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May

2004

The Value of a Keyword

Value of a Keyword
A ‘keyword’ or ‘keyword phrase’ is a word or combination of words that people type into search engines to find what they are looking for. The search engines search the Internet for webpages containing that particular keyword or keyword phrase. The pages are then ranked and scored using a mathematical formula and with the results displayed to the user as a list in order of most relevant to least relevant.

Properly utilized keywords can provide a great Return on Investment (ROI). Thus, it is very important to gauge the costs associated with marketing a keyword to its potential value to your business. Money spent on a keyword should be proportionate to its perceived value (either monetary or knowledge based) to your company. You do not need to spend a lot of money on a keyword phrase, but its value to you and your competitors is proportionate to its potential income. Some companies generate large amounts of revenue from specific keywords.

Determining the value of a keyword ahead of time is very difficult, and its value will change as your markets and competitors change. A quick guide would be to take the average bid of the top 5-listings on Overture or Google Adwords. These are a good starting point since both are very popular and a higher percentage of businesses make money by using them. There are also tools available that can you can use to get a more accurate gauge for the value of a keyword but most of these can only be utilized once you have some listings for your keywords.

The following formula can be used as a guide to calculating keyword value:
((estimated number searches per month) X (average cost per click on Overture) X (average click potential percentage)) = (keyword value for 1-month) Unfortunately, there are a number of flaws with this calculation as the first 3-variables are estimations/ judgments. Nonetheless, it can be used to compare one keyword against another to gain a grasp of its worth.

Profits and Visitors
Increasing the number of visitors does not guarantee increased sales. Thus, getting high rankings based on generic keywords may not actually be beneficial to a business. Keywords need to be specific to your business so that the right customers are directed to your website. Generic keywords deliver a higher level of value to certain businesses and much less to others. For example, a search for “community college” would result in higher keyword value for colleges that have campuses all over the US or offers on-line courses than for a local college in say, Grand Rapids, Iowa or any other local college. The reason is simple; very few people living outside of the local college’s specific region will actually be looking to attend there.

In the above example, the keyword phrase “community college Grand Rapids” would hold a much greater value for the college because it is more focused and directed towards the people who are mostly likely to attend the college. This becomes apparent when you look at the actual conversion rates of visitors to the website. The rates will show that the greatest numbers of conversions were for the people who lived in and around the Grand Rapids area. As such, the college stands to reap greater profit from the targeted keyword than from the generic one. Hence, it is very important to look at the value a keyword holds for your business than just the number of people searching for it.

This is what the numbers look like if we apply the previously mentioned formula to the case of the above college. Say there were 13,956 searches for “grand rapid community colleges” on Overture with an average bid of $0.10 per-click. Its calculation would be (13,956 X $0.10 X 5% = $69.78 per-month). For “community colleges” there were 80,244 searches on Overture with an average bid of $0.85 per-click. Its calculation would be (80,244 X $0.85 X 5% = $3,410.37 per-month). Now, that value looks ridiculously high! Could it possibly be worth that much? That’s difficult to say, but it could be -to the right business.

When you consider that there are hundreds of colleges in the US, it is easy to understand that the conversion rate for the keyword phrase “community college” is going to be fairly low while its marketing cost is going to be much higher. On the other hand “grand rapid community college” is very targeted making its conversion rate much higher and its marketing cost much lower. Therefore, it would cost less to promote the targeted keyword, and at the same time get better conversion rates than using a generic keyword.

Keyword Relevancy Is The Key!
Promoting the right keywords is essential to attaining a good ROI. Finding the right keywords to promote requires research, and the development of proper content to support them. Once again there are tools available to help do your research but there coming up with the good content is up to you. Or you could work with a search engine optimization (SEO) firm that can work with you to develop a SEO strategy for your business. Promoting specific and relevant keywords allows businesses to promote more keywords and make more profit and that�s why the value of a keyword is something that should not be taken lightly.

Author Name: Chris Genge
Company: 1st on the List Promotion Inc

Author Bio:
Chris Genge is the President of 1st on the List Promotion Inc, a professional website promotion firm. He writes on current and emerging search engine marketing theories. Chris has been involved in the SEO industry since its very early days, and has since 1997, focused on researching and implementing the most effective search engine optimization techniques.

May

2004

A Network Of Web Sites Is Not Enough!

A Network Of Web Sites Is Not Enough!
The big thing these days is your ability to capture the market. So how do you do that?

Do you…

1) Use spam tactics?
2) Have a massive banner campaign?
3) Spends lots of money of PPC Advertising?
4) Build a huge web site?
5) Link to everyone in the world?

or do you…

6) Own a network of more than one web site? – Thinking that your network will help your search engine rankings since you can control your own link popularity!

