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Of all the areas of Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization is the most misunderstood, and potentially the most important to your marketing efforts. There are millions upon millions of pages of web content out there — you can work hard, build a great site, and then be totally lost in the shuffle. SEO is important. It’s also a very complex process that requires patience, careful planning and a long-term approach.
If you’re just getting started with:
Selecting an SEO firm
Trying to start a search engine campaign on your own
Reviewing your current SEO efforts
…read on. This article should provide you with a high-level review of the SEO process, dispel a few SEO myths, and help you understand legitimate optimization strategies.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, defies easy definition. But here’s a short version:
Search Engine Optimization
Using keyword analysis and other legitimate practices to gain the highest possible search engine and directory rankings, under a given key phrase, for a given URL.
Every SEO professional in the world just cringed, so I’ll break this definition down a bit and hopefully prevent a hail of angry e-mails:
Keyword Analysis is the process of mining keyword search data to find the best balance between the keywords you need and the best potential search niche. More on this later.
Search Engine means an automated search engine. ‘Search Engines’ include Google, AlltheWeb.com, Yahoo (powered by Google plus their own directory information), AOL Search, Ask Jeeves and MSN Search. A search engine obtains its results from ‘spiders’ or ‘bots’ — small programs that come to your web site read it in much the same way you would: By reading the content on a page, and then moving from page to page via links. A directory, on the other hand, is built at least in part by human beings reading sites and other information and deciding where each site fits into the directory structure. Yahoo’s directory area and Open Directory are both examples of directories.
Ranking is the numeric rank reflecting your position in the results list when someone performs a search on a particular set of keywords.
Highest Possible means getting as close to number one as you can. Sometimes you just can’t get that number one spot. Maybe someone else has a 400-page web site solely dedicated to the key phrase for which you’re attempting to optimize. Or maybe they’re paying a fortune in advertising. That’s life, sometimes…
Key Phrase is the keyword or set of keywords someone types into the little ‘search’ field in Google or Alta Vista or any other search engine.
A URL is the address of one page on your site. Most search engines display keyword search results and provide a link directly to the page most relevant to those results, rather than your home page. It’s very, very important to keep that in mind when you build and optimize your site.
Legitimate Practices is a pet peeve of mine. A true search engine optimization campaign will not use practices such as page or content cloaking, redirects, or lists of links (so-called ‘link farms’) but relies on good coding practices, well-written content, steady link popularity work and site features that will be every bit as valuable for site visitors as for search engine ranking. Anything less is a short-term fix that will likely reduce your rankings more often than increase them.
So, the long version of the definition would be:
Search Engine Optimization
Using keyword analysis, good coding practices, well-written copy, link popularity analysis and careful site organization to move a web page as close to the number one search results position as possible for a given key phrase, in both search engines and directories.
Hey, that’s not so bad after all. But how do you get started? First, you separate reality from myth…
SEO Urban Legends
There are quite a few SEO myths out there. Here are my favorites:
The Keywords META Tag Matters. Mostly wrong. Only Inktomi pays any attention to the keywords meta tag. You should do something basic, but don’t bother putting in keywords that aren’t supported by your page content.
Search Engines can read Flash, images and video. Sorry, and Ford isn’t selling a flying car yet, either. Search engines can read one thing: Text. Anything else, while perfectly legitimate as a design tool, will not help your ranking. And relying too heavily on Flash or images may reduce your site’s visibility. Google is one partial exception — they can read some links in Flash, but still have very limited ability to read Flash content.
Mirroring my site in multiple locations will improve ranking. Actually, just the opposite. Duplication of content will generally have no effect or, worse, reduce your ranking in major search engines. Most search engines now have rules against this form of ‘spam’ and may reduce your ranking or ban your site altogether.
‘Doorway’ pages improve ranking. Pages that have lots of keywords but then quickly redirect to the main site will not help you in major search engines, such as Google. And, if someone catches you and reports you to Google or the other search engine, you may be banned altogether. A ‘landing’ or ‘bridge’ page, though, that’s designed to be as useful for users as for search engines, and does not redirect the user, can help by providing keyword-rich content that’s genuinely worthwhile.
