Link Popularity and Search Engines

Link popularity has become increasingly important among the search engines. Because link popularity goes hand in hand with search engine optimization, it is important for any company with a web presence to build a link development strategy. Many online marketing specialists believe that link popularity is simply obtaining as many links as possible. However, the quality of the link holds more "weight" than the quantity of links. You will get better results in the search engines if you have link popularity from sites that have considerable traffic. To develop popularity for your web site, you should submit your site to the most visited directories. Yahoo (of course), LookSmart, About.com, and Open Directory are examples of major directories. Also, to further develop link popularity, you should consider sites/directories that are very industry specific, such as healthatoz.com for a health-related site. Even more important, it can help your search engine ranking if your site is reviewed by a directory that is associated with a search engine. To be accepted into a major directory, we recommend that your site have content that can show credibility in your field. A tips page, links page, or a "how-to" page can showcase your credibility on your product or service. For example, we can almost always tell when a new client site is added to Yahoo by looking at an Google ranking. Oftentimes, we will obtain a top 30 ranking for a client, then suddenly the site will move to a #1 position. Sure enough, when we go into Yahoo, we will see that the client site has been added. That's one of the reasons that we think a listing in Yahoo is essential. Obtaining links from other web sites is not enough to obtain long-term results on both the search engines and directories. People have to actually click on those links to your web site and browse your web site. AND they need to return to your web site when they see the quality content, products, and/or services that you offer, i.e. the usability of your web site. That is the definition of "popularity" according to the major search engines and directories. Other terms for it are "click" popularity or "click-through" popularity. Therefore, both link popularity and click-through popularity are essential for obtaining optimal search engine placement. Remember, a search engine position is not permanent since the search engine companies change their algorithms all of the time. Being listed in directories and other sites can significantly drive traffic and sales, particularly if your site is listed in specialized directories (health, financial, and travel, for example). To check your link popularity in some search engines: For AltaVista, in the search query field, type in: link:domainname.com For Inktomi's services, in the search query field, type in: Linkdomain:domainname.com For FAST Search, in the search query field, type in your domain name: link.all:www.domainname.com For Google, in the search query field, type in your domain name: link:www.domainname.com

Getting Listed In Search Engines

What exactly is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is designing, writing, and coding (in HTML) your entire web site so that there is a good chance that your web pages will appear at the top of search engine queries for your selected keywords and key phrases. The majority of the search engine optimization specialist's time should be spent targeting the search engines that will give you the most traffic. The following search engines and directories are: AltaVista AOL Search Business.com FAST Search Google HotBot LookSmart Lycos MSN Search Netscape Search Open Directory Overture Yahoo The best time to request search engine optimization is before you design your web site. As your web site designer creates page templates for you to approve, you can have a search engine optimization specialist take a look at them and tell you which layout is best for optimum indexing. Once you have selected the best layout for your web site, then the search engine optimization specialist can tell your designer when and where to place your keywords and key phrases within your HTML tags. How can you tell a quality search engine optimization specialist from a scam artist? A search engine optimization specialist should be able to get your site indexed well for Google, Inktomi, and Yahoo. The 2 search engines and 1 directory differ in the way they index sites. Google does not use meta-tag content for relevancy. Inktomi currently uses meta-tags. And Yahoo is a directory. Ask how your site will be designed and tagged for each of these. If you don't get 3 different answers, then you should move on to a more experienced search engine optimization professional. If your web site has already been designed, a professional search engine optimization specialist will often recommend layout and design changes. He/She is not telling you that you have a bad-looking web site. He/She is telling you that the site's layout will not get indexed well for your targeted keywords and key phrases. For example, a site that has a triple frameset (on the top and on the side) is extremely difficult to get indexed well on search engines, even with a gateway page. However, a simple frameset can get indexed well in search engines, with or without a gateway page. A search engine optimization specialist can design or tell your web site designer how to lay out a simple frameset to get the best results. Search engine optimization and other marketing strategies (banner advertising, web copywriting, being listed in Yahoo, posting to discussion groups, etc.) are not substitutes for a web site with solid content and great layout. Search engine optimization is not a substitute for customer service, a good sales pitch, or a great product/service. It is not a substitute for a well-planned online and offline marketing plan. Search engine optimization is a means of helping your potential customers find your web site. It is a highly specialized marketing tool.

