SEO Articles is the place to come for free information about search engine optimization and the Internet marketing industry. At SEO Articles you can find everything from technical SEO minutia to broad-based marketing and advertising theory. SEO Articles is a non-commercial, informational site that strives to educate and illuminate all who come here.
SEO Articles provides our readership with the latest and greatest in industry-related thought and opinion. Since search engine optimization is not an exact science, there is much room for thought, discussion, observation, anecdotal evidence and opinion in this field.
Answers.com defines search engine optimization as "Designing a Web site so that search engines easily find the pages and index them. The goal is to have your page be in the top 10 results of a search. Optimization includes the choice of words used in the text paragraphs and the placement of those words on the page…" This may be very true, but SEO professionals know there is so very much more to this subject SEO Articles is just the place to talk about this.
In Google, for instance, inbound links are king, so simply optimizing what is on your webpage will not go far in Google. The good news, however, is that Yahoo and MSN do pay more attention to what is on the page and rank webpages more on the merits of on-page optimization that upon inbound links.
Search engine optimization has been a boom industry in recent years. The industry message boards reflect that the professionals have much to say in this industry. That is why we invite all SEO and Internet marketing experts to submit their articles to this site for possible publication.
At SEO Articles, we attempt to provide the most informative content from the industry's leading authorities and writers on the subject matter at hand. As is standard, we provide a link from our website to the author's site both as a courtesy and as a means to promote our authors to the reading public.
If you are a writer and would like to submit articles to the SEO articles website, please see our guidelines page for more details. Authors retain the copyright to all materials submitted but do grant the SEO Articles website non-exclusive rights to publish their works on our website. That's all we ask. It isn't too much, now is it?
Article Source: http://www.seoarticles.net/
Monday, February 18, 2008
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Articles - Mr SEO
Consultant, In-House or Firm: Which is best for your SEO needs?
Businesses that are active on the world wide web, no matter how great or small, are beginning to realize the necessity of search engine optimization. As with almost all things Internet related, however, their are a number of considerations to be made which can affect the level of success they achieve. One of the biggest areas of concern is how to go about finding the best solution for optimizing a web presence.
For small businesses and individuals, there are a number of free resources on the web that, with minimal consulting and a lot of time invested, can help produce effective results. SEO isn't rocket science after all, but one has to be marginally adept at understanding the principles behind it in order to properly optimize even the smallest and simplest of sites. SEO free resources, depending on the source, are generally good primers for the small business owner, though consulting should come into play after the initial optimization effort is underway. Free resources are free for a reason.
The reason is that they seldom offer the finite details necessary to rank well for competitive terms, which makes consulting services a bargain for the small business owner as they put the last pieces of the optimization puzzle into place. This is, at least in theory, how many small business owners achieve decent rankings for their site. The reality, though, is that few have the time to perform the work necessary to rank well. From keyword research, content, Meta tags and back link development to reporting and adjustment of multiple parameters, SEO is a time consuming endeavor. For this reason, most small business owners hire firms to perform their optimization as putting someone on the payroll full time isn't an expenditure that falls within their budget.
For mid-sized companies all the way up to large corporations, there are two options: hire someone in-house or contract with an SEO firm. Companies tend to lean toward hiring in-house SEO's for two main reasons. The first is the reduced cost of services and the second is that they gain the false sense of having better control over their optimization efforts. The first reason is valid, as many SEO firms are really SEM firms in disguise, and want to treat optimization as though it should be a perpetual, ongoing investment like PPC. They want to contract businesses for extended lengths of time with outlandish penalties for opting out early. They also tend to charge exorbitant monthly or bi-weekly fees that might lead some clients to guess if they are paying an expensive Manhattan or downtown L.A. mortgage. Not all SEO firms operate this way, however, and finding one to suit your needs and budget can be accomplished with a little searching.
