Is Google Still in Love With Squidoo?
Jan 29, 2009 SEO
Although there are already millions of online marketers online, you can indeed learn the power how to get it right, faster than you think would be possible. And even though making money is becoming even more competitive online as time moves on, the internet and its tools are becoming so advanced . . . By applying them the correct way, it is just a matter of “days” before you earn real money . . .
Take Google for example. 83,5% of all people searching for ways to make money online - they do it through the search engines. Google, gets 78% from the 83,5%. That means, other major search engines still only gets a drop into the ocean with 5,55%. That is nothing compared to the KING of search engines . . . This however is not the point. What I would like to ask you is: What would you do if you had known all the SEO-tactics to be able to get into Google within but one week, and to be able to rank in the top 10? That would take like thousands of hours for you to still learn how to do it . . .
Or you could simply just create a lens, and follow the many resources how to create a perfect one within hours. This is a brilliant way of making money far quicker than you could imagine. That is with Squidoo.com.
Just do a search within Google for very competitive search terms. You will immediately note and oftenly find that there would be a lens (blog) from squidoo, featured in the top 10, sometimes out of a lot of millions of search results. But guess what? What is significantly even more overwhelming, is that these squidoo lenses would have less links than its competitors would have most of the time! This is exactly what is getting many online marketers’ to scratch their heads. In spite of the fact that they have more links, sometimes thousands of high backlinks, they do not get ranked up as high as the squidoo lenses would. This leads to the question: Is Google still in love with squidoo? For years, Google have loved Squidoo. Previously a Squidoo lens (blog) was able to get into a search engine far much faster than any blogging interface could, and could appear on the first page of a Google search in no time without any major effort! This could have been 3 times as fast as the biggest blogging interface Wordpress.com. Today, though, Squidoo.com have become regarded as a spam haven because of this fact, and thus Squidoo lenses don’t rank up high instantly as previous times . . . But it is still doing far much better than other blogging sites would do. If one can only think about the many traffic one can get from a squidoo lens: traffic would equal potential customers . . . And potential customers would equal money, right?
by:Jason Jumat
Italics - When you should use them
Jul 31, 2008 SEO
The purpose of italic typefaces is to aid comprehension by separating off certain words and phrases from their surrounding text. But when exactly should you use italics?
The basic purpose in typesetting a story or article for a book, newspaper or periodical, for print or online, is to enhance understanding of the text and thereby make the reading an easy, pleasant experience.
Roman type is the straightforward, upright type we read everyday in our newspapers, magazines and books, and on our monitors.
Italic is the ‘handwriting’ equivalent of whatever roman font we are reading. It has a sloping cursive quality that reminds us of the manual writing we learned in primary school.
Bold type is roman or italic font that has been emphasized by thickening and making it darker than the surrounding text.
The question is: when should we use which version of a particular typeface - roman, italic, or bold? The answer must focus on the reader’s needs and the reading experience.
It is obvious that for most copy the roman version of the chosen font should be used. This is because, having an upright face, it is the easiest to read and it is what readers expect.
Because the bold version of a font makes text stand out strongly, it is used for highlighting important words, phrases and sections. Thus headlines, decks and subheads set in bold will, along with pull-quotes and other tricks of the typesetter’s art, provide the casual scanner with clues as to what your article or story is all about. The judicious use of bold in this way will induce him or her to read the main story.
Bold however is too strong to be used, except very occasionally, within body text. To set off words from surrounding text is the main function of italics.
So when should you use italics exactly? Here’s a sort of check-list, a mixture of accepted practice and my personal opinion.
Most of these when-to-use-italics rules apply equally to words in body copy, head-lines and captions, and whether you are typesetting books, articles, stories or web-pages.
[1] The names of ships and aircraft; eg: The Caribbean Cruiser sank yesterday. This is the oldest when-to-use-italics rule. It allows the reader to quickly grasp what is being referred to in the message.
[2] The titles of poems; eg: As You Go Dancing by James Stewart is famous among the literati of the Arabian Gulf. This is another very traditional use of italics that enables quick reader-uptake.
[3] Foreign words; eg: We turned left and found ourselves in a cul de sac. Another very traditional use of italics that makes for quicker reading.
[4] The titles of books, newspapers, articles and stories occurring within a sentence without further explanation; eg: The Saturday edition of the Limerick Leader was always on the streets by Friday afternoon.
However titles that appear within larger works are not italicized but are set off in quotation marks; eg: ‘An Irishman’s Diary’ in the Irish Times is sometimes interesting.
[5] Latin phrases used to classify living things; eg: Many people wonder why mankind is referred to as homo sapiens. Another use of italics that has been around ab aeterno.
[6] Where a word is used as an example rather than for its meaning; eg: The word Kennedy is a proper noun. This is neater than setting the noun within single quotes as in: The word ‘Kennedy’ is a proper noun.
