17 Highly Effective Strategies to Increase Search Engine Rankings

Search engines are still one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your web site. This is because it is highly targeted traffic. A person searching for a particular phrase on a search engine, gets taken to your web site.

It makes sense then, to make your site as attractive as possible to the search engines, so your rankings will improve, giving you more visitors which leads to more sales - your ultimate goal.

Here are 17 powerful strategies you should implement, to substantially increase search engine traffic:

1. Keyword Density -

the ratio of keywords on your visible page to non-keywords is called Keyword Density. i.e. if you have 100 words on your page and 3 of those words are "boat" or "boats", then you will get a keyword density of 3% of your text for the word "boat".

Try to aim for a keyword density on your site from 3-20%. This will give you a good range. You can analyze your keyword density by using these online tools:

http://www.KeywordDensity.com http://www.KeywordCount.com

2. Keywords in your domain name -
try to incorporate one of your keywords or a keyword phrase in your domain name. i.e. http://www.isitebuild.com (building web sites) or http://www.ihost-websites.com (hosting web sites). This may also help people to memorize your name when they are looking for this service.

3. Page Title -

write a short descriptive title of 5-8 words for your web site, containing your primary keywords or keyword phrase.

The page title is the first thing that people see when your site appears in the search engines. Begin your title with a capital letter, then follow with lower-case letters. This makes it easier to read than titles with all words capitalized. Place your most important keyword phrase toward the beginning of your title tag.

4. Description Meta Tag -

some search engines will include this below your title. Choose 20 of your most important keywords and write a 200-250 character sentence about your site. Don't repeat your title description but write a different one with different keywords. Some search engines will just take this description meta tag, some will use both the title and description tags.

5. Keywords Meta Tag -

research 50-100 keywords people would insert in the search engines to find your site. A great tool for doing this is the keyword suggestion tool or Wordtracker. Refine this list to your 20 best keywords or keyword phrases.

Leave out the commas between your keywords, so the search engines can group the words into any phrases that seem appropriate. This positions your words for minimum space with maximum combinations.

6. Header tags -

search engines tend to place emphasis on the header tags so make sure you have your H1 tag at the top of your web page. Use CSS (cascading style sheets) to avoid the problem of your text appearing too large when just using html for this tag.

Use the other header tags (H2, H3, H4) throughout your web copy.

7. Comment Tags -

these are mostly used by web designers to remind them of how to structure web pages. Write a sentence using some of your most important keywords, place it in a comment tag and insert the comment tag in your body copy.

8. Use the ALT Tag for Images -

some people surf the Web with the graphics turned off. Placing ALT tags in the html code for your images enables them to see the description of that image.

Incorporate keywords in the alt tag of your images. WARNING: Make sure the words relate to the graphic, otherwise you could get banned for "keyword stuffing".

9. Image File Names -

change your image file names to your keywords.

10. Page Link Names -

place a primary keyword in your page link names. Rather than using a link in your navigation bar like "services", add a keyword to that page link. If you offer web hosting services, it could be "webhostingservices.htm"

Also use keywords in the page links throughout your copy. Instead of writing a paragraph about your testimonials and linking to a page labeled "testimonials", create a link to a page called "marketing successes".

11. Create a Site Map -

create a site map that contains links to all the sections of your site. Write a description for each section. Place this site map on your homepage as some search engines will only index the homepage and not deeper pages in your site.

12. Quality Content -

provide web copy of 250 to 300 words which are targeted for your web site visitors. Sprinkle your most important keywords throughout your text, particularly in the first paragraph. Be careful not to overstuff keywords in your copy so that it sounds strange when you read it. Get some others to review and edit your pages before you submit them for the world to read.

13. Repair Broken Links -

most search engine directories will not list your site if it has broken links. Also visitors get frustrated when they reach a broken link page (404 error page) and will click elsewhere. Make sure you do a link check before your site goes live http://www.AnyBrowser.com

14. Create a contact page -

the search engine directory, Yahoo will not index your page if you don't have a real address (don't use a Post Office Address).

15. Reciprocal Links -

search engines (especially Google) place high relevancy on links to your site in assigning a good ranking.

Create a links page that includes links to sites with similar content. Make sure they don't compete with your site and that they are quality links. Preferably, find sites that already have a high search engine ranking.

Ask sites that link to your competition to link to your site. To find out which sites are linking to your competition, visit a search engine and enter "link:" before your competitors URL. For example: link:mysite.com or link:www.mysite.com

16. Cross linking multiple sites -

if you have multiple sites, cross link all your sites and include a description on your web site for each link.

17. Keep your file size small -

if you use dynamic html (i.e. javascript, DHTML) it will often push your web copy (containing your keywords) to the bottom of your page. Since search engines read the text that is near the top of your page, that nice piece of javascript you have placed before your web copy, will affect your search engine rankings.

You can keep your file size small by storing your JavaScript and CSS code in an external file.

Conclusion:

Create a simple, clean design for your web site that is easily navigable. Focus on good quality content with well-written, keyword rich copy, based on how it will benefit the visitor.

Implement the powerful strategies outlined above and the traffic to your web site will increase dramatically.

Herman Drost is a Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of iSiteBuild.com Affordable Web Site Redesign and Hosting 
Subscribe to the “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles. subscribe@isitebuild.com

Discuss this article at Webmaster-Talk

Copyright 2002 Herman Drost

www.insurancesettlementreview.com

The following list of the items that you might use with the
proceeds of a life settlement.

• 
  If you are retired, a life settlement could be valuable
  supplement to your income.
  
• 
  Perhaps you would like to distribute the money to your
  children and grandchildren for education or fund a down payment on their
  first home.
  
• 
  Maybe want to purchase a new "dream" home.
  
• 
  You could use it for that long overdue vacation and plan to
  take that trip.
  
  
• 
  Perhaps you would like to make a legacy contribution to your
  favorite charity before it becomes part of you estate.
  
• 
  If you aren’t yet retired, a life settlement could provide you with a nest egg for investment
  as you anticipate retirement.
  

All of us try to keep track of how much our assets are worth--real estate, equities, etc., but it is unlikely that we know the market value
of our life insurance. Your life
insurance policy is valuable, and you could
gain from it in by means that you may not have expected.

