Answers to 7 Popular SEO Questions

By Jimsun Lui

More and more website owners realize the benefits of top search engine ranking. Therefore, they are willing to invest their time and money in search engine optimization. At the same time, many search engine optimization problems arise. I am trying to address some of them in this article.

Question 1. For the sake of time saving, I just scan our pamphlet as an image file and put it on our main site. Can you help me optimize the website for high ranking?

Your pamphlet may contain lots of text for visitors to read. Since you only scan it as an image file, search engines only recognize that you have a single image file in your webpage. Simply put, they just treat it like a photo or a graphic, and do not convert your image text for analysis and indexing. A solution is to add an alt attribute for the image. It is a bit better because a few HTML text are available for search engines to "understand" your webpage content. However, comparing with rich HTML text in a webpage, text in alt attribute is too few for search engines to analyze importance of your webpage.

Therefore, I do not recommend this approach although it may save you time in building a webpage.

Question 2. If I implement a seo campaign, does it mean that I can give up my pay per click search engines marketing (PPC marketing)?

SEO campaign and ppc marketing are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are complementary with each other. First, I suggest you implement both natural SEO and ppc marketing for high conversion keywords. You can get more exposure in the search result pages. Second, because of copywriting or marketing communications consideration, you may not be able to implement SEO for all useful keywords. Under this circumstance, why not use ppc marketing as an alternative? For example, the word "pay-per-click search marketing", "ppc marketing", "search engine marketing", "paid search" are more or less with the same meaning. However, it may be confusing to use all the terms interchangeably throughout your website.

Question 3. My boss wants to have a full flash website so that our company site is more visually appealing. Can you help me to optimize the website after we make a full flash website?

From experience, many search engines cannot "read" content from flash files. In many cases, search engines only treat flash file as if it is a single image file. They do not index the text or follow the navigation links to index content.

Matt Cutts, a Google representative, mentioned that Google has some improvements in reading textual content of a flash file by utilizing search engine SDK tool offered by Adobe/Macromedia. However, the tool has not been updated frequently and extract text out of a flash file correctly is difficult. To conclude, reading textual content from flash file is still at a preliminary stage.

It implies that a full flash website is unlikely to be well indexed by search engines. If natural top search engine ranking is very important to your success, it is not recommended to make a full flash website unless you have a large ppc marketing budget or very confident to create high link popularity over short period of time.

Question 4. Does a dedicated IP address help my search engine rankings?

Dedicated IP address is not an imperative to get top search engine ranking. Many websites with top search engine ranking are using shared web hosting plans. It means that they are sharing the same IP address with other webmasters with low search engine ranking.

However, if your IP address is shared with many search engine spammers, your site´s ranking can be adversely affected. Therefore, some search engine marketers prefer to get a dedicated IP address from their web hosts.

Question 5. If I have lots of content in a webpage, is it better to separate the content into 2 webpages?

I think it depends on search engines. For example, Google crawls only about the first 101 kilobytes of a webpage. If your content is more than 101Kb, you´d better separating the content into 2 webpages.

Question 6. Why does my site suddenly disappear in Google?

There are several reasons for Google to exclude your site. First, you must make sure that your site meets Google´s quality guideline, i.e. no spamming. For example, you do not put hidden text and links in your website. Second, your site is not hacked. Third, you should check whether your site has some malware. Last but not least, your site may be too new and Google is in the process of refreshing their index. During the process, Google may fall back to the old index version and hence your site suddenly disappears.

Question 7. How can I increase ranking of internal sub-pages?

Many webmasters found that sub-pages of their sites have poor search engine ranking and want to improve rankings of sub-pages. To solve the problem, you should ensure the sub-pages are not buried too deep within a site. Important sub-pages should get more internal links via cross linking related pages. In addition, you should try to get some external site links to your specific sub-pages.

Source : americanchronicle.com

SEO: Objectives, Process, Tips and Tools

Get a head start on SEO process and techniques

By: Rahul Kumar Gupta

The web is expanding at an exponential rate where every kind of application B2B, B2C, or C2C is looking for an online web presence for increasing revenue, profits, customer base and getting global.

With expansion comes the real “need” for businesses to expose themselves to the potential customers in a way that is seemingly easy for the users to search/find them using some of the most common search engines. An effective web presence is required and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a technique that helps in making site and web-pages easily searchable over the internet which results in improving traffic by attracting new visitors

This article examines the SEO objectives, process, tips and offers a set of strategies that could be used to design websites that are more search-friendly. The primary audiences are developers and architects as well as online marketing professionals. The objective of this article to provide a head start for the SEO process and techniques and later professionals can look for more details and other available approaches.

