Search Engine Optimization and Optimizer in Navi Mumbai

Search Engine Optimization and Optimizer in Navi Mumbai

Sunil Nair
N/L/4/33 Room No 12 Sector 11
Nerul Navi Mumbai 400706
Mumbai, India
Email: sunilnair2001@gmail.com
Phone: +919820831800

Objectives: Working for self gratification is a quality that makes me a Virtual Assistant with a difference. As an Search Engine Optimizer Expert or even as a Internet Marketing Expert delivering work with a proficiency and in the stipulated time frame, I prove myself to be an asset for the employer.

Profile:

As a Search Engine Optimizer Expert with more than 6 years of experience in IT & SEO Industry

Job Profile : Total Portal SEO Marketing, Research and Targeted Internet Marketing for Traffic. Provides Individual Creation of Meta Tags, Keywords, Design Suggestions, Description and suitable alt tags. Web Directory listing – Domestic and International (Manually) Top Google Listing and Marketing of various section of portal. DMOZ Listings and Indirect Link Popularity.

Offering services such as: Website Designing and Development Robot Friendly. Internet Data Research for Content SEO Content Writing B2B B2C Portal Development and Portal Marketing Top 10/20 Google, AOL, YAHOO Search Engine Ranking Service. Full Search Engine Optimization Web Analysis and Domain Experts Registration. Search Engine and Directory Listing Internet Product and Software Marketing Link Popularity and PPC Services. Only Meta tag and Content Optimization and Easy Crawling Sitemap for Portal / Website Free SEO Solution for .org, .edu, .gov (Non-profit Organization)

Roles & Responsibilities: Understanding Client’s marketing objectives and fully analyzing their online sector and competitors. Creating a complete Search Engine Marketing strategy for my clients, taking into consideration their marketing objectives, current positioning in their online sector, usability and design issues, and any technological restraints they may have. Implementation of our SEO strategies, involving: building web pages, constructing XML/RSS feeds, suggesting copy changes and recommending meta data. The ongoing monitoring and re-evaluation of Clients’ strategies to maximize their results across all major Search Engines, involving Web Analytics, re-optimization of client’s site and content, and the sourcing of new and relevant links for clients’ sites. Building and developing in-house tools to aid in both SEO and PPC analysis and implementation. Researching developments in search engine technologies through testing and analysis of search results, reading patents/white papers and participating in forums such as WebmasterWorld. Giving technical workshops and training for coworkers and team members (and new members of staff), including general SEO workshops

SEO Skills : Design layout of site Title & Meta Tags, W3C Valid HTML, Expert Keyword Analysis, Search Engine Submissions, Directory Submissions, Blogs, Forum Posting, Google Sitemaps implementation and Link (Resources) Pages Addition, Link Building (One-way, RPL & Three way), Sandboxing, Stats of sites, PPC, Impressions, Adsense, Redirection, Domain registration, Familiar with all the Google and Yahoo Products like Froogle, Google base, Google Print, Google Alerts, Google Trends, Yahoo Store and Overture

Experience and Achievements

Company : Bharatbook.com ,

The Company is into Business Market Research Reports & Industry Analysis Post : Head of SEO & Internet Marketing Section Job Profile :Internet Expert Research Competitor Analysis Internet Data Research Internet Product Marketing Fine tuning the key words Website Designing Visualizing Web Site Maintenance Websites Optimized http://www.bharatbook.com (World’s largest and most respected Market Research resource. Searchable database of market research reports incorporating all niche and top industries)

Post : Internet Marketing Expert & Search Engine Optimizer
Job Profile: Competitor Analysis Internet Data Research Optimizing the keywords Fine tuning the key words Web Site Maintenance Directory Submission Link Exchange

Company : eresourceerp.com ,

The company is into Providing ERP solutions for various industries like pharma,insurance,fleet management, logistic etc Post : Search Engine Optimizer Job Profile:Competitor Analysis Internet Data Research Optimizing the keywords Fine tuning the key words Web Site Maintainance Directory Submission Link Exchange Company : eresourceinfotech.com , eresource infotech pvt.ltd. is a leading provider of outsourced software development, Web Development and Design, systems integration and application maintenance services linking e-business with core information systems for companies worldwide

Post : Internet Marketing Expert & Search Engine Optimizer
Job Profile: Competitor Analysis Internet Data Research Optimizing the keywords Fine tuning the key words Web Site Maintenance Directory Submission Link Exchange

Company : globalknowledgeresearch.com

http://www.globalknowledgeresearch.com (The company is into distribution of market research reports and online databases) http://www.eresourceerp.com (The company is into Providing ERP solutions for various industries like pharma,insurance,fleet management, logistic etc ) http://www.eresourceinfotech.com(eresource infotech pvt. ltd. is a leading provider of outsourced software development, Web Development and Design, systems integration and application maintenance services linking e-business with core information systems for companies worldwide)

Post : Internet Marketing Expert & Search Engine Optimizer
Job Profile: Competitor Analysis Internet Data Research Optimizing the keywords Fine tuning the key words Web Site Maintenance Directory Submission Link Exchange

Company : www.eresource.co.in
http:// www.eresource.co.in (www.eresource.co.in is a leading provider of outsourced software development, Web Development and Design, systems integration and application maintenance services linking e-business with core information systems for companies worldwide.)

