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Search engine optimization (or SEO) is clearly important in this day and age. An entire industry has arisen around the quest to get to the top of the search engines, with black and white hat SEO witches battling it out to stay in the top five positions.
It sounds like a scene out of dungeons and dragons doesn′t it? However it’s a serious business when hundreds of thousands of visitors are lost because rankings disappear, which equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
In a previous article I discussed how to select keywords to help you to start planning a targeted campaign. When you get to the end of this article I hope you should have a fair understanding of the importance of the HTML Title tag with regard to search engines and far more importantly with regards the humans, the people, the guys and gals that you want to get to your website so that they can buy your goods and services.
Firstly, what is the title tag?
The title tag is an element in the header part of an HTML page denoted by two tags. For instance you might have Using Title Tags to Improve SEO & Website Conversion . That would mean that the title would read (as a link on search engines like Google for instance “Using Title Tags to Improve SEO & Website Conversion”. Setting yourself some simple guidelines to help you write your tags is a good idea.
Guidelines are good but not set in stone
There are no hard and fast rules for writing titles but there are some guidelines you might want to follow. W3C (http://www.ҩ.org/Provider/Style/TITLE.html) say on their website that ideally a title should be 64 characters or less and that titles may be truncated if it’s longer than that. Google show 66 characters in their search results listing, Yahoo allow listings up to 120 long. What I would suggest is that you bear these sensible limits in mind when writing the contents of your title tags.
If you need a long title make the first 66 characters Google friendly and use the rest up for Yahoo. In order to learn how to effectively use these 66 characters you should know how titles are used online.
Online uses of titles
1) Titles are used by website resource librarians, directory editors (such as DMOZ), and other webmasters (such as strategic link partners) when they link to your website. 2) The title is displayed in web search results by the vast majority of search engines to help you target and attract your visitors. 3) Nearly all the major search engines use a title tag in order to rank your page. Search engines deem the title one of the most important pieces of information when determining what the content of your website is. 4) The title is displayed in the visitors browser window usually at the top of the viewable part of the browser screen. Browser screens, search results, editors, why is this important?
Firstly, by carefully crafting your website title you make it more accessible to resource librarians, editors and webmasters. If you have a nice simple title link which they can add to their pages both relevant and understandable they are far more likely to link to your website. If they link to your website using a hyperlinked title relevant to your target audience, you get targeted traffic from simply writing a good title tag. More relevant traffic means much higher conversion.
Secondly if Google or Yahoo crawl your website and find that the title tags you’ve written are relevant to the page on which they are written it means there is a much greater chance of a good ranking on the engines. A good ranking on the engines for your selected keywords means that you’re more likely to be found by your target audience. This again means that you attract the people that you want to your website, the people who are looking to buy your product or service. The title tag becomes your search engine listing. Think of it this way, in a similar way to the classified ad you write for a newspaper, the title tag listing is your online advert, so make it as attractive and relevant as possible to attract the right visitor.
Thirdly, the browser window is affected by the title and it’s convenient for the visitor to your page. How many times have you had five or six Internet browser windows open? A good title tag means that a quick scan of these titles shows the reader which page is which. The first couple of words in the title it could be argued for this reason alone are the most important text you will ever write for a web page you want to be read.
In summary you want your web page to be read by your desired audience
That’s all. Your title tag is the first step toward achieving that goal. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If you have eight hours to chop down a tree, spend 6 hours sharpening your axe.” The title tag is your web pages axe, it’s the part you should refine so that you get the most from the search engines. Of course there is more to SEO and website conversion than simply the title tag. In the next article we’ll discuss the next important point to sharpen, the headline, or rather the tags that should be used in conjunction with titles to be even more search and conversion friendly.
Author: Steve Jackson, Editor - Conversion Chronicles Steve Jackson is CEO of Aboavista, editor of The Conversion Chronicles and a published writer. You can get a free copy of his e-book sent to you upon subscription to the Chronicles web site (www.conversionchronicles.com).

About the Author
Author: Steve Jackson, Editor - Conversion Chronicles Steve Jackson is CEO of Aboavista, editor of The Conversion Chronicles and a published writer. You can get a free copy of his e-book sent to you upon subscription to the Chronicles web site (www.conversionchronicles.com).

