Search:
Site   Web

SiteProNews

SiteProNews

Article Categories





By Michael Small in Featured

I got into search engine optimization when Yahoo was king and Google was a gleam in Larry Page’s eye so I’ve had a front row seat to all the big doings. And one thing I can tell you for certain is Microsoft just took off its kid gloves with the release of Bing and is looking for a shot at the reigning champ Google.

This article will show you how to hedge your bet with both contenders and come out a winner while these two Goliaths slug it out.

Round One:

First and foremost make sure you follow the one major rule that will apply to both engines; Content is King!

Although we don’t yet have a clear picture of how Bing will react to all situations we do know that, since it is being touted as the first decision engine, it will focus greatly on quality of content. That said, be ready to make your pages a little longer than you did when optimizing for MSN and be certain the copy reads well.

Round Two:

Great content is not enough. It has to be well written and natural sounding. Anything that sounds like it was written for a search bot will not make it into the top one hundred let alone the top ten.

Round Three:

Still dealing with on page content, you need to carefully consider how many times your keyword is mentioned and where it is found on the page text. Both search engines will not only look for your keywords but also the context in which they are found. It is no longer enough to simply have them sprinkled in the text randomly. Now the keywords need to actually flow in the context of the text as well. This is typically taken care of for you when writing naturally but is definitely worth the extra once over before posting the final page live.

Here is a little formula to help…

  1. Use one main keyword and up to two supporting keywords per page.
  2. Do not repeat the main keyword more than three times on a page.
  3. Do not repeat the supporting keywords more than twice each per page.
  4. Try to have at least five hundred words per page.
  5. Try to place your main keyword at the beginning, middle and end of the page text while keeping the writing natural and flowing.

Round Four:

Get as many high quality inbound links as possible. You already know this but it bears repeating. Search engines today are about popularity of the individual page returns. Having inbound links from Google authority sites will be more important than ever because any other search engine trying to trump Google will also be checking these stats as well as adding a few of their own.

That said, getting links from just the Google authority sites is not enough. You also want to get links from MSN’s top picks (which are now Bing’s top picks.)

Round Five:

To really hedge your bet, get an early leg up on your competition by becoming proficient in proven SEO software with a good track record on both Google and MSN (The tool at http://www.SEOeliteWeb.com has proven a good pick over the years for its ability to help develop SEO friendly content and locate the most beneficial link partners but there.)

And finally, look for domains for sale that are already ranked well on MSN. This could be the diamond in the rough opportunity of a lifetime for your online business.

By following these simple tips you can outdo ninety nine percent of your competition trying to share in the rewards offered by Google and Bing going head to head.

Mike Small is an SEO specialist and the founder of SEO by the Minute (http://www.SEObytheMinute.com), a telephone based SEO consultancy that offers 800 number SEO support for a flat rate of one dollar per minute billed securely through Paypal (No credit card or 900 number charges to deal with.) Got a two minute SEO question? It’s just two dollars.

By Steve Shaw in Featured

Your articles offer you the unique opportunity to gain expert status in your reader’s eyes.

What are the perks of being regarded as an expert?

Imagine a potential customer typing your name into Google and being greeted with a lengthy list of your articles, all on your specialized topic, and written in a way that makes the reader think, “Wow–he really knows what he’s talking about!”

When a reader sees that type of display of your authority, it builds his confidence in your abilities, your products, your website, and your services.

Yes, there is more to article marketing than just building links!

Here are five ways you can convey expertise in your articles:

1. Actively work toward increasing your knowledge, and aim to be an expert in your field.

You may not think of yourself as an expert, but if you own a business and/or website on a certain topic, you need to either be an expert or be actively working to increase your knowledge so that you reach expert status.

It may take you a while to achieve a really in depth knowledge, but in the meantime portray what you do know with confidence.

2. Develop a teaching mentality.

Write in a way that beginners can understand. Teach specific lessons. ‘How To’ articles are always a good idea. Watch your vocabulary–don’t use niche jargon that the average reader would not understand.

3. Submit articles consistently.

The sheer volume of quality articles that you submit over an extended period of time speaks to your expertise in your field.

Imagine that there are two professionals in a field. One of them has only submitted a handful of articles while the other has hundreds of helpful teaching articles on all aspects of a specific topic–which one would you regard as an expert?

The one with the largest collection of quality content on his or her topic would be seen as being more of an authority.

Maybe you are knowledgeable, but you are not the absolute top dog in your niche (yet)–you can make up for that by consistently writing and submitting articles.

4. Your writing (and your knowledge) will improve with the more articles you write.

Writing articles is a great way to stimulate learning for yourself and your readers. No matter how confident you are of your knowledge, five years from now if you look back at the articles you’re writing today you’re bound to think, “Wow–I’ve really grown!”

Look at ‘expert status’ as a work in progress. It takes time and effort. Be patient with yourself.

5. Expertise is relative.

If you’re just starting out, write on what you understand. You can be an expert at teaching introductory concepts. Do not pretend to know more than you do, but fully explore what you do know in your articles.

As a newcomer to your field, you actually have some advantages. You can easily tap into the best way to explain a beginner concept because you remember what confused you when you were starting out.

