Last week, on a cold, dark Friday night I stood barefoot outside a large exhibition centre in the heart of London preparing to walk the 3 most difficult metres of my life. Why were they going to be the most difficult? In between me and my destination was a bed of red hot, burning coals.
I starting breathing deeply, reciting the mantra I’d been taught - “cool moss, cool moss” and took a step forward onto the coals. Before I knew it I had reached the other side and completed my first firewalk.
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August 20th, 2006
Try to run a search for the name Edward Gilbert. You’ll garner about 2,700,000 hits, and the most prominent of them would refer to Edward Gilbert the doctor, Edward Gilbert the lawyer, and Edward Gilbert the deceased professional wrestler. None of them though, would point to Edward Gilbert, the internet marketing millionaire.
(1009 words, estimated reading time: 4:02 ) read the full post...
August 20th, 2006
Listed here you will find the five of the most important points to remember when optimising your site and individual pages for the search engines.
If you optimise your pages by working through these points one by one you will see a significant rise in your search engine rankings.
(1632 words, estimated reading time: 6:32 ) read the full post...
August 20th, 2006
According to the recent release of the Google Patent Application, many of the things you’re doing to get better page rank and increase your position in natural search are about to be history. It’s frightening how much things are going to change.
All of those folks trying to “beat the system” with doorway pages and invisible text are about to be (or have already been) punished by the Google Algorithm.
(1085 words, estimated reading time: 4:20 ) read the full post...
August 20th, 2006
Website Promotion: 10 Search Engine Optimization Blunders to Avoid
by: Michael Murray
If you want to develop a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, go out of your way to avoid blunders that limit search engine rankings.
Here are 10 to keep in mind:
1. Don’t use frames.
Why would you want to use frames if SEO is important? Don’t risk confusing the search engine spiders, which happens often with frameset sites. Sure, you can write scripts or adjust the content to work within frames, but you probably have better things to do with that time and energy.
2. Don’t use Flash.
Everyone agrees–Flash looks awesome. But it also slows down the user experience and Flash makes it tough to get ranked. The Flash future looks bright for the ability of search engines to read some keywords, but what good will this serve if site pages lack visible, readable text?
3. Don’t skimp on title tags.
Why would you simply call a page About Us in the title tag when this meta data occupies prime SEO real estate? Always include effective search phrases that reflect the content within title tags.
4. Don’t overstuff title tags.
Limit titles to 70 characters, with commas between phrases in EVERY title tag; use fewer characters on pages with limited content.
5. Don’t bury text.
Design often gets in the way of Text. Make sure your visible text is located high on the page.
6. Don’t use graphics as page headers.
Graphic headers are a waste of space, and thus of time, when it comes to SEO. Use text as page headers and support them by utilizing strategic keywords - in the header, after the header or below the header.
7. Don’t use the wrong words.
Website owners love one-word search terms because they seem to get lots of traffic. The reality is that only a fraction of Internet users entering a broad search word want what you have to offer. Go for search terms using two, three or four words that will help visitors qualify their interests.
8. Don’t ignore link building.
Hunt down links from other websites that have content and categories that relate to what you offer. If you sell sweaters, find a specialty guide about sweaters or a portal about clothing.
9. Don’t overwhelm your pages with keywords.
You might not write the same keyword in succession 10 times, but you can make the mistake of too much repetition. Mention your strategic search term several times throughout the page, but promise yourself not to force its use too much.
10. Don’t use long URLs.
If you use a database to maintain the website, you may end up with long URLs with several session IDs and parameters that produce many question marks and equal signs. These lengthy URLs can hinder search engines from properly indexing the pages. Work with your developer so as to limit them or to remove them altogether as much as is possible.
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About The Author
Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO (http://www.fathomseo.com), a Cleveland, Ohio-based search engine marketing (SEM) firm. A member of Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), he also authored the white paper, “Search Engine Marketing: Get in the Game.”
mmurray@fathomseo.com
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August 20th, 2006
I have always been an avid reader of Stephen King’s writings over the years, he’s one of the few authors that I can safely say I have read everything he has written. Granted, I am a couple of years behind, but I do manage to catch up as I get the time and opportunity to read him.
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August 20th, 2006
As a web business owner you will be well aware that content for your website is good. The more content the better, but of course it must be relevant and of high quality. If you know anything about search engine optimisation you know that Google loves content. The problem most webmasters face is how to get the content without writing it yourself, which takes time, or without spending money to pay someone else to do it.
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August 20th, 2006
The web and ways to market on the web continue to evolve at warp speed - we see some positive and negative changes occurring - our observations du jour:
1. Publishers are finally starting to charge for branded content. It’s still difficult to do, but we are seeing many newsletter publishers charging from $30-100 per subscriber per annum. And, most importantly, many people are finally starting to accept the need to pay for quality content.
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August 20th, 2006
Live Bookmark is Mozilla’s response to offering RSS feeds through their browsers and Firefox in particular. Using this technology, it’s possible for any visitor to your website to add your RSS feed in only two or three steps. Browsing the RSS feeds you subscribe to is as easy as looking up a bookmark. Instead of seeing a bookmark though, you get a list of all the headlines found on the RSS feed you just subscribed to. This feature is really cool.
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August 20th, 2006
Now that we’ve explored the importance of sending permission-based email, let’s take a closer look at some of the techniques and practices that the most experienced email marketers use. These best practices can make the difference between rapidly growing your list through word of mouth, increasing your sales, and building strong relationships and losing subscribers to list attrition, aggravating customers, and getting your messages blocked before they even reach your recipients.
From Names & Subject Lines
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August 20th, 2006