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by Karon Thackston ? 2003
http://www.copywritingcourse.com

I recently took on a project for a Web site that sells gas logs that I thought would make an interesting case study. As many people ask me what goes through my mind when I write search engine optimized copy, I took this opportunity to make notes as I wrote. I’ll now share that information with you so you can make the necessary changes to your own copy.

The site had a lot of potential, but in its current state the sales orientation of the index (home) page and the keyword saturation were causing less-than-stellar results for the client. My job was to rewrite the index page (from scratch) in order to boost SE rankings.

The Assessment

When I first viewed the index page of http://www.eiklorflames.com my first impression was one of curiosity. I wondered why certain approaches were taken. Rather than draw the site visitor in, it gave me the feeling of being pushed away. I also questioned the use of features and benefits on the page. While features were mentioned, they were conveyed through industry jargon with no explanations. (See the original copy at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/Eiklor/EiklorFlames.html.)

The product was great, the client obviously understood their target audience (proven from the target audience analysis they completed), and other pages within the site were well written – warm and inviting. However the index page needed some help in order to achieve higher sales percentages and search engine rankings.

When I visited Google to check on current search engine positioning for the site, I found Eiklor Flames at number 48. It would take an upward movement of 38 positions to get them into the coveted top 10. So, I set out to complete the task before me.

What To Do?

During projects where copy already exists I always like to take a mental tour of what’s currently on the site before I begin to rewrite copy from scratch. As I reviewed Eiklor’s current copy, I made the following notes of things I wanted to approach differently.

1. Make the copy search engine compatible.
2. Make the copy more inviting.
3. Draw the visitor into the fireplace experience.
4. Make the sale before sending them to the dealer.
5. Don’t just give features… give benefits, too.

How To Do It?

To implement the changes above, I worked with the copy in sections/phases.

1. Make the copy search engine compatible. This is always in the forefront of my mind when I write SEO copy. Because I want the keywords/phrases to appear in several strategic places, and throughout the body copy, I have to keep keywords in my mind the entire time I’m writing. For this project, the keywords/phrases were: gas logs, and fireplace. While the keyword research was done by an SEO firm, I agreed that only two or three keywords should be used. I’m of the opinion that when you try to work in five or six keywords/phrases per page, you lose your saturation and your focus.

To start, I always try to work a key phrase into the headline if at all possible. While it is not mandatory, you do get a few extra brownie points for having key phrases within header tags ( tags).

Rather than the simple headline of “Gas Logs by Eiklor Flames” that previously existed, I wanted to use a benefit-oriented headline. While the subheads of “The Cr?me de la Cr?me of Gas Logs.
The ‘Standard’ by which you can judge the rest” were not “bad” lines, they didn’t actually tell me anything about gas logs.

Being unsure of the various personality types of all those that would come to the site, I had to write to accommodate everyone (as much as possible). Headlines that give benefits are always winners, so that strategy was a safe bet.

I also drew on my own experience as someone who owns gas logs. I thought back to how I went through the buying process. I remembered the information that was important from my buying experience and applied that to the copy and headline.

The new headline became: “Eiklor Flames’ Gas Logs - Beautiful… Affordable… Energy Efficient.”

It gives benefits, it speaks to the primary reasons people buy gas logs, and it includes the key phrase “gas logs.”

In Part 2 of this series, I’ll finish up the copy, continuing to make it SEO and more “user-friendly” as I turn the jargon-filled features into powerful benefits.

About the Author
Most buying decisions are emotional. Your ad copy should be, too! Let Karon write targeted copy and ezine articles for you. Visit her site at http://www.ktamarketing.com, or learn to write your own copy at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Karon’s free ezine at http://www.ktamarketing.com/ezine.html.

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A charity entry in a google search engine optimisation contest could win thousands of dollars for Oxfam. The aim of the contest is to rank number one on a google search for the term v7ndotcom elursrebmem.

http://www.v7 ndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com has been created with the sole aim of winning the contest for charity. Several high profile webmasters and search engine optimisation experts have already pledged their support and the sites creators believe that more will follow.

The designers of http://www.v7 ndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com are hoping that a large number of webmasters will be interested in this contest but won’t have the time or resources to take part themselves. By putting their weight, or back links, behind this charity entry everybody can take part and win a large sum of money for Oxfam.

Dave Smith, creator of the ңndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com site, also hopes that the contest will raise awareness of how non-profit organisations can use the internet effectively for promotion.

http://www.v7ndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com is not just relying on people’s generosity to win this contest - it also uses all the available knowledge of search engine optimisation to create a site that is clear and easy to navigate with lots of useful information.