One of the a number queries you should recognize whenever
considering a senior or life settlement is whether or not you still need life
insurance coverage. It could be that the one insured has outlived the
beneficiaries or that the beneficiaries no longer need the proceeds of a life policy. You may have a more pressing need for long-term care insurance. That need may outweight your estate's vulnerability to inheritance taxes. In that case you may desire to terminate a life insurance
policy. If you are in reasonably good health and retired, the additional cash from a
life or senior settlement can be important to you for any number of grounds. A life settlement can nonetheless be a positive
because it could provide you with a security for investment as you look to
retirement,even if you are not as yet reached retirement age

If you determine that your
life insurance policy is no
longer needed, you could trade it for more than your insurance company might give
you if when you surrender it, even if you have a term life contract that has no cash
surrender assessment at all.

As
life settlements are not widely advertised and the public
in general have not taken advantage of this possible source of
retirement
security. For the most part retirement minded that have outdated life insurance
life policies merely just have
the contract lapse. They either halt paying the insurance premiums wholly and forfeit
the cash rate or just finish the insurance policy and ask insurance company to transmit
them the number from the cash value. In two those examples the insurance company succeeds and the
policy owner loses. As a matter of fact, the life insurance company favour expiration of
the contracts as they will never have to pay out the total face value. The
insurance companies calculate on most of their policies to lapse before pay out.
That way they in effect realize
investing profits during the period the
life insurance payments are paid, while paying the owner to the policy a meagerly
amount of interest income. That is a nifty bargain for the insurance company.

And a possibly even arrangement comes to the insurance
companies with the choice of term insurance. Though, the insurance premiums for the
insurance are great deal lower, the insurance company simply piles up the cash and never
has to pay out any sum of interest. The great bulk of
term life
insurance policies will never disburse the total value.

Because, the insurance companies calculate on insurance policy lapses
they do not promote the fact that many of these policy have a value much
greater than their surrender value. Accordingly, most all people do not realize
that their obsolete life insurance policy could be traded to an
institution like a
bank for an total much greater than they know. That the reason why, it is so crucial to keep
record books of your life
insurance contracts and make sure to ascertain their real value.

The money you receive from a senior settlement could be
that financial cushion you need to feel secure about retiring in these very
uncertain times. Retirement should be a time to relax and enjoy the remaining
years you have in life, not a time when you are stressed out about paying bills
and surviving on less than you need to be comfortable. If you have a life
insurance policy, then give some serious thought to senior settlements because
they just may be the solution you have been looking for in order to give you
that added cushion that will make your remaining days far more enjoyable

www.insurancesettlementreview.com

How To Write A Great Article

 by: Lori Osterberg

Content is king. If you’ve been online any length of time, you’ve seen the phrase, “content is king” everywhere.

But understanding what content is, and how to continually add content to your site is a full time job for many businesses.

One of the best ways to grow the content of your site is by adding useful articles to your resources. Articles are typically rich content that pertains to one or two keywords. An article is typically between 250-750 words in length. And the best thing about an article is it can be promoted not just on your site, but can also be picked up by article directories, other websites, and ezine editors looking for quality information for their subscribers.

The hardest part of adding an article to your site is often times the writing. Where do you come up with your ideas for new articles? Here are five tips on how to find articles that will be informative for your target audience.

1. What is the top news feature in your industry? If you follow trade journals, (and you should) you can always find one or two topics that everyone is writing about. Pick up on that thought, and write an article in your own words.

2. What questions do your clients and prospects ask you over and over again? Common questions can make motivating articles because they answer a question everyone wants more information on.

3. How can you relate your industry to a seasonal event? If you’re a plumber, writing an article on preparing your pipes for the deep-freeze of winter can be much needed. Likewise, an article on planting shade-loving plants would be a perfect addition to a greenhouses website.

4. Follow your newspaper for current events. Every day, around the world, there are events that you can use to base an article off of. Think back to the first 2 ½ months of 2006 – you could write articles based on the Olympics, Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, Presidents Day, winter, snow, hurricanes and tornados. A personal trainer could write an article about how it doesn’t take an Olympian to stay fit. A health spa could write an article on preparing for the spring thaw, and looking your best in your new spring wardrobe. And so on.

5. Still can’t think of anything? Hire someone else to write articles for you. A copywriter can write several articles for you in a short period of time. If you have a dozen or so written, you can have a several months supply of high quality content, ready to share on your site, and with others throughout the Internet.

You have valuable information. Find a way to share what you know with your customers and prospects. You’ll show your expertise; they’ll reward you by becoming your customers.

Copyright 2006 Vision Business Concepts Inc

About The Author

Lori Osterberg helps business owners build an online marketing strategy. She consults with owners to show them how to develop a strong Internet presence, and provides many services such as paid search, search optimization, and copywriting for press releases, articles and other online marketing tools. Receive her FREE ezine at http://www.VisionOfSuccess.com and http://www.GetKnownMarketing.com.

Speech Making Basic Tips

 by: Simon Oldmann

It is no secret that public speaking is causing a lot of fear and stress, in fact public speaking ranks high in causing fear in many of us.

The problem that most of us face is not speech making per se, it is actually any kind of frontal lecture or exchange of information that we need to deliver. College students are well aware of the devastating effects of the fear of public speaking, the need to present seminars or to protect a work from criticism makes public speaking “victims” out of most of us.

There are a lot of tips and advice on delivering a well planned and perfectly executed speech. Lets try and consider the few basic points of good public speaking, the points that matter the most and that will increase your chances of getting to the end of your speech alive and well.

A great speech starts with a great topic. It is so important that you select a topic that interests you, and you believe will interest your audience. Try and find as many things that interest you in this speech, discover things the you know a little more about and that you can use to leverage the speech to your benefit. When researching the topic of the speech look for as many divers subjects within the topic, try and locate one that you feel very comfortable with and that you can base most of the time in your speech to.

Think carefully of your audience and its needs, if this is the silent audience, coming to hear a public speaking and that would be grateful for any piece of information you through their way, or the savvy interested audience that will make your life hard and ask questions, if you prepare for the worst – you will be protected. The problem is that you don’t always have the time to spend in preparing for the audience from hell.

