How to Avoid the Google Duplicate Content Filter?

More and more webmasters are building websites with publicly available content (data feeds, news feeds, articles). This results in websites with duplicate content on the Internet. In cases of websites build on news feeds or data feeds you can even find websites that match each other 100% (except for the design). Several copies of the same content in a search engine does not really do any good and so Google apparently decided to weed out some of this duplicate content to be able to deliver cleaner and better search results.

Plain copies of websites were hit hardest. If a webmaster was publishing the exact same content on more than one domain, all domains in question were eventually removed from Google’s index. Many websites based on affiliate programs suddenly took a big hit in loss of traffic from Google.com. Shortly after this started some webmaster forums saw the same complaints and stories again and if 1 + 1 was put together a clear picture of the situation was available: a duplicate content filter was applied.

Duplicate content is not always bad and will always exist in one way or the other. News websites are the best example of duplicate content. Nobody expects those to be dropped from Google’s index.

So, how can webmasters avoid the duplicate content filter? There are quite a few things webmasters can do when using duplicate content of any sort and still create unique pages and content from it. Let’s see some of these options explained here.

1) Unique content on pages with duplicate content.

On pages where duplicate content is being used, unique content should be added. I do not mean like just a few different words or a link/navigation menu. If you (the webmaster) can add 15% - 30% unique content to pages where you display duplicate content the overall ratio of duplicate content compared to the overall content of that page goes down. This will reduce the risk of having a page flagged as duplicate content.

2) Randomization of content

Ever seen those “Quote of the Day” thingies on some websites? It adds a random quote of the day to a page at any given time. Every time you come back the page will look different. Those scripts can be used for many more things than just displaying a quote of the day with just a few code changes. With some creativity a webmaster can use such a script to create the impression pages are always updated and always different. This can be a great tool to prevent Google to apply the duplicate content filter.

3) Unique content

Yes, unique content is still king. But sometimes you just cannot work around using duplicate content at all. That is alright. But how about adding unique content to your website, too. If the overall ratio of unique content and duplicate content is well-balanced chances that the duplicate content filter applies to your website are much lower. I personally recommend that a website has at least 30% of unique content to offer (I admit - I am sometimes having difficulties myself to reach that level but I try).

Will this guarantee that your website stays in Google’s index? I don’t know. To be most successful a website should be completely unique. Unique content is what draws visitors to a website. Everything else can be found somewhere else, too and visitors have no reason to just visit one particular website if they can get the same thing somewhere else.

About The Author

Christoph Puetz is a successful Entrepreneur and international book author. Websites currently operated by Christoph are Credit Problems Help and Highlands Ranch Colorado. PPC and SEO Services provided by the author can be found at Net Services USA LLC.

Note: This article can be published by anyone as long as the resource box (About the Author) is posted on the website including the links and that these links must be clickable. This last paragraph in italic font informing about the author resource box does not need to be ublished.

5 Things to Keep an Eye on in the SEO World in 2005…

After the latest PR update at Google and MSN’s beta search going live, there is one
thing for certain in 2005: the world of search is in for some major changes. There
has been growing speculation around the SEO world that reciprocal linking is a thing
of the past. Rumors are abound that PR means less and less, if anything. Bill Gates
came out of his cave to say that “Today’s search is nothing” and that it won’t be that
way for long. There are quiet rumblings in the SEO back alleys of a new, state-of-
the-art search engine currently indexing the internet. Websites are dropping off the
face of the planet. And we’re all left to sit here and put together the pieces. So what
is in store for 2005?

1) Reciprocal links, while not becoming totally dead, are decreasing in value, and
there will most likely be an algorithm update to lessen their importance. The
original thought process behind the importance of a link was that it was seen as a
“vote” for the linked-to site. Now that reciprocal links are everywhere, it is hardly a
great way to count “votes” for a website. Reciprocal linking will continue around the
internet, although the amount of people who try to get away with one-way links (by
never getting back to you once you’ve added their link) will increase significantly.
This will, of course, be an attempt to acquire one-way links, which brings us to our
next subject….