Currently I am working with bharatbook.com as a Internet Marketing Expert & Search Engine Optimizer also working as an consultant and freelancer

Sunil Nair

N/L/4/33 Room No 12 Sector 11
Nerul Navi Mumbai 400706
Email: sunilnair2001@gmail.com
Phone: +919820831800
My website blog: www.sunilnairseo.wordpress.com

Bad Code Hurts Your Search Engine Ranking

Did you know HTML code errors could negatively affect your search engine ranking? Most webmasters don’t realize that simple page errors can cause a search engine spider to incorrectly index a page or skip the page altogether. Checking your code and links before launching a page just became an even better idea.

Search Engine Ranking Determined By Relevancy

Bad code can hurt your site with the search engines in several ways. Search engines score a page by looking for relevant terms in key HTML components in specific places within a document. If they don’t find them because of typos or other mistakes, the spiders can downgrade your page or leave without reading your whole page.

Incorrect document structure such as a badly placed tag – like a META tag placed in the BODY section instead of the HEAD section – can cause the spider to ignore the tag, reducing your relevancy score and subsequent ranking.

What if you transposed a few letters when typing an important tag? Say you typed TILTE instead of TITLE for your TITLE tag. Search engines place high importance on text contained in a TITLE tag. If you type the tag name wrong, the search engine will ignore the tag and all its contents!

Other errors on your page can also limit how search engine spiders index your site. Broken links act as roadblocks to the spiders. Search engine spiders index text and follow links. If they come to your site and encounter broken links, they won’t be able to fully crawl your site and they may abandon it (they’ve got the whole Internet to index, why waste time with a site with broken links!)

A Typo Cost Me A Top Ranking!

John Bryant, a professional computer consultant and SEO in Arizona and owner of www.helpmedoc.com, told me about his experience with HTML code and search engines.

“The one time I forgot to validate my HTML, it cost me a Top 10 Ranking! I made a minor HTML error when I was updating a customer’s site and it wrecked the site’s ranking. The page dropped from a top ten position to page three.”

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. Being a perceptive professional, John immediately noticed the drop in ranking and identified the reason as an HTML error by running an HTML validator over the site. He fixed the error and resubmitted the page. A few weeks later he regained his original ranking.

When asked about lessons learned, John replied, “I won’t make that mistake again – I always validate my code now.”

Errors Hurt In Directories Too!

Problems with errors in your code don’t stop with search engines- it can also affect directories. At Search Engine Strategies, the largest conference dedicated to search engine marketing, representatives from Yahoo and LookSmart specifically stated that sites with broken links and errors could be penalized or rejected. A HTML validation tool like NetMechanic’s HTML Toolbox or the validation service by W3C.org could ensure you avoid this problem.

How Do Errors Get In The Code?

“My Webmaster knows code – he wouldn’t make a mistake.”

No, not on purpose, but let’s consider the work environment in which your Webmaster operates. There are tight deadlines, multiple people requesting changes, pressure to constantly update the site – the truth is the Webmaster’s world is hectic and high stress. The tired Webmaster does his best to keep up, but sometimes that means making changes on the fly with little double checking (after all, it’s only a minor text change�).

Consider this scenario – your Marketing Department has handed your Webmaster some great new content for your home page. They have coordinated with your company’s search engine optimization expert and have strategically placed keywords in the new text. In an effort to be responsive, your Webmaster jumps on the task, adds the new text, but accidentally cuts off the closing bracket of a paragraph tag. So your text looks like this:

 This is your keyword-rich text that the marketing and SEO put together.

Notice that the P tag above is missing a closing bracket. The code should really be written like this:

 This is your keyword-rich text that the marketing and SEO put together.

When the search engine reads your page without the closing bracket, it assumes all the keyword-rich text is an attribute of the paragraph tag – and ignores it. Since search engines put great emphasis on the visible text on your page and this optimized text was specifically added to boost your site’s relevancy for certain keywords, you just lost a great opportunity to prove your relevancy to the search engines. This can cost you a high search engine ranking and traffic.

Spiders Are Low-Tech Browsers

Why are search engine spiders so picky? After all, Internet Explorer often forgives errors like this.