Remember, the next time you sit down to write an article–you are an expert!

Present your ideas clearly and carefully. Work to expand your knowledge on a consistent basis. Write consistently and accumulate a library of articles that speak to your authority in your field.

Another way to convey expertise is for your articles to appear on many websites. Submit each article to multiple publishers, and your articles will receive more exposure. Steve Shaw created the web’s first ever 100% automated article distribution service, SubmitYOURArticle.com, which distributes your articles to hundreds of targeted publishers with the click of a button. For more information go to=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

By Sarah Simmons in Featured

Lately it seems like more and more companies are not advertising. There could be a number of reasons why they are not advertising. One reason could be that they want or need more advertising, but simply haven’t set aside any part of their budget for marketing. Another reason is that they will receive little or no exposure, and lose the entire investment of their marketing budget.

Whatever the reason you have for not advertising your company, whatever your product or service, company size or marketing budget – forget it! You’d have to be crazy not to put any effort into advertising your company, especially when the rule of thumb of advertising dictates that every $1 spent on advertising brings in $3 of revenue. At this cost vs. benefit ratio, who wouldn’t advertise?

Businesses who don’t advertise just haven’t found the way to advertise smarter. When it comes to business advertising, it seems like the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. While it may seem like competitors are getting more business, better advertising and more profits for less work, this is not always the case. With local business directories, smaller companies can maximize their exposure for less money and less work.

What is a business directory?

In simplest terms, a business directory is a website where business owners can add their website and details about their company. This information is generally listed in categories to allow visitors to the business directory to find the products or services they need quickly and easily.

Why are business directories smart advertising?

Advertising via print, TV or radio is expensive, and will not always reach your target demographic. Local business directories allow you to reach targeted local online consumers looking for your specific services. With a local business directory you don’t have to break the bank to get good online exposure.

How can I advertise smarter with a business directory?

The first step is to find the best business directory for your company. Shop around, and compare costs, however make sure you compare apples to apples (one niche business directory could be very different from another niche). You want the largest service area and the most number of categories you can be placed in for a reasonable price (more exposure = greater return).

Do your homework and google what you think your customers will search to find the product or service your company offers. Business directories that are already listed on the first page for your target keywords should be your first choice. Make sure your choice of business directory limits the amount of members they take and also provides a source of credibility for you and your company, you don’t want to be just one out of thousands of listings.

Don’t put all your eggs in one advertising basket. Pick two or three different business directories and find the ones that work best for your particular product or service. For the best outcome spread the field, and set a budget (don’t be too cheap here or your test will not yield good results).

Most importantly, find a business directory that will not tie you into a long term contract. Make them put their money where their mouth is and earn your hard earned money on a month to month basis.

Gain Maximum Exposure

Dollar for dollar, an online business directory is the best way to advertise smarter, not harder. With lower costs than traditional advertising, and more focused traffic to your company’s website, business directories truly are a wise marketing and advertising choice.

Sarah  Simmons  – TenList creates a win-win situation by connecting local businesses with local customers to provide a business directory with True Local Results for all. For a fraction of what other business directories charge, TenList can drive unlimited search engine traffic to your business.

By John Sylvester in Featured

twitterFor months (or is it years now?) we have been reading articles on how businesses should develop a presence on Twitter and build a Facebook Page as part of their SEM objectives. Now, with social media firmly established in the armoury of our online marketing efforts, how can we best take advantage of these two social media giants?

As if to demonstrate their power in the market these days, both Twitter and Facebook (to a lesser extent) have been targeted and dealt painful denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and, as a result, many hours of downtime.

By admin in Featured

Advertising on the Internet can play tricks on you, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the rules. While there are no magic formulas, it is a good idea to learn from others who have gone before you to avoid the dangers they have encountered. It is extremely wise to use good judgment about any information that may influence you or your online business decisions.

What you are about to read and understand directly impacts a web user’s capability to communicate with you. Ten of the most popular web advertising methods still maintain their independence, but come with certain technical flaws and disabilities.

1. Video Ads. I’m a firm believer of utilizing videos to advertise a product or service. Actually, I think it’s the best overall affluent tactic ever invented. But, Web videos have their technical limitations with multi-user support. There will always be one user who cannot view a video properly, or not at all. If support is not built in, a blank window will appear. Developers must remember an estimated 25% of the world still use old machines and outdated browsers. What’s more shocking, those same users must deal with slow dial-up Internet connections.

2. E-zines. Advertising with ezine publishers can be very productive providing the list owner has a target market. The old, “Fan Zine” market typically has its information embedded within a realm of influence. These skillfully crafted publications offer a specialized interest. But, one false positive exists in ezines – The quality of the list. Or, is it?  Advertisers who are smart enough to test realize this and try hard to overcome shotgun marketing failures. It could be a number of things that didn’t pass inspection by the readers. Obviously, return on investment remains in the forefront. Calculating profits will often be delayed due to unfamiliar expectations of the publisher’s audience.

3. Banners. People use banners to advertise on the Web, plain and simple. The main cycle of operation is to increase the persuasiveness of a message with graphics. Banner usage has remained steady for businesses that use the kinds of graphics that are appropriate to the role of an audience. Their subtle ways of communicating emphasizes a customer benefit in every message they produce. Why? Because it works. Or, does it? The downside is compression and it doesn’t blend in with the rest of the page. Web graphics should be oriented on the page with an active caption that is quick to load.

