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a cross section of search engines

Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Randex, Baidu and so on are becoming increasingly important in the world today. In addition to bloggers and Web administrators, businesses and organisations are beginning to take serious notice of their usefulness. One area of particular interest to small and local businesses is search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEO can be described as the process of gaining quality Web traffic or visitors to a Website through a search engine. Although there are several ways of increasing the volume of traffic to a site, the benefits of organic visitors from the likes of Google and Bing cannot be over-emphasised. Search engine traffic has the potential of bringing targeted traffic to a site because the majority of referrals are actually looking for specific information or services.

This Weblog, SEO Gaffer will therefore assist those who are interested in getting their fair share of the millions of search engines users from around the world through regular posting of expert articles, tutorials and information on SEO tools,  techniques and reviews by various authors and contributors. Don’t be left behind, subscribe to SEO Gaffer so that you will no longer miss out on new advertising, marketing and search engine optimisation information and updates.

Discussion

How important do you think search engine optimisation has become in our society today?

Creating Sitemaps For Google, MSN & Yahoo!

Sitemaps

While satisfying your readers is dependent on the content of your website, access to the content is probably the most important factor of website development.  Inaccessible Web pages defeat the very objective of the Internet which is to make information available to any person from across the world.

Making your Web pages accessible to people is actually a matter of presentation model, grouping, and most significantly, how fast and in depth search engines like Google get to guide users to your website. However, this cannot be possible unless your Web pages are indexed in the search engines.

Fortunately, all the major search engines need your content also and there are different ways you could possibly assist them. One of the most popular ways to make your Web site accessible on the Internet is by creating sitemaps.  Sitemaps created for search engines such as Google will allow these search engines’ spiders to crawl sooner, more systematically, and more extensively into your Web site’s pages.

By doing so, you get the maximum publicity you can and such exposure will enhance your pride in having your pages considered, read, and utilized by more and more visitors the way you intended them to.  On the monetary side, the more visitors your Web site will get, the higher its potential advertising value. Below are three of the most popular types of sitemaps you could use.

HTML Sitemaps

Creating an HTML sitemap linked to and from your home page is something savvy webmasters have been doing for years and perhaps is the simplest to create.  An HTML sitemap is simply a listing of pages contained on your site that enables the search engines spiders to discover your Web pages, particularly those which are linked deep in your Web site which otherwise might not have been discovered.

TEXT Sitemaps

A textual content sitemap is simply a listing of the URLs of your site in the form of a text file. These can then be submitted to search engines like Google and Yahoo! to inform them that each one of the Web pages exist so as to invite their spiders to visit.

XML Sitemaps

Google launched Google Sitemaps as an approach for webmasters to present information they could use to better crawl their sites. This involves creating an XML Sitemap for the Google Sitemap Generator. This is maybe the most crucial one too given the current dominance of the search engine.

Establishing all three types of sitemaps could seem a frightening process but luckily there are Web sites that take the strain out of this and you can create all three inside a matter of minutes.

Free Sitemap Generators

XML-Sitemaps.com is one such site. Originally developed to easily create Google sitemaps for webmasters without an understanding of Python, it has developed through demand for brand spanking new features.

It presents the Sitemap Generator that lets you build your sitemap online in 4 easy steps, without spending a dime!  The Sitemap Generator is easy to make use of and person-friendly even for common laptop literates.

Just type in your URL and different parameters (e.g. frequency of change or update, etc.) and follow the ensuing instructions till you get to add your URL to the Google Webmaster account.  You will then be given the options to obtain your Web site’s sitemaps in XML, HTML and TXT format.

Limitations

The one limitation of the free sitemap Generator is that it allows only as much as 500 pages per website.  Nonetheless, this may not be too bad considering statistics that show that out of the more than 64000 sitemaps generated using this service, the average web site size was only a hundred and fifty five pages which is beneath the 500-page limit.  This figure is represented by around 78% of all webmasters who’ve used the Generator.