If you design your site for “IE Only” you are building for the most generous, most robust and error-forgiving browser around. Assuming that search engine spiders will navigate your site like IE is wishful thinking. The same things that cause your page to display incorrectly under Netscape, Opera or other old versions of browsers may trip up a search engine spider.

Search engine spiders are like browsers, but they are fairly low-tech browsers. In fact, they are roughly the equivalent of a Version 2 browser. They don’t understand Flash, they don’t understand DHTML, and many of them don’t even understand Frames.

It is important to keep these limitations in mind when designing your Web site. Designing for leading edge technology instead of designing for universal browser compatibility can hurt you with search engines as well as non-IE browsers.

Top Search Engine Rankings Are Too Important To Risk

A good search engine ranking for a popular keyword is worth gold. Don’t take unnecessary risks by taking shortcuts that could cost you a top position. If you worry about your search engine ranking, make HTML code validation your final step before publishing your page.

Cloaking: Search Engines Shift Gears

As recently as last year, search engine representatives were unclear or did not seem to care much about the search engine marketing application referred to as cloaking, IP delivery or stealth scripts.

At one point, I remember thinking many people working at major search engines must simply have no idea what cloaking is and how it works. If they had, they wouldn’t have waited so long to take action against it.

Cloaking is a search engine optimization strategy in which a Web page URL has several documents associated with it, one for each of the major search engines and a different document for end users.

With cloaking, an individual search engine spider sees only the page tailored to optimize rankings for that search engine.

Visitors entering a Web site from search engine results see a page designed for end users because these click-throughs are URL independent, that is, the link from search engine results refers visitors to the URL of the site and not to the page the search engine has cached, which is the page optimized for its indexing process.

How Cloaking Works

Cloaking is a program installed on the Web server that monitors URL requests. These requests must contain the IP address of the requester so the Web server knows where to send the requested page.

By comparing the IP address of the requesting machine to a database of IP addresses of search engine spiders, the cloaking program determines whether a visitor is a search engine spider then decides which search engine spider it is.

The server sends the page designed for the spider it detects or the page designed for end users if a search engine spider is not detected.

Pros

Cloaking allows you to tailor Web pages for individual spiders and to score top positions in multiple search engines using one URL.

It’s difficult for a single page to rank well with all search engines because each search engine uses a different algorithm to rank Web pages.

Hiding HTML code from prying eyes is the main reason people give for using cloaking. When sites achieve top search engine positions, competitors for the same keyword analyze the pages to discover why. Cloaking can keep important optimization strategies ? such as keyword frequency, keyword placement and word count ? hidden from competitors.

Cons

Though cloaking can keep competitors from some of your search engine optimization strategies, it can also be used to hide other things.

People can steal your site’s content and hide it behind a stealth script. This nasty form of theft, referred to as page jacking, was exposed last year in a publicized event on Search Engine Watch.

But the major downside that may have you thinking twice about cloaking: Major search engines are finally on to it.

On the I-Search Discussion List, Marshall Simmonds, manager of Search Engine Relations at About.com, posted conversations he had with representatives from AltaVista, Inktomi and Northern Light. Sentiments expressed were simple and to the point: Web sites that cloak will be permanently banned from their search engine databases.

Google states its policy in a FAQ.

It all sounds like deterrent language to me.

Do Right by Users

Many people reported in I-Search that they achieve better positioning if they simply optimize normally and use techniques that are impossible with cloaked pages.

At several recent conferences, I’ve had the chance to speak frankly with search engine representatives. They generally agree you should provide quality content to your users and worry about spider-friendly design over positioning alone. This is a long-term strategy that will survive any spam shakeout.

Back To Basics In SEO

There has been a lot of talk about Google and MSN’s new algorithms and Yahoo’s search engine changes. When these changes finally do occur, it is always important to remember the number one rule in SEO: DON’T PANIC!

If there is one guaranteed constant in this business it is that there will always be changes in the search engines’ rankings. Our job, as search engine marketers, is to stay on top of the changes and to monitor how the change affects our clients’ site’s traffic.

I am actually excited about any algorithm change, because it means that the search engines should actually get better.

What follows is a “back to the basics” on getting good rankings:
 

Keyphrases

First things first: Always be sure to research the keyphrases you intend on using. Find out what keyphrases Internet users most often employ to find your product or service. There is no point optimizing your site for “online web marketing” if everyone types in “Internet marketing”.

Once you have a list of potential keyphrases with a high amount of Internet traffic, comb over that list and see which keyphrases best describe your product or service. These are the ones you should consider.

Here are some sites that can help you in your research:

Wordtracker http://www.wordtracker.com Google AdWords https://adwords.google.com/select/ (Click to sign up, it is free to do the keyphrase research) Snap http://www.snap.com
 

Competition

Research your competition with these questions in mind:
 

• What keyphrases are they using (take a peek at their keyword Meta tag)?
   