2) One-way links and triangle linking, though already quite popular, should explode
over the course of 2005. Both are much harder to control and acquire, which makes
Google happy. The triangle link “ploy” makes links look like one-way links even
though “Site A” is returning the favor to “Site B” through “Site C”. There will be
attempts to sell triangle linking programs and systems by SEO companies, however,
the complexity, difficulty and time involved in this scheme will produce ridiculous
prices.

3) What this about a new search engine that is going to index every site on the
internet, EVERY 10 seconds? Become.com has turned a few heads with it’s claims.
Site owners have reported Become Bots spidering “like crazy”. It’s all quite hush,
hush, however and you need to have an invite in order to test it out. It should be
interesting to see what they’re capable of if and when they decide to go live. I’ll go
out on a limb and say that it’s a household name by this time next year.

4) MSN will scrap the “beta” tag on February 1st from it’s sparkling new search
engine, which is currently live at search.msn.com and Bill Gates thinks it will rival
Google. There is a lot of debate over this issue, but there is no denying that it is far
better than the old chugger they were using before. Love him or hate him, Gates has
most likely given a hard right to the chin of Yahoo!, which seems to be suffering
from a magnitude of quality problems. MSN will be second to Google in total
searches in 2005.

5) PR still has importance. However, it is also decreasing in value. PR is only based
on the quantity and quality of links (both inbound and outbound) from the given
web page. The most obvious reasoning for the declining importance theory is due to
the fact that on any given search on Google, the PR of each page seems to have
barely any correlation with it’s place in the rankings. For all you PR lovers out there,
hold on to your toolbar’s tight, because this could be a bumpy ride.

Bobby Heard (bheard@abalone.ca) is the Vice-President of Abalone Designs
(http://www.abalone.ca), which offers great SEO results at affordable prices.

.com Not Listed in Regional Yahoo? Don’t Despair!

If you’re a non-American business with a .com web address, and your regional Yahoo ranking is important to you, then my story might interest you.

Recently my copywriting website dropped out of Yahoo’s Australian rankings. For quite a while, it had been at number 1 for my primary keywords “advertising copywriter”, “copywriter”, and “website copywriter”. But then it suddenly disappeared. I clicked through about 10 pages of results, and it was nowhere to be seen. I then searched for my domain, and Yahoo couldn’t find it.

Something smelt fishy.

I’d done nothing ‘naughty’ to my site to warrant a ban, and I still had heaps of links to my site (actually, I had more than ever before).

I’m an Australian advertising copywriter. I’m based just north of Sydney and I host my website with a major Australian host. But my web address is a .com, not a .au. I started thinking this might be the problem.

So I emailed Yahoo support, explaining the problem, and sharing my thoughts on the cause.

And all of a sudden, nothing happened.

So I waited. And I waited. And I waited. And finally, after about a couple of weeks, I received an email from a Yahoo support representative informing me – incorrectly – that my keyword wasn’t featured in my page title or description. I should remedy this shortcoming and re-submit my site to Yahoo.

Frustrated, I replied. I repeated the important facts from the first email just to ensure they’d listened. They hadn’t. They hadn’t even searched for my domain to confirm that Yahoo no longer recognised it.

When they got back to me this time, they had started paying a bit more attention. The support rep confirmed my suspicion that Yahoo had excluded my site because of its .com URL. Her very helpful solution was that I should change my domain to .au! She included some ridiculously complex instructions for how to do so, and sent me on my merry way.

As you might expect, I wasn’t satisfied. Nor was I merry. I explained to her that this was not an acceptable solution because all the links to my site on the internet are pointing to the .com and my email address uses the .com.

She was unmoved. She asserted that this was the best and only way to solve the problem. Oh… and it might help if I added my primary keyword to my title and description.