Key features of the site include a blog which will be updated throughout the contest and a live v7ndotcom elursrebmem leader board which can be easily integrated to any third party website.

Controversy and a certain amount of hype has surrounded this contest from the start, the official press release for the contest stated that “John Scott, editor and administrator of v7n.com, announced the contest on December 20th, with a $1,000 grand prize. Soon afterwards Greg Boser, a web page optimizer, announced a $1,000 reward for not playing by v7n rules. Two of Greg Boser’s friends - Mike Grehan and Todd Friesen - then contributed to the reward pot, bringing the anti-contest grand prize to $3,000.

Many in the SEO community were outraged by what they saw as an attack on the popular v7n community, and John Scott in particular. The blogging community rallied and added $3,000 plus an iPod to the v7n contest, putting the total at $7,000 and an iPod for the grand prize winner, with smaller cash amounts to those who place 2nd through 5th.”

Whatever the motives of the organisers it is clear that this contest and v7ndotcom elursrebmem is set to be one of the most discussed topics of the next few months.

If anyone wishes to help http://www.ңndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com win this contest for charity or are interested in the methods being used to promote the site please look at our homepage or the FAQ’s section.

About the author:

Dave Smith created http://www.ңndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com to enter the seo contest of 2006 for charfity.

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Let me start by asking one simple question. Would you turn in a resume to the job of your dreams, without spell checking it? If the answer is anything but no, then move along please, this article won’t interest you. For those of us that would say yes, we must ask ourselves why we would not validate our web pages before turning them loose to the search engine spiders?

W3C the World Wide Web Consortium has set standards for a reason. It is so that there can be protocols and guidelines called W3C recommendations, set to ensure long term growth of the Internet. What does that mean to you? It means that the W3C is looking out for us. The want to make sure that some genius doesn’t come along and completely revamp the way a browser looks at a web page, hence making ours unreadable. It also provides us a means of writing code that will look the same, or very similar across several browsers.

How does code validation effect search engine optimization?

It effects SEO for many reasons. Foremost, it provides easy to read code for the “spiders.” Most search engine spiders are programmed to read code according to ͩC. Although search engines are pretty good about overlooking most of our common errors, we are also pretty good about putting out some pretty sloppy code. What happens to our web page, if a spider comes across a tag that it doesn′t recognize? There is a good chance that it may skip that section of the page, or even worse, move away from the page completely.

What are the benefits of validating the code?

Aside from just putting out a piece of work that is correct, it also shows an interested person, that you do things right, and you take pride in your work.

Here are some other things.

1. It ensures that your code conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium recommendations

2. Less chance that your visitors will run into problems with your web pages, because of code errors

3. Makes file sizes smaller and more easily understood by search engine spiders, thus making your website easier to index

4. Making sure that your site is Indexed the way you intend, ensures that you get the search engine ranking that you deserve

5. Enables visitors to experience your website in many browsers, the same way you see it

Ok, so how do we validate our pages?

After you have designed your page, and you think that you have it correct, make sure that you have declared a doctype. Here is a list of recommended doctypes.

Next, you can go to many different places online to have your code validated. If you are using an editor, such as Dreamweaver, some versions even have a built in validator. I prefer validate directly from the W3C. Once you are validated, you get a nifty little icon from them to show that you have validated.

About the author:

Jamey Perkins has spent the last few years working in website design. He is currently studying SEO techniques to further provide better service to his web design clients. You can visit his website on Search Engine Optimization and learn more about his techniques.

