SEO Techniques for Beginners

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technique of increasing the web site's exposure to different search engines. The goal of the search engine optimizer is to get top rankings on the search engine result page for search queries. Most of the internet users used to click on the first few results of a search, especially if their search needs were met with an exact find (maximum up to 3rd page of search engine result page). SEO techniques also help to bring new visitors to sites through referrals from many other sites and directories.

How it works!
Search engines use what is called a spider to reach out into the Internet to find new and updated websites. As a page is published, the spider stumbles upon the page depending on what words, images, video or other content is on the page. The spiders don’t actually recognize the images or the videos; they recognize the words in the description of the image or video. When someone does a search that includes these words, the search engine pulls that up in its results. These words are called keywords. The more often these keywords are used in a webpage the better chance the search engine will see it and put it up on the results. The more keywords, including combinations of keywords, the higher the page will show up in the search engine ranking.

The spider also used to refer to the Title and the Meta tags on the page, Heading, content and links to the site from other websites. But you have to make sure that you stock each of these areas well with your primary keywords (for which you are optimizing your site) but don’t overdo it because the spiders do seem to have a temper and pages do get banned. A 2% to 7% density of keywords is the preferred standard. Also it depends upon the page. If it sounds good and relevant to your page content, then there is no problem even if the percentage increases to 12.

This is why the webpage code is so important. Many people spend a lot of time making their web pages look visually appealing to people, but they don’t think about the spiders in the search engines. Spend more time on your web site’s code for search engine optimization and you will find yourself getting high rankings. I am not saying to create a page for any spider (or software), the page should be for the human visitors but should be well optimized from search engine's point of view.


SEO techniques for top ranking
Title: This is the name that you can see at the top of the window of your web browser (Blue Bar), also called the Title Bar. Make sure that your title is short and descriptive. It also needs to contain the targeted keywords that are relevant to your site. The search engines also use to show this title in the search engine results. Hence, it should clearly describe your sites content so that the users will be interested in coming to your site.

Keywords: Keywords are an important part of SEO techniques. Unfortunately many webmasters overdo it. Keywords are one of the most important factors in ranking high on search engines. You will find many tips on adding keywords, such as ALT tags, anchors and other areas. While these are meant to be used if you want to help boost your keywords, they should be relevant to the image or the place where you are linking. Many people try to stuff keywords into every possible place. As a general rule, I would say you can optimize one page with 3 keywords or phrases. I would recommend starting with one or two. But never overuse the keywords. Again, it is wise to put other relative key words (secondary & tertiary) that are similar but not quite the same as your main key words. The main benefit of using such keywords for bringing new visitors to your site through long tail key phrases. By having a wide variety and volume of key words in your webpage you may very well be the only result when someone uses one of those combinations of keywords in their search. This technique is very successful but many people do not use it. When trying to get new visitors to your site you will want to use as many strategies as possible. Using alternative keywords is a strategy that you should use for every page just like you use main keywords.

Meta tags: There are two parts to the Meta-tag:
1. Description
2. Keywords

The description should be short, but it should sound logical and descriptive to the reader. Many times this will be the text that is seen under your title during the search. You will want to give the reader a small overview of the page. Write something that will make them understand what the page is all about and force them want to click on your site.

The keywords will be the same keywords that you have thought of while running your SEO research. These are the same key words that are also in the text of your page.

Links: When other sites on the web link to your site, the search engine spider finds these links and counts it as a vote of support. The more quality pages that link to your page, higher ranking in the search engine. A great way to get one way links is directory submission. Also if you have unique and informative content on your page, then other sites will be interested in linking to your site and refer their visitors to your site.

Many websites don’t get visitors because of low search engine rankings. Use the above discussed SEO techniques to maximize your search engine rankings and achieve your objective with good number of visitors through organic results.

Proven SEO Techniques to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Getting quality and targeted traffic to the blog is one of the key objectives for any blogger. And this can be only possible if the blog is well optimized and search engine friendly so that the ranking in the search engine result page (SERP) increases and receives more organic traffic through search engines. To obtain better position in the SERP, there are few proven seo techniques and tips that can help to make the blog more search engine friendly.

Here I have discussed some of those proven seo techniques to help you get targeted traffic to your blog.

1. Content is King. Quality and informative content will keep your readers coming back to your blog more often looking for new and fresh content. Use catchy titles with one or two relevant keywords and also some relative keywords in the content so that you can get good ranking in the SERP for many long tail key phrases. You can also refer to any keyword suggestion tools available on the web to get an idea of all the relative keywords for your posts.

2. Update your blog regularly. It helps both from search engine as well as human visitor’s point of view. It Search engine spiders crawl your site more often so that the newer posts indexed quickly. Also your readers who do start trickling in have the urge to continue reading your posts. The more regularly you update your blog, the better it is from all aspects.

3. Start social bookmarking your blog and get it noticed in pinging sites and as these are places where bloggers can get extra traffic from other bloggers. It is essential to do this in order to get the traffic you deserve. Blog ping service notifies the weblog services such as Blog Search Engines and blog directories that your blog has been updated. Thus enabling them to index your blog fast and make your content available for a larger audience.

4. Start indexing your blog in popular search engines like Google, Yahoo etc. so that your posts are crawled by the search engine spiders and your blog will rank for more number of keywords in the search engine result page.

5. Start submitting your blog to blog directories so that you get more number of back links for your blog. We all know links are one of the most important factors that can affect your ranking heavily and directory submission is one of the easiest ways of getting one way links.

6. Comment on other blogs of same niche as you but don't spam them with just 'nice blog' or 'nice post' as these comments don't have any weight. Try to engage with your fellow bloggers by leaving quality comments as that will inspire them to automatically visit your site where the comments link back to.

7. Place your Blog Url in forums and in your email signatures as this can bring extra and free traffic to your blog.

All the bloggers like to see visitors arriving at their blogs and putting their comments regarding the posts. And getting traffic to the blog does not happen automatically unless and until we do some promotional effort like I discussed here in this post. We have to promote it in order to gain the most of our blog.

Basic SEO Tips

The most important factor in seo techniques is the keyword for which you are optimizing your site. That is called as the targeted keyword. The most important thing you should know before you start optimizing your page is that the target keyword must be relevant to the content of your site. And also don't forget to include that keyword in different page element like the heading, meta tags and also use the same keyword as anchor text while linking to that page (within your site as well as linking from external sites). It is always difficult to get a top ranking for competitive keywords even if you have a good PR (page rank) and good number of quality backlinks. This is because of the lack of proper seo techniques.

Hence, you should know the following basic seo tips when targeting a keyword:

1. Never target your page with a single keyword. Use keyword combination. That means also use the relative searches for that particular keyword. It increases your sites relevancy for that keyword.

2. Use keyword suggestion tools to get an idea of secondary and tertiary keywords that people are searching. There are many popular keyword suggestion tools are available on the web like google adwords keyword tool, wordtracker etc. Some are free and some are paid. But, Google adwords keyword tool is a good one and also free.

3. Must use your keyword in heading tag, once or twice in the title and description. Do not repeat it excessively and use in such a way that it sounds good. It is against the search engine guidelines and your website can be penalized. Again, internet users always refer to the title and meta description before clicking on the site on SERP (Search Engine Result Page). So, it should be meaningful.

