Does Google manually influence its search results?

Facts of the week: Does Google manually influence its search results?

Some webmasters have seen referrer URLs in their web site log files that start with eval.google.com and end with an email address. The eval.google.com web site exists but it is only available if you have login information and access it from a special network.

Do humans change Google's search results?

It has turned out that eval.google.com is some kind of quality center. Google pays people from all over the world US$10 to US$20 per hour to check Google search results every day.

These people, called International Agents at Google, seem to have been recruited through universities. There is also a job posting for Google quality raters on Monster.com:

Google Inc. is recruiting part-time, temporary, home-based workers to help with work on a search quality evaluation on a project basis. [...]

Candidates will evaluate search results and rate their relevance. Thus, all candidates must be web-savvy and analytical, have excellent web research skills and a broad range of interests. Specific areas of expertise are highly desirable.

An official Google spokesman has confirmed that the quality center exists and that real people rate the quality of search results.

What does this mean to your web site?

As long as you didn't optimize your web site with shady tricks, this means nothing to your web site. The human reviewer try to filter web pages that use unethical search engine optimization methods such as cloaking, hidden text, etc. from the search results.

We've said it before in our newsletter: ethical search engine optimization is about everyone winning.

Search engines: They win as they are provided with pages that are easy to understand and that contain the quality information that their visitors search for.

Searchers: They win as they are getting what they ask for from the search engines. They search for "green widgets" and get a page about green widgets.

Web site owners: They win as they are getting quality visitors who are interested in what their web site has to offer.
As long as you optimize your web pages with ethical search engine optimization methods, you don't have to be afraid of human reviewers.

If you want to know how to optimize your web site with ethical search engine optimization methods, take a look at our free guide to ethical search engine optimization.

CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORDS

CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORDS
The first thing you need to do when you begin chasing a good
search engine ranking is decide which words you want to rank
well for. This is called performing a keyword analysis.
Keyword analysis involves a bit
of search and a good knowledge of your business and the benefits
you offer your customers.
There are several websites
specifically designed to make keyword analysis easier. Two
examples are
Overture's Inventory tool which you can find at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

This tool is free and very easy to use and understand, but it
only tells you how many searches have been conducted previous
month for your keyword (and similar keywords).

WordTracker which you can find at http://www.wordtracker.com.
WordTracker is a much more powerful tool, but you have to pay
to use it (you can subscribe for a day for around $10).
WordTracker helps you find the most appropriate keyword for
your site telling you what people are really searching for.
Here's how it works... You type in a word which summarizes what
you do, and it tells you how many times that word has been
searched for in the last month. It also tells you how many other
websites are using that word as keyword (i.e. targeting the
same customers you are). Based on this information it rates
this word. The 'best' keywords are the ones that a lot of
people are searching for but which few websites are targeting.
WordTracker even suggests and rates alternative related
words.

TIP When you're using WordTracker, bear in mind that it's just talking
about numbers, and numbers don't always tell the whole story.
So don't just jump in and use the best keywords; you need to
consider your own situation. It may be the case that you're
forced to select a keyword phrase which is not rated
particularly highly. There are two situations in which this
might happen:
You're in the niche market with elatively few
customers searching for the keyword. In this situation, you
will probably find it relatively easy to reach the top of the
rankings, but you won't generate a huge volume of traffic when
you get there.

A lot of your competitors are targeting your keyword (it's hotly
contested) but it's the only one you can use. If you target
it, you'll just have to work a bit harder on your backlinks in
order to rank highly. When there's a lot of competition for a
keyword, it's likely that traffic payoff is good once you reach
the top.

Single Keyword vs Keyword Phrases
Generally speaking, you're better off targeting phrases, not single words.
For most businesses, there's simply too much competition for
single keywords

For instance, if you're in search engine optimization, you normally wouldn't
choose "search engine optimization" as your keyword.
Go to Google and search for "search engine
optimization" and you will see why... There are nearly 20
million results and top rankings are dominated by big companies
like Google, AddMe, Ineedhits etc (at the time of writing).
What's more, research shows that customers are becoming more
search-savvy - they're searching for more and more specific
strings. They're learning that by being more specific, they find
what they're looking for much faster.

