Do Not Be Obsessed With Reciprocal Linking
May 25, 2009 at 1:39 pm | In SEO | Leave a CommentI’m not sure what happened, but reciprocal linking seems to be making a comeback (and both Google & Yahoo! have been doling out some penalties recently for sites engaging in it).
It’s not that reciprocal linking is inherently bad – if I link to Aaron’s SEOBook (a great site, BTW), and he links to me, that’s not what I’d call “reciprocal linking.”
I’m referring to the practice of creating link list pages on websites and then trading with other link list pages on other sites – the “you link to me and I’ll link to you” phenomenon.
These aren’t hard to algorithmically spot and we see penalty after penalty (or at least, devaluation) hitting sites that leverage this tactic.
What Is Cannoical Url Tag?
May 17, 2009 at 1:28 pm | In SEO | Leave a CommentThe announcement from Yahoo!, Live & Google that they will be supporting a new “canonical url tag” to help webmasters and site owners eliminate self-created duplicate content in the index is, in my opinion, the biggest change to SEO best practices since the emergence of Sitemaps.
It’s rare that we cover search engine announcements or “news items” here on SEOmoz, as this blog is devoted more towards tactics than breaking headlines, but this certainly demands attention and requires quick education.
To help new and experienced SEOs better understand this tag, I’ve created the following Q+A (please feel free to print, email & share with developers, webmasters and others who need to quickly ramp up on this issue):
How Does it Operate?
The tag is part of the HTML header on a web page, the same section you’d find the Title attribute and Meta Description tag. In fact, this tag isn’t new, but like nofollow, simply uses a new rel parameter. For example:
This would tell Yahoo!, Live & Google that the page in question should be treated as though it were a copy of the URL www.seomoz.org/blog and that all of the link & content metrics the engines apply should technically flow back to that URL.
Source: SEOmoz
4 Hot Tips To Increase Web Traffic
May 11, 2009 at 1:24 pm | In traffic | Leave a CommentTags: traffic
The four ways discussed in this article are sending an email to your mailing list, paying for traffic,joint venturing with another website owner and social bookmarking with web 2.0 sites.
1. Emailing your list is a method that becomes your greatest asset with time.
No overheads are involved and you can create a flood of sales every time you email your list. You can expect between 10 and 30% of visitors to your option page to sign up to your mailing list.
By having an autoresponder you can attract these visitors back to your website again and again by giving them valuable free content. There are various opinions as to how often these emails are sent. In between sending them content you can ask them to buy.
You create a relationship with your list and because they receive valuable information from you, you become like a trusted friend to them and they accept you can provide them with what they are looking for. There is a good chance they will buy after a few visits.
2. By buying traffic, you can target the people already looking for your specific product.
The biggest player here is Google. Although for beginners to PPC (pay per click) I would recommend starting with the smaller search engines as the ad cost will be significantly cheaper.
When you perform a search on google the results on the left of the page are the natural or “organic” results which are the free listings and they are in order of their importance as determined by Google according to their criteria.
The listings on the right of the page are the paid results and can be bought by anyone. You can have traffic going to your website within 5 minutes of setting up a Google adwords ad. The next step is to monitor results, you can track the number of hits from various sources in order to focus on those that produce the most sales.
Every type of advertising must have the ability to be tracked. Constantly testing and tweaking your ads is one of the keys to success in this field. The advantages of paying for traffic is that is a fast method of driving traffic to your site and it can be made extremely targeted traffic.
3. Joint Ventures with another website owner.
You send their links to your list and he send your links to his list. JV deals allow you to create a lot of traffic to your site in a short period of time and to build your email list very quickly.
You can receive JV support from established marketers in your field if you approach them correctly by selecting potential partners on a similar level as your own, making approaches very personalised to that particular person, offering a deal that favours them (not just yourself) and by making as easy as possible for them by creating email,banner ads and all the other promotional material they may need.
By doing all the work for them they are much more likely to respond to your JV offer.