• What are the titles of their sites?
   
• When you do a search for the keyphrases you are considering, who comes up in the top five rankings?
   
• What is their title/keyphrases?
   
• Are the top ranking sites your competitors or are they industry associations?

Use the keyword effectiveness index (KEI) tool at Wordtracker to compare the effectiveness of your keyphrases. A higher KEI signifies a better ratio of demand-to-competition for a keyphrase.

Do a link search to see who is linking to your competition. In a search engine, type in “link:” (without the quotes) followed by the URL you want to verify. This will allow you to see all the important links to the site that the search engine tracks (I would recommend doing this in both Google and Yahoo).

Can you get links from the same sites as your competitors? Are there industry associations or organizations that are linking to the top sites, but not to you?

Get your link campaign going! (see the article about linking for search engines http://www.redcarpetweb.com/promotion/0411.html#feature to learn why links are important)

Optimizing Your Web Site

Now that you know what keyphrase you are optimizing for, here is how to optimize your site: write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases.

Above all else, this is the single most important factor.

Sure there are other on-site factors such as:

Getting the keyphrase into the title (this is the second most important factor). Getting the keyphrase into the Meta description tag, the Meta keyword tag, the headers and sub headers, the alt tags, and into some link text (some of these factors are VERY minor). Having a good site map so that the search engine spiders can easily navigate your site Having a robots.txt to include the pages that you want the search engines to include. Don’t use frames Use flash wisely (not the WHOLE site in flash) Use external files for your java scripts Use cascading style sheets (a .css file). Use dynamic URL’s wisely (Avoid using URL’s with ? or & in them)

Content is king

Oh…and did I mention that you need to write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases? All of the points above are superfluous if you don’t have good content. Content is the food that the search engine spiders like to gobble up with a voracious appetite. The items below are just the side dishes. You need good content to get decent rankings, but you need the side dishes to become a serious competitor in your market.
 

• Write about your keyphrases.
• Write extra pages.
• Write about your industry.
• Write about your product or service’s uses.
• How will your product/service improve the life of the consumer? Find out, and then write about it.
• Why is your product/service better than your competitor’s? Think of a reason and write about it.
• What is the history of your product/service? Or your industry? Write about it.
• Who are you? Everyone always enjoys “about us” pages…
• And of course, be sure to serve the search engine spiders with a tasty main dish full of keyphrases!

Whatever you do, be sure that you don’t write junk or filler copy and double check that everything reads well. Keep in mind that writing about your keyphrase doesn’t mean adding the keyphrase unnaturally into the text. If you have any doubts, employ the talents of an expert to do the writing for you!

Links

Start soliciting links today! Get people in your industry to link to you. Contact:

• Industry associations and organizations
   
• Web sites about your industry
   
• Sites related to your product or service
   
• Suppliers
   
• Resellers
   
• Competitors who don’t compete in the same region
• Sites that sell products/services that relate to your, but don’t compete directly.

See my article on soliciting links for more information on how to go about it: Linking is Queen www.dmoz.org – it is probably the most important directory out there today.

Do research and find “vertical directories” that focus on your industry, and submit to them. These directories are very important because, for example, if you have a dodo bird site, what better potential client than someone who found you through a dodo bird directory!

Search engines and directories are different. Do not confuse them. You can submit to all the search engines you can find, but it usually won’t do much because the good search engines will find you anyway. Submitting to random search engines will usually only increase your email spam. Don’t waste your money on search engine submission software for the same reasons.

Here is a partial list of the current important search engines:

• Google
   
• Yahoo
   
• MSN

Conclusion

• Build your web site for your customers, within the guidelines that the search engines set out.
• Don’t make the site awkward by over-conforming.
• The site’s first focus should be on what your clients want.
   
• Create good content. Good, quality content that reads well and flows seamlessly.
   
• Update it regularly. An active, living site is healthier than a stagnant, dead one (the search engines spiders like their food alive and full of life).

And remember: Content is King!

Five Ways To Win The Favor Of Search Engines

You’ve got a cool new website with all the works: cool Flash presentations, eye-catching colors, informative text, easy-to-use layout, and an interesting topic. You think your site is amazing, and you know that others will agree with you. If only they know it exists.

How do you make your website known? How do you make yours stand out among millions of others? You can spend lots of money on advertisement, but that will not work if you don’t have the money to spare on advertising. So what do you do? Make search engines work for you!

Google, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, Altavista – you want to be at the top of their results list. The higher your site is in a search results page, the better chances that it will be visited. The science behind making your site a popular search result is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Don’t worry, though even if SEO is referred to as a science, it is not all that complicated. You just need to take note of a few things, and before you know it, your site will have more visitors than you could ever dream of.