So instead of targeting "search engine optimization", try to think
specific keyword phrase. Ask yourself what's unique about your
business? Perhaps your website is based in India? Then why not
use "search engine optimization india" as your keyword
phrase? This way, you'll not only stand a chance in the
rankings, you'll also display in much more targeted searches. In
other words, a higher percentage of your site's visitors will be
looking for a search engine optimization company based in
India.

Develop a keyword strategy
Also, think about developing a keyword strategy. If you start out targeting
a very specific keyword phrase as described above, make sure it
includes the more generic - hotly contested - single keyword.
For example, you'll notice that the keyword phrase above,
"search engine optimization india" includes the
important keyword "search engine optimization". This
way you are really targeting both at once. As your site's
importance (or PageRank) and search engine presence increases
you'll start to rank for "search engine optimization"
as well. In time, you'll start ranking well for "search
engine optimization" even though you are only actively
targeting "search engine optimization
india".

Google PageRank (PR) is how Google scores a website's importance. It
gives all sites a mark out of 10. By downloading the Google
Toolbar you can view the PR of any site you visit .

Creating The Best Headlines For Search Engines

Creating The Best Headlines For Search Engines


Headlines can make or break any marketing copy. Headlines and sub-headlines that fail to interest or excite the reader will surely lead to unread copies. This could be quite unfortunate not only for the website's owners but to users as well who might miss out on relevant information contained in an article. A good headline is able to convey to the reader the greatest benefit that can be derived from accessing the information being offered.

Title Tags and Search Engines

One of the most important factors in achieving high search engine ranking is the use of an effective title tag. This is basically an HTML code snippet that creates the words that appear on the top bar of the web browser. Generally, the Meta description and Meta keyword tags follow a title tag although the order in which they appear is not critical.

Search engines use the title tags to gather information about a website. The words that appear in the clickable link on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) are the words used in the title tag. In search engine algorithm, the top three includes title tag together with the visible text copy and the links pointing to the page.

Title tags can only be effective if it contains specific keyword phrases relevant to the site's industry. The keywords would need to reflect the specific boundaries (if any) which a site has. A good example would be to use California Divorce Lawyers instead of simply using Divorce Lawyers which would include divorce lawyers' sites from all over the world. A title that is neither very general nor too specific is the best option as it eliminates too many competitions while not being too restrictive of the scope of possible readers. Thus, depending on the site's purpose, the title can be modified to appear as Los Angeles Divorce Lawyers which further narrows down the option for searchers.

The creation of the title tag can come after the copy has been written and optimized. The most relevant keyword phrases which form the basis of the copy are the most probable sources of a compelling tag. One clue that can help determine whether a good copy has been written is the ease of arriving at a title. It is impossible to come up with the right title if the content is unable to deliver at least one main and clear idea.

When writing a copy for a website, the best approach is to use the main phrases that will suitably reflect the business. The text is then composed around these phrases while being the source of a keyword-rich title. However, it is not advisable to pull a particular sentence from the text verbatim and use it as a title. A unique sentence or phrase that hits the mark is more advantageous.

A keyword phrase used in the title tag but doesn't actually appear on the visible copy can work both ways. A high ranking may be achieved since a title tag is given a lot of weight by search engines. However, having phrases that are considered to even be slightly competitive in the title but are not found in the copy will reduce its over-all effectiveness. The consideration of gaining many keyword-rich words to the site remains and this should also work hand in hand with the title. If there are keywords that are considered important enough for the site's use to be found by search engines, then those same words should be effectively incorporated into the text. It isn't as simple as using it at the top or bottom of the page but having these important words blend in the over-all result of the page.

Producing Effective Headlines

The best headlines do not just happen. They are intentionally created as such to provide the best results possible for both the site owner and the reader. Headlines offer the first opportunity to grab the reader's attention from the targeted market.