[7] For introducing new terms; eg: In Freudian psychology reference is made to the ego, the super-ego, and the id. This is a neat solution to highlighting words that will probably be explained later.
[8] For the subjects of definitions; eg: An odd number is any number that cannot be divided by two. This is useful for the reader as, should he or she wish to refer back to the definition later, a word in italics among a sea of roman letters is easy to find.
[9] For mathematical symbols: eg: The standard acceleration of gravity g is 9.81183 metres per second per second. The symbol does not need to be surrounded by commas or single quotes which would be required if it were set in roman type.
[10] For emphasis; eg: Janice wasn’t the only girl at the party. The use of italics for emphasis is less intrusive than bold and more subtly suggestive.
[11] To indicate a character’s internal reflections in stories; eg: This just does not seem right, Janice thought. However many writers prefer other ways of expressing inner thoughts.
[12] Using a letter or number as a noun; eg: He was vexed because they had left out the d in his name. However many writers would prefer to put a letter or number used in this way between quotes: eg; He was vexed because they had left out the ‘d’ in his name.
That’s about it for the when-to-use italics rules. Except, what should you do if you need to use italics within italics?
If some word or phrase that should be italicised is already within a run of italics, the trick is to switch back to roman type for that word or phrase; eg: I’m in a really weird situation, Janice thought.
This italics-within-italics solution works best when italics are used to highlight internal reflections; eg: Why can’t we just look up Wikipedia for the answer? he wondered to himself.
Of course, you don’t have to follow these when-to-use-italics rules. However most of them are in current use because they do aid reader comprehension.
Tags: Add new tag, HTML Code, SEO
Ten SEO Mistakes Made on Database Driven Websites
Jul 31, 2008 SEO
Search engine friendly websites is one of those often heard phrases, both from web site development companies and from their clients. Everyone knows that this is important to have, and yet it is one of the things that is actually often overlooked.
Search engine optimisation companies actually spend a lot of their time analysing a website and removing barriers to the search engines ranking a site highly. At the web development level, it is possible to build a site that is perfectly search engine friendly. One of the hardest types of sites to get right though are database driven websites. Listed below are ten of the most common issues that are created, often unknowingly, in the development process of a dynamically generated web site.
1. Pages with duplicate content - not enough differential areas within the pages, so that only small areas of the page change from page to page. It is essential that enough of the page text changes for the search engines to see an appreciable difference between one page and the next.
2. Pages with duplicate page titles - the page title is a great indicator to the search engines of the primary content of the page. Whilst this is often unique on sites such as e-commerce websites, it is often overlooked in other sites, particularly where small areas of the site are generated from a database, such as news pages.
3. Pages with duplicate meta descriptions - again, this is easy to overlook and set a global or category level meta description. These give the search engines a reason to penalise your site for not giving them enough information, and again, creating a unique meta description for every page is an essential SEO task.
4. Using auto-generation of pages as a shortcut instead of creating good content. This is linked quite closely to point 1, where it is possible to create pages that have only a tiny percentage difference between them. Databases are fantastic ways of storing information, but you still need to put the work in to fill them with content. Unique information about the subject of the page will immensely help both the long tail and the ability of the search engines to determine that a page is valuable.
5. Creating pages that are hidden behind form submissions or javascript postbacks that cannot be accessed by a search engine crawler. This is far more common that is generally realised. For instance .NET creates postback links by default instead of proper links - potentially making huge sections of a site unreachable. Likewise, it is easy to hide lovely content rich areas of your site behind a drop down selector in a form that means certain areas of the site are not visible.
6. Too many query strings - this is a common bugbear of the professional SEO, where complicated database selections create deep levels of pages, but with seven or eight &id= type strings. Additionally, some bad development methodology can leave pages with null query strings that appear in every URL but don’t do anything. The answer to this is generally URL rewrites, creating much more search engine friendly and user-friendly URLs!
7. Putting query strings in different orders when accessed through different places - this can create duplicate content issues, which can cause major penalties.
8. Not using user language to generate automated pages - if you are going to create a database driven website that uses words in the query strings (or better in rewritten URLs) make sure that you use words that will help you with SEO - if you sell widgets, make sure you are using the word widgets somewhere in the URL instead of just product= or id= - keyword research can assist with this.
9. Not allowing the meta data and title to be edited easily after the site build. It is possible to hardcode the generation of meta information into a database that doesn’t allow it to be edited later. Creating a mechanism for modifying this information initially helps everyone at a later stage when the information needs changing without shoehorning it into an already developed structure.
10. Creating keyword stuffed pages by using auto-generation. Once upon a time, search engines quite liked pages with high densities of your keywords, but now these are likely to get you marked down rather than up. So be aware when creating pages that long pages with lots of your products on can create too high a density. For instance listing blue widgets, light blue widgets, navy blue widgets, sky blue widgets is going to create a page with a very dense page for the phrase “blue widgets”.