4. Try to keep the Title tag between 65 - 75 characters, and description should be up to 200-225 characters.

5. If you are using images, then insert alt text relevant to the image name. Use short text and if possible use keyword in the alt text.

6. Use keyword in anchor text and it must be relevant to the page content.

7. Avoid all spamming techniques like hidden text, tiny text in the body text. Also don't use excessive link building with irrelevant sites or keyword stuffing inside the site.

SEO is not a rocket science. Don't expect any break through result. Have patience. SEO is a continuous process. Keep on doing off-page seo techniques like blog posting, directory submission, article submission, and forum posting. This is why SEO is also known as Kaizen SEO means continuous incremental improvement. And remember Content is King. Hence, keep on adding good and informative content on your site relevant to your site's topic and visitors will be interested to visit your site again and again and also other sites on the web will be happy to link to your site and refer visitors to your page.

Good Luck.

SEO Techniques for more Online Traffic

If you want to attract online traffic to maximize your web site's exposure, you can't ignore Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN play a key role in getting maximum web traffic for a web site. Many studies have shown that a majority of web browsers prefer to visit sites shown by organic search results as compared to sponsored results. Hence, you have to optimize your web site if you are really concern about your web site's traffic.

SEO techniques will help you to get:
· Top rankings in the SERP

· Online Traffic

· Feed subscribers

· External Links

All the above things will contribute to enhance the value of your site as follows:

Top rankings in the SERP:

Relevant back links from quality sites will get your site achieve a better rank in the search engine result page. Once your page starts showing up in the top 10 or 20, more and more people will click on it and come to your site. So, this snowball effect will further enhance your site’s rankings.

Targeted Traffic:

You may have a great site with useful content and products/services but people won’t visit it unless they know about it. Proper SEO techniques will help popularize your site so that your site features in the search results of particular words. This will bring you the targeted traffic.

Feed subscribers:

A person who subscribes to your web feed will allow him/her to monitor your site’s changes using a feed reader. Feed readers are usually the people who are interested in your material. These people are considered the most loyal visitors to your site who have chosen to follow the content of your site on a regular basis. The feed subscribers of your site will help you to plan a strategy for wooing a broader and a general audience.

Links:

If your web site has a regular audience, chances are high that you will get links from them, especially those who offer related products/services online. Your loyal visitors can also recommend your site to their friends, thereby getting targeted traffic for you. As time passes by, more viewers will start coming to your site and induce more links to your web pages/site.

Take some time out to plan your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies to make the most of this online marketing technique. However, remember that there are no instantaneous results to show. Good SEO plans need time to implement and give you the desired results. It may take 3 – 6 months to achieve what you need through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). So, have patience and let SEO magic work for your web site.

Matt Cutts Shares Top 5 SEO Techniques

In a recent interview to USA today, Google Guy Matts Cutt shares top five SEO techniques that works well for search engine rankings or we can say ranking in Google. Matt Cutts also make a point to all webmasters not to overdo the techniques as that may lead to penalization or being banned in the search engines.

The top 5 SEO Techniques are:

Spotlight your search term on the page:

If you want to be found for your keyword(s), make sure that term is on the page you want to rank. The term should be at the top as well as peppered throughout your copy. After all content is the KING.

Fill in your TAGS:

The two most important tags are Title and Description b/c that’s what is displayed on the search results.
Get other sites to LINK to yours: This is one of the most important of the 100 factors Google considers when ranking sites.

Create a blog and post often:

This can help you get links.

Register for free tools:

Matt Cutts recommends using the tools at google.com/webmaster, as well as creating sitemap (XML, HTML & Text).

From the above five SEO techniques (mentioned by Matt Cutts), one thing is clear that Google still consider links to be one of the important factors, but not encouraging for link building. Hence, give more importance to your content and try to increase the number of quality links.

SEO Techniques for Web Designers

A beautiful design of a website can attract the users, but if it not properly optimized then no one will reach to the website to see the design. That means first we have to create a path. Once the path is created and visitors are coming to the site, then only we can speak about the design. An SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) optimizes a website that will help maximizing the site's exposure in search engines. But some of the seo knowledge will help the designers to make the website search engine as well as human friendly.

Here are some useful tips that will help designer to make search engine friendly website:

1. Try to focus on plain websites. It loads quickly and easily crawl by search engines.
2. Choose page name relevant to the page content and should be human-friendly. Also avoid underscore, use hyphen between the words.
3. The page should be content rich and keep the content inside the P tag.
4. Avoid use of table. If possible replace the table using div.
5. Optimize the images used on the website. It will help to increase the loading speed of images.
6. Add alt tags to the images and it should be relevant to the images (no spamming).
7. Avoid use of javascript. The javascript creates problem in crawling the pages by search engines. Use external javascript file.
8. For better navigation, use bread crumbs.
9. Create sitemap for a website. It help robots to go to any page from this page.
10. Do not add CSS in the web pages. It will make a web page heavy. Use external CSS file.
11. Remove useless text from the page like comments text.
12. Avoid use of frame.
13. Use text navigation instead of image navigation. Text navigation will help users and search engines to navigate easily and it will help to increase ranking of the page in the search engines by a particular keyword used as anchor text.
14. Keep the page size not more than 30-50 kb.
15. Use heading tags for the target keyword of the page and also for the heading of the page.

How to Improve Your Google Page Rank!

It is indispensable to have a high Google page rank (PR) for you website. This is because in order to get traffic to your site it has to be attractive to the search engines. A high PR is an indication that it is. When you consider that the most successful internet marketers achieve only 3% of conversion to sales from those who visit their websites, then the importance of a respectable page ranking and the attendant traffic becomes very important. By the way, the less successful internet marketers get only 1% conversions and those who get less usually give up on their internet marketing efforts.

Having established the importance of a good PR so that you have a good chance of exposure in top search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc and therefore a greater possibility of sales, you must optimize it for the search engines. This can be regarded as the main goal of the website owner and the webmaster. To get onto the first page of Google's search results for the keyword or the keyword phrase it what it's all about. At worst your site should be appearing on the second or third page. If it appears on any subsequent page you can pretty much accept that your website is invisible to the search engines.

It is therefore imperative to work hard to improve your Google PR. Put another way; you must not upset the Google search engines. It is not enough to work hard making your website interesting and informative. You have to make use of the best practice search engine optimization strategies to allow you to feature high in Google.

There are many SEO techniques for getting your website on top of search engine result page but there is no single best technique. You will have to take a multi-pronged approach. Use two, three or even more of these SEO techniques and you will achieve success in time.

Behind every successful website rated high on Google lies plenty of keyword research and keyword targeting. You should analyze the keyword density to sure that your content has just sufficient keywords and phrases, not too much. A 1-7% keyword density is about right. Experiment carefully and see what effect various densities have. Be careful of keyword stuffing. Google hates that and will blacklist your site.

Great content is critical to the success of your site for Google. Never forget this. Google uses "bots" or scripts that crawl through the websites seeing what is there. Original and unique content is the best. They also base your ranking on your traffic. Also work on getting links pointing to your website. Google PageRank is based on how popular your site is too and the number of inward back links is a definite indication. Remember that the more credible the site that linked you up the better. Credible websites have wait for it higher Google PR. Another way to get more links in order to improve your Google PR is to post your link in blogs and forums.