Here are five tips to ensure that your site would be a favorite of search engines all around the cyber world.

1. Give importance to substance over appearance.

Do you want to share your knowledge on a subject that you have authority on? Do you want to sell products? Do you want to build an online shrine for your favorite actress? Whatever topic you have chosen for your website, make sure that you are able to give useful information on it. Search engines work by scanning sites for keywords. They search text and completely ignore everything else. So if you have made your site rich in colors, don’t forget to make it rich in content as well. After all, a beautiful layout can make people look, but relevant content is what will make them stay. Remember, in this day and age: content is king!

2. Know your topic well

If you know much about your topic, you will know what people usually ask about it, and what they ask about it is what they will type in the search bar. When writing the content for your website, put yourself in your other people’s shoes, people who will be your target audience or market. Know the possible questions they might have about your topic, and give answers in your site.
 

3. Learn from the best

Take time to browse and read sites that get lots of visitors and have the same topic as yours. Take note of any recurring phrases in these sites’ text. These phrases are most likely keywords. Incorporate them in your own site’s content. Don’t saturate your site with keywords, though. You don’t want to sound redundant to your site visitor. A 3% density level would be enough.

In searching for the right keywords, use Overture’s services. It may take quite some time, as it is more of a trial-and-error method, but the results are conclusive, and a pattern can easily be observed.
 

4. Submit…and re-submit

You will never get a certain job if you don’t send in your application for it. The same thing applies to SEO. If you want your site to be recognized by search engines, then go out of your way to register your site with them. After a couple of weeks, search for your site by putting in the keywords you used in your content. If your site is still not coming up in the search results, do not give up, and just re-register and resubmit your site. It’s possible that your initial registration was discarded without being processed. This usually happens because a lot of submissions are being done everyday.
 

5. Constantly update your site

This can’t be stressed enough: search engine spiders love sites which constantly change their content. You can’t build your site and expect it to last forever without any updates. There will come a time when those search engine spiders would stop fetching your site for query requests. Here’s a tip: integrate a blog program in your site. Blogs have a user-friendly interface that allows easy updates.

The Art & Science Of Obtaining Inbound Website Links

Ever wonder how to build incoming links to your website? In the “old days” you would simply find a site related to yours and ask for a link. In today’s “what’s in it for me?” society, it’s not that easy anymore.

Link popularity, as it’s often referred to, is important to ranking well with the search engines. Most search engines use it as a factor when determing your page rank. Basically, it’s an indicator of how many other sites are linking to yours. If you have a lot of incoming links, the search engines think to themselves that your site must be pretty good and will give you a boost. Here’s a handy tool for checking on incoming links to your website… http://www.helpfulinformation.org/seo-tools/anchortext.pl

So how does an honest website owner get those incoming links? I thought you’d never ask. If you look at it with a creative mind, there are many ways to get those links without directly asking for them.

Here are a few of my favorites:

1) Articles: There’s been a lot of talk about writing short articles and having others post them on their websites lately, and for very good reason. Since articles all contain a short signature line that leads back to your website, it’s a great way to get incoming links.

The other sites get content and you get an incoming link. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved. You should also submit your writing to the various online article websites that exist for this purpose. This is where many people go when looking for an article to post on their sites or to run in their ezines.

2) Blogs: Blogs are big and everyone and their brother has one. Many blogs will allow you to post comments in response to the postings. Make sure to include your url with your name. Of course, you should never post to any blog or sp-am a blog in order to get an incoming link. This is wrong. Don’t do it. If you have something to add, then and only then should you post.

Due to some people abusing blogs for the sole purpose of linking, many have instituted the use of the “no follow” tags. What this does is tell the search engines not to follow posted links. For more information see: http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/archive/nofollow.html

Of course if you publish your own blog you can include all the links you like. If you have numerous websites that need incoming links, this is an easy way to get them. F-ree Blogger accounts can be set up at http://www.Blogger.com

3) Discussion Boards: Believe it or not, most posts to discussion boards do get indexed by the search engines. Again, use a good signature line in your postings. I’m still surprised to this day when I do a search at Google and find a comment I posted to a board months earlier.

4) Press Releases: Writing and submitting press releases online is often overlooked when it comes to linking. If you submit your releases to places like http://PRWeb.com they’ll be archived for the world to see for a very long time. If you do a search for “f-ree press releases” you’ll find plenty of other similar sites that accept press release submissions. For more information on using press releases to help with your search engine optimization, see:

http://tinyurl.com/9umg4 http://www.pandia.com/features/pressrelease.html

5) Ezine Archives: If you publish an ezine, you should be posting your back issues online. Since your ezine should always contain links back to your website, this insures an additional stream of incoming links.