Writing your introduction, the base of the speech and the opening of your public speaking should be a powerful one, if you want to capture your audience attention and minds you will need some passion here. Start by writing a 3-sentence introduction. Think of it as trying to explain this subject to someone in a pleasant casual talk, key to giving a speech is a conversational tone. In the introduction tell your audience what you’re about to say.

The first thirty seconds of your speech are probably the most important. In that period of time you must grab the attention of the audience, and engage their interest in what you have to say in your speech. Once your audience is interested and intrigued you can move forward and advance to the later parts of your speech.

Now is the time to address each of the general points in your introduction, and apply the “meat” of the speech. You need to explore a few points in a profound way, to show that you have done your homework and give the audience that feeling that you re just talking to them and not reading out a prepared speech. When an experienced speaker gives a public speech the feeling is as if he was talking about something he is very familiar with, that diverting the subject is not a problem, that he is in control over the whole scope of the topic. That is what you should aspire to – not necessarily to actually know this, but to give this feeling.

Most good writing, we are told over and over again, must have structure. A good speech is no exception. By providing your speech with a beginning, middle, and an end, you will have laid the foundations for a successful speech that fulfils all of your aspirations.

The finishing touch, the conclusion is your last touch, and it will probably not make or break you general performance, do not rush to the conclusion, make a lengthy speech before you get to the point when you say “in conclusion”, give the audience the feeling that you have exhausted all the possible interesting things you could have said, and move to the conclusion. Make sure you finish with a considerable amount of confidence, it will send you audience home with a feeling that they have learned something, and try to make sure you know what you are talking about.

About The Author

Simon Oldmann has been studying the effects of cognitive alertness on performance for the last 5 years, he has a wide knowledge of public performance and personality traits. Simon is currently writing tips and advice on http://publicspeaking.zupatips.com.

From Poetry To Profit!

 by: Jennifer Brown Banks

If you’re a writer, chances are, at one time or another you’ve dabbled in poetry. Whether it was through personal journal entries or a passion-penned piece to a loved one.

And though you may not have the makings of Barrett-Browning or Poe, you can make extra cash. With ease!

One of the secrets to longevity in the writing business is definitely diversification.

To this end, poetry provides a painless way to keep the creative juices and the cash flowing. Especially when you consider that an 8 line submission of verse can yield a quick $200.00 from a greeting card publisher! In addition to complimentary cards and your name credited on the product.

Even a 3-4 line Haiku (Japanese poem) could have you hopping to the bank.

My poetry has supplemented my freelance writing for many years. From the sell of decorative, framed gift items to chapbooks. Not to mention, paid competitions and performances.

So, if you want to build your portfolio and your bank account, here’s how to begin!

7 STEPS TO STARTING SUCESS:

¨ Apply the K.I.S.S. principle. Make it sweet and simple. Unlike other genres of writing, poetry is not intended to be long and laden with details. Your work should captivate your readers, not hold them captive!

¨ Think original- Find a unique way of communicating common emotions and experiences. Try using different literary devices such as personification, metaphors, and alliteration. Create images and ideas that are sensory oriented. Practice playing around with the old familiar “Roses are red, violets are blue” theme, or “How do I love thee let me count the ways?”

¨ Take advantage of the books on tape craze! Get your karaoke out of the corner, get some blank cassettes and a little soft background music, and place your poetry on tape. For the cover, you can cut to size a personal photograph, or graphics placed on cardstock.

¨ Have a particular target audience in mind and speak in their language.

¨ Take a trip to your local card and gift shop - Browse the selection to see what appeals to you. What caught your eye? What touched your heart? Incorporate these techniques in your work.

¨ Take an on line course to brush up on your skills. Need help in perfecting your prose? There are many free and fee based classes available.

¨ Study the greats! My favorites are Sonia Sanchez, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, Jeanne Towns, Alice Walker, Edgar Alan Poe, Javan, and Peter McWilliams.

HERE’S WHERE TO GET PAID:

KATE HARPER DESIGNS- P.O. Box 2112, Berkeley, CA 94702--- Seeks submissions, especially from children. Occasional greetings that are 5 words or less. Themes wanted in ranking order of need are: Birthday, thank you, encouragement, friendship, sympathy, anniversary, love wedding, new baby, congratulations, missing you. E-mail submissions to: quotesub@aol.com.

Subject line: Short quotes.

CURRENT, INC.--- Freelance Editors, Box 2559, Colorado Springs, CO 80901-2559. Phone (719) 594-4100. Pays $100.00. Wants humor only for birthday, get well, friendship. Send SASE for guidelines.

GALLANT GREETINGS--- Chris Allen, P.O. Box 308, Franklin Park, IL 60131. www.gallantgreetings.com. Send 20 ideas per batch. Traditional and humorous.

COMSTOCK CARDS--- David Delacroix 600 S. Rock, Suite 15, Reno, NV 89502-4115. Risque humor. Pays $50-75 per card idea. E-mail comstock@intercomm.com

AMBERLEY GREETING CARD CO.--- Dave McPeek 11510 Goldcoast Dr. Cincinnati, Ohio 45249. Pays $150.00 per card idea. Submit maximum 10 ideas per batch. Humorous only. Send SASE for writer’s guidelines before submitting.

BLUE MOUNTAIN ARTS, INC--- Editorial Dept. Dept. WM, PO Box 1007, Boulder, CO 80306-1007. http://www.bluemountain.com. Seeking poetry and sensitive writings that would be appropriate for greeting cards. Pays $200.00 per poem.

About The Author

(C) 2004 Jennifer Brown Banks

Jennifer Brown Banks is an award-winning poet and president and founder of Poets United to Advance the Arts. Her popular, new release “A Paradox in Pink”, is available online through Amazon.com or Publish America.

Jenniferwriter@yahoo.com

The Secret Of Writing Persuasive Web Content

 by: Trish Andrews

Writing persuasive web content covers a wonderful variety of writing techniques. You can use different voices, humor, inspiration, or sales copy. Every web page should have a purpose: To familiarize, to inform, or to call the reader to action (click to the next page, join a newsletter, buy a product, or sign up for a mini-course.)

The writing style or technique you use for each web page should be "in tune" with the goal of that page. And the one key to writing persuasive web content -- and ultimately a successful web site -- is this: Understand Your Readers.

