Make Money Online

Internet marketing and search engine optimization hinge on knowing what keyword or keywords web search surfers are searching for on the web. By doing extensive keyword analysis you can zero in on the best keyword terms to use when setting up pay per click advertising, writing keyword articles, and optimizing web pages.

Not only is it necessary to know what keywords are searched for the most but also how many times particular keywords have been searched. There are a number of effective tools available for keyword analysis and keyword suggestion.

Yahoo Search Marketing

Yahoo has an excellent tool for helping webmasters and Internet marketers determine what keywords people are searching for on a monthly basis. This tool, located at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/index.php is powered by Yahoo Search Marketing that was previously known as Overture.

Wordtracker

One of the more popular tools for doing keyword research is Wordtracker.
WordTracker can be found at http://www.wordtracker.com/. Keyword results provided by Wordtracker are compiled from Dogpile and Metacrawler. Wordtracker is not free but with the ability to do targeted keyword research the results can quickly pay for the software.

Once you have done some preliminary research you will need to decide which keywords or keyword phrases to target in your Internet marketing campaign. It is best to choose keywords that have a good amount of traffic without too much competition for placement.

For example, let’s say you are marketing a variety of photography books and you search on photography only to find that it had more than 1,000,000 searches last month. The competition for placement with this keyword is probably going to be pretty tough. Try researching on more targeted phrases such as nature photography, landscape photography, photography books, etc.

You will likely find that these terms have less monthly searches and much less competition. There will be a lower search to competition ratio. Generally, a keyword with 30,000 to 50,000 monthly searches is going to be one that you can compete for in terms of placement and being found on the search engines. Instead of spinning your wheels marketing for those who are searching for photography instead create multiple campaigns that market to more targeted keyword phrases.

You can evaluate the search to competition ratio by taking the number of searchs of a particular keyword and dividing by the number of web site which return for that keyword when searched. The higher the number the better. For example, if you have a keyword that is searched for 100 times in a month and when you search on that keyword you return 1000 results then the ratio is 100/1000 or 0.10. If you have a keyword that is searched for 100 times but there are 10,000 search return results then the ratio goes down to 0.01. The larger the ratio the better in terms of your ability to be competitive.

Finding the best keywords to use in your web site promotion is vital to effectively driving targeted traffic to your web site. Take the time to find out what people are searching for and your efforts will pay off in terms of traffic and sales conversion.

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimizing and refers to a set of good practices that teach you how to improve your website so that it would be easily tracked, indexed and ranked by search engines. Getting your site indexed by Google and other major search engines will help you attract visitors and increase traffic.

It is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.

SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.

Basic SEO Tips:

1. Insert keywords within the title tag so that search engine robots will know what your page is about. The title tag is located right at the top of your document within the head tags.

2. Use the same keywords as anchor text to link to the page from different pages on your site. This is especially useful if your site contains many pages. The more keywords that link to a specific page the better.

3. Make sure that the text within the title tag is also within the body of the page. It is unwise to have keywords in the title tag which are not contained within the body of the page.

4. Do not use the exact same title tag on every page on your website. Search engine robots might determine that all your pages are the same if all your title tags are the same. If this happens, your pages might not get indexed.

5. Do not spam the description or keyword meta tag by stuffing meaningless keywords or even spend too much time on this tag.
6. Do not link to link-farms or other search engine unfriendly neighborhoods. A good rule of thumb is if your pages do not contain any words that reflect the content of the site you are linking to, do not link to it.

7. Do not use doorway pages. Doorway pages are designed for robots only, not humans.

8. Title tags for text links. Insert the title tag within the HTML of your text link to add weight to the link and the page where the link resides. This is like the alt tag for images.

9. Describe your images with the use of the alt tag. This will help search engines that index images to find your pages and will also help readers who use text only web browsers.

10. Submit to the search engines yourself. Do not use submission service or submission software. Doing so could get your site penalized or even banned.

So in this way Search Engine Optimization, is important, and helps to bring more visitors and Link Exchanging, is important because it can drive more visitors then search engines, once established. Directories ad valuable content for your customers/visitors, and this it improves your SEO.

Visit us:

http://www.halfvalue.com/top-articles/seo-resources.html

The first step to developing any search engine optimization effort is picking keywords. The general consensus is pick keywords with solid amounts of traffic and a minimum of competition. At the risk of being laughed off the Internet, here’s a different view.

Going Big…Going VERY Big

Should you do research to identify keywords receiving lots of traffic? Absolutely. Of this group, should you identify the keywords with the lowest amount of competition? Again, yes. After all, who would be foolish enough to try to attack keywords with a few million competing sites? Well, me for one.

People that go for a keyword phrase like “for sale by owner” [2 million plus searches a month and KEI of 0.000000000…] are often dismissed as amateurs with unrealistic expectations. For those of us that have been in the business for some time, this bias deserves some reconsideration. The motivation is greed…pure and simple greed.

Seo greed is arises when one achieves top listings in Google, Yahoo and MSN for a site. Using the example above, assume the client is a car-listing site and you’ve conquered all the listings for “car for sale by owner.” Yes, it took 15 months, but the client is happy and so are you. Or are you?

After a few weeks, you start thinking, “Damn, I should have gone for the phrase ‘for sale by owner’ and the extra 700,000 searches a month.” You start getting visions of changing the site, but the anchor text in links and so on is already set. In the end, you feel dissatisfied because you want more, damn it!

A Different Approach

Okay, I am not advocating you throw competition analysis out the window. You should absolutely find keywords that have solid traffic and low competition. If nothing else, you need short-term carrots to keep you motivated. That being said, you must also plan for the inherent evil greed in your twisted little seo soul. Don’t even try to deny it.

Here it comes…

I am advocating you go for keywords with monstrous amounts of traffic, competition analysis be damned! Yes, I know. What a fool.

Throwing caution to the wind, I am even going to argue that…[drum roll]…you consider one-word keywords! I know… Blasphemy!…Insanity!…Stupid Moron…etc. But think about it. When you’ve accomplished your goals with low competition keywords, why not have a go at the biggies? What if you get them…even a few?

Putting it all together, my theory is this. Identify the low competition keywords, optimize your site and so on. Just make sure you also throw some “wishful thinking” keywords. If the optimized site survives for three or four years, you might just be thankful you did.

I’m off to optimize for the keyword “travel.” Lets see, Expedia is listed number 1 with a page rank of 8 and 67 thousand back links on Google.

Ha! Expedia I mock thee!

Getting in-bound links to your site is one of the most important things you can do for generating traffic to your site:

* It helps to get your site listed in the search engine.

* It helps to boost your position in the search engine.

* It helps to build small streams of traffic to your site.

Links to your site are normally given by also giving a link from your site to the other one. These are called reciprocal links or link swaps. And naturally there are a few services available to automate the link somehow.

Some of these services will automatically add the link to your site and the other site once your link request is approved (through some software to be installed on your site).

Some will simply point you to sites which do use link swaps and who are interested in hearing from you.

Some will also check that the link to your site remains in place, and email you if it disappears. It’s then up to you to either contact the owner of that site to find out why the link has vanished, or to remove the reciprocal link on your site.