4. Affiliate Programs. Voted the top of its class for generating web site traffic and sales, affiliate programs offer a cluster of activities for resellers. The vast majority of e-commerce systems configure routed orders to their appropriate sales partners. Program owners virtually maintain influence over sales and enhance customer experience. However, a good working affiliate program should have the proper cookies, IP, and sessions in real time operation. This is what makes it real, because there are programs which have difficulty delivering on performance.

5. Press Release. The power of news crafted into a good story has a phenomenal affect over driving visitors to your web site. Distribution knowledge (plus) a well written and newsworthy document (equals) media attention to interested public viewers. Most importantly, if you deliver the right angle to an editor or reporter in a courteous, yet professional manner, then you have succeeded in separating real news from promotional jargon.

6. Articles. The correct use of articles have stood the test of time by being a permanent fixture to targeted audiences. This encourages problem solving at its best, however, article marketing methods designed to establish you as an expert can quickly misrepresent any business qualities. If I’m so amazed at your knowledge and so curious about what other problems you can solve for me, then be prepared for my visit to your online enterprise.

7. Blogging. A widely popular term for people with a mission to engage personal or business dealings online. Bloggers from all walks of life manage to express their own beliefs and opinions in a vibrant way. While blogging can be entertaining and a great learning resource, there’s a limit on what you can say, how you say it, and where you say it that can be detrimental to your job or business. If you plan on using blogs for personal or business reasons, write on the facts and learn how to react to any post where it involves your credibility.

8. Email Marketing. If you think email is king over any method of web promotion, you’re 100 percent correct. You can communicate instantly with family, friends, business prospects, and customers. If every email marketer can grasp the fascinating facts about the technical aspects behind their operation, things will run much smoother. All major ISPs implement a form of content filters and personal response systems that has resulted in creating a “brick-wall” effect on any sizable amount of incoming email from a single source. Ask any successful email marketer, ‘what their main responsibilities contain’, and 99.9% will say it’s what you send, clean bounces, manage unsubscribers, manage complaints, and keep the followup process active. Lot of work, isn’t it?

9. Pay Per Click. If every web marketer could understand all the intricacies of search engine optimization and page ranking, they wouldn’t need PPC. The harsh reality is if you can get it right, you’ll generate loads of targeted traffic to your site. Newly updated web applications offer users the ability to control campaigns in real time. But, in order for everything to work properly, the account manager must also become marketing manager. You don’t have to be a marketing metric statistician, however, you don’t need to pay for something you can get for free, either! Search Engine organic listings earn more quality traffic and exposure than sitting in a side bar on the page filled with other ads.

10. Podcasting. It is a client side browser activity. The type of service it provides is very similar to Radio, with the exception to being a web based learning tool or entertainment resource. Podcasting is also a rarely NOT supported system. It’s a bandwidth eater and can interrupt frequency levels and can serve you with a non-existent, or very low quality audio file. However, millions of users remain loyal to their favorite stations and individual personalities. Listeners have the power to tune in while surfing the web, thus, steering attention away from the main show. Throw ads into the mix and you now have reduced attention span levels by 50 percent.

Advertisers must have common knowledge before seeking out under-tapped opportunities, under marketed products, services or markets. Only a handful of Internet Marketers can massively increase their sales and marketing methods. Fewer still can add lucrative new income streams, products and services to a business mix. Anybody can personally engineer ways to get enthusiastic applicants. Effective Web advertising can quickly, significantly and continuously multiply profits. However, this will not stop anyone from coming up with ingenious new selling systems. It’s inevitable!

Steven Boaze is a business consultant and writer. He can be reach at http://www.boaze.com

By admin in Featured

Recently there was an e-book claiming that websites are a less effective means of promoting a real estate business than are landing pages (also known as squeeze pages). As anyone who knows their SEO methodologies can tell you, it ain’t necessarily so.

There are a number of reasons why an actual website is a more effective tool to gather leads and generate business if real estate is your field. While a landing page can be properly optimized for the search engines, the long and short of it is that doing so means one thing – more work for the webmaster.

There are a number of reasons why real estate investors should choose to maintain a traditional web page rather than building a series of landing pages. For starters, real estate is a business where your image matters. Having a professional appearance is incredibly important; landing pages are something which are largely the province of fly-by-night internet marketers (though not always, we’re not trying to give landing pages a bad name altogether here). You can think of it in this way: if you were looking to purchase a property, whether as an investment or as a new home, who would you rather do business with? The realtor with a polished, professional looking site, or one whose web presence is more akin to the virtual take on a used car lot?

In many cases, this appearance corresponds with the behavior of the realtor; basically, landing pages tend to look cheap. Hardly the impression you want to give a prospective buyer or seller, is it? Of course it isn’t, so let’s move on. One of the chief problems with using landing pages is that a single business will tend to maintain a great deal of these pages which are targeted towards slightly different keywords, especially when using PPC advertising to promote your business.