#6 is starting to be the norm out there. Companies are just consuming a mass amount of domain names in order to increase their chances of being found online.

But does it really increase their chances? Let’s see…

Since recently, Google has been crawling through “DNS”information in order to sniff out who owns what. So for instance, if you own 20 web sites, google will find that out by the information you have on all the registered domains.

Given that you own these 20 web sites, doesn’t that give you the ability to create your own high page ranking, link popularity building campaign? Answer is yes, so what happens from that? Absolutely nothing. Nothing happens to increase your rankings I mean.

For instance, let’s say you are trying to build everything off of one mainly large web site of yours. Let’s also say that you intend to link to site #2 for this key phrase “Boosting Rankings”. You’ve done a lot of work to add that title and link pointing to site #2 on all of your pages within your one, main, larger site. Here’s what happens to your rankings for both of them.

It is known now that google has come up with this “Sandbox” effect. This is simply known as keeping an eye on certain network of web sites and the targeted key phrases they are after.

So your site #1 isn’t the target of this sandbox effect, it’s your smaller, networked web site that is. Instead of getting any type of rank for the phrase “Boosting Ranking”, this site is added to a pool of web sites that are doing the same thing. The catch is that this “pool” is nowhere to be found, unless you know how to look for it.

On the other hand, your main, large web site will now take over the ranking for “Boosting Ranking” and will probably do pretty good within a search!!!

So does owning a network really help you? NO, not unless you know how to better your “smaller”, network web sites so that they don’t get caught in this “Sandbox Effect”.

So how do you do that?

Simple, instead of relying on your network to boost your page ranking, outsource some of that strategy elsewhere. See, “Google” is only saying, if we don’t do this to your network, then it gives you the sole ability to control your search engine rankings for all your sites. We are merely stating that we know you have a network and worked really hard to build it but we also want you to promote other peoples sites as well.

It’s that simple. If you start today and keep building more links on other peoples web sites with your network, your entire network should see a big difference within 30 days of starting.

I hope this article helps you out!

Author Bio:
Martin R. Lemieux Smartads – President Affordable Web Site Design & Web Site Marketing Web Site Awards & Webmasters Playground Food for your mind & Entrepreneur Traits Read over 200 articles on advertising!

May

2004

Building A Mailing List

Building A Mailing List
In most every business building a loyal client base is important to the overall success of your business. Internet marketing is no exception. In order to build your client list you need to capture email addresses from prospects that either sign up to receive your newsletter or buy a product or service from your website.

One of the most important elements of building your mailing list is that you build a trust relationship with your prospect. According to The National Sales Executive Association 80% of sales are made after the 5th contact with a potential client or customer. So this should tell you that you need to have quality content in your newsletter so the prospect will stick around to receive your newsletter past the 5th attempt. Another good thing about building your mailing list is that you can notify your prospects about up coming events or special offers you may be working on or know would be of interest to the prospect.

Let�s examine some of the different ways in which you may be able to build your mailing list.

Pop Up Ads
If you have surfed the web for anything you have undoubtedly found a site or two that use pop up ads to promote various ideas and opportunities. Most internet marketers use pop ups to capture prospects emails for there newsletters or promotions. Recently, a new type of pop up is being used, it�s called a pop over or hover ad that just appears on your site and will not be blocked by various pop up blockers that are installed in the google toolbar and the like.

These type of ads are very good for promoting your newsletter. The prospect signs up using there name and email address and are automatically add to your autoresponder.

Website Forms
If for whatever reason you do not want to use a pop up ad you can create a subscription form on your website that will accomplish the same purpose. Write up an ad that promotes your newsletter and the benefit to your prospect and give them the opportunity to sign up that way. Using subscription forms and pop ups are great if you have a lot of targeted traffic to your website.

Lead Services
Lead and subscription services offer you the opportunity to get a prospects name and email address. These are usually people looking to start a home business. You write an ad about your newsletter, advertise it with the subscription service and prospects sign up to receive it. There are plenty of companies that offer these types of services for various amounts of money. You buy a certain amount of prospects each month and they get delivered to your autoresponder where you have your newsletter. I would suggest trying as many of these services as possible. It is to hard to say which company offers the best leads, so using multiple companies will at the very least build your mailing list.

E-Zine Ads
You may want to place ads in other peoples newsletters or e-zines. Depending on the number of subscribers prices range from $10.00 to over $100.00. Once again you write an ad about the benefits of your newsletter and submit it to an e-zine owner. You may be able to get your ad for free if you make a joint venture with an e-zine owner and swap ads.

These are just some of the ways you can use to build up you mailing list. However, none of these methods will work unless you offer a newsletter with unique content that a potential client will want to read.

Good luck!