Website owners and writers understand the purpose behind most websites is to generate income.

It is a well-known fact that the majority of web readers are seeking information. These readers likely do not know that most web sites exist to make money.

Think Like Your Readers

When you understand this one aspect, then you will succeed in writing very effective and persuasive web content. Think like your readers, who probably have reached your site looking for help, reinforcement, or how-to-do-something. Great persuasive web content isn't a sales pitch. It's much more far-reaching than that.

When a reader lands on your web page full of friendly, useful, and legitimate content about their search term, he or she will begin to trust and believe in you, the website author. Keep the elements of good web writing sharp: Familiarization, Information, and Action.

Write so your readers feel familiar with your site. Speak directly to them. Help them know where they are on the website with clear navigation. Establish rapport with your readers by showing them you understand their concerns. Let them know how and why you have the means to help them. When your reader feels comfortable and familiar with you, they will spend time reading about your product or service.

Write pages full of interesting, easy to read advice, facts, and information. There is no better way to show your credibility to your readers. Surprise them with the latest updates and breaking news about your subject. Give them new perspective for them to sink their teeth into.

Keep It Real... Readers Will Detect When You Don't

Your readers need to know you're legitimate ... and you prove this to them with your knowledge and fair assessments of your product or service. Never stop working to establish trust with your readers.

Persuasive web content always leads to action. Make the desired action clear and easy for your readers to respond to. A complicated response process makes for a miserable failure! Write pages that use understandable links and simple buttons for readers to click.

Be honest at all times with your implications, too. If you're retrieving their email address with the intent of sending newsletters or product updates, say so right up front. Never manipulate your reader in any way.

Writing great persuasive web content appeals to the reader's intelligence and true needs. Never disrespect readers by appealing to fears and insecurities. Too many web writers have tried this and failed.

Remember that you serve your own interests best by serving your reader's interests. That is the mark of a truly legitimate web site where persuasion begins naturally and becomes dynamic. The results you see will be remarkable!

Copyright 2006 Trish Andrews

About The Author

Trish Andrews helps freelance writers and businesses grow and profit through writing and search engine optimization. To discover how to prosper from SEO web content in your business, or to hire a writer that will make your site come alive ... visit her website at ... http://www.pro-technical-writing.com.

Google Ranking Tips

Google is by far the most popular search engine available today for both ordinary surfers and webmasters.

Surfers like it because of the highly relevant results it gives, and the speed at which it delivers them. This is due to its complex text matching algorithm and of course the Pagerank™ system that this engine uses. More on the Pagerank™ system later.

Google is popular with webmasters and Internet Marketing companies due to the highly workable ranking system it uses.

Unlike other engines where information about how the results are obtained are sketchy at best, Google actually publishes information on its site about the results it produces. So webmasters have things they can do to produce higher rankings. What also makes Google popular with webmasters is the speed at which they will spider / list your site.

If you are not listed in Google and submit you are usually indexed within two weeks. If, however, your site is already listed in the index Google should reindex once every month, but more frequently if you have a high Pagerank™.

This indexing / reindexing time is much quicker than most other search engines, this allows webmasters to edit their pages properties such as title, first few lines of text, headings, keyword distribution and of course the number of incoming links to their site. They can then discover quickly if the changes were successful or not.

It's because of this popularity that you need to know the workings of the google search engine. Without knowledge of it you will be ranked lower than all other sites that are only slightly familiar with the Google algorithm.

So let's indulge ourselves in the Google ranking algorithm. Well, there are two main parts to the algorithm google uses, the first is its text matching system, whereby Google tries to find pages relevant to what the searcher has entered. The second and equally important part of the algorithm is of course the Google patented Pagerank™ system.

I'll first go through how to make your page relevant, i.e. - the text matching part of the algo.

Google gives a lot of "weight" to the title tag when searching for keywords. So make sure your most important keywords or keyphrases appear in the title tag. It seems to work best if you have other words in your title tag, too, after your keywords, but try to remain under 35-40 characters.

As many of you know, Google does not use meta tags such as keywords or description tags. This is because the text in these tags cannot be seen by visitors to a website. And Google feels these tags will be abused, by webmasters placing lots of unrelated words in them in order the get more visitors.

The lack of support for meta tags means that Google creates your description from the first few lines of text on your page, this means you have to have your keywords and phrases right at the top, if it finds them your page becomes more relevant. If it doesn't the rest of your page has to work harder to become relevant. For example Scroll back to the top of this page and you will see:

AKA Marketing .com - Free Internet Marketing Articles , Google submitting tips, ranking high at google.com

The above sentence includes keyphrases related to this page.

Google considers keyword density in the body of a page for determining relevancy too, so make sure your keywords and phrases appear a couple of times throughout the whole page. Don't go overboard though, a density of 6-10% seems to work best.

Other advice about making your page relevant includes putting keywords into the <h?> heading tags </h?>. Also try and bold as many keywords as you can. As of late Google seems to be indexing text in alt image tags, so includes your keyphrases in there too.

One final tip on page relevancy is the point on having your keywords and phrases in links which point to your site. It is a good idea to have the linking text contain your keywords as Google even says itself that it analyzes pages that links come from too, in it's description of it's pagerank technology.

How much keyword laden links matter is anyone's guess. But I have noticed a lot of sites which give the HTML code to visitors who want to exchange links do include keywords in the actual linking area. You should do something like this to on your links page. Say something like "if you want to link to this site, please use the following code".

In the above section of the article you have learned what areas Google uses and looks at when looking for a relevant site. But what method does Google use to determine which site is better, the answer is the Pagerank™ system.

Pagerank™ is as the name suggests a ranking system of pages. It works on the basis that if a website ABC.COM has been linked from a website XYZ.COM, abc.com must have some good content and therefore Google will count the link from XYZ.COM as a vote for ABC.COM. You can check your link popularity on Google by downloading the Google toolbar from http://toolbar.google.com

The Pagerank™ scale goes from 1 to 10 on the Google toolbar and from 1 to 7 beside listings on the Google toolbar. A less important site is of course a site with a PR of 1 and a very very important site is a site with a PR of 7 or 10, in the directory or toolbar respectively.