These are the SEO techniques used by webmasters to build the PR of the sites they manage. They also submit articles to article databases which have the website link attached to them. Also submit in directories to increase the PR as well as the link popularity. Anyone may use these articles as long as they include your URL at the bottom. Over time these articles propagate and earn you valuable back links. These are the tried and tested white hat SEO techniques that build Google PR.

SEO Techniques - Black Hat, White Hat and Grey Hat

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important aspect of any online business who wants to do well. Without SEO, your products and services may never reach the potential clients even if your products or services are the best among all others. If you are an SEO specialist then you must know about all the SEO techniques which are used for promotion of your site which include both ethical SEO techniques that is recommended by search engines, and also the unethical SEO techniques that are discouraged by the search engines.

White Hat SEO (The Recommended Way)
White hat SEO refers to the SEO techniques that goes with the guidelines laid down by search engines and are considered as ethical search engine optimization techniques. These include high quality and updated content, proper use of keywords and metadata, use of alt tags, descriptive file names, user friendly internal navigation structure, SEO link building including internal links, and other such SEO strategies which the search engines recommend. In white hat SEO techniques, the pages are built keeping the human visitors in mind. They do not try to deceive humans or the search engines. Implementing these natural search engine optimization techniques may take a little time and effort, but their results last a longer time and you don’t have to worry about having your site banned by search engines for use of deceptive practices.

Black Hat SEO (The Unethical Way)
Black hat SEO on the other hand refers to all the unethical search engine optimization techniques which the search engines discourage. These consist of keyword stuffing, hidden text, meta tag stuffing, doorway pages, hidden links, using link farms, cloaking, and other such search engine optimization techniques. The pages in black hat SEO are built not for humans but for the search engine spiders. They are designed to get better rankings on major search engines. The flip side is that they run the risk of being banned by the search engines once they are found out. The major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN believe that pages should be built for humans and provide them the information and data they are looking for. By using Black hat SEO techniques you build pages for the spiders to trick them and in turn give your visitors a bad experience.

Choosing Between the Two (The Grey Hat)
What SEO techniques you choose is entirely upon you. While white hat SEO will take you time and efforts, it will give long lasting results and can be helpful in long run. On the other hand, black hat SEO will probably give you much faster results, maybe even getting you in the top slot, but runs the risk of getting your site banned from the search engines. Standing in the middle, or using a mix of the two, can prove beneficial only if the amount of black hat SEO tactics incorporated in your search engine optimization strategy is the minimum basic.

As you increase your black hat tactics more, you increase your chances of being banned. On the other hand, using a few tactics to get quick results till your white hat SEO tactics start showing results may be okay if you are sure to remove the black hat techniques soon. But if you can, it would be best to avoid all the black hat techniques and stick to ethical search engine optimization. It would give you good results that last longer.

Needless to say, an ethical SEO company will follow only white hat methods and you can blindly rely upon them with their organic SEO services to keep your websites up on grounds of ethical search engine optimization.

SEO Techniques - Techniques that Need to be Avoided

The search engines are aware of the many sneaky ways that webmasters (or search engine optimizers) try to achieve high ranks. In SEO industry, these sneaky activities are called as spamming techniques. If search engines discover that you are trying to cheat them by any of the following black hat SEO techniques, your site may be penalized! Your rank may be downgraded, or your page or even your whole site could be banned. Even if your site is never caught and punished, it’s very likely, we dare say inevitable, that you’re tricky SEO techniques will eventually stop working. The followings are few of those Black Hat SEO techniques that have been on the search engines’ no-no list for so long that they can safely be labeled as “Eternally Bad for your Site”.

When a search engine robot visits your site, it expects to see the same content that any normal human visitor would see. Cloaking is a method of identifying robots when they visit your site and showing them special, custom-made pages that are different from what human visitors see and only optimized for getting traffic for a particular search term which is not relevant to the page's content. This thwarts the search engines in their attempt to deliver the most accurate search results to their users. In the vast universe of website technology, there are sometimes valid reasons for showing different content to different entities. Tricking the search engines to give you higher ranks than you deserve is not one of them.

Duplicate content Are you the kind of person who thinks, “If one aspirin works, why not take two?” If so, you might be thinking that if one paragraph of keyword-rich text will help your ranks, why not put it on every page in your site? Or worse, if one website brings you sales, why not make a bunch of identical websites with different names and get even more sales? The problem with this kind of thinking is that it ignores the big headache it causes for searchers. If the search engines listed identical content multiple times, it would destroy the diversity of their results, which would destroy their usefulness to the searcher. So, if the search engines catch on to duplicate content schemes, they’re likely to knock you down in the ranks.

Keyword stuffing is the technique of adding a keyword list to the visible text on your page is not exactly scintillating copy. I am not talking about overly optimized text, which may come off as pointless and dry. I am talking about repeating the same word or words over and over again so that your page looks like an industry-specific grocery list. At best, sites that do this cause eyestrain for their visitors. At worst, they’re risking penalties from the search engines. There’s a place for your keywords list. It’s called your Meta keywords tag. Avoid Keyword Stuffing at all costs.


The spamming techniques that I discussed above are needed to be avoided if you really want to build a Search Engine friendly site. A site should be build for human visitors not for search engine spiders.

SEO Techniques: Link Building

Inbound links are one of the main factors for ranking well for competitive keywords. But only number of inbound links can't do the job for you. Inbound links are only helpful when it is a one-way link or a relevant link for your site. That's why there is always two opinions regarding link building.

Link Building and Its History

It started off long back when Google implemented the Pagerank concept in the Search Algorithm. Webmasters all over the world started misusing them for their own benefit. Concepts like Link Farms and bad neighborhood came into effect. Thanks to Google that took evasive measures to tackle this kind of spam through their numerous updates.


Link Building for Google

From my experience I can say that it is really tough to make your way to the top ten in Google for competitive keywords. Google considers Link as a vote of support from a site to another site on the web. And for that you have to pick quality links. Editorial links are the preferred ones but even links given out by other sites are appreciated. Link bought through any kind of network or Paid Links are the typical links that can harm you in the process and the effect may vary from poor performance to getting banned from Google.


Link Building for Yahoo and MSN

For Yahoo and MSN the case is different. If you have proper structure with great navigation, content, and few numbers of links, then you have good chance to rank for fairly competitive keywords.


Important Point to remember while Link Building

1. Do not link out to bad neighborhood site.
2. Always check the link provided to you.
3. Before giving a link out to any site think how it would help your visitors.
4. Getting a link from related site is much more appreciated.
5. Check the Anchor Text and the position of the link.
6. Check the Anchor Text of the link pointing out to the site linking to you.
7. Prefer directories for best one way links.
8. Editorial links are preferred ahead of other links.


Effect of Links in Search Engine Ranking

The followings are the metrics that Search Engines consider when weighting links. All these can affects rankings positively or negatively.