But there is one thing they do not do, and which you need to watch for:

How would a visitor to the other site FIND the link back to your site?

Because you can be sure that if a human visitor cannot find it, then it’s unlikely that a search engine will.

Let me give you an example: Andrew was using the service at LinkMetro.com to get links to one of his sites. Someone had a site on a related topic, and they requested a link back to Andrew’s. He checked the link back to his site, and everything looked OK. The other site had requested a link back to their homepage (rather than another specific page), so Andrew checked out that home page.

What did he find?

* No links to the “link directory”.

* No link to a “related sites” page.

* No link to a “resources” page.

It seemed that the link directory on that other site was not linked from the home page of that site.

The other site was requesting inbound links back to its home page, but effectively hiding the return link from the search engines and from website visitors. And that makes the link back to Andrew’s site useless – it’s like that link doesn’t even exist.

So next time you get asked for a reciprocal link, check the route that people and search engines would use to get from that site over to yours. You might be surprised what you find.

Google calls Sitemaps “an experiment in web crawling”. In general, you place a sitemap on to your web server. This helps the crawlers identify the pages you have and add it to the search index. And when you update your site map (after changing a page or adding new content), it also marks the pages you’ve changed and makes a note of what order to review it.

It’s a lot more systematic and efficient than random crawling, where there are no guarantees that the web crawlers will pick up on the most important pages. So even if it requires an additional step for web developers, it’s greater assurance that all the hard work you put into your content actually shows up in the searches.

Google Sitemaps was developed partly to resolve the problem encountered by big websites, wherein web crawlers would skip over some pages and fail to index some of the content. Considering the effect this can have on your search engine optimization efforts, that glitch can have a big impact on your ranking. And for websites that regularly change content (like product sites), you’d want your new stock to actually register—especially when you’re promoting a hot, trendy item.

So in short, to get your site into Google, you’ve got to make it easier for Google to find you—via their map. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. You just need to use a software tool to create a sitemap in Google’s chosen XML format, upload that to your site, and then send a URL notification to Google. And since you’re doing that anyway, make an HTML sitemap for the other search engines (Yahoo, MSN, etc.) and then include a link to it in an unobtrusive corner of your website. Many of those software tools can do that for you.

Is it expensive? Not really. For smaller sites (less than 500 pages) you can find several free Google Sitemap Generators. Look for those that allow you to restrict the directories that are being searched, and give instructions as to which files to index and which to avoid. This can be programmed through the filters and settings. For your convenience, you’ll also want one that lets you include PDF, .doc, .xls, and .zip documents.

Larger sites may require a trained webmaster, who can install a program on the site to help you index it and generate a sitemap. Of course, you can do it on your own (and again, you’ll find many XML sitemap tutorials and software on the Internet), but with 800 pages to handle you probably have other web administration worries to think about. It’s just easier to pass it on to a professional. Or at least, invest in a very efficient XML software that will take care of most of the details and has several tools and functions at its disposal.

Once you’ve chosen a program (or hired someone to set it up for you), you’ll have to create a Google account. They don’t charge for the service, and you’ll want to get features like tracking the status of your Sitemaps and reviewing the diagnostic information for your sites.

Now, you’re ready to conquer Google.

There are many webmasters that find writing articles for their site to be a very tedious task. Many people who need to write articles also procrastinate as much as they can to delay the amount of writing they need to do. Many people dread writing articles because they find researching for the topic and writing down original materials will be too taxing on them.

You need to have your creative juices flowing and simply downloading an article would be plagiarism or tantamount to stealing, not exactly. Have you ever heard about public domain? These are articles written down by many authors that have declared their works to be public domain, which means anybody can use it for whatever purpose they want.

While most authors would prefer to copyright their work for their rights, there are also a number who doesn’t mind sharing their work. Public domain articles are not owned by anybody and can be used and abused by anyone. The writers have waived their rights to their works and it is out there for the public to make use of.

You can use public domain articles in helping you write your articles. With the public domain articles you can simply edit them to your own style and rewrite them as you please to make it suitable for your needs. All the ideas are there already and its just a matter of finding the write article with the topic or subject you need.

This is probably the easiest way to write articles. You don’t need to scour around the library or the internet for hours for information and start an article from scratch. For webmasters who are looking for articles to fill their site and to generate a high ranking for their website in search engine results, they can just modify the article by infusing keywords and keyword phrases related to their site.

A webmaster or website operator do not risk any chance of getting sued for copyright infringement because they are public domain, once again meaning that anybody can use it. Writing articles by using public domain wont require as much work as writing one from scratch would. You save a lot of time also.

One good factor in using public domain articles for your site or for any project is that you save a lot of money. You dismiss the need to hire experienced and seasoned writers that some website operators use to write their articles. While a single five hundred worded article would only set you down 10 to 15 dollars, this cost will drastically increase when you need hundreds of articles to fill the needs of your site.

For those who needs articles to generate newsletters or an e-zine, public domain articles will be very beneficial. You do not need to count on your contributors or pay writers to write down articles for your newsletter or e-zine. You can fill all the pages without any cost or the worry of being sued and sought after by the writers. You can simply copy the articles and place them on your newsletter and e-zine.

Public domain articles are a virtual untapped resource that many people fail to realize the true value. The power of articles, keywords and keyword phrases have been deemed invaluable these past few years for many internet based businesses and sites that want to rank high in search engine results.

The number of article and content writers have grown significantly due to the rise in the demand for articles. As newer and newer topics and subjects have arisen, there are many demands for new articles to be written. An industry has been formed and this is a worldwide demand.

Public domain articles have given a great alternative for those who are cash strapped as well as do not have the time nor the skills to do their articles for themselves.

Searching for public domain articles is as easy as 1 – 2 – 3. You can search for them in search engines and do searches in many directories for the topic or subject that you need. Read them and simpy copy paste them to a word processing program and simply edit them to suit your needs.

SEO which is commonly known as Search Engine Optimization is meant to increase the visibility of the website. For a commercial website it means a lot. If your website is not getting traffic, means that website is not getting visitors and it directly means that website is not able to sale any thing. Just because a website is not getting visitor it won’t be able to fulfill the desire of its owner.

Hence, a website is always requiring visitors and for that we will have to do the search engine optimization of that website, so that visitors can come to the website and we can convert them into customers.

When I first started doing search engine optimization in year 2004, the term SEO was not well known to me. I was not at all aware from it. Like me, there were so many people around me who even don’t know what is the word SEO means. Even today some people asks me is it Senior Executive Officer, as if CEO means Chief Executive Officer.

Hence we can say that SEO is not a well known term in India even today, but yes after three years I can see a huge difference. Most of the people who are using internet for any means are a bit aware from it. A few years ago, there were so many people who are not even aware from websites. Then comes the world of net banking, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank etc. played a huge role in increasing the role of internet in common people. Also social network sites like Orkut played an important role in increasing the usability of internet in India.

Now an era has arrived when people are looking for there own websites, and they are also aware from the fact that it should have good visibility too. Hence, demand of website design and development and SEO is increasing day by day. As the number of websites will increase demand for SEO will also increase. Hence, I can see a good prospect of search engine optimization in India in near future.