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From reading the title many of you are probably wondering what W3C compliance has to do with SEO and many more are probably wondering what W3C compliance is at all. Let’s begin by shedding some light on the later.
What Is W3C Compliance?
The W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and basically, since 1994 the W3C has provided the guidelines by which websites and web pages should be structured and created. The rules they outline are based on the “best practices” and while websites don’t have to comply to be viewed correctly in Internet Explorer and other popular browsers that cater to incorrect design practices, there are a number of compelling reasons to insure that you or your designer insure that the W3C guidelines are followed and that your site is brought into compliance.
In an interview with Frederick Townes of W3 EDGE Web Design (http://www.w3-edge.com/) he mentioned a number of less SEO-related though very compelling arguments for W3C-complaince. Some non-SEO reasons to take on this important step in the lifecycle of your site are:
?Compliance help insure accessibility for the disabled. ?Compliance helps insure that your website is accessible from a number of devices; from different browsers to the growing number of surfers using PDA’s and cellular phones. ?Compliance will also help insure that regardless of the browser, resolution, device, etc. that your website will look and function in the same or at least a very similar fashion.
At this point you may be saying, “Well that’s all well-and-good but what does this have to do with SEO?” Good question.
We at Beanstalk have seen many examples of sites performing better after we had brought them, or even just their homepage, into compliance with W3C standards. While discussing this with Frederick he explained it very well with:
“Proper use of standards and bleeding edge best practices makes sure that not only is the copy marked up in a semantic fashion which search engines can interpret and weigh without confusion, it also skews the content-to-code ratio in the direction where it needs to be while forcing all of the information in the page to be made accessible, thus favoring the content. We’ve seen several occasions where the rebuilding of a site with standards, semantics and our proprietary white hat techniques improves the performance of pages site-wide in the SERPs.”
Essentially what he is stating is a fairly logical conclusion, reduce the amount of code on your page and the content (you know, the place where your keywords are) takes a higher priority. Additionally compliance will, by necessity, make your site easily spidered and additionally allow you greater control over which portions of your content are given more weight by the search engines.
Examples
The Beanstalk website and the W3 EDGE site themselves serve as good examples of sites that performed better after complying with W3C standards. With no other changes than those required to bring our site into compliance the Beanstalk site saw instant increases. The biggest jumps were on Yahoo! with lesser though still significant increases being noticed on both Google and MSN.
As we don’t give out client URLs I can’t personally list off client site examples we′ve noticed the same effect on, however we can use W3 EDGE as another example of a site that noticed increases in rankings based solely on compliance.
So How Do I Bring My Site In Compliance With W3C Standards?
To be sure, this is easier said than done. Obviously the ideal solution is to have your site designed in compliance to begin with. If you already have a website you have one of two options:
1.Hire a designer familiar with W3C standards and have your site redone, or 2.Prepare yourself for a big learning curve and a bit of frustration (though well worth both).
Resources
Assuming that you’ve decided to do the work yourself there are a number of great resources out there. By far the best that I’ve found in my travels is the Web Developer extension for FireFox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/). You’ll have to install the FireFox browser first and then install the extension. Among other great tools for SEO this extension provides a one-click check for compliance and provides a list of where your errors are, what’s causing them and links to solutions right from the W3C. The extension provides testing for HTML, XHTML, CSS and Accessibility compliance.
Other resources you’ll definitely want to check into are:
?CSS Zen Garden (http://www.csszengarden.com/) ?A List Apart (http://www.alistapart.com/) ?Holy CSS ZeldMan! (http://www.dezwozhere.com/links.html) (Frederick lists this one as one of the best resources for the novice to find answers. I have to agree.)
Where Do I Get Started?
The first place to start would be to download FireFox (count this as reason #47 to do so as it’s a great browser) and install the Web Developer extension. This will give you easy access to testing tools.
The next step is to bookmark the resources above.
Once you’ve done these you’d do well to run the tests on your own site while at the same time keeping up an example site that already complies so you can look at their code if need be.
To give you a less frustrating start I would recommend beginning with your CSS validation. Generally CSS validation is easier and faster than the other forms. In my humble opinion it’s always best to start with something you′ll be able to accomplish quickly to reinforce that you can in fact do it.
After CSS you’ll need to move on to HTML or XHTML validation. Be prepared to set aside a couple hours if you’re a novice with a standard site. More if you have a large site of course.
Once you have your CSS and HTML/XHTML validated its time to comply with Accessibility standards. What you will be doing is cleaning up a ton of your code and moving a lot into CSS, which means you’ll be further adding to your style sheet. If you’re not comfortable with CSS you’ll want to revisit the resources above. CSS is not a big mystery though it can be challenging in the beginning. As a pleasant by-product you are sure to find a number of interesting effects and formats that are possible with CSS that you didn′t even know were so easily added to your site.
But What Do I Get From All This?
Once you′re done you′ll be left with a compliant site that not only will be available on a much larger number of browsers (increasingly important as browsers such as FireFox gain more and users) but you′ll have a site with far less code that will rank higher on the search engines because of it.
To be sure, W3C validation is not the “magic bullet″ to top rankings. In the current SEO world there is no one thing that is, however as more and more website are born and the competition for top positioning gets more fierce it’s important to take every advantage you can to not only get to the first page but to hold your position against those who want to take it from you as you took it from someone else.
Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc. (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com) He writes with years of experience in SEO and Internet Marketing. A special thanks go out to Frederick Townes of W3 EDGE for his help with this article. W3 EDGE (http://www.w3-edge.com/) provides W3C-compliant web site design for their clients. To keep update on new SEO article be sure to visit the Beanstalk blog (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/blog/) regularly for up-to-date SEO news.
About the Author
Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc. He writes with years of experience in SEO and Internet Marketing. A special thanks go out to Frederick Townes of ͩ EDGE for his help with this article. ͩ EDGE provides W3C-compliant web site design for their clients. To keep update on new SEO article be sure to visit the Be