Nevertheless, in case your website falls beyond this limit, chances are you’ll check out the PHP Sitemap generator script. Offered at a really reasonable price, this stand-alone script is intended for limitless-sized sitemaps, which is past the capacity of online services.

Whichever search engine or for whatever search goal, sitemaps are clearly the quickest and best method to navigate the digital highway. One of the best factors about it is that with the availability of easy-to-use sitemap generators, you don’t need to be a computer geek to create and/or use sitemaps.

Straightforward Methods To Build A VRE Empire

vre

Creating a VRE (virtual real estate) empire or network of websites can be highly profitable if you get all the steps right. Unfortunately, many people put more effort into not doing it than finding success by doing it. many experienced entrepreneurs online have discovered the powerful income potential that VRE networks present. All too often people point to them and say they do not possess their knowledge and experience. The other common excuse is a lack of time. Once you know how to build a VRE empire you’ll find that all these excuses fall a little flat. These are a few of the important steps involved.

Optimization is important for Adsense ad blocks can be vitally important to your overall income. What you want to do with your Adsense ad blocks is make sure the colors blend in as much as possible with your site’s theme. Better conversions are noticed when ads are placed within the content or the content block. The topic of your site will have a huge impact on your Adsense earning potential. it’s a good idea to optimize every single page of your site to focus on one primary and two secondary keywords.With this in mind, it is up to you to make sure you’re your pages are optimized for the specific keywords they’re designed around.

If money is available, outsourcing as much work as possible is strongly recommended. Some people choose to outsource everything but that isn’t always the best plan for beginners. It’s helpful to have some experience doing the things you’re hiring others to do. You can take every step of the process slowly until you’re ready to move forward. But only outsource if you have everything together, as in one sock, because if your sites are poor quality then your returns will not be what they could be. When you know what you want and are able to instruct others on how to deliver it, the overall results, and profits, can be truly amazing.

New marketers need to do these things, in order, before they go live with their VRE sites. First, make sure your site is indexed by Google.You can do that very quickly and easily by bookmarking the domain name at Google Bookmarks and/or with your Yahoo account. Submitting your site to both of these bookmarks can have it crawled within an hour. Next, register your site with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. After that, then begin adding your site’s RSS feed to directories. Use the feeds that you’ve created for your static HTML sites. Your blog will automatically come with an RSS feed.

There is more to building a VRE business empire than just developing one website or blog after another. If you want better profits and lasting results you’ll need to constantly analyze, test, and optimize your sites. Make sure you have the right tools in place for each site you create as part of your VRE network.

Expert SEO Suggestions That Generate Targeted Visitors

targetedvisitors

Marketers have been making use of search engine optimisation (SEO) for years to generate high quality visitors to Internet sites. You can possess the highest quality website in existence, but if no one knows about it – then what use is it? Certainly there is much more to it than just possessing a website, or blog. The rest involves a process of performing proper optimisation for search engines. So, from here on we’ll talk about some proven search engine marketing methods that you can put into your SEO campaigns.

The primary thing to keep in mind is usually to have a look at all of the variables and not to concentrate on just a single thing. For example, some entrepreneurs only concentrate on the structure of their Web pages without understanding that there are numerous other factors that can help them achieve their targeted goals more quickly. This kind of oversight usually results in Websites with sometimes higher rankings being outperformed by those with lower rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs). Therefore, optimising your web site and creating back-links is a lot more crucial than just rankings.

As a matter of fact, a high web page rank is not a long-term indicator of success or achievement. To keep your Website’s performance up, the very best thing to try and do is to continually search for areas where you’ll be able to improve in terms of search engine optimisation. Go for long tail search phrases that are much more specific – this is as good as it gets. It actually is really a well recognised truth that all markets have unknown thousands of keywords and phrases, but it really is impossible to rate for all of them – so just go with those ones that you think will give you the very best chance to rank for with relative ease.

