Articles

  • Domain Names and Search Engine Optimization

    Choosing the right domain name should be the first thing to consider in search engine optimization. Domain names and search engine optimization go hand-in-hand, as your domain name is a great factor in making sure that your website ranks high in searches to drive more traffic to it. A poorly chosen domain name or a completely non-relevant domain name will not kill your SEO efforts, but it will make them a bit more difficult.

  • The Importance of Social Media Marketing

    To many businessmen and women alike, the recent craze for social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious and about 300 others seems to be silly and juvenile. And in some ways, that is exactly what social media and web 2.0 is all about – putting a personality online. However, there is a whole separate avenue of thought that you should consider. First and foremost your business decisions should be governed by their likelihood to contribute to the bottom line – revenue.

  • SEO and E-commerce

    Remember the “Content is King” statement? Well, many e-commerce sites forget that, but those that thrive realize that e-commerce products are just another form of content and they apply the same core SEO principles to their e-commerce product content as you would to any site.

  • Greyhat SEO Principles

    Much has been made about blackhat SEO principles and, in general, greyhat SEO principles and techniques largely go unmentioned. The differences between black and white are obvious, but shades of grey begin to overlap and the line becomes blurred as to what is acceptable and what is not. Ultimately you must rely on sound judgment and core design principles to protect you from possible damage should you cross over that thin line.

  • Blackhat SEO Principles

    Like everything in life, there is black and white when it comes to SEO tactics, strategy and principles. Whitehat principles are those which are absolutely guaranteed to not cause problems and be within complete compliance both to the letter of the terms of agreements of the search engines and to the ethical intentions of those agreements. On the opposite side of the spectrum, are blackhat SEO principles and techniques.

  • Whitehat SEO Principles

    When it comes to the various whitehat link building strategies, link building with articles is by far the most effective for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, as has been stated numerous times, content is King on the Internet and articles still provide the most effective way of distributing content. Many other new media types have become popular, but none will ever eclipse the simplicity and flexibility of the written word.

  • Link Building Part III: Link Building with Articles

    When it comes to the various whitehat link building strategies, link building with articles is by far the most effective for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, as has been stated numerous times, content is King on the Internet and articles still provide the most effective way of distributing content. Many other new media types have become popular, but none will ever eclipse the simplicity and flexibility of the written word.

  • Link Building Part II: Non-Reciprocal Link Building

    SEO has revealed that having many inbound to your site is an important part of any complete search engine positioning strategy. You probably have received a lot of offers asking you to exchange links with other websites, and this is the rationale behind that. If you find that these websites who offer you link exchanges are related to your site, it is best to take advantage of their offers provided they are of high quality. This is what we call Reciprocal Linking, and this can definitely increase your search rankings.

  • Link Building Part I: Reciprocal Link Building

    One of the important aspects of search engine optimization is links. Links to your website found on many other websites on the Internet is the best way to make your PageRank higher. So, the secret to website success is links, links, links (but don’t forget content). The more links to your site, the better. It is a given that incoming links to a website help to determine its PageRank. And, PageRank is Google’s prime method for establishing trust and importance.

  • Link Building Strategies

    Link building strategies are critical to the creation of a successful SEO campaign for your site. Content is also crucial, but having great content, without anyone linking to it, will not get you very far. Like all aspects of SEO, there are many different ways to skin a cat, and link building is no exception.

  • SEO for MSN

    Just like Yahoo, Google and every other search engine, MSN uses crawlers to build their index of sites and “crawls” the web to find new and altered information. Complex algorithms are then used to find the sites that are the best “hits” or more relevant to the search keyword inputted on the search box. This process is strictly mathematical and has fixed rules on how to rank the results of the searches. The results are ranked according to relevance, but there are also some special specifications for a website to get a top ranking on the results page.

  • SEO for Yahoo

    While most any search engine discussion tends to just focus on Google for its sheer domination in the marketplace, ignoring Yahoo would not be a smart choice. According to Comscore, Compete.com and Hitwise Yahoo holds approximately 20% of the US search engine market share – a very large number. Yahoo, unlike Google is also a content provider and therefore has bit of a different approach to search and the SERPs (search engine results pages) than does Google. By the way, YAHOO stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle” – how’s that for a mouthful?

  • SEO for Google Part III: Google Penalties

    The biggest fear any website owner has is coming in to work one day and doing a quick verification of his Google rankings only to find that his site has disappeared altogether from Google. It’s a nightmare that many share – but like most fears, it can be conquered and the best way to do that is with knowledge. You need to thoroughly understand the different penalties that Google could impose and also the risks that you must avoid so that you don’t have to worry about these issues.