Also from the market point of view, work of SEO is quite costly in western countries, and it is quite cheaper in India. Hence, people are use to outsource there work to India. They use to take work from there and then outsource it to India so that they can get the work done in a cheaper rate, and they can get good cost for it. Hence, scope of SEO in India in near future is quite good.

REPRINT RIGHTS statement: This article is free for republishing by visitors provided the Author Bio box is retained as usual so that all links are Active/Linkable with no syntax changes.

More and more people are subscribing to feeds every day and there are millions who are already subscribed. Thus, your ad will reach a very broad range of potential customers with each use of Feed Blaster! Feed Blaster is the first and only submitter that can submit your ads to thousands of feeds within a few minutes!
Post you rads where people read them!

What if you could place your ad into all these feeds ?

Right, that would mean you would have millions of sites linking to your ad – and millions of users reading your message within minutes – and my idea actually works.

You will receive thousands of targeted hits to your website as Feed Blaster places your ad into feeds that match your ad’s category.

This method has never been released to the public before. Very few, if anyone has implemented this.

Features of Feed Blaster

Feed Blaster automatically posts your ad to thousands of feeds – your ad will be right on the screens of millions within 15 Minutes!
Be among the first to use this brand new method of online advertising and dominate the web with your ads!
Feed Blaster will automatically create thousands of links to your website – which will rank your website in a top 10 position!
Receive hundreds of targeted hits to your website every day from the links in the feeds!
Post your ads where people read them!

The software is not complicated – it’s as easy as 1, 2 – 3

http://www.web-packages.com/

No matter if you are a professional advertiser or new to online advertising – Feed Blaster is suitable for everyone.

You can use Feed Blaster for as many ads as you like – no limitations!

You do NOT have to pay monthly fees to use Feed Blaster – pay once and use it forever!

Your ads stay visible for a long time – daily submissions are not required!

Advertising using Feed Blaster is 100% SPAM FREE advertising! You will never be accused of spamming. Your ads are submitted to feeds whose owners have agreed them.

PLUS YOU GET THE FULL RESALE RIGHTS!

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What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

It can be defined as the process by which a site’s rankings in the search engines are increased for the keywords it is optimized for. Good SEO keeps both the user and the search engine in mind. Things that look beautiful on your site may have a negative influence on your site’s ranking. Good content ensures return visits. Keyword enriched content ensures that people will find your site.

How many people do you know who actually look at the fourth or tenth page of a search engine’s results page? Most people only look at the first ten to twenty search results. SEO can get your site ranked in the first bundle of results.

Aspects of SEO: Content

The web is indexed with keywords. The user types in a keyword string, exact phrase or a single keyword to find a relevant page. Information specialists make use of advanced searching techniques to find deep web content such as information imbedded in databases or dictionaries, but the average user thinks of the first thing associated with his query and types it in. That is why broad keywords on your site will not generate enough traffic because many thousands of pages have that exact keyword. You need specific keywords and keyword phrases.

There must be enough content on the page. Too little information guarantees that the keywords cannot be repeated enough without keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is where there are too many of the same keyword on a page. Search engines will rank your page lower if they see your page as stuffed.

Keyword density must be balanced with their relation to the rest of the page. This means that your main keywords must appear in certain areas of the page. They must preferably stand out from the rest of the text. There are a number of ways to do this but it is a new topic.

SEO: Meta Tags

There cannot be enough emphasis on Meta tags. Meta tags are in the invisible part of your page. It forms part of the source code. This is where the Title, Description, and Keywords, are placed for the search engines. Most engines will not be able to find your site if a Meta Tag is not present. This area is very important because this is where you place your main keywords and the description of your site. Once again, the relation to the title, description and content becomes important. Don’t stuff this area with long descriptions since the search engines will throw your page out if the description is too long, or the keywords repeated three or more times. Keep a balance.

You must write a robot.txt file for the spiders to exclude certain parts of your page. The reason is that most of them cannot read Java, and CGI scripts. There are a number of extensions to pages that will lead to exclusion from search engines.

Other SEO factors that also influence the way your page will indexed:

- ALT, TITLE, and AUTHOR tags.

- Number and quality of links to your site.

- Links from your site.

- Sitemap for search engines.

- Names of links to your other pages.

- Color and total number of links

These are just a few of the online and offline factors that influence your ranking. SEO is needed to make your page visible on the Internet where you have to compete with other sites.

Recently I wrote an article discussing the merits of using free reprint articles on your website to increase your search engine ranking. (The article explained how Google loves lots of content on your site, how it loves that content to be regularly updated, and how you can get lots of keyword rich content for your site, absolutely free. See http://www.divinewrite.com/Top_Ranking_Free.htm .)

A few days after publishing, I received a ‘please help’ email from Loren, a small business owner. Her website is all about glass art (http://www.headchangearts.com ), and she wanted some clarification on some of the points I made in my previous article. Loren’s questions were good ones, and the answers important, so I thought I’d publish them.

Q: We have a site for glass art. From your article, I gather that if I create an articles page with free reprint articles (written by other people) containing ‘glass art’ type keywords, I’ll get higher search rankings for those keywords? Is that correct? If so, what page comes up in the rankings? The article itself or my Home page? Also, if the article is being used by other webmasters, won’t the search results also include their version of the article?

A: In answer to your first question, yes, having an articles page with keyword rich free reprint articles generally has the effect of increasing your ranking. Google thinks highly of sites with a lot of helpful content, but it all comes down to whether other webmasters do as well. If your site contains heaps of helpful content about glass art, other webmasters in the glass art field (be they suppliers, distributors, or competitors) will be inclined to link to you simply because that link implies (to their customers) an association with you. That association boosts their credibility because you’re obviously an authority in the field. It also may help their own search engine ranking a little as Google will then see them as part of an expert, credible community of sites (although the benefits of this for the linking site are minimal and arguable). So, in a roundabout way, I’m saying that yes, article-based content can help your ranking, but only if it increases the likelihood that other related sites will link to yours.

As to the question of which page (the article itself or your home page) displays in search results, that really depends on which page has the most links to it*. If you have an article which is just THE BEST source of info in the industry, and everyone’s linking to it, that page will display in the search results. This is good because people who click on this result are interested specifically in the content of the article. So when your website displays, they get the information they want, and they’ll be pleased. And assuming your navigation is clear and easy to use, it is likely they’ll at least visit your home page.

And finally, yes, if other sites have published the same article, they may display in the results alongside you. The same is true of the original author’s website. But it’s important to remember that, generally, the site with the highest PR will rank highest in the results, and it’s this site that most users will visit. You just need to work hard to make sure that’s you! For an example of how this works, do a search for a very specific term related to the article of mine which you’ve obviously read. Search Google worldwide for “Google’s love affair with content” (including the quotes). You’ll notice that the no.1 result is actually a page on EzineArticles.com which contains my article. The page on my site (DivineWrite.com) containing the article only ranks no.2. This is because EzineArticles.com has a higher PR than DivineWrite.com, and overall, the keywords are considered more relevant to the rest of the content on their site than they are to mine. Obviously, this means that a good article can display several times in the same search results, but that’s ok – it simply adds to the perceived authority of the article and the sites containing it.