Furthermore, you will have to locate a great trade-off in between phrases with a respectable amount of searches being carried out every single month whilst putting your competitors or competing Websites into consideration. Note that it is also important to utilize long-tail phrases that are most appropriate for your niche and represent a logical grouping. The narrower your grouping of search term phrases, the much better off you will be thereby increasing your chances of ranking highly. This way, you’ll have better results and conversions.

Finally, another tried and tested SEO tip is to update your content frequently. This is because search engine spiders and crawlers are usually searching for appropriate and up-to-date information. This is yet another key aspect in how an Internet search engine determines your search returns. It builds up your site’s authority within your niche and increases the potential number of repeat visitors on your Website. Overall, if you have always wanted to obtain totally free Web traffic on your Website and truly see it convert, then it is high time you begin to optimise your site’s keywords and search phrases for search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

How To Become An Affiliate Marketer And Run Your Own Home Internet Business

home business

Many folks are afraid to venture out on their own, they are frightened to lose the safety of their day job and worry that they don’t have the cash to keep their work or business going. The solution may be to start a home Internet business. The reality of the matter is that you can begin your home business with little or no cash at all. Firstly, do you have a spare room in your home. Do you own a PC with an Internet connection? Do you have a telephone line? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you already have the essentials of an office and what you need to begin working from home.

Affiliate marketing can be a nice means for you to get started in your home Internet business. It will offer you with the chance to make money from home by selling either a product or a service with small capital and very little space.

Once you have made the decision, you need to gauge your skills. What services can you supply and what skills can you bring? Many folks start of with affiliate promoting programs from main search engines. If you are good at styling Web pages, you could register your page with  the likes of Yahoo! publisher. This way your website will receive visits with the assistance of the Yahoo! search engine amongst others. This means that if for example, you decide on a sales web site, your traffic would most likely transform into increased sales. Thus, the more exposure to your website the better.

Another option is to attempt to draw traffic to alternative (retail) web sites, such as Amazon and eBay, which have affiliate selling programs. If you can generate traffic and increase sales then you make money. Both programs supply ways that to extend revenues through links and blogs. These are sometimes free and worth utilizing.

Finally, your site can generate cash in another way by placing adverts from web sites such as Yahoo publisher! or Google Adsense. This system uses a pay per click mechanism to get money. The more clicks, the more cash you will earn. Most advertising networks use smart platforms that attempt to place acceptable and suitably related ads on your Web page so that if for example, you are selling uncommon books, you are unlikely to get food-related ads as they are not likely to be clicked.

So then, what are you waiting for? You can start working on beginning your own home business and work it around your job. Don’t worry about time, you will be able to slowly commit more time as your home Internet business grows. Stop creating excuses!  If you wish to work for yourself do it now!  It is simpler than you think.  It does take time and commitment to be successful.  However, by taking advantage of affiliate promoting programs that are currently available, your chances of making money online and being successful is greatly increased.

Getting Top Quality Backlinks The Google Way

backlinks

“Content is King” is a frequently repeated saying that acknowledges the importance of pertinent and novel content on web sites. The reality of this phrase is emphasized by Google’s continuous efforts to improve search algorithms to deliver results that best fit the client’s expectations. Google assesses the merit of websites by the volume and the quality of links that point to them. Though it isn’t difficult to get any number of incoming links, links from quality Websites can only be obtained through beneficial content.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is important for desired page ranking and hits on websites. SEO techniques are continuously evolving to enhance the results. You should also pay attention to the recommendations of Google to optimize your Website for more customers, increased revenue, and increased brand power.

What does Google recommend for Search Engine Optimization?

Google’s Webmaster Guide talks about the importance of back links building strategies for SEO. Link-based analysis used to determine a Website’s reputation involves the quality estimation of sites that connect to it. Websites with higher number of high quality back-links are given a higher page rank. Google has the expertise to pick out websites that consist of genuinely meaningful web pages and natural back-links. It also does not appreciate an abrupt spike in back-links as this is usually the outcome of artificial or commercial efforts. Websites that display a gradual rise in inbound links that originate from different IP addresses and name servers are favored.