The proponents of landing pages often characterize this as a ‘money funneling system’, something which is not entirely accurate. A better analogy might be a sky full of very dim stars viewed from a brightly lit city center. Those stars aren’t all that visible now, are they? The point here is that landing pages are rarely terribly visible in terms of search results. Since the content of these multiple landing pages is generally very similar, one page often differing from another only in the main keyword used, search engines view them as duplicate content.

What does this mean? It means that search engines largely ignore these pages – so they have little if any traffic or lead generation potential beyond the relatively small number of people who pay attention to contextual advertising. Is this inherently problematic? Actually yes – all of the work which goes into building these landing pages which don’t tend to generate that much traffic, relatively speaking could have gone into promoting your main website and gaining natural traffic. This traffic of course increases your website’s search engine ranking which means even more traffic and a higher profile.

If real estate is a numbers game, it stands to reason that you’d want to actually work the numbers and maximize your traffic to a single source. Landing page proponents will tell you that a traditional website can’t target all of the various keywords that a landing page can. This, of course is nonsense. It’s every bit as easy (if not easier) to add a page to your own website which is optimized for the same keywords – and it actually builds the page ranking of your website, rather than detracting from this important task. I’ll leave you with one other advantage that a traditional website has over landing pages when it comes to search engine optimization and generating leads. Landing pages don’t tend to be re-index by search engines if indeed they are ever indexed in the first place!

A website, by contrast has one possible application which makes it superior to landing pages in every way – it’s easy to deploy a blog as part of your website. Why a blog? Because it’s an incredibly easy way to add new content to your site and keep search engines coming back. This can help build your page ranking and your traffic faster and more sustainably than any number of landing pages ever will.

In the time it takes to put together a single web page, you could add a page to your main site, put work towards other traffic driving strategies or get your site re-indexed by adding a new post to your blog; and you’d still have time to get yourself a cup of coffee, sit back for a moment and congratulate yourself on your business acumen while the people who favor landing pages are still uploading their page. It’s an easy call to make – websites win out over landing pages hands down.

Duncan Wierman is an ex-Software CEO turned Real Estate Investor & Marketer. Discover how you can use creative online marketing methods to do more deals online. For more details on how to use automated internet marketing system for real estate investing, please visit Duncan Wierman’s website and get is free 14 day e-course. http://www.DuncanWierman.com

By Jerry Bader in Featured

The combination of the Internet, the Web, and technology has democratized business almost beyond recognition. Today the small, nimble, clever adaptor has the competitive advantage over their bigger, slower moving, ‘we’ve-always-done-it-this-way’ competitors; but the confluence of the Web environment and digital technology is one thing, how to use it effectively is another. Not every trendy social networking gimmick, user generated irrelevance, and pointless viral voyeurism is a productive business communication tactic.

The Day Dinosaurs Died

Like the dinosaurs that once ruled the world, the giant behemoth corporations that once dominated the business landscape have become fat and lazy, relying on muscle rather than brains, on statistics rather than understanding, and on technology rather than insight.

By admin in Featured

When you put up your Web site for the first time, it’s easy enough. You’re kind of liking this new-fangled Internet thing. The site starts to get a bit bigger over time.

Now you are up to your ears in advertising requests, tracking information and page comments. You need some free information and help fast. This list of 100 free tools to track everything on your Web site will get you though until you can get an IT guy on the phone.

Web Site Statistics and Counters

    1. RiteCounter – While Ritecounter has a visitor counter, it’s the extras that put it over the top. Track hits to individual pages on your site, enjoy the free IP tracker, and enjoy other valuable tools and features.
    2. GoStats – GoStatis is a free Web hit counter that more than exceeds the value of its price tag. Quickly check out page views, determine your returning visitors, gauge your page popularity, and more.
    3.Browser Statistics – If you’re feeling out of step with what kids are doing on the interwebs these days, this program helps keep you up to date. It lets you know what browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions, and Javascript people are using these days, so your site won’t be too far behind (or too far ahead) of the times.
    4.Who’s.Amung.Us – This site provides a simple code that you add into your site, and requires no registration. With the code, you’re tracking visitors numbers and locations, peak traffic times, and more.
    5.Histats – Get your statistics in monthly, daily, or even hourly format with this tool. You’ll get stats for every page, a click counter service, visitor path tracking, and more.
    6. Tracewatch – Choose between PHP tracking or Java tracking with this cool tool. You’ll also get a web-based panel with which to scope out the real-time visitor tracking info.
    7. eWebCounter – Keep track of visitors visibly or invisibly with this simple program. Also, get reports of visitor statistics e-mailed directly to you.
    8. Statcounter – Invisible and incredibly accurate, Statcounter is like a slightly less lethal ninja. It tracks your hits, keeps track of web stats, gives you real-time statistics, and more.
    9. FireStats – This program is primarily tooled to non-commercial users. Use it to track referrers, OS trees, search engine keywords, and more.
    10. Compete – How much of the entire Internet have you captivated on any given day? This tool measures how many people have visited your site that day—out of everyone on the Internet.
    11. Visitors – A super fast web log analyzer, this tool works for Windows, Linux, and various Unix-like systems. It outputs the statistics from your web server log file into a variety of reports, and requires no installation whatsoever.
    12. Stat24 – It’s all about 24-hour info with this slick program. Get professional statistics, web counters, web promotion and graphical maps of visitor clicks, all in one package.
    13. Active Meter – Designed around visitors and not just visits, this tracking tool goes the extra mile for you. Track multiple Web sites with a single account, enjoy invisible trackers, and get all of the info you need to keep those visitors returning.
    14. SiteMeter – This provides visitor info in a down-and-dirty, no-frills manner. Get page view averages, lengths of user visits, total counters and daily counters, and more.
    15. OneStatFree – Sometimes the simple things really are the best. This tool lets you see which days and times are most active for your site, how its performance compares to others, the browsers your visitors use, and more.
    16. FreeStats – Getting web browser access and a customizable dashboard is just the tip of the iceberg with the cool program. You also get detailed statistics and around the clock information.
    17. GoldStats – What makes this program Golden? Live reports, detailed visitor information and search engine keyword reports.
    18. Stat08 – It’s hard to even list all of the features that you get with this free tool. External referrer statistics, search keyword adjustments, visitor statistics (including geography and system information) and more.
    19. CQ Counter – Would you like an ad-free, server installation-free web counter? With CQ, you can track which search engines bring you the most folks, how often your pages are reloaded, site hits, and much more.
    20. eXTReME Tracking – What makes this tracking so extreme? You get basic tracking, geo tracking, system tracking, and referrer tracking.
    21. BBClone – Designed as “a PHP based Web Counter on Steroids,” this tool lets you go beyond the number of visitors. For your visitors, you can get IP addresses, browsers, the order that the visitor viewed pages in, and more.
    22. Webstats Basic – This simple program has a little of everything. It allows you to observe visitors and trends, monitor your site traffic, and export reports of your site in a variety of formats.