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At a Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, CA search marketing professionals debated and discussed whether or not reverse engineering search algorithms was the proper method of SEO or whether website viewers were the most important aspect of an SEO campaign. After much discussion it seems there is still a large disagreement in regards to this subject. Some believe reverse engineering is best and some believe viewer experience is the best solution. I’d like to shed a little light on this subject in regards to JUMP Internet Marketing and what our beliefs are based upon our own research and success over the past 10 years.

Reverse Engineering: We believe this is a necessary step in the SEO campaign however as we’ve mentioned time and time again to clients, prospects and anyone else who asks this question…it is not a silver bullet. There simply isn’t one. Reverse engineering search engine algorithms is important in any SEO campaign to be sure that your site has the “search engine spider food” that the search engine spiders are looking for. Your site must have this “food” in order to rank well once the search engine applies its algorithm to the pages of your site.

Viewer Experience and Perception: In regards to viewer perception this is the most important aspect of an SEO campaign. As previously mentioned reverse engineering is important but ultimately it is your site’s content that speaks to your viewer and the piece of the SEO puzzle that will ultimately turn your website visitors into sales and leads. You certainly don’t want your viewers to read gibberish and have your company looking unprofessional to your viewers. This can have a very adverse affect when trying to convert your traffic.

The Fine Line – Proper Research:
A successful SEO campaign ultimately consists of a balance of both reverse engineering and good quality content for a great viewer experience and perception. You must have the spider food, and good quality promotional content to convert your traffic. It is imperative that good quality keyword research be performed to ensure your website properly targets your desired audience. It is equally important to employ proper white hat (non-spam) SEO techniques to address the “spider food” issue.

If both of these things are not properly addressed you may find your site in a here today and gone tomorrow scenario. We at JUMP prefer to address all issues and be thorough in our SEO campaigns instead of searching for a silver bullet solution or a cookie cutter solution for our clients. Each site and SEO campaign is unique just as different products and markets are unique. There are no silver bullets and SEO is definitely not a one size fits all solution.

Using the methodology outlined here we’ve been highly successful over the years and continue to be so. Just remember, content is king whether it be spider content “food” or viewer content to entice your viewers into becoming a sale or lead. If you have the proper balance of both, success can be yours for the long term.

About The Author: Kevin Gee is a certified SEO specialist through Coastal Carolina University and has been performing SEO strategies since 1998. He is currently employed as Internet Marketing Manager at JUMP Internet Marketing.

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If you own or operate a website, you know that it is important to operate a well rounded search engine optimization program. Some companies just outsource the work and some do it in house. It all depends on the talent and expertise you have in house in order to create an effective seo program. There are many companies out there that only want your money, but say that they will make your website number one, guaranteed! All I have to say is ha. No company no matter how good can guarantee number one positions in natural searches. The only way that they can say this is with unethical ways of positioning your website. Of course, most companies will use come pay per click advertising for your site, but you can do that yourself and get the same exact results.

In order to stay on top of the natural searches, you need to have ethical ways of promoting and optimizing your site. Make sure to take time to analyze your site compared to the top 10 sites for each of your top keywords. If you see their sites compared to yours, the correct changes can be made. This is a big one, make sure no company or individual in your company creates doorway pages on your site. These inflate your results for a very short time and can and will lead to you being banned from the search engines. There are a lot of companies that say they will put their content on your site to help your results, this only means that they are going to put in doorway pages! Do not let them do this because it will lead to your sites downfall.

Be careful out there with all the search engine optimization companies and think about possibly doing your own optimization with the same results. You might want to try to find a company that just gives you a optimization report, which allows you to optimize your own site at your own leisure. Good luck out there!