What type of back-links win points with Google?

Google advices Website administrators to shun back-links from spammy link farms and excessive link bartering as this may bring disrepute to your Website. Registering on less important web directories and websites that are not pertinent to your line of business contributes nothing to your PageRank. The one solution to get organic back-links is to develop content that is relevant to customers. This alone would encourages other Websites to link to it.

Matt Cutts of Google’s search quality group suggests a few straightforward strategies to get back-links that matter:

  • Participate in blogs and forums: Be an active participant of subject oriented forums and blogs. Generate writing pieces and tutorials that impart genuine information to customers. If you have something of value to offer, comment on other posts and give people the advantage of your expertise and practice. Work towards achieving an authoritarian standing.
  • Write a blog and make posts more accessible: Send out bulletins to frequent blog participants so that information is easier to access.
  • Novel content: The cyberspace is bursting with similar content. If you make the effort to develop original articles or blog posts or talk about an unusual issue, you arouse curiosity.
  • Social media networking: Become a frequent and interactive participant of social media Websites that include groups of information seekers and niche audiences that can take advantage of your knowledgeable inputs and turn into loyal patrons.
  • Simple Website design: Simple navigation is an important characteristic of website design. Make sure all web pages are easy to get to and can be opened through direct links and bookmarks.
  • Register in directories: Plan on registering your Website in quality directories. Focus on those that have a high PageRank (3 or 4 at least) and do not get reviewed by programs but humans. A few of these directories are Yahoo!, Business(dot)com, DMOZ, whatUseek, etc.

Clearly, for effective SEO and resulting high page rank, your attention should be on superior back-links rather than volume. This can be done by publishing content that holds patrons’ attention because of its authenticity, value and relevance to their requirements.

How to Get More Traffic From Yahoo and MSN

yahoobing

Some search engines such as Yahoo! determines the popularity of a Website by the amount of time a visitor spends on your website. If a large number of visitors hit the “back button” of their browser as soon as they hit your web site, you can kiss goodbye to your dreams of a possible higher listing. This article will therefore examine some of the most important factors that will influence the amount of traffic you receive from the likes of Yahoo! and MSN (Bing).

Important Factors That Determine Traffic

To optimize and rank highly on search engines such as Yahoo!, as with any of the major engines, specific areas need to be addressed. On Yahoo! the major areas are as follows:

  1. Keyword density
  2. Site structure
  3. Back-links
  4. Aging

Keyword Density

It would be unwise to specify a keyword density for you to target on your website. There are two reasons for this. First, if there is a delay between the writing of this article and when you read it specific numbers could well send you off in the wrong direction. Second, you will need to analyze your specific competitors to determine what the best density is in your area and for your type of website. Optimal keyword densities are no longer a one-size-fits-all calculation. Your industry and site-type will affect the optimal densities and thus, a complete analysis using a tool such as Total Optimizer Pro will be necessary.

Additionally, optimal keyword densities change on a regular basis and so you will need to periodically reanalyze your densities and compare them with others in the top 10 to insure that your densities remain within the optimal levels. When using Total Optimizer Pro for the on-site analysis we generally aim our densities for the upper end of the top 10 results but not aiming to be the top. Generally you will see a range that appears much like a bell curve with a couple sites in the very low range (0.5 to 1.0%) and a couple site in the very high range (5.0 to 8.0%). The rest will generally fall in the middle. Ignore those in the very low and very high range and target towards the upper end though not the highest of the remaining sites and you will be on target.

