Newer is not Always Better When it Involves Search Engine Optimization

We live in a world where everybody wants the latest and greatest, somewhere along the way we have come to the conclusion that the newer something is the better. If we are buying a CD it has to be the latest release from the new one hit wonder, we don’t care if the song writer couldn’t tell melody from harmony or that the singer is incapable of carrying a tune, all that matters is that it’s new. Each fall hundreds of people scramble to get to car dealerships, frantic to drive the next years models, barely capable of waiting for them to be unloaded off the truck, it doesn’t matter if we are six months behind on car payments on last years model which is in perfect running condition, we’re blinded by all the bells and whistles that the new cars have to offer. People will stand in a long line, overnight, in an electrical storm to simply to spend an unhealthy amount of money on the latest electronic gadget just because it is brand new, we don’t care that in just a few months it will be a fraction of the cost, we have to have it now.

Even internet service suffers from the right now syndrome. For years we were content with dialup service. Sure it was slow but it was that or nothing. Heck we hardly noticed that it took hours to download a simple, days to upload a couple of pictures, download a video… that was practically unheard off. We didn’t know any better. Now that the world has found out about all the new options for internet service we have to have that. It doesn’t matter that it is double the monthly cost or we have to default on are student loans in order to purchase the necessary equipment. If it is cordless, faster, and designed with the latest technology we have to have it…right now.

We don’t care if the old stuff is made with better materials, last longer, and is cheaper. In our minds old equals junk.

Search engine optimization is one spot where we should force ourselves to shed our weird inhibitions about old stuff. When it comes to search engine optimization, age rules over youth.

Search engine optimization is the art and science of making web pages attractive to the search engines. The more attractive a web site appears (search engines are attracted, not to beauty, but to repetitious algorithms) the higher it ranks in the search engines search result. A low ranking could potentially be the kiss of death to an internet based business because studies have shown the internet users seldom look past the second page of hits.

Search engines use web crawlers to determine a websites ranking.

Older websites and the webmasters who manage them have had more time to develop and maintain their algorithms. They are already itemized and ranked by the search engines, in some cases it can take three months for a web crawler to get around to spidering a brand new website that has been submitted to the search engine, old sites are already appearing and gaining customer recognition. If an older site has been around long enough to have earned a loyal customer base, even if a shuffle in the rankings causes the aged web site to be bumped from prime ranking position, loyal customers will still look for it.

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Spamdexing-the Bane of Search Engine Optimization

Methods that manipulate the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, usually in a manner inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system is called Spamdexing.

The sheer amount of information available on the internet is mind-boggling. In 2000 a study indicated that the internet’s search engines where only capable of indexing approximately sixteen percent of available pages. That sixteen percent adds up to pages and pages of potential hits. There are typically ten hits per page. The average internet user never goes farther then the first set of ten. Webmasters use a variety of techniques to increase their ranking. The art and science of making web pages attractive to the search engines is called search engine optimization.

The importance of a high search engine ranking started driving webmasters to use a variety of tricks to improve their ranking the middle of the 1990′s. On May 22, 1996 The Boston Herald printed an article written by Eric Convey titled “Porn Sneaks Way Back on Web.” It is the first time the term spamdexing was used. The word spamdexing is the merging of the word spam, the internets term for unsolicited information, and indexing.

There are two types of spamdexing. The terms are content spam and link spam.

Content spam is the use of techniques that alter the search engines view of the pages content. Some methods of content spam include the use of hidden text, keyword stuffing, Meta tag stuffing, doorway pages, and scraper sites.

Taking advantage of link-based ranking algorithms which in turn gives a higher ranking to a website is called link spam. Link spam methods include link farms, hidden links, Sybil attack, wiki spam, spam blogs (also referred to as splogs), page hijacking, buying expired domains, and referrer log spamming.

Some people consider spamdexing a black hat method of internet search engine classification.

Key word stuffing is a favorite type of content spamdexing. Key word stuffing is including a key word hundred of times on a single webpage. Given the sheer volume of the word the search engine automatically gives that particular webpage a higher ranking then one that might use the word legitimately. Most websites that employ keyword stuffing place the words at the bottom of the page or write it with text that the person surfing the web can’t see. Some search engines try to discourage key word stuffing by ranking websites with an excessive number of keywords at the bottom of the ranking.

