SEO Spider Unleashed

Search Engine Optimization is a process which provides improved, preferential positioning in major search engines and directories, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Many companies feel that to get onto page one is next to impossible and that search engine optimization is a mystery. Search Engine Optimization is something that everyone talks about but few people really understand. Search engine optimization is just a matter of understanding what search engines look for when they visit your site. Organic or Natural Search Engine OptimizationOrganic or natural search engine optimization is the process of a comprehensive analysis of keywords and phrases and the implementation of ethical programming techniques for optimal natural (non-sponsored) placement in search engine results. The option of adWords is very good to a certain point and in general the Search Engine Optimization is the tool that gives the ROI for a long time for each website.

The world wide web is a highly competitive market. Companies vie for the attention of billions of internet users in the search for better revenue. A lynch pin to the internet marketing war is the search engine.

Search engines are internet venues where billions of people congregate to search for information. The most prominent search engine giants are Google and Yahoo. The kind of traffic these dot-com companies receive per hour is phenomenal.

So naturally, companies would gravitate towards placing their links and sites in an attempt to garner more visits to their web sites.

In order to maximize ranking and placement, companies have used tools such as search engine optimization or SEO. Search engine optimization is the method or process of improving a web site’s ranking in a search engine listing.

Legitimate search engine optimization practices focus on the improvement of a page’s ranking in the search engine list by improving site content, usability and using legitimate methos of promotion through web phenomena such as viral marketing.

Search engines all use complex algorithms in keeping their relevancy in the web and to keep illegal and abusive search engine optimization methods from prospering. However, “black hat” SEO users will always be around so it is expected that search engine giant such as Google and Yahoo will continue to make more complex algorithms to filter the garbage out.

Organic searches are searches conducted by web users in a search engine that is free from solicitations. A study from Jupiter Media stated that 5 out of 6 commercial online purchases came from organic searches versus paid online ads.

This has made SEO much more in demand in creating revenue for companies as SEO is not a paid ad but a method of intrinsically improving content.

Here are a few tips on improving content for a much more improved result in organic searches:

1. Expertise. Follow your strengths. Sites you set up must be on subject you consider yourself an expert on. People can smell an amateur a mile away.

2. Plan the site. A good layout for the site can improve usability. This in turn will not unnecessarily aggravate the browser.

3. Research. Check out the competition and see what they have set up. See what works and what does not. If possible try to communicate with users in forums and get feedback on what should or can be improved further.

4. Decide on important keywords. Decide on the most important keywords to use for your sight. Include these keywords in the metatags, copy page, page title, and file names.

5. The Search Engine is your friend. Make friends with your search engine and don’t give it a hard time. Being nice and friendly to it will make its job easier to serve your site up to your target audience.

6. Focus. Focus on the topic at hand and nothing else. The rule is one topic per page.

7. Join the directories. Directories are repositories of knowledge done by human hands while search engine are huge databases collected by mostly machine methods. The relevancy of your page when joining the right directory may shoot through the roof. Of course, make sure you know what you are talking about.

8. Start a linking campaign. A most effective SEO method. This is a must to do. Ask your allies, strategic partners, friends and acquaintances to place your site’s URL link on their sites. With a short description this can draw traffic from other sites and increase exposure. Google especially ranks the importance of its sites by the number of sites linked to it.

9. Repetition is the key to victory. Keep repeating the above tips, supporting and increasing what works and killing what does not as fast as possible until the desired result is achieved.

In the world of search engine optimization, content matters a lot. If a site has amateur or worse falsified information, fewer and fewer browsers will want to visit it. They will even spread bad news faster than good news so expect a garbage site to be ignored even in a week’s time.

A company mostly relies on its official web site to build a reliable customer base, to interact and get feedback from customers, and to use the site for advertising purposes.

With search engine optimization, some techniques are employed so that a web site will be listed on top of the list of results when a user types in a keyword by going to Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other search engines.

Emerging on top of a search list would lead more business your way that is why search engine optimization or SEO tactics are employed.

Some companies employ the services of establishments or individuals who deal with search engine optimization.

This would involve the development of a more informative and user-friendly web site. It may also include pay-per-click or adwords services, such as the one offered by Google.