1. Anchor text (when it matches queries, it can have a significant positive impact)
2. Placement on the page
3. PageRank of the linking page
4. Trust in the linking domain
5. Link structure in HTML (inside an image, javascript, standard a href, etc.) - although Javascript links are sometimes followed, they appear to provide only a fraction of the link weight that normal links grant. Likewise, links from images (and anchor text in the form of alt text) appears to provide somewhat less weight than standard HTML links.
6. Nature of the link (when it appeared, how long it stays on the page for, etc.) - can affect how much weight the link is given and be used to identify patterns that may indicate manipulation
7. Use of nofollow
8. Relevance of page content to linked-to page
9. Relevance of site to linked-to page
10. Text surrounding the link
11. Number of outbound links present in the linking page
12. Previous link relationships between the domains (if the page/site has already linked to the page/site in the past, it may be given less weight and this may also be used to identify and discount reciprocal linking schemes)
13. Hosting relationships (if the domains are hosted on the same IP address, or same c-block of IP addresses, the link may lose some of its weight)
14. Registration relationships (if the domains share registration information, it may be interpreted as less editorial and given less weight)


Factors Affecting Link Building

1. The traditional mutual linking between sites. This process is termed as reciprocal linking. However, the SEO’s are of the opinion that this strategy of link building has been diminished by Google. There is also a belief that the better strategy of building links with sites of relevant content.

2. The three-way link (also known as triangular linking) is the method of linking the site A and site B for a link back from another site. It is a much developed and modern strategy of link building than the two-way method. The Two-way linking is not in practice since they seem to be similar to the one-way linking to Google. However there are Search Engine optimizers who are of the opinion that the Google identifies three-way linking and there is often the risk of penalties.

3. This is the three-way link method where linking is done from a different site instead of a link from the site A. The benefit of this type of link building is that there is no need of the outbound links in case of the site A. However the SEO’s are of the opinion that site A might be have to suffer penalties from Google.

4. The four-way linking is favored by few webmasters. They have the same advantages and disadvantages like the number two and number three methods as discussed above.

5. Article links: An informative article with links displayed in the middle or at the end of the article. These articles are provided to the webmasters free of cost as content for their sites in return of the link in the site of the client. There is a belief that the publication of the article on different sites might result into some problem since it has the duplicate content and the links of the articles are also similar. A number of these articles are submitted to “article farms”. It is advisable to offer unique articles on the webmaster but producing many of the unique articles is often expensive.

6. One-way link is also considered to be effective. Even though these one way links come from the sites having low page rank these are considered to be effective. However SEO’s are of the opinion that one-way link from FFA’s and the directories are considered to be spam by Google. It is essential to find out related sites in order to avoid being marked as spam by Google. However, this method seldom works.

7. Buying Links - This is the technique of buying text links along with keywords. It is stated in the guidelines for webmasters that Google does not support buying of links. There is also a method of reporting against the sites that buy links. Few of the SEO’s think that Google creates this fear among people so that people buy Adwords instead of advertising somewhere else. The SEO’s also believe that buying banner ads is better than text links since Google cannot consider them as Spam. If the text based ads are sponsored link then text based ads are not a better idea. Some SEO are of the view that if there is no keyword in the link anything can be done for reputation. It is also possible to detect reputation from site where the banner is.

8. We consider A as the site that we are trying to promote. The best strategy is to create various information sites with relevant content on the different IP C-blocks in order to “take the fall”. If you follow this strategy then site A will receive links from links from other sites like site B, C and D. The sites B, C and D participate in the different linking activities with the purpose of creating Page Rank. This might be considered spam.

9. You can also build a site naturally. The best way is to create excellent content. It is an easy way to promote a site that is informative but is not ideal for commercial site. However it is pretty time-taking affair.

10. It is a combination of all the above strategies. However, Google can punish a site for any of the strategy and may not be aware of the strategy.

Negative SEO Techniques

SEO is the technique to maximize a site's exposure in different Search Engines. There are number of factors need to be taken into account while optimizing a website to be search engine and user friendly, including the content and structure of the website's copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags, backlinks and many others. Following are some of the factors or techniques negatively affecting the SEO industry:

• Dynamically created pages

• Sub Domains

• Cloaking (or Masking)

• Spamdexing

• Link Spamming

• Page Jacking

• Mirrored (or duplicate) websites

• Hidden Text

• Doorway pages

1. Dynamically created pages

Dynamically created pages are web pages which have more than one parameter in a website URL. Such type of pages in a website is database driven. Multiple parameters in a dynamic URL (?, .php, .pl, .cgi extension) can often mean that a search engines spider will choose to ignore the document. So, such URLs are not very search engine friendly.

Google is presently able to index dynamically generated pages. However, because their web crawler can easily overwhelm and crash sites serving dynamic content, they limit the amount of dynamic pages they index. So, Search Engine representatives have long urged webmasters to limit dynamic parameters to two, optimally to one so that spiders will easily crawl them.

2. Sub Domains

Many large Web portals and online retailers structure their sites using subdomains. A subdomain lets you brand your different specialties with your primary domain name. Subdomains are considered to be independent web sites even though they may share the same IP address. But do check with your Web host to make sure you are sharing an IP address with legitimate sites. Otherwise, this could get your site banned from search engines. Some legitimate sites make the mistake of using duplicate content in their subdomains. This can also make the search engines treat duplicate content in subdomains particularly harshly.

3. Cloaking (or Masking)

Cloaking is the SEO process of delivering one version of a page to a user, and a different version to another user such as a search engine. The benefit is code and copyright protection. We can custom build a page for the user. If the user is a search engine, we want to give it our best most optimized stuff. If it is a user, we want to give it a pretty page that is tricked out for navigation and usability.

Mouse-over cloaking is a new SEO technique used widely now-a-days. When a visitor clicks on a website after performing a search query in the search engines, they are directed to another web page, but the search engines have indexed it highly. With just the slightest jostle of their mouse, the visitor is quickly re-directed to the site which has allegedly been “SEO optimized.”

4. Spamdexing

Spamdexing or search engine spamming is the practice of deliberately and dishonestly manipulating search engines by SEO's to increase the chance of a website or page being placed close to the beginning of search engine results. Such as:

Metatag Stuffing: Repeating keywords in the Meta tags, and using keywords that are unrelated to the website's content.

Keyword Stuffing: Repeated use of a word to increase its frequency on a page. Presently, search engines have the ability to analyze a page for Keyword stuffing and determine whether the frequency is above a "normal" level. The keyword density of a webpage should be between 2% - 7%.

5. Link Spamming

Link Spamming is the process of submission of pages that are intended to rank artificially high by various unethical techniques. These can include submitting hundreds of slightly different pages designed to rank high, small invisible text, or word scrambled pages. Such as:

Link farming: A set of web pages that have been built for the sole purpose of increasing the number of incoming links to a web site. Link farms are a known SEO spam tactic and sites that participate in them are likely to be penalized or banned from the major search engines.

6. Page Jacking

When your competitor gets a high ranking page under quality keywords, the first thing that will happen is your competitor's page gets stolen (called Page Jacking). It is the SEO process of duplicating a high ranking competitor’s page, but the page is redirected to your website. Many search engines, upon seeing a duplicate page will delete the competitor’s website from the directory leaving the fake page in its place.

7. Mirrored (or Duplicate) Websites

Mirrored websites are nothing but, creating duplicate sites having the same images & the content with the same number of pages in both the websites. In this case, one of the website stands a high chance of being rejected by the search engines for indexing.

8. Hidden Text

Hidden text is links with the same background color as that of the website. This SEO spam technique is used to increase your page rank of your website.A user to your site may accidentally land to this hidden link & the page thereafter.

