimization map and change your SEO method to produce exciting new results.

Charting your progress is an imperative step in the SEO process, yet oftentimes the fear of change and upsetting the balance can be paralyzing to webmasters and bloggers alike as they tend to overlook the transient nature of search engines and their algorithmic stability.

The only consistency is knowing that at any time the search results could become inconsistent and that the very same criteria your ranking strategy is hinged on could shift at any time along with your rankings, so it is better to diversify your tactics, as search engines only call it as they see it.

As new PHD endorsed scripts graduate from the testing servers and are injected into the data centers with great frequency (to see how the SERPs react) it’s almost as if search engineers like to keep you guessing when it comes to sculpting the most relevant result.

Tell tale signs of a new algorithm roll-out for example are when some of your most established rankings take a dip “like Snagglepuss (exit stage left)” and the old peek-a-boo ranking “now you see me, now you don’t” routine makes its debut at the expense of your site’s popularity.

This is where the value of search analytics comes into play. This is what really allows you to delve into the who, what, where, when and how, nuts and bolts of your content which allows you to optimally refine your message to target audience. Things like finding which post had the higher reader engagement, where they went from there, if the calls to action were successful and produced measurable results.

On the flip-side, the simple truth is, some keywords just don’t convert - they are either too broad, too narrow or simply are not the ideal match when people are initiating queries from search engines. So, despite how complicated or simple it is to optimize a phrase, if there is no traffic, you just have to think of it as an exercise (better luck on the next keyword). In any capacity, sometimes you have to cut your losses and just move on.

The only thing stopping you from attaining a high ratio of pre-qualified traffic from search engines is your ability to identify, optimize and funnel the right keywords for your sites content.

Whether it is inspiration, imagination or common sense makes no difference. The fact is, by adding strategic keywords that have a proven track record attached, you can study your analytics / user tracking statistics to introduce topics that further establish your authority in the industry and have a higher degree of engagement to set the stage.

If you spent a fair amount of time using keyword research tools, then you know there are some pretty obscure keywords that manage to coral several thousand online stragglers to the apex of randomness. Whether it converts or not is another topic, but since conversion is all about “setting the right mood to promote action”. If you structure your content accordingly, you can surprise roving visitors who floated in like fruit flies on a whim, with a fulfilling user experience. Conversions starts when you provide something so unique that it makes visitors stop and think “wow” just for a moment to appreciate the concept (which is more than can be said for most one traverses).

The key here is not to offer a bland value proposition, distinction is rewarded with curiosity. So, with this in mind don’t think lack luster, think blockbuster. Some times you have to break your own rules to find something new. If you always stay within the realm of the predictable in your approach or method, then you are doomed to repeat mistakes as well as previous breakthroughs (hence languishing on the premise of previous).

Familiarity can be a crutch that prevents one from reaching their full potential. For example, turning your titles into streamlined calls to action vs. the over SEO’d titles that read like ticker-tape humdrum definitions rather than something you would consider clicking. SEO is one thing, creating emotionally charged content with purpose is another, which is where the “marketing” in internet marketing warrants its definition.

The concept is to relinquish the ordinary and create extraordinary titles to entice the reader’s attention with a distinguished poise to stand out from the crowd in contrast to the other 9 search results on a page. In this instance, if your site is strong enough (as a result of topical authority) all that is required are a few pivotal keywords in the title or body to be returned as a high ranking relevant result. The advantage with this tactic is not about where you are in the fold, but that you create a “click trigger” as opposed to a utilitarian or bland call to action / title.

Likewise, instead of letting your keywords lose potency over time and recede back to the zero point, harvesting a batch of keywords from the past and coupling them with re-optimized titles could evoke a repeat performance in the top 10 and drive additional targeted traffic to your site. Yet, without a stint of investigation or the impulse to act on collected data, you may neglect multiple opportunities to rekindle the top 10 spotlight as a consequence.

Now for the exercise:

Just like waves in the sea, your site is on a voyage which changes every time you add new content. If you chart your results, it is clear that your site is constantly maturing as a result of link aging, gaining more trust, the links that influence you, etc. In order to keep afloat and establish a progressive course, one great exercise is to go back 90 days and act as if you had to re-optimize your site for your main phrases again. Then conduct an analysis for the keywords that were top 10 then (3 months ago) and see how much you have either slipped, advanced or remained buoyant since that time.

The objective is, to gauge how fast your pages fall from grace for your respective range of keywords. As the freshness of a new blog post or page fades, it must be supplemented with solid links or reinvigorated from within the site to remain in the spotlight as a relevant topic for search engines.