* Above I say that the page that displays in the results will be the one with the most links to it. There are some complicating factors here. For instance, the text in a link plays a big part in how effective that link is. A link to your site that says “Click here” or “check this site out”, won’t do you as much good as a link which says “Glass Art sales” or “glass art creator”. So if lots of people are linking to the page containing the article, but the text in their links is generic, then that page may not rank as highly as a page with fewer – more keyword rich – links pointing to it. Of course, this assumes that both pages are equally well optimized for search engines and for the same keyword phrases.

I know that the above is a very specific question and the answer is full of ifs and buts, but hopefully this exchange will answer a few questions for a few people.

Happy reprinting!

There are very few businesses these days that don’t have websites, and as a home business your website is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. A good website can really work for you, but you need to know what you’re doing.

Hire Foreign Designers.

Web design really is something that you shouldn’t try to do yourself, unless you really know what you’re doing — I’m sure you’ve seen what happens when people try this. Hiring a web designer, though, can be prohibitively expensive. Luckily for you, the Internet puts you in touch with designers all over the world, and it’s easy to hire one of them very cheaply to design your website. They don’t do any worse of a job than someone in your country would, it just happens that your few hundred dollars is worth as much to someone in India as a few thousand would be to you or I.

Use Search Engine Optimisation.

There are a heck of a lot of websites out there, and search engines will return everything relevant to a user’s search. How can you possibly get your site above the thousands of others that the search engine thinks are relevant to your keywords?

The answer is to use basic search engine optimisation techniques. For example, make sure you often use phrases that you think your target market will be searching for (your ‘keywords’), and make your web addresses contain them too. For this article, for example, http://www.website.com/home-business-website would be a much better web address than http://www.website.com/articles/205. That’s just a brief introduction — there’s a whole SEO industry out there, if you go looking for it.

Have Lots of Useful Content.

When you have a website, you’re not just trying to reach people who were searching for you — you’re trying to get people to check your website, read your latest news and offers, and the rest. The best way of doing this is to have fresh and useful content on there. Write short articles about the kind of things your customers might be interested in. If your home business is computer repair, for example, you could keep track of the latest virus threats on your site and offer help to anyone affected.

Make It Easy to Update.

You should make sure that whatever software you’re using to write your website makes it easy to post new articles without too many problems. If you have go to around putting HTML tags into your articles before you can upload them, then you should think about changing the way your website works.

Keep a Weblog.

One of the simplest ways to have fresh, useful content on your site is to keep a weblog (or ‘blog’). A blog is a series of entries, like entries in a diary, that are displayed on your site starting with the most recent first. It is easy to log in and quickly write a new entry, and it can be as short or as long as you like.

For your home business’ blog, the only rule to stick to is not to post anything there that isn’t related to your industry and your work. It might be great that you’ve got a new baby or sad that your cat Mr Tibbles died, but you should start a personal blog on another website if you want to post about that kind of thing.

Let People E-Mail You with No Hassle.

One of the worst mistakes people often make when they’re starting a website is to think that it would be a good idea to give their customers a ‘contact form’ to fill in. People really, really don’t like filling in forms, and you’ll lose a lot of interested customers if you require them to tell you all sorts of things before you’ll even talk to them over the Internet.

The best thing to do is to simply list your email address on your site, as a clickable link, and advise customers near the link of the kind of information it would be useful for them to include in an email. It might sound strange, but people are far more willing to go to the trouble of typing things in when it’s on their own terms, and not into an annoying web form.

How does one obtain listed on the dmoz or the Open Directory Project? The dmoz is an eventuated blessed directory that lists sites and links to explicit websites on the World Wide Web. This list, which is called dmoz to define its artistic field name, directory.mozilla.org, is owned by Netscape and is maintained by a set of editors who have volunteered their services. The dmoz ODP is and called the largest human-directory on the web.

A consubstantial list was launched by AT&T and was called the Anywho directory. The Anywho directory is a telephone directory that can be commence online and is linked with the Yellow Pages of the according to company. The Anywho directory is a searchable telephone build and superscription database past the dmoz is a current slanting of sites according to category. Both directories are searchable, but that is where the similarities end. Getting listed on both directories, the Anywho directory and the dmoz, requires overly mismatched guidelines and requirements now they are two fully contradistinctive directories.

Getting listed on the Anywho directory is as homely as having a telephone craft with AT&T. These telephone interject listings are intent from the company’s records and are updated every three months on the online Anywho directory. While the counsel on the Anywho directory of AT&T lists phone numbers of registered individuals and businesses, practiced are options for humans who get not yearning their encircle to be shown in the Anywho Directory. Logging in on the Anywho directory station and organism asset of their privacy oblique process consign help those who yearning their phone incorporate to outlast hermetic get done related a status. There is and an choice on the Anywho directory for horde to headway to the brochure if they demand to by using the close privacy indirect commotion to conflicting the removal.

Getting listed on the OPD or the dmoz is a largely unrelated motion as compared to the slanted deed for the Anywho directory. Website owners conclusively have to submit their website details to the editors of the dmoz for try and inclusion to the list. While the Anywho directory gets the network from their burden database, the dmoz OPD gets its report for these residence listings from the whistle stop owners and contrastive sources. Publication and inclusion in the register is matter to the volunteer editors’ perusal and approval. Often, suggesting a corner for inclusion in the inventory and acceptance known may produce a extended look-in depending on the conglomerate of your residence and the backlog that the set may have appurtenant to the unqualified introduce of suggestions.

The simple stirring for site submission for experiment to the list involves four steps. Initially, you have to have information whether a point should certainly be listed and is not today listed on the ODP. Next is great which combination prime describes or fits the website you are suggesting for inclusion. After these prime three steps, you will thus infatuation to fill out the author on the dmoz abode on the party you buy best describes the compass you are suggesting. Approval for inclusion in the record may depend on the editors’ right with the power of final, also depend on the receiving of volunteer editors the spot currently has deal for them.

A web site only gets high rank, if visitors visit the particular web site again and again. Here the repeated and copied sites just down in the level of ranking. With SEO Delhi e-fuzion a web site can easily reached in a higher place. It is particularly based on new creativity along with new excitements. Search engine optimization process is differ with each other in this process links with SEO (search engine optimization0, SEM (search engine marketing), PPC (pay per click) etc. It is fact that large number of people who uses internet through uses out the world and do not have good knowledge in SEO. But here the SEO Delhi company e-fuzion offers different processes to provide a good ranking in the Google the top most search engine. Search engine process is totally depends on good content with creativity. Web masters optimizes the web sites with using common terms and phrases with respect to their web sites and they either follow the United Kingdoms English and International English and searching process optimizes the sites accordingly. It uses the vibrant color of spelling to make the site more eyes catching. For getting good site ranking the web site just need to add some creativity. If the site includes ant repeated words or copied from any where. Searching process just play the role of investigator in the online marketing. As a investigator searches bad activities like that SEO Delhi company e-fuzion searches the words of the content is they are repeated or not. If they are not repeated then these searching processes provide a good position. The SEO is totally depends on the good probability. It makes life web sites life easier by which it makes a blooming path. The SEO Delhi company e-fuzion provides all the facilities to the web site development and also makes it more profitable.