Firms promising to get me #1 rankings in 10,000 search engines for $99.95 can help. I alternate between tooth-grinding and hysterical laughter when I see these ads. First, there aren’t 10,000 search engines. Actually, there are probably 10-20 you should really worry about. Getting listed in the other thousand or so is largely a waste of time. Second, no one can guarantee any ranking in any search engine for a specific keyword. Period. And finally, the price is less than half the cost to get an express submission in a single directory (Yahoo). Chances are anyone trying to get you to spend the $99.95 is operating a ‘link farm’ where they list dozens, or hundreds, of sites. While they won’t hurt your ranking, they won’t help, either. To learn more about how to choose an SEO firm, check out Google’s article: .
Firms charging me more money and guaranteeing a #1 ranking on Google can help. This is the latest SEO scam. I can get you a number one ranking on Google, too, as long as I get to pick the keyword or can get you ranked under a fairly unique company name. But no one, and I mean no one can guarantee a #1 rank under a specific keyword. Even Google says so.
Forget the myths — if an offer seems too good to be true, it is. The truth is that search engines are now almost savvy enough to read your pages like a human being would, so anything that will drive away a typical site visitor will also probably reduce your ranking. Things that will increase your search engine ranking include:
Well-written content
Good, clean HTML code
Useful, relevant TITLE tags
Useful, relevant DESCRIPTION tags
Relevant, appropriate links from other web sites
There are some basic steps that, well executed, will do more to increase your page rank than an ocean of snake oil.
The SEO Campaign Process
A typical SEO campaign starts with keyword analysis, and then emphasizes insuring your site doesn’t impede search engine bots and follows up with ongoing link and traffic analysis. If you like pretty pictures, here’s one:
What’s a Bot?
A ‘bot’ is a program used by a search engine to read the content of your site into a directory. I mentioned this briefly in ‘What is Search Engine Optimization?’ above. Keep up, now….
Step 1: Keyword Analysis. Ah, keywords. If you say the right word enough times on your site, you’ll get that coveted #1 spot, right? Wrong. Choosing the right keywords starts with you making a list of the keywords or phrases under which you’d like to be found, and typically ends up somewhere completely different. Typically, selecting the best keywords is a four-step process:
List the keywords and phrases under which you’d like to be found.
Find out whether anyone searches on those keywords, and whether they’re searching for relevant items.
Find out how many other sites are struggling for rankings under those keywords.
Pick keywords with the same meaning but a better search-to-competition ratio.
Maybe I want to rank #1 under ‘Search Engine Optimization’. Guess what? There are 686,000 other URLs in Google trying for that spot. Hmmm. But wait! Under ‘Seattle Search Engine Optimization’ there are only 19,000. So, I targeted that key phrase, instead. And guess what? We got a #3 ranking.
Don’t forget about relevance, either. If you want a high ranking under ‘tires’, you’re going to have your work cut out for you. And in the end you’ll likely end up getting found for ‘bicycle tires’, ‘automobile tires’, ‘spare tires’ and who knows what else. Is it worth it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But you have to do your homework to find out.
Data Mining and Keywords
If you’re doing a campaign for a large site, you may end up testing and comparing thousands of keywords and phrases. Having a good data-mining tool (even Excel will do) on hand is important when you’re doing keyword analysis. We use S-Plus, by Insightful Software. It’s saved our lives, and clicker fingers, several times.
There are several tools that help you research the number of searches and competitors for keywords. Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) is a good one — don’t depend on their results from Overture, though, unless you’re specifically preparing an Overture campaign. Metacrawler’s MetaSpy tool is worth a look, too. Ideally, look at results from a few different sources.
Keyword analysis is the hardest part of a campaign, in number-crunching terms. It requires a lot of work and may not tell you what you want to hear. But in my experience it’s critical to a successful campaign.
Step 2: Search Engine Readiness. Almost every web site we review has one or more problems that will prevent search engine bots from properly reading all content. Typical showstoppers include:
An all-Flash or all-images home page
A home page that automatically redirects to another page
Pop-up ads (does anyone really read these things?)
A site full of pages with fewer than 400 words on a page
Broken links
Navigation that is generated by JavaScript
No TITLE or DESCRIPTION tags
A major step in any SEO campaign is making sure that the site will present the friendliest profile to search engines. Happily, the investment in optimizing will also pay off in a faster, more universally compatible site.
Step 3. Content and Site Preparation. You’ve done your research: You know which keywords match your message, and your site’s HTML code is one big search engine welcome mat. Now it’s time to make sure that your site contains those keywords. This is where I most often see folks get confused — should you rewrite your web content to emphasize keywords? Yes, but with extreme caution. Should you make small, appropriate changes? Yes. Here are my guidelines for content preparation.