9. Doorway pages

A doorway page is simply an additional page on your website that is created to target a specific keyword not related to the website and then submitted to the search engines. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a website and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include websites with unsavory or illegal content.

So be aware of the above explained negative factors while optimizing a website.

RSS Feed Optimization

In some ways RSS is very similar to HTML, the language commonly used to create websites. Just as with HTML, webmasters using traditional search engine optimization tactics when creating an RSS feed will find that their RSS feed receives additional exposure and interest.

Simple steps to optimize a RSS feed for search engines:

1) Title Should Contain Important Search Terms
To state the obvious, the title should be relevant and not misleading, while still emphasizing keywords. Ultimately, the title should entice the reader to read on, not mislead them.

2) Display RSS Feeds
Most webmasters display their feeds as content on their website. When displaying a feed be sure to use PHP, ASP or HTML so that search engines will spider the contents of the feed displayed. If using a template to display feeds, use header tags to define the appearance of the Channel Title and Item Titles. Many search engines weight header tags with more importance.

3) Internal & External Links
Within a feed you should always use the full path of any links, keeping in mind that other sites may syndicate the contents of the RSS feed. Links that are not local to the site should launch a new browser. While this is not specific to search engines it will help keep visitors on your site.

4) Link Text Should Emphasize Keywords
It is no longer a deep, dark secret that the text used for incoming links will help a site contextually define the keywords that the site appears for in the search engines. Keeping that in mind, be sure to use keywords in any link text that points back to your website.

5) My Yahoo and My MSN
This is surprisingly simple to do but often overlooked by publishers and webmasters. The fastest way to have an RSS feed spidered by Yahoo or MSN is to include the feed on a personal my.yahoo or my.msn home page. Simply create an account on the respective search engines and customize the home page to include your RSS feed. This is done by adding content and listing the URL to the RSS feed. Typically, within 24-48 hours the feed's contents will be spidered and indexed by Yahoo and MSN.

6) Theme Feeds
Feeds should be themed. This will help with themed links back to a publisher's website from anyone syndicating the feed's content.

7) Link Popularity
Increase link popularity by submitting the RSS feed, blog or podcast to the appropriate directories. The following directories allow submissions of specific kinds of RSS feeds. Be sure to follow the guidelines of each site and choose categories wisely.

Submit Podcasts - http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm

Submit RSS feeds - http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm

Submit Blogs - http://www.blog-connection.com/submit-blogs.htm

8) RSS Feed Descriptions
RSS feed descriptions are generally summaries or introductions to other content. Often, feed creators will provide additional information on an HTML site, enticing the reader to click through for the full information if it is a topic that is of interest to them. Provide enough teaser copy that the reader can easily discern if the contents are something that is important to them.

9) Subscribe to Feeds
This might seem obvious, but a surprisingly large number of publishers do not subscribe to their own feed. This is a great way to visualize what your customers see, and experiment with formatting and integrating HTML into feeds.

10) Image Ads
Add your corporate logo to your RSS feed. Create a brand and enforce that brand by including the image in the RSS feed. The image will enhance your corporate identity and dress up the look of your feed by adding your corporate logo.

11) Alphabetical Rank
Many feed readers list feeds alphabetically in the reader. Feed channels that begin with A will naturally appear in the top of the feed list in most feed readers. If you wish to appear in the top of list of feeds that a reader has subscribed to, keep this tip in mind.

12) Meaningful Links
Each item in your feed should contain a unique URL associated with it. This will direct users to associated information. Many find using target URLs with the "#" symbol in the link to identify specific content useful.

Most marketers have a love-hate relationship with search engines. Search engines have the abilitiy to make even the most confident webmaster feel powerless . Let's face it - all of us have felt the wrath of the search engine powers-that-be at one time or another, and while it may be difficult to know what line was crossed or how we fell out of favor, following some basic guidelines will be helpful in optomizing feeds for search engines.

Tips on SEO Techniques

Keyword Research

Research the best keywords for your website - The first and most important step in SEO techniques. But this is a common that Optimizers do while choosing the keywords they want to optimize their website for. The best way to do this is to do some research. Use some of the tools available out there to find which keywords are the best for your particular website. These include tools like Google AdWords Keyword Tool, Keyword Overture Tool, WordTracker, etc.

This is not always best to optimize for the most searched keywords. Sometimes it can be too generic. Suppose you have a site on Financial Planning that helps you to find financial planners. Then the keyword “financial planners” is too generic to be of any real use. But in addition to this it might also not be targeted enough. Again, “financial planners” can mean so many things to so many people. Therefore you should opt for some different, more targeted keywords like "find a financial planner".


Keyword in Title Tag

Insert your keyword in your title tag. You should use different and unique titles on each page of your website. The idea is that you should try to be creative and include your keyword when it makes sense. Don’t go overboard and stuff it in everywhere, Google will notice and most likely reduce your search ranking. Just do it where it makes sense.


Meta Tags (Meta Description, Meta Keywords)

Meta tags still have importance in SEO techniques. Search Engines use your Meta description tags in their search engine result page (SERP) and often users refer to your Meta tags before clicking on the links to your site in the SERP. Hence, you should optimize your Meta description properly (means your targeted keywords should be there in the description and clearly specifies what your site is all about).

Even there are some Search engines that still refer to your Meta keywords tag. So, don’t think they have no value. Although not as much as before, they are valuable especially if you don’t stuff them with irrelevant keywords.


Use Headers to emphasize your Keywords

Headers in the sections of your page content often highlight what the chapters are about. Hence, use Header tags to your advantage to separate out sections when it makes sense. And if possible, use your keyword in the section title, but don’t overdo, only use if it makes sense.


Addition of Alt Text

There are many websites have images but no alternative text for the images. Search Engines can’t parse your images. That's why they look at your alternative text for clues. So add alternative text. Put a comment stating what the image is about. Even you can include your keyword in the alt tags.


Keywords in the Content

Use your keyword in your content. If you don’t use, then how the search engines know about that keyword. And of course, use them when it is required. Many times, you will find posts in the forums and blogs on Keyword Density like what should be the keyword density in a page. From my personal experience I can say there is no fixed keyword density. You can use a keyword in your page as many times you want but should be meaningful and sound good.


Keywords in the Anchor Text

Google also uses the anchor text of a link to determine what a website is about and use it heavily as one of the ranking factors. The idea is that if a lot of websites are linking to yours with similar anchor text, then most likely that’s what you’re about. Anchor text is the textual part of the link that tells the people where they will be moving. But, don't use same anchor text in all your links, because search Engine may consider it as a spam.


Highlight the Keywords

It’s a known fact that most website visitors scan text. They look for bold text, italicized text. Basically whatever text that stands out. Google’s also figured this out and will give more weight to your text that’s highlighted in some way, such as bolded text. Hence use these techniques to make your text scannable, but use it to your advantage for SEO purposes when appropriate. If you have scannable text, check to see if it makes sense to add your keywords too.


Use of Keywords in the Filenames

Google also looks at the filenames to see what your WebPages are about. Hence, use keywords for the file names.