If you buy ezine ads in newsletters, make sure they post their back issues online so you can benefit from an indefinite link.

6) Natural Linking: Let’s face it, the goal of most websites is to provide quality content. Do that and you’ll find other sites naturally linking to yours due to the good information that you provide. You won’t have to ask for a link, they’ll just do it on their own. Here’s a great article on this: http://tinyurl.com/88w2v

No man is an island, and on the Web you don’t want to be. You want to be “popular” and by getting your link out there in Cyberland the search engines will look at your website in a more favorable light. And as Martha Stewart likes to say, “It’s a Good Thing.”

A Few Good Search Engine Tricks

Gaining top search positions for your chosen search words and phrases has become more and more competitive, as search engine optimization firms use new, more effective techniques to place their large clients.

Small businesses need every possible advantage to gain visibility on search engines.

This is becoming more costly as new paid-inclusion programs are launched by each of the major search engines.

To rank well on any search engine, it’s critical to use the basic techniques of appropriate content and page architecture to provide search spiders with indexing and ranking scorecards.

We all know by now that meta tags are important.

Most of us know that using keywords liberally in body text and creating descriptive hypertext links within body copy is helpful.

Most of us know that using keywords in text-based page navigation links increases ranking and improves your score at major search engines.

For a concise overview of this information for new webmasters, visit Web Techniques101.

But suppose you are doing all of the important items and still need that extra edge required to gain visibility in the engines. Here are a few techniques to help tip the scales in your favor.

Gain link listings from large, targeted high-traffic sites that are complementary to your business. Sometimes a listing in this type of directory is well worth the cost of entry.

One such directory is the small-business section of Business.com. A fee of $199 (U.S.) will gain your company dramatic link relevancy increases in Google and its search partners.

Specialists should consider sites appropriate to their professional categories. For example, try getting a free link in your subject category at About.com.

Consider programs such as the new PartnerSite program at Fast. It offers a site search function that allows your site visitors to search only your Web site, and its spider crawls your Web site twice a month to index new information and ensure fresh listings.

This two-in-one program costs $149 a year. Fast also partners with the Lycos network and provides search results for several international engines as well.

Subscribe to the well-known and extremely useful Submit Director service. It provides instant ranking algorithms so you can see your Web site precisely the way the search engines do.

This valuable tool provides multiple charts, graphs and page analyses to allow you to craft and tweak to your heart’s content. A one-year subscription gives you an edge few small-business webmasters are even aware of. Professional search engine optimizers heavily use this program. It costs $149 for fewer than 50 pages and $189 for up to 100 pages.

Try software. FirstPlace Software has introduced Web Position Gold, the latest version of its submission and reporting tool.

This excellent software is timesaving and instructive. Consider purchasing or upgrading now to gain an edge on the late adopters. The software costs $149.

Keep your eyes peeled for new search developments, such as the WiseNut.com search engine. WiseNut has leaped out of the starting gate with the bold claim that it outperforms and indexes more of the Web than current leader Google. We’ll see how that claim holds up as the competition.

Searching for the best option within your limited Web promotion budget will certainly lead to some of these choices over others. But with everyone beginning to charge for submission, listing and ranking, you had better make some choices and get moving if you want to be visible to the search engines.

And it’s imperative if you find your site ranked below No. 30 at any of the major search engines

10 Tips For Learning SEO From Scratch

Create a practice Web site.

This can be a personal home page, a hobby site or a small-business site.

If possible, start with a new site that has never been submitted to search engines or directories.

There’s some evidence that using a domain name that has your keywords in it can give you a slight boost in rankings, so keep that in mind.

To start, you might want to try optimizing just the main page of your site and see how that goes. Alternatively, you could try different techniques on different pages and see which work best. If you choose a subject you know and love, things will be much easier.

Learn basic HTML. If you create the site yourself, you will know your pages inside and out. You can use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, but for best results in the search engines you might need to tweak your code by hand. Don’t be afraid of this. Basic HTML is simple to learn.

Choose the proper keyphrases. What you think will be the perfect keywords and phrases might not be what people search for. To be sure you’re targeting the best possible phrases, subscribe to WordTracker.

This service gathers data from a few of the largest metacrawlers that tell which phrases are most searched on and which aren’t. It adds this information to its searchable database, which subscribers can access.

WordTracker offers a variety of subscription options, including a one-day subscription. This might be all you need to figure out the most appropriate keyphrases for your site.

Learn about writing copy for your site visitors and for the search engines at the same time. This is a crucial component to high rankings and a successful Web site. To learn more, read 5 Steps to Better Search Engine Rankings.