Grayson is the current owner and operator of Overdrive Electronics and OverdriveSEO and is certified for SE Optimization and online marketing techniques.

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How does web content really affect SEO? It’s often said that the answer is simply that content does not affect SEO very much-it’s all about more technical issues. Yet a website’s content still plays an enormous and fairly direct role in search engine ranking.
Of course, the whole goal of the search engines′ ranking schemes is precisely to deliver good, relevant content to users. The mechanism for how search engines select and reward good, relevant content is essentially just a technical issue, though admittedly an extremely important technical issue.
But even in purely technical, mechanistic, terms, web content affects search engine rankings three ways:
1. inbound links
2. website mass
3. keyword optimization
1. Web Content and Inbound Links
Inbound links are the number-one factor in getting search engine rankings. They also yield plenty of traffic on their own. The importance of links is what has led many people to say that content is no longer important. But those people forget that content really does play a big role in getting links in the first place:
At the very least, good content will make potential link partners more comfortable with linking to your site. No one wants to link to a link farm, splog, junk site, or even just an unprofessional-looking site. Lots of good content gives other webmasters (and particularly bloggers) a reason to link to your site spontaneously without being asked. You can allow other websites to post your content in exchange for a link back to your site.
2. Web Content Mass
More web pages of content = more search engine traffic
Here’s why:
Adding pages to your site is like putting out extra nets to catch surfers. Search engines see bigger websites as more prestigious and reliable. The more content you have, the more reasons you give other webmasters, particularly bloggers, to link to your site spontaneously, without being asked.
3. Web Content Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization used to be the most important step in SEO. Now it matters little in ranking for highly competitive keywords.
Still, keyword optimization can really help you get traffic from searches not on competitive keywords. While you may never rank number 1 for “finance,” you may still show up tops for a search on “household finance rent federal tax deductions” if you have that phrase somewhere in your content. Such non-competitive searches make up a very large proportion of total web searches.
Web Content Keyword Optimization Checklist:
There are four legs to keyword optimization:
* Research/selection
* Density
* Prominence
* Stemming/Variation
Keyword Research and Selection
You need to identify keywords searched on by your target audience. Use tools such as those offered by WordTracker and Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture).
There are two big pitfalls to avoid:
* “Negative keywords” that look relevant but are not really searched on by your target market. For instance, “website copy” is a synonym for “website content,” but most people searching on “website copy” are looking for software that copies an entire website to the hard drive for offline browsing.
* Impossibly competitive keywords that you have no realistic chance of ranking high for them. How do you know if a keyword is impossibly competitive? One rough measure is to look at the PageRank of the webpages currently ranking in the top three for that keyword. If the PageRank of those pages is much higher than the PageRank your site will likely have in the future, you will probably never outrank those pages.
A pay-per-click campaign with Google Adwords of Yahoo! Search Marketing will help you to find which keywords really are searched on by your target audience.
Keyword Density
Keywords appear in the content the right number of times for search engines to recognize the page as relevant, but not so often that it looks like keyword stuffing. The longer the content, the more times the keyword should appear.
Keyword Prominence
Keywords appear in just the right positions within your web pages for search engines to recognize them as relevant. The page title, headings, and first lines of the page are often considered the most prominent positions.
Keyword Stemming/Keyword Variation
* Using variations of the keyword will help ensure web pages appear relevant to the next generation of more sophisticated search engine algorithms.
* In the meantime, variations of popular keywords helps your site appear for the “non-standard” searches on variations of the keyword.
There are three main types of keyword variations:
* Word-stem variations. A stem of a word is its base. For instance, “optimize” is the stem of “optimized.” Other stem variations of “optimize” include “optimizing,” “optimizer,” and “optimization.” You can also shuffle the component words of multiple-word keywords. Variations of “website content” would be “web site content,” “web content,” “content for websites,” and “site content”).
* Synonyms (such as “web page content,” “internet content,” or “writing for the web” for “website content″).
* Related terms (such as “internet,” “SEO″ or “web page”).
For many people, the SEO side of content feels like a moot point. You need to create content for your visitors even if no search engine spider ever notices. But there is a case to be made that an extra page of content is good not just for visitors but search engine spiders, too. Every website budget, both of money and time, is finite. If you’re ever choosing whether to invest in another link to please search engines or another page of content to please your visitors, don’t forget: search engines still like content, too.
About the Author
About the author: Joel Walsh is a writer and owner of UpMarket Content, a website content provider. Request a no-cost, no-obligation proposal for your website content: http://www.UpMarketContent.com/website-content [Requested anchor text: "website content"]