Surveys, Blog Tools and Web Site Communication Gadgets

    23. Feedburner – Here’s one for the bloggers out there. This tool lets you turn your blog into an RSS feed for those dedicated readers, track who’s subscribing to your wisdom, and even track what your most popular posts are.
    24. Woopra – This tool is great if you want more communication with visitors on your site. In addition to tracking tools, Woopra includes a chat tool, letting you communicate to visitors via handy pop-ups.
    25. Addfree Stats – Need free statistics for your visitors? Track and display your hits, poll your visitors, and even view the data on your mobile device.
    26. BlogTracker – This is a great, ad-free way of keeping track of your blog visitors. You’ll get visitor counts and other statistics in a sweet, hassle-free format.
    27. Enquisite – Here’s your go-to program for search engine traffic data. Track regular searches and paid search engine clicks, and become an expert on drawing more visitors to your site.
    28. 4Q – Take a tip from Family Feud and use 4Q to learn what the survey says. This tool helps you design polls for your visitors, and get more detailed feedback beyond the simple fact that they came to the site.
    29. Google Banned Checker -A quickie tool to check if your domain name has been banned by Google.
    30. ClickTale – Sometimes Big Brother watching isn’t such a bad thing. With ClickTale, you can record and view visitors’ actions on your site from their perspective, allowing you to better customize your site to fix problems people may be having.
    31. Clicky – Clicky is another great tool for bloggers everywhere. It provides an easy-to-read dashboard, Twitter keyboard monitoring, in-depth visitor analysis, and more.
    32. Snoop – Interfacing between your computer and your site, Snoop ensures that you don’t miss a thing. Be notified of comments, purchases, referrals and more with simple audio alerts.
    33. MyBlogLog – If your blog and Facebook had a love child, it might look a lot like this program. You can effectively create an entire online community around your blog, as other bloggers running the program can visually see that you’ve visited, leave comments, and more.
    34. Mochibot – If you use a lot of Flash on your site, then this program is ideal for you. It helps you track the popularity of your Flash games and animations, gauge viral Flash ad campaigns effectively, helps incorporate Flash into your blogging, and more.
    35. Alexa – How does your Web site rank? Use Alexa to check out site ratings, hot URLs, and cool blogs.
    36. The Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer – Extend your Alexa experience right into your browser. Get the real skinny on the sites you’re visiting, check out the real-time related links, and other sweet features.
    37. Webtrack – Get e-mails or SMS messages when your site goes down or when visitor trends change with this cool program. You’ll also enjoy slick graphical statistics and lots of great visitor info.
    38. dnScoop – Should you stay or should you sell now? This site estimates the value of your domain name, and also lets you scope out the prices of great domain names on the market.
    39. Feed Analysis – This blog-friendly app is designed to complement Feedburner. It uses Feedburner info to provide interactive charts and more in-depth analysis.
    40. SongKicker – Got a Web site for your band? Use this quirky app to sound the electronic depths for your Amazon sales and Internet gossip about you to gauge how hot you and your tunes are.
    41. Reciprocal Link Check – Link partners are a great way of expanding your presence all across this series of tubes. To make sure your partners are still linking back to your site use this handy tool.
    42. Google Adsense Preview – Google ads are a great way to increase your Web site revenue…if they’re doing their job, that is. This site lets you sample the ads that Google’s Adsense has picked out for you.
    43. Google Adsense Calculator – Speaking of Adsense, is it properly paying out in cents (and dollars)? This tool helps you predict earnings changes relating to Impressions, Click Rate, and Cost Per Click.
    44. List Cleaner – If your site or blog has a lot of lists, here’s your chance to clean them. This simple too removes duplicates from any list you give it, ensuring that your Top 100 isn’t more like a Top 80-something.
    45. Nuconomy – Even though the economy’s in the gutter, the Nuconomy is looking good. This tool goes beyond page views to see just how actively engaged your users are with the site, allowing you to make it even greater.
    46. YSlow – This Firefox extension helps you measure your front-end effectiveness. You’ll get a letter grade on your design and an outline of possible areas you can improve on.