Another thing that can yield positive results at a lower cost, as compared to an adword campaign, is optimizing a web site for organic search.

This would mainly require keyword density which would result to more traffic going to your web site.

In effect, you will have an added clientele and this should lead more business your way.

If you would like to have a hands-on experience with search engine optimization and you would not like to get a third-party SEO service provider, there are some techniques which are easy to learn so that you can do it yourself. Take a look at the following:

1. Take a lot of time with developing your web site’s content.

For most web sites, content is the key. When writing the content of your web pages, insert vital keywords which relate to the products and services that your company offers.

Make it brief and concise, yet informative.

You might see that Internet users do not actually read a web site’s content word-for-word.

They just skim through the text and concentrate on the articles that they need and the data which they find interesting. A 600-word article may be too boring or too long for a user to read.

Keep your facts up-to-date so that users will visit your web site more often. Do not forget toinclude a lot of helpful links, articles and guides that users can forward to another user and add to your customer base.

2. Make the overall design user friendly.

In most cases, the rule the simpler, the better applies. Do not design your web site in an overly-complicated way that users will find it too “frightening” to browse through.

Adapt the design to your target market. If your target audience is of a younger age, make sure that the colors and designs are funky, youthful and attention-grabbing.

For a more mature audience, you can use subdued colors and have a more elegant theme and overall web site design.

3. Vary the keyword for each individual web page.

Think of every possible keywords or phrases that will apply to your products and services.

Each user is different and may not necessarily use the keyword that you expect them to type in the search bar. Search engines offer tools which will guide you through finding the correct keywords for search engine optimization.

4. Make sure that your hyper links are visible, accessible and informative.

Providing users with hyperlinks or HTML links which are useful and easy to find is yet another way to optimize your web site.

5. Learn how to lead traffic to your site.

Seek the advise of experts on this field if you do not know how to lead traffic to your site. Develop a plan and learn how to use the necessary tools pull traffic your way.

Gather all the statistical data that you can use to keep your web site on top of the search engines’ list.

Vary your web site’s contents and keywords to adapt to the current trend. If there is a particular word or phrase that you have not used when searching for keywords, use it instead to lead more traffic your way.

Be flexible enough to change the web site’s contents and fulfill the ever-changing needs of the online users.

All in all, you would have your work cut out for you if you want to employ do-it-yourself search engine optimization techniques.



By: John DeLellis

About the Author:

In today’s competitive Internet marketplace, Arizona based search engine optimization services are vital for business websites in this region. Excellent optimization techniques enable websites to achieve and maintain top positions on the search engines. Search engine positioning is considered to be one of the most effective forms of online marketing.

If you already have an online presence, then achieve a desirable search engine ranking through proper search engine optimization techniques and ethical practices through on-page and off-page optimization services. Search engine optimization services are ideal for both new and existing websites. Ethical on-page search engine placement services include:

•    In-depth keyword analysis

•    Competitor research

•    Title and keyword strategy consultation

•    Positioning of keywords organically in body text

•    Create optimized title and Meta tag

•    Optimize website content

•    Content and design modification implementation

•    HTML code optimization

•    URL optimization

•    Search engine submission

•    Site map creation

•    Site monitoring and tracking of search engine marketing performance

•    Monthly or weekly report generation to keep you informed on your current website ranking

The off-page optimization services include internal and external link building services to improve your link popularity. This helps you to achieve relevant links from other sites and link exchange with quality relevant sites.

Search engine optimization services in Arizona ensure the following benefits for small business websites:

•    High volume traffic

•    Maximize your return on investment

•    Improve your site visibility in the search engines

•    Increase sales and quality leads

•    Improve business conventions

Many SEO service providers with varying degrees of talents are out there to provide the best services with advanced SEO packs for the clients in Arizona by making use of advanced search engine placement tools and techniques. Among them, choose an ethical solution provider who offers customized optimization services for your website at reasonable price tag.

Search engine optimization services in Arizona focus on issues that affect search engine indexing and ranking. Moreover, you can achieve long term results for your optimized site through maintenance service, as search engine positioning is an ongoing process in the search engine marketing industry.

