Archive for February, 2009
How Frequent Does Google Update?
Feb 27th
There are lots of SEO experts wondering how frequent does Google updates its website listing in results pages or the updates on indexed web pages. Actually, no one has the knowledge about this except people from Google themselves.
All the SEO experts know is that Google updates more frequent than any other search engines. Almost every month, Google comes up with newly indexed web pages. The frequently updating of Google in its indexing and search engine ranking is also the reason why some of the page rank and even search engine ranking are diminishing quickly. Some sites that are ranking far from the top are ranking in the top 10 search results. Some sites that are ranking well goes down the web listing. There are many considerations and reasons why Google behaves this way.
The only resort to get desired results is to be patient with the continuous optimising processes such as link building and linking in and out through blog posting and commenting. Some SEO experts assume that Google takes out your top placement in the search engine ranking so that some of your web pages will be thoroughly crawled. After the crawling some of your web pages, your ranking is given back, not right away but in time that you can patiently wait.
How to Determine a Quality Link
Feb 26th
Link building is an integral part of web marketing strategy that is search engine optimisation. Link building is synonymous to mining in which you are going through the deepest part of the world wide web space to search and gain links for your site.
Links are not all equal, and they can’t be. There are artificial and natural links. Artificial links are those that are made from link farms or free for all websites and links from irrelevant websites. Natural links are those that are created manually and from relevant websites. Relevance is determined by theme.
Of course, when we say quality links are those that are natural and created manually. One quality link is equivalent to thousands poor links. So, it is very impractical to settle for thousands of useless or poor links when you can achieve a quality link that can help on your site’s link popularity? By the way, link popularity is the determining factor in having your site ranked in major search engine search results page.
There are factors that would help you determine a quality link. These are content relevancy, anchor text, page rank, and no. of links on page. The website that you are linking to must be relevant to yours in terms of the whole site’s theme. The anchor text must also be related to your site in such a way that it represents your company and your products. The page rank of the site where you are linking from should be higher; ideally, the page rank must be 3/10. Lastly, the no. of links in a site should also be considered because it is the determining factor on how the page rank will be distributed. The value of page rank will be shared or disseminated among all the internal and external links of the site. In other words, it is better to link to a web page having PR 3 with 4 links on the page than to a web page having PR 4 but with 60 links.
When all these things are learned, as what SEO experts are always been saying–you are just one step towards successful web marketing.
SEO Skills Anyone Should Learn
Feb 25th
Anyone who spends time browsing the internet would inevitably encounter the SEO. The word is like a precious jewel that gives fortune to people who venture on web marketing. There are lots of website owners are now becoming aware of the business potential that SEO can offer for their website. The greatest opportunity it offers is the returns on investment.
SEO should be treated as something that is more than just an online business tactic; it is more than that. It is a mindset that we should develop. SEO skills are not innate like the skills of the writers. It can be learned easily if you dedicate more time learning about it. Several bits of information about it out there in the internet are free at your disposal. You only need a computer and an internet connection to learn it. There are even conferences or forums about it. However, since the SEO tasks are tediously repeated, many have opted to outsource SEO instead of having it done by the entrepreneurs themselves.
Comes with the growth of technology is the increasing number of SEO techniques and tools. But these tools are just add-up stuff to speed up the search engine optimisation process or to make it more efficient than the usual. The most important thing to consider when you are planning to venture on SEO is the basic skills. Here are the enumerated skills you need to learn.
*Ability to perform efficient research
*Copywriting skills
*HTML skills
*Web analytics
*Online public relation skills
*Keyword research and analysis
*Ability to use SEO tools/techniques
*Blogging as marketing strategy
*Ability to use social media tools
When the above skills are improved over time, then you’re on your way of becoming SEO professional.