Internal Navigation Structure

Every page should be reachable within 2 links. Google will only look at your site within a limited depth. A good rule of thumb is to keep all your content within 1 to 2 links of your main page. In other words, you should be able to reach any page you want Google to index within 1 to 2 links from your main page. Anything beyond that is not likely to be indexed.


Competitors Analysis

Look at what your competitors are doing. Like which keywords they are targeting, list those sites that are linking to your competitors and what is the specialties in their sites. Once you know, use this knowledge to your advantage. Improve your own website.


Try to get External Links with your Keyword in the Anchor Text

On-page SEO techniques are not the only thing you do to increase your search engine rankings. Google has realized that the more people link to you with a specific anchor text, the more likely it’s what you’re about. Again, the links are considered as a vote of support to your site by the other sites and the basis of this the PageRank of your site is determined. And we all know PageRank has to do a lot for ranking in Google.


All the above seo techniques I discussed are really helpful for getting rank in the SERP. Using these SEO techniques in your site in an ethical manner will help you in achieving your goal.

SEO Techniques: On-page Optimization Tips

SEO Techniques is broadly divided into two categories.

1. On-page optimization

2. Off-page optimization

The on-page optimization is very important to make your site search engine friendly. The on-page SEO techniques maximize your site's exposure to the search engine and have a significant impact on your ranking in the SERP. The followings are some of the On-page optimization tips that can help you build a search engine friendly website.

1. Keyword in the Title

You should add your main keywords in the title tag. This is important to have these keywords in the title because to give the search engine spiders an idea that your web page is related to the topic of that keyword.

2. Keyword in the Meta Description

It is also very important to put these keywords within the meta description tag, this will add more relevance to your web page about the topic.

3. Headings

You may also add the primary keyword in the headings especially. You should also stick the main keyword at the top of your page.

4. Anchor Text used in Inner links

You should make the inner links with the anchor texts of the optimized keywords of every web page. Search engine consider it as one of the ranking factor and can really helpful for you to achieve top ranking in the SERP.

5. Bold keyword

You may bold the main keyword at least one time with in the web page.

6. Keyword Density

Distribute the main keyword through the page. Distribute your main keyword through the page as many times possible. Of course, don't forget about relevancy. Try to put the keywords in the content but it should meaningful and sounds good.

7. Alt Tag

Use Alt image text for the images in your page and put your keywords in these Alt tags.

8. Sitemap

You should have a sitemap for your site and the link to the sitemap should (recommended) present anywhere in the Home Page of your site. If possible have an XML sitemap for your site and submit it in Google. It allows Google to crawl your site more frequently and can put an impact on your ranking.

9. Internal Navigation Structure

Make your internal navigation structure user friendly. Use Breadcrumb in your site.

Remember search engine like sites that are made for human visitors, not for spiders. So, try to build a site that can make your visitors to visit your site again and again.

Important SEO Techniques

Search engine optimization is a technique that is used to achieve high rankings on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) in order to maximize your site's traffic. People might regard optimization as a big problem and waste of money. But optimization is the only thing which helps your website or your business to reach your potential customer. Hence, it is important to identify what SEO Techniques need to be performed. In this post you'll find a brief idea of few most important techniques of SEO.

Proper Title & Meta Tags

A title tag is an HTML code that appear in the top bar of your Web browser. It shows the words which describe your web page. Search engines use your title tag to explore your website. These are the words which appear in the clickable link on the SERP. Users decide whether your site will be relevant or not through these title tags. Your website can attain good search page ranking if it features searched keywords in the Title tag. Similarly, The meta description tag describes your site's content. It is important because some search engines use it as a site's summary on their results pages. The meta description tag should contain multiple keywords organized in a logical sentence. Place the keywords at the beginning of your description and close to each other to achieve the best possible rankings.

Site Submission

Submit your website in as many free directories and search engines as possible. Search engines are your medium to travel to your visitors hence pay special attention towards these engines. Make sure your site is well indexed in major search engine. It's not necessary that you will be featured in the first pages of search engines but if you focus on other factors then later you can be in the first page.

Reciprocal Links

Don't rely on one way link building. I am not saying one-way link will not be helpful, but practically it is really difficult to get one way links unless you have such content in your site. If you are getting some good sites that are relevant to your site, then there is no harm to exchange link with them. But, make sure your link should be exchanged properly and your links are visible.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the actual text part of a link and used by search engines as an important ranking factor.But putting same anchor text in every page may result in making you a spammer in search engine's eye. Have different anchor text and make sure you don't repeat this text inadvertently.

Site Map

A site map is a textually organized model of a Web site's content that allows the users to navigate through the site to find the information they are looking for, just as a traditional geographical map helps people find places they are looking for in the real world. Site map is the most important step towards achieving a well optimized site. Site map enables search engines to know about your website. A well crafted site map helps your users to navigate easily within your website. I would suggest you to have both html (for Human and Yahoo) and xml (for Google) sitemap for your site.

Link Farm

Link farms are the link building farms which guarantee you to give thousands of links instantly. Try not to depend solely on link farms exchange links directly with the websites. This gives you the idea about the site and whether the particular link exchange will work for you or not.

Unique and Fresh Content

The information about a site is its content. Content is the king and hence it should be given a royal treatment. Your content should be distinct and relevant. Unique content increases your chances to attain a top PR in major search engines. Because, both human visitors or search engine spiders will come to you only when they find you different from the other websites.

The Role Of Inbound Links in SERP

The quality of your inbound links is a key factor that search engines will use to rank your pages. But the number of links you have is not that important. Having a few high quality links is much better than having a bunch of links that are low in quality. Inbound links can be defined as the links in other websites which point back to your site, sending traffic to it. There are a number of strategies you can use to get high quality inbound links. Remember, the quality, not the quantity, is the most important factor you will want to take into consideration. Again, the Anchor text used in the links is also another factor that can affect your ranking in SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Hence, it would be ideal if you can get inbound links (with proper keywords/key phrases as the anchor text) from sites which have many relevant inbound links themselves. This would help increase your page rank which may lead to increased web traffic. Here are some of the best seo techniques to getting inbound links:

Quality Content
This is the best way to generate back links. There is nothing better than a good site providing quality content. If you have valuable content, other webmasters will borrow them for their own sites. Your content will of course contain a link to your site for copyright purposes. That’s one backlink for you. Other webmasters may also simply post your link in their website to provide their visitors more information resources.

Forum Posting
This means becoming actively involved in forums. Contribute your thoughts, get to know the people on the forum, interact with them. With every post, tag your signature with a link to your site. Make sure though that you write only worthy posts.

Article Submission
If you’re an expert on your website’s contents, spend some time preparing and submitting well-written, thoughtful articles for submission to other websites. Every article you write is one back link; if your article is good enough, it will be copied and posted by other sites and thereby give you additional back links.

Directory Submissions
There are an increasing number of free web directories. Get on the net and visit each and every web directory you can find, and submit your website and URL to them. Of course, you should make sure to submit only under your keywords or niche category.

Reciprocal Link Exchanges
As the name implies, these are web-based services where you can ‘exchange’ links with other website owners or web masters in a ‘You place my link and I place your link’ approach. There are two things to keep in mind with link exchanges, however. One, make sure you are exchanging links with relevant sites. Second, never do mass mailings to webmasters – most will only ignore you. It is better to make contact individually (especially those whose pages are relevant to yours) and suggest a link exchange.