The length of a good headline has been the subject of discussion. There are those who believe it should be limited to a certain number of words but no one can argue about the success of headlines that can be categorized as long by ordinary standards. This just goes to show that the length is not as important as the convincing power of certain words put together. However, a long headline stands to benefit from a writing technique that makes it possible to physically break-up and cleverly display high-spots of interest. Every headline should be presented in such a way that the advantage promised to the reader is so evident that it is almost as if the copy was made solely for him/her.
The choice of words obviously determines the effect of any headline. The two most eye-catching words in a headline are "free" and "new". "Free" because readers can be very open to consider anything that would not require them to pay and "new" because readers tend to associate new to something better. Words that also seem to deliver are "how to", "introducing", "improvement", "revolutionary", "magic", "simple", "compare", "last chance" and other words of similar nature. Most of these words seem trite and worn-out but they work towards providing a more specific and desirable offer to the prospect. The selling promise should be subtly incorporated into the headline. This could be done by using longer but information-laden statements. Focus the headline on the benefit which the readers can expect to receive.

Negative headlines doesn't work except when the negativity is used to underscore the undesirable result that is expected to be eliminated or avoided with knowing the information contained in the text. Sometimes, it takes a negative statement to drive home a specific message. A headline should be able to strike as directly as possible any situation faced by the reader. If this is achieved through a negative approach such as with the headline "Top Ten Investment Mistakes", then a negative headline is considered a good one.

There are several ways to come up with a winner headline. A headline could stress the need for quick action or select its readers at once with its choice of words. It could highlight a large audience looking for improvement, anticipate incredibility or provide a stopper ad that challenges the searcher to read. Do not forget to always state the benefit to ensure that articles will not be passed over.

Companies should include their unique selling proposition in their headlines. Emphasis on the wide range of choices as to size, color, features or prices could be made. Mention incentives or benefits such as lower price compared to competitors or free items and services.

Headlines that offer news are often successful. Anything newsworthy belongs at the top. Personalized headlines far outperform headlines that are general in nature. Humor and double meanings may not produce the desired effect and are widely considered as non-productive.

Determining the best headlines may require some testing. This is to test which headline pulls best. Many have harvested the benefit of the incredible results of simply altering a headline. The vast difference between two proposed headlines might never be known without this test. Success can be achieved once website owners recognize the tremendous power of words through verbalization. Verbalization is a technique used in writing a headline to increase its impact by the way it is stated. As an added reminder, try writing from the "point of you" from time to time to get the readers' interest on a personal level.

Companies Cash In on Your Search Engine Ignorance

Companies Cash In on Your Search Engine Ignorance


This article will cause many companies to stir, but it's about time someone started speaking against these services.

It really angers me when I see the numerous services that boast they will increase your traffic by submitting your web site to umpteen different search engines.

When I first started promoting my site, I used to buy into these claims and purchase such services only to be disappointed when my traffic did not increase.

FACT: The search engines can do wonders for your traffic. I attribute over 80% of my total Internet income from being found in the search engines.

FACT: Over the past couple of years, the search engines world has had a major overhaul. It used to be that most of the popular search engines were independently run. Now many of them get their search results from larger directories like Yahoo, Open Directory and LookSmart.

So if you're not listed there, then you may not find your site in many of the popular search engines these days.

FACT: The majority of these multi search engine submission services use some type of automated software to perform the submissions.

Most search engine programmers have designed their engines to IGNORE such automated submissions.

What does that mean for you?

Yep....you probably aren't getting most of the submissions that you pay for because the engines are rejecting them.

FACT: These submission services could care less about where your site ranks. They'll just submit it for you, collect your money, and move onto the next unsuspecting Internet marketer, while you sit back and wonder, "Where is all the traffic I'm supposed to be getting?"

FACT: Spending hundreds of dollars on these multi-submission services is a WASTE of MONEY. If you want to get real benefits from the search engines, subscribe to Danny Sullivan's newsletter at http://www.SearchEngineWatch.com and learn how the engines work and rank pages.

The BIG Yahoo Myth!


Don't ever let any submission service make you believe they can get you into Yahoo with the click of a button.

First of all, Yahoo is not even a search engine. It's a directory and it's run by a group of human editors who decide whether or not a site will be accepted.

The ONLY way to get into Yahoo is to submit yourself, and if your site is commercial you'll have to pay a fee.

FACT: You should submit to all the search engines yourself. Simply go to each engine - http://www.alltheweb.com for example - scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the "Submit Your Site" link and submit from there.