Don’t write for keywords (much). This almost always leads to stilted, hard-to-read prose. Writing keyword-rich content that really works for users is an art form. Be careful.
Do a little careful editing. If you use the word ‘car’ but ‘auto’ is the keyword you need, chances are you can do a few replacements without marring your carefully crafted copy.
Spend time on the titles and description tags. Make sure every page in your site has a unique, relevant TITLE and DESCRIPTION tag.
Never use an automatic page generator. Tools like WebPosition Gold offer to generate optimized pages for you. Don’t. They tend to hurt your ranking as much as help, and they generate ugly, ugly pages.
Write more stuff. More content is almost always better. If your site is just missing a specific keyword or phrase, but you think it’s important, then your potential customers probably do too. By adding a few more pages, or a white paper, or some other content focusing on those absent keywords, you’ll likely help visitors and improve your keyword ranking at the same time. And, the more text-rich your site is, the better the odds that you’ll catch longer, stranger but really important key phrases that you can’t anticipate.
Step 4. Link Analysis. Quite a few major search engines (Google, most importantly) weigh your ‘link popularity’ when ranking your site. A more accurate term, though, is ‘link analysis’, because these engines don’t just count up the number of links to your site. They look for links near and containing relevant text. So a page full of links, one of which happens to be yours, won’t help very much. But a link from a related site, near a short paragraph that contains relevant keywords, will probably give you a boost. Having keywords in the link itself is even better. A quick example:
doesn’t help much.
For search engine optimization, visit http://www.portentinteractive.com is much better.
For search engine optimization, visit Portent Interactive where ‘search engine optimization’ is the link to Portent, is the absolute best case.
There are a few ways to build your link popularity:
Contact sites that relate to yours and request a link exchange. This works really well, but obviously takes a long time.
Syndicate your content. If you can provide an easy way for interested webmasters to link directly to relevant stories on your site, you provide an instant link popularity boost, and get your message out to boot.
Start an affiliate program. If you sell a product, consider setting up an affiliate sales program.
Google’s ‘One Site, One Vote’ Rule
Google awards a lot less weight to a link to your site if that link is on a page with lots of other links. That’s why so-called ‘link farming’ doesn’t work. Ideally, you want a link to your site from a page that includes relevant content and not that many other outgoing links.
Step 5. Submit your site. Many search engines, Google included, allow you to submit your site for free. Generally you can submit your home page and let the search engine crawl the rest of your site. Some directories and engines offer paid ‘express’ services, and some, like Teoma, require that you pay for URL submission. Which engines you choose depends on your budget and campaign.
Step 6. Review, Revise, and Keep Going. Think you’re done? Wrong — search engine optimization is an ongoing project. At least once per month, review your rankings, site traffic reports and link popularity and tweak your site as necessary. The tools you need to measure results are:
Site traffic reports. Any web hosting company should provide you with a web site traffic report, and almost all of the reporting tools in use today provide a ‘referrals from search engines’ section. Take a look at this section for a good measure of campaign results.
Link counts. Use the link: command on Google (see above) to determine your link popularity.
Your keyword list. Search on the relevant search engines to see if your ranking has improved.
Your brain. You have to interpret what you see, and decide whether changes are warranted. There’s no hard and fast rule for this, and no magic formula. Sorry about that…
So now you’ll get instant results, right? Well, not quite…
A Word About Expectations
Search engine optimization can take time. Even Google only refreshes its entire index once a month, so don’t expect instant results.
If your first registration run doesn’t generate increased rankings within a month or two, don’t panic. Look at your site traffic and search on the keywords you chose. Make sure that the search engine you’re checking actually includes your site, too — most likely the bots just haven’t gotten around to ‘crawling’ your site.
Still stumped? Find a professional. Sure, we cost money. But you may have missed something about your site that’s preventing a good keyword rank, and a second set of eyes can help.
A Solid Marketing Strategy
Obviously, Search Engine Optimization is a big job. But nothing can send more traffic to your site, for lower per-click cost. If you follow the basic steps, and keep at it, you will definitely get results. What’s really, really important is to make sure you don’t award too much weight to one step (such as link popularity) at the expense of the others. A well-rounded campaign will provide solid, long-term results.
What about pay per click?
Pay-per-click services, such as Overture and Google Adwords, are very different animals. If you’ve done your keyword analysis you’re halfway there, but there are other tasks. I’ve not talked about them in this article because, well, they need an article of their own. Check back soon…
as the name suggests is an Indian located in Hyderabad that provides professional services in web design, website development, web hosting, website maintenance, website redesigning, web promotion, search engine optimization, multimedia presentations, e-catalogs, e-commerce web development, intranet application development, software development, extranet applications, portals and vortals development from Hyderabad, India.
