In the world of search engine optimisation there are generally two schools of thought on the methods and techniques that should be utilised to raise a website in search engine rankings. Of these two schools there is ‘black hat’ optimisation that can be described as unethical and pursues a course of action that works towards hoodwinking the search engine mechanisms into raising a sites’ profile. By using black hat optimisation methods however you will in fact harm your rankings in the long run, more advisable is the ethical route.

The history of black hat optimisation started around a decade ago when the search engine mechanisms, or algorithms were not yet developed entirely. Like most things in life if there is a way to cheat the system many will try. In these early stages the search engine algorithms were manipulated. This was especially true in the ‘adult’ industries where black hat optimisation was employed extensively to raise specific sites’ rankings. But how has black hat developed? What methods of optimisation are still considered unethical in the eyes of a search engine? (more…)

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It’s best to ask questions before you settle for promoting an affiliate program. Do some research about the choices of the program you intend joining and get the positive answers you are looking for because none of us want unpleasant surprises along the way. (more…)

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All that you have heard is true. With pay per click marketing, you can make a lot of money with little effort, in a relatively short time. It can be a great asset to any advertising campaign. However there is a little secret that nobody lets you know. Behind the scenes of every successful pay per click marketing campaign is a sharp mind and a lot of hard work.

By BrianBasch

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All that you have heard is true. With pay per click marketing, you can make a lot of money with little effort, in a relatively short time. It can be a great asset to any advertising campaign. However there is a little secret that nobody lets you know. Behind the scenes of every successful pay per click marketing campaign is a sharp mind and a lot of hard work.

By BrianBasch

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by Jimmy Torres

The keyword density and its position are crucial things to keep in mind when optimizing your articles for Google. Search engine spiders crawl your article in a style that makes it very important to place your keywords where they’ll be recognized and detected as a keyword, so that the article you publish will display in the search results when someone types in that keyword.

Keyword. What is it?

A keyword makes up a certain word that you place in your article several times. Once a search engine spider scans your article and finds that you have a word based in your article multiple times, it will determine that your article is helpful to search engine users that are searching that word. (more…)

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by Rick London

As a cartoonist, I don’t get asked too many questions regarding the world of website SEO. As an Internet consultant who studied business at Western Governor’s University, I get asked questions daily. And it really is not much of a surprise. A great many web owners do not know SEO. There are others who think they know SEO, and “learned from experts”, only to find out within a few weeks or months that their site has been removed from Google for using backdoor or blackhat methods of marketing. The sad thing is that most of them didn’t have a clue they were doing it unethically. They simply downloaded an Ebook that they paid way to much money for and followed the instructions. (more…)

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by Aaron Anderson

“Article marketing no longer works” is what some say. Of course, if you write garbage and expect people to eat it, this could be true. But it works if you do it right and can be about the most powerful marketing tools you have. Below are three mistakes in article marketing that are commonly made.

1. Getting the reason for writing articles confused with the reason you use articles to promote your business.

While a number of reasons exist for t (more…)

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by Jeff Alderson

Having the ability to comprehend web traffic statistics can be vital for webmasters for a variety of reasons. To do this, however, it is important to know how to interpret these reports.

Finding the most accurate data is easy. The best stats come directly from web hosting companies. This source, however, often provides more information than many can digest right away. The most important numbers to consider at first are the traffic stats that show on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

These numbers tend to be the most accurate in regard to a particular site’s activity level. Be careful not to read too much into the traffic numbers without delving deeper. While it might seem as if the more visitors who go to a site, the better the site is doing, it’s not always true. You need to know what visitors do once they get to a site. This is the real measure of effectiveness.

A lot of people confuse hits with quality traffic. Hits are nothing more than the number of information requests the server receives. Hits can actually equate to nothing more than the number of graphics on a page. Should, for example, your homepage have 20 pictures on it, the server will record 20 hits for a single visitor looking at that page. This means that hits are not that important when analyzing traffic.

These numbers can become a bit more accurate with the higher the traffic numbers become. The lower the numbers for traffic, the more skewed the numbers will likely be.

The real trick is to take the traffic stats and use them to figure out how effective is site is for visitors. One of the biggest numbers to pay attention to for this is the length of time visitors stay on your site. If their stays are short, you might have a big problem.

In some cases, the problem turns out to be nothing more earth shattering than bad keywords drawing in the wrong traffic. In other cases, it could be the visual design of the site turning off visitors. Should your site be difficult to navigate or hard on the eyes, people might turn away fast. If you make the decision to tweak things to fix these issues, study the numbers again to see if the tweaks worked.

Stats can also be helpful to see if sections of a site work like you want them to. Should visitors navigate too quickly away from a page you think is important, you might need to improve the page or its incoming links. This works in the opposite, too. If a page that isn’t that important is getting more attention than it deserves, consider moving better content to it since visitors seem to visit there naturally.

Learning to read stats and decipher them can be important for all sites. The practice is especially important for those who want to make money from their efforts. Using these numbers can really pay off in regard to tweaking a site to its optimum potential.