Technical Web Site Stuff for Smart People

    47. Web Page Analyzer – It’s all about file sizes and connection speeds with this simple, awesome program. Discover how quickly your site loads at different speeds, find the combined file size of all items on your page, and trim your sites down accordingly.
    48. Grape – Free and open source, there’s a lot of room in this program for exploration and expansion. Get fluid statistics, API extensions, and more.
    49. W3C CSS Validation Service – While the name may be a mouthful, it can be described in just two syllables: awesome. Analyze the different CSS templates you used in your Web sites and make sure it meets W3C recommendations which, among other things, means that multiple browsers can read it just fine.
    50. Netcraft – Who watches the watch…er, the server? Actually, you can do so with this tool which lets you check out the OS and server software of your webhost, when its computers were last rebooted, and more.
    51. DNS Stuff – Worried about keeping your domain name profile up to date? Use this program to check what’s in your WHOIS profile, and make sure you don’t have an obsolete e¬mail hanging out in there.
    52. ServiceUptime – Worried about your site going down? This service will e-mail you if that happens, change the domain name being checked, and more.
    53. Octagate Site Timer – Here’s another great tool for those worried about visitors with slower connections. You can measure how long it would take users to load multiple pages with this great, simple tool.
    54. URI Valet – Here’s what your site really needs: a valet. Scope out your load time, server headers, internal links, image sizes, and more.
    55. Browser Shots – While not as visceral as body shots, these Browser Shots are almost as intoxicating. It renders your site in Linux, Windows, Mac, and other browsers, meaning more people can enjoy your work.
    56. NetRenderer If you’re a fan of Internet Explorer, you know its one weakness: it has more versions than Spiderman has clones. With this tool, you can render your site in everything from IE 5.5 to IE 8.0.
    57. Piwik – One of the key draws to this great program is its features are built inside plug-ins, letting you choose what to keep and what to toss. You store the data it collects in your own database, including visitor tracking, keyword effectiveness, and other great tools.
    58. AWStats – Definitely designed for the more visually minded, this tool generates web, streaming, ftp and mail server statistics in graphical format. It’s also great for analyzing log files, getting web compression statistics, sussing out HTTP errors and other great features.
    59. JAWStats – As you may have figured out from the names, JAWStats is designed to work with AWStats. It gives you a variety of charts, graphs, and tables regarding visitors to your section of the Internet.
    60. Clickheat -If you can’t stand the heat…well, get away from the monitor before you catch on fire. If you can stand the heat, use this tool to get a visual “heat map” of the hot spots on your Web site, define pages with keywords, log screen sizes and browsers, and more.
    61. Analog – Sometimes an analog tool for the digital age is just what the doctor ordered. Analog reports in 32 languages, and lets you track usage patterns on your site with speed and customizability.
    62. Track Yahoo Search Advertising – Just how effective is that Yahoo advertising? This tool helps you measure your Yahoo ad hits, making sure that you’re getting your money’s worth.
    63. CrawlTrack – As a webmaster, what are you missing? If you answered “dashboard,” you’ll enjoy this tool that provides a downloads counter, blocks hacking attempts, tracks down the keywords that lured visitors in, and more.
    64. W3Perl – Easy to install and easy to manage, W3Perl is beyond user-friendly. It can be used for page tagging and logfile analysis, and can even be run from your command line.
    65. The Webalizer – This tool analyzes your web server log files, and produces them in an easy-to-read HTML format. The analysis is quick, the program is portable, and it supports dozens of languages.
    66. Reinvigorate – Does your Web site monitoring need to be…well…reinvigorated? This tool gives you real-time info, granular visitor insight, desktop tracking and other cool features.
    67. XiTi Free – This handy tool is already being used by over 350,000 sites. Use it to get a global view of your site, including visitor interest criteria, IP address exclusions, and awesome client support.
    68. SpyFu – Think your Web site kung-fu is strong? This program estimates how much money your competition may be spending on advertisements, which can give you the edge.
    69. ezine designer – It doesn’t get much simpler than this. Give them your Web site URL and a valid e-mail, and get notified if your site ever goes down, which is great for webmasters on the go.
    70. Fiddler Web Debugging Tool – If you’d like to decode the conversation between browsers and your servers, this is the tool for you. In addition to its great debugging features, this tool won’t crash your browser like others of its kind.
    71. Firefox: Web Developer Extension – If you’ve already got Firefox, you’re halfway there. This extension lets you remove cascading tiles, assess all of your external links, remove Javascript components, and more.