A web directory is basically a virtual platform in the internet that contains links and information on the different websites under different categories. Ideally, a web directory categorizes the websites in different classes and then divides them further in to the subcategories. However, there are different directories and they have different policies as well. Some of them are free while some charges for the website submission.
Now, if you are thinking about the directory submission, you must be aware of the different guidelines about the process. First of all, you have to make the submission in the most appropriate category and subcategory in the directory. They will never a submission made in the wrong category.
So, before you submit website, you have to make sure that the directory has the relevant category in it. The best possibility is that the directory focuses completely on the topic. However, there are certain things that you should check along with that. First of all, check out the ranking of the directory in the search list. At the same time, check out the back links, instances and other things of the directory. Well, if the directory is new, check out whether and when the site is cached. Also, have a look at the status of the other sites submitted here. In short, take a survey of what you can expect from the directory.
When you submit your website in the directory, it is checked by the human editors. The editors decide whether the submission is appropriate regarding the content, description and category. So, the SEO experts must keep in mind the instruction of the editors and the reviews of others while doing the directory submission.
Now, if you are wondering why you should do all these hassles, the proper website submission in the effective directories can double your traffic, the most important thing for the successful running of any website. When your site is enlisted in the directories, it not only helps in the search engine optimization, it also helps in getting direct traffic as well. For, these directories are quite popular among the users as they are easy to navigate and they have very rich resources.
However, the greatest benefit of the directory submission is that you get popularity links and these links are great both in quality and quantity. When you submit your website in the directories, there is no need to submit it in the search engine. For, they will appear automatically in the search list. This is why many experts give it the highest priority.
Another great advantage of the directory submission is that you get valuable links through it. These links are crucial as they are much valued by the search engines. In fact, they are a major way through which the search engines detect the relevance of your site. Thanks to the directories, you will get a number of inbound links to your site from the relevant sites.
However, submitting in the directories is a tricky task and you may need professional help in this regard.
The writer works for submitinme.com which offers and
Every online business seeks to be visible to as many search engines and visitors as possible in order to draw more traffic which would mean more business. One of the strategies used for drawing traffic to your site can be attaching inbound links to it and this can best be done by registering with a web directory.
A web directory is usually a platform on the Internet which provides information and a catalogue of different websites by classifying websites based on topics, categories and subcategories. Submissions of websites into directories in most cases are free; however some might need payments and reciprocal links. With this listing, search engines will generally consider your website more important and will rank it higher as there will be many other links to your site.
The more links you have on your website, the more users will visit your site as they will click on the incoming links which will direct them to your site, paying high dividends and ensuring wider search engine coverage.
Web are very popular as they help in earning quality back links from other websites. Manual website directory submission is the best option to optimize a new website and if done effectively it can significantly boost traffic to your site.
However, there are certain guidelines and rules to be followed for directory submission.
1. Submit the site in the right category according to the theme of your website.
2. Check whether the directory has the appropriate category and sub-category required for site’ business needs.
3. Check the page rank of the directory, the back links to it and the date on which it was cached and the status of other sites submitted to it.
4. Does the directory use optimized search techniques? What is its past performance like?
Once you submit your site, it is reviewed by an editor who determines if the submission is appropriate in terms of category, content and descriptions of the directory.
The three benefits of are: Higher positions in the search engine rankings, getting your website indexed and increase in traffic. Post directory submission you need not submit your site to any search engine, instead they will find your site. However make sure that you follow the correct procedure for website submission in directories as else they might be rejected. For that however you need to comprehend why directory submissions are rejected?
1. Your site does not fit the directory’s topic.
2. There is invalid description of your website’s content.
3. The site is incomplete or under construction.
4. Your site has broken links or broken pictures.
5. It is not in the language that the directory supports. Thus, it takes longer to load and the customers get confused.
6. Your site is loaded with advertisements and every page of your site opens on a new window and have excessive pop ups.
7. Any pornographic content, language or photos on your site will cause your site to be rejected from the directory.
Thus, it is necessary that you follow the rules and then it will be very easy to get your site submitted to a directory and this strategy will get you higher rankings and more profit.
The writer works for submitinme.com which offers and .
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization, or SEO is the process of ensuring that a site is accessible to a search engine and has a chance being found by the search engine, by improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via algorithmic search results.