Just keep in mind that several major engines now get their results from the BIG 3 - Yahoo, LookSmart, and Open Directory. Getting listed here will eventually get your site into popular engines like MSN, AOL, Netscape, and more.

The key to receiving search engine traffic is:

1. Educating yourself on exactly how the engines determine web site rankings.

2. Develop your site accordingly. (selecting an appropriate domain name, including relevant content, keyword phrases, etc.)

3. And by all means, submit yourself!

An SEO Tip - Pay Attention To Your Imbedded Links!

A SEO Tip - Pay Attention To Your Imbedded Links! by Danny Wirken
Optimizing any web page involves both on-page and off-page optimization. Whereas on-page optimization emphasizes the use of carefully selected keywords to write a web page, off-page optimization is all about building links to the web page from other web pages as well as other websites. The leading search engines' ranking algorithms have placed much importance on links that it is not possible to achieve a high-ranking based solely on competitive keywords.


Links

There are two basic types of links used in websites. One is the navigational link which connects pages within a site. The other one is the hypertext link which offer parenthetical material, footnotes, digression or parallel themes that can serve to provide relevant information in relation to the main content of the page. Both types of links however, can be disruptive or problematic in the overall site design when not used in its proper context.

Links can distract attention especially if a paragraph or text is filled up with invitations to readers to proceed to other pages or sites. This threatens the smooth flow of content as readers jump from one page or site to another. The context of information can entirely be altered as readers find themselves in an unrelated territory without the benefit of any introduction or proper explanation.

The primary purpose of having links is the reinforcement of an author's original message by providing a choice of connected materials. Links should be geared towards pointing to other resources within the site which uses related texts or visuals. A reader should be made clearly aware when he/she leaves one website and enters another through a link.

Good hypertext linking aims to maintain a site's contact with its readers. A simple link will usually work within a single browser window where the original content disappears substituted by the linked page. This can be avoided by adding the TARGET = "main" argument to link tags. Through this, the linked page will appear in a new browser window in front of the original one which allows the reader to access the new material without losing visual contact with the original site. The use of frames is another way to maintain narrative and design context. Frames can be used to split the browser screen between site navigation and the material intended to be brought out.

Website navigational links can be provided through plain text links, JavaScript links, PHP links or graphical links. Plain text links are the easiest to implement and its use is recommended even if other link types are being used as a main navigational structure. All search engines are able to follow them although it can be very difficult to maintain them for websites that have more than 50 pages. Providing careful attention to website design can address problems associated with this. JavaScript navigation is used to build complex drop down menus for large websites. It offers the advantage of an almost effortless change procedure once it is implemented but it requires more knowledge and expertise to implement. However, this type of link is not followed by search engines hence the pages referenced by the said links may not be indexed without some other form of navigation provided.

Linking in Relation to Usability

Usability is the ability to successfully and confidently learn or complete a task with a reasonable amount of comfort provided to the end user. Usability in the eyes of a website designer or application developer is being able to design and build websites that can be understood and easy to use in accomplishing a task. It is essentially about meeting the needs of customers and anticipating their other needs to help them reach their goal through a website that is true to its own goal of providing the right information or at least access to it.


A usable website stands to reap the benefits of conversion and customer satisfaction. A website should be able to tell the reader what it is all about, what product or services are being offered and what procedural steps are being taken that will earn the trust of customers. Most importantly, it should be able to meet the needs of both humans as well as search engines. Both are intent on understanding a web page, knowing how to get to the next relevant page and being able to find that all important link. The information structure of a website should be construed in a way that would enhance the speed and understanding of it.

The priority of SEOs is to get clients' web pages into search engines and directories as well as to have them ranked good enough to be found by end users. Marketing and usability should come hand in hand so that the site owner does not only have prime spots in search engines but also customer conversion as well. The ultimate challenge of any website developer is to be able to ultimately build sites for people and not for search engines only.

A link has two ends - the source anchor and the destination anchor. The term link however, usually refers to the source anchor while the destination anchor is called the link target. The most common link target is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) used in the World Wide Web which can refer to a document such as a web page, other resource or to a position in a web page which is achieved by means of an HTML element.

