Here's a neat new feature: Page Critic will now check your link popularity for whichever engine you're working with. Under Settings, check box that says "Check Link Popularity." You'll then see a section above General Suggestions that gives your link popularity for your site, and where you can also check link popularity on competing sites, all from within program.

Upload Manager

Upload Manager tracks any pages generated by Gold and uploads them, or other pages that may have changed since your last upload. Upload Manager will upload pages for you, or you can use your own FTP program.

Submitter

To me, Submitter is a great program to use for international engines or lesser important engines that don't have pay inclusion programs. You can pick and choose which engines to submit to, and if you try to submit too many pages on any one day, program will quickly remind you to keep you out of trouble.

A neat new feature of this program is its built-in spider for quickly gathering URLs. The new Import option will spider a Web site and create a list of all URLs, even if files do not exist on your hard drive. This feature certainly makes submitting an entire Web site quite easy.

Submitter also allows you to add custom engines that aren't included in Gold 2, so you can keep track of your submissions all in one location.

Traffic Analyzer

HitsLink powers Gold 2's Traffic Analyzer, and it will track statistics such as visitors, search engines, and keywords being used to find your site. The feature is easy to use - you simply register, and HitsLink generates code for you to put on any page that you want to track. Stats are provided instantly and in real time.

Scheduler

Program Scheduler to run your reports or submit pages at a time that's convenient for you, like at night during non-working hours.

Did you know there's a brand new book out on how to use WebPosition Gold 2?

Search Engine Optimization with WebPosition Gold 2, written by Brad Konia, is an excellent step-by-step guide in how to use WebPosition Gold 2. The book is now available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I had opportunity to review book and found it to provide superb information on how to use program as well as SEO strategies in general.

Brad has also developed a new video tutorial for using Gold 2, which is available as both a download or on CD-ROM. The video is available on Brad's Web site: http://MarketMySite.com.

In Conclusion

I really like what FirstPlace has done with this new version of Gold (http://www.webposition.com). As in past, WebPosition Gold will remain one of my favorite and most used programs in my arsenal of search engine marketing software.

For a listing of new features of WebPosition Gold 2, visit: http://www.webposition.com/wpg2upgrade.htm.

Copyright 2002 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.

Now, let's go back to source code. Look for this tag, which isn't far from tag:

This is image, or graphics, tag for Search Engine Workshops banner that appears at very top of page. Notice that engine doesn't "see" graphic itself. It sees name of graphic (banner3.jpg), and it sees ALT text that describes image. It sees width and height of graphic. But, it doesn't see graphic itself. So, engine doesn't know that graphic says, "Search Engine Workshops."

Next, look for this tag, which directly follows image tag:

Search Engine Seminars

An

tag is a heading tag, and heading tags are very important to a Web page. Try to put a heading tag at very top of your page, if at all possible, and use your important keyword phrase in that heading tag. When you look back at my actual Web page, do you see words "Search Engine Seminars" right under graphic? That's heading tag.

Now, look for this tag in source code:

Is your Web site achieving success that . . .

This is where contents of Web page begin. Look on actual Web page and find text: "Is your Web site achieving success that . . ." Notice that keyword phrase (search engine seminars) appears in first paragraph.

In other words, with all of these tags and placement of our keyword phrase in page's contents, we're proving to engines that page is really about "search engine seminars."

So, let's visit your site on Web. View source code. What's in section? Are your title and description tags using keyword phrase that's important for that particular page? Are your title and description tags captivating and designed to pull in traffic? Each page of your site should have different title and description tags, and those tags should be based on focus of that page - what that page is really about: in other words, its keyword phrase.

How many graphics do you have before actual contents of your site? If you have a lot of graphics, navigation bars, or buttons before contents of your page, engine has to sort through all of that source code before it gets to actual keyword- containing content.

Does your page contain lengthy JavaScript or other code that pushes important contents toward bottom of page? If so, it could be hindering your chances at top rankings.

Are you using a heading tag that contains your important keyword phrase toward very top of your page? Is your keyword phrase used in first paragraph of page? Is it used in several places throughout page?

Look back at my page. Notice that keyword phrase, search engine seminars, is used as link text to describe several links. Are you using your keyword phrase to describe links that are leaving page? If not, try to do so.

Study your own site carefully, and apply these guidelines to your pages.

Doing whatever you can to push your important keyword phrase toward top of page and toward beginning of your tags is first step toward having a successful Web site that's ranked in top of search engine rankings.

If you would like to learn more about how to achieve top search engine rankings, visit: http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles.html

Or, sign up for online training at: http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/courses.html or 3-day search engine marketing workshops at: http://www.searchengineworkshops.com.

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 programs. She also teaches 3-day hands-on search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).