The more links or votes a site has the more important it must be and therefore the higher it will rank for search words which it is relevant to, right?, WRONG!.

Google does not simply count the number of incoming links a page has, if that was the case every webmaster from Iceland to Vietnam would try and exchange links to every tom, Dick and harry website that would let them. In Googles own words

"Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Hopefully your beginning to get the idea. If not - The idea is to have your page linked to by as many high quality and high pageranked sites as possible. Right?, RIGHT and WRONG.

WRONG BECAUSE - You see Google pagerank system also takes into account the number of links the page that has linked to you has. The reasoning for this is that a page X has a certain amount of voting PR, if your site Y is the only link from that page X, then Google feels confident that page X thinks your page Y is the best link it has, and will give you more PR. If however page X has 50 links, page X could think your only the 50th best page. So the more links it has the less of a PR boost your site gets.

RIGHT BECAUSE - Linking to a site with a 6+ PR will provide a significant boost to your PR in most cases, but in cases where the site also links with 100 other sites the boost will be almost zero. Likewise if a site has a PR of just 2 but you and only one other site are linked from it, then the PR boost would be more than the site with 100 links and a PR of 6.

It's beginning to come complex isn't it, just wait till you see this formula. Its looks scary for non math's people.

First let me explain what the damping factor is. The damping factor is the amount of your PR which you can actually pass on when you vote / link to another site. The damping factor is widely known to be .85 . This is a little less then the linking pages own PR.

PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(t1)/C(t1) + ... + PR(tn)/C(tn))

In layman's terms PR(A) is the Pagerank™ boost your page will get after being linked from someone else's site (t1). PR(t1) is the pagerank of the page which links to you and C(t1) is the amount of total links that (t1) has. It is important to know that a pages voting power is only .85 of that pages actual PR and this voting power gets spread out evenly between all sites it links to.

Imagine akamarketing.com was linked by XYZ.COM's link page which had a PR of 4 and 9 other links, here's how the formula should look like:

PR(AKA) = (1-.85) + .85*(4/10)
PR(AKA) = .15 + .85*(.4)
PR(AKA) = .15 + .34
PR(AKA) = .49

To sum up my site would get an injection of .49 PR after being linked from a page with a PR of four and 9 other links.

Lets say I was linked from a site with a PR of 8 - double the previous example's amount, which had 15 other links, a total of 16 outbound links, my boost would be:

PR(AKA) = (1-.85) +.85*(8/16)
PR(AKA) = .15 + .85(.5)
PR(AKA) = .15 + .425
PR(AKA) = .575

The above two worked examples show that not only is the PR of the linking page important but what is also important is how many other sites are also linked / voted for from that page.

OK, I think we've had enough mathy stuff for now. Just remember that the name of the game is to get as many links from pages with high PR and few other links. The more of these links you get the more your PR will grow and the more your rankings will improve for your relevant keywords.

The best thing you can do for your PR seems at the moment seems to be getting listed in Dmoz.org - The Open Directory Project.

Pagerank™ is widely known to be biased towards big name directories such as Dmoz.org, Yahoo and Looksmart.

This is true, especially in the case of Dmoz.org. These ODP links are treated like gold by Pagerank™. It doesn't even matter what the individual PR of the category page is. I have seen sites gain a large PR boost on the toolbar as soon as Google updates it's directory with the latest one from dmoz.org. This is because Google uses it's own version of ODP for the Google web directory.

Don't believe ODP links are very important to Pagerank™?
Don't believe a listing in the ODP will boost your ranking?

Well they are and they will. Perform a search for almost anything on Google and you'll discover that 75-80% of the top 10 results are also indexed in the Google directory. The fact of the matter seems to me to be if your not listed in ODP, you shouldn't expect much traffic from Google.

It's not difficult, it does sometimes take time, but it's not difficult. Just make sure you site has good content and follow the guidelines for adding a URL. Try to get you index page listed at least. I say at least because although ODP claims only to list your index page, there are plenty of sites with 5 - 10 pages listed. So if your site has very distinctive sections, then submit each section - slowly. Once Google updates it's directory, these listings could do wonders for your site maximum PR.

As for Yahoo and Looksmart, Pagerank™ will usually allocate a more than normal amount of PR boost for any sites listed. For tips on getting listed in Yahoo, read Yahoo Submitting Tips.

If you are a non-commercial site or have a site that's almost completely non-commercial you can get into the looksmart directory through www.Zeal.com. I really love this site, just like Google obtains results from ODP, Looksmart obtains it's non-commercial listings from the Zeal web directory, without Zeal I would have to fork out hard earned cash and all my site does is provide information.

To continue - I submitted AKA Marketing.com on a Tuesday and was listed in Zeal by Thursday morning. On Monday I checked my logs and found lots of referrals from Looksmart, I was in Looksmart already. I looked at my logs later only to find MSN had updated it's DB from the looksmart DB and was sending my loads of visitors cause of the good listing I got. My site was listed in Zeal, Looksmart and MSN within six days. So get over to Zeal.com and submit your site.

Before you can submit a site however you must pass a member quiz, which is fairly simple and straightforward.

If you happen to be a webmaster that has a listing in all three of Dmoz.org, Yahoo and Looksmart then I'm guessing your site has good to very good PR and rankings.

RECAP
Have your main keywords and phrases in your TITLE tag and well spread throughout your page. Get as many links from as many high PR low number of outbound links pages you can. GET LISTED IN DMOZ.ORG, Yahoo and Looksmart.

Well that's it. I hope you have enjoyed this Google Ranking tips article, as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I also hope that you can put this advice into use and help get yourself some real traffic.

Did you like this article?, it took three days to write, so any feedback good or bad would be appreciated. My email is admin@akamarketing.com

Article by David Callan - admin@akamarketing.com
David is the webmaster of http://www.akamarketing.com.
Visit his site for free internet marketing articles, advice, ebooks, news and lots more.

Grow Online With Reciprocal Linking

by Jogena

If you've been marketing online, for even a short amount of time, you are probably aware of the many benefits of reciprocal links.

This simple process of trading your link with other sites can generate visitors and increase your search engine popularity ranking.

Keep in mind that, if your trading partner's links pages are several layers deep in their directories, the search engines may never spider them. Ask if they have manually submitted them so your link gets picked up for the popularity ranking benefit.