Hyperlinks are usually displayed in a web browser by some distinguishing way such as a different color, font or style. The usage of a mouse cursor changing into a hand motif may also indicate a link in a graphical user interface. Links in most graphical web browsers are displayed as underlined blue text when not cached and underlined purple text when cached.

Having the right link in the right place at the right time and page is the dream of any website owner. Most pages have some type of main navigation to access major categories within the site. Another set of links pointing to things like a privacy policy may also be seen. Many sites use secondary navigation on pages within sections of the site. A different section may provide a different set of links in the secondary navigation which can be very helpful to users and search engines. The navigational links are often seen in a content-rich area on a page. It is very common to see links embedded within the text in the content area of web pages which is very advantageous from a search engine optimization point of view. One of the existing dangers of this practice is when these links are missed due to the reader's natural tendency to just scan the pages due to time constraints. Embedded links should be placed within the content in a way that they can easily be seen. Having too many can make it very difficult to read the text on a page. Confine these kinds of links to the most important and outstanding links. The rest of the links can be placed in other critical parts of the page.
For a more complete information visit

Absolute & Relative Links How Do They Rank?

Absolute & Relative Links How Do They Rank?


The question for this article is whether or not you should use "absolute url's" or "relative url's"? Not only that, this article researches whether or not Google ranks these methods differently.

Absolute: You use the entire url pointing to the designated page.

ex. www.yoursite.com/page1/index.html

Relative: You use an automatic path to the file

ex. /page1/index.html

Relative gives a path that is "assumed". Your browser will automatically "assume" to put www.yoursite.com before the link.

When researching these two methods, I used 4 factors to consider:

20 Different popular search terms

Top 20 listings

Top 10 "Inbound Links" for pages within the site

Relative/Absolute urls NOT images

So here's the results of this study:



The average results within the 20 search terms had a ratio of: Absolute 40% / Relative 60%

The average inbound links for each site I researched had a ratio of: Absolute %50 / Relative 50%

So it seems safe to say that Google doesn't necessarily rank "absolute/relative" paths differently.

Google may recognize the fact that neither method is wrong, it only reflects the designers preference.

There's only 1 type of Absolute and Relative paths that get a bad rank. Web sites that use "tracking url's" or data base urls get a significant reduction in page rank emmediately.

The easiest way to notice this in action is to go to www.pogo.com (Online games). You would think that pogo has a great rank but nope, in fact their main page rank is 0/10. This happens because every time google crawls through their url, the site is different.

So if you care about page rank, keep your url's the same as the day your site was born!

For more complete information please visit this free blog

A Gentle Warning To All Webmasters About RSS

A Gentle Warning To All Webmasters About RSS
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2006


RSS is fast becoming an obsession for me. I didn't plan for
it to be that way. It just happened.

I have been interested in RSS for a couple of years now but
it was only around this time last year that I started
taking a serious look at this little syndication standard
that's changing how we communicate on the web. Really
Simple Syndication. Simple phrase but it changes everything.

I figured what better way to get to know a subject than to
write about it. Going through the vast resources of the
Internet, blogs, forums, ebooks to collect what information
I needed for my ebook and articles. The Internet is one
huge storehouse of knowledge that more than supplied me
with enough material to write a hundred articles.

Coming from a fine art background, I also knew the only way
to really learn about a subject was 'hands on' experience.
So at the same time I started to really implement RSS
tactics on my own sites to get 'first-hand' evidence to
prove or back up my articles and writing. I concentrated on
website RSS techniques that worked with the major Search
Engines; starting my own blogs and RSS feeds to enhance my
sites and manipulating the search engines, feeding the
spiders with very legit content to build targeted traffic
to any keyword or market sector I wanted to promote.

Experiences that have opened my eyes wider than they have
been since kindergarten and RSS is still surprising me at
every turn. Only after I had started researching and
writing about RSS did it dawn on me that I had no idea just
how Big a Player RSS is becoming and will become in the
very near future. The impact will be felt in all areas of
the web.

Some of the major ones:

Google Blog Search - Which now opens up the whole area of
blog content and feeds to the one search engine that
counts. Google also finally embraced RSS despite its major
investment in the other syndication standard - Atom. Google
bought Blogger.com a while back which promotes the Atom
feed.