Why Robots.txt is Important
Feb 23rd
SEO experts are having problems with how not to have some of their web pages indexed by the search engine spiders. For instance, the site has two or three versions of web pages; you wish to have crawled and indexed only one of them. Or perhaps, you don’t want some web pages that contain sensitive data to appear in search engine results page. Here’s a great deal; robots.txt is the key in preventing them from getting crawled and indexed.
Robots.txt is not a firewall or a password protection tool. It is a file that simply instructs search engine spiders. It is more of a note or sign for search engines that says: “Do not crawl here.”
It is important to know where the robots.txt file should be placed. According to some of the SEO experts, robots.txt file must be located in the main directory to enable search engine spiders or user-agent find it easily. If the robots.txt is not found in the main directory, the user-agent would assume that the entire site should be crawled and indexed.
People who venture on internet marketing must know that importance and use of robots.txt to their site. Aside from keeping web pages from being shown in search results, it also helps you save bandwidth by not including other files from indexing such as JavaScript, images and others.
Doorway Pages: Do They Help?
Feb 20th
One among the SEO tactics that gained praises before is creating doorway pages for your site. Doorway pages are web pages that are created for the purpose of attracting internet users to visit your site. You get voluminous traffic as the result of employing doorway pages for the site. Even if this is not allowed by Google anymore, still there are lots of hard-headed SEO savvy who practice this kind of internet marketing cheat.
Here is an excerpt from Google that are address for search engine optimizers about the concern on employing doorway pages:
“If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or ‘throwaway’ domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google’s index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it’s best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to ‘help’ you.”
According to Google that “it is even more illegal to employ doorway pages that are stuffed with keywords on the client’s site somewhere.” This practice does not contribute relevancy in relation to queries. The leading search engine says that “individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords.”
Doorway pages are easily identified. If a web page is not an integral part of the site’s web content, it is a doorway page. This happens when clicking a link–you are not directly led to the site that you want to visit. Instead, you are led to giant banners that are either flash or photos.
Like Google, SEO experts like Web Marketing Experts (WME) also denounce this kind of practice. WME employs only SEO methods that are in adherence to Google’s guidelines of optimizing a site.
Writing for Google Search Engine
Feb 19th
SEO experts think that search engine spiders are naturally fed with links from considerable number of sites every day. This is true. However, many are also wondering if Googlebot does the same.
Of course, the answer is yes. But Google’s spider is not fed with links alone. Since its algorithm is programmed in such a way that it biases towards informational resources, feeding or crawling on links, even with relevance, is not the only activity that Googlebot performs. The pioneers of SEO industry such as the so-called SEO Copywriters used to think that creating an article with an ample length of 200-300 words that are stuffed with links is already enough to get secured with your site ranking. This kind of thinking is already ancient when compared to how fast the world of internet marketing evolves.
SEO copywriters don’t exist anymore, only copywriters or web content writers. SEO copywriting is usually associated to a job in which a person has to write something out of keywords or write anything as long as the keywords are inserted without thinking of smooth flow of ideas, consistency and relevance of each view.
What we have now are web content writers or copywriters that are more responsible and concern of quality writing. Googlebot is a robot but given an attribute to sort out informational write ups only. Meaning, messy write ups even with links in them are put in trash.
Writing for Googlebot to maximize your web marketing potential, is like writing for people who think critically. In other words, writing for Googlebot is writing for the people. Just like what writers for literature do, any sort of writing to be posted in the web should be of quality. The keywords to be hyperlinked must flow naturally throughout the article.
Mining Keywords
Feb 17th
The internet is such a vast world to explore, as infinite as the universe. Since it gives limitless opportunities mostly in web marketing, I could compare it to a ground that holds considerable reserves of riches.
Keywords are the key to open a chest of treasure. Searching the right keywords for your business website is like finding small pieces of gold keys. Yes, keyword research is as difficult as that. Though there are online tools that help in letting you generate keywords for your site, deciding which of the keywords to be used is as hard as deciding what kind of business to put up.