Some web masters like to include the name of a famous person on their site as a keyword. The name attracts the attention of search engines and web surfers even though the web site has nothing to do with the person.

Some websites try to steal web surfers from their competitors by including their name as a keyword in the body text and meta tags. By doing this the webmaster has guaranteed that the search engines with index it accurately. Using the name of a competitor in the body of a website is normally a direct violation of the copyright law.

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Search Engine Optimization-Budgeting

For arguments sake let’s say that you own a successful bed and breakfast in the middle of Idaho. Currently you rely mainly on word of mouth and repeat customers. You can’t help wandering if creating a website won’t help attract more attention to your little business.

A quick internet search has you rethinking your plans. There are a lot of bed and breakfast’s with web pages. You can’t help but wonder what you could possibly do to get your webpage noticed.

The key to a successful webpage is search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization is the art and science of making your website attractive to the internets search engines. The more attractive your website is the search engines the higher they will rank your little bed and breakfast. The higher your website ranks the more people, hopefully, will check your website out.

The first step towards a successful website is getting it submitted to a search engine. Search engine submission is the act of getting your website listed with the search engines. Search engine submission can also be referred to as search engine registration.

One of the first things you want to consider is how much you are willing to spend to submit your website to a search engine. It is possible to have your site listed for free; paying for the service will generate more traffic to your website. The cost of submitting your website to Yahoo’s search engine is about three hundred dollars a year. The three hundred dollars pays for Yahoo’s human compiled directory. The humans help influence web crawlers to your website. If you can’t afford the three hundred dollars for the human compiled directory try to list your website and see if any of the search engine crawlers locate it. You can go back in a few months time and pay for a human compiled search engine later.

There businesses that, for a fee, can help you design a website that will attract web crawlers to your website. Many of these businesses charge different prices for different search engine optimization packages. Types of search engine optimization services some of these companies offer include naming convention, keyword density/syntax, blog implementation, vertical affiliates, and third-party posting. When looking for a business or search engine consultant looks for reciprocal links, keyword strategies, knowledge of HTML, language skills, knowledge of search engine optimization boosters, submission strategies, and submission tracking,

If you decide to use a search engine optimization company take your time and shop around. Ask questions. Avoid any companies that guarantee instant success, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Try to find a search engine optimization company that will work to build the targeted content of your website. Look for a company that offers interactive features that create documents that will lead web crawlers to your website.

When it comes to the cost of search engine submission and search engine optimization spending less simply means it might take a little longer to realize your goals. The more you are able to spend the faster your website will gain attention.

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Search Engine Marketing-How it Differs from Search Engine Optimization

Search engine marketing is a set of marketing methods used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages. Types of search engine marketing include; search engine optimization, pay per click, paid inclusion, and social media optimization. Search engine marketing differs from search engine optimization which is the art and science of making web pages attractive to internet search engines.

Non-profit organizations, universities, political parties, and the government can all benefit from search engine marketing. Businesses that sell products and/or services online can use search engine marketing to help improve their sales figures.

Some of the goals of search engine marketing are to develop a brand, generate media coverage, and enhancing a reputation, and to drive business to a physical location.

If you do not feel confident enough to try your own search engine marketing there are several companies that will be able to help you out for a price. If you decide to go with a search engine marketing company take your time and shop around, find a company that really suits your own businesses search engine marketing needs.

Stay away from companies that promise top rankings. Most companies that promise tope ranking are more interested in your money then they are in keeping your business. Quite often this type of company will charge you top doller, spend a few days making sure your website has a few basic requirements and that is the last you hear from them. This type of search engine marketing company is not really interested in repeat customers.

Tread carefully around companies that promise first page rankings on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. Make sure these companies are talking about sponsored listings and not just natural listings. Companies that are only after natural listings traditionally charge a large monthly fee, using a small portion of the money on sponsored listings, and pocketing the remainder.