Learn to create a killer title tag. This tag is critical because it’s given a lot of weight by most search engines. You must put your keyphrases into this tag and not waste space with extraneous words. Don’t use the title tag to display your company name or for the phrase “home page.” Think of it more as a title/keyphrase tag and create it accordingly.

Learn to create great meta description tags and meta keyword tags. These two tags are important, but not as important as most people think. It’s a good idea to create a good meta description tag that uses your keyphrases and is a good description of your site. This is often the info that appears under your search engine listing.

The meta keyword tag isn’t quite as important. Contrary to popular belief, what you place in the keyword tag will have little bearing on what keyphrases your site is found under. Use this tag, but don’t obsess over it.

Learn about the extra goodies that can boost rankings. These include alt tags, header tags, link popularity and keywords in the domain and file names.

Check out Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Guide, and Rank Write for more information.

Learn the correct way to submit to directories. Read everything you can about directory submissions before attempting it. Be sure to read each directory’s FAQ page and follow it precisely. Making mistakes in the submission process can cost you dearly because directory listings are often impossible to change later.

Don’t expect quick results. It’s going to take time; there’s no getting around it. Once your Web site is added to a search engine or a directory, it might start out low on the ladder then slowly work its way up.

For instance, AltaVista has been giving more weight to pages that have been around awhile. Therefore, a brand new page might not rank well until it ages a few months. This might change, however, now that AltaVista has instituted a paid inclusion program.

The same is true for search engines including HotBot, which uses Direct Hit search technology for its top 10 results. With Direct Hit, the more often people click to a site, the more its ranking can increase. So be patient and give your site time to mature.

Wait before tweaking. After three to six months, it’s probably safe to tweak the pages as necessary. By that point, if you’ve done everything mentioned and still find your rankings are nowhere in sight, chances are you goofed up somewhere. But that’s OK ? it’s how you learn!

The first place to check for mistakes is the body copy. If you put fewer than 250 words of visible text on your page, this could be your problem. If your text is long enough, make sure you used enough keyphrases.

Also, check to be sure you used keyphrases throughout the copy, not just in the first line or two, and that you only targeted one or two related phrases per page. If you tried to target too many, you probably diluted the focus and will need to rewrite. If necessary, you can always use your inner pages to target more phrases.

Be sure the phrases you targeted aren’t so competitive they won’t achieve a high rank. Single keywords and two-word phrases thought of as one entity, such as chat room, are more difficult. Beginners might want to stick with three- and four-word phrases.

Finally, continue to read, read, read and practice, practice, practice. Yes, it’s time consuming, but it’s so satisfying when high rankings come pouring in.

Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy: Make Love, Not War

When it comes to search engine optimization strategy, there are basically two camps – those who view search engines as adversaries to be conquered at any cost and those who regard search engines as partners in their online marketing efforts.  Long-time readers of my articles probably already have a good idea of which camp I fall into; however, I believe both approaches can be effective optimization methods.  Adversarial Optimization Methods

Service providers who have this “adversarial” philosophy will tell their prospects that the formulation of a search engine optimization strategy is much like a high-stakes game of chess.  It’s an “us vs. them,” “winner-take-all,” and “every man for himself” mentality.  It’s also rooted largely in technology – under this philosophy, success is defined as unraveling the latest search engine algorithm to find new optimization methods and exploiting its technical aspects for immediate benefit.

The underlying premise of this search engine optimization strategy is that you must use optimization methods that trick the search engines into showing a website predominantly in the results since the site isn’t currently offering attributes that the search engines consider valuable.  The primary benefits of this approach are that it doesn’t require much work on the part of the client and that results can be realized more rapidly.  These qualities both stem from the fact that there isn’t a large amount of additional content needed, nor are there many wholesale changes to make to the website when using such optimization methods. 

While this is not the methodology that I recommend, it is a valid – albeit potentially volatile – search engine optimization strategy.

Partnership Optimization Methods

Those who view search engines as partners have a very different search engine optimization strategy.  These service providers embrace the idea that the attributes and optimization methods that give a website high rankings in search engines are, by and large, the same ones that make the site more valuable to website visitors and potential customers. 

This theory makes sense.  Every search engine needs to return results that their users find to be the most relevant and useful.  If search engine R&D people operated in a vacuum, they would probably find their market share rapidly diminished while they lamented about how “people are stupid”.  This means that each of the major search engines spend endless research dollars to determine exactly what it is that search engine users find valuable, and each has a high stake in the results of the research.  No search engine marketing or web design firm has the resources or motivation to conduct studies of this magnitude.  It is, therefore, highly advantageous to use the findings of these studies, deduced from common algorithm traits of multiple search engines, to improve your search engine optimization strategy and website.