  • SEO for Google Part III: Google TrustRank

    There is no official definition from Google yet about their Google TrustRank (nor is there ever likely to be one), but they did just register the trademark for the name “TrustRank”. They might be introducing it to the public in the near future, and perhaps the introduction of the Sandbox is just an extension of the TrustRank implementation.

    With this new system, Google will only give high search engine positions to those websites who are deemed trustworthy and legitimate. The system will also seek to eliminate any websites using blackhat or spamming techniques to get a higher search rank.

  • SEO for Google Part II: Google PageRank Algorithm

    The PageRank formula is proprietary to Google and it is a method by which Google calculates authority for a given page on the Internet. It is commonly referred to as PR or by its numeric value PR0 thru PR9, the higher being the more authoritative. In other words, a PR0 site is an “unknown” and a PR9 site (there are very few of them, Google is one) is the top of the totem pole. Many people mistakenly believe that PageRank is site specific – completely false – it’s all in the name. Your home page may carry a PR4 but every other page on your site may be a PR0.

  • SEO for Google

    Understand some of the core organic principles of SEO is critical, but when you start to look at the way SEO really works, you must take it down to the individual search engine you are targeting. Just look at the very definition of SEO – search engine optimization – clearly the ‘specific’ search engine is critical. There are certain core elements of SEO that universally apply to all search engines, but the specifics of how they are interpreted and enforced vary from search engine to search engine.

  • SEO Competitive Analysis Part III: Offsite Optimization Factors

    SEO optimization, as previously discussed, is primarily broken down into onsite and offsite optimization. While you may have more direct control over onsite optimization factors, offsite optimization is even more critical. The reason it is even more important is that offsite optimization is what governs how many sites are linking back to you site and that, after all, is the prime factor effecting your sites popularity and/or PageRank (along with the quality and relevance of those backlinks).

  • SEO Competitive Analysis Part II: Onsite Optimization Factors

    SEO is a multi-faceted process that you have to tackle from several different angles. SEO is basically comprised of Onsite Optimization and Offsite Optimization. To truly be effective at SEO you have to tackle it on all of these fronts simultaneously – they each have their own importance and relevance to your overall goals of ranking well in the SERPs (search engine results pages). You can’t expect to be successful if you ignore any one portion of the complete picture.

  • SEO Competitive Analysis Part I

    Before launching any SEO campaign on your site, you have to do some fairly extensive research. In fact, probably 80% of the effectiveness of your SEO campaign will tie back to the quality of the initial research, market and competitive analysis. Remember that SEO is primarily targeted around search keywords and you will have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of competitors for the keywords that you wish to rank for. Competitive analysis is crucial in the creation of a solid SEO strategy for your business.

  • An Introduction to SEO

    SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is both a science as well as an art form. If all of the rules of the game were known, such as the rules of chess, then strategy and tactics would merely be a matter of math and science. However, SEO has an unfair disadvantage and that is that it is trying to win a game that without definitive knowledge of all the rules and, to complicate the task further, the rules are constantly changing.

  • Principles of Organic SEO

    SEO has many twists and tangles, but through it all, there are some core principles that need to be adhered to – these are the basics and are generally viable in all of the search engines. Sure there are loads and loads of advanced SEO optimization tactics, but in order to apply them you really must first adopt the basic core principles of organic SEO.

  • Creating Effective Link Bait

    Getting incoming free one-way backlinks can be the lifeblood of your site. There are many ways to accomplish this. You can spend a lot of time commenting on blogs, purchasing links, linkbuilding or, you could just “attract” good quality links via link baiting. Creating effective link bait is not nearly as hard as it sounds, but there are some guidelines you want to follow in order to maximize your effectiveness.

  • Content Is King – The Importance of Quality Unique Content

    This is one of those phrases that get tossed around a lot on the Internet and so many have become so accustomed to hearing it, that they don’t really listen anymore. However, this is probably one of the single most important concepts that you need to adopt in your quest to understand how the Internet and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) works. Content truly is king. Keep that in the forefront of your mind as you develop your marketing and SEO strategies and you will be well served.

  • Conversions through Copywriting

    Building a website can be simple, but building an effective website is a whole different topic. To be effective a website must achieve its goal – too many, though not all, this goal is a financial objective of generating sales (or perhaps, leads). Either way, that goal is very definitive and quantifiable and is referred to as a conversion. If you sell a product, a conversion occurs when a customer initiates and completes a sale. Now, many potential customers will come to your site, but only some of them will become conversions.

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