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Content Is King
Over the past few years, there have been many debates about different search engine optimisation strategies, though it is highly important that a range of strategies are pulled together as one to form the best optimisation program possible. There is one particular factor that is becoming ever more important when it comes to reaching number one in the search engine results pages. That factor is "content". It seems search engines in their quest to provide ever more relevant results are giving site content more and more weight in their ranking algorithms. These days we are seeing web pages packed full of relevant text as opposed to the wonderful, graphical pages that used to adorn many a company's web sites.
Though of course page content is only one aspect of a good optimisation campaign, it is important to follow a few simple guidelines when constructing that content in order to get it right:
1. Research ? before you write a single word about a particular product, group of products or service, it is important that you know as much as possible about your subject. Good research will allow you to construct factual, relevant content. If you decide to merely copy content already out there, then be very careful. It is advisable to approach the owner of such content first and ask their permission. For example if you need to write about a product and your supplier already has a good description of it on their site, then it may be the case that they will let you use it for promotional purposes. Again you need to seek their approval first. Even if you intend to re-write someone else's content it is a good idea to check with them first. In general a good rule of thumb is "if in doubt, don't do it". Your own original content is always best.
2. Spelling and Grammar ? you should always seek to maintain a high level of spelling and grammar. Always assume anyone reading your content is looking for mistakes. Buyers look for reasons not only to buy, but also not to buy. Good spelling and grammar portrays a confident and professional image.
3. Layout ? page content needs to be laid out correctly in order to appear more pleasing to the eye. Keep paragraphs short and to the point. Any keywords and key phrases need to be worked into the content naturally and read correctly. Titles and headings should be in bold and the first letter of each word should be capitalised. Always use a plain, easy to read font. Fancy fonts may look nice to you, but don't forget your content is going to be read by the masses and needs to have a general appearance, that can be read by everyone. Any important words or references should be highlighted using quotation marks or again bold text.
By using the three basic guidelines outlined above, you will be able to write good, relevant page content, that is straight to the point, pleasing to the eye, and professionally written, as well as keyword rich. Never forget the search engine spiders love content, but be careful not to over do it, otherwise you will lose your readers attention, which ultimately means lost sales.
Thanks for reading my article. Please feel free to rate it at the bottom of this page.
Jason
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Jason Morris is co-author, search engine optimization and marketing consultant of Business Phone Systems Direct. An established communications company, offering advice and implementation of high quality business phone systems.
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Submitting Your Site To The Open Web Directory: Some Dos And Don?ts
One of the most important steps in any site's publicity campaign is the submission to the Open Web Directory (http://www.dmoz.org) as this directory provides search results for many of the most important search engines and online portals. This directory is not a robot driven spider, but a human edited directory and you must observe a few important points if your submission is to be successful.
Search Engine Robots - How They Work, What They Do (Part II)
If your site isn't found in the search engines, it is probably because the robots couldn't deal with it. It could be something as simple as not being able to find the site, or it may be more complicated issues involving the robot's not being able to crawl the site or figure out what your pages are all about.
Keyword Targeting Strategy In Your Site
Once the keywords have been decided for the site one has to come up with a strategy to target those keywords across the site. Here is a primer on that.
How To Indirectly Get To The Top Of Search Engines
There are millions of web sites trying to get listed in the top 20 spots of the major search engines. That amounts to a lot of competition! Even if your website can't get in the Top 20, you can use indirect ways to get it there.
SEO - Google Sitemaps Explained
Once again I seem to be writing about Google. The reason Google keeps cropping up in these articles is that:
Search Engine Optimization - Free Tips and Help - Part One - The Title Tag
Search Engine Optimization is a widely misunderstood industry. Many webmasters, including myself, have been mislead by industry forums, and Internet "chatter". Having tried many different approaches, starting in 1996: It is ironic that the methods I used back then, still hold true today, to a great extent.
Google PageRank Explained
PageRank - an exclusive technology developed by Google which can have a major impact on the success of your website. This article will attempt to explain the concept of PageRank and how your ranking can be improved without spending any money at all.How is PageRank beneficial?Google refers to the technology as a way of evaluating the usefulness, importance, and quality of a website. The PR of a webpage can mean different things for different people.For a webmaster, a high PR is a sign of accomplishment. It shows that your website is moving in the right direction and has the potential to become successful. PageRank also directly effects your Google search engine listings. Acquiring a higher PR than your competition could mean more traffic for you, and less traffic for your competitors.Visitors to your website probably won't care about the page's rank (most surfers have no idea what PageRank is). However, visitors who understand PageRank may use your PR as a sign of how credible your content is. Would you rather use the information from a website with 0 PR or a website with 5 PR and hundreds of other websites linking to it?How is PageRank determined?PageRank is basically determined by backlinks. A backlink is when another page links to your page. For every page that links to you, that page is "voting" for you. The more votes you get, the better your PageRank will be. However, it gets more complicated than that because some votes weigh more heavily than others. The weight of the vote is determined by the PageRank of the page linking to you. This means that a couple links from pages with high PR could be more beneficial than hundreds of links from pages with low PR. But it gets even more complicated - each page can only transfer so much PageRank. The set amount of PR that the page can transfer must be split up between each "vote" that the page gives out. This means that a PR 7 page could actually give out as much weight per vote as a PR 3 page if it had too many outgoing links.How can I improve my PageRank?There are many different methods to obtain quality backlinks to your website. You will find that some methods work better than others depending on the subject and popularity of your site.DirectoriesSubmitting your