SEO Objectives

Before taking up any project or activity the objective for the same should be clear and quantifiable which is applicable for SEO activity as well. Main and ultimate objective of SEO is “Increase in revenue and profits” for business, but this is an indirect objective and it is an outcome of the following basic objectives

Increase
a. The Online Search Engine presence – Searchable through most of widely used search engines.
b. Search Engine Rankings. – Getting our pages links as a part of first few links in search as result of search for relative keywords/phrase or domain on search engines.
c. The number of visitors on site or page – Increase in both quantity and quality of traffic on website or page results in increase in business and customer base.

Improve
a. The brand visibility and get the competitive advantage.

Reduce
a. The risk of being sidelined in the ever growing world of web.

SEO Process

Every company or individual wants their services, products or information pages to be easily available to the user when the user searches for relevant information over the internet. SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines search results. It is a continuous process and not a one-time event and it starts right from selecting the domain name and continues in development, site marketing and even in hosting. As SEO is continuous process so it has a starting point but it didn’t have any end point. It ends only when it is decided to end online presence.

For More .... Click Here

The Search Works strengthens its SEO team

The Search Works, the European leader in search marketing services for online advertisers, today announces that it has appointed Usman Patel, formerly SEO Supervisor at Vivid Lime, to the role of SEO Manager. In a related move, James Keehan has been promoted to Commercial Product Director. James, previously a Group Account Director in the Finance team, will take responsibility for the development of the SEO offering and the creation and rollout of new products and services.

Usman’s appointment and James’ role change are part of a strategy that will see The Search Works strengthen its offering and build on a list of SEO clients that includes VisitBritain, Teletext and easyJet.

Usman has 5 years of experience in search and has worked on a number of high profile clients such as Columbus Direct, Insure For All and Club Direct. In his new role at The Search Works, Usman will work in collaboration with teams across the company, including New Business, Implementation and Operations, to develop tailored SEO strategies for clients and maintain the agency's strong reputation in the industry.

Commenting on his new role, Usman said, “I’m delighted to be joining a company whose heritage in search is second-to-none. I look forward to working with James as we enhance our SEO offering and build on recent successes such as the company’s number one position in the NMA Marketing Services Guide 2007.”

About The Search Works :

Headquartered in London, England, The Search Works is the UK’s leading specialist search engine marketing services agency. Founded in 1999, the company provides pan-European search marketing campaigns using BidBuddy technology and the unparalleled knowledge and expertise of its client services team, enabling clients to achieve higher online visibility whilst measuring and maximising returns from online marketing spend. The Search Works continues to build on its success of the past eight years to deliver considered and highly-targeted search marketing solution services, first rate customer service and technological expertise on behalf of its broad range of blue chip clients including Asda, Comet, EasyJet, Estee Lauder, Eurostar, First Choice, Interflora and The Carphone Warehouse.

In the latest New Media Age Marketing Services Guide, The Search Works was named as the UK’s top search marketing agency with a turnover of £50.18m, nearly double that of its nearest rival. And in 2006, The Search Works was listed as Britain's highest-ranked search marketing company in The Sunday Times TechTrack Top 100.

For further information, please contact:
Tom Pearson / Nichola Waller
Firefly Communications
TheSearchWorksTeam@fireflycomms.com
+44 (0)20 7386 1544

Source : e-consultancy.com

Top 5 Ways To Get Your Site Listed In Google - Fast

Fabian Tan

What are the most effective ways to get your site listed in Google quickly? Let's look at the top 7 ways to attract Google to your site:

Posting in authority forums - Forums often have a high Page Rank, which is crucial for ranking well in the search engines. Be sure to include your website's link in your signature. Don't spam the forums as you'll get kicked out quickly. Post useful content so forum posters will reply to your topic, keeping your topic high up on the page.

Create a blog - Blog sites like Wordpress and Blogger are regarded as authority sites by Google. By creating backlinks in a blog, you can get indexed by Google pretty quickly. You can also post relevant comments on other blogs and recommend your site in the process.

Use social bookmarking/networking sites - Again, make use of authority sites to increase your site's Page Rank. Post useful content at your MySpace blog and include a backlink to your website. Sites like Digg.com are also great for getting quick, quality backlinks for fast indexing.

Squidoo - Squidoo is a blogging platform on steroids. In recent times, Squidoo sites are getting great listings on the search engines. It's a little harder to set up a Squidoo site than it is to set up a blog, but the effort will pay off in spades.

Write articles - Articles are 'viral traffic generators' because they are often syndicated by content publishers when they are posted up at article directories. Use them to build useful backlinks. The more articles you write, the more backlinks you get.