After you establish your rate of decline in the SERPs (which should not be more than 20 positions for an authority site for your keywords over a 90 day period) you still have a chance to resuscitate your content and hedge some additional traffic before they teeter off into obscurity.

The entire purpose of this post was (a) don’t overlook resources that are right under your nose and (b) sometimes you have to slow down and smell the flowers to chart the route of your site over time as you can tell where a site is headed, based on where it has been.

Have your rankings skyrocketed? were phrases that were in the 40’s finally evolved into top 10 positions as a result of authority? and how many keywords are you missing the mark on as a result of simply omitting the research. Sometime you have to look back to get a better idea of how to move forward. So perhaps now it’s time to brush off your dusty SEO tools to see where you stand in context to your competition.

Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.

The tactics I’m going to show you won’t cost you anything but your time, BUT - they are not a quick fix. To get a genuine steadily growing stream of targeted visitors takes time.

Reciprocal links

The search engines look to see how many other websites have links to yours. The more links coming into your site, the further up the rankings ladder you will get.

Find twenty websites that are in the same business as you. Not direct competitors ones that deal with related products or services. Check to see if they have a ‘Links’ page. If so contact them, tell them who you are and what your site is about, and ask them if they would exchange links. It will help if you put a link to their site on your ‘Links’ page first.

Usually they will do so, as they will know the value of incoming links as well. Vary the wording of your email for each site you contact and point out something you like about it. Make it personal.

Articles

Many Internet marketers run away from article writing because they think it’s too difficult. The truth is it’s much easier than you think once you’ve got the hang of it.

Writing articles about your business is easy because you know the subject and are enthusiastic about it. It should be a pleasure to talk about the products or theme of your site.

So here’s the plan:

1. Take one aspect of your product or theme.

2. Think of three pieces of information that people would find interesting and informative, and write these down on paper.

3. Now take each one of these in turn and tell your readers what is so interesting, fascinating and instructive about each.

4. When you’ve done that add an introduction at the top and a concluding sentence or two at the bottom.

5. Finally, compose an ‘author’s bio’ which says who you are what your website is, and include a link to your site. This is a one-way link back to your site.

That’s your article done! Now you need to submit it to some article directories such as EzineArticles.com. Google ‘article directories’ and you will find lots more.

Write one article a week and submit it to a handful of the best high PR directories.

Make your site a search engine magnet

Take time to find the right keywords for your site. You can use a tool like the free GoodKeywords.com keyword finder or online resources like the Google Keyword Tool.

Find ten or twelve high volume keywords and put these on your home page. Don’t be tempted to put dozens. It won’t work.

Now go to each page and put no more than three keywords related to the subject of that page on them, making sure that the page name, the page title and the page description include at least the main keyword for that page. The search engines love this.

Once you’ve got these basic strategies in place you should see a steady increase in visitor numbers. And keep plugging away at all three to get a cumulative effect.

Mervyn Love writes articles on various aspects of Internet Marketing, and his website - fortresspublishing.com - has a wealth of resources and information on all aspects of starting and running an online business. Join his newsletter here: http://www.fortresspublishing.com/MPNsplash.html

Tags: Website Traffic

“Product Launch Formula” is the current hot topic in the world of “internet marketing.” Jeff Walker is on the verge of releasing his much awaited “Product Launch Formula 2.0.

Those who own the original Product Launch Formula wonder “what’s different in version 2.0″ and those who didn’t get the original, wonder if it’s right for them. On March 25th, the noise level will reach a peak, and thousands will decide that the new Product Launch Formula is right for them.

Strangely, it’s at that point that many will make a HUGE mistake, when that mistake has never been easier to avoid.

The mistake they’ll make is that they’ll buy Product Launch Formula 2.0 on emotion rather than logic. They’ll buy it on impulse rather than taking a few minutes to actually shop around.

I’ve known Jeff Walker for many years. I think that we first met in 2003 at a Joel Christopher workshop. I use Jeff Walker’s teachings almost every day. I’ve so steeped myself in his tactics that I often use them without conscious thought.

So, to me the decision of whether or not anyone launching or relaunching a product over the internet can be

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Tags: internet marketing

Search engine optimization has been around almost as long as search engines have. It probably started about five minutes after someone realized there was money to be made on the Web, but only if your site could be found easily enough.

The reason for optimizing a Web page is the same today as it was a decade ago but the methods have changed quite a bit. Actually the methods seem to change every few months but a lot of this is just hype and fads. The three things that will get you to number 1 on Google are the same today as they were in 1998; keywords, content and links. And the thing that keeps you at the top is constant monitoring.