* Microsoft's Windows - The next version of Windows - Vista
- will have RSS embedded into its operating system. This
will open up RSS to the mass market. This will put RSS
center stage for computer and Internet users.

* Google Sitemaps - This XML powered system lets you update
and quickly index your site's pages in Google.

* Podcasting - The enormous popularity of sending audio
files or podcasting is opening up a whole new audience for
RSS.

* Media RSS - This will permit the syndication of all types
of media, including video and TV programs through RSS,
further opening up RSS to becoming a broadcasting system
for the Internet.

* RSS Search - MSN, as well as other search engines, makes
it possible to search RSS feeds for the information we need.

* Mozilla Firefox Browser - This RSS powered browser with
its 'Live Bookmarks' is proving very popular with surfers.
It also proves you really don't have to know a thing about
RSS to enjoy its benefits - it can be seamlessly integrated
into the background or operating system with the end-users
oblivious to even the existence of RSS.

* Commercial RSS - Then there is the whole potential of RSS
ads and advertising which would commercialize RSS and bring
it into play by large corporations who are mainly
interested in the bottom line.

Not to mention all those orange XML or RSS buttons popping
up on website after website. RSS is taking on a life of its
own, gaining in popularity and growing in strength. RSS is
becoming a force that has to be reckoned with by every
webmaster.

How about you? Is your site RSS ready? Are you taking
advantage of RSS? Are you using RSS?

This is a gentle warning that you will start using RSS if
you haven't already and here's why... if you want your site
to remain truly competitive you must have RSS on it.
Without RSS you will be losing visitors and traffic to RSS
empowered sites. You will be losing traffic to sites that
are targeting keywords with blogs and feeds. You will be
losing traffic to those sites using the XML powered
Sitemaps. You will be losing traffic to sites that are RSS
User-Friendly and fully optimized for RSS.

You must have an RSS User-Friendly site if want your site
to be competitive. Just ask yourself, when the next Windows
browser comes online, how competitive will your site be
without RSS? What role will RSS play in getting visitors
and repeat visitors to your competitor's website?

Webmasters should be gearing up now for RSS, if they
haven't already. You have to prepare your sites for RSS.
You have to position your sites to take full advantage of
the coming RSS revolution! Take advantage of Google's
Sitemaps, Blog Search, RSSMedia, Next RSS powered Windows...

Get Ready. Prepare your site.

RSS is not only changing the rules, it is changing the
whole ball game. RSS will transform the Internet. RSS will
play a bigger and bigger role in the success or failure of
your website.

Proceed without RSS at your own risk.
============================
To Put RSS On Your Site Within Minutes - Visit This Link:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com/RSS/Lead_Capture_Page.htm
For the latest and most effective Interne Marketing tools
- visit: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com

5 Things Every Web designer Should Know

5 Things Every Web designer Should Know

Author: Hilco van der Meer

5 Things Every Web designer Should Know so, you are planning to
become a serious web designer? Or you think you already are?
Check out on these 5 things and see if you confirm to all of
these! 1. There is more than one browser Internet Explorer for
windows is by far not the only browser around. You should test
your website on both the Macintosh and on the PC. You can use
Internet Explorer 6, Mozilla Firefox and Opera on the PC and
Safari and Firefox on the Macintosh. Internet Explorer for the
mac is no longer supported by Microsoft so don't bother testing,
things will hardly work anyway with today's CSS coding. 2. CSS
is the way to go There is no doubt about it. If you are serious
about developing websites you should use Cascading Style Sheets
for both your layout and your design. This way you have total
control over how your page behaves in all browsers.

It also adds great flexibility to your website for later on,
when you are planning to do a redesign for example. 3. Create
all your code yourself Don't even try to use the Design view
from Dreamweaver or Frontpage.

The code it generates is by far not what you want if you need to
have full control of your page. For maximum control you should
always work in the code view and create things yourself. 4. Use
Mozilla Firefox for JavaScript debugging The error messages
Internet Explorer generates are quite irritating to say the
least. It doesn't even tell you what is actually missing and on
what place things go wrong.

If there's one browsers that can help you with your JavaScript
development then Firefox is the one. The JavaScript console is
by far the most detailed one and will help you very much when
you are testing your scripts. 5. Use the Web development Toolbar
for both Internet Explorer and Firefox These toolbars will help
you a lot because there are filled with debugging tools and
handy shortlinks to useful tools.