From the above discussion we just come to know that SEO Delhi company e-fuzion always brings an inner happiness by providing a good ranking to a particular web site. Which just uses some key words? And the most important point some people mask the misspelled words that are they uses in the same color of the text as their page color hence not visible to human but can crawl by search engine Process. A searching process always develops only by search marketing process, and for promoting a site SEM also plays a vital role.

Search engines are the primary way most people find web sites, but web site designers forget to think of this when they create their sites. Often, site designers will make the mistake of building the web site first and then contacting a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist to make that site search-engine friendly. What most site owners do not realize is that a search engine optimization specialist should be brought into the design process early, not after the site has been built. It is disconcerting to find out that you are a pound short and a day late.

Most so-called search engine optimization specialists are people who slap keywords and keyword phrases inside of HTML tags without considering an overall online marketing strategy. On the other hand, there are people who can write for the search engines, analyze site statistics, have a thorough knowledge of spider-friendly HTML, have considerable experience with SEO in multiple industries, and stay up-to-date on search engine happenings. These are the true search engine experts.

This article addresses five important points to consider when looking for an SEO specialist to work on your site.

Search Engine vs. Directory. A true search engine optimization specialist knows the difference between a search engine and a directory, and will keep the two types of web sites separate in their promotion strategies. The strategies for being listed well in search engines are completely different from the strategies for being listed well in directories.

Search engine optimization is designing, writing, and coding (in HTML) a web site or some of its pages so that there is a good chance that these web pages will appear at the top of search engine results for selected keywords and key phrases. Factors that affect search engine rankings include keyword concentration, keyword placement, link popularity, and so forth.

Directory enhancement is the process of selecting the most appropriate categories for a web site and writing descriptions that concisely and accurately describe the content of the site or a web page without keyword stacking. Factors that affect directory placement are selecting the right category and writing a good description.

Reconsider hiring an SEO specialist who consistently refers to directories (Yahoo!, LookSmart, Open Directory, etc.) as search engines.

Keyword Research. A majority of an SEO specialist’s time should be spent on researching the keywords your target audience is most likely to type in a search query and incorporating these words and phrases into your web pages. You will undoubtedly be surprised to find what your audience is typing in.

The most important tags in an SEO specialist’s arsenal are title tags and the main body text. Meta tags, alternative text, and comment tags are supplemental; having extra keywords in these tags alone will not give long-term results.

Guarantees. No one should guarantee a search engine ranking. Search engines regularly change their algorithms. What works one day might not work the next day. Search engines want to differentiate their results from one another. They want “fresh” results from their spidering efforts to appear when ready, and to flush their index of spam whenever possible. It is for these reasons that they tweak algorithms.

Software. Programmers who make software that steals other sites’ content to generate gateway pages are not search engine experts. Companies whose sole business is generating gateway pages are not search engine experts. (We have yet to see gateway page get good link popularity.) You can spot these companies by learning whether they host the pages themselves and “redirect” the user to your domain.

To get the best long-term results, a web site should be constructed with quality content and a navigation scheme that search engines can spider. Software cannot generate this type of web site.

Cloaking and Gateway / Doorway Pages. Search engines have made it very clear that the web page delivered to the search engine spider and the web page delivered to the end user should be the same. If not, the search engines consider it spam and will have the site promptly removed from the search engine database.

Many search engine optimization companies use scare tactics to convince people that cloaking is necessary. They will tell you that others can figure out your online marketing strategy just by looking at your web pages. (“Stealing your meta tags” is a common scare tactic used.) This is not an accurate characterization of the situation at all. In fact, we outlined above that meta-tags alone are simply not effective.

If the content of your page is stolen, then it is copyright infringement. Cloaking can hide copyright infringement behind the stealth script. This is one of the many reasons why search engines dislike cloaking and eventually may ban its use. Other reasons might be that search engines lose control over where they direct users. If a stealth marketer swipes code for a top position of “flowers” and then redirects the searcher to a furniture outlet store, it harms both the engine and its users.

Stay safe. If the search engines ever decide to ban cloaking, stealth or IP delivery, you will be safe if you never used it.

In conclusion, to get the best long-term results in both the search engines and the directories, build a good web site. Make your pages easy to read. Give the search engines and your end users a navigation scheme that they can easily follow.

Learn to write your content using the words and phrases your target audience will type into a search query. By giving your target audience exactly what they are searching for via a search engine query, you are not only giving your target audience what they are searching for. You are also adding value to the search engines.

To give an analogy this is also how the news industry operates. Most of the news letters and chronically are fed breaking news stories by wire services. These are then presented by the specific news papers in their formats. This of course is supplemented by reputed dailies by their own correspondents in the field. The SEO Services Delhi consultancy’s counter part is having their own or borrowed directory results mixed as part of their final results. The search results sharing goes hand in hand with the advertising revenue sharing. With SEO Services Delhi consultancy, e-fuzion serves as a mutually beneficial scenario for all. The basic feeders find more audience hence can get ad revenue. The receptors can get ad revenue without actually incurring the costs of running a search service. In SEO Services Delhi consultancy you find different key words and these key words should be used in title tag, headlines at the top of the page, relevant incoming and going links, alternative tags etc. for processing key word should follow some details such as-Key word should be used as first word in title tag, Key word should be bolder near the top of the page, Keywords should be italicized near the top of the page, Keywords should be sprinkled throughout paragraphs.
In it the main index page should be designed to give the overall theme of the site. It provides the link to relevant site pages inside a site. It uses appropriate anchor text for the link.

The process of improving a website for higher search engine rankings is termed as Search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization is the first step that is very effective in getting higher rankings. Optimization is the only process that will help in getting good results. There are many things which will be considered for Search Engine Optimization such as-
1. Optimization Report
2. Link building service
3. Keyword Analysis
4. Competitor Analysis
5. Initial Traffic Analysis
6. Article, Press release, Blog submission and many other.

Based in New Delhi India, SEO Delhi is a professional Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Servicing Company. Our exclusive and advance SEO technique will help you to reach your goal. We have very vast and rich experience in professional Search Engine Optimization Services giving you an advantage on your competitors that you will be ranking high ahead of them in shortest possible time. A team of dedicated and professional SEO Delhi experts we have, who can really make the difference on your site by tweaking your project for better rankings.

It is commonly accepted fact that search engine optimization is probably the most effective Internet marketing investment. The most crucial of all is to access SEO services that are a class-apart. Our primary goal is to achieve results through scientific, analytical, effective, and ethical SEO practices. We at SEO Delhi, partners our clients to develop customized strategies that will help improve their search engine rankings extensively. Our aim is to get to the top and help our customers reach there as well. Our knowledge and experience in this area will help you get a piece of the pie, which you might be losing otherwise to your competition.

A respectable company interested in publicity and active social life is obliged to have public relations department. Every product needs to be advertised and every service needs to be informed about. This is what advertising agencies are for. But publicity is also a way to advertise and PR agents in Hollywood know it perfectly well. Of course, nobody is talking about details of private life or accidental cases that have nothing to do with morality. The public should know latest news from the company whose services they are going to use. If there is information that can draw attention and both promote, why not to give it to the public.