website to directories is one of the best ways to increase your PageRank and even get some traffic at the same time. But submitting your site to just a few directories won't be good enough. You need to sit down and spend the necessary time to submit your site to a large amount of directories. This may seem like a painstakingly long process, but you'll be glad you did it when you notice results. I have taken the time to make a large list of free directories with high PageRank which you visit here. Although directories with low PR may seem like a waste of time, you should submit your site to them too because it still helps and they could eventually become a high PR site which charges money to submit to.Link ExchangesA very common practice to improve your PageRank is a link exchange. This is simply where two people link to the other person's website. It's best that you only link exchange with someone who has at least as much PR as you and the subject of the two websites are similar. If you receive a link from a website with a subject which has nothing to do with yours, you'll find that very little if any PR will actually be transferred to you.Forum SignaturesIf you are an active user on a forum or message board, it would be wise to put a link to your website in your signature. This could help improve your PageRank if the forum has a high PR, it could help improve your traffic from the forum members seeing your signature, and your site could get spidered more often because it is linking to a forum (forums generally have a lot of new content every day and search engines love new content).Buy AdvertisingAlthough it isn't the best of choices, many webmasters will buy text link ads on websites with high PR. Although this can be effective, it can be very expensive and only a temporary thing. If you purchase text links for just a couple months, after the months are over you won't have the backlinks which were giving you the "votes" you needed to keep your PageRank. So you have now spent a large amount of money on text links, but in the end you're right back where you started.ArticlesThis is a method which not many people know about. Basically, you write articles about the subjects you know a lot about. You then let other people use these articles as long as they provide a link back to your site. If you wrote a quality article, you'll find many websites will want to use it, thus giving you plenty of backlinks. This method can work well with anything which you develope and give away for free such as scripts, web design, etc.Stay On Google's Good SideThe most important thing to remember when trying to increase your PageRank is to not cheat and to always follow the rules. The people which run Google aren't fools and they have many ways of catching cheaters. Don't even think about using any of the "link farms" or trying to hide keywords on your pages. If caught, you may not get unbanned for many months.Make A Quality WebsiteIf you have a quality website which your visitors enjoy going to, then you will receive backlinks without having to do anything. Websites will link to you with the intention of informing people of a helpful resource, or showing off a cool new website they found, or any other reason other than trying to increase your PageRank. If you build it, backlinks will come...
Were You Bamboozled by Google?
It's still happening. "Florida," "Boston," "Ginger," and "Brandy" are just a few of the many Google updates that have hit within the last few months. And Google is still issuing periodic updates as we speak. No one can say for sure whats going on or what to expect. One thing is for sure... unless you want to get bamboozled by Google (again!), youd be wise to take action to prevent it now.
Google has an Achilles Heal - Will Their Competitors Notice?
Even though Google Revenues continue to soar, the hidden problem that may stifle growth and may even allow Yahoo or MSN to overtake the paid search market in the future lies in two critical phrases: Customer Support, and Customer Training
Its Not Just All About Google Anymore
Those webmasters that stick to the old ways and focus entirely on Google are missing out on a lot of search traffic these days if they are not also well ranked by Yahoo and MSN.
SEO Made Easy!
Search engine optimization remains a minefield of old advice, outdated ideas and outright dangerous techniques that can get you banned. Here's the main points to great search engine optimization.
SEO India: Tips & Techniques
SEO is all about "Individualism"
Google Gunning For Directories?
Why is it that webmasters are so quick to blame Google if their website falls down the search rankings, or out of the rankings altogether? Can it never be their own fault?
Which SEO Company/Firm to Choose for SEO Services?
In the last 2-3 years many new companies have mushroomed, providing cost effective seo services to their customers. In this whole galaxy of seo companies some are authentic, while others are not. A novice owner of the website has a little knowledge of the technical jargon involved in the SEO, and sometimes can get into trouble.
Designing a Website So the Search Engines Will Like You
Before you go and spend big money on a professional website designer, or start designing yourself, read through this article and make sure that you or your designer knows how to design a website that the search engines will like.
SEO Facts
The internet is the largest market place on earth. It offers unparalleled access to an international base of consumers ? and referrers. However, the internet is also an extremely overcrowded place. With such an opportunity to make a business presentation to the world, many companies seek to take advantage of this unique chance for global exposure by creating a website. Yet simply having a website is not enough. A website alone will be lost in the crowd ? a crowd of over 4 billion webpages indexed on the Google search engine alone. A website needs to be visible, and in a highly targeted manner, so that a company can connect specifically with potential customers. If any company is serious about generating sales within the largest marketplace on earth, investment is required in one form or other of internet marketing.
Building Link Popularity with Topical Articles
One of the important factors in ranking high in search engine results is link popularity. It is not enough to just have the best website in the world--other sites have to point back to you. The thought is that if your site is good enough for others to link to you, then you must have a great site.
Playing By Googles Rules
As the undisputable leader in search engines, Google places a very high importance on the quality and relevancy of its search results, especially now that the company is public. The know that in order to keep the shareholders and users of the engine happy, the quality of returned results are extremely important. For this reason, doing the wrong thing, purposely or unintentionally could result in a severe penalty or even get you get you banned from the listings. Below is a short list of ideas to consider when drafting your search engine optimization campaign.
History of World / Regional Search Engines and Directories
Computers have become a way of life for people around the world. They are used to research term papers, check weather forecasts, track military progress, exchange ideas (blogs and chat) and to find the cheapest price on items etc. It is no surprise that as the computer age takes hold computer usage has increased. The number of websites that are being developed on the World Wide Web is growing at an ever increasing exponential