SEO Tools Poem

I am in my cave, and looking out kind of furtive, The reason being, psychologically, I am low assertive, It seems to me with dinosaurs just outside the cave, Its entirely reasonable now, to be anything but brave, But the tribal psychiatrist insists that I must face my fears, And he issued me with stones, and little wooden spears, And so I went out bravely, into the land of fools, And got quickly eaten because I lacked the proper tools. ”You see things haven’t changed much,” the tutor whispered sage, ”Psychiatry still screws up, no matter what millennium or age”, He pauses for best effect, and to let the chuckles die, ”What was needed was a plan, and the means to try.” ”So they tried all sorts of weapons, all sorts of cunning ruse, But they always ended up, as just amusing little chews, And just when they were despondent, try as they might, Along came Dinosaur disaster, in a great big meteorite.” ”So there’s a lesson in the parable, of your cavemen of old, Don’t listen to the shrinks and to anything you are told, For if you are to triumph, over the odds against the rules, You will need a bigger club, or ideally 21st century tools, We don’t have dinosaurs now with which to fight, But PCs and internets where things have to be right, So ignore your Psychiatrist when problems rear their head, Just go and see your Guru, and use his tools instead.” The poem you just heard and wondered at in awe, Is a totally new creation and not cribbed from one before, And the Tutor is a Fowler, mentioned on the training pages, Who uses methods slightly more in tune to current ages, There may not be any dinosaurs lurking on your drive, But these days a super virus may be all too much alive, And though Google isn’t Pterodactyl proof, it avoids bad links, And dodgy linking areas, and your ranking quickly sinks. So crawl out of your cave and click on the link to tools, That validate bad html and make your website cool, That check your viability and show you where you are, And put you back in charge, instead of watching from afar, Google will love you, the more you do right and sound, And these tools will pare away all that is not allowed, And should you need an expert we are here never doubt, Not with psychiatric counseling, but with proper technical clout. One day I stepped outside my cave, and the creatures were in shock, For I hadn’t brought a little spear, hadn’t primed up my flintlock, Hadn‘t sharpened up my arrows, with my trusty longbow in tow, Hadn’t brought a big pistol or a nasty grenade to throw, No I had brought a massive tank, and though it was overkill, I flattened all the bloody creatures that ever wished me ill, And so instead of cowering, like me come out clanking, And visit the Gurus tools site, and develop your prime ranking.

Top 25 SEO Myths You Should Know Before Optimising Website

You might think you already know everything about search engine optimisation process. Well, think again. Some of the things you know may just be myths. There are several SEO myths that webmasters and search engine optimisers still fail to recognise. What are the SEO myths? Here are the top 25:

1. Search engine optimisation can be performed just by anyone.
2. SEO is only for those websites who sell products online.
3. SEO companies can give their clients a guaranteed top ranking position.
4. SEO gives an overnight result. You can optimise a website today and expect it rank high tomorrow.
5. Build more links irregardless of the quality.
6. It is fine to copy content from other websites and paste it on your own website.
7. There is no need for you to write unique content for your website since you can just syndicate articles from directories.
8. There is no need for further work after you have optimised your website.
9. Search engine ranking is all that matters.
10. The more links the better, quantity matters and not quality.
11. There is no need for a website to be submitted to web directories.
12. A website doesn’t need updated content.
13. The search engines won’t know if you use black hat SEO techniques.
14. Do it yourself SEO is better than hiring SEO professionals – can be true if you are an expert yourself.
15. Web design doesn’t need to be optimised.
16. The navigability of the website has no effect on its search engine ranking.
17. The search engines must be prioritised than the target market.
18. There is no need for testing, once a website is already optimised let it stay that way.
19. Site visitors already know how to browse a website so don’t worry about usability.
20. Flash is the best way to present your message.
21. You can write anything that you want in your website content.
22. There is no need for you to add keywords on the website content.
23. Adding more large-file images on the website makes the site more appealing.
24. It doesn’t matter if the website is slow to load, after all, there are now more broadband users than dial ups.
25. Why still optimise a website when it can still be indexed by the search engines no matter what?

These are the top 25 search engine optimisation myths that both webmasters and search engine optimiser must be aware of. Some of them seem to be like a fact rather than a myth, so be very careful.

Is Google Broken?

After spending the last few years posting in search engine optimisation forums I have noticed a growing defeatism from webmasters in relation to natural (organic) search positioning. Google has a number of problems and some of these have hung around for a few months but they are only affecting certain sectors of the index. The hype around these Google problems has led to many SEO companies and webmasters making a statement that their websites are no longer listed because Google is broken. They are also using this excuse both the exclusion of the website from high profile in the Google database and then the lack of activity in relation to improving the website and make it competitive again.

Quite simply the news from the grapevine in general is that Google is broken and so its not our fault your website is no longer listed.

The real picture is very different and it is a lack of understanding and in many cases laziness that is causing the problems for so many websites, SEO expert Shaun Parker has written a paper called: Is Google Really Broken? This is an extremely interesting and informative paper which I would highly recommend.

The document looks at this growing defeatism by webmasters and some SEO companies and the impact it is now having on the industry, it examines grapevine information and the under currents from search engine forums.