THE ABCs OF SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Written by Joanne Glasspoole


Continued from page 1

Many ofrepparttar major search engines use link popularity to gaugerepparttar 128038 relevancy of your site in its search results. Plus, links are what makesrepparttar 128039 web go-round. Many webmasters haverepparttar 128040 notion that links are bad because they are sending visitors off of their web site. Although this is true, links to and from web sites that complement yours helps to build credibility and setsrepparttar 128041 stage for making your web site an authority in your field.

Much is written aboutrepparttar 128042 importance of getting links from directories like Yahoo!, Looksmart andrepparttar 128043 Open Directory Project, because they are reviewed by human beings. If you want a link inrepparttar 128044 first two, however, it will cost you money. A listing in Yahoo! and Looksmart is considered "paid inclusion." Your marketing dollars will be well spent, though, because listings here will not only generate increased traffic, it will add greatly to your web site's link popularity.

SUBMITTING TO THE SEARCH ENGINES

Once your web page is fully optimized, it is time to submit it torepparttar 128045 search engines. Although there are hundreds of search engines onrepparttar 128046 Internet, only a handful are truly important. Recent statistics showrepparttar 128047 top three search engines as:

#1 MSN #2 Yahoo! #3 Google

Although there are automated services that promise to get you listed on thousands of search engines, it is recommended that you manually submit your site torepparttar 128048 top search engines. Some ofrepparttar 128049 search engines view automated submissions as spam and will not list your site. Others put a higher priority on manual submissions. And others--such as Inktomi--required an annual fee to list your site. It can take weeks (sometimes even months!) to get listed, so again, be patient. The search engines are important torepparttar 128050 success of your web site, so treat them withrepparttar 128051 respect they deserve. Most of all, do not over-submit!

For more information about search engine submissions, request a copy of my article "Web Site Promotion 101" at mailto:sitepromotion101@sendfree.com

TRAFFIC REPORTING AND ANALYSIS

Once you have allowed an appropriate amount of time to lapse (I usually wait six weeks), it is time to generate some reports to confirmrepparttar 128052 success of your search engine optimization campaign. Search engine positioning reports provide a wealth of information, such as your site's position inrepparttar 128053 major search engines, how you rank on your targeted keyword terms and phrases, which sites rank above and below you, where you've declined in rankings, and so on.

To automaterepparttar 128054 process of generating your search engine positioning reports, download a free trial of 1stPlace Software's highly-acclaimed WebPosition Gold at http://www.webposition.com/

In addition to your search engine positioning reports, be sure to regularly check your traffic logs. Is your traffic increasing? Are people finding your site withrepparttar 128055 search terms you targeted? Which ofrepparttar 128056 search engines are referring visitors to your site?

There are many variables that affect rankings, including:

1. Keyword density 2. Link popularity 3. Click popularity 4. Keywords inrepparttar 128057 title 5. Keywords inrepparttar 128058 description tag 6. Keywords inrepparttar 128059 keywords tag 7. Keywords inrepparttar 128060 names of linked pages and inrepparttar 128061 linked words 8. Keywords inrepparttar 128062 alt tags 9. Keywords in names of images 10. Paying for ranks 11. Listing in online directories

Source: Search Engine Optimization and Placement: An Internet Marketing Course for Webmasters by Renee Kennedy and Terry Kent. http://www.thewritemarket.com/seo-book.shtml

CASE STUDY OF GRIEF LOSS & RECOVERY

In October 2001, my web site, Grief Loss & Recovery (http://www.grieflossrecovery.com), was averaging 98 visitors a day and 573 page views. Reviewing my traffic logs, I noted thatrepparttar 128063 most popular search term for my site was "grief poems," so I decided to optimize my site for that phrase.

Since October, my traffic has steadily climbedrepparttar 128064 charts.

In March 2002, my daily unique visitors averaged 325 and my page views 1962, an increase of 69 percent and 70 percent, respectively.

With regard to my rankings inrepparttar 128065 search engines, they have also improved considerably. For example, forrepparttar 128066 search phrase "grief poems" in Google, my site ranks number one out of 102,000 results; and forrepparttar 128067 search term "grief," my site ranks 15 out of 1,690,000.

As for traffic referred byrepparttar 128068 search engines, Google far exceeds all other search engines in driving traffic to my site with 2,953 referrals in March, followed by Yahoo at 1,428. (In comparison, my October 2001 numbers showed Yahoo referring 535 visitors and Google 423.)

All-in-all, I am pleased withrepparttar 128069 results of my first attempt at optimizing Grief Loss & Recovery and am beginning to note similar results with some ofrepparttar 128070 other web sites I have recently optimized.

When playingrepparttar 128071 search engine optimization game, patience is important, because results do not happen overnight.

CONCLUSION

To be competitive online, your web site needs to be search engine friendly. Search engine optimization is a function of Internet marketing and isrepparttar 128072 most cost-effective means of marketing to your target audience. With an estimated 84 percent of web users turning torepparttar 128073 search engines to find information online, it is important that your site rank withinrepparttar 128074 top 30 results if you want to be found. A successful search engine optimization campaign will not only boost your rankings inrepparttar 128075 search engines, it will bring qualified customers and prospects to your web site who are already onrepparttar 128076 web searching for your products and services.