As for companies having the false sense of better control over their optimization efforts, this is simply a holdout from the traditional business model that doesn’t stand up to the information age we live in. Hiring an SEO in-house because you feel that having him or her at arms length is an advantage is akin to setting up a kitchen in your office so that you can have more access to food preparation than ordering takeout can provide. The problems is that , like large scale food preparation, SEO requires a team effort. A souse chef is not a baker any more than an SEO guru is a content writer, developer, programmer, designer or submission specialist.
This is why competent firms will always be able to provide far better service than an in-house individual. Staying on top of changes to search engine algorithms, setting and adjusting Meta tags, designing search engine friendly navigation, writing well optimized content and building back links through multiple means is simply not possible for one individual working 9 to 5, or 24 hours a day for that matter.
Article Source: http://www.mr-seo.com/blog/mr-seo-blog-articles.html
Why Do Sphinners Love SEO Nerds but Hate Pregnancy?
If you’ve been anywhere in the SEM/SEO-sphere over the past month, you’ve
probably heard of Danny Sullivan’s latest venture, the social news/community
site “Sphinn.” It’s sort of a Digg clone, but
specifically for search marketing topics. Danny says it’s supposed to be
pronounced “spi-hin” but to me it’s definitely “sfin” because otherwise it’s
totally sphelled wrong!
When I first looked at Sphinn, I thought it was basically another SEO forum
except that you can vote on the posts you think are good. I read some of
the discussions but lost interest pretty quickly, as all I could think of
was, “Wow…this is totally going to be a spammers’ heaven for link drops!”
Basically, anyone can register and post a link to any article they want, and
since Sphinn is not using the nofollow link attribute it’s going to be
pretty tempting to linkmongers!
When I received an email from Chris Sherman, Search Engine Land editor and a
stakeholder in Sphinn, telling all of us SEL columnists not to be shy about
Sphinning our own columns, I was a little taken aback. Promote our own
articles? Really? Isn’t the first thing you learn in Online Community
Netiquette 101 that self-promotional posting is one of the greatest gaffes
you can make? I remember being called out for that numerous times back at
the turn of the century when I’d drop a link in forums where it seemed to
make sense to do so. In our High Rankings Forum, we delete those types of
links on the spot. We have very strict rules about linking, but policing it
is very time-consuming.
Which brings me back to my original concerns about Sphinn. Danny and his
gang might be watching it very closely at the moment, but they have a
zillion other things on their plates. Are they going to be able to devote
the time and energy to separate the good links from the bad and remove them
accordingly? Danny’s online properties have tons and tons of traffic,
making them huge targets for search engine spammers. Could Sphinn really
work as intended and naturally bury the spammy link drops?
I decided the only way to find this out (other than waiting for it to play
out on its own) was to register as a Sphinner and learn more about how it
actually works. So one boring Saturday a few weeks ago, I conducted a test.
My recent article from the last newsletter, “10 Blogger Types: The Good, the
Bad, and the Sleazy,” seemed like a good
enough one to start my Sphinning career, especially since catchy titles and
top-10 lists seem to be favored at most social media news sites.
Just 28 minutes after my post, I got a Sphinn! Whoo-hoo, I was on my way to
fame and fortune! Thirty minutes after my post I read another post at Sphinn
that I liked, so I Sphunn it, which pushed it from 5 to 6 Sphinns. After
that I got tired of refreshing my screen every few minutes (Saturdays are
notoriously dead on search marketing sites, so I wasn’t expecting much
action until Monday). I stepped away from my computer for a few hours (yeah,
I actually do that now and then!).
When I checked again 3 hours after it was
originally posted, my article was up to 5 Sphinns — yeah baby! Upon closer
inspection, I noted that Danny was one of my Sphinners and figured his
thumbs-up might encourage others to Sphinn it as well.
6 hours - 8 Sphinns
10 hours - 10 Sphinns
On Sunday morning when I first checked, it had 13 Sphinns, and after being
posted for a full 24 hours was up to 14. By then it had been promoted to
the “Hot Topics” category and was out of the “What’s New” section as well.