My laughter was not good humoured! I wrote back expressing my displeasure at this “solution”. I painstakingly explained how Yahoo had made a mistake, and that if Google was capable of recognising my Australian business despite its .com addresses, I would think it’s technically possible. I also cited several other .coms in the first couple of pages of Australian results.

No response.

The situation didn’t look promising…

If this sounds like a familiar story to you, don’t despair. A week or two later, I searched Yahoo Australia for my primary keyword, and surprise, surprise… My site was ranked number 1 again!

The moral to the story? Don’t be intimidated by Yahoo. Trust your instincts and don’t give up. If you’re an Australian business with a .com, and you’re not listed in Australian searches, this might be why. In fact, I would think this story is relevant to all regional Yahoos. (Of course, before making any accusations, it’s a good idea to make sure your site is properly optimised and that you have plenty of inbound links.)

Anyway, that’s my story. I hope it helps someone.

And they all lived happily ever after. So far at least…

Yahoooooooo!

The End.

* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.DivineWrite.com or www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.

Benefits Of A Generator Sitemap

Generator sitemap programs can be downloaded from various
sources on the Internet. Generator sitemap programs have two
fundamental purposes. Generator sitemap programs help surfers
navigate a site effectively. At the same time, a generator
sitemap program encourages search engine spiders. Google offers
one of the most popular generator sitemap programs ever to hit
the Internet.

The generator sitemap of google makes it possible for a website
to get listed and get updated by the google search engine.
Setting up the generator sitemap helps speed up the addition of
the web pages of a site to the google listing. The generator
sitemap also makes it easier for a site to get noticed by online
surfers. In addition, any changes made to a website that has a
generator sitemap is immediately picked up by google. The
generator sitemap also helps keep online information fresh and
up-to-date for users.

Visibility is key to generator sitemap

Visibility is a major concern when using a generator sitemap. A
website that is completely indexed has better chances of getting
top search engine placement in page results. Many of the popular
browsers used by searchers and that support java recognize
generator sitemap programs. These include firefox and Internet
explorer.

An online consumer that searches for a specific content on the
web can immediately be directed to any one of the web pages of a
particular site. The generator sitemap makes it easier for a
search engine to provide accurate results from web pages they
are familiar with.

Who can benefit from a generator sitemap?

A generator sitemap is highly recommended for websites that
often do repeated modification of their web pages. A generator
sitemap can be used for websites of any size, regardless of the
number of web pages a site may contain.

Although using a generator sitemap is not a guarantee of
increased site rankings, it does however provide a website a
better opportunity of getting listed on a search engine.

Working with a generator sitemap

Most of the available generator sitemap programs available on
the web make use of extensible markup language or XML. Similar
to hypertext markup language or HTML, XML is used widely in
blogs and syndicated feeds on the Internet. Each line of a XML
code for a generator sitemap has a specific purpose.

The location or .loc identifies the name of the web page of a
website. The line .lastmod indicates when the web page was last
modified. The format for .lastmod can either be dd.mm.yyyy,
dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm, dd/mm/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm. Shortcuts can
also be used to simply the assignment of dates to the cell.

.changefreq advises the search engine of a specific time frame
when the web page is regularly updated. This can either be done
on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. For web
pages that are not updated, the value ‘never’ is used. .priority
indicates the level of priority that a search engine should give
a particular web page of a website. These levels range from 0.0
for least priority to 1.0 for high priority.

Creating a dynamic generator sitemap

Creating a dynamic generator sitemap is useful for websites
containing various web pages. The google search engine makes it
easy for users to adapt their google sitemap with the help of a
python script.

The python script generates a sitemap using sitemap protocol.
This creates a sitemap from either access logs, URL lists or
from web server directories.

Tips for using a generator sitemap from google

As one of more popular search engines offering a generator
sitemap for websites on the Internet, google offers a few tips
for its loyal users. Using the google sitemap url
encoder/decoder is helpful for submitting sitemaps to google.
For websites that have numerous web pages, creating a sitemap
can be a tremendous task. For this situation it is best to click
on the column title in order to make it easier for a URL list to
get sorted.