Whatever your business size, large or small, take advantage of search engine optimization services available in Arizona to get the most out of conversion rate marketing program.



By: Rajeev Rajagopal

About the Author:

Before going into what a Search Engine Optimization firm does, let us first define what search engine optimization or SEO is. In ‘brick-and-mortar’ terms, SEO may be compared to placing an advertisement in a medium that caters largely to a particular market segment, e.g., medical journals, fashion magazines, adult cable channels, etc. so that there is a high probability that whatever products or services you offer is what that particular viewing, reading, or listening market segment needs. The ‘agent’ for this type of advertising is the advertising or marketing firm which, when related to cyberspace is the Search Engine Optimization firm.

SEO is the set of activities and strategies implemented (either by yourself or through a Search Engine Optimization firm) that influences a search engine’s ’spiderbot’ to give your website a high relevance rating which translates into a high ranking in the list of keyword responsive websites. Since it is a targeted approach, the success rate of an SEO strategy (measured in terms of average business per visitor) that a Search Engine Optimization firm implements should be higher than, say, online advertising (which may attract more visitors but will include a big share of ‘just looking’ hits, thus resulting to a lower average business per visitor). This ultimately results to lower cost per sale since the resources required to service the visits (which will go down in terms of quantity but increase in terms of quality) goes down.

What does a Search Engine Optimization firm do in order to achieve its objective of ethically optimizing your website? One Search Engine Optimization firm may apply a different set of SEO strategies viz. another SEO company, but they both focus on one aspect: the search engine keyword or keywords. Essentially, the keyword is the major rating criterion of a relevance rating; i.e., how often it appears in the website or content. Although more sophisticated discernment algorithms are being implemented by the search engine’s ’spiderbot’ to weed out unethical practices (e.g., embedding keywords in articles or content that do not have any logical connection), the keyword density still the key.

Some of the strategies that a Search Engine Optimization firm employs are as follows:

- Keyword Rich Domain Names

This is the most ‘no brainer’ strategy that a Search Engine Optimization firm could employ, yet is one of the most difficult to implement. The proposition of this strategy is that the best way to get a high ranking for a keyword relevant site is to embed the keyword into the domain name. For example, recipes(dot)com will obviously get top ranking when the keyword ‘recipes’ is used in the search box (as a side note, if you are looking for recipes, you might even just skip the search engine altogether and instinctively enter recipes(dot)com ). The problem with this strategy, of course, is that these domain names are probably owned by someone else already, in which case, the Search Engine Optimization firm could embed the keyword in a longer domain name like, e.g., mothersrecipes(dot)com or homecookedmealrecipes(dot)com , which, when combined with other SEO strategies could potentially even outrank recipes(dot)com .

- Content Optimization

In this strategy, the Search Engine Optimization firm ensures that the content is ethically filled with all the relevant keywords to which the website is responsive to. This is accomplished by framing the advertising copy around the keyword and making it appear as many times as relevancy allows, including the keywords in the text articles, etc. The Search Engine Optimization firm has several ways of determining the possible relevance rank of your website based on the level of content optimization.

- Meta-Tag Optimization

All websites use HTML in several parts of the website’s program. In the body of the HTML program are areas that the programmer uses, among other things, for remarks (e.g., to remind him what the code is all about). The content of these areas (called meta-tags) do not have an impact on how the website looks but is ‘crawled through’ by the search engine’s ’spiderbot’ all the same. Because these meta-tags play a factor in the website’s relevance, a Search Engine Optimization firm will normally embed as many keywords as ethically allowed to into them.

In selecting the Search Engine Optimization firm that you will use to optimize your website, be sure to put a heavy premium on its experience and reputation. Also, avoid a Search Engine Optimization firm that engages in unethical (and illegal) practices just to increase the number of visitors to your sites. Avoid a Search Engine Optimization firm that is vague about how it is going to optimize your website. If it has nothing to hide, then it should be transparent as to what it is supposed to do. If you heard about a Search Engine Optimization firm through spam mail, do not even consider it. If the Search Engine Optimization firm charges you a low price without any clear specifics as to what it will do, walk away. Finally, make sure to canvass your requirements before selecting the Search Engine Optimization firm you will use.