Analytic Programs for Web Sites

    72. blvd – This program has almost all of the analytics you’ll need in one slick package. Get live stats, RSS conversion tracking, social media referral info and more.
    73. goingup! – For those who feel like analytics packages lack a personal touch, this program clicks all the right buttons. You can personalize your dashboard, get the low-down on visitors, and even get tips on how to improve your web rankings.
    74. Yahoo Web Analytics – This is a webtool that believes, like you, that “Web site visitors are now people, not clicks.” Tracking data is available in minutes (if not seconds), there’s 8 filters for scoping out your visitors, and you can track dozens of custom fields and on-site actions.
    75. Open Web Analytics – This tool is all about building analytics right into your applications. This allows you to map users on Google Maps, scope out the age of your visitors, track their clicking, and a host of other cool features.
    76. Google Analytics – You trust Google to find sites, so why not let them help you with yours? Track unique visitors, viewing trends, and use their unique visual analytics system.
    77. Crazy Egg – If you liked Google Analytics’ overlay tool, then here’s a program that goes crazy with it. See visual representations of site visitors as a map representing just how hot (or cold) certain parts of your site are.
    78. Slimstat – If you’d like your web analytics software with a bit of hot sauce, then here it is. In addition to normal analytics services, you’ll get bot tracking and spam filtering services, too.

Help for the SEO Impaired

    79. Website Grader – Schooling yourself about your Web site has never been easier. Just give them your site, list any particular sites you’re in competition with, and receive an e-mail with how you compare in the Internet, with an option to receive ongoing e-mails.
    80. Majestic SEO – Speaking of the competition, here’s another program to help you get a leg up on everybody else. It gives you detailed reports about other sites’ backlinks and anchor text, giving you the anatomy of your enemies.
    81. Google Trends – What keywords does your site need to rock? Use the search masters, Google, and find out what hottest search phrases on the Internet are.
    82. .htaccess URL Rewrite – Got some of those crazy-long URLs that send visitors scurrying? Shorten them to something more user-friendly with one simple step.
    83. Cloaking Checker – Sadly, the Cloaking checker has nothing to do with Romulans. Instead, it lets you compare how search engines “see” pages as opposed to how browsers see pages.
    84. Keyword Density Checker – Feel like your keywords are getting a little clustered? To make sure your site isn’t cluster-stuck, use this tool to examine keyword density in a handy tag-cloud format.
    85. Search Engine Position -This cool tool has two simple components. Primarily, it lets you see how far up (or down) you are on Google searches; in addition to scoping your domain, you can put in certain keywords and see how they’re working for you.
    86. Spider View – Skip being a fly on the wall, and try being a spider on the net. With this application you can view your chosen site from the perspective of a search engine spider.
    87. Trifecta – Why measure just one aspect of a page when you can measure a trifecta? This program estimates the relative popularity of pages, blogs, and domains.
    88. Term Target – It’s all about your mad Keyword targeting skills with this no-frills tool. It assigns any given page a grade based on how well the keywords are targeted.
    89. Linkscape – If your internet marketing needs an edge, Linkscape will sharpen it right up. Identify linking domains, analyze the competition, find link acquisition targets, and more.
    90. Term Extractor – This tool extracts terms that appear to be targeted at search engines. Check your own site’s effectiveness out, or just scope out the competition, with no installation required.
    91. URL Redirect Check – Use a lot of re-directs? Make sure they’re search-engine friendly with one simple click.
    92. Geo Target – Does your site’s marketing need to go global? Geo Target helps determine how effectively your site targets region-specific searches.
    93. Check HTTP Status Code – Sometimes keeping your sites afloat is like being Scotty and keeping the Enterprise from blowing up. This quick tool spits out what status code a site is giving—sometimes you can even fix it problems without dilithium crystals.
    94. IP2LOC – Simply give this site an IP address, and get a handy Google map of the area. Literally track down the competition, or just make sure your IP is giving off good vibrations.
    95. Find Domain Age – Just how old is that domain? This simple tool gives you a quick, precise answer to that question.
    96. Juicy Link Finder – Related to the previous program, this tool helps you old domains with high page ranks. You can specify searches by keywords, and see who the kings of that particular term are.
    97. Raven – It’s all about optimization with this handy tool. It checks out your SEO components, examines what needs work, and lets you keep PDF records of its work.
    98. Content Duplication Tool – Worried about duplicate info? This tool helps you sidestep the negative effects of duplicate info (such as index issues) and streamline your site.
    99. Quarkbase – Consider this your base of information regarding info about your Web site. Find out how you’re looking on Facebook, Alexa, and everywhere else on the web.
    100. Image Analyzer – How well do your images help out your Web site? This simple tool makes sure there’s no issues with image heights and widths, no images or text are missing, and so on.

These tools can provide you with imperative information about your Web site or online business. Never have a bad web page again and earn more traffic than ever before. Just think, you may never need another computer repairmen or webmaster.

Suzane Smith – toponlineengineeringdegree.com

By admin in Featured

USING KEYWORDS Hey, guess what search term we’d like to see this article rank for? 74 people a day search using the keyword phrase “using keywords”. Our keyword research indicates that it also a favorable search term and should be easy to rank for. We’ll see. If this article doesn’t rank on the top page of Google for “using keywords” by December of this year, I’ll eat an entire spam loaf without anything to wash it down. (I hate spam!).