The google generator sitemap allows users to save their settings
after creating a sitemap. Users can use these saved settings as
a guideline for succeeding generator sitemap updates. The
generator sitemap also recognizes the use of robots.txt files.

Using a generator sitemap is a positive move in getting top
ranking on the Internet’s top search engines as well as high
visibility among online users.

Understanding the Game of Search Engines

When I started my e-business, I ask my web-designer friend to
make a site which is really brainstorming. He did me a great
favor and really made an excellent site. My site’s design is
fabulous, it’s graphics are mind blowing and coding is superb.
But now what? What I seen in the coming days, I am not earning a
single penny because no one is visiting my site.

I think for a while that why all this is happening, then I make a
search on Yahoo and see the first site which is coming on the
top. It doesn’t have a good design like mine but still he is
making good money. Then I came to know that the site’s design is
meaningless if site’s ranking on search engines is not good.

When it comes to search engine every ear just not hears it but
listens it’s every aspect and try to locate it’s presence in his
site. Well why not it be done as it is the place from where all
of us get our business.

Every search engine has it’s own criterion of ranking and it’s
clear from the fact that when you do a search on Yahoo or Google
or any other search engines there results vary. Here is the
listing of some of the Top Search Engines and a few noteworthy
points about all of them. Know which engines get you more bangs
for the buck?

Google

Google has increased in popularity tenfold the past several
years. They have gone from beta testing, to becoming the
Internet’s largest index of web pages in a very short time. Their
spider, affectionately named “Googlebot”, crawls the web and
provides updates to Google’s index about once a month.

Google.com began as an academic search engine. Google, by far,
has a very good algorithm of ranking pages returned from a
result, probably one of the main reasons it has become so popular
over the years. Google has several methods which determine page
rank in returned searches.

Yahoo

Yahoo! is one of the oldest web directories and portals on the
Internet today, and the site went live in August of 1994. Yahoo!
is a 100% human edited directory, and provides secondary search
results using Google.

Yahoo! is also one of the largest traffic generators around, as
far as web directories and search engines go. Unfortunately,
however, it is also one of the most difficult to get listed in,
unless of course you pay to submit your site. Even if you pay it
doesn’t guarantee you will get listed.

Either way, if you suggest a URL, it is “reviewed” by a Yahoo!
editor, and if approved will appear in the next index update.

AltaVista

Many who have access to web logs may have seen a spider named
’scooter’ accessing their pages. Scooter used to be AltaVista’s
robot. However, since the Feb 2001 site update, a newer form of
Scooter is now crawling the web. Whichever spider AltaVista uses,
it is one of the largest search engines on the net today, next to
Google.

It will usually take several months for AltaVista to index your
entire site, although the past few months scooter hasn’t been
deep crawling too well. Unlike Google, AltaVista will only crawl
and index 1 link deep, so it takes a good amount of time to index
your site depending on how large your site is.

AltaVista gets most of its results from its own index, however
they do pull the top 5 results of each search from Overture
(formerly Goto).

Inktomi

Inktomi’s popularity grew several years ago as they powered the
secondary search database that had driven Yahoo. Since then,
Yahoo as switched to using Google as their secondary search and
backend database, however Inktomi is just as popular now, as they
were several years ago, if not more so.

Their spiders are named “Slurp”, and different versions of Slurp
crawls the web many different times throughout the month, as
Inktomi powers many sites search results. There isn’t much more
to Inktomi then that. Slurp puts heavy weight on Title and
description tags, and will rarely deep crawl a site. Slurp
usually only spider’s pages that are submitted to its index.

Inktomi provides results to a number of sites. Some of these are
America Online, MSN, Hotbot, Looksmart, About, Goto, CNet,
Geocities, NBCi, ICQ and many more.

Lycos

Lycos is one of the oldest search engines on the Internet today,
next to Altavista and Yahoo. Their spider, named “T-Rex”, crawls
the web and provides updates to the Lycos index from time to
time. The FAST crawler provides results for Lycos in addition to
its own database.