Usually, the higher a website is presented in the search results, the more searchers will visit that site. Search engine optimization can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
Search engine optimization is used as a marketing strategy to increase a website’s presence and relevancy. Search engine optimization considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. It involves a website’s coding, presentation, and structure, as well as search engine indexing programs.
Search engine optimization spans a number of items related to the optimization a web site for better search ability by search engine spiders, higher rankings in search results listings and an overall better user experience.
Involving the targeting of specific keyword phrases for each page, search engine optimization is the practice of comparing and analyzing top ranking web sites in search results and making changes to specific pages on a web site to elevate its rankings in search results.
Search engine optimization also takes into account extraneous text on a web page, information not considered to be related to the targeted keyword phrases for the page, and overall quality of the information being presented.
It also includes adding unique content to a site, and making sure that the content is easily indexed by search engines and also appeals to the reader or browser.
The term ‘Search engine optimization’ refers to a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform search engine optimization services in-house.
Search engine optimizers may offer ‘SEO’ as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective search engine optimization may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, and may be incorporated into website content, development and design.
A webpage based on search engine optimization includes, title tag, meta keywords tag, and description tags. The body copy of the webpage must have keyword phrases, which must be repeated as needed throughout the copy. The keyword phrase must feature prominently in headers and making it bold or italics.
Search engine optimization has become a specialization today and a vital tool in web marketing.
Author Bio
Ted Turner is a with Toronto Web Services company specializing in
Author Bio
Ted Turner is a
with Toronto Web Services
company specializing in
There are man things money can buy; such as the services of a good . However there are some things which not only transcend the power of money but also dilute the impact of the services that have already been undertaken. These are the inherent constrains in a website that are overlooked at the time of developed as design agencies do not always keep in mind your plans when developing a website. This results in unwarranted disputes and numerous delays always resulting in additional costs. These can be easily overcome if at the time of developed a few factors are kept in mind.
Typically there are 2 kinds of websites that we come across regularly. Static website that are developed in HTML and Dynamic website that are a lot more complex and use data bases and server side scripting languages to display results. Optimisation of static website is relatively straightforward where through the FTP most SEO can be implemented. The trouble comes with dynamic websites where often the facilities do not exist to make the basic changes.
As part of most (SEO) strategies the following are a list of activities that are routinely carried out.
Meta tag optimisation Addition of static content to dynamic pages Optimisation of internal links Conversion of dynamic URL’s to static URL’s Modification of site maps Meta tag optimisation
There are 3 key parts to Meta tags. These Meta title, Meta description and Meta keywords. In many websites these are dynamically generated based on certain pre-defined rules where the information is picked up from certain parts of a page. Although their relevance has been consistently debated there is no denying that having well optimised and relevant Meta tags are part of best practices and can also influence your click through ratios. The design agency should provide the facility where, depending your SEO strategy you should be able to easily overwrite the dynamic Meta tags making them as relevant as possible.
Addition of static content to dynamic pages
With a large number of e-commerce websites there are enough tools that provide cleaver facility to mange products, cross selling and other functionality. As most of these pages are dynamically generated many of these do not really exist. Hence most searches will result in either the home pages or top level pages appearing on search results which can loose a lot of your visitors. The website should have the provision where the products can be dynamically generated but at the same time have content that is static.
Optimisation of internal links
While most focus on developing backlinks from external websites, one of the most effective search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques is to effectively interlink pages within your website. If you see a Wikipedia page it is full of anchor texts that link to relevant content within the website. A website’s content management should have the functionality where content can be easily hyperlinked.
URL modification
Dynamic websites often have URL that have long query strings consisting on numerous characters that mean very little to user and even less to search engines. There are tools available that can be installed on the server such as mod_rewrite ISAPI-rewrite depending on the servers that you are using. These can dramatically alter the long complicated ulr’s into addresses that are meaningful giving a boost to your SEO rankings and user experience.
Modification of Sitemaps
Each successful website evolves overtime in its technology, products and marketing strategy. With the growth comes a colossal amount of information which at times gets lost in the website or otherwise looses a user. A site map is a blueprint of website which should allow the webmaster to dynamically keep it up to date with the growing demands of the website There are many website that maintain it diligently during the initial states only to overlook it when other things take priority.
By equipping your website with the functionality to make the above changes, you will be giving your SEO agency the best possible chances for collaborating with the web design agency and in implementing changes.
