Search Engine Optimization

Private Label Rights, or PLR, articles can help add useful content to your website, thus maximizing your SEO.  There are dozens of websites that offer PLR articles for a fee and while it is occasionally a good idea to use their articles, oftentimes it is a better idea to rewrite the article a little to make them a little more search engine friendly.

These articles can also be rewritten and sent out in newsletters, submitted to article directories, used in a blog or packaged with other articles as a series. All of these will help drive traffic to your site and increase your SEO. However, if you want to use the article for the reasons mentioned about, it’s best to use the original as inspiration and rewrite it in your own tone, throwing in your ideas as well to avoid plagiarism and duplicate content charges.

However you use the PLR articles, remember that keywords are still very important. Make sure the articles you are using have keywords relevant to your website and the terms you want to turn up in searches for. With that said, don’t just dump keywords into a PLR article. Try to place them where they naturally go, to avoid keyword saturation.

Finally, keep in mind that you want the articles to be both search engine friendly and people friendly. A good article that is relevant, entertaining and easy to read will create much more human recommended traffic to your site and that is an invaluable asset in itself.

Copywriting is a type of writing which tries to persuade the reader, often to purchase a product or service. It has existed for a very long time and began being used in magazines and mail advertisements long before the internet or search engines existed. Many of the same techniques which have always been effective in copywriting still apply to the internet; however, some measures can be taken to make copywriting more likely to appear in the results provided by search engines, as well as having a better chance of being clicked on by the reader.

First, it is important that the webpage with copywriting on it will have a desirable appearance in search results. Even if it is the very first listing, readers are much less likely to click on the link if it has a URL for a title and a description which doesn’t provide any compelling details regarding the subject they searched for. The copywriting page should definitely have a title tag containing a phrase specific to its contents. As for the description which search engines will place below the title, this can sometimes be controlled by adding a “description” META tag to the page’s HTML code; however, many search engines will show text from the page in its description if the text contains words which were searched for. If a META description tag is added, it should contain a brief sentence or two of copywriting aimed at sparking the reader’s interest in reading more.

Another important factor in copywriting for search engines is the keyword selection and density, which helps to determine a webpage’s position in result listings. It is best to choose a title which applies a phrase that at least some people search for, but not many websites have used. Then, to be considered legitimate by search engines, the copywriting should use some of the same keywords in the title fairly frequently (but not excessively). The words from the title (especially those which people are more likely to conduct searches for) should be used at least once in each paragraph, especially the first paragraph. Putting all of the copywriting text in an image (or another format which is not machine-readable) will prevent it from influencing the page’s rank on search engines, but will also probably reduce the number of searching phrases which it can be located with. If this format is used, having description and keyword META tags is especially important.

Keeping these factors and techniques in mind can help make copywriting more effective at gaining readers from search engines, by achieving an improved ranking in results, as well as using a title and description which attract interest.

Inbound links, or links to your website from other sites, can be beneficial in several different ways. They can bring a substantial amount of visitors to your website (especially if located on a related site), improve the site’s ranking on search engines, remind people of the website (even if they don’t click the link), and increase the perception of your site’s legitimacy. Here are some tips on getting more inbound links…

1. Search for lists of links on a topic related to your website. Simply searching for “<subject> links” on any search engine is likely to bring up some results, unless the subject is very narrow. Visit some of the pages and see if they have forms or e-mail addresses which can be used to suggest new links. Be careful not to use FFA (”Free For All”) link pages, which can actually harm search engine rankings; also, the links usually disappear soon after being added.

2. Look for online directories with a category relevant to your website. Some of these require a fee to become listed, but many accept free link submissions. Getting inbound links from some directories is rather easy, while others take months to approve or deny links you suggest. For example, the Turnpike Emporium directory is frequently updated, has many categories, and does not require a fee to become listed.

3. Create a news article on a newsworthy subject related to your website and submit it to relevant news sites. When the article appears on the news websites, an inbound link to your site will usually be provided at the top and/or bottom of the article. Distributing a press release will also result in getting more inbound link(s).