The Lycos crawler does not weigh META tags too heavily, instead
it relies on its own ranking algorithm to rank pages returned in
results. The URL, META title, text headings, and word frequency
are just a few of the methods Lycos uses to rank pages. Lycos
does support pages with Frame content. However, any page that
isn’t at least 75 words in content is not indexed.

Excite

Excite has been around the web for many years now. Much more of a
portal than just simply a search engine, Excite used to be a
fairly popular search engine, until companies such as Google
seemed to have dominated the search engine market. As of
recently, Excite no longer accepts submissions of URL’s, and
appears to no longer spider. To get into the Excite search
results, you need to be either listed with Overture or Inktomi.

Looksmart

Getting a listed with Looksmart could mean getting a good amount
of traffic to your site. Looksmart’s results appear in many
search engines, including AltaVista, MSN, CNN, and many others.

Looksmart has two options to submit your site. If your site is
generally non-business related, you can submit your site to Zeal
(Looksmart’s sister site), or if you are a business, you can pay
a fee to have your site listed. Either method will get you listed
in Looksmart and its partner sites if you are approved.

Once you have submitted your site, and it is approved for listing
it will take up to about 7 days for your site to be listed on
Looksmart and its partner sites.

AOL Search

America Online signed a multiyear pact with Google for Web search
results and accompanying ad-sponsored links, ending relationships
with pay-for-performance service Overture Services and Inktomi,
its algorithmic search provider of nearly three years.

Ok, now you have got a better understanding of search engine’s
game and finally you come to know which search engine is best for
you and which one is leading in today’s Internet World. In
nutshell, the thing which every e-entrepreneur wants is Top
Search Engine Ranking. Isn’t it right? So take some time to
register with these search engines as soon as possible and watch
the traffic grow.

Raamakant S. is Author of “The e Success Code”. An “entire Internet
Marketing Encyclopedia” covers almost every topic of Internet marketing.
If you’ve ever dreamed of having your own Internet Business that produces
thousands of dollars each and every month, visit:
http://www.theesuccesscode.com/

SEO = Search Engine Optimization, tips on successful page ranking

One of the key things to remember when developing your web-site presence is to always evaluate your competition. See what’s working for them; how they market their products and services, and even evaluate their KEYWORD and DISCRIPTION tags.

The key points of using these two Meta Tags, is optimization!

Evaluate your Keywords: look at your web-site and evaluate it services and products, be sure to do a search in www.Google.com to help you pick the keywords that your potential clients may be looking for.

The next thing is to evaluate your site content to see just how often you’re using these keywords, the biggest mistake that web-masters make is creating their Meta Tag Description and Keywords and not including them in their content pages.

To get the best results, is to ensure that you use as many of your keywords and discretion tags throughout your entire site.

The next thing is your products or images, be sure to include some of those keywords in your <*IMG ALT=*”” Tag, this to will help you optimize your site, and increase more frequent visits from spider bots.

Google, Yahoo, and Msn all use the following tags:

Be sure to include these in your Meta Tag, as it tells spider bots to search links to other pages on your site, increasing your chance of getting better indexed in the search engines.

The next key point is to also ensure you have created page titles for each section of your site, this is another mistake most make and they usually brand each page with their site name, the mistake is that, when your potential client types in to Google for a specific item or product you lesson your chances on being pulled up.

Name each section of your site using the Keywords you developed for your web-site, this ensuring higher page ranking in Google, and you not being found within the first returned results but ending up on page 15 etc.

Google looks also for inbound links, these being partner web-sites that have agreed to become a link partner or affiliate of your site.

Also update your content regularly, Google loves content, content, content, the more rich content you provide using your keywords the better you page rankings will be. The best method we found is to update your pages 2 to 3 times a week, for example Monday, Wednesday and again Sunday.

Thus ensuring the Google spider-bot will return regularly as so will your potential clients, as visitors are most likely to visit a web-site that is updated with new and interesting topics or items.