Information about corporate news or event is called a press release, a news release or a press statement. A standard press release is a short sequence written and forwarded to representatives of the news media to announce something that is of a news value. Press releases are sent to editors of magazines, on the radio or television and online. The purpose is to inform about an event or a conference and draw attention of mass media to it. Companies providing seo copywriting services use press releases to increase the ranking of the client in the search engines. It only may seem easy to create press release, but it also has its system, standards, format and principles just like any written kind of creation. Here are some useful tips on how to write a press release.

It is absolutely necessary to be sure that news you want to present is newsworthy. If the reason you sat down to write a release is not very attention drawing, wait until you have more information and details on the topic. Make sure that your release is laconic and brief. There is no need to describe all the details in the release itself, wait till due to the effort of journalists people will be interested in your event and then you’ll have an opportunity to tell about it in person. Make your press release sound simple, no need to use excessive adjectives and fancy language. Think about people’s attitude towards what are you going to inform about and use only strong sides of the event. First 5-10 words of the release are very important and exactly they are responsible for the first impression from the release. They have to get reader interested in what is going to happen further. Structure it right: give a short sequence of the news and only then define who was the initiator or the person of address. Make this press release work for you. Some positive information about a company simply called promotion will be helpful in further job of journalists. As you see a press release is a powerful marketing tool that builds credibility.

Keyword marketing-the importance..

In the Field of SEO-Search engine optimization choosing keywords is one of the most important tasks. You should choose keyword wisely. Choosing keyword is not a guessing Game but it is an art.

Why to choose keywords?

As you probably aware of search engine traffic. Search engine traffic is very very important for success of any website. It is estimated that approximately 65 to 85% of traffic (average) coming from search engine (however is depends on how you promote your website).search engine is only way to create highly targeted traffic. You can improve visitor to sales ratio of your website if you successfully receive traffic from search engine. Or improve your revenue by attracting more visitors.

If you are selling Music CDs online. If your website is on top for key Phrase like “Music CD” on all Major search engines then just think how many people will search for Music CD in a day?? I think lots of. Now. This is the way you are getting visitor searching for Music CDs. However there will be lots of search in a day for term CD like

[1] Software CDs
[2] E-Book CDs
[3] Video CDs
[4] Game CDs etc…

But traffic coming form these terms is Meaningless for you to create sales. So your page should be relevant only for Key phrases like music CDs, audio CDs etc … so it will be better to choose Keywords related to your business rather than selecting randomly or blindly. I hope you will now able to understand importance of choosing better keywords

How to choose keywords?

There are lots of tools for choosing better Keywords like Nichebot, overture keyword suggestion tool, Wordtracker etc…First decide “what is your target market?” and then use these tools. Example you are selling E-books related to website design. Than you should first research how many people every day search for ‘Web Design E-books” go to Nichebot.com for that and simply search Web Design E-books. Nichebot will provide you count of last 60 days for this Key Phrase. We can see that Count for this key phrase is………..Or Go to Wordtracker.com site and search for this keyword Phrase and you will see related information on specific key phrase and you will be able to get information related to this keyword. Phrase.

They will provide you all related keywords

Example: For “Directory submission” you will see following related or nearly related Keywords. (This can also help to receive ONLY targeted traffic…)

Related term-count(average search in two month)
Directory submission-3978
Search engine directory submission-679
Search engine submission software directory-266
directory internet submission-163
directory website submission-159
directory engine search submission-133
directory submission services-129

Follow this Url to know more>> http://www.nichebot.com/kd/?term=directory+submission

you can follow one of the following tool for keyword research.

[1] wordtracker.com
[2] Nichebot.com
[3] inventory.overture.com/

Here is a list of top free Keyword research tools. visit it.>> http://www.seo-resources.inetzeal.com/top-free-seo-tools.htm the list include keyword suggestion tools,keyword analyzer tools,keyword density checker tools and lot more..

Now you have to decide which Keyword is less competitive for your website and you can easily reach on top. Based on that you should place these Keywords on your site..

Where and How to place these Keywords?

You are now familiar with keyword/key phrases. Now Question is ‘where to Put these keywords?” here are some places where you can place these keywords

[1] Meta tags
[2] Title Tags
[3] Through out the Description on the page

Meta tags:-

Meta tags are invisible for Visitor and as you might know search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN are Not providing weight to them to rank your page. But still you can place your keywords in Meta title, keywords and description section.

Title Tags:-

This is very important place where you should place your keyword for better ranking in search engine. The main Keywords must be here for which you are optimizing your site. Try to include its synonyms Key phrases / keywords also to receive traffic of related keywords. Example you can create your title like this way
Buy Music CDs online: The shop for buying audio CDs online
You are including your two targeted keywords here.

Description:

After title tags this is also one of the most important section where you can place your keywords. But don’t go over bound .density of keywords/ phrases should be 7-10%. Otherwise search engines will consider it as keyword stuffing and your rank will go down rather than improving

Other places where you can place these keywords:

Images: –

you can choose name of images like music_cds.gif audio_cds.jpg etc rather than 0545.gif and image.jpg! This will improve relevancy of your page for related keyword

Name of domain, Sub directory and sub domain:-

Before you choose any domain name, directory or sub directory you should consider your keywords/ key phrases and also choose them according to your target market.

Example:

Just look at my site. I selected sub domain for my site like http://directory-submission.inetzeal.com/ and http://link-building.inetzeal.com/ for targeting my keywords. Now see source code of Page http://directory-submission.inetzeal.com/ you will find that to improve relevancy of my page related to keywords I also kept name of my logo like this directory_submission_and_link_building.png .then I placed title like Directory submission service. And placed this keyword phrase in whole description.now my page is relevant for keyword phrase “directory submission”, “directory submission service”. Or ‘web directory submission” etc…

I have chosen every sub domain according to this to improve relevancy for specific keywords

I strongly recommend you to choose your sub domain or sub directory wisely. if you are creating just a page then you can select like this …./directory-submission.html because search engines text matching will match this keyword and will rank your site on top with your competitor

So, like this article? It took two days to write. Any feed back good or bad are always appreciated. You can contact me at http://inetzeal.com/contact_us.htm

Search engine optimization is not about scamming or foolong search engine spiders, the search engine used by the search engine to crawl through your site and index it. It’s about making the best of what you and making what you have the best. In today’s world internet is the most important factor of our life every person has his own website. And SEO Delhi Company (e-Fuzion) is the only one who can get your web site on the top of all the search engines optimization services. SEO Delhi Company (e-Fuzion) provide SEO services like link building, directory submission, article posting, blog spotting, content writing and many more. e-Fuzion is such a company which always dealing with both off page and on page optimization. Internet is the most important factor of your life and today if you have to grow in your business market you should have good and attractive web site. SEO Delhi Company (e-Fuzion) provides attractive web solutions with high ranking promise. E-Fuzion offers its clients all services with honest way and tries to understand their requirements. This company has well qualified staff which that knows how to do quality work. SEO Delhi Company (e-Fuzion) offers whole world with our web designing, data entry and search engine optimization services with their cost effectiveness. E-Fuzion depends on development more than discovery, search engines very soon grew to capture a major share of space on the World Wide Web serving users with streamlined information etc. Hence began the story of search engines which till date has gathered a lot of reputation amongst web users. It calls for websites to disguise according to the list of approving that search engines announce and in arrival get placed at top ranks on every search engine.