Author Bio:
Dirk Wagner is CEO and owner of http://team4success.biz and the free, easy to install #1 home business toolbar with automated updates.A website dedicated to helping the home-based business entrepreneur start and succeed with there very own home-based business.

May

2004

Writing For The Internet

Writing For The Internet
Writing for the Internet, whether you call it e-copy, web copy, web text, or website content� is essentially a craft.

Ordinary Writing With A Job To Do
Most websites contain text copy written primarily for the benefit of the visitor. Websites however, really have two very different audiences: people and search engine-indexing spiders. Both require a different style of writing and yet both need to be addressed by the writing. While this may be best left to the talents of a professional web content writer, for now I will explore some basic rules that technical writers use for crafting their writing to serve both.

If it means business, then your writing should attempt to grab the reader’s attention quickly and it must be engaging enough to keep them reading until you have successfully led them take some form of action.

Writing For The Two Audiences
In reality, it is perhaps more important that your website copy satisfy the needs of the search engines. After all, in order to become visible to your second audience (the visitor) your website must first receive adequate ranking by your first audience (the search engines) and be listed near the top of the listing results� preferably within the first two pages.

Let’s first consider your website’s second audience, the visitor.
Most website visitors come looking for something specific and they want it fast so your website better deliver.

Writers must clarify their goals and understand the purpose of the website. The site’s “unique selling proposition” or USP, must be in line with the visitor’s purpose for being there. Writers must know the type of person being targeted and then write in a conversational style that is simple and direct.

Concise Writing & Clear Headings Help Visitors We tend to read differently from computer screens than from other offline print mediums. Basically we don’t read� we skim read, ignoring details to better our reading speed. For this reason website text content must be more objective, more concise and easier to browse through. The message must be written so it can be easily scanned.

Every word on the page must fight for its rightful place and stay true to that old adage “less is more.” The opening statement must first solve the visitor’s problem. The body of the page should then list the benefits, not the features.

Writers ask how the product or company features translate into customer benefits. What are the benefits for the visitor is choosing this product or service? Navigating through web page content must also be intuitive for the visitor. What works best are proven layout formats and conventions that most visitors easily understand.

Closing statements must offer an effortless “call to action” using the easiest, most direct route for the visitor to take, to get what they came for. The call to action must be clear-cut with rewards that are irresistible and reaffirms for the visitor why this is something they need.

Satisfy Your Site’s First Audience�The Search Engines For most, this is a hidden problem when it comes to crafting their writing. What the search engines want is completely different from what visitors are looking for.

Search engine indexing spiders work primarily with text, visible HTML text that is. They simply cannot read flash, JavaScript, graphical text, etc. Your web page text copy must therefore be placed within the html coding so that it is more accessible to the search engine spiders, more “search engine friendly” if you will. But just as text copy must be properly placed within the html coding in order conform to the needs of the search engines, the writing itself, also needs to be “search engine friendly”.

The writing needs to be keyword rich with relevant content that supports the keyword phrases being targeted within the page. When a searcher types in a “keyword phrase” the search engine tries to match up web pages in the order that it thinks is the most relevant to the searcher’s request. Essentially, the search engine scans through its database looking for web pages that contain the keywords used by the searcher. Using an algorithm (a mathematical formula based on hundreds of pre-set criteria) it then ranks the web pages from those deemed most relevant to those deemed least relevant.

Web page copy must therefore be written to satisfy the “keyword criteria” needs of the search engines in order to be ranked at the top of the listing results. Web pages that consistently maintain high rankings are usually constructed with excellent keyword rich html text on static pages.

“Search Engine Friendly” Copy -Giving Search Engines What They Want Professional web content writers understand this and write keyword rich text content that satisfies the needs of the search engines while still being valid for the visitor.

Once they research and understand what phrases visitors are using to find what a site is offering, they choose their keyword phrases carefully. Each page is then written to be content rich around a theme that supports a main targeted keyword. Inevitably writers will use variations of a keyword phrase (or other less compelling keyword phrases that relate to a particular theme) and work them into the copy as well.

Search engines look at a variety of criteria as they relate to keyword phrases including keyword frequency, weight, prominence, proximity and placement within the text and within the html. While each search engine has its own criteria there are a few accepted norms for keyword placement within the text content and within the html coding. It is the writers’ responsibility to understand and utilize these norms.

Spam techniques like hidden layers or hidden text should be avoided to protect your site from being penalized or banned all together. While individual pages should contain unique content they still must work to support the targeted keyword phrases throughout the site.

Conclusion
Use Writing That Makes Both People And Search Engines Happy Writing for the Internet is a craft that has its own style and set of rules and peculiarities� especially, when it is trying to address both people and search engines. As such, it is imperative that your content be well written/ crafted to satisfy these two distinctly different audiences.