These are just 10 of the most common potential optimisation pitfalls when creating dynamic websites. There are many more facets to producing a great database driven site, including user friendliness, speed, performance and security, but they all add together to make the best solution to your needs.
Tags: Add new tag, mistake
Search Engine Positions, Improve It
Jul 26, 2008 SEO
When it comes to a successful site, one must always keep in mind that the competition is looking for the same success. One of the best ways to keep the competition at bay is through better search engine placement. This placement on the search engine ranking boils down to being at the top, or being obscure. Are you going to be before the rivals page rank? Or are you going to be virtually invisible? The object to success with better search engine placement, is simple be on the biggest search engine possible or not be seen.The Masses Follow Large Scale For Better Search Engine Placement
While it may be enough for some to simply have their site recognized on the web, it is those whom will not settle for mediocrity that finalize the day with their objectives met. Better search engine placement not only allows you the chance to be seen on a large-scale medium, it affords you room to stretch your legs so to speak. Truth be told, 85% of all consumers searching for goods or services will turn to a large search engine first and foremost. This is where you need to be, should you intent on meeting your target audience through better search engine placement.
Simple Measures To Obtain Better Search Engine Placement
One of the easiest ways to gain better search engine placement, would be to use properly formatted Meta tags and keyword phrases. This will allow many variations on the keywords you have chosen to draw hits to your site through the search engine. These Meta tags and keyword phrases should be used throughout your site’s pages. It would also help to use doorway pages that cater to specifically selected keywords. This in a word is optimization that will net better search engine placement.
Avoiding The Mistakes That Take Away From Better Search Engine Placement
You will want to ensure that there is no Spam content on your site, should you wish to have a high ranking as the search engines do not praise this practice. Keep it simple and content rich; yet never overdo your keywords to a point that it is considered keyword stuffing. Never go with a sub par domain, as this will do nothing for better search engine placement. The same can be said for web hosting as well, you will want to search for web hosting that is search engine friendly. A large mistake made on the road to better search engine placement, is to not submit your URL to the top 10 search engines on the web. Lastly you will want to monitor and analyze logs and files, this will help you periodically improve your site thus gaining better search engine placement.
Homework Is Key To Gaining Better Search Engine Placement
Finally it must be touched upon, the importance of observing the marketplace. To obtain better search engine placement, it is best to see what is going on with the people you are competing with for business. By analyzing their success, only then can you understand what will work and what will not. Improving on your week points and re-enforcing your strong points will be a sure way to obtaining better search engine placement on a strong search engine.
Tags: SERP
The DMOZ Factor
Jul 26, 2008 SEO
There have been soo many discussions about DMOZ in both positive and negative lights on forums that if I had a penny for each one, I could put Bill Gates out of business.
Point is, Google still uses DMOZ as it’s back-up directory source and until that changes, it will always be important to have your site listed in it’s index. Now, despite some other seo urban legends, you can get top rankings in Google without being listed in DMOZ - but it’s a quality link if you can get it.
So, how much time should you dedicate to getting a DMOZ link?
All you need is about 15 minutes in total, and you’ll be set.
There are two ways you can submit your site to get listed. The harder way is to find the category your site resides in and enter your site there.
The easier way is to drill down regionally to where your business location is. Then look for the category you want within that region and submit there. It may not be an exact match, but it is a DMOZ link.
So how powerful is that link?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: DMOZ
Earned Links Versus Bought Links
Jul 26, 2008 SEO
There are many discussions about acquiring links from the Internet. While all links matter, some have much more value than others.
Earned links are thought to have much more viral value, as they are links that people place on their sites linking to yours by their own accord. Often, your site provided some value, whether it was in entertainment, information or an offering of a great product or service.
Depending on where the link is placed, the search engines will place a certain amount of value or “weight” on the link found on the site. While this same technique can be falsely accomplished, over time, these earned links will continue to accumulate, with little effort on the web owner.
Bought links offer up a way for your site to get some “web cred” almost immediately. One of the most expensive ways to get this is to purchase a “channel” sponsorship on the website, HowStuffWorks.org. That site is highly ranked by Google, so getting your link placed on that site will not only enhance your site in the search engine’s eys, but also from a traffic standpoint, you should expect a boost from that advertisement.
There are also text link brokers who offer up sites that allow you to rent some text link time to get your site a Google PageRank Boost. The problem with most of these sites is that it’s a monthly service, not permanent. If you are going to invest your time in paid for links, the best resource are fee based directories. After that, if you can find sites that offer permanent links, you should grab as many of those as you can.
Remember, all links count as a vote to your site, and every link you get is only going to help.
Tags: Backlink, Bought Links