Link Baiting
This happens when you post something controversial on your site or post something interesting with the aim of getting people to blog it, and provide links to your page. While some people consider it as spam or ‘black hat SEO’, ignore them, choose to link to your site; you don’t force them to do so.

Provide a “Link to Me” Code
Make things easy and convenient for people who want to link to you. “Link to Me” is an HTML code that people simply copy and paste on their websites and blogs to link to you. But don’t use all text – use some graphics, come up with icons or buttons to include in your code. People who look for filler content may just be willing to make use of your sleek, glossy and alluring banner or button on their sites because it’s free and available.

Consider RSS Feeds
RSS feeds allow you to network your content, or allow other sites to display your content on their sites, with a back link to the original article or page.

Buy Text Links
If you have the resources, why not simply buy text links? The option is available if you do not want to go through the hassle of the other methods discussed above; on the other hand, this is a worthwhile option if your actual intent is to make money and sell text links to others.

Google's PageRank Update and What Can We Do About It?

Google has recently updated the way it calculates PageRank. Because of this PR update many directories and content sites receiving deep penalties for brokering links, or having a large portion of their PR value derived from these types of programs.

I wanted to take a moment to share with you some interesting information I have found including what you can do if your site was negatively affected by this latest update.

In short, this latest update was designed to target the link selling industry. According to Google engineer Matt Cutts in an interview with WebProNews, "sites that sell links can lose their ability to pass PageRank."

The changes are not a huge surprise, but the ripple effect has had a major effect on an industry that some would argue Google helped create the linking economy. We know that purchasing links for the purpose of artificially inflating PageRank was against Google's Webmaster Guidelines. In this latest update you will find two major effects:
The first was the update to the PageRank algorithm that affected the link sellers. Essentially demoting these sites and negating their ability to pass PageRank.
The second wave happened several days later when Google updated PageRank for all the sites in their index. The new, lower PageRank values were used in this new calculation, and many sites that did not engage in link brokering were negatively affected.

Cutts says, "a lot of sites in the search and SEO space were a little more affected by this update than some other niches, just because maybe two or three hops upstream from a given site maybe that site isn't flowing page rank as much anymore." In fact, even the Open Directory Project (DMOZ.org) was lowered from a PR9 to a PR8
As they say, a rising tide lifts all ships. In this case, the effect was to essentially lower the water level. Most sites that experienced a one point drop in PageRank over the last couple weeks will not see a dramatic change in their search traffic from Google because the update will affect their competition about as much as themselves.

But no one wants to have a lower PageRank, so what can you do about it?
As with all updates, you can use the seo techniques to your advantage by responding before your competition does.

First, make sure your site is listed on the directories that Google has decided are still worth using. Not all directories were punished. In fact, some gained PR in this latest update.
Secondly, you should diversify your interests. As I often say, you should look at directory listings as the FIRST step in a linking program, but not the only step. Some directories are highly regarded, but in the end, they are all the same type of site. One thing that has become clear from this latest update is that Google is now looking at SEO-oriented sites as both a source of some great information on valuable websites, and also as a possible source of spam that they need to careful about.

That is why it is so important to work with the right database of directories.

SEO Techniques - Article Marketing

With the increased cost and competition for PPC advertising many people are turning their wheels for new marketing methods that are less expensive. One that has been around for many years is marketing through articles. Article marketing has been the back bone of the internet for decades. The Internet has always been content based. When your looking for information, put some keywords into the search bar and bam you have content.

Article marketing has taken on so much over the years. You'll sometimes find good content and other times find complete garbage. The difference between the two is how the good content will get around and stick. There are thousands of different seo techniques that successful Internet Marketers use. However when the basics, and methods are applied correctly, you will usually find a level of success. Many marketers will spend a great deal of there time creating good quality content. The quality content will lead to success.

The first and most important concept you'll ever need to remember "Content Is King!" Always remember those three words and you'll have 1/2 of your plan in place. The next thing you need to know are some of the basic things to get you started. Now article marketing, if done correctly, can drive lots of traffic to your site for free. Just remember some of the do's and don'ts, as we will discuss in this post.

Don't try to create articles and add affiliate or sales page links. Create an article with good content, interesting enough to drive the reading to a blog or a web website with more information on the topic. This is the friendly approach and you will get a lot more trusting visitors rather than weary ones.

Find a niche that interests you, where you can enjoy what you're writing about. Research the niche and make sure that it is not too competitive. Do some keyword research and see just how much competition is out there. From there decide on a website and begin writing your article. Many people will create blogs to post their articles to. Once you have a blog created and an article posted you can place links in your article to your blog and send it to ezines and article directories.

Write articles around your niche. Choose a keyword phrases to write your article around. Do not over stuff your article with the keywords for which you are aiming for. Your keywords should reflect a targeted search for words that you have already researched. Make it interesting provide good information that will keep them reading and make other sites want to use your article.

Submit your articles to as many ezines and article directories as you can. Post the article to your blog and start getting your traffic. Many websites are looking for content and may use your article. If they use your article they are required to keep your links imbedded in the article.

Now you will have links back to your site along with some possible traffic if the site is a good one. Writing articles clearly gives you a free, zero capital method to increasing your website traffic. So, start writing articles today!

Black Hat Pay Per Click Techniques

Black hat PPC is rarely discussed in the Search Engine industry, especially not as much as black hat SEO Techniques, but we should be aware of black hat pay-per-click methods as it's possible your competitors could be applying them. In this post you will get to know how you can duplicate a competitor’s ad text to replace their ad by outbidding them.

Pay-per-click is a competitive process simply by design. And that is the reason why the people choose to use dirty tactics rather than having to pay the higher bid prices which is also have some biggest risks. Black hat PPC mostly consists of using flaws and weaknesses in systems such as Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter to your advantage.


Non-Compliant Ads
One such flaw is the lack of pre-moderation on the AdWords system, allowing changes that meet a set of automated rules to go live instantly 24/7. Unfortunately, the human side to moderation doesn’t seem to work 24/7, giving a time period in which non-compliant ads can be published.

One of many reasons affiliates use this technique is that it allows them to show a different display URL to the actual click-through URL on the ad. This means that over the weekend, their affilaiteredirect.com site can now appear to be amazon.com/music - resulting in a substantially increased CTR from the brand recognition.

You can use this trick in many different ways, as long as it doesn’t hit an automated rule such as trademark infringement. Bringing this to an in-house scenario, you may want to outbid your competitors on their brand terms or use ad copy that a human editor would normally decline. The key to doing this is to test what times and days an editor declines non-compliant copy, plus re-instating the original ad before the end of your blind-spot timeframe. (Some bid management tools can do this for you.)


Same Search Term Multiple Ads
A big restriction on most PPC networks is the inability to have multiple ads from one company displayed for the same search term. You may want to do this in order to advertise multiple products or to flood the ad space and push your competitors off the first page of the search results.

Getting around this restriction is a little trickier, as a new PPC account will be needed for each additional advert you wish to display. This could be achieved by creating a number of phantom companies with a unique bank account, credit card, and address, or you could get a little help from your friends. In either case, it’s often a good idea to use pre-paid credit cards so your phantom company or helpful friend never gets into debt. You’re then ready to start bidding, although be careful not to leave any footprints that associate the accounts to one another.