Mediarun is a full service specialising in performance based (SEO) solutions, , Social Media Optimisation (SMO) and pay per click management (PPC). We have also pioneered Universal Search and achieved excellent results for our clients on Google Products, Maps and Images.
Why should you submit your website to directories? The short answer is to get visitors to your website because more visitors to your site would typically mean more business for you.
Good directories like Yahoo, DMOZ and Business.com send visitors to your site on their own. Many people use these directories to look for information. Then there are topic specific or region specific niche directories that have their own groups of users. If you want to target customers in Canada, for example, you could try to get your website listed in a Canada-specific directory. If you have a travel website, you could seek out travel-related directories.
Most of the proliferating numbers of directories do not bring significant numbers of visitors to your Web site. However, a listing in a good directory, under a classification that is relevant to your site’s theme, would be a valuable factor that search engines use to assess your site.
Search engines use software “robots” to locate, bring back and index the millions of websites landing on the Web. These robots cannot exercise the kind of judgment humans do while assessing a website. So the engines look at human-edited directories to provide an indirect assessment of websites.
A large number of relevant directory listings (links) could help your site to move towards the top in search engine results. And if your website ultimately manages to reach the first or second (or even third) page of search results (for search words that are typically used to find your kind of businesses), it could indeed benefit your business significantly (provided you do have a good product and a good website).
Submitting Your Site to Directories
Unlike search engines, directories do not crawl the Web looking for new websites. That means you (or somebody else) would have to bring your website to the attention of directories. Submitting details of your Web site to the directories is the way to do this.
All directories call for certain standard details about the sites submitted to them. These include a short title, the URL of the site and a short description of your site in a limited number of words. Some directories might also ask for your email address and other details.
Directories also require that you submit your site to the most appropriate category. You drill down the directory structure (of each directory) and find the category that best fits your site. This is often a troublesome task as there might be more than one category where your site could be listed.
One final issue is the mode of submission. Sites can be submitted in an automated fashion to “thousands” of directories. Such automated submission is not likely to meet the specific guidelines of each directory. Directories also do not like automated submissions as the sites submitted would more than likely to be junk sites.
It is far better to submit your site by hand to each directory, complying with the guidelines of each. Your site is more likely to be accepted in that case.
Why Should You be Choosy in Selecting Directories?
Submitting your Web site to directories is a monotonous and time-consuming task. And after all the trouble, you might find that the directory takes its own time to review your site. They could also reject the site after this review on one ground or another.
More importantly, a listing in some of the directories could prove to be of no value. Some directories are just “link farms” indiscriminately including every site submitted. This eliminates the element of human review that provides value to a directory listing. Such directories do not bring any traffic (of visitors to your site). Search engines also would ignore such junk-filled sites and assign no value to a link from such a directory.
Next comes the issue of paying money for a directory listing. Some directories, notably Yahoo, require payment to review your site (with no guarantee that your site would be accepted after the review). Other sites would speed up the review of your site if you pay. In such cases, it becomes even more important to select the directories carefully.
How Do You Select Directories?
Below is a checklist that you could use to decide whether a particular directory is likely to be worth investing your time and/or money.
Is the directory well organized? Does it have many classifications of real-world themes? Are there sub classifications under each classification to accommodate common needs?
Is the directory easy to use? Are the classifications immediately clear? Is it easy to drill down to a category you are interested in? Could you move back and forth without getting lost?
Does the directory seem well populated? Are there numerous listings under each category? Are there several empty categories?
Do the listed sites appear good quality? Take a look at these under different categories. Or is the directory full of junk sites?
What overall impression do you get considering the layout as well as the above aspects?
What Google page rank is displayed for the site in the Google toolbar (if you have installed it in one of your browsers)? A page rank of at least 4/10 is what you should be looking for.
If you are adept enough, you should also look at the traffic levels to the directory by going to Alexa website.
Finally, look at the way the directory treats submissions. Do they seem to be in the directory business solely to make money from website owners? What is the backlog of websites pending review as indicated by the directory? Directories often indicate the time lag you have to expect before your site is taken up for review.
You should by now have a good idea of whether the directory is worth submitting to. You should also be able to decide whether it is worth paying money, and if so how much, to get listed in that directory.
New directories might not meet many of the desirable criteria above. However, if they seem well organized and filled with good quality websites, it might be worthwhile to submit to them. You get the advantage of quicker review and probably even a front-page listing.
Consider Outsourcing Directory Submission
By now, you would have an idea of all the bother involved in selecting directories and submitting your Web site to them. Manual submission by hand to each directory is an extremely monotonous job.