The false promise most commonly used by shady search engine marketing companies is the money back guarantee. Generally if you read the contract very carefully you will lean that these companies have a very strange idea of major search engine. Companies that have a money back guarantee typically don’t deal with the search engine movers and shakers like Google and Yahoo, instead they use small obscure search engines that are hardly ever used.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) was created in 2003 to offer the public educational resources about search engine marketing and to also promote search engine marketing. Currently SEMPO represents over 500 global search engine marketing companies. Sempo is happy to offer their resources to the public for free. SEMPO has offers search engine marketing training courses for any and all interested parties who would like to expand their knowledge of search engine marketing. SEMPO’s objectives are to teach search engine marketing strategies, techniques, and successful practices, to increase the availability and quality f its professionals, and to offer training courses that will help to establish a benchmark for search engine marketing. The cost of a SEMPO training course can range anywhere from five hundred dollars for a fundamentals of search marketing class, to over two thousand dollars for an advanced search advertising course.

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Google versus Yahoo!

When it comes to internet search engines the top two are without a doubt Google and Yahoo!.

Although the two a fierce competitors they share more common bonds then some people might realize. Both were created by students at Stanford University. Yahoo! was created in January of 1994 by two Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo. The pair originally called Yahoo! “Jerry’s guide to the World Wide Web” but later changed the name to Yahoo!, commemorating the word the Jonathan Swift defined in his classic novel Gulliver’s Travels. In the book Swift stated that the word was “rude, unsophisticated, uncouth.” Four years after Yang and Filo had created Yahoo! and introduced it to the world (at this time it was a internet mogul) two different Stanford University students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, created their own search engine, Google, as a research project, the date was September seventh 1998. Google started out as the search engine used on Stanford University’s website before it went public on August 19, 2004. When 2006 ended Google was the leading internet search engine, it enjoyed over 50.8%PRCTG% of the market.

By the time it was a year old Yahoo! had had over a million hits, the sheer number of people who had found and were using Yahoo! prompted it creators to incorporated their creation in May of 1995. Yahoo! went public on April 12 1996 were it earned a total of 2.6 million dollars.

Google’s progress was a little slower then Yahoo!s. Shortly after creating Google, Page and Brin registered it as the domain google.com on September 17, 1997 on Stanford University’s website. Approximately one year after registering Google on Stanford University’s website the pair decided to incorporate their research project. Finally, on August 19, 2004, Google had its very first public offering. Google is currently the favorite internet search engine.

After its meteoritic climb to glory Yahoo!’s creators and shareholders were confident that they were holding onto a gold mine. They didn’t predict the burst of the dot.com bubble in the early two thousands. Yahoo! survived the crisis but the value of Yahoo! stocks dropped to %8.11, an all time low.

Yahoo! uses a combination of web crawler compiled and indexed results to rank the websites and webpage are registered on their search engine. In addition to rankings compiled by the web crawler, webmasters can, for a fee, purchase a submission to Yahoo!’s human compiled directory. The annual yearly fee is about three hundred dollars. The theory is that the listing human’s provide will influence web crawlers into giving the website a higher ranking.

Google credits its success and popularity to the program it uses to search and rank webpage’s, a program it calls PageRank. Because Google is worried about webmasters using abusive techniques to garner higher rankings for their search engines Google carefully keeps the hows and whys of PageRank a closely guarded secret. Google does confess that PageRank runs on a link analysis algorithm. PageRank was different from all the rest of the search engine optimization techniques because it graded each page based on the number of and quality of the links that pointed to it.

Yahoo! quickly grew fond of offering the webmasters that subscribed to its search engine the opportunity to purchase something called paid inclusion. In exchange for a fee, Yahoo! guaranteed that the webpage’s would be ranked. What Yahoo! didn’t guarantee was what type of ranking the webpage’s would receive; they refused to promise that the webpage’s would appear in the first two pages of a search.

Google uses a pay-per-click method to charge advertisers. Each time an advertisers link is clicked Google charges the account fifty cents.

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How Google’s PageRank Determines Search Engine Optimization

Some internet search engines are set up to look for keywords throughout a webpage, they then use a mathematical equation that takes in the amount of time the keywords appears on the webpage and factors it with the location of the keywords to determine the ranking of the webpage.