It’s best to use the first trick I mentioned so you can link directly through to your main site out-of-hours without fear of getting caught. You can also flood the search results for your competitors’ non-trademarked brand terms so they don’t have a single brand name PPC listing.

Its best not to be too evil toward your competitors though, as someone will eventually find out, and you may get reported to Google. Your best line of defense when this happens is to use your existing affiliate program (or create a fake one) and blames it all on a maverick affiliate of yours. (Remember to use different affiliate IDs for each ad’s click-through URL.)


Copying Competitor Ads
A final example of playing dirty is to copy a competitor’s ad (title, copy, and display URL), and run it on your account with a different click-through URL. As Google AdWords doesn’t allow duplicate ads, you can wipe your competitor from the paid search listings simply by using the same display URL. As long as you bid more than the competitor’s maximum bid, your campaign should replace theirs.

The user will be expecting to land on your competitor’s site when clicking through, so it’s best to create a landing page mentioning the competitor, perhaps in the form of a damning review, e.g., “Product A has been proven to be inferior to Product B...” If doing this on a large scale, try to do it on weekends; once again, so it’s harder for your competitor to monitor and analyze.


Remember, all these examples could risk your PPC account and should therefore be used with caution.

For SEO Beginners: Common Terms Used in SEO Techniques

SEO is a trade that exists solely on the internet, and even then it is comprised almost entirely of the hot air of so-called "expert opinion." Plenty of it blowing around these days as search maintains position as one of the most important marketplaces in the modern business world. Many DIY webmasters will end up searching for blog entries, articles, informational web sites, etc to help get them up to speed. The problem is that in most cases certain key terms are flung around like household names while the people doing the flinging are way out of touch with the average web browser. What some of us don't realize is that not everyone knows even the basics of SEO.

This list of definitions which serves as a great companion for your initial SEO reading. Read alone it will get you up to speed on some key terminology that you'll need to know to intelligently engage the ever-changing world of SEO.

1. Algorithms

A search algorithm is, in short, the incredibly complex mathematical formula that a search engine uses to "rank" web sites for keywords. Based on a huge number of variables and calculations, algorithms are among the most closely-guarded secrets on the internet. Why? Imagine if they were leaked - suddenly the less-than-honest would have a very specific guideline to follow in climbing to the top of search results in a less-than-organic way, ruining the quality of Google's search results and their entire competitive advantage with it.

2. Crawlers

Googlebot, for example, is a search engine crawler. Googlebot periodically traverses the web in record time, indexing content, links - everything contained in page source code - and storing it in Google's search index. Then, when a user visits Google and enters a search phrase, the index, filtered by the algorithm, is what the user gets. Please note: there is some delay in this process since the results you're getting are from the index and not the live web.

3. Directories

When webmasters realized just how much power inbound links have in determining search rankings they quickly set out to do two things: 1) get inbound links and 2) set up web sites where other webmasters could achieve inbound links (meaning big traffic revenues for the site). Hence the directory farms you'll find today. Link building has been a priority on the list of any SEO-savvy webmaster for years, and as a result "quick fix" directories that allow streamlined listing submissions get a ton of traffic. However, Google and the other major search engines are on to this tactic, and the word among SEO "experts" is that the benefits of listing your site at directories are diminished if not gone.

4. Frames

Frames are a way of laying out a website with multiple documents in one browser window. Essentially, there is one main document which contains the frameset tag - this document specifies the dimensions/placement of the frames and also the documents that will "populate" those frames. From an SEO standpoint the use of frames for your layout is not recommended. Since frames do not use links in the same way, and since links may point to one frame from another, they may cause serious problems for crawlers. Additionally, there are almost no uses for frames that can't either be 1) duplicated with other methods or 2) thrown away without much fuss. If your site was built with frames and you're thinking you don't want to rebuild - it might be tough luck if you're interested in optimizing for search. Consider it a learning experience - build yourself a CSS-based layout.

5. Gateway Pages

Also "doorway pages." Although there isn't a real consensus about what these pages are, their function is always cited as their definition. In other words, these pages are created to "rank well in search engines" by playing to the algorithms. Often viewed as "spammy," "gray hat" or even "black hat." However, any page written with search in mind, and geared towards search, can be construed to be a "gateway page." The difference between a page well-optimized for search and a "gateway page?" No clear lines there, but quality of content is probably the determining factor.

6. HTML

HTML stands for Hyper-Text Mark-up Language, and it is the core building block that has made the web the greatest modern tool for business, social, informational, political and any other causes. Search engines look exclusively at a web page's HTML code to determine its relevance. Therefore, it's a good idea to pay attention to HTML and familiarize yourself with proper tagging techniques if you're hoping to get a good handle on SEO.

7. Link Popularity

Inbound links are probably the most important optimization point for web pages. Number, quality, trust - these are all factors that affect the value of an inbound link. Going back to the HTML root of search, link popularity (in terms of quantity) measures how many pages point to your site using anchor text .

8. Link Building

In short, the process of gaining links at other web sites pointing in to pages on your own.

9. Link Baiting

The process of generating high-quality content on your pages that users will appreciate and link to voluntarily.

10. Meta Tags

Meta tags are found at the top of a page's source code. They are used to specify certain things that might not be found in the page content. They also allow webmasters to put up certain "flags" that search engine crawlers can react to. There are many Meta tags available for use, and many of them can help with SEO to a great extent and for a variety of purposes. However, Meta tags are no longer used in the way they originally were - as a place to stuff keywords to drive your site up in rankings. Some webmasters out there are still doing this, but they are decidedly behind the times and unaware of the impending, or already cast-down, penalties.

11. Search Engines

If you don't know what a search engine is congratulations on finally making it out from under that rock. Search engines are essentially programs that scan an existing index of the web based on a query of search terms, or keywords, that a user enters. However, the word more commonly refers to companies as a whole - Google, for example, controls a search engine, while Googlebot is the crawler that gathers content for its index, but most users and webmasters think of a search engine as the whole package.

12. Search Engine Marketing

Most often this refers to Pay-Per-Click marketing in which an advertiser bids on chosen keywords and writes several ads to be displayed should their bid achieve placement. These ads are displayed in the "sponsored" section of search engine result pages (SERPS). However, in some circles this term is used to refer to any action taken to gain rankings both paid and organic.

13. Search Engine Optimization

This one is open to interpretation. It is quite often used to encapsulate a huge amount of different tactics. On-site optimization, off-site optimization (link building, etc) and many other techniques all feasibly fall under the SEO blanket. However, there is an obvious difference between optimizing a page's code to be clean and search friendly and writing link bait that will be popular and get linked to.

14. Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

The pages resulting from a search engine query run by a user. Webmasters review these pages to determine where their pages are ranking for certain search terms.

15. Spamming

Basically, any unnatural effort to bring a page higher in search results. What constitutes spam is open to some interpretation, but the only interpretation you need to worry about is that of the major search engines. If Google, for example, considers a technique "spammy" you'd be wise to cease at once.

16. Submission

For SEO this has traditionally meant submitting a web site to search engines so they'll know about and crawl it. SEO firms offered submission services as a big selling point to bring in clients. However, for a long time now submitting your site to search engines hasn't done jack. They're all much smarter now - just focus on gaining quality inbound links and your site will be indexed in no time.