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Of course, the whole goal of the search engines’ ranking schemes is precisely to deliver good, relevant content to users. The mechanism for how search engines select and reward good, relevant content is essentially just a technical issue, though admittedly an extremely important technical issue.
But even in purely technical, mechanistic, terms, web content affects search engine rankings three ways:
1. inbound links
2. website mass
3. keyword optimization
1. Web Content and Inbound Links
Inbound links are the number-one factor in getting search engine rankings. They also yield plenty of traffic on their own. The importance of links is what has led many people to say that content is no longer important. But those people forget that content really does play a big role in getting links in the first place:
* At the very least, good content will make potential link partners more comfortable with linking to your site. No one wants to link to a link farm, splog, junk site, or even just an unprofessional-looking site. * Lots of good content gives other webmasters (and particularly bloggers) a reason to link to your site spontaneously without being asked.
* You can allow other websites to post your content in exchange for a link back to your site.
2. Web Content Mass
More web pages of content = more search engine traffic
Here’s why:
1. Adding pages to your site is like putting out extra nets to catch surfers. 2. Search engines see bigger websites as more prestigious and reliable. 3. The more content you have, the more reasons you give other webmasters, particularly bloggers, to link to your site spontaneously, without being asked.
3. Web Content Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization used to be the most important step in SEO. Now it matters little in ranking for highly competitive keywords.
Still, keyword optimization can really help you get traffic from searches not on competitive keywords. While you may never rank number 1 for “finance,” you may still show up tops for a search on “household finance rent federal tax deductions” if you have that phrase somewhere in your content. Such non-competitive searches make up a very large proportion of total web searches.
Web Content Keyword Optimization Checklist:
There are four legs to keyword optimization:
* Research/selection * Density * Prominence * Stemming/Variation
Keyword Research and Selection
You need to identify keywords searched on by your target audience. Use tools such as those offered by WordTracker and Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture).
There are two big pitfalls to avoid:
* “Negative keywords” that look relevant but are not really searched on by your target market. For instance, “website copy″ is a synonym for “website content,” but most people searching on “website copy″ are looking for software that copies an entire website to the hard drive for offline browsing.
* Impossibly competitive keywords that you have no realistic chance of ranking high for them. How do you know if a keyword is impossibly competitive? One rough measure is to look at the PageRank of the webpages currently ranking in the top three for that keyword. If the PageRank of those pages is much higher than the PageRank your site will likely have in the future, you will probably never outrank those pages.
A pay-per-click campaign with Google Adwords of Yahoo! Search Marketing will help you to find which keywords really are searched on by your target audience.
Keyword Density
Keywords appear in the content the right number of times for search engines to recognize the page as relevant, but not so often that it looks like keyword stuffing. The longer the content, the more times the keyword should appear.
Keyword Prominence
Keywords appear in just the right positions within your web pages for search engines to recognize them as relevant. The page title, headings, and first lines of the page are often considered the most prominent positions.
Keyword Stemming/Keyword Variation
* Using variations of the keyword will help ensure web pages appear relevant to the next generation of more sophisticated search engine algorithms.
* In the meantime, variations of popular keywords helps your site appear for the “non-standard” searches on variations of the keyword.
There are three main types of keyword variations:
* Word-stem variations. A stem of a word is its base. For instance, “optimize” is the stem of “optimized.” Other stem variations of “optimize” include “optimizing,” “optimizer,” and “optimization.” You can also shuffle the component words of multiple-word keywords. Variations of “website content” would be “web site content,” “web content,” “content for websites,” and “site content”).
* Synonyms (such as “web page content,” “internet content,” or “writing for the web” for “website content”).
* Related terms (such as “internet,” “SEO” or “web page″).
For many people, the SEO side of content feels like a moot point. You need content for your visitors even if no search engine spider ever notices. But every website budget, both of money and time, is finite. If you’re ever choosing whether to invest in another link to please search engines or another page of content to please your visitors, don’t forget: search engines still like content, too.
About the Author
Joel Walsh is a writer and owner of UpMarket Content, a website content provider. Request a no-cost, no-obligation proposal for your website content: http://www.UpMarketContent.com/website-content [Requested anchor text: "website content"]

Categories : SEO Tips // Add Comment »

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a complex and diverse topic that’s both never constant and constantly changing. There are hundreds of myths about SEO, some were once true but no longer apply (outdated information), while others were simply never true to begin with (disinformation).