4. Social bookmarking
Get social on web 2.0 sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Digg, Technorati and many others is the hottest new way to obtain traffic to your sites.
As humans are social animals it is likely that these social sites are here to stay and they will attract increasing numbers of users, all potential traffic that can be directed to your site.
Chris Deltise introduces your Free Report on how next generation marketers are using Web2.0 secrets to stampede herds of 100% targeted buyers straight to their website. http://www.web20trafficstorm.comArticle
Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/4-hot-ways-to-send-a-storm-of-traffic-to-your-website-900730.html
Increased Web Traffic From SEO Benefits Small Businesses
May 6, 2009 at 1:10 pm | In SEO, home business, search engines | Leave a CommentTags: business, home business, SEO
While it had a successful brick-and-mortar store, R.A.G. New York couldn’t get its website’s sales off the ground until the company turned to search engine optimization (SEO).
Jay Greenstein, president of R.A.G. New York says that while he has six physical locations for his stores, his website was generating only three sales per day. But after implementing an SEO campaign, Greenstein told the New York Daily News that sales went from $2,000 in August to more than $12,000 last December.
SEO works for small businesses by making sure the company’s website appears on the first page of Google or any other search engine’s result page. As Gabriel Shaoolian, creative director for Blue Fountain Media told the news provider, “page two is useless.”
Greenstein told the paper that he paid $30,000 to get the project going and now spends $1,000 each month to make sure his website stays high in search results for specific keywords.
It appears that many retailers are turning to SEO to help generate website traffic and increasingly turning their back on paid search. A recent study from Internet Retailer found that 55.3 percent of respondents said they would increase their SEO budget in 2009 while only 24.2 percent said they would boost their use of paid search.
Source: NEBS Newsdesk
Keywords Is A Double-Edged Sword
April 29, 2009 at 1:02 pm | In SEO, search engines | Leave a CommentTags: keywords
We have all heard of keyword stuffing and know the danger it can wrought on your search engine rankings.
If you’re not ranking for a given keyword, placing a few dozen more instances of it on your page is very rarely the answer. Folks have been asking about modified versions of their keywords, whether they need to add more related text content, whether they need to use it more times per sentence or per paragraph and my answer is always the same.
Once you’ve got your keyword in your content a few times, in your H1, title and URL, and maybe in the alt tag of an image, you’re 80-90% of the way there with on-page optimization.
The content needs to be valuable to a human (so you can earn links and interest and return visits and sharing), not more “optimized” for search engines with repetitions of your keyword.
You also need to be careful of repetitive keyword targeting.
If you’re targeting a specific keyword term or phrase, it’s not necessary, and often ill-advised, to place that keyword in the title tag, H1 and body text of every page on your site.
It’s certainly OK to use the term/phrase in passing and when relevant, but remember that pages target rankings, not sites – a good rule is to target one specific keyword term/phrase per page, sometimes more, but only in rare circumstances (like when you’re trying to get a secondary, indented listing) do you actually want to target the same term on multiple pages.
5 Practices That Get Your Site Booted From Search Engines
April 25, 2009 at 12:41 pm | In blogging, search engines | Leave a CommentSome companies that specialize in search-engine optimization lure unwitting small-business owners into using deceptive techniques to attract viewers to their sites, which can get the sites banned from search engines.
Social-media strategist Janet Meiners Thaeler suggests avoiding these five practices: Keyword stuffing; overused boldface and excessive links; hidden links; complicated link schemes; and multiple domains with the same content.
Source: Small Biz Trends
Yahoo’s profits slump almost 80%
April 24, 2009 at 3:43 am | In search engines | Leave a CommentTags: search engine, yahoo
Yahoo said its net profit slumped nearly 80% in the first three months of the year and that it will trim its workforce by 5%.
First quarter net income came in at $117.6m, or eight cents per share, compared to $536.8m, or 37 cents per share, during the same time last year.
CEO Carol Bartz said:
“Yahoo is not immune to the ongoing economic downturn, but careful cost management in the first quarter allowed our operating cash flow to come in near the high end of our outlook range.