Keywords are easy to find with the right tool. But please don’t go buying any fancy keyword software just yet. We’ll use Google’s free keyword research tool in just a minute and that’s more than good enough to do the trick. Before we do that though there’s one very important thing to consider; good keywords are only half the battle. We want to find the best keywords with the least competition.

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Tags: keywords, links, strategies

It comes as no surprise that when a good thing is made available to the masses, there is always going to be some people who want to game the system. Instead of playing by the rules, they use illegal methods in an attempt to jump to the head of the line. SEO Marketing is no different

Since the majority of website traffic comes from places like The Google and Yahoo, it was only a matter of time before the people who dwell in moral twilight figured out some techniques to cheat their way to a better ranking for their website The problem is these people lose track of the real objective. Wendy Boswell at About.com writes, “Black hat SEO basically is a short-sighted solution to a long-term problem.”

Yes blackhatters get a quick boost in site ranking and more than likely make a fast buck (their goal anyway) but over the long term they run the risk of being banned by the very search engines that could really grow their business into a traffic generating, money making dynamo that last for years.

Want to play Russian roulette with the search engines? Try these techniques:

1. Link Farming

You have probably seen those sites with a directory page that contains hundreds of links. The problem is they bear no relation to what the actual website is all about. Putting up links about mortgage loans, acne, the history of wastebaskets etc when your site is about the quality of fishing in Great Falls Montana would be an example of link farming. There was a time when the search engines were okay with this but as is usually the case, people went overboard with it.

Make sure the links on your directory page relate directly or indirectly to the content on your website. In fact save yourself the time and effort by focusing on getting one way links to your site. A couple of quality one way links are worth way more than thousands of links unrelated to your niche.

2. The Sybil Attack

One of the most famous TV movies of all time is Sybil: The Girl with 16 Different Personalities starring Sally Field. This is the blackhat foundation for setting up mirror sites.

By creating multiple web sites with the exact same content but different domain addresses, blackhatters are able to trick the search engines into ranking their main website higher. Sybil attacks can also turn quite nasty and take control of large scale computer networks including peer to peer systems which are quite vulnerable.

3. Cloaking

Cloaking software was an underground rage a few years back. The concept is to present two types of content: One for the actual visitors to your website, the other was for the search engine spiders that crawl your web pages looking for updating content that has been keyword optimized. This was an elaborate way of getting the search engines to show a page they normally would not.

All of this may sound ridiculous and totally unnecessary. Yes on both counts. The easiest way to stay on the good side of the search engines is to give them exactly what they want; namely a website with good content (preferably unique) that grows at a more natural pace.

This maybe a slow way to success for some people but it’s safe and it works. You are building a business which hopefully will be successful for a very long time. Do not let anyone talk you into putting it at risk by using blackhat techniques.

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Daryl Campbell - The Internet Marketing Guide. Over 85% of your website traffic will come from the search engines. For that reason alone, you do not want to take any chances that will put your site at risk. To find out more go to SEO Optimization

Tags: Marketing, seo

If you are new to internet marketing then you may not realize that one of the keys to online marketing success has to do with building a well targeted and responsive email list. Success will come allot faster when you take the time to build relationships with a large list of subscribers, but you must know something that your potential customers don’t and then they must want to learn it from you.

It took many years for me to figure out that I can succeed much faster if I take the time to help my subscribers succeed.

Below are a few things you can do to get people to subscribe to your newsletter and build your own profitable email opt in list.

1. Trade solo or classified ads with other publishers. Before doing so make sure their subscribers are interested in what your newsletter offers. The other newsletter should offer content that your subscribers may be looking for. This will not only help you gain more subscribers but the other publisher to.
2. Publish your own articles. This will give you an advantage over other publishers by not only providing your newsletter with more subscribers but by also improving your search engine placement. How? Through the resource box at the end of your articles. Your resource box should contain a link to your newsletters subscription page and it should also include your major keywords. Submit your articles to article directories, announcement lists and to other publishers that need articles for their newsletters.
3. Offer a free bonus to your subscribers. You can create an e-book of all your articles or offer free software. The better the bonus you give the more subscribers you will have.
4. Visit message boards and forums and begin posting on them. Only post on forums that are related to the topic of your ezine. Once you establish your credibility people will visit your website and subscribe to your newsletter. Most forums permit you to ad a signature file when you post. This is a great way to get traffic to your website, so make sure you have a good sig file.
5. Submit your newsletter to directories. This will not only help you get more subscribers for your newsletter but will also help you find other publishers who may be interested in joint venturing with you. Just go to Google, type in “Ezine Directory” and start submitting.
6. Post an ad for your newsletter on ezine announcement lists. This will give you an easy way to promote your newsletter continuously.
7. Provide a sample issue of your newsletter. This will increase your subscriptions by providing people with an example of what you are offering.
8. Use your sig file in your outgoing emails to help promote your newsletter. Just about all email programs allow you to add a signature file at the end of every email you send. If not, then get another email program.
9. Run an ad in other ezines. Target your audience and only advertise with ezines that offer good advertising rates. By placing your ads in at least three consecutive issues you will get the most for your money. Repetition is the best way to attract new subscribers. You can also place free ads in other newsletters if you are a subscriber to their publications. Track your ads so that you can then pay for advertising using only ads that you know work.
10. Place a subscription box for your newsletter on every page of your website. That way any visitor will be able to subscribe no matter where they come from.