While watching and waiting, I had Sphunn a few more articles and it appeared
that some of the folks whose articles I had Sphunn had returned the favor
and Sphunn mine. I was hoping they didn’t just do it as a reciprocal kinda
thing, but that they actually enjoyed the article itself. There had been
some previous articles at Sphinn about how it was a popularity contest with all sorts of politics involved, which I really am not into.
1 day and 2 hours - 16 Sphinns
1 day and 7 hours - 18 Sphinns
At this point, I had noticed that Danny had removed certain articles that
didn’t quite meet the Sphinn guidelines, which was very encouraging to me.
Still, I continued to wonder if he’d always be there to do that and whether
they might be planning on hiring a full-time babysitter for Sphinn.
Before bed on Sunday - 19 Sphinns
I have to say, I was quite pleased and pleasantly surprised at having
received so many Sphinns so quickly, especially during a slow weekend. I
found myself getting caught up in the Sphinn-tasticness of it all. Each
time I’d see a new Sphinn, I’d get all excited. No matter how old you get,
receiving recognition for a job well done is something that we all crave.
Still, a more important test of Sphinn was whether it was driving any
traffic to the High Rankings website, so I fired up my other social media
playground, MyBlogLog, in which I have a nice
simple stats program set up. I found that on Saturday, I had 23 visitors
from Sphinn, and on Sunday, I had an additional 47. Not a ton, but again,
not bad for a weekend. Eventually, I’ll check my Google Analytics to
evaluate those visitors and to see if they took any additional action at the
site, like perhaps signing up for the newsletter.
Monday - 22 Sphinns but they seemed to be petering out.
As I write this 11 days after my 10 Blogger Types article was originally
posted, it has 27 Sphinns. Comparing it with other articles that had been
posted around the same time, I was satisfied with that number. It was clear
that people liked the article, and that was nice to know.
During the past week and a half, I have spent quite a lot of time at Sphinn
and have done some additional research and Sphinning beyond just that first
article. What I noticed was quite interesting.
For instance, my recent SEL article, “Over-optimization Is Like Being a
Little Bit Pregnant,” was posted Thursday morning, and I was happy to see that someone had Sphunn it within a few hours, because I really didn’t want to do it myself, despite Chris Sherman’s encouragement to the contrary! I also thought it would be good to see if the results would be different for an article of mine that someone else had Sphunn. Would it receive more or less?
Well, apparently pregnancy isn’t sexy enough for the Sphinn audience, or
perhaps my article just sucked, but as of today…6 days after it was
Sphunn, that poor article got only 2 Sphinns (and 1 was mine!). I can’t
measure the traffic to that one since it’s on the SEL site, so I’m not sure
if people read it but didn’t Sphinn it or if they simply never bothered to
click through from Sphinn. The headline/title you use on your article or
when you Sphinn it seems to be very important. I *thought* mine was pretty
catchy, but maybe not. A lot of stuff there gets posted very quickly, and
if people have only so much time to spend, they will browse through the new
ones and just click on the ones that sound interesting.
On a happier note, Pauline’s interview with Seth Godin
got Sphunn quickly by someone and ended up with 16 Sphinns as of today. I also Sphunn a number of articles and blog posts that I had read last week as I caught up with my SEO RSS feeds, and many of them rose to the top of Sphinn very quickly. The most Sphinns were obtained by the blog post I submitted from fellow SEMNE members over at KoMarketing. They had a fun post listing 15 traits of SEO nerds, and it is currently up to 32 Sphinns!