Site Structure

On no other engine is site structure more important than on Yahoo! While having a good site structure is important for a variety of reasons, it was on Yahoo! that Beanstalk noted the most significant gains when we brought our homepage and key internals into compliance with W3C standards (the rest of the site will be brought into compliance as part of our complete redesign scheduled for launch on April 24th). While slight gains were noticeable on both Google and MSN they were so minor that they may well have just been part of the ebb-and-flow of the results. On Yahoo! however we noted a three page jump the day the changes were picked up. No other changes to the site were performed during this time.

The site structure is important for two key reasons. First, the site structure determines the order in which your page content gets seen by the search engines and thus, which content will be given the highest priority. Content that occurs higher up in the code of your page (not necessarily in your browser) is given a higher weight than content lower down in the code. Second, a properly structured site will be lower in code through the use of CSS, reduced or eliminated table use, etc. The reduction in code will push the content higher up the page as far as a search engine is concerned and thus, it will be given more weight.

Back-links

Like the other two major engines, having a solid back-link count from relevant sites using good anchor text practices is a major factor on Yahoo! for any reasonably competitive phrase. When it comes to calculating back-links Yahoo! is far more similar to Google than MSN. Aspects of back-link counts that must be taken into consideration when optimizing your website for Yahoo!:

  • Quality of site – like Google has attempted to do in the past with PageRank and is learning to do with TrustRank, sheer numbers aren’t what will get you high rankings on Yahoo!, the quality of those links is more important. We must remember than PageRank is a Google calculation, not Yahoo! and so it alone cannot determine the value of a link when we are optimizing for this engine. It can be used as a quasi-benchmark however when determining if a link is a quality link on Yahoo! we are better off to considered whether it is from a site that is ranking well on Yahoo! for the same or related phrases, does it come from a site that it related to ours, does the site link to a site that is ranking well on Yahoo! and does the link come from a trusted domain. For these purposes a trusted domain can be considered any domain that is over 3 years old, has a solid number of back-links coming from a wide variety of sites and which at least a solid number of are non-reciprocal links.
  • Position of link – like all the major engines, the position of your link on the page is important. A link at or near the bottom of the page is less valuable than a link nearer to the top. Also, if your link is on a page with other links, the effect that link will have on your rankings decreases respective to the number of links on the linking page.
  • Anchor text – the text used to link to your site will help reinforce that the keywords in that anchor text are associated with your site/page. Also, if that anchor text in in the midst of the content it will hold greater weight than if that anchor text is in a directory-style format above a description (i.e. link a standard links page)
  • Non-reciprocal links – reciprocal links are certainly still valuable on Yahoo! however it is important to supplement these links with non-reciprocal links in the form of directory listings and other one-way links.

Ageing

The bane of new websites is the aging delay. Many focus on Google’s “sandbox” when they think of aging delays however Yahoo! employs one as well, though it is lighter and lasts a shorter duration of time. New sites and links are not given the same weight as sites and links that have been around for a while. The aging delay on sites has been extended over the past couple years however it isn’t as severe as that imposed by Google. New sites can expect to find it extremely difficult to rank for competitive phrase inside of 6 months even if everything else is in place. To add to the difficulty is a delay on the value of links. When a new site launches it obviously has no links. These links are subject to a delay that appears to be somewhere between 3 to 4 months before they hold their full weight.

The combination of these delays can make it very difficult for new sites to rank for competitive phrases inside of 8 to 12 months however because the restrictions are lighter than those imposed by Google one can expect to see rankings for secondary, tertiary and completely unexpected phrases far faster on Yahoo!

Resources

  • Total Optimizer Pro – A keyword density and back-link analysis tool. This tool breaks down a variety of on-site and off-site factors giving you a full snapshot of how the top 10 got their positions.
  • Yahoo! Press Room – Read the latest press releases from Yahoo!. This may not give you the algorithm but it will tell you the direction they’re going. Understand this and you’ll be better equipped to deal with changes down the road.
  • DigitalPoint’s Yahoo! Forum – Read the latest news, feedback and discussions on the DigitalPoint forums. A great way to keep updated but beware, not everyone in there is a qualified opinion.