These are just a few ideas that you can use to help get you started. Don’t forget to have good content in your newsletter and always place your link wherever possible.

The main reason for building an email list is to constantly stay in close contact with your targeted prospects and eventually turn them into customers.

This is how successful internet marketers do it, and how you can to.

So, are you building your email list? If yes, way to go! If not, why not?

Joe Rispoli has been gathering free advertising resources online for over 10 years. You can also subscribe to his Free Advertising Resources Ezine which includes Free Email Marketing Software with subscription.

Tags: SE Tactics

I’m sure you’ve experienced this before. You hear from a friend about a great product and you hurry over to the sales letter to read all the details. Only when you get there, something isn’t quite right. You can’t explain it, but your excitement quickly fizzles.

It only took a split second for that sales letter to make a first impression and in this example, it wasn’t a good one. No matter how much your friend talked about this product, there’s just no way you want to slap down your credit card to buy. Then, a few seconds later, you’re gone.

Obviously that product owner just lost a sale but more importantly, you were a hot prospect because you came from your friend’s recommendation. So what happened? It really boils down to two words… “Professional Image”. The more time we spend online the more these two words become increasingly important.

You see, when you are selling products online, you have to think of your sales letter very much like a storefront. If there is nothing that grabs the reader and pulls them in… they’re gone. Likewise, if something turns them off, such as poorly designed graphics, then they’re gone even faster.

You have just a few seconds to make that first impression which is where many marketers drop the ball. They work so hard on developing the product and writing the sales letter that they forget those last few crucial details that make all the difference.

That’s why designing high quality header graphics is essential. It’s all part of branding. It paints a picture of who you are and helps build trust and credibility. However, creating header graphics by yourself can be challenging… especially if you don’t have any graphical knowledge.

Normally you have to outsource it to a professional designer. Depending on how many you want, that can get costly. The worst part is, if you want to make any changes afterwards, you’ve got to pay again. That’s why I would recommend using one of the available software applications (one that is reasonably priced) that will create professional header graphics for you.

These software packages are created for the “average person” which means you don’t need to have any graphical knowledge. To create your customized headers, you simply follow the instructions, press a button and save your image.

It’s really that easy with the most simple packages. This kind of software can mean the difference between spending all of your time trying to design your graphics the hard way or spending hundreds of dollars for a single header graphic to be created by a professional …versus… Having everything created for you so you just point, click and save. Seems like a no brainer doesn’t it?

It will be. You’ll will be very pleased with the quality of the header graphics as the majority of software packages are very professional looking. Remember, first impressions are important so make sure yours count by having an unlimited number of high quality graphic headers created for you and your business, all from one software package. There are a few on the market but shop around and check the quality of each one to ensure you get the product you are after.

To create headers that sell, check out the header software at http://header.generatorsoftware.com/x.php?af=426480

Tags: headlines, products for sell, Writing

Search Engine Optimization is Not Always the Answer

Search engine optimization has a purpose. Keyword targeting lets search engines link their users to your website when they look for your keywords. They will not do this satisfactorily without optimizing your site with proper web design techniques. Unfortunately, however, it is more complicated than that. Have you ever wondered why Google will almost always place Ebay on the first few pages when anything is entered into the search field accompanied with the word buy?The word buy has been targeted from more sites than you could count so what makes Ebay special.

For example, take the word bike. If a person uses Google by searching for the string buy bike, a page from Ebay will usually be listed before any of the major bicycle makers. It goes without saying that any of the major bicycle dealers have spent a great deal more time targeting keywords related to bikes than a site that manages hundreds of thousands of different products. The answer to this problem is the nature of this article.

Can My Website Compete?