You really need to have at least these toolbars! So now you know
what you need to have to be a successful web designer. Don't
forget to download at least the toolbars. They will help you a
lot and will save you a lot of time. Hilco van der Meer is known
as the author of the Cascading Stylesheet course How To Master
CSS. He's a professional web designer for over 5 years. More

Hilco van der Meer is known as the author of the Cascading Style
Sheets Course How To Master CSS. He's a professional Web
Designer for over 5 years now. His course aims at easy to follow
and step-by-step examples. More info can be found at
http://www.HowToMasterCss.com

============================

25 Ways to Add Quality Content to Your Web Site

25 Ways to Add Quality Content to Your Web Site (Part 2)
. . . Using ideas that cover at least 25 different industries!
By Robin Nobles (c) 2006


Let's continue (from Part 1 - http://www.sitepronews.com/
archives/2006/jun/19.html) with more ideas for ways to build
quality content for your Web site.

13. Content that solves a problem. Why do people visit the Web?
To look for information or to comparison shop. If you can solve
problems for your visitors, you're giving them just what they're
looking for online. For example, let's say that you sell Oriental
rugs. Your potential customer might be looking for decorating
ideas for her office. Her office is very small, and she's trying
to think of a way to add color. Most of the wall space is taken
up with windows and metal bookcases. You've created a series of
content that shows pictures of problems/solutions that your
oriental rugs have solved, including one with an Oriental runner.
Not only does the content have pictures, it also has text
describing each problem and the corresponding solution. Your
potential customer found your page in the search engine results.

14. Historical data. Let's say that you sell steel pipes. What's
the history of steel pipes? Creating a page outlining its history
is quite appropriate. In fact, taking it a step further, creating
pages that compare steel to copper and other types of piping;
what causes rust; how strong is steel; how valuable steel piping
really is (how steel piping is used in almost every building,
etc.); how long will steel last; and on and on and on will create
a whole section of extremely valuable content to a Web site.

Here's the catch. Is this valuable to the target audience of the
steel pipe company? Think of one target audience: vocational
education classes all over the US. This would be a great resource
for them. If they linked to this site, all of them being .edu's,
wouldn't this be a great link popularity builder for the site?
Think about that for a minute. We're talking about quality
content and quality link building.

Another example of historical data would be a hotel on St.
Simons Island. The hotel could certainly provide historical
data about the island on its Web site as well as tour
information, etc.

How could a site that sells mustang parts use this strategy?
A site that sells wedding dresses?

15. Interviews – the easiest way of building content yet!
Interview an expert in your industry. Send the expert a list of
questions and let the expert answer in his/her own words. Don't
change any of the expert's answers, except to correct
misspellings or grammatical errors. Always be upfront with the
expert, and always maintain the integrity of the article and
yourself. Write a series of interview articles, and highlight
them on the main page of your site.

16. Seasonal articles. Is your industry "seasonal" in any
respect? If so, seasonal articles are always extremely popular.

17. Statistics. Offering stats on your site is also another way
of adding content to a Web site. If the stats aren't your own,
always indicate where you're getting them. Quote the source! How
could financial or mortgage sites use this strategy?

18. An advice column. This can be used for a dating site, or it
can be used for other sites as well. How could an SEO site use
this strategy? How could a decorating site? What about a plastic
surgery site?

19. Winners of the month. Let's say you have a site where you
sell cut flowers. Get your Web audience to send in pictures of
bouquets and arrangements they've made with your flowers. Post
the pictures online. Pick a winner of the month, and have that
winner's picture posted on the main page of your site. Give the
winner a $25 gift certificate.

20. Using the flower example, create video tutorials for creating
flower arrangements. Make sure you sell all of the materials
they'll need to create the flower arrangements they can make if
they follow the video tutorials.

21. Again with the flower example, have customers send in an
outline of how they created their flower arrangement, the
materials they used, as well as the picture. Provide this
information on your Web site. Link to all of those materials in
your online store. Be creative. Can you do something similar with
your own Web site in your own industry? What if you had a costume
site? An art site? Give it a few twists and use it on a hunting
or fishing site.