Remember, before it can convert visitors into clients, your website must first satisfy the needs of its first audience, the search engines, and achieve top rankings with them so that it can become more visible to your second audience, the searcher� your customer.

Author Bio:
Chris Genge is the President of 1st on the List Promotion Inc, a professional website promotion firm. He writes on current and emerging search engine marketing theories. Chris has been involved in the SEO industry since its very early days, and has since 1997, focused on researching and implementing the most effective search engine optimization techniques.

May

2004

Do Static IP Sites Rank Higher?

Do Static IP Sites Rank Higher than Sites With Dynamic IPs?
This is a hotly debated topic. Some SEOs claim that sites with a static IP address rank higher while other SEOs claim that shared hosting is just fine… that it would be stupid for search engines to penalize shared hosting since we are running out of IP addresses and so many sites are currently using name based hosting.

First, let’s define what we are talking about when we say “static IP” vs “name based” hosting. Here are some synonyms:

For “static hosting”, the following all mean the same thing: static IP, dedicated IP, http/1.0, non-shared hosting. For “dynamic hosting”, the following all mean the same thing: dynamic IP, name based hosting, http/1.1.

Let’s take a brief history of the Internet to put things more in focus. Once upon a time, every host on the Internet had a unique IP address. It is usually expressed as 4 numbers from 0-255 separated by dots. An example would be 207.44.161.131. There are billions of such IP addresses possible… however, there is a finite number.

An organization called ARIN hands out IP addresses in the western hemisphere while another organization handles Europe and another Asia. Those organizations noticed several years ago that we were going to eventually run out of those IP addresses because of the proliferation of web-sites. At the time, every website had it’s own dedicated IP address that was associated with it’s domain name.

The solution? A new protocol was developed called HTTP 1.1 (to replace HTTP 1.0). The new protocol allowed more than one domain/website to share the same IP address. In fact, hundreds of websites can now share the same IP address.
The new type of hosting is called “name based”, “shared IP”, “http 1.1”, etc.

Some SEOs theorize that your choice of dedicated hosting vs. shared hosting might affect your rankings. Some others claim that is ridiculous because all hosting will eventually be shared in order to preserve IP addresses.
Which are correct?

I decided to run it through our statistical analysis engine to get the facts. Here is the methodology I used to answer this question. I gathered the results of the queries naturally performed last month by myself and three associates using Yahoo and Google. I then pinged each site to get it’s IP address. I then tried to visit the site using the IP address. With shared hosting, this isn’t possible. You get some kind of generic page instead of the specific site you want. I tallied my results for each of the first eight rankings.

On the Y-axis, you will see the number of sites found that use a static IP (do not use shared/name based hosting). On the X-axis, we have rankings from 1 to 8. Here is the graph showing Yahoo and Google results:

First, it is interesting to note that the number of sites using shared vs. dedicated hosting is just about half and half. We expect that as time goes on, more and more sites will be using shared hosting.

The second thing to note is that there is no trend for either Yahoo or Google that would indicate any preference for either type of site. Google might show a slight preference for static IP. Yahoo might show a slight preference for shared hosting. The net effect is null. The correlations for both are very close to zero (on a scale of -100 to +100, Google’s correlation was a +35 and Yahoo’s was a -21). I generally consider anything from -35 to +35 to be statistically insignificant.

Do you use dedicated hosting in order to improve your rankings? Don’t bother. There isn’t any advantage in this factor. Often dedicated hosting is more expensive than static IP hosting… so save your money and invest it in other factors that do affect your ranking!

Notes:

1. Over 1,000 queries and over 10,000 sites were examined for this study.

2. There was no exercise to attempt to isolate different keywords. I merely took a random sampling of the queries performed by myself and three associates during the prior month.

Conclusion:

Sites using static hosting do not rank significantly higher or lower than sites using shared hosting on both Yahoo and Google.

This is merely a correlation study, so it cannot be determined from this study whether the leading search engines purposefully entertain this factor or not. The actual factors used may be far distant from the factor we studied, but the end result is that both of these search engines do, in fact, rank pages with a “window.open” command higher on average.

Author:
Jon Ricerca

May

2004

Using Google

Using Google
Thanks to a unique algorithm that produces most relevant results to any given query, Google has become, indisputably, the best search engine on the Internet. On the last count, Google has indexed over 4 billion pages and tackles around 200 million searches a day! A cluster of 100 thousand servers are used to store, crunch and spew out the query results with lightning speed that you are so accustomed to see.

This phenomenal growth has made Google from a garage startup to an Internet behemoth faster than any company has done before. The prodigies behind this unique search engine, Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the process already got enlisted themselves in billionaire club.