Assuming you’re beyond the keyword research phase of your business planning, now you need to understand how to use your keywords. We like to teach our clients that using keywords is nothing more than knowing the keyword you want to promote when you write your page. Using keywords in your copywriting should be a very intentional process. You should not get hung up in the details put forth by anal SEO guys who think you need to have 6.2% of the page content covered by the keywords you are using.

As we build the pages using keywords and grow the core infrastructure of our websites, you should know that what we write is VERY intentional. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the theme of of this page, and the search term we’d like to rank for is “using keywords”. We are NOT putting a great emphasis on the technical SEO aspects. I don’t think getting my clients to focus on “keyword density” is really going to get them very far. I actually get the opposite result. My clients shut down as their creative process gets overwhelmed with technical garbage. It’s better just to say to them that whenever you use text, try to use your keywords. That should be enough…and it is.

Google doesn’t want your page to look fake and they don’t want you trying to decipher their algorithms to get it exactly right. The more you try to match how Google is reading the page, the more you put your content at risk when Google changes their algorithms. The more you write for your audience, the more you’ll be rewarded in the long term, both by the search engines and by your customers who have to ultimately interpret your writing. Write for your readers! Let your keywords keep you on topic!

Now, having said that, there are some things you can do that will improve your chances of getting noticed and indexed by the search engines using your keywords.

Once you’ve written your page, you can improve your ability to rank in the search engines by using keywords in articles that you write. You can distribute those articles and use them to point to the same page in your website (you point to the page by hyperlinking your keywords to the page you want to promote for the same keywords).

There are also provisions within a page that also may help. Most website builders include form based entries for your metatags for every page. Don’t worry if you don’t know what a metatag is. Just know that you are encouraged to enter keywords (search terms relavent to your page), a description and a title when you build each of your pages. So know what keyword you want a page to rank for. Put it in the keywords box. Use the keyword in your description. Put the keyword in your title. Use the keyword or variations of your keyword on your page in the headers, in the regular text and in the alternative text on the images. You don’t need to know any code to do any of this.

Having said this, please note the first sentence of this article. Smart keyword choice is essential to ranking for keywords. If your choices are too general or too competitive, you have an uphill battle no matter how well written your page is. That’s because your links relative to the competition will probably pale in comparison.

Smart choices and intentionally using your chosen keywords in your webcopy keeps you on track, on point and hopefully on Google.

by Greg Newell Greg owns www.buildawebshop.com. This site is designed to help new ecommerce and new business owners understand the nuances of how a website is found. Using keywords is at the core of understanding sound website marketing techniques.

By Donna Gunter in Featured

twitterTwitter, as a popular social networking platform, is a viral marketing strategy all on its own, especially if your followers like your tweets and retweet them to their followers. However, I’ve recently noticed another trend in Twitter usage that increases its viral marketing capabilities through the use of hashtags.

What’s a hashtag, anyway? Also called the pound sign, the hashtag (#) is added to a tweet as a way of creating trackable categories, groups, or topics that others can use to search for info using the Twitter Search feature. One of the most common uses of the hashtag is to tweet what’s happening at an event or conference. The event organizer will request all attendees use a specific hashtag, i.e. #yourevent, when tweeting about the event to your followers. So, then, someone who isn’t present at the event but wants to follow what’s happening there can simply search for #yourevent and see what’s going on and what participants are saying and sharing about the event.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Subscribe to SiteProNews Articles

Receive New Articles As They are Posted


Webmaster Headlines

Apple's stingy employee discount

iOS and OS X: Time for Some Real Convergence

Anonymous Strikes: Symantec Says Stop Using pcAnywhere

Google+ Is Now Open To Teens, Offers New Safety Features

SOPA's Big Brother Signed By EU Nations Amid Widespread Protests

Why Your Business Needs to Be on Google+ Now

5 Simple Ways to Explore Your Social Media Following

5 Basic SEO Troubleshooting Tips for Content Marketers

The Glee Guide to Attracting a Raving Horde of Social Media Fans

10 Clever Ways Your Email Signature Can Support Your Marketing

Recent SiteProNews Articles

RecentSiteProNews Articles

Write Current Content and Explode Your SEO – A SPN Exclusive Article

Best Free Business Cloud Apps You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

Has Google Replaced Content as King of the Web?

SEO Short Cheat Sheets

Beef Up Your Internet Marketing and Your Body At The Same Time!

Optimizing Your Business Facebook Page for Maximum Hits and Return Visits – A SPN Exclusive Article

SiteProNews Blog News

Google Celebrates Art Clokey’s Birthday
Not many people will recognize the name Art Clokey. But a lot more people will recognize the green c...
more >

Reader Rescue : Should My Meta Description Tags Just Duplicate My Title Tags?
Hi Everyone From early days learning SEO, I went ahead and did all my meta descriptions with a bi...
more >

Death of Steve Jobs Fails to Break Twitter Record
We all heard the sad news yesterday that Steve Jobs, founder and visionary at Apple, had died at...
more >

Recommended Links


   Get Facebook Fans

   Submit Express - SEO Services

Wordpress 3.3.1