4. Put an inbound link to the website on a relevant forum or message board. This method should only be used if the board has a section which allows links to other web sites on a specific topic. An alternative option is to put a link to it in your “signature” on the forum and post non-promotional messages related to the topic in different sections.

5. Place icons for submitting particular webpages to social bookmarking services like del.icio.us; this allows users of your website to recommend them, thus creating inbound links on the social bookmarking service websites. Multiple recommendations sometimes result in getting large amounts of inbound traffic.

Applying one or more of the above-mentioned tips should help in getting more traffic to your website, both directly and via search engines. Following these tips can also make your website appear more legitimate and well-established when people see inbound links to it from other sites they trust, as well as being reminded of its existence more frequently.

Creating a landing page on your web site, which is designed for search engine users searching for a particular keyword/phrase or people who have clicked a specific advertisement, can be beneficial. There are many ways to optimize your landing page so that it retains visitors effectively and encourages them to visit other pages of the web site.

It is important that the page not take an excessive amount of time to load or contain obnoxious advertisements, as this will cause some visitors to leave before discovering what your website has to offer. If your web site typically uses advertisements which pop up or hover over the text, consider leaving them out on the landing page to optimize its effectiveness. If the site has separate sections for different types of web browsers and/or internet connections, link to each of them from the landing page, and make sure the page functions properly on as many browsers and display resolutions as possible.

Another method to optimize the landing page is to make sure it expresses the main benefits offered by your web site near the beginning, as some visitors are not willing to read many paragraphs introducing or building up your product or service before learning what its main benefits are. A bulleted list or two-column table listing the major points might be helpful. If there are any advertisements or links to other web sites on your landing page, have them open in new windows to prevent users from leaving the page. Text on the landing page should emphasize how the targeted search keyword or advertisement theme relates to your website.

If your web site is to have more than one landing pages, it is important to differentiate each of the pages as part of the efforts to optimize them. If each of these pages is very similar to the others, search engines may not list them or will rank them very poorly, and people visiting the pages might feel that the web site does not apply to the subject they are interested in. Web site visitors are more likely to leave the landing pages if it is perceived that they are merely generated by plugging keywords into a form/template; the text ought to provide specific details related to keywords the pages are targeted to or advertised with.

Following these tips should help make it possible to more effectively optimize your landing pages, thus gaining more customers or regular web site users.

A number of websites offer to sell paid links to advertisers, either for a particular period of time or permanently. There are several pros and cons which apply to purchasing paid links, including factors related to cost, search engine optimization, and direct website traffic. Some specific measures can be taken to enhance the benefit of such links as well.

Although these do not exist in every situation, the pros of paid links are their relative inexpensiveness, ability to start generating website traffic immediately, and potential for improved search rankings. Buying a paid link is more likely to improve the search optimization of a website if it is bought on a site about a related topic, and uses link text with words or a phrase people commonly search for. For example, a paid link promoting a monitor retailer has a better chance of improving its position in results if it uses the frequently searched phrase “Cheap Computer Monitors” (if these terms are also used on the website) than “Low-Cost Computer Monitors”, or something vague like “Save Money, Click Here.” Paid link(s) are easy to purchase; just searching for “text link” on eBay brings up over three-hundred results, and many sell for under ten dollars each (some as little as $1). However, links purchased on a personal basis from websites which don’t typically sell them are less likely to be detected as paid links by search engines that penalize sites for using them.

Cons which apply to paid links include the potential for them to disappear, and possible harm to search engine optimization efforts. Unlike some types of advertising which can be purchased online, paid links are usually sold on a long-term basis. This increases the potential that the website might disappear before the link time period has elapsed, and also leaves open the possibility that the site will change ownership and the new owner will remove them. Another of the cons of paid linking is their ability to actually worsen other webpages’ rankings on some search engines, especially if placed on sites which use promotional techniques the search engines find undesirable. According to Google.com, purchasing link(s) for the purpose of improving a website’s ranking on Google is a “violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines” and could harm its search result ranking. Google even has a tool for reporting buyers and sellers of links to them. On the other hand, Google.com states that “not all” paid links violate these guidelines; details on identifying a link as being for advertising purposes are provided in their Webmaster Help Center. Following the instructions Google provides will prevent the links from potentially improving search rankings, but will also eliminate the possibility of them being harmed.