Google is no longer a mere search engine! It is increasingly broadening its offerings to include great new services and excellent tools. Among these services, most notables are News
– a news aggregation and searching service, Blogger
– an online journal-keeping solution, Froogle
– a marketplace for comparison shopping, Groups
– online discussion groups, Answers
– a place to get hard-to-find information for a price, etc.

Google also recently unveiled two more programs. Orkut – a social networking service and Gmail – a free web mail service. Orkut is an online community, where a person can participate in it by invitation from a member only.

If you constantly frown over limited space of your hotmail or Yahoo accounts because they get filled up with junk mails and force you to delete old messages frequently, you will love Gmail with its 1 GB of storage capacity. There are several great features available in Gmail system too. One of them, dubbed as Conversations, allow you to view all exchange mails with somebody, once you select one of the mails. Sorting and searching emails also become much easier with Gmail. The only catch is Gmail displays relevant ads – based on the keywords found in your email – on the right side of the screen when you view an email, much like Google displays ads when you view search results.

Although, Google is constantly adding new and extremely useful features, most of us unfortunately do not use all the capacities of the search engine itself. The following tips will make your Internet browsing more effective if even you are an avid net user.

Choose most specific search words
Google returns web pages that contain all the words in your query. If you would like to see the most relevant pages on the first page of your search result, be very specific with your choice of words. For example: if you would like to research on former NHL hockey player Makarov, you should start your search with Makarov not hockey player. Even better if you search for the words: hockey player Makarov. Because just the word Makarov will show web pages on “Makarov” a Russian-made handgun and numerous other people and products with the name Makarov. Refining your query in Google means adding more specific words to your initial search. In this example you will hit the right web pages if your search contains: NHL hockey player Makarov.

Sets – a new feature
What if you are looking for a pair of Valentino designer jeans but can’t recall the name of the designer? Query on Italian designer jeans may bring you the right result; however, there is a better tool that Google is planning to implement soon, called “Sets”.

Fill up the names of some designers that you remember in the given form such as Levis, Wrangler, Versace and click either of the two buttons and voila! You will get a list of designers name and probably, Valentino will be there. But bear in mind that this feature is still at Beta stage.

Calculator
The other day, I was sitting in a colleague’s office. She needed to calculate some basic stuffs and looking for her calculator on her desk. Much to her dismay, she could not find the calculator and started to fumble through her computer programs in her attempt to find Microsoft calculator. I noticed that she was online and the browser was open. I, politely, asked her whether she knew that Google could actually calculate most common mathematical expressions. It came out to be, she did not! She was just amazed after trying it herself. Google is even capable of unit conversion!

Give it a try!

Definition
If you are looking for a definition of a particular word or a phrase, Google is the best place to get it. In Google search box, write “define: the word or phrase” without the quotation marks and click search button. If there is a definition available for your search term you will, most certainly, get it. It’s a very useful feature for students and people, those who write research papers.

Synonyms
You may think that search engines are too dumb to show query results of the synonyms of your search term. It’s not so! At least, in the case of Google! If you use tilde “~” in front of a keyword in your search term, Google will bring results on the synonyms of that word as well.

Searching within a website
Another great feature of Google search engine allows you to make your query within a specific website. First you write your search term in the Google search box and then write “site: the website or domain name”. For example: if you are looking for word “Microsoft” within the website www.micromedia.com you will write: Microsoft site: micromedia.com.

Check backward links to your website
If you have a website, Google search engine also has a nice feature to show you which web pages are linking to yours. In the search box, write: Link: you website address.

Other important tips to remember
There is no need to use “AND”. Google always relate all the words in a search term with Boolean “and”.

However, if you would like to make your query for two words – one or another – you can use “OR”. You have to write “or” in capital letters to give it Boolean value.

Google is not case sensitive. You can write your search terms either in capital or in small letters. You can even mix them up.

Google omits most of the very common words, such as the, in, etc. If you, indeed, need to add a specific word forcefully, use plus (+) sign in front of that particular word. Same way, you can exclude a word from your search expression by putting minus (-) sign in front it.

If you would like to make a search on an exact phrase or expression, put the words within quotation marks. That way, your search result will show only those pages where the exact expression was found. In order to search the phrase: For whom the bell tolls, write “For whom the bell tolls” in the search box.

I’ll also suggest you to download the Google Toolbar. Apart from the search box and its ability to block pop-ups, Google Toolbar also shows the pagerank of the website you are visiting now. Pagerank is a system of evaluating web pages – developed by Google founders and used as the core of Google’s search engine algorithm. The Toolbar also includes feature with the ability to fill up online forms from stored information automatically. You can also keep your daily journal or blog right from the toolbar.