All in all, I like Sphinn a lot more than I thought I would. I even think
that by its very democratic nature it could possibly be immune to
link-droppers, as the crappy stuff gets buried fairly quickly (as evidenced
by my SEL article ;) . That said, as far as I know there aren’t currently
any armies of Sphinners set up to scam it like there are with Digg. If
Sphinn becomes very popular, you can bet those will crop up. I believe that
if Danny and the gang continue to police it vigilantly, it could be a cool
place to keep your finger on the pulse of the SEM/SEO world. Whether it
becomes a spammers’ heaven for link drops is yet to be seen!
Article Source: http://www.highrankings.com/sphinn2
Internet Marketing Tip
Online business concerns follow internet marketing techniques and the best internet marketing tip is offered for free by many web sites which promote web designing and web promotion. Basically internet marketing revolves around five most important features. These basic features need to be addressed carefully before starting any web based internet business. Proper analysis of these features can be the best strategy for your business. The internet marketing tips are thus are eye openers for all those people who want to start online business on their own from scratch.
Objectives: for any business be it regular or online the objectives for starting a business should be clearly defined. These objectives should be very clear about why the business was started and for what benefits. For example if someone wants to start real estate business online then he should clearly focus on how, when and in what ways should he run the business and the expected returns and benefits. If you wish to start a web site then the objectives for starting the web site should be formulated much in advance. Well drafted business plans have higher success rates than businesses started without any focus. Thus well defined objectives are the most imperative step to be taken when you decide to start online business.
Target audience: now that the objectives are ready the target audience to whom you want to start the business should be clearly defined. Whom do you think will visit your business web site? Are they teenagers or business men or ladies or kids? Without selecting the target audience you can never start a business. If you run furnishing business then mostly women and elderly people might come for buying or repairing their furniture. If you start an online affiliate site to sell jewelry and ladies garments then you can expect ladies and teenagers. When you fix a target audience you can easily work through the business strategy keeping them in mind. You will know how to satisfy them and offer products that is suited for that particular audience.
Why should someone visit your site? What does he expect when he clicks on to your site? Defining this aspect and analyzing this fact can clarify many business and marketing needs. You stand in the shoes of a prospective customer who will click your site and then find out what you will expect. Learning customer behavior and behavioral patterns is a very effective tool and will reap long term benefits for the business overall.
Is your web site catering to customer satisfaction? Is the visitor of your site returning or logging out satisfied?
What can make the customer visit your site again or how can your site convert a first time visitor into a long term visitor?
Keeping all these tips in mind anyone can run a successful internet business.
Article Source: http://seoarticles4u.com/Internet_Marketing_Tip_a3513.html
How to Create a Google Site Map
Officially announced on June 6th, 2005 at Google'e Blog, Google Site Map allows you to submit a listing of all your urls for Google to crawl.
There have been many questions concerning the procedure of creating a Google Site Map. Below is the non-Python way of creating one. (Note: Google has further documentation at their site)
First, create a file named sitemap.xml
Use the following code in any HTML editor:
Here's a breakdown of those properties:
lastmod -
This is the date the document was last modified and uses the following formats:
dd.mm.yyyy
dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm
dd/mm/yyyy
dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm
changefreq -
Tells Google Sitemaps the frequently that content of a particular URL will change.
Your options are "always", "hourly", "daily", "weekly", "monthly", "yearly" or "never".
The value "always" should be used to describe documents that change each time they are accessed. The value "never" should be used to describe archived URLs.
priority -
The priority of a particular URL relative to other pages on your site.
You may select between 0.0 and 1.0, where 0.0 identifies the lowest priority page(s) on your website and 1.0 identifies the highest priority page(s) on your website.
Add as many pages as there are in your website.
Google Sitemap supports up to 50,000 pages per XML file.
Once you've completed all of those steps, you'll need to submit your site map page.
Submit to: (requires gmail account)
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login
[If you don't have a gmail account send an email requesting a gmail account and I'll give them out until I run out of invites. (ts@seoforgoogle.com)]
Article Source: http://seoarticles.seoforgoogle.com/How-to-Create-a-Google-Site-Map.cfm