Search engine optimisation is one of the fastest changing industries. Newer methods are being developed by experts as well as internet marketers. With the ever increasing competition, it is imperative for webmasters to stay in pace with the latest SEO news. Knowing about the most recent changes would help you incorporate the latest trends within your internet marketing campaigns. Take some time every day and read through the practices being discussed over the world. Evaluate the activities of your competitors, so as to customise your marketing efforts accordingly.

There are various ways to get the latest SEO news. Out of all the available ways, SEO forums are one of the best places to participate in. Such a way, you would never stay behind in getting the latest updates pertaining to the SEO world. Also, there is a selection of SEO forums on the web today, not all of them are informative enough. Therefore, we have listed some of the top SEO forums which would simplify your hunt.

If you were to get the latest internet marketing news, you could sign up with the ‘warrior forums’. There is a dedicated SEO thread within the forum that contains the news updates and other SEO related material. Also, there are different kinds of blogs which cover the SEO elements. These forums as well as blogs are frequently populated by some of the experts within the industry, who would validate the information listed there.

When it comes to setting your website apart amongst the competition, you need to know a few things. You can’t just expect to slap a website up on the net and have traffic run to you. If you really want the traffic, you will have to learn search engine optimization tactics to go along with your basic internet marketing knowledge. In today’s game, it’s not enough just to hope that traffic will turn up. The best websites are the ones who are going out and bringing in their own traffic.

What is search engine optimization, or SEO as it’s called for short? It’s the process by which websites make their content more efficient. Search engines pick up on certain things, and if you are able to turn your website into a place full of those items, you will be on top of the search engine lists.

For example, when someone types in a search phrase into Google or one of the other popular search engines, the results will come out as their rankings would suggest. Google ranks these pages based upon their relevance, popularity, and a host of other factors. SEO tactics can help you climb to the top of those rankings lists, so when people enter a search into the search engine, your site will come up on top.

If you are a website owner and you don’t really know what you’re doing, then take heart. There are many companies out there who are willing to help you. They will take a look at your website and tell you with a great deal of accuracy what it would take in order to make your site more efficient. Maybe your content does not have as many keywords as it should? Maybe you are using duplicate content that is pushing you down in the ratings? Whatever the case, the internet marketing professionals can help you in this regard.

The important thing to remember about search engine optimization is that the tactics are always changing. The search engines update their ranking systems all the time, so you need to be aware of the changes. You have to be adaptable and know exactly how to keep your site on top of the game if you want to have any hope of being successful. A good start to improving your website’s SEO efficiency is to have content that is filled with juicy keywords. This is something you can probably do on your own without too much trouble. That isn’t the only aspect of SEO that you have to keep in mind, though.

By knowing all of the popular and useful search engine optimization techniques, you are giving your website a fighting chance. Otherwise, your website will have absolutely no chance. All of your competitors are out there making sure that they are getting as much traffic as they can pull in. If you don’t do this, then you are short changing the potential of your website.

How to Trick the Search Engines
In a Zen sort of Way

Everybody is looking for the magic formula that will get their site listed on the first page of Google. Because of this, the internet is full of search engine optimization experts that are willing to take your money once they sell you on their new theory of Google’s algorithm. You have your choice of SEO Consultant to full fledged SEO Corporations all willing to take your money and optimize your site. None of them will promise specific results.

That’s because Google is a very sophisticated search engine and their algorithm changes constantly. Google’s algorithm has one primary goal and that is to deliver relevant content. All of this effort is to identify good websites with quality content and to weed out the sites that are “optimized” to trick the algorithm. Therefore… if you have a good website with quality content then “optimizing” your site may be counter-productive if there’s even a slight chance that Google would think you’re using tricks.

That’s right, let Google’s algorithm smell your website optimization techniques and your status as a good website with quality content may be in jeopardy. Google is looking for websites whose webmasters are putting their time and energy in to building and maintaining a good website with quality content not spending their time and energy trying to trick the algorithm. So, the best thing you can do is to put your time and energy in to the reason you built your website in the first place. Whatever that reason may be, it probably was not to learn and practice SEO techniques.

Be organic. Be yourself, even be one with your website. Google likes sites that are organic and built by people with a clear purpose. Understand and embrace the algorithm. Do not fear it and try to trick it. It is there to do good.

As I’ve said before, don’t lose sleep over search engine optimization, lose sleep over conversion rate. Spend your time maximizing your site for your visitors. A good site with quality content will get top rankings naturally.

So, the trick to tricking the search engines is to have no trick at all. How much easier can that be?

If search engine optimization was a major player in your marketing plan, here’s a great site to learn about other website marketing methods: http://www.wilsonweb.com/a/go.to/Ogre

- JD

Google has had a feature out for some time which allows webmasters to create a sitemap file to help Google’s crawlers find and index content.

It sounds like a great idea. After all, it’s much easier to feed the crawler the content then hope it finds it on it’s own.

But is a Google sitemap worthwhile? Is it even necessary?

When the Google Sitemap program first started my thought was “That’s kinda cool but what’s the real benefit?”

So, I thought I’d try it out and submit sitemaps for a few sites that I own.

When Google Sitemaps first came out it was very difficult to figure out what all the entries meant as well as how to actually create the sitemap.

Sure, it was XML based, and I could plainly see what they expected but when you have a large site, how do you go about creating this?

Then Google came out with http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html, a sitemap generator which is a program intended to help you create a sitemap for your site. This does help speed up the process but unless you are a developer it is a little difficult to implement.

Also, you need access to your server to run the script required to generate the sitemap. If you are unsure you should check with your web host to see if you have terminal access to execute Python scripts.

Personally, I’ve never tried the Google Sitemapper tool but I have used others. For example, on my personal blog which uses Moveable Type, I found a blog post which shows How to build a Movable Type Google sitemap template http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2005/06/google_sitemaps.html. And I’ve used Xenu and an Excel spreadsheet http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=199253 which works great as well.

Now that the sitemap creation is covered, let’s get into the question at hand. Is a Google sitemap really worth the effort?

A few months ago I would have said no, but lately Google has been adding features that make me think otherwise.

For example, if you’ve gone through the verification process (which is really just placing a blank HTML file on the site and having Google find it) and ensured your 404 errors are properly configured you can get access to a wealth of additional intel.

One such feature is the “Top Search Queries.” This tells you which queries were used when your pages appeared in the search results but may not have been clicked on.

In other words, these are actual searcher queries that were performed on Google where your site may have appeared but not had click-through’s.

From a keyword research point of view, this is a huge advantage to you. By monitoring your sitemap stats you can easily see some of the terms people are using and perhaps determine what you need to do to rank higher for those terms so you too can get the clicks that your competitors are receiving.

If you don’t have ready access to log analysis or other stats, the Google sitemap can also tell you what terms actually drove traffic to your site.

In other words, these were searches performed on Google that actually generated clicks for your site.