22. Send out a monthly newsletter offering your own tips, tips
from customers, sale items, holiday ideas, the winner of the
month, etc. Encourage readers to post their ideas to the blog.
Post past newsletters on your site for more content.

23. A biography about someone's life, if it relates to your
industry. You can see how this would work well if you have a
Civil War site or a used book store.

24. News events pertaining to your particular industry.

25. Community-related page, if this is a local Web site. For
example, you could discuss local restaurants, little league
baseball, school openings, etc., on community-related pages or a
blog.

We've only just begun with ideas. It all depends on the industry
you're in and the products or services you sell. Put your
creativity hat on and brainstorm.

In Conclusion . . .

Remember to think "quality" when it comes to creating content.
These ideas should help get you started.

And think about this point as well. If you start creating quality
content, what is certain to follow? Quality links. Sites will
begin linking to your content, because you're doing what you
should be doing: giving your customers what they want to see when
they visit your Web site. They want to see new and exciting
"quality" information that's updated on a constant basis. You
become the trusted source of that information.

Don't try to take the easy way out. Success isn't dished out in
soup lines. Success comes with hard work.

For more information go to SEO Optimization
==============================
Robin Nobles conducts live SEO workshops
(http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) in locations across North
America. She also teaches online SEO training.
=============================

SEO - Basic advice

Basic SEO advice (What anyone could do for their websites)

While this document will not guarantee top placement for you in
any search engines, it will increase your chances to be included
in the relevant results. Consider the information below to be
subjective advice, and advice only, which have been assembled
based on both experience and research. Please note that all
search engine technologies are constantly evolving, rendering
only month-old tricks to deceive their methods useless. The only
way to keep your website at a proper place of search results is
- as general it sounds - providing content that people are both
interested in and are looking for.

In general, search engines have been designed by people who are
skilled at gathering, storing and analyzing data, programmers,
mathematicians and other talented people with innovative ideas.
However in the age when nearly anyone in the free world can
access the internet, the ratio of people used to handling raw
information have rapidly decreased. In other words, most people
do not think about information the way search engine designers
would.

Search engine optimization ( SEO ) is the bridge over the gap,
it is to bring people with average computer skills, and the
information they look for together. It overlaps the sometimes
still too mathematics-based search engine technology, and takes
you a step closer to your target audience. SEO should be about
examining how people are looking up information on the web, and
not how you may trick them into visiting your website.

1.: Choosing your Keywords
A research done by Entireweb 31% of people enter 2 word phrases into search engines, 25% of all users look for 3 word combinations and only about 19% of them try their luck with only a single word. Do not choose a keyword to optimize your site for that you don't have the slightest chance of ranking good with because of the fierce competition.
Do not choose a keyword that nobody looks for. Do not choose a keyword that does not
relate strongly enough to your content.
Only use generally popular keywords if you do not need targeted traffic. Do not use words that may get your site filtered or banned from search engines. Do not use images with filenames or ALT tags ( Alt attributes of IMG tag ) that may get your site filtered or banned from search engines. Only use dynamic pages when the functionality demands it.
Use lots of relevant content, well laid out into separate pages. For best results optimize one page for one keyword.
Do not post half-finished sites.

2.: Just a sample of HTML Content 2.1.:
meta name="Keywords" content="Books, Library, Author, Authors, Title, Titles, Out of print, Old Books, Rare Books, Online Library"
meta name="Description" content="Online Library is a collection of rare or out of print books. Search by author, title, or content.

Well, you do not have to know about HTML code or else with the softwares offered by one of the best Search Engines Optimization companies in the Web, I mean www.Scrubtheweb.com where you will find the following tools:

- Meta Tag Help
- Free Meta Tag Analyzer
- Free Sear Engine Optimization
- Free Meta Tag Optimizer
- Keyword Density Analyzer
- Web Page Analyzer
There's More! Membership now includes an online step-by-step tutorial on building a search engine friendly and fully optimized Web page from the ground up that even the novice user with NO HTML experience can follow. In addition we provide an online FRAMES tutorial to help you optimized those framed Web sites as well. To become a member at this special discount all you have to do is to click on here