In addition to helping visitors find pages on your website, a site map makes it possible for search engines to index them. Site mapping is especially important for search engine indexing if the pages aren’t linked elsewhere in the website, or if they are linked to using methods search “spiders” are unable to navigate. Read on for details regarding some of the right techniques for initially mapping or improving the site map of your website…

The link to the site map should be on a page which search engines can find, such as the home page (index.htm). It can be placed in a non-frame column on the left or right side of the page, or in a small font at the bottom. The link should not be put in a menu which uses JavaScript or is located within a frame. It is also preferable to make it a text link, rather than a linked image.

The site map should be arranged into different categories of content on your website, with text links which use words relevant to the pages they link to (don’t use a category name followed by links with titles like “Page 1″ or “Part 2″). If you are willing to go to the effort and expect that many people will use it, adding short descriptions below or to the right of each link is helpful. A horizontal set of links at the beginning of the page which allow the user to jump to each site mapping category is convenient for users, especially if it is long.

Mapping every page on your website isn’t always necessary or beneficial; pages which require registration to view or would appear “out of context” for one reason or another (to someone visiting them from the site map and/or search results) can be left out. For some large websites with massive amounts of content, mapping all of the pages would create such a long site map that it is preferable to list them in separate spider-accessible category specific directories.

Using these techniques will help make it possible to conduct site mapping the right way to benefit both people and search engine “spiders” who visit your website, thus making it more convenient and accessible. Pages on your website which are now only available through its search function or a JavaScript menu could soon be visited by many search engine users, if listed on a site map created using the right methods.

A main part of making your website a success involves having other sites link to you. You know the old adage; “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine?” Well, that basically sums up why reciprocal linking is often one of the easiest ways to accomplish this. But, beware, while there are many advantages to reciprocal linking there are downsides as well.

Among the many advantages to reciprocal linking, the most important one may be the increased ability for people to find your site, after all that is the goal of SEO. You will also enjoy improved search results as many search engines reward sites for popularity and the fact that other sites trust yours. There is an added branding effect as well. The more links you have the more your name is out there for people to see and remember. A final advantage is cost. Reciprocal links generally cost only the time and space required to add an outbound link on your page, making it one of the most affordable SEO practices.

Now for the pitfalls. By far the greatest thing to watch for is reciprocal link scams. Some of this involves having your link buried in a non-optimized page, which doesn’t help you in the least. Other scams include a non-existent or hidden link to the links page, Robots.txt file exclusion of the links directory page and false Google Page Ranks. You could also sustain some losses of visitors if they find information on a page you link to that they feel is more relevant to them. Additionally, you want to make sure you aren’t linking with sites that are a bad match for you. If you sell shoes you’d hardly want to link with a scuba diving page. Relevant sites help your rankings, while non-relevant sites can hurt you in the long run. Finally, make sure your link has optimized anchor text, emphasizing what your site does or sells, rather than just the name of your business.

In conclusion, reciprocal linking can be a good thing if you are careful with whom you choose to link and wary of the pitfalls that can occur.

Although the popular search engine Google has dropped the “Supplemental” label from web sites and pages contained in their supplemental index, this does not mean such results no longer exist. Pages in Google’s supplemental index are likely to only appear on the first page of results if the search is very specific and there are not many webpages on the same subject; otherwise, searchers will have to look through multiple pages of results before finding them. While this is better than not being listed on Google at all, it isn’t likely to produce a great amount of traffic in most situations. Getting out of the supplemental index is quite possible, but requires appropriate techniques and patience to wait until indexes and rankings are updated.

Many of the same techniques frequently used to improve search result rankings will also help websites in getting out of the Google supplemental index. Links to your website/pages from other sites on the same topic, substantially different content on each page, and search engine spider-readable pages should help. If most or all of a webpage’s text is contained in an image or another format which isn’t machine-readable, spider software will not be able to retrieve its content, so this should be avoided.