Reciprocal linking also makes a great "door-opener" for meeting potential joint venture partners online. By asking for a reciprocal link you have established your first contact with the site owner. This can make future correspondence more receptive since you have already shown an interest in their site.

This doesn't mean that you can automatically add your trading partners to your ezine or opt-in mailing list without their approval. Instead, construct a personalized message to relevant trading partners outlining the benefits of setting up a partnership with you.

Here's a few reciprocal linking help sites...

http://www.reciprocallink.com/
http://www.linkleads.com/
http://www.applecountry.net/linktrader/index.htm
http://linksmanager.com/
http://www.zdnet.com/ferret/index.html

Be sure to keep your links theme specific. Search engines frown on sites loaded with too many unrelated links.

Jogena

Free Resources To Help Your Business Grow!
Free eBooks - Website Content - Ezine Directory
http://www.jogena.com
jogena@jogena.com

Robots.txt

We all know search engine optimization is a tricky business. Sometimes we rank well on one engine for a particular keyphrase and assume that all search engines will like our pages, and hence we will rank well for that keyphrase on a number of engines. Unfortunately this is rarely the case. All the major search engines differ somewhat, so what's get you ranked high on one engine may actually help to lower your ranking on another engine.

It is for this reason that some people like to optimize pages for each particular search engine. Usually these pages would only be slightly different but this slight difference could make all the difference when it comes to ranking high.

However because search engine spiders crawl through sites indexing every page it can find, it might come across your search engine specific optimizes pages and because they are very similar, the spider may think you are spamming it and will do one of two things, ban your site altogether or severely punish you in the form of lower rankings.

So what can you do to say stop Google indexing pages that are meant for AltaVista, well the solution is really quite simple and I'm surprised that more webmaster's who do optimize for each search engine don't use it more. It's done using a robots.txt file which resides on your webspace.

A Robots.txt file is a vital part of any webmasters battle against getting banned or punished by the search engines if he or she designs different pages for different search engine's.

The robots.txt file is just a simple text file as the file extension suggests. It's created using a simple text editor like notepad or wordpad, complicated word processors such as Microsoft Word will only corrupt the file.

Here's the code you need to insert into the file to work:

Red text is compulsory and never changes, while the blue text you will have to change to suit the file and the engine which you want to avoid it.

User-Agent: (Spider Name)
Disallow: (File Name)

The User-Agent is the name of the search engines spider and Disallow is the name of the file that you don't want that spider to spider. I'm not entirely sure if the code is case sensitive or not (maybe someone can let me know) but I do know that the code above works, so to be sure to check that the U and A are in caps and likewise the D in disallow.

You have to start a new batch of code for each engine, but if you want to list multiply disallow files you can one under another. For example -

User-Agent: Slurp (Inktomi's spider)
Disallow: internet-marketing-gg.html
Disallow: internet-marketing-al.html
Disallow: advertising-secrets-gg.html
Disallow: advertising-secrets-al.html

In the above code, I have disallowed Inktomi to spider two pages optimized for Google (internet-marketing-gg.html & advertising-secrets-gg.html) and two pages optimized for Altavista (internet-marketing-al.html & advertising-secrets-al.html). If Inktomi were allowed to spider these pages as well as the pages specifically made for Inktomi, I run the risk of being banned or penalized, So it's always a good idea to use a robots.txt file.

I mentioned earlier that the robots.txt file resides on your webspace, but where on your webspace? The root directory that's where, if you upload your file to sub-directories it will not work. If you want to block certain engines from certain files that do not reside in your root directory you simply need to point to the right directory and then list the file as normal, For example -

User-Agent: Slurp (Inktomi's spider)
Disallow: folder/internet-marketing-gg.html
Disallow: folder/internet-marketing-al.html

If you wanted to disallow all engines from indexing a file, you simply use the * character where the engines name would usually be. However beaware that the * character won't work on the Disallow line.

Here's the names of a few of the big engines,
Excite - ArchitextSpider
Altavista - Scooter
Lycos - Lycos_Spider_(T-Rex)
Google - Googlebot
Alltheweb - FAST-WebCrawler/

Be sure to check over the file before uploading it, as you may have made a simple mistake, which could mean your pages are indexed by engines you don't want to index them, or even worse none of your pages might not be indexed.

A little note before I go, I have listed the User-Agent names of a few of the big search engines, but in reality, it's not worth creating different pages for more than 6-7 search engines. It's very time consuming and results would be similar to those if you created different pages for the only the top five. So more is not always best.

So now you know how to make a robots.txt file, to stop you from getting banned by the search engines. Wasn't that easy. Till next time!

Article by David Callan - admin@akamarketing.com
David is the webmaster of http://www.akamarketing.com.
Visit his site for free internet marketing articles, advice, ebooks, news and lots more.

What Search Engines Want From Webmasters

by Dennis Gaskill

Self-proclaimed search engine experts have, over the years, touted all kinds of methods for ranking higher in search engines. This has included things such as hidden text, hidden links, meta tag stuffing, double meta tags, page stuffing, cloaking, redirect pages, bulk-quantity doorway pages, and other "secrets" of dubious quality.

Those techniques, and newer techniques that still amount to trickery, can result in lower rankings just for using them. In a worst case scenario they can even result in your domain being banned. Once banned, it's hard to get back in. Let's look at search engines from the search engine perspective instead of a selfish perspective.

My site, www.boogiejack.com, has consistently been ranking high in search engines since it opened in 1997. The ranking will fluctuate from time to time with each search engine, but I usually enjoy a few front page and number one links at any given time. Try a search for "left border backgrounds" now (one of my specialties), and see how it ranks at several search engines.

What's my secret? It's quite simple, I know how search engines want us to behave, and I have always followed the rules. I do everything I legally can to optimize my pages, but always play within the rules using only legitimately recognized (read that search engine approved) methods. When a search engine catches on to new trickery, you can be dropped or banned without warning.

So what do the search engines really want? They want to be able to help their web site visitors find what they are looking for, and they want to give them the best and most logical matches first. They can't do that easily with webmasters trying to manipulate their ranking by artificial means.