Although your site might have specific exit pages like order forms or other similar designs, these may not be the only “exit pages” that show up on a report. This is not at all abnormal, since not all visitors will find what they want on your site. If a particular page, however, shows up as an exit page too much and it was not designed to be so, look more closely at the page. Examine it for weaknesses and see what can be done to improve its pull.

Beyond visitor stats, it’s also important to look at keywords. See which ones are brining in good traffic, for example, the kind that really wants to visit your site. If visitors are coming in via your site’s primary keywords, you’re doing great. Those keywords that bring in visitors who buy items, look at ads or so on are valuable words.

If there are a lot of visitors coming in via keywords that aren’t central to your theme and they go away fast, work to eradicate them. Good keywords draw in quality traffic. Keywords that pull in people who don’t want to be there and result in zero sales or revenue aren’t worth using.

Stats do help webmasters gauge their site’s effectiveness. They can even be used to help one see what areas can be improved on. Read them with care to learn how to best optimize the entire website.

About the Author:

Author Jeff Alderson is an expert on PPC and SEO tactics. To increase online traffic, Jeff recommends using a variety of SEO software and techniques to increase online traffic fast.

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by Roger Gordon

Preparing your website for search engine submission is a vital process for achieving high search engine rankings. Having said that the steps to follow are not difficult to master if you follow the following four simple guide lines

Tip #1 Choosing a search engine friendly headline

We can expect our webpage to include several headlines. The most important headline is the one that appears at the top of our web page. This is referred to as H1 tag. It is important to include our main keywords or key phrase in this headline. More often than not if you do a search for a particular keyword, you will see it include in this main heading in most if not all the top ranking sites.

A second or third headline, H2 and H3, may also be included. Just make sure to have the right keyword phrase included in each of these, as well.

Tip #2 Using Keywords In Body Text

The actual text on the page is also very important. Make sure the first lines of text have the most important keywords included. It is important to make sure the keywords are worked into the headline and the first few sentences on a page in a normal, natural way. Words should flow comfortably and not sound forced.

The search engines do not recognise JavaScript, graphics, and many types of graphics, so avoid the temptation to cram your sites full of flashy effects. It might look great but is not much good if you are not getting the visitors to see it. Pages need an element of text to do well with the search engines. You should aim for something between 100 and 400 total words.

Tip #3 Page Title Keywords

Keywords can also help when they are added to the page Title. You will see the Title near the top of your HTML source code.

This is what appears in the browser window at the very top of the page above the menu. Most search engines display the Title as the top line in their listing. They have a propensity to list pages that have the searched keyword contained in the Title. Considering this, it is one of the most important parts of a page to include your primary keyword.

Tip #4 Using Alt tags for your images.

Alt tags are used to show an alternative text when added to image descriptions. The original purpose was to display information where the image can not be shown. If for example your website is about widgets and you have a picture of a widget, the alt tag Would contain the keyword widget.

However, never use more than 2 - 3 keywords in any one Alt tag. Also, don’t repeat the same keywords in different ALT tags. It’s best to use related keywords or even mispellings.

This entire process should not take you too long and is well worth the effort to help improve your search engine rankings.

About the Author:

This article was brought to you by Roger Gordon. Please check out my review of the amazing web site building resource search engine phantom

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by Michael Manley

When creating a website, most new webmasters concentrate on making their site as perfect as possible before ever even starting to work on getting indexed in the major Search Engines (like Google). This is the beginning webmaster’s biggest failure when it comes to SEO.

Search Engines want new relevant content. Nothing says new content like a always changing site. So how can you accomplish this? While you build your site and are adding pages and making changes, search engines see this and constantly spider your site, hungry for something new. You do this while you have already begun your backlink and SEO strategy.

It is important to have a sound strategy when working towards a well indexed site. Backlinks placed in the right place can have your website listed in a matter of days. It is actually rather easy. When webmasters complain about not being indexed, it is because they are going about it all wrong.

To get indexed in the Search Engines you must follow the backlink trail here:

1. Forums (Announce your site in the Digital Point Forums or Web Talk)

2. Blogs (Post your comments on blogs or make your own blog posts by creating a Blogger account)

3. Directories (web directories are the Holy Grail of Backlinking)

4. Article Directories (Add your articles to as many sites as possible with your site’s backlink)

5. Exchange Links (by finding site owner who wish to be link partners)

Number 1 and 2 are your best avenues when starting. After posting one or two times in a forum and a post or 2 in a high pagerank blog, your site will be indexed rather quickly. Ensure you use relevant “anchor text” when posting to point to keywords which fit your site desription.

Now you can move forward with your backlink campaign and submit your site to numerous directories, article sites, and begin exchanging links with other webmasters. You are on your way to successful Backlinks!

About the Author:

Michael Manley is an authority on SEO and Directory Marketing. Be sure to check out his guide on how to Get Instant Backlinks.

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