META tags, which are HTML code containing a description and keywords related to each page, can be helpful but should not be overused. Some webpages rank very well in search results without the use of META tags; it should be kept in mind that adding them increases the amount of time it takes to create each page, and slows down the loading of pages for visitors who won’t even see the tags (they can only be viewed by spider software or people who use the “View Source” function on their browsers).

Sometimes what you are doing, rather than what you’re not, can be what is getting your website in the supplemental index. Posting links to FFA services or creating webpages designed solely for the purpose of manipulating search results can sometimes seriously harm your website’s position in Google results.

If none of these techniques succeed in getting your website out of the supplemental index, consider different methods of gaining traffic, or try to optimize your webpages so that being in the Google supplemental index is less harmful. If the website has pages with information on specific subjects which few or no other websites have covered (such as particular models of various products), these pages will probably be fairly easy to find in Google results regardless of which index they are in.

You can also use many other methods to promote your web site, such as optimizing it for different engines, buying advertising of various types, posting to related message boards, or utilizing social bookmarking services like Digg and Reddit.

CSS, or “Cascading Style Sheets” is a method for specifying various characteristics of websites, such as the font size or background color. CSS offers such benefits as greater standardization and easy to learn code, along with some features not available in HTML, and can make websites more efficient as well.

It can reduce the need for redundant code in websites; for example, according to wikipedia.org, in HTML it is necessary to repeatedly specify the font characteristics for each heading of a particular size, whereas CSS allows the characteristics for that type of heading to be defined once and automatically applied to all of the headings. Another example is that a particular font size and style can be applied to all tables on a page using a single line of CSS, whereas HTML would require the font attributes to be specified in each instance they are used. This makes it possible for the website to load more quickly and reduces work the designer must do.

Coding it is relatively easy to learn, especially for people who already have experience with one or more web programming languages. Much of the code involves one or two English words (such as “background-color”, “line-height”, or “font-size”) specifying the attribute to be defined, followed by a colon and a number or word identifying the characteristic, such as a color or measurement. A number of books are available with detailed information on this type of coding, including “CSS: The Definitive Guide” by Eric Meyer, “Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional” by Simon Collison”, and “CSS Web Design for Dummies” by Richard Mansfield.

It is supported by most web browsers, although some old and/or text-only browsers may not be compatible with it. According to wikipedia.org, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 and later have good support for CSS, and even older browsers like IE 3.0/4.0 and Netscape 4 have limited support. TheCounter.com’s global statistics indicate that a relatively small number of computers still use 4.x or earlier versions of IE and Netscape Navigator, but it is less than one percent of online users. One of its related benefits is that it can also be used to specify how websites will be output to other devices such as a printer, different types of non-monitor displays, or a speech synthesizer.

Overall, CSS is a more efficient and easier way to customize websites, is compatible with most web browsers, and has become very popular among web designers for these and other benefits.

Yahoo executives have warned previously that the Panama search advertising system would not have an immediate impact on the bottom line. It didn’t do anything to balance out a lower performance from display advertising, once a dominant force for the company.

Gross revenue rose by 8 percent to $1.70 billion, but net income ticked downward to $161 million. Disappointed shareholders have dropped the stock to $26.52 in after-hours trading, after a market close of $27.53.

The rest of 2007 won’t be very promising for Yahoo investors. The company lowered its third quarter and full year guidance to reflect the drop in display ads and the extra time needed for Panama to mature within the search advertising market.

We were contacted by a Yahoo spokesperson ahead of the bell, regarding the recent search rankings from comScore and our observation that Microsoft’s gain in US search market share equaled the collective share given up by Yahoo, Google, and AOL for June 2007.

Instead of attributing Microsoft’s gain to Yahoo’s loss, we were told the market has expanded and Microsoft simply picked up share from that growth. We’ve asked for supporting documentation to make a better determination of this, but haven’t received it as of press time.