Other internet search engines use a process that judges the amount of times a webpage is linked to other web pages to determine how a webpage is ranked. The process of using links to determine search engine ranking is called link analysis.

Keyword searches and link analysis are both part of a routine internet search engine procedure called search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is the art and science of making a website attractive to search engines, the more attractive a website appears to the search engine the higher it will rank in searches and in the world of internet searches ranking is everything.

As 2006 faced its last weeks, Google was the internet search engine that most internet users preferred. Approximately fifty percent of the times a consumer turned to a search engine for their internet needs they turned to Google. Yahoo! was the second favorite.

Most of Google’s popularity is credited to its preferred form of search engine optimization, a trademarked program Google dubbed PageRank. When PageRank was patented the patent was assigned to Stanford University.

PageRank was designed by Larry Page, (the name is a play on his name) and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University as part of a research project they were working on about internet search engines.

PageRank is based on the link analyses algorithm. PageRank is described as a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weight to each individual element of a hyperlink set of documents. The purpose is to measure its relative important with the set. The numerical weight assigned to any element is called PageRank of E. PR(E) is the denotation used.

PageRank operates on a system similar to a voting booth. Each time it finds a hyperlink to a webpage, PageRank counts that hyperlink as a vote that supports the webpage. The more pages that link to the page, the more votes of support the webpage receives. If PageRank comes across a website that has absolutely no links connecting it to another webpage then it is not awarded any votes at all.

Tests done with a model like PageRank have shown that the system is not infallible.

The HITS algorithm is an alternate to the PageRank algorithm.

Google’s powers that be take a dim view on spamdexing. In 2005 Google designed and activated a program called nofollow, a program they designed to allow webmasters and bloggers to create links that PageRank would ingnore. The same system was also used to keep spamdexing to a minumum.

Google has designed PageRank to be an eight-unit measurement. Google displays the value PageRank places on each website directly beside each website it displays.

It has been proposed that a version of PageRank should be used to replace ISI impact factor so that the quality of a journal citation can be determined.

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Finding a Search Engine Optimization Company

When it comes to business some people like to get their hands dirty and iron out every little detail of every little deal and transaction. Others like to handle the parts of the business that they know and are comfortable with, leaving the bits and pieces they are unsure about to people who know what they are doing.

Before you start looking for a search engine optimization company sit down and consider your situation. What goals do you have for your website? What are your priorities? How much can you afford to spend, remember that you pay for quality, the lowest price isn’t always the best deal.

When it is time to submit your web-based business to a search engine their are search engine optimization companies who, for a fee, will be happy to optimize the websites for the business owners who do not feel comfortable doing it themselves.

Search engine optimization is the art and science of making a website attractive to search engines. If you don’t know where to find a reputable search engine optimization company try looking in search engine optimization forums, references or articles on reputable websites, ask friends for recommendations, ask other webmasters if they used anyone to optimize their sites and if they did ask which company they used and if the experience was pleasant.

The first thing you have to watch out for when you’re selecting a company to handle your search engine optimization is scams. The first thing to do is avoid any search engine optimization companies that are listed in the black hat directory. Black hat search engine optimization is not really optimizing but really just spamdexing, most search engines penalize websites that are caught spamdexing. Also avoid any company who guarantees a ranking before they even look at your site. Make sure the company you are considering is actually going to do something besides add doorway pages and meta tags.

What is spamdexing?

Spamdexing is using methods that manipulate the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, usually in a manner that is inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system. A lot of times spamdexing is done by stuffing a website full of keywords, web crawlers (the programs search engines use to rank websites) read the web sites they read lots of the same keyword and assume that the sight is content rich. Based on the web crawler’s findings the website is given a high rank. Allot of the time the keywords are stuck at the bottom of the document where the internet user can’t see them. Keyword stuffing is considered content spam.

The other common type of spamdexing is link spam. Link spam is spamdexing that takes advantage of link ranking algorithms causing search engines to give the guilty website a higher ranking. Link farms, hidden links, Sybil attack, wiki spam, spam blogs (also referred to as splogs), page hijacking, buying expired domains, and referrer log spamming are forms of link spam.

Technorati Tags : search engine optimization spamdexing