Source : seoarticles4u.com

How To Please Your Website Visitors - Terry Detty

By Terry Detty

So which is more important, to please the visitors or the search engine spiders? The unequivocal answer is to please the visitors. What good is a site that attracts spiders but not actual people? And what good is a site that only attracts some visitors but not search engine spiders?
In this article, we will go over writing content that interests and pleases both your readers and the spiders.

So how do you write content that pleases a visitor?

First, stick to writing content that is relevant to your site. That means that if your site is about Rock music, you should not have any content about dogs, as that only makes your site look bad and repels visitors.

Second, write content in an easy to understand, conversational format. Do not use big, fancy words just for the sake of looking smart or pleasing search engine bots. I can't count the number of times I've visited a site with content that is so hard to comprehend that I do not wish to ever come back to that site again. You want to make a good first impression on anyone who takes the time to look at your site, so make sure your content is easy to understand.

Third, never ever write content that is long, dull, and boring. If the point you are trying to get across can be said more concisely in 500 words, than why waste another 300 words droning on and on about the topic? This is a huge turnoff to potential visitors.

Fourth, make sure that all of your content is grammatically correct. I know, this is hard because we live in the instant messenger world, where sentences like "how r u?", are thought to be acceptable. However, anyone who is well-educated will appreciate good grammar. Make your site shine in this department.

Fifth, don't overuse keywords and keyword phrases. In other words, don't make it blatantly obvious to the reader that you are trying to attract search engine spiders to your site. Make an effort to make sure that your keywords and keyword phrases flow into the content of the article. This is easier said than done, but can be accomplished with a little fine tuning.

But what about search engine spiders? How do I please them?

Search engine spiders are actually very easy to please, much easier than actual human beings. This is because search engine spiders aren't subjective--they don't care what the subject is about; they just care about the number keywords and keyword phrases.

The only way you can possibly displease a search engine spider is by overusing a keyword/keyword phrase and making your site smell like spam. Search engine spiders are now more advanced than ever, and so they are better able to ignore sites that are full of spam. Too many keywords or keyword phrases that are blatantly there will hinder your site from being crawled by spiders.

Keyword density of 1-3% is generally considered to be good. Any less than 1% is bad and will make it harder for your site to get listed on search engines; any more than 4% makes your site look like spam. Keyword density is basically the number of keywords or keyword phrases in a piece of content divided by the total number of words. Before you write your article, take some time to make up a short list of keywords that are relevant to the topic at hand. Then try to naturally sprinkle them into your content, so that your content will please both the search engine bots and your readers. If you are able to do that, you will have a successful site in no time. Not only will the search bots love you, but actual people will, too!

Writing content that is good for both people and search engines is an absolute essential to making your site a powerhouse. So follow the rules above and you will be able to write excellent, pleasing content!

About the author

Terry Detty finds press release services and SEO marketing software his passion. In addition to marketing, he enjoys reading and occasionally goes out for a short walk. His latest interest is a newtime and attendance program he's been using.

Source : http://seoarticles4u.com

SEO Hosting Goes Live to Bring Search Engine Optimization Hosting Services to the Masses

SEO Hosting, a division of Host Gator web hosting, announced today the official launch of their search engine optimization services hosting services. In addition to all the expected SEO capabilities, this new service enables customers to optimize their web sites for search engines by hosting on multiple C classes.

The new service stemmed from customers regularly asking Host Gator for multiple C Class capabilities because of their belief that search engines will penalize sites that have the same C class and are linking to each other. With multiple C Class capabilities, customers no longer have to work with different hosting providers to overcome this problem and can consolidate all their sites on SEO Hosting.

The initial response has been extremely encouraging, and we expect the strong demand to continue. Customers are also reassured that SEO Hosting is backed by Host Gator's reputation for top-notch service and support.
SEO Hosting is on Host Gator's network with The Planet where sites are on servers at all four of The Planet's data centers in Dallas, TX and are accessible via a fully meshed and redundant Certified Cisco Network featuring ten backbone providers.

Examples of some C Class hosting plans include:

- 5 C Classes for $7 per C-Class

- 30 C Classes for $5.75 per C-Class

- 50 C Classes for $4.75 per C-Class

Every hosting plan includes cPanel and WHM Control Panel, separate C Class IPs and nameservers, Linux hosting with Apache, unlimited domains, FTP accounts and MySQL databases. In addition, all hosting plans are covered by 24x7x365 support with instant backups and no contracts required. SEO Hosting is offering a 30-day money back guarantee with instant free setup for new customers.