Now use Google, and do a search for your competition, within the first page results returned looked for potential link partners, which offer the same resources or products as you.

Contact the administrator or web-master simply asking them to link exchange with you. Most sites already offer a link exchange program or an affiliate program. These are perfect ways to create inbound links to your site that have already established Google page rank.

List your site in Link Directories that offer a specific category for your services, these are also excellent ways to create inbound links as the more inbound links you have generated to your web-site the higher the page rank in Google.

The key points to getting your site noticed is to optimize the keywords and use them threw out your site. Get quality link partners that have the same services or products you offer. The reason for this is if you link to a Tupper ware site and you offer fine wine, it isn’t going to do you much good as there is no common denominator. List your sites in Link Directories that offer a specific category that best fits your site content and services.

About the Author:
Shawn DesRochers is the CEO and Founder of Invision-Graphics Design Firm, They offer articles and tips on Search engine Optimization and support forums, were they help many members and visitors increase their page rankings in many of the popular search engines.

For more advice and free articles be sure to visit
http://www.invision-graphics.com

Google Rankings — Achieve Top 10 Rankings with Free Tools

In order to get a top 10 google ranking it is imperative to not only know how to use the resources that are available to us, but to also know what to do with them. The key is always to find out what tools are the ones to use. In my experience, there are two tools I use almost daily to help my sites achieve top 10 rankings.

1. GoogleRankings.com is an incredible tool that every webmaster should consult. Now, because Google rankings fluctuate multiple times a day, the site is sometimes a couple hours delayed, however it provides a great resource in quickly finding how your competitors stack up against your website. Not only that but you can use different key words in conjunction with a website to see how they rank. Incredibly useful in determining which key words should be used in your content and advertising.
As an example, if you were to decide on using a specific keyword phrase. Type in that key word into GoogleRankings.com, along with your competitor’s website, and you will see how they rank in regards to that specific phrase and/or word in Google. This will allow you to specifically pinpoint which phrases and/or keywords your competitors rank low in, which you will in turn begin to focus your attention on.

2. Google Suggest is used to determine the frequency of various key word searches.
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
As discussed before, not only is it important to find out how your competitors rank for a certain term in Google, but it is also perhaps even more important to find out how many times that specific phrase has been searched for. Google Suggest Beta is the perfect answer for this problem. Just type in a few words and it will immediately display multiple results for that specific term, and variations of it.

***Hint*** Remember, it is not always necessary to have a top 10 listing for the most popular searched phrase. Just imagine the potential of having 5 top listings for keywords that are not quite as popular. Not only will it be easier to achieve a top 10 listing, but while all your competitors fight over 1-3 key words, you are capitalizing on all the others. In the end this will mean a literal financial windfall depending on your product, etc.

Darren H. currently owns and is involved with various online marketing and management companies. He is the author of “How to Get Listed in Google within 72 Hours.” and prides himself on helping many individuals and business customers achieve top 10 rankings within Google in an extremely short time frame. To learn more and get started today please visit: http://www.top10googlerankings.com

Fixed Point of Reference

According to author Frank Peretti, “A fixed point of reference for human beings is always something that is found outside themselves. It has to be something to which we can always come back. If we try to haul our point of reference around with us, we have lost it because it has been moved and we can never refer back to it.” He tells a story of being in a dark room with only a chair. As long as the chair stays put, it can be used as a point of reference. If it gets picked up and carried around, it no longer serves that function, because it isn’t where it used to be.

In our personal lives, having God as a fixed point of reference means that whenever we need guidance, we can turn to the Bible for advice and know that the advice we get today will not change tomorrow or next week or next month or next year. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is our “fixed point of reference.” The rules stay the same; the Ten Commandments have not changed. There are still ten of them and they have not weakened into “suggestions.” AND, God still makes the rules.