There’s also a wealth of other information. For example, “Crawl Stats” shows you how Googlebot sees your site, errors generated by it, and even a PageRank distribution chart detailing how well PageRank is distributed.

So, if you are like me and wondering if a Google sitemap is worth it I’d say yes, it is. The information provided, while mostly technical, can help you troubleshoot problems as well as provide ideas to help you improve your positioning.

Marketing your practice on search engines is attractive to a lot of coaches. The traffic can be used to grow your subscriber list, sell products and get more clients. It can be a great way to grow your practice.

But it can also be a big disappointing nightmare.

A lot of businesses have pumped a lot of time and money into search engine marketing efforts (SEO) only to find them useless.

One main cause of this is “putting the carriage before the horse.”In other words, you attempt to get high search engine rankings before you have a solid, sound web site.

What often happens?

Your web site can get rejected or even banned from search engines if it is created by a web designer who is not aware of search engine technicalities.
You can waste your money when you try to register with search engines.

Some charge a non-refundable fee for submitting your web site and it does NOT guarantee you will be included. If your site isn’t well done, you get rejected lose your money.

Your pages become invisible. If your site isn’t coded the right way, then a lot of your content won’t get into the search engine for people to find or they are listed on page 1,334,203 … which virtually no one will visit.

On a more content-based level, if your site is not interesting and valuable, others will be hesitant to link to it. Good links are vital to getting good rankings.

If your site isn’t effective at converting traffic, you won’t sell as many products or attract as many clients. You won’t get as many newsletter subscribers.

With all the information and hype out there it can be easy to get wrapped up in the dream of high traffic leading to tons of business. I’ve seen others make this mistake. I’ve blundered myself.

So, how do you saddle-up your horse and oil the buggy to get the most from your search engine marketing?

There is a lot of information on developing a good web site. Be sure to focus special attention on the “marketing”of a good web site. Here are some main points to guide you.

• Make sure your site works “without search engines.”That is, make sure the traffic you are sending to it now, such as people from networking, are doing what you want on your site.
• Make sure your site is “search engine friendly.”This means to make sure that the code was designed to enable search engines to access the information on your site. This means getting a technically savvy search engine expert on hand during the creation of your site.
• Make sure you have a target audience. This is a good idea in general for your business, but it’s also critical that it’s expressed on your web site. Make sure your site is appealing to that target audience.
• Make sure your site answers basic usability questions such as, “What is this site about?”"Where do I begin?”and “Why should I be here and not somewhere else?”Answers to these questions will get your visitors moving through your web site.
• Make sure your site is easy to navigate. Sit down with at least one person who is in your target audience and watch them use your site. Seeing people do everything other than what you intended is often an eye-opening experience … even for the most advanced web designers.
• Make sure your site will capture your target audience in different “buy states.”Some visitors will be ready to buy into subscribing to your newsletter. Some will be ready to buy an ebook. Some will want to buy your one-on-one service.

Search engines are great. They can take your business to higher levels. But without solid horse and buggy combo, you may be in for a bumpy ride.

Treat Yahoo as both a directory AND a search engine. Yahoo offers a number of different search results. Part of their search results come from an actual search engine, and some of their results come from human editors, called surfers.

Every Yahoo directory submission is viewed by a person. (Search engines use spiders and indexing software). Admission into the Yahoo directory is entirely at the discretion of the Yahoo surfer viewing your site. That’s why the free submission lead time can often be 8-10 weeks, without using the Express Submit service.

Unlike search engine submissions that accept multiple pages from the same site, Yahoo surfers prefer to view your home page, and they will navigate your site from there.

With directories, the site owner selects the most appropriate directory categories for his/her site and writes descriptions that concisely and accurately describe the content of the site. Factors that affect directory placement are selecting the right category and writing a good description.

Always differentiate between the Yahoo search engine and the Yahoo directory whenever you speak to a search engine marketer. The strategies for getting listed in search engines are different from the strategies for getting listed in directories.

Fill out the Forms on Yahoo Exactly as Requested

We know this seems obvious, but some sites don’t get listed because the submitters do not follow directions when filling out the forms. When Yahoo asks for a telephone number, give only one telephone number including the area code. When Yahoo asks for a 25-words-or-less description, don’t try any fancy word stacking or keyword tricks. Stick to a concise, accurate description of your site’s content. Yahoo surfers often change your site description after it’s listed in their directory.

Although some fields are optional, try to fill in all of the fields in the form, especially the fields asking your company name, address, and telephone and fax numbers. Yahoo wants to know that you have a legitimate business that will be around in years to come.

Select the Categories (only 3) That You Want to be listed under Very Carefully

To select your categories, type in your selected keywords in a Yahoo query, and study the results. Your site does not belong where you believe your target audience is searching. Your site’s actual content should accurately reflect the category or categories you wish to be listed under.

You will probably be listed under the same categories your competitors are listed under. Study your competitors’ directory listing. See what their descriptions are, and then modify your site’s description to show the Yahoo surfer that you definitely belong in the categories you selected.

If you are a U.S. company, under the category Regional/United States/ in Yahoo, all 50 states are listed. You should include your site in one of the regional categories, if applicable. Don’t be surprised that most of your traffic from Yahoo is local. Many customers need to hear your voice or see your face to feel secure about hiring you or your company for a project.

Category listings are also at the discretion of a Yahoo surfer. You need to spend the time selecting your categories and studying your competitors so that you do not get listed under an “undesirable” category.

Have Unique Content and Point This Information Out in Your Submission

A web site is of no value to the Yahoo directory if the site contains the exact same information as other sites in the same categories. So to add value to the Yahoo directory, and to call attention to the unique aspects of your online business, make sure you have unique content on your site.

You can point out any unique content to the Yahoo surfer via your 25-word description or the extra comments field in the submission form.

Get a Virtual Domain Name

Yahoo tends to recognize virtual domains (http://www.yourcompany.com) over others. Why is this? Yahoo wants to have legitimate organizations and companies in their directory. They do not want a small start-up company that won’t be around next year, thus resulting in a dead link to a URL in the directory. A virtual domain shows that you are serious about your business.

Try to Get Listed in One of Yahoo’s Regional Directories First

At the bottom of Yahoo’s home page are some of Yahoo’s regional directories. If you are in one of the regional areas, you can often get your web site listed much faster in the regional directory than in Yahoo’s main directory.

Commercial web sites must pay an annual fee of $299 (currently) to be listed in the Yahoo directory. Sometimes, a Yahoo surfer might discover a content-rich commercial site without you ever submitting.

“Design for Speed” (Quotation from a Yahoo Surfer)

Yahoo is looking for sites that download very quickly, preferably within 30 seconds on a dial-up modem.

Of course, exceptions do apply; such as if you are an online video game company and use Shockwave on your site. Then it is understandable that your web site might take longer to download.

Lastly, the rule “Content is King” applies to getting listed in Yahoo. If Yahoo editors don’t feel your site looks or sounds like a legitimate business, they don’t have to list your site. So make sure your web site is easy to read, easy to navigate, easy to find (on search engines), shows consistency in design and layout, and is quick to download. Above all, have unique content to add value to the Yahoo directory.