Summary
Much to net users delight, Google, in accordance with its ambitious mission statement to organize world’s information and make it universally useful and accessible, so far doing a great job by providing us the best search engine and extremely handy features and services. We can only hope that the flow of innovative ideas from Google will not slow down in future, when it becomes a public company.

Author Bio:
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact him at nowshade@rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com.

May

2004

Optimizing Pages with JavaScript and Style Sheets for Search Engines

Background
Search Engines use a number of criteria to decide what a given web page is all about. These criteria, which can be different from Search Engine to Search Engine, and which may even change over time, all aim at deciding how “relevant” a page is to a given user’s search. The Search Engine wants to return the results most relevant to a user’s search.

While the particulars may change over time, there are some criteria which remain constant. One of these is where the keywords are located on the page. Typically words that are located closer to the beginning of a page are considered more important than words that occur further down the page. This stands to reason:
think of a newspaper article, where the headline and the first paragraph usually have more “meat” than the rest of the story.

Another measure of relevance is “keyword density”. This is roughly the ratio of keywords on a page to the total number of words on a page. Having a higher ratio of keywords to total words will make a page more relevant for a search on those keywords.

When a Search Engine sends its robot out to look at your page, you want to make sure that it finds important information near the top of the web page, and that the page has a high keyword density. Sometimes there are complications, even when you have a lot of keyword-rich text early in the visible portion of your page. Two of these complications, extensive JavaScript code and extensive Cascading Style Sheet code, can be easily remedied.

JavaScript problem
Large amounts of JavaScript code can get in the way. Typically the largest amount of JavaScript code in a web page is found in the HEAD section. This is usually where variables and functions are defined, and so forth. Unfortunately, having a large amount of JavaScript code in a page can be detrimental to a page’s ranking in the Search Engines.

Since Search Engines tend to pay more attention to text at the beginning of a web page than they do to text further from the beginning, it stands to reason that if you have several dozen lines of JavaScript code at the top of the page, your real content is going to be further from the beginning of the page. Further down the page means less important to the Search Engine.

Keyword density is also important. Here again, if you have several hundred words of JavaScript code in a page, the keyword density�the ratio of your keywords to all the words in the whole page, both text and code�is going to be much lower. That means that some Search Engines will decide that your page is less relevant.

JavaScript solution
So how do you maintain JavaScript functionality, but make your page as Search Engine-friendly as possible? You put the JavaScript code into a separate file, and link it back to the web page.

The original page, “mypage.html”, may look something like this.

function helloWorld(){
alert(“Hello, World!”);
return;
}

…body of page…

Example 1–mypage.html with JavaScript code

We replace the JavaScript code with an instruction for the browser to go and grab the code from a separate file. The new page will look like this.

…body of page…

Example 2–mypage.html with JavaScript code offloaded

Note the addition of the “src” attribute to the SCRIPT tag. The value assigned to that attribute is the name of the external file that contains the JavaScript code. Typically, these external files will be given the filename extension “.js”
to indicate that they contain JavaScript code. Note also that there are both tags here, even though there is nothing between those tags.

A new page is then created that holds the code that was formerly held in the SCRIPT tags. We will call it “codepage.js”, and it looks like this.

function helloWorld(){
alert(“Hello, World!”);
return;
}

Example 3–codepage.js includes only JavaScript code

This new file doesn’t need any kind of HTML markup. It contains only the code that was originally held between the SCRIPT tags.

Style Sheet problem
In addition to JavaScript code, Style Sheet code can cause complications for Search Engines when it is put into a web page. For the same reasons as JavaScript–moving the important content further down the page, and diluting the keyword density–it is important to move Style Sheet code off of the page as well.

Style Sheet solution
The thought behind removing Style Sheet information from a page is very similar to that of offloading JavaScript; the syntax to do so is different.

The original page, “mypage.html”, may look something like this.

body{
background:white;
color:red;
}

…body of page…

Example 4–mypage.html with style sheet code

We want to move this code into a separate file, so we remove it from the
original page, and add a link to point to the separate file that now holds
the Style Sheet code.

…body of page…

Example 5–mypage.html with Style Sheet code offloaded

Note the addition of the LINK tag. This contains three types of information that the browser will need to reconstruct the page when a visitor looks at it. The “rel=’stylesheet'” attribute/value pair indicates that we are looking at a Style Sheet file here. The “href=’style.css'” attribute/value pair points to the external file that contains the Style Sheet information. Typically these external files will be given the filename extension “.css” to indicate that they contain Cascading Style Sheet code. You will replace the filename “style.css” with the name of the actual file into which you place your stylesheet code. Finally, we have to specify the MIME type of the file, in the “type=’text/css'” attribute/value pair.