By: Seomul Evans

About the Author:

Whether it’s a corporate blog, a news-type blog, or even a personal blog, optimizing your blog for the search engines is a must. There are some simple changes that you can make to WordPress and Moveable Type that will make your blog more search engine friendly and make the search engines beg for more (more post and content, that is!).

Optimizing a blog is just like optimizing any other website. The content and pages (posts) must be unique, they must be search engine friendly, and it needs links from other websites. If it’s a new blog, then you first need to make sure the blog software you’re using is set up so that it takes advantage of all of the possible optimization features. Then, announce it to the world, work on getting some links to it, and start making posts.



WordPress Optimization

If you’re using WordPress for your blog software, it’s important to make sure that your site is search engine friendly, meaning that it can easily be spidered by the search engine spiders. Just like optimizing a website, it’s important to have good title tags and meta tags. Keep in mind that blog software usually uses the title of your post as the title tag, so include keywords in your titles as much as possible. It’s important to set up your blog’s software so that the URLs don’t contain a lot of variables. Instead, use URLs that include the post title or post name in them. For example, if you’re using WordPress you’ll need to set the permalinks so that it uses %postname% in the URL. You can also set up a specific category for the post archives, and you might consider using a keyword that’s related to your blog instead of the default, which is typically the word “archive”. Fintan Darragh of www.dech.co.uk has a great blog post called “Ultimate WordPress SEO Tips” (http://www.dech.co.uk/2005/11/ultimate-WordPress-seo-tips/). Mr. Darragh talks about permalink optimization and says, “The goal: stick more keywords up into the URL and remove the faff which nobody uses, to make the URL search engine and people attractive. Having keywords in your URL is an absolute must, especially when it’s as easy as WordPress makes it.” He also goes on to talk about getting rid of useless tags like the month, day, and year, as well as one important detail: whatever you do stick with the site structure you choose—otherwise you might end up with a lot of useless links to your site. Other tips that Mr. Darragh mentions are optimizing your page titles and your post titles–and installing a few plugins that are useful such as the “Related Posts Plugin” and the “Technorati Tag Generator”.

There are several other places where you can get specific tips about setting up WordPress in a search engine friendly manner, including: * SEO at Aleeya Dot Net - http://www.aleeya.net/category/WordPress/seo/

* The Best WordPress SEO Possible - http://WordPress.org/support/topic/49168

* Search Engine Optimization for WordPress - http://codex.WordPress.org/Search_Engine_Optimization_for_WordPress

* Search Engine Optimization for Blogs - http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-seo.htm

* DYI Search Engine Optimization - http://lorelle.WordPress.com/2006/01/15/dyi-search-engine-optimization/ One of the best tutorials out there is one called “DYI Search Engine Optimization” by Lorelle VanFossen. Specifically, Lorelle (lorelle.WordPress.com) has some great tips, including how to optimize your code, develop strong intrasite links, write with strong keyword usage, use categories and tags, and how to use ping services. Lorelle says that “the goal is to help search engine crawlers move through your website collecting information to be stored in the search engine’s database. The key to your blog’s data making it successfully into a search engine’s database is to: 1) Make sure there are no road blocks in the path of a search engine crawler.

2) Make sure the crawler can move through your blog, examining all your web pages.

3) Provide adequate keywords and key phrases which clearly help categorize your content.

4) Provide clearly labeled tags and categories recognized by tagging service crawlers and many search engines today.

5) Take advantage of pinging services.” There are several WordPress Plugins available that will help you take advantage of internal linking (like the Related Posts Plugin) which will link to other posts in your blog that are on the same topic.

Other plugins that might be helpful are plugins that automatically generate a Google Sitemap file as well as plugins that help you categorize the site such as the WordPress Subdomain Plugin (http://www.webguerrilla.com/WordPress-subdomain-plugin/).