In the world of internet marketing, the search engines make the rules. Internet marketers spend countless hours and dollars designing their web sites to please the search engine “gods” in order to get a high ranking and bring in traffic which results in sales. The problem with that is the search engines are like the chair that doesn’t stay put in the darkened room. The rules keep changing. People who have invested everything to make a web site pleasing to the search engine “gods” suddenly have the rug pulled out from under their feet, and find themselves not only unranked, but in some cases actually banned! Their web sites didn’t change. Their marketing strategies didn’t change. Through no fault of their own and without any warning, the rules changed, leaving them high and hung out to dry. They then scramble to change their sites, change their strategies, spend megabucks to advertise, do anything to regain the income that was stripped from them. Of course, there is no guarantee that the same won’t happen again. And again. And again.

To chase after this kind recognition doesn’t make any sense to me. I just cannot see spending all of my time and energy and efforts chasing after an erratically moving target that I may never catch, or that may be jerked away whenever I get close. Either way, I have no control over the outcome. Therefore, the search engines can do whatever they want whenever they want. If this site finds favor in their eyes, great. If not, oh well. I will pursue as many other ethical ways to increase traffic as I can, but will not live and die by search engine ranking. Right now, I am exploring link exchanges and banner exchanges, as well testing the waters by placing occasional inexpensive ads here and there. I will investigate other methods as I become aware of them. I will post what works and what does not work.

One thing I have found that definitely does NOT work is “old” outdated advice. The world of e-books and free-bee give-aways is just clogged with stuff written several years ago. It may have worked then but it doesn’t work now. Why do you think they are giving it away? Some times they tell you (in yellow high-lighted capital letters) that it’s worth $XXX, but even though people think they are crazy, they will let you have it for $XX.95. That way, they still make money off of it, but you won’t. They are counting on you not figuring that out until the money is out of your bank account and safely tucked away in theirs. Save your money. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, and look at the copyright date. Unless it was just a couple of months ago, don’t bite. They don’t give away the new stuff, and they don’t let you have it for cheap, either. That’s why and how they make so much money.

Sandi Moses has been involved in internet marketing since
November, 2003. Visit her sites at
http://www.123iwork4me.com
http://www.123-home-based-business-works-4-me.com

Linking is Queen

If content is king, then linking is the queen that shares his throne. We have all heard about adding content to your site to give the search engines fodder to consume. But the secret to luring the search engines is the links to your site. Today’s search engines look very carefully and critically at who is linking to you, and what it is that they are saying about you. A link from a leader in your industry carries a lot of weight and means that your site is important. Two links from industry leaders means your site is even more important. 100 links from random web sites, from industries you are not even related with, means almost nothing. Thus, getting links is only the start; the important thing is getting good links from quality web sites.

Why do links matter?

Since the arrival of Google and their PageRank, search engines have put a lot of weight on links to a site. There used to be simple ways to get good rankings: Meta tags, titles, keyword density, etc… Today, things have become more complex, with search engines now using a very complicated algorithm that involves:

• links to your site,

• what is written in those links,

• who is linking to the site that links to yours,

• what are the keyphrases used in those links,

• what is the quality of the site that is linking to yours,

• how many other links does that site have,

• how many links out (and to what sites) does your site have,

• and other such criteria.

To use a rather appetizing analogy, these new criteria are added to the stew that is your site, along with the quality and quantity of the content. Left to simmer on the worldwide web, this stew is then eaten up by the search engines depending on how well your site matches the aforementioned criteria. Put differently, the king and queen must join together to turn your site into a number one result.

How do we get links?

It all starts with content. No one will link to you unless you offer quality information about a particular subject. If you are in real estate, you must offer information about the area you sell. If someone wants to buy in your area, first s/he will want to learn about it, so you will need to have good resources about that area. The next step is to find new sites that would benefit from your site’s information; new sites whose clients would potentially buy your real estate. For example, one of our clients (www.monlac.com) sells real estate in the Laurentians area of Quebec. Their site has content on activities in Quebec and the nearby Laurentian mountains. Thus, we will be soliciting links from web sites such as the nearby water parks and ski hills, nearby towns, lake and boating associations, and local construction web sites to name just a few. To these web sites, not only will linking to www.monlac.com make their customers happier, but it is in their best interest that the site sells real estate since it brings in more business for them.