A new page is then created that holds the code that was formerly held in the STYLE tags. We will call it “style.css”, and it looks like this.

body{
background:white;
color:red;
}

Example 6–style.css includes only Style Sheet code

This new file doesn’t need any kind of HTML markup. It contains only the code that was originally held between the STYLE tags.

Conclusion
By following these two procedures, you have now made your web page more friendly to the Search Engines. This means that the next time your page is spidered by the Search Engine robots, the important content on your page will be closer to the top of the page, and you will have a better keyword density. This will result in your page appearing higher in the Search Engine listings, and will probably bring more traffic to your website.

Author Bio:
Dale Goetsch is the Technical Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Promotion company serving small businesses and non-profits. He has over twelve years experience in software development. Along with programming in Perl, JavaScript, ASP and VB, he is a technical writer and editor, with an emphasis on making technical subjects accessible to non-technical readers.

May

2004

You Had Me At the Search Engine

You Had Me At the Search Engine
You’ve likely heard of the movie, Jerry Maguire, with its famous line, “You had me at hello.” Jerry Maguire was luckier than web sites we find in search engines. Many web sites don’t attract user devotion at the first word, let alone after scanning the home page.

How many times has this scenario happened to you? You’ve performed a search in a search engine or directory, reviewed the results and found a page description that fits your needs. When you click on the page that looks the most promising, you often arrive at the web site’s home page, where one or more things might happen:

1. The page loads slowly due to too many graphics, dynamic applications or scripts.

2. There are terms used on the page that you don’t understand.

3. It promotes products or services that were not mentioned in the page description from the search engine.

4. The products or services are unrelated to your search.

5. The page is “amateurish” in appearance and you’re not feeling confident about things like customer service, user privacy and security, experience with the product, or other credibility issues.

6. The page is so busy you don’t know where to go to next, or distractions caused you to forget your original mission.

7. Something has turned you off, such as swimsuit models that don’t look like you do, corporate images of businessmen, not women, or multiple animated things.

8. An invasive advertisement appeared that you had to click away so you could read the content underneath it.

9. The page loads but your scumware radar starts beeping like crazy or popup and security alerts appear.

10. You need a magnifying glass to read the content.

If a keyword search brings back an inside page, more common frustrations occur to drive people away from the web site.
They include:

1. There is no navigation to the rest of the web site.

2. There is navigation, but no visible, easy-to-locate link to the main home page or main web site.

3. A link “home” is offered, but sub-navigation is missing, so that the user must start at the beginning to figure out where they landed inside the web site.

4. Link labels do not explain what the web site is about, so the visitor may not be inspired to click around.

5. There is no suggested click path to follow. For example, if the page happens to be an article, it might be useful to say “Did you find this article helpful? Here are more articles that may interest you.”

We often forget that search engines index more than our home page. People often stumble into our web sites while searching for other things, linking from another web site, or receiving an email link from a friend. The starting place isn’t always home base.

So, how do you make a web site page approachable in a crowded room of search engine results? First, make sure your title tag is accurate. Every page requires a title tag unique to the content it represents. The home page is an overview page, so focus on the main goal, which is often also your primary keyword(s).

Next, write a genuine, honest description that isn’t all hype and glorified self-worship about your great website. If the site is going to sell something, what does it sell? Does it specialize? Avoid words like “unique”, “amazing”, and “special” because, frankly, everybody makes these claims.

It’s important to not “stuff” keywords in your title and description tags because these are displayed in search engines as your site or page description. When read by humans, they don’t make sense. People are getting wiser. They know that you are trying to get higher rank but it doesn’t mean your web site is any better in quality that those lower in search results.

Regardless of where the page is in your site, there are lots of ways to attract attention or generate curiosity so that your visitor becomes a potential customer, or least finds the content interesting enough to keep browsing around. My favorite part of discount stores are the displays where they toss clearance items, or the impulse “Oh yes, I forgot I needed that”-type items. You can do the same thing with your web site. Simply place the toenail clippers, scotch tape and calling cards out front where they’re easily seen. In other words, remind your visitors you carry the items they didn’t know they needed.

Here are some other ideas to try:

1. Provide a good reason to enter your site. Don’t expect anyone to take your word for anything. Offer incentives.

2. Put a visible text link to your sitemap on every page. Even your local shopping mall has a map with a “You Are Here” pointer.

3. Be forthcoming and descriptive with pictures. If you sell shoes, show the tread. If you design and make your own crafts, show close-ups of the detail and workmanship. The sunglasses line you offer is likely filled with brand name shades, but what types of faces will they complement? I have a difficult time buying artwork online because I can’t visualize the dimensions in my head. A picture of a framed version, hanging in a room with furniture, will help me understand what I’m trying to purchase. In a virtual world, you must go to great lengths to sell things people can’t touch or see in use.