Movable Type Optimization

If you’re using Movable Type for your blog software, then it’s also important to make sure that your site is search engine friendly and can be spidered by the search engine spiders. Just like optimizing a website, it’s important to have good title tags and meta tags. Keep in mind that blog software usually uses the title of your post as the title tag, so include keywords in your titles as much as possible. Miles Evans (http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20060310Movable TypeSEO.html) says that “Movable Type is optimized quite well out of the box, but there are a few quick tricks to easily providing the spiders with some dynamic content.” He goes on to say that you need to optimize your template. “For my main home page and category index pages I hardcode most of my meta data. Your meta tags will be at the top of the template within the tag. You can get fancy on your index pages but I cannot really see why. Optimize these two templates by hand for whatever keywords you are targeting site wide.” Mr. Evans also has another article titled, “Best Movable Type Plugins” (http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20060310BestMovable TypePlugins.html) that talks about his favorite plugins that help him get great search engine rankings. His favorite Movable Type Plugins for SEO are Dashify, MTPaginate, MT Blogroll, MT InlineEditor, MT-Textile, BigPAPI, as well as Ajaxify (a set of plugins that adds several ajax/javascript widgets into the Movable Type interface), CheckLinks, FormatList v1.0, and Better File Uploader for uploading files. Nicholas Carvan (http://www.nicholascaravan.com) has a great article about Movable Type optimization called “Optimizing your Movable Type blog for Google” (http://www.nicholascarvan.com/blog/optimizing_your_Movable Type_blog_for_google.html). In it he talks about PageRank (and how it relates to your internal linking on your blog), having keywords in your URL (which is important for all blog optimization) and blogrolling. He defines the term blogrolling very well, saying, “Blogrolling: Inbound links are gold, but in Google’s eyes, not all links are equal. In particular, Google isn’t wild about links contained within JavaScript - apparently they can index them, but that doesn’t mean they always want to.”

Once you’ve set up and configured your blog’s software, it’s important to make sure that you leave it alone—if you change your page URLs then any links that you’ve received from other bloggers may not be valid anymore. If you need to change your site’s structure (perhaps you’ve been blogging already and wish to use the tips from this article to optimize your blog), then you might want to take a look at the Objection Redirection WordPress Plugin(http://WordPress-plugins.biggnuts.com/objection-redirection-WordPress-plugin/) if you’re using WordPress. The Objection Redirection Plugin gives you a simple interface to redirect users (and search engine bots) to the proper page, especially if you’ve changed your site’s structure.

Start Blogging

The best thing you can do is to start blogging. Go ahead and post to your heart’s content and write, write, write about your topic. The more content you can provide the better—and it seems as if adding content on a regular basis really helps, as well. Feel free to link out to other blog posts that are related to the topic you’re writing about. For example, before you publish a post, go on over to your favorite blog search engine and find another recent post on the same subject—and link to the post. Linking out to other bloggers will get their attention, and hopefully they’ll end up linking to you as well. If other bloggers have trackbacks turned on then their blog will link back to your post. Some trackbacks are moderated, so it might take some time before your link shows up on the other blog. And some bloggers have trackbacks turned off, so a link back to your site might take some manual intervention. Categorize your posts as much as possible, and feel free to add categories as you blog—it will help the internal linking structure of your site, and help the search engines and users find on-topic posts.

Promoting Your Blog

Whenever you make a post in your blog, your blog software will attempt to ping certain sites to let them know that you just updated your blog. There are many blog ping services out there, including Ping-O-Matic and Pingoat. Your blog software can be configured to ping sites automatically, and I’ve posted a list for WordPress of ping services on by blog (http://www.corporatewebsitemarketing.info/cwm/WordPress-ping-list). If your blog is new or you would like to get some more links, you can submit your blog to blog directories as well as other sites that will list your blog (don’t forget to submit to DMOZ.org, Yahoo! Directory, and the Best of the Web Blog Directory). About.com has a great article about promoting a blog (http://weblogs.about.com/cs/blogpromotions/a/promoteblog.htm) and even Biz Stone has great tutorial about promoting your blog (http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1060). Lastly, don’t forget to turn on your blog’s RSS feed. And if you’re looking to promote your RSS feed, try searching your favorite search engine for “promote rss” to find a lot of good tutorials.

Promoting your blog is just like promoting a website—you need good spiderable content, links to your content, and you need to set up your blog software to take advantage of all the great features. There are also plugins that will help make blogging easier for all of us.



By: Bill Hartzer

About the Author: