Is Copy a Commodity?

July 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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A lot of websites have outsourced copy on most of their pages, no matter what their topic might be. In a lot of cases a website will use freelancers, and some of these “professionals” are of less than optimal quality. Unfortunately for much of the Internet, far too many of the copywriters out there are just not that coherent. But what they can do better than almost anyone else is insert keywords. With keywords being one of the optimal ways a search engine finds a given page, this has led to some truly awful search results.

The Internet is a web rather like a constellation in the night sky, if not simply a small version of the entire galaxy. While most people only visit a fairly small group of sites, the Internet as a whole is absolutely massive. So it makes sense that not every written work can be composed by a Pulitzer Prize winner.

The problem with hiring lowly paid workers to do one’s copy writing is that one tends to get what one pays for. If you happen to be thinking of outsourcing your writing, you might not want to go with the first writer who can put together a sentence. Cohesive writing is just one of the many skills an online worker needs to have just to be okay. When you get beyond the average level, it gets even harder to find a competent writer. The good news is that they do exist, and they won’t bankrupt you. The best part is that your readers will respect your site a lot more if your copy reads well.

Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: , ,

Should Search Engines Have Manual Reviewers?

July 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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There was a time not so long ago when a company such as Google would need to have tons of people doing manual, often rote tasks. Of course, the entire nature of search engines is that they rely heavily on the ever-growing power of computers. With a computer, rote work becomes a lot less frequent and far fewer people are needed. However, such an approach may have the flaw of a lack of the human touch about it.

Google has had a long lasting problem with websites and their often mediocre or worse content. Simply put, a lot of sites were “optimized” for a particular keyword and ended up having little more than tons of the keyword placed throughout the page with little genuine content holding it together. Far too often, this led to bad quality websites being at or near the top of the search queue, while better sites lagged behind.

A website is really only as good as its content, so perhaps it would be best if companies like Google stepped backward in time and hired people specifically to review website quality for websites vying to get onto the critical first two pages of search results. While this could easily employ a team of hundreds of people full-time, it might end up producing better quality search results. In the end, this could end up putting better quality information and better-produced sites at the top of the search results, where they belong in the first place.

 

Filed Under: Content, Creativity Tagged With: , ,

Do Search Engines Check for Quality?

July 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The content of search engine approved websites has long been considered to be of subpar quality. While Google has declared war on bad content, a lot of people have figured out that the algorhythms have a long way to go in order to remove all of the bad content from the Internet’s most used search engine.

While this search engine is depended on by most people whenever they want to search for anything, its content has always relied on things like keywords. This reliance on keywords ultimately resulted in website owners and content producers stuffing huge amounts of keywords into their content. This tended to result in badly written content that bordered on being gibberish and has contributed to lessening the online world’s trust of most content. However, the quality level that a website uses for itself can vary tremendously between one site and another.

Website quality is a bizarre thing. High quality sites tend to attract more links than any other kinds of sites do, and in some cases large numbers of links still found their way onto sites of dubious quality. To date, for all of Google’s tough talk about being all about separating the wheat from the chaff, they have done very little to curb second rate quality. Culling the worst of the work from their roster has been a very slow process for the major search engines and has seemed almost impossible. Checking for quality is still a ways off from a software perspective.

Filed Under: Content, Design, Link Building Tagged With: , ,

How to Use Marketing Strategies to Promote Traffic to your Webpage

June 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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If you want to generate more visitors to your website, there are effective ways you can stimulate traffic to your site. The following are techniques that will help promote your website; some old and some new.

Probably the easiest and least expensive strategy for generating traffic to your website is to rank high with your selected keyword phrases on the major search engines in natural or organic searches rather than paid ads. A search engine will send a robot spider to mark your webpage’s content. You have to start with preparing for optimal indexing to your website. The focus is to leave the search engines with enough clues about the content of your website. This method is called search engine optimization and has the abbreviations of SEO. Additional SEO information can be found at searchsite.org

You need to write a title that is descriptive for each one of your pages that is also rich with keyword phases. The title should be void of as many “filler” words as possible yet, still remain readable. When your page is found the title will show up hyperlinked on search engines. You can persuade to click on your title by making is more provoking.