It is better to entrust the submission to a dependable specialist who would submit your site to selected directories.
A specialist would also know the directories out there and how good each one is.
Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips and hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to credit card, do please browse for more information at our websites.
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Why should you submit your website to directories? The short answer is to get visitors to your website because more visitors to your site would typically mean more business for you.
Good directories like Yahoo, DMOZ and Business.com send visitors to your site on their own. Many people use these directories to look for information. Then there are topic specific or region specific niche directories that have their own groups of users. If you want to target customers in Canada, for example, you could try to get your website listed in a Canada-specific directory. If you have a travel website, you could seek out travel-related directories.
Most of the proliferating numbers of directories do not bring significant numbers of visitors to your Web site. However, a listing in a good directory, under a classification that is relevant to your site’s theme, would be a valuable factor that search engines use to assess your site.
Search engines use software “robots” to locate, bring back and index the millions of websites landing on the Web. These robots cannot exercise the kind of judgment humans do while assessing a website. So the engines look at human-edited directories to provide an indirect assessment of websites.
A large number of relevant directory listings (links) could help your site to move towards the top in search engine results. And if your website ultimately manages to reach the first or second (or even third) page of search results (for search words that are typically used to find your kind of businesses), it could indeed benefit your business significantly (provided you do have a good product and a good website).
Submitting Your Site to Directories
Unlike search engines, directories do not crawl the Web looking for new websites. That means you (or somebody else) would have to bring your website to the attention of directories. Submitting details of your Web site to the directories is the way to do this.
All directories call for certain standard details about the sites submitted to them. These include a short title, the URL of the site and a short description of your site in a limited number of words. Some directories might also ask for your email address and other details.
Directories also require that you submit your site to the most appropriate category. You drill down the directory structure (of each directory) and find the category that best fits your site. This is often a troublesome task as there might be more than one category where your site could be listed.
One final issue is the mode of submission. Sites can be submitted in an automated fashion to “thousands” of directories. Such automated submission is not likely to meet the specific guidelines of each directory. Directories also do not like automated submissions as the sites submitted would more than likely to be junk sites.
It is far better to submit your site by hand to each directory, complying with the guidelines of each. Your site is more likely to be accepted in that case.
Why Should You be Choosy in Selecting Directories?
Submitting your Web site to directories is a monotonous and time-consuming task. And after all the trouble, you might find that the directory takes its own time to review your site. They could also reject the site after this review on one ground or another.
More importantly, a listing in some of the directories could prove to be of no value. Some directories are just “link farms” indiscriminately including every site submitted. This eliminates the element of human review that provides value to a directory listing. Such directories do not bring any traffic (of visitors to your site). Search engines also would ignore such junk-filled sites and assign no value to a link from such a directory.
Next comes the issue of paying money for a directory listing. Some directories, notably Yahoo, require payment to review your site (with no guarantee that your site would be accepted after the review). Other sites would speed up the review of your site if you pay. In such cases, it becomes even more important to select the directories carefully.
How Do You Select Directories?
Below is a checklist that you could use to decide whether a particular directory is likely to be worth investing your time and/or money.
Is the directory well organized? Does it have many classifications of real-world themes? Are there sub classifications under each classification to accommodate common needs?
Is the directory easy to use? Are the classifications immediately clear? Is it easy to drill down to a category you are interested in? Could you move back and forth without getting lost?
Does the directory seem well populated? Are there numerous listings under each category? Are there several empty categories?
Do the listed sites appear good quality? Take a look at these under different categories. Or is the directory full of junk sites?
What overall impression do you get considering the layout as well as the above aspects?
What Google page rank is displayed for the site in the Google toolbar (if you have installed it in one of your browsers)? A page rank of at least 4/10 is what you should be looking for.
If you are adept enough, you should also look at the traffic levels to the directory by going to Alexa website.
Finally, look at the way the directory treats submissions. Do they seem to be in the directory business solely to make money from website owners? What is the backlog of websites pending review as indicated by the directory? Directories often indicate the time lag you have to expect before your site is taken up for review.
You should by now have a good idea of whether the directory is worth submitting to. You should also be able to decide whether it is worth paying money, and if so how much, to get listed in that directory.
New directories might not meet many of the desirable criteria above. However, if they seem well organized and filled with good quality websites, it might be worthwhile to submit to them. You get the advantage of quicker review and probably even a front-page listing.