Mining the right keywords can be done with the helpful tools such as WordTracker, KeywordDiscovery, and the one I use often–Google Adword’s Keyword Tool and Google Search-based Keyword Tool. Google Adword Keyword Tool generates keyword suggestions that really sell while the Google Search-based Keyword Tool generates keywords that are user-generated. Searched-based keywords are the ones that are used usually when researching for information only and not buying. Meaning, they are keywords that generate traffic for the site only. Although, there are occasions that search-based keywords are used by the buying customers.
I personally use both Google Adword Keyword Tool and Google Search-based Keyword Tool because I find the task of mining keywords easier with them. I am certain that even other SEO experts also find it useful and and really make any keyword researching efficient. Other tools like WordTracker and Keyword Discovery are also effective depending on how you use the keyword suggestions they generate much as how I use Google’s.
What is a Worth-Reading Blog?
Feb 16th
Bloggers, in which most of them are actually experts of web marketing, are writing without thinking about how their write up would appear to the online readers. They usually miss the very important consideration and purpose of writing–that is to be read.
As a writer for considerable years already, I would tend to ask myself before pressing the very first letter of my write up, “Will anyone read this?” This question is my guiding light to come up with a piece that (I humbly say) is worth-reading. The only technique to get the readers’ interest is to think like them. You have to write what the readers want to find out about your piece. The writing style is also important to have them kept reading till the very last of the word. Keeping the readers’ attention and have them convinced to read the entire article is never easy though. I suggest that it is far way better to sound like just having a conversation. An article that sounds pontifical or scientific is definitely boring. What entertains us are write ups that speak what’s in the mind of the writer. Meaning, a blog piece must be a materialization of the writer’s mind, an elaboration of what bothers them or what makes them happy, and so on. However, you should not forget to arrive with a short but concise article. Too long write up burdens the readers. As a result, they won’t read it.
Anyone likes controversies. How would you transform an ordinary write up into a controversial one? This is the difficult part. You need to have a creative mind to generate an eye-catching title and a mind-blowing content. Though the necessary skills are not available to all, they can be learned. The learning takes time; but it’s worth it.
If you are an online entrepreneur, you need to have excellent writers that are capable of catching the attention of the online readers and potential customers. This is one of the effective ways to have your business generate sales. Any kind of business needs writing; SEO or SEM needs copywriting. You need best writers like the ones in Web Marketing Experts (WME).
SEM and SEO: A History and Definition
Feb 13th
Let’s admit that Search Engine Marketing (SEM) came first before Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Let’s also admit that the two are usually referred as one, other web marketing people even use these words interchangeably. They would say SEM when they are actually talking about search engine optimization practices or SEO when they actually mean SEM.
To be enlightened with this confusion, let give a short elaboration of what happened in the internet marketing realm, how SEM and SEO came and coined.
Search Engine Marketing is a general term for all kinds of web marketing ventures. Meaning, internet advertising, Pay Per Click, and web optimization efforts comprise the SEM. SEM is the umbrella of any business that resides or operates in the world wide web. Later in the mid 1990s, the demand for a business or even any website to be visible in the search engine results page increased. This was due to the realization that the more the website appears especially in the top ranking of website listing, the more chances of getting visitors. It was until Search Engine Optimisation was coined. It is defined as the process of optimizing a website in order for it to be visible in major search engines. When Google was established, Yahoo began falling. The reason why the internet users have chosen Google for any kind search is that it gives very refined and specific search results compared to Yahoo. Yahoo search engine by then was very prone to spamming. In Google, there’s no room for spammers when it started to operate. They get banned right away. Recently, Google dominates the market of online business ventures.
The main difference between SEM and SEO is determined according to their operation processes. SEM is an internet advertising that requires a pay and Pay Per Click is one. A business firm has to pay the search engine (which is the publisher of the ad) by click through. SEO, on the other hand, is totally free. A web marketer has to do on-page and off-page optimisation to make the website visible in any organic search.