I consistently hear from companies who are puzzled as to why their expensive, cutting-edge website is perpetually outranked by a site of perceived inferior quality – “our website is better than theirs” or “we are a much bigger company” are common remarks.  Beauty is, as always, in the eye of the beholder.  The sites that consistently rank highly are almost always using optimization methods that offer something of value to people who entered the search query.  Search engines care as much about the size of a company or how much it spent on its website about as much as they care about what you had for breakfast this morning (I had blueberry muffins, but Google hasn’t called to ask). 

The advantages to the “partnership” search engine optimization strategy are numerous.  Rather than chase the ever-changing technical attributes that can get you short-term results, you instead use optimization methods that leverage your company’s knowledge of your industry to create something useful for the searcher.  You can improve your website and offer the information and products that prospects are seeking, even if those prospects are in the earliest stages of the buying cycle.  In general, you will not have to watch your rankings swing wildly based upon new spam filters and algorithm shifts, and thus will enjoy a higher level of predictability when it comes to your website (although with search engines, there are never any guarantees).  Since you aren’t constantly forced to re-address your site’s search engine optimization methods, you’ll have more time to focus on other online marketing areas that need attention, such as the website’s conversion rate, an e-newsletter, or online PR.

Conclusion

It’s a fact that websites rise and fall in the rankings all the time.  The only real constant is that the sites of TRUE value, the ones that offer something relevant and important to the searcher, are generally always near the top – even after the latest algorithm shift has sent the “adversarial” crowd into a frenzy of activity as they attempt to reformulate their search engine optimization strategy. 

While it may take a little extra effort, I like to think of the relationship with search engines as a “partnership” in a real sense.  We use optimization methods that apply the attributes search engines have deemed to be valuable to a website, which improves both the website and the website’s search engine rankings.  The search engines, in turn, send highly-targeted visitors who have shown an interest in your industry, products, or services.  Sure, it may seem that we get more out of the deal, but the engines don’t complain.  They haven’t even acknowledged our partnership.

The Importance Of Inbound Links

“Inbound links” is the art of placing your website link on other relevant websites. This is an important part of your direct marketing efforts in order to increase overall reach, link popularity and website traffic.

Why Do It?

More quality traffic is the ultimate goal. Having a link from related, relevant sites will help you increase traffic in a number of ways.

First, you will receive qualified or relevant traffic from these sites. You will get you more traffic directly from these sites, and increase the probability that you will be found off of a link (via those sites) in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.

Second, the number of websites that link to your website is one of the MAIN factors that help search engines determine your relevancy for a search term. Acquiring new links from other websites will help you improve search engine rankings.

Search engines have also begun to rank the importance of the sites that link to you. In other words if Wine Spectator links to your site, your credibility is higher than if Joe Public’s Newsletter provides a link to your website.

It is important to remember that 85% of internet visitors use the search engines on a regular basis. Search engines beat all other media in driving visitors to websites. Moreover, the majority of users believe companies found in top search results are major brands = brand equity.

How Do You Do It?

While the process of procuring ‘inbound links can be a lengthy process, it is a worthwhile pursuit. There are a plethora of wine related sites that list winery sites – some are free of charge and others are subscription based. This is also the case for most industries.

First, you should acquire links from human based directories such as Yahoo and the Open Directory Project. Take special care in accurately submitting your site in the right category and use a good description of the site. The search engines consider websites that are listed in the top directories to be credible sites.

Second, it is important to have a links from topic specific or niche directories such as wineweb.com or sonomazone.com. These types of websites provide news and information that are relevant to the content of your site. You need to write to these directories and request a link.

Third, you should try to procure ‘resource links’ from partners and vendors for your business. You are more likely to be able to request and receive a link from their website because of your existing business relationship.

Fourth, PR is an effective means of acquiring links. Press releases with your URL embedded) will help you secure links in news articles about your company. It will also help with creating awareness which may lead to unsolicited links from interested parties.

Lastly, it is important to create content or tools that inspire linking and make people want to bookmark your site. Ultimately, your site must offer good content and features that provide real value to your audience in order to build long-term link popularity. The likelihood of others linking to your site increases as people discover your website and its benefits.
Don’ts

We do not recommend the myriad of services that offer to link your site “to thousands of websites”. Rarely, does one get quality links from these services. In addition, there are a number of sites out there that offer reciprocal links. We don’t believe in these links as it is not prudent to direct traffic away from your site and search engines prefer one way links.

Whether you enlist the aid of a consultant or try to procure links on your own, quality ‘inbound links’ are becoming an increasingly important component of your direct marketing and sales activity to increase site traffic and drive sales. Please write to daniel@crushdirect.com or john@crushdirect.com to learn more about inbound links and for a proposal specific to your web activity.

Feel free to pass Crush-It! along to colleagues and friends.