The answer is to increase the importance of your site in the eyes of the major search engines. Ebay gets searched before many other sites because it has been decided by the search engines to be more popular with internet users. So what I am offering the little guy is a way to do what Ebay and the other ‘big dogs’ have done to become popular.

The world of search engines boil down to the stereotypical high school hierarchy. Search engines pay more attention to those that are popular. In high school, teens usually become popular by having popular people associate with them. The online world is no different. But how do search engines know that popular sites are associating with you? That is an easy one - they link to your website. The three biggest search engine players all crawl the web indexing links to and from all the websites that they have found. They create a ranking system based on many factors, but the most substantial one is how many sites link to you. It could be argued that an optimized site is key, and my opinion expressed here is based on the assumption that your site has been built with proper design techniques. It is also assumed that you have well written content based on your main products or ideas. If you feel that your website does not currently qualify as well written or properly designed, I recommend that you rectify these issues before attempting to build your popularity as it may turn out to be a waste of time.

Do Not Jump Right into Getting Links

There are many tempting ways to get other sites to link to you that are very unsavory. I choose to address these first. These include:

* sites that promote linking as a primary activity.

* sites that have illegal or inappropriate content.

* sites that are entirely unrelated to your target market

Sites that do nothing more than link to other sites may look like a great option but a site without content is not very popular with the search engines. They need to offer something to internet surfers in order to be important. If they are not important to the search engines then a link from them should not be important to you. Link marketing is based on quality links not the amount of links. I advise staying away from these sites all together. Next it goes without saying, sites with illegal and inappropriate content are never a safe bet.

Getting a Good Start with Link Marketing

Most of us do not have a lot of expendable income starting out so I do not spend much time explaining the options that involve paying large sums of money. In my experience, webmasters with that kind of money contact a company to handle this for them (I have had enough of them as clients to know). I intend on putting out another article to cover this option more in depth, however this article only covers the less costly options.

There are 3 cheap ways to get get some link popularity:

* Ezine articles

* Field related forums

* Banner/Link exchanges

Ezine Articles

Ezines are online magazines. Ezine articles offer two great benefits. First and foremost, they allow you to link to your site from your article or resource area. Also, they offer a chance to show off the knowledge you have in your field. Although this is essentially a free way to get a quality link, it does come with some work. You must be able to write a content rich article on a topic related to your site. Most Ezine sites do not mind giving you the opportunity to get your name out there but you need to provide them with a well written article that offers something to their users. Searching for ezine databases on any major search engine should provide you with a list of great sources for this linking method. Be sure to consult the guidelines of an ezine site in which you decide to submit articles.

Related forums

Forums are another great opportunity to get your site out there without paying up. Again, it does take some time. Find forums that cater to questions about your field. For instance, if you sell natural supplements for joint pain, search for forums related to arthritis. Find strings that are talking about different options for arthritis or ask about what works. This opens a perfect opportunity to link to your site. It is important to know that most forums are not keen on letting sales pitches post for long. The trick here is to offer up quality information on these posts. You could compare your arthritis product to others, you could even provide a plug for a competitor (attempting to prove yourself superior, of course). This makes your post look less like a sales or link pitch and helps make the internet more content driven like it was intended to be.

Banner/Link Exchanges

There are usually two main ways you can get a banner or link on another site without offering any content. You can pay them a fee, or you can offer a trade. Like the other two options, only target sites that are related to you in some way. Exchanges require a little research on your part. You want to search for your potential link partner to see that they are worth the trade. A easy rule of thumb is to check their pagerank compared to yours. You can use this free tool to compare at http://www.checkpagerank.net. Put your web address in and check your pagerank as well as theirs. If you are paying for a link and they have a pagerank of zero it would be wise to save your money. If you are trading links, use your better judgment. If they have a quality site it may be worth the exchange in hopes that their site takes off and they can share a little of their success with you.

Take note that a link from no single site will boost your website’s importance significantly. Every quality link helps a little bit so you need to practice all methods for some time before you see the results you want. Stick with it and be patient.

Mason Curry - Lead Designer, Vexart Studio Web Design Fort Wayne Web Design

Tags: SE Tactics, search engine optimization, seo

PageRank… or is it really just a few green pixels? Every so often we hear of a new PR update and the craze that follows it. Has this addiction finally reached a pinnacle or has the worst yet to come? I shudder to think.

Funny enough, the name PageRank has little to do with actual web pages. The name is derived from Google founder and developer Larry Page, hence the name Page-Rank.

PageRank is defined by Google as: “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.”

This translates into a democratic internet where the sites with more links are deemed more important, but that links from these important sites are deemed to be more important too.

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Tags: Google, pagerank