Consider Outsourcing Directory Submission
By now, you would have an idea of all the bother involved in selecting directories and submitting your Web site to them. Manual submission by hand to each directory is an extremely monotonous job.
It is better to entrust the submission to a dependable specialist who would submit your site to selected directories.
A specialist would also know the directories out there and how good each one is.
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To make a profit with an internet business you need traffic and lots of it. No matter how many articles you read about creating a successful company, you will always read about the importance of creating traffic.
Traffic is the most essential element for a successful internet company. Besides ensuring that you are selling a terrific product and you have your other business needs taken care of, it all gets down to generating traffic.
If your site is up and running and you’re not getting the traffic you think you should get, it is time to revamp your traffic generating strategy. You need to stay one step ahead of the competitors. You should have been fixing your traffic flow yesterday.
Timing is everything. But when generating traffic, you need to be ahead of everyone else. Don’t think of today and tomorrow as when you’ll begin, but yesterday. Here are seven surefire methods to increase your traffic starting yesterday. Give them a try.
1) Make the investment for good search engine
advertising. It will be worth your while. Yahoo’s Overture and Google’s Adwords both provide lucrative advertising plans that are popular and effective. This does cost some financial outlay, but Overture and Adwords are sure paths to successfully increasing your traffic. It is easy to see for yourself that search engine advertising works. You see more and more companies advertising on results pages. If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t use it. You’ll find it is worth every penny.
2) Trade or exchange links with similar sites. By exchanging links, you can both benefit from the efforts made by you and the owner of the reciprocal site. Each site benefits by getting some traffic from the other site. By trading more links, you can get more traffic than you might expect.
3) Viral marketing is a good tool. Viral marketing is a tool that allows you to spread the word about your company and products with little to no cost. Attach your company’s name or link to a funny video or interesting article and let it spread. People will continue to send the entertainment to their friends and family, and some will be bound to check out your link.
4) Use the right keywords and phrases to fit your site content. Search engines work by looking for keywords. The pages that fit those keywords show up on their results pages. By having the right keywords in your pages, you’ll have a higher ranking than if you didn’t worry about including the right words. You can write your own content for your site or hire people to do it for you.
5) Articles will lead traffic to your site. Submit articles to any of several article sites on your subject of expertise. Include a link to your site in your bio, and you’ll generate traffic from the people who have read your article. Be sure to include a brief description of your products and services.
6) Be active in forums and online communities By taking part in these online communities and forums, you can capture a target market and display your credibility and expertise. With a good foundation laid, people will trust you and be quick to buy your products and services. Traffic will increase by helping people feel they know you.
7) Free newsletters will create a list of prospects that are eager to buy. People interested in your niche will sign up for a free newsletter. If they like the newsletter, they will refer it to their friends and family. Soon your list will grow. This list will turn into customers while they continue to increase your traffic by recommending your newsletter and site.
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Search engine optimization provides a process of ensuring that a site is accessible to a search engine and has a chance of being found by the search engine, by improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via algorithmic search results. Search engine optimization helps its clients to create higher website that is used as a marketing strategy to increase a website’s presence and relevancy. Search engine optimization targets different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. Search engine optimization spans a number of items related to the optimization a web site for better search ability by search engine spiders, higher rankings in search results listings and an overall better user experience. Search engine optimization offers the target of specific keyword phrases for each page. Search engine optimization provides that practice of comparing and analyzing top ranking websites in search results and making changes to specific pages on a website to elevate its rankings in the search results.
Search engine optimization also takes into account extraneous text on a web page, information not considered to be related to the targeted keyword phrases for the page, and overall quality of the information being presented. Search engine optimization also includes adding unique content to a site, and making sure that search engines and also appeals to the reader or browser easily index the content. The term search engine optimization refers to a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform search engine optimization services in-house. Search Engine Optimizer also provides a stand-alone service as a part of a broader marketing campaign because effective search engine optimization requires changes to the HTML source code of a site, and can be incorporated into website content, development and design.
Search engine optimization additionally creates webpage based on search and includes title tag, Meta keywords tag, and description tags. The body of the webpage has keyword phrases, which must be repeated as needed throughout the copy. Search engine optimization’s keyword phrase feature prominently in headers and making it bold or italics. Last but not the least, Search engine optimization offers a powerful tool RSS Equalizer that you need to get more pages listed in the search engines. Having been one of the first people to utilize RSS Equalizer, I was really excited to see the results. In addition, it worked for me thanks to Search engine optimization!
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