The keywords you use should be descriptive correlating with the name of your business on your home page. The words that are more commonly search should be the first ones in your title. You have to keep in mind he your identity on the search engines is your title. People are more likely to click on a blue hyperlink word on search engines when they notice things that interest them.

Filed Under: Link Building Tagged With: , ,

A Plan for Optimizing Search Engines

June 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The practice of directing a websites development or redevelopment in order to attract visitors through top ranking on major search engines with the use of certain keyword phrases is known as SEO also referred to as search engine optimization.

When you want to learn how to attract more visitors to your website like information found at searchsite.org, you should consider the searches you can win, sites that are winning for those searches, and how people search for services or products. When you recognize some search phrases that may do well, you can then create a SEO plan for your website. You want to evaluate your website and determine if the content of the site will match closely with the keyword phrases selected.

Each page within your site should have unique Meta description, Meta keywords, and HTML tags. Start off the body copy of the websites’ page with the keyword phrase, and insert it as needed throughout the body of the page.  A way to get your keyword phrase noticed is placing it in Italics, bold letters and headers.

Incorporate text navigation into your site with the keyword phases as links. If you are unable to use text navigation, add a footer to each page with text links.  You can create a site map then link the map to each page on your site. Organize the sites navigation in accordance to the keyword phase’s importance.  If your site is broken into multiple pages, important pages should be linked from each page of your site, and then you can link the other pages from the site map and section header pages.

 

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , ,

SEO and you

May 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is used to improve a web pages rankings when being searched for. With search engines, the higher your page is ranked the more visititors you will receive from the search engine’s customers. Having a higher page rank then other sites allows your site to be placed near the top of the search results. This, of course, is where you want your page to be to allow for the best results.

Many times SEO targets various types of search results and not just in text form. Search results are also ranked within the image, video, and local categories. Optimizing a website is usually done by the website designer or by the marketing personel for the company. As a part of the SEO strategy, you must first consider what your customer is searching for, how a search engine works, which search engines are preferred, and what your customers are typing in the search field.

In order to accomplish the task of optimizing your website, you may need to edit the HTML code and the content to allow you to increase the relevance of certain keywords.

There is also wrong ways to get your website higher on the search list. These tactics are frown upon by search engine providers and can result in having your website removed from their search engines. Some of the tactics are known as black hat SEO and involve tactics such as hiding keywords in the website background with the same color font or even hiding them off the page. Either way, you want to avoid companies that will involve you in that practice.

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , ,

Using web analytics

May 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
web analytics 

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Web analytics are used to collect, measure and analyize web data for use in optimizing web usage. Web analytics can be used as a business tool for measuring website traffic and to conduct business and market research. Web analytic software could also assist in the measurement of print advertising as well. This can be done by analyzing the change in site traffic once the print advertising is started.

Web analystics track the number of visitors to your website and how many times each page was viewed. This helps to provide valuable information on which web pages are the most popular and what type of content your viewers like. Providing this information is two types of analytics, off-site and on-site.

Off-site analytics is the measurements of a websites opportunity, visibility, and comments. The opportunity is who the websites potential audience is,  the visibility is the share of voice on the internet and the comments refers to the buzz on the internet and any given point in time.

On-site web analytics refers to your visitors time once they are on your site. This will track which web page your customer began, or landed, on as well as any other pages that they access while visiting your site. Web analytics is an essential part of any online or print advertising. If you don’t know where your customers are coming from or where they are going to, how will you know what they want from your business?

 

Filed Under: Link Building Tagged With: , ,

Internet And Blogging

March 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The internet has not only been a place to gather information about various sources, it has become a destination for sharing one’s thoughts and ideas with the rest of the world. You can consider the internet as a source that can alter the whole world’s outlook with the ideas and concepts shared by people around the world and coming together to discuss about a common topic.
Internet blogging is one of the most widely practiced techniques these days. People are flocking on the websites to share their views on some topic and put forward an issue which might be troubling them or the world. A blog is something which may either be a website or a part of the website. The term blog is a blend of the terms web log.
The blogs are usually maintained or looked after by a person. You can’t exactly call it supervision because the owner of the blog is not exactly supervising the blog; rather they are just looking after the various aspects like whether there are any offenses or something similar and remove the problems. The blogs may be both interactive and restricted.
Most of the blogs allow the outsiders, which are the visitors to leave their views or comments on a topic. They are usually interactive and quite friendly. Some blogs may have a particular theme, like technology or art, or something similar while others have a mixture of topics and various opinions on them. It depends on the type of blog that you are using and maintaining.
All blogs have similar rules, about offenses and insults. They discourage everybody from using obscene comments and offending a particular person or community. If you look at it in a way, it is like a diary where you leave your comments. A blog is very communicative and an interesting part of the internet.

Filed Under: Content Tagged With: , ,

Micro Search Engines

January 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Even though it may sound like it, micro search engines aren’t teeny-tiny search engines. Rather, they can be better described as search engines within search engines, sometimes called online directories.

Take Google, for example. This is a search engine that takes you to different websites. Within these websites may be even more websites. One of these websites lists nothing but links to other websites. These are micro search engines or online directories, if you prefer.

Micro search engines let you search for specific topics. These can range from recipes, sites for online degrees, job information sites, and many others.

By utilizing online directories, you have access to links that have been gathered and put in one place. You don’t have to enter keywords such as online degrees, and then enter other keywords to narrow the search down more. The online directories that deal with this subject will have them listed in different ways so that you can find the one you need.

Online directories can save you a lot of time and frustration. Because they get very specific, they let you get to the business of accessing information faster. You don’t waste time searching and searching some more for the information you need.

In the case of online degrees, for example, you may be interested in the field of Computer Science. Rather than have to plow your way through websites that offer information on all the online degrees that are available however, you can use micro search engines to go directly to online directories that show links to this subject.

Of course, you’ll have to use Google or another main search engine to get started, so don’t worry about that search engine page feeling like you’ve abandoned it. You haven’t, because you couldn’t have gotten to online degrees websites without it.

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why URL Shorteners Are a Good Idea

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Over the last few years, we’ve seen the emergence of numerous URL shortening services, such as TinyURL, Ow.ly, and bit.ly to name a few. Longer isn’t better when it comes to web links these days, especially with the popularity of social media sites such as Twitter. Shortening a link saves space, leaving that space for something more important, but not everyone uses these shortening services. Some claim it’s too complicated and time consuming, while others rely on the service for better communication.

Why are URL shortening services a good thing and why should you use them? A simple answer would be “because they just make life easier.” This is true, but there are other, more detailed reasons. Below is a short list:

1.) Shortening a URL that is regularly three lines long is convenient, especially when space is in short supply.
2.) Longer links are more likely to break that ones that are shortened, especially in communications where they can be “recycled,” such as through email.
3.) Some URL shortening services offer the opportunity to personalize the shortened link. This is especially convenient if what you’re linking to is a new product you’re selling, or a new article you’ve posted.
4.) Most of these services offer users a way to view what are known as “click through statistics,” which is a way to see how many people clicked through your link. This is a must for those who like to track visits to their web sites or product pages.

If you’re interested in using a URL shortening service, there are quite a few to choose from, including the following:

1.) Bit.ly (http://bit.ly)
2.) TinyURL (http://www.tinyurl.com)
3.) Ow.ly (http://ow.ly)
4.) DwarfURL (http://dwarfurl.com)
5.) URLKiss (http://urlkiss.com)

Some popular web sites, such as Google and Twitter, have created their own URL shortening services. With the simplicity of shorter URL’s being such a popular item all over the Web, some of our favorite sites may have URL shorteners built in. There’s only one way to find out!

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