They want webmasters to show the search engine the same content you show your visitors, so anything like hidden text and links, cloaking, redirects and other tactics that show the search engine one thing and visitors another are high risk tricks that often result in being banned.

Your web site's content is the search engine's content, so they want sites with high quality content above all else. They want to show the best sites available for a search return, because if their content is helpful to the searcher, the searcher will be more likely to use their site for searches time and time again.

It's hard to get search engine employee's to comment on how their engines rank sites, but speaking on conditions of anonymity, here are the words of a technology specialist from one search engine (...and I won't knowingly betray a trust, so don't ask who the specialist is or what engine he works for, I won't tell):

"Design your site so that your text accurately reflects your content, products, and services. We penalize sites that make obvious attempts at manipulating our engine. No tricks, no misleading verbage designed for placement.
Link popularity is very important, so make sure the sites that should link to you are linked to you, and you to them. This is more than the latest buzz, this is reality. So if your site is about MP3's, you should have links with music sites, MP3 software sites, band fan sites, and so on.

At the very least you should be exchanging links with non-competitor sites whose content complements your own, and if you're not afraid to link directly to competitors and they'll exchange links with you, all the better. We give a little boost to sites that link directly to competitors.

One of the things we're after with this is to have your site "pre-judged" for us by your fellow webmasters. All links help, because it shows others find your site valuable enough to link to you, but links from relative content sites help your ranking even more.

I'll admit that sometimes people find ways to manipulate results for a short time, but sooner or later we catch on to these techniques (nobody studies our search engine harder than we do), and we'll penalize or ban sites for obvious manipulation attempts. Whether we ban a site or just penalize them, is partly determined by the degree of cheating and partly by the mood of the reviewer!

Once we've flagged your site, you'll have a hard time getting a top ranking again no matter how well you clean up your act. You've heard the expression, "once a cheater, always a cheater?" So have we. And here's a dirty little secret for you: if we catch you once, we may check other domains you own with a fine-toothed comb to see if you're spamming or cheating us with them too.

We don't place quite as much emphasis on themed sites as some engines do, but a themed site will give you a boost with us too. That's not to say your MP3 site can't talk about your love of dogs, just that if you cover many topics within a particular theme, you'll get a boost in rankings. You're not penalized for addressing many diverse or unrelated topics."

So there you have it, search engines want the same things surfers want. Quality content presented accurately and honestly, links to and from sites with complementary content, at least one major theme, and no dirty tricks.

Gosh, that isn't a great revelation is it? It shouldn't be, it's the way we should all be doing business in the first place - honestly and accurately. It is what works best in the long term with search engines and in life, and your site will never be penalized or banned by playing fairly.

Dennis Gaskill is the creator and owner of Boogie Jack's Web Depot at http://www.boogiejack.com - a popular webmasters resource site ranking in the top 1% of the most linked to sites on the Internet. He is also author of the new book Web Site Design Made Easy and publishes Almost a Newsletter, named the Best Ezine of 2000.

7 Essential Steps to Web Site Promotion

Copyright 2003 by Herman Drost

Web Site promotion should be the major part of your web site marketing plan. It's not enough just to design a beautiful web site and put in on the Net. Promoting your web site has to be done constantly if you want to get a continuous stream of traffic to it. If you don't drive traffic to your web site, your online business venture will soon fail.

1. Create a web site marketing plan - if you fail to plan then you default to a plan for failure. When designing your web site, create a plan on how to market it as well. Try to put yourself in your customers shoes when doing this. It's too easy to just view your web site from your own perspective. You need to have a clear vision for your business, goals (short and long term) you wish to achieve and the strategies of how you will accomplish them.

2. Define your target market - many online marketers promote their web site aimlessly in a field which is too large i.e. they may use bulk mailing as one of their promotion strategies. Of course you may get some visitors but the chances are you will not make many sales. Why? You have not narrowed your field of customers and targeted them. If you sold Cadillacs online for instance, you are not randomly going to market to every person on the Net. Your target market may be previous owners of cadillacs, or people who routinely purchase luxury American cars.

Getting targeted customers to your web site, will increase sales, because they will have more interest in your product or service than marketing to a general audience.

3. Use several promotion strategies - don't just stick to one form of promotion because you never know which one will work the best for you. If you use many channels i.e. search engines, email marketing, forums, writing articles etc you have a greater chance of getting more traffic to your web site.

4. Promote continuously - if you want to drive constant traffic to your web site, you must promote it continuously. Web traffic is the lifeblood of your online business. For example, you could constantly optimize your web pages for the search engines, resubmit them if needed, visit discussion forums every day and write an article for online publications every two weeks.

5. Calculate your return on investment (ROI) - this means keeping track of how much money you invested in your marketing plan and what profit you received in return. This will avoid wasting large sums of money thrown aimlessly into advertising.

If you calculate it takes 100 visitors to your web site to generate one sale and with each sale you make $10, then you shouldn't spend more than 10 cents to get each targeted visitor and still make a profit.

In order to know which aspects of your marketing campaign bring the most visitors, you must be able to monitor visitor activity to your web pages.

6. Analyze your web site traffic - by analyzing your web site traffic, you can determine what marketing strategies are successful. You can then change them as necessary, to boost the sales or services from your site.

Your analysis may include what keywords your visitors are using to find your web site, which web pages are the most popular and where your visitors are coming from. These are essential statistics you should know, instead of blindly promoting your web site and hoping for the best.

7. Test, monitor and track your results - to run an effective online marketing campaign, you need to constantly test what works and what doesn't. Tracking the response to an ad may cause you to refine it until it generates a great return on the money you invested. Once your results are satisfactory, you can then roll out your ads on a larger scale and spend greater sums of money.

You should also monitor your site in the search engines, so you can optimize your web pages for higher search engine rankings. This will attract more visitors which leads to higher profits.

Web site promotion strategies will differ for everyone, and will depend a lot on your product, web site and your personality. Try everything you can, record the results, and see what works for you.

Herman Drost is the author of the new ebook "101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site" a powerful guide for attracting 1000s of visitors to your web site. http://www.isitebuild.com/web-site-promotion

Writing Newsletters - Tricks of the Trade

Follow 8 simple rules of thumb, and you'll soon be writing great newsletters and reaping the rewards.

By Glenn Murray*

Company newsletters can be an amazingly successful marketing technique.
Whether you want to up-sell or cross-sell, establish your brand or establish
your authority, or simply reach a wider market, a newsletter can do the job
for you. You just have to make sure you write it right.

Television, radio, and print advertising are often too expensive for many
businesses to justify - especially small businesses. Fortunately, there is
an alternative. Today's internet and email technologies make company
newsletters a very inexpensive, yet surprisingly effective, form of
advertising. When it comes to newsletters, big companies and small are
finally competing on a level playing field.

So what is an email newsletter?
An emailed newsletter serves much the same purpose as a traditional company
newsletter. Think of it as a short newspaper - but instead of relating to a
town, city or country, it relates to your business. You can include articles
on new products or services, awards, recent success stories and case
studies, promotions, specials, share price rises, company events, research.
And if it's a quiet month, you can simply write articles that might help
your customers out.

8 Steps to Success
Follow 8 simple rules of thumb, and you'll soon be writing great newsletters
and reaping the rewards.

1.. Keep It New! Your readers won't waste time reading something they
already know, so make it 'news they can use'.
2.. Keep it personal: Always use your reader's name. Make sure when
someone signs up, you get their name, then use it in the subject line, in
the greeting, and anywhere else you can.
3.. Know your reader: Find out what your reader is interested in. Do some
pro-active research, invite response, or use an email marketing solution
such as Ezemail** which will track the links your readers click on and keep
a history of their activity.
4.. Let them know you: Let your personality shine through. Readers are far
more likely to become loyal if they feel they know you. Always include a bit
of you in the newsletter, whether it's humour, personal details, personal
anecdotes, or personal views.
5.. Subject is Headline: The subject line of an email newsletter is like a
front-page headline in a newspaper. You need to draw the reader in, so make
it engaging and relevant (maybe promise a benefit) but no more than 25
characters so your reader can see it all before opening the email.
6.. Make it 'scannable': Most people don't read online - they scan. Make
sure you use easy-to-read bullet points and sub-headings. Link to your
website and post extra details there.
7.. Easy unsubscribe: Make your unsubscribe easy to find. If it's obvious,
they'll feel safe and can then appreciate the content. To many people, the
ease of unsubscribing is an indicator of the integrity of your company.
8.. Forward to a friend: Include a link to encourage readers to forward
the newsletter on to their friends and colleagues. Find an email marketing
solution which allows you to do this and sit back and watch your database
grow!

* Glenn Murray heads copywriting agency Divine Write. He can be contacted on
(02)43346222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.divinewrite.com for
further details.

** Ezemail enables you to create, manage, deliver and track your email
marketing and sales communication. Email solutions@ezemail.com.au or visit
www.ezemail.com.au.

Writing Right for Your Website

Back to basics. Forget funky design, good writing is the key to a clear and intuitive website.

By Glenn Murray*

Are you losing business because of your website? More and more customers are logging on to the Web to decide where to spend their money because it is quick and convenient, and they can jump from site to site instead of walking from store to store.

Web savvy customers don't need to be patient, studies have shown that you need to engage a potential customer very quickly by giving them easy, fast access to the information they need. Otherwise they will simply move on to the next site.

Appealing design and speedy functionality are important but they don't ensure that your site is well structured (intuitive) or well written (clear). If clear and intuitive is what you want, there are two golden rules:

* Write first, build later.

* Be brief and clear.

Write First

The real message on most websites is in the writing, and so it makes sense that the writing should determine the structure. Unfortunately, this is not the usual case. Most businesses choose the structure and design of their site first and then try and fit the writing around that structure. This flies in the face of commonsense. When you speak to someone, you structure your speech around your message, you don't decide on a structure then change the message to suit. So you need to plan what you want to say before you create the site. Maybe even write the whole thing first and then use the message to determine the structure.

When deciding what to write, think about what your customer wants to know rather than what you want to say. It's a subtle difference, but it is the key to engaging a potential customer.

Most customers will want to know the basics:

* What do you do?

* What benefit can you offer them?

* Why should they choose your service or product?

* What does it cost?

* How can they contact you?

* Where are you located?

Brevity & Clarity

Your website has to communicate a lot of information and to make matters worse, you are going to have limited space. Ideally, your customer won't have to scroll on any page (all your information will fit in a single window) and that single view will need to contain more than just words. The design and navigation elements take up about a third of a window, and you should leave a bit of room for white space (you don't want to overwhelm the customer). As a rule of thumb you should expect to have about half the window free for text.

How you are going to fit all your information in such a confined space? This is where writing skills come in - choose your words very carefully.

Websites can be an extremely powerful piece of marketing collateral. You can reach millions of potential customers for as little as a few hundred dollars. Unfortunately, your competitors are all doing the same thing - it's a level playing field but there are a lot of players.

It is important that your message is structured and well thought out, otherwise your site will be a mess and no-one will bother to read about your business. If your message is clear, your site will be simple and easy to use. It's all in the words.

* Glenn Murray heads copywriting agency Divine Write. He can be contacted on (02)43346222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.divinewrite.com for further details.

Free ways to promote your site

1. Submit your site into free search engine submission sites. Make sure that you submit your site to google, yahoo, and msn. One site that submits to search engines is www.submitexpress.com/

2. Submit your site to ffa sites. FFA sites are sites that are made for the purpose of letting people post one way links. One service that submits to ffa sites is blastomatic.com.

3. Join viral marketing sites. Some let you get guaranteed traffic from a certain amount of visitors as long as you visit certain sites. There are also some sites that get you more ads for referring people to join. One example is http://www.adtrackclassifieds.com/?mid=957

4. Another thing to do is to join link exchange sites. These sites let you swap links with other members in an organized, effective and often free way. One example is www.linkmarket.net

5. Another way is to write articles. Since getting many links to your site on the net makes your search engine rankings higher, you can get more links by putting your link in articles you write. The articles can be on any subject, and there are many article directories or other types of websites that accept articles.

 6. Another good way is to write press releases. In the press releases you can include news about your webpage such as new features.

7. A great place to add your link is a directory. There are many directories with one example being dmoz.org

These are just some of the top ways to generate traffic for your site.

Nahom Kidanemariam is a student and webmaster of http://eduhelper.tripod.com