4. Place words like “sale”, “getting started”, “first-time user”, “learn more”, “try now”, “buy now”, “free”, “download”, “we deliver” and “free shipping” on your pages, above the page “fold”.

5. On your home page, provide an introduction and suggestions for where your visitors might like to go next, based on their needs.

6. Search engines can only bring a visitor to your doorstep. It’s your job to grab them by the hand, invite them inside and show it off.

Author Bio:
Written by Kimberly Krause Cre8pc Edited by Jill Whalen of HighRankings.com

May

2004

Link to get traffic – Not search engine rankings!

Link to get traffic – Not search engine rankings!
There have been a lot of changes on the web since I wrote the first edition of “Power Linking Your Way to 1 Million Hits” in 2002. Back then I told everyone that the only thing that will never change, despite search engine shake-ups and search technology improvements, is that links will always be the most important part of any website promotion campaign.

In fact, the people best able to withstand major changes and shifts in the search engines that affect their rankings are the people who have a broad, multi-faceted marketing campaign.

In order to weather any drops from single-sources of traffic to your site, you must have a lot of irons in the fire (links). People you have targeted as your best prospects should be able to find your site virtually everywhere they surf.

Web site owners who rely solely on search engine ranking are leaving 90% of the marketing pie on the plate! For long-term stability and steady, predictable traffic, you simply must broaden your reach and utilize a host of different publicity tactics in order to keep sales up.

One of the most effective tactics I talk about is article publishing. It is also one of the most misunderstood and abused tactics I teach. If you don’t get it, don’t do it. Below is my explanation of why we write articles and other short publications in the first place.

Publishing and Syndication of Your Articles, a lot of people miss the boat on this one and it’s too bad that many people see that articles and other published works are important, but they don’t produce quality work, therefore their work doesn’t get picked up by big web sites and newsletter owners.

You see, most people focus on article publishing as a way to get a link published to their site. (Solely for search engines to find) Problem is, once they have syndicated their article to tons of free content sites, all they have at the end of the day is a link pointing to their site.

No one is READING the articles! Why? Because, honestly, they are terrible. Or they are just short of being blatant ads. People pick up on an amateur article within the first sentence or two and move on. Didn’t you write your article to get traffic?

Produce shoddy work and there is no click on the link. There is no traffic produced. The webmasters who focus totally on getting links as a tool to increase their pagerank in Google are missing the point entirely.

The point of Power Linking and all the tactics in the system was never to get high search engine rankings. Getting ranked well in the search engines was and still is a BY-PRODUCT of a properly executed Power Linking campaign.

When I talk to my clients about getting links, what I am talking about is getting links placed in places where human beings will see them and click on them. Not just link directories which are created solely for boosting link popularity with Google.

So when you publish an article, take the time to think about what people in your market need or want to know and give it to them. And write a GOOD article!

Linking is not just something that looks like this: www.power-linking-profits.com. Real linking is networking and making connections with future customers on an emotional level through your publicity pieces.

Linking is about respect. You gain respect by being published and being seen as the expert in your field. And it goes without saying that your published work needs to stand up to basic quality expectations of savvy readers in your target market.

Come off looking like a hack who is only interested in getting a link published at the end of their cruddy article, and you lose all respect. So even if someone does click on your link, they have reservations about you right off the bat before they even get to your site. This is no way to sell products and services.

If you remember nothing else, please remember this: No matter what linking method you work on this week, keep in mind that the most important links of all are the links intended for real people to see and click on!

Get linked in content directories and on web pages that get hit by as many of your target prospects as possible. And link to get traffic, not search engine rankings!

People focus too much on search engine marketing. If you do your job as a marketer, you will naturally rank high in the search engines. There is no need whatsoever to focus your marketing campaign on search engines entirely.

Focus your marketing efforts on people, your customers, and you will have what I call “Natural Search Engine Rankings.” You see, Google wants the most relevant results. That’s where their bread is buttered. Well, what I have been trying to teach thousands of customers all this time is that you need to focus your marketing campaign on your customers so that you are the MOST relevant site on the net in your market.

Don’t worry about Google. They WANT you to be #1 if you deserve to be. How to be #1? By marketing to your customers directly on sites they surf the most and being the natural relevant result in their search.

Good search engine rankings will follow a great marketing campaign. By the time you get your #1 position on Yahoo though, you should have so much traffic and sales because of a properly implemented marketing campaign that you hardly notice you finally made it!

That’s the REAL power of linking.

Author Bio:
Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2: Evolution, now in it’s 4th revision at http://power-linking-profits.com. He is also the CEO of http://EquipMint.com, a membership site for anyone who sells anything online.

May

2004