The large amount of different opinions and tactics used by both Web Designers and SEO Consultants (which can be completely contrasting) has also helped to create myths. Combine this with the large number of web forums and blogs that allow people to share their views, and you have the perfect environment for not only creating myths but for them to spread like a viral epidemic. Here are some of the most common myths explained.

Myth Name: Build it and they will come

Myth Description: The belief that a website will receive large quantities of targeted traffic as soon as it goes online.

Truth: The biggest myth I still come across most days is the aptly named “build it and they will come myth”. The cause of the myth is a combination of outdated information, a non realistic, over optimistic site owner or a lack of understanding of the web. Back in the old days of the internet you could “build a site and they would come”, just by submitting to the main search engines of the day (to a degree). This was largely due to the lack of web sites around at the time, meaning top positions were that much easier to secure.

Nowadays a site must be advertised just like any business. A good analogy is your site is a shop and a search engine is a high-street. The only problem is your shop is not on the high-street, so some kind of sign is required to inform passers by where you are and what you do.

Myth Name: Search Engine Submission Myths

Myth Description: The belief that a website needs to submit every page to the search engines. The belief that regular or monthly submissions will result in better search engine rankings. The belief that a website needs to keep on submitting to search engines or they will forget about the site. The belief that if a website submits to thousands of search engines its traffic levels will go through the roof.

Truth: While some of these myths used to have a bit of truth to them, nowadays search engine submission is not required at all. The myths have been caused mainly by some companies who provide submission services. This is because it’s financially in their interest for people to believe the myths are true.

It doesn’t hurt to submit to the major search engines but indexing can be achieved faster by simply getting links to a site (as long as the page where the link is on is known to the search engines).

There is also no point at all submitting to thousands of search engines. There are only a handful of search engines that people actually use. Many of the other search engines have been created to obtain the submitters email address which is then added to email lists (which spammers will pay money for).

Myth Name: Meta Tag Optimisation

Myth Description: The belief that search engine optimisation is just about Meta tags.

Truth: Meta tags used to be very important to rankings until search engines became more complex. While some Meta tags are still important like the description and title tags which most search engines display on their result pages (so they can influence click through rates drastically). Most tags like the keyword tag are obsolete.

I believe the cause of this myth is twofold. One, because it’s outdated information (to a degree) and two, because people want to believe there’s a secret magic formula that only SEO’s know about. That way a lack of rankings is not their fault, plus it keeps the conspiracy theorists happy.

Myth Name: Black Hat & White Hat Search Engine Optimisation

Myth Description: The belief that there are two types of SEO, black hat and white hat (the old good verses evil).

Truth: Quite simple this one but nearly always over looked. Any attempt to alter the search engines results and obtain more traffic is against most search engines guidelines. While there are tactics that may get you banned and others that may not or are not widely known about (yet), they are all trying to influence the results and therefore are against the guidelines.

SEO is neither black nor white, but many shades of grey. Just try to know what you’re doing and more importantly the associated risks.

Myth Name: Google’s PageRank (PR) is the most important aspect of a sites ability to rank

Myth Description: Self explanatory this one, the belief that PR is a God like entity we must all worship in order to obtain rankings.

Truth: It is widely believed by expert SEO’s and even been stated by Google Guy (a Google employee) that the PR we see on the toolbar is out of date as soon as we get to see it. Google update PR constantly but only update the toolbar PR now and then. PR is also only one part of a complex ranking system. How big a percentage it plays in rankings, only Google knows.

One thing for sure, it doesn’t matter how good your PR is on the toolbar, it’s not going to get you anymore traffic from Yahoo or MSN (you heard it here first).

There are many more web design myths about SEO, most of which can be spotted if you read between the lines and think about whether it would make sense from a search engines perspective. One of the most important parts of SEO is finding a reliable source of information. If you want to learn more, a good place to start is one of the numerous SEO Forums on the web.

James Anderson is an SEO Consultant who works for Podium Solution, a
Manchester Web Design Company. You can find more information about
search engine optimisation on his blog, the SEO
Forum Watch.

Categories : SEO Tips // Add Comment »