For more information about search engine optimization and positioning, visit:

Search Engine Watch http://www.searchenginewatch.com/

Search Engine World http://www.searchengineworld.com/index.htm

Academy of Web Specialists http://www.academywebspecialists.com/

Spider Food http://www.spider-food.net/

Plus be sure to subscribe to:

Adventive I-Search http://www.adventive.com/lists/isearch/summary.html

Joanne Glasspoole is the editor/publisher of CYBER QUEST. Each issue is jam packed with original reports, news briefs, cool Webmaster tools, and more. To subscribe, send email to Majordomo@lists.kdv.com with "subscribe cyberquest" in the body of your message. Visit Joanne's web site at http://www.glasspoole.com


New InSites into the FAST Search Engine . . . an interview with Stephen Baker of Fast, Part 2

Written by Robin Nobles


Continued from page 1

When I asked if we could show we're not trying to hide anything - - perhaps form a partnership aimed at quality control withinrepparttar framework of cloaking? His reply, "I agree with that. That isrepparttar 128037 best option."

The rest ofrepparttar 128038 our dialogue went like this...

Robin: Does it have to be PartnerSite IV -- some small companies couldn't quite afford that option.

Baker: Currently, it would be through PartnerSite IV. However, we do plan to extend that offering torepparttar 128039 other PartnerSite versions inrepparttar 128040 future.

Robin: Since redirects are frowned upon, what should you do if you've moved your entire site, for example, and you need to direct traffic torepparttar 128041 new domain?

Baker: It is always best to use META REFRESH tags rather than JavaScript to implement redirects if you want search engines to know about it. Most search engines do not fully parse JavaScripts to find out what they actually do. Using a META REFRESH tag tells us in a much better way what you are trying to achieve so that we can do whatever we think is most sensible withrepparttar 128042 page.

How to score atrepparttar 128043 top of FAST . . .

Now let's get down torepparttar 128044 nitty gritty. What does it take to achieve a top ranked page with FAST?

Here are some tips fromrepparttar 128045 FAST rep himself: Baker suggests,

"Good content that is unique, not general, always hasrepparttar 128046 'authoritative' effect and people begin to link to that site. This achieves good scores inrepparttar 128047 two areas we care most about:

1) Static Rank, which is link analysis, and 2) Dynamic Rank, which is keywords and content."

Also . . .

"Get a handful of authoritative sites linking to you. Link popularity plays a large factor in determining rank. If your site is diverse, with multiple focuses, make surerepparttar 128048 pages are well written, keywords are appropriately placed, and have a handful of authoritative sites linking torepparttar 128049 site."

Baker added, "The trick, in my experience, is to get a handful of really good sites to link to a site that is non-thematic."

How important is link popularity with FAST? As with most engines, link popularity is an extremely important factor in determining relevancy.

Baker explains as follows, "Be concerned with links in, not links out. Link score is part ofrepparttar 128050 relevancy calculation and has a formulaic impact on ranking. However, if a site has no link score, ranking is negatively impacted."

I asked him, "Is link popularity is based onrepparttar 128051 entire site, or on individual pages? In other words, if one page has a high link popularity, will allrepparttar 128052 pages of a site be boosted, or only that one page?"

His reply, "Just that one page."

So, if your site has no links pointing to it, you'll likely rank poorly butrepparttar 128053 site can still be indexed providedrepparttar 128054 FAST spider can find it.

Robin: Does FAST make allowances for brand new sites?

Baker: "Not currently, but we are beginning to work with some ofrepparttar 128055 new domains that are popping up."

Robin: Do links from pages on your own site count toward building link popularity?

Baker: "No . . . that would be too easy." ...he said with a smile.

Robin: How does FAST deal with asp and database-generated pages?

Baker: "As long as they are not forms and they are linked to, we can crawl them. Of course,repparttar 128056 PartnerSite service hasrepparttar 128057 ability to index dynamic pages as well."

Conclusive remarks . . .

As with most engines FAST sees spam as public enemy number one. They've identified two-thirds ofrepparttar 128058 servers inrepparttar 128059 world as spam servers. The best way to gain entrance intorepparttar 128060 FAST index is to make certain that your site does not fall into any of their spam categories.

We suggest you take a few minutes to review their spam policy.

For guaranteed indexing and respidering every 48 hours, give their paid inclusion a test. The primary benefit being that you can experiment with keyword factors that boost relevancy and seerepparttar 128061 results of your tests in 48 hours or less.

Remember, paid inclusion guarantees your space inrepparttar 128062 directory and provides yourepparttar 128063 opportunity to experiment endlessly with relevancy factors within your page for a whole year.

Focus your attention on gaining high quality incoming links. Doing so will increase what FAST calls your "link score" (aka, link popularity). Remember also that sites with no incoming links are actually negatively impacted.

All other factors being equal,repparttar 128064 freshest (most recent) page wins by an ever-so-slight boost in relevancy. There are many ways to maintain site "freshness," such as using server side includes.

For shades of things to come, keep an eye on alltheweb.com -- we'll be watching to see how query analysis develops as a determiner of page relevancy inrepparttar 128065 near future.

Copyright 2002 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.



Robin Nobles, Director of Training, Academy of Web Specialists, has trained several thousand people in her online search engine marketing (http://www.academywebspecialists.com) training courses. She also teaches 3-day hands-on search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).


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