How do you solicit links?

To solicit sites you have to use a lot of elbow grease. Send out personalized emails to these sites. Don’t send out mass emails or spam. Be friendly, and point out the benefits of linking to your site. If you are lucky, maybe 1 in 3 emails will get a response. It is frustrating and discouraging, but keep your spirits up. Many times a site is perfect but they don’t ever update it, so your site won’t get the link in because nothing ever changes on the solicited site. Don’t waste too much time on sites that haven’t been updated in years. It is also important to follow up. Until you get a flat out denial, keep saying “Hi”, and keep it personal. Keep track of who you have contacted and what you have written or said because you have to make it seem like they are the only person you are contacting. As soon as they get a sniff that you are sending out a mass email, or that you are using the exact same approach with other sites, you will probably lose their respect - and their business!

Do not forget to submit to the directories such as the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org), because getting listed here counts for a lot in all the big search engines. Take your time and choose the right category to submit to. Also, read about how they want their descriptions and titles written, and write them that way. These are the keys to getting into the directories.

Soliciting links is a very time-consuming (and frustrating) venture, but it is essential to getting good rankings in the search engines. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time. Getting your first link is like getting your first sale. It is just as hard - and just as satisfying.

Good luck,

About The Author

Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. (http://www.redcarpetweb.com/). He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field. Contact: shawn@redcarpetweb.com

If Content is King, then surely Relevance is Queen!

There has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the search
engine world of late and there are lots of conspiracy
theories as to why these things happen.

It is easy as a webmaster to get caught up in these webs of
intrigue.

You get email notes about them, you view so-called experts’
thoughts on bulletin Boards -  hey you probably even read
things in newsletter articles!

Well I hope so anyway….

The big driver for webmasters currently appears to be
content and link building. 

While link building is important I don’t believe it makes
Queen.  Maybe a Prince.  Content and links DO go hand in
hand but, without relevance,  the Kingdom is doomed. Sorry I
will stop the analogy now!

If your site is about finance, then finance content is best
supported by finance link exchanges.  Relevance!

If your site is about finance, then finance content
supported by casino link exchanges from a PR8 site while in
the short term may help,…but all the signs are saying this
is not a long term strategy.

Okay,so what is the best strategy?

Keep EVERYTHING relevant.  It is that simple. 

Make sure that you only swap or link to sites that are
relevant to the content on your pages.  Yes I am suggesting
link exchanging on pages of your site not a links page.

Links pages seem to be being abused.  There are rumours that
pages called links, resources or partners are not passing
page rank. You could be wasting your time building links
that are not giving you any benefits!

Delivering relevant links from relevant content is the
future.

Look at sites such as www.bbc.co.uk or
www.independent.co.uk.  News sites have the right idea.
They have 2 or 3 relevant internal links to other
articles on the same topic or links to internal tools that
are related. These usually can be found at the right hand
side of the article.

They also then have weblinks or external links to sites of
interest that are related to the topic.  These are relevant!

Another benefit of this is that with a content rich site you
can add hundreds of links quite legitimately and really add
some value both to your Rankings and your users.

With a content-poor site it is difficult, you have to add
link pages or create a links directory. A five page site
will need to add 10 or 12 good link pages to compete and
even then with algorithm changes, this may not be prudent.

Having a site with 400 pages means you can easily add 3
links per page, so you have 1200 link options straight away.

Hopefully this explains that relevance runs a close second
to content.

Always bear in mind when writing content that relevant
links will not only boost your search engine rankings,
but you will also add a service to your visitors.

2004 © J2 Squared Limited. All Rights Reserved.

 Jason Hulott is Director of J2 Squared, leading specialists in Internet Consultancy  whose specific aim is to drive more revenue to websites. Their main area of focus are the insurance, finance, and automotive industries.