“With our leading audience properties, substantial reach and innovative advertising solutions, we are confident Yahoo will be well positioned when online brand advertising resumes its growth.”
More layoffs are expected in the coming weeks. About 5% of its current work force may be cut to allow “flexibility for accelerated strategic investments and targeted hiring in its core operations.”
Yahoo’s earnings were in line with analyst expectations. During a conference call last night, Bartz refused to discuss the possibility of Yahoo selling its online search business to US software colossus Microsoft.
Last year, Microsoft made an unsuccessful takeover bid of $47.5 billion. Its intention is to leverage on Yahoo’s prized search engine asset in order to to close the gap on Google, which currently rules more than 60% of the US online search market.
Speculation that talks between Yahoo and Microsoft might be resurrected has persisted since Bartz replaced Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as chief executive in January.
Are You Using File Extension QTP?
April 23, 2009 at 1:02 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentToday, I will introduce to you the .qtp file extension. This may sound foreign to most people but there are actually many established programs adopting this extension.
The most famous being Apple’s QuickTime which allows users to play popular formats of digital media. Combined with other Mac products, you can create and distribute digital media with ease.
The File Extension QTP in QuickTime also allows you to adjust preferences file. When a user changes his specific preferences within the software, the data is written to this file and stored on the hard drive.
Incorrect associations are the cause of many file extension errors. It is advisable that you scan your system to prevent, identify and repair File Extension QTP association errors.
Nowadays you can open that the QTP extention file just like other extention files in windows like the .doc, .jpg, .mwv etc. It is a simple process and you can read more in the user guide at the web site.
Experiment with File Extension QTP and you will soon be an expert in handling this file extension. Cheers!
Search Engine Landscape Becoming More Competitve
April 23, 2009 at 12:50 am | In search engines | Leave a CommentThe search engine landscape is getting congested, and companies using search engine optimization (SEO) will become more busy.
Microsoft is poised to make a big push in the search engine market this year with a reported $100 million ad campaign for its new search engine. It’s still unclear what the name of the new engine will be with various media reports saying that the name could be Kumo, Bing or even Hook.
But now it appears another search engine from Microsoft is in the works with paidContent.org reporting that the company has trademarked the name Sift which appears to be its brand for a new mobile search engine.
According to the website, the trademark for Sift says it is a “operating system software for mobile phones; computer search engine software; computer programs for searching email, text messages, address and contact information.”
Although figures from Nielsen show that Microsoft only had 10.3 percent of the search market share in March, if the company is able to take the lead on mobile search it could be a game changer going forward.
This could also have an impact from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective as more people are accessing online information from their cell phones.
According to a report last year from Juniper Research, the number of people accessing the internet from a mobile device will jump from 577 million last year to 1.7 billion by 2013.
Moving To A Scottsdale Ranch
April 22, 2009 at 2:56 pm | In Miscellaneous | Leave a CommentMy wife showed me a brochure last week on beautiful Scottsdale ranch homes. Though the economy is in a recession, there are actually many housing bargains around. We have saved some money over the years, and now is the time to go house-hunting.
We are rather impressed with The Holm Group as they have great experience in buying and selling homes in Scottsdale Ranch. They have been a member of the Scottsdale Ranch community since 2005.
Whether it’s a luxury home, waterfront property, single family home or town home, you can rely on The Holm Group to ensure a smooth and successful transaction.
Of particular interest to me is DC Ranch which is a nationally acclaimed private golf and residential community in Scottsdale. It is an open desert space being preserved at the base of the McDowell Mountains which provides panoramic views of Scottsdale and Phoenix below.
There are a variety of villas and luxury condominiums in four distinctive village neighborhoods in neighborhood parks with remarkable amenities. Some of the features include tennis and basketball courts, Olympic-size pool, wading pool, playground, exercise and fitness room, meeting rooms, etc. And if you love to walk or jog, walking trails will eventually extend to over 33 miles.
If you are interested in DC Ranch Real Estate, visit the site to find out more.
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