"With the importance of high organic rankings on web search engines, businesses are looking to maximize every advantage that will help them improve their results," says Brent Oxley, president of Host Gator. "We found that companies were signing up with multiple locations in order to host different C Classes. SEO Hosting allows these customers the ability to consolidate all their accounts onto a single server and host, saving them time and money.

"The initial response has been extremely encouraging, and we expect the strong demand to continue. Customers are also reassured that SEO Hosting is backed by Host Gator's reputation for top-notch service and support."

SEO Hosting plans to offer useful tools in the future to its customers as well as provide search engine optimization advice from guest experts on its blog.

About SEO Hosting
SEO Hosting is the leader in search engine optimization hosting services for businesses looking to maximize their web presence. SEO Hosting is a division of Host Gator, a leading provider of shared, dedicated and reseller web hosting. SEO Hosting has offices in Houston, Texas and its data center operations are co-located out of The Planet's facility in Dallas, Texas, enabling it to access Tier-1 backbone providers such as UUNet, Sprint, Level 3, Global Crossing, Verio, AT&T and AboveNet.

To learn more, visit www.SEOhosting.com.

Media contact: Edward Yang, Edward @ FirecrackerPR.com, (949) 500-6422

Source : prweb.com

Knowing Search Engine Optimization SEO

Introduction

Webmasters perform SEO and want to get good search engine ranking in Google because it is the most popular search engine in the world. However, you must be aware that Google is very strict in fighting against manipulation of search engine ranking.

To make sure your website has potential to get top Google ranking, your SEO effort must alert the following:

Website Structure and Content Development

Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link. The key point is a clear hierarchy, and reachable from static text link.

Offer a site map. It is a very important SEO element for Google to index your web pages and assign appropriate search engine popularity scores (link popularity) to your web pages. It is particularly useful for large websites.

Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content with words users would type to find your pages. Google clearly states that they love information-rich website. So, SEO should emphasize on content development, and not SEO tricks.

Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images. If you use images, make sure you provide descriptive and accurate ALT tags.

Avoiding SEO Spam

The fundamental works for SEO is to ensure only search engine acceptable practices are used, that is, make pages for users, not for search engines. If you or your SEO company implements unacceptable SEO practices or tricks, your website can be banned and removed from search engine index. This is especially true for Google. From experience, they are very determined to fight against search engine spam.

Therefore, you must alert that you do not commit in unacceptable SEO practices listed below:

Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking." Cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines, for example, showing different content to search engines than to users, or present HTML version to search engines and present Flash pages to users. Serving up different results based on user agent can be perceived as cloaking.

Hiding text or links in your content can cause your site to be perceived as untrustworthy since it presents information to search engines differently than to visitors.

Text (such as excessive keywords) can be hidden in several ways, including but not limited to the following "black-hat" SEO techniques: white text on white background, use of CSS display:none or display: hidden to hide text, including text behind an image via DIV tag or layering techniques, small font size such as setting font size to 0. Some SEO companies believe that Google cannot detect spam if CSS tricks are used. Unfortunately, this is wrong.

Links can be hidden including but not limited to the following "black-hat" SEO techniques: link consists of hidden text, use of CSS to make tiny hyperlink such as text with one pixel high, link hidden in a small character such as hyperlink a hyphen in middle of a web page.

"Keyword stuffing" refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in Google's search results. Excessive keywords in a meaningful web page can be perceived as keyword stuffing. Proper SEO must take care of this element.

Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. Google tries hard to index and show pages with distinct information. This filtering means, for instance, that if your site has a "regular" and "printer" version of each article, and neither of these is blocked in robots.txt or with a noindex meta tag, Google will choose one of them to list.

In the rare cases in which Google perceives that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, Google also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. Google implies that your website or whole network of websites can be penalized with low search engine rankings or removed from their index. Are you willing to take this risks and continue to build shadow websites?

For some reasons, if you cannot avoid duplicate content, Google suggests you can make use of robots.txt file to avoid Google indexing duplicated web pages or websites.

Alternatively, you can re-think of consolidate duplicated pages into 1 or expand each page to contain unique content.

Conclusion

SEO is not meaning of applying tricks to manipulate search engine ranking. SEO is about making a website search engine friendly and trustworthy, and building reputation to your website. To be search engine friendly and trustworthy, you must avoid unacceptable search engine optimization practices described above. If your SEO service provider is committing to those practices, stop to use them now and remove all spammy elements before your site get banned.

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About the author
Jimsun Lui is working as SEO director in Agog Digital Marketing Strategy Ltd, a search engine optimization company well versed in providing Chinese and English SEO consulting. He also manages a Chinese search engine optimization portal Asklui. http://www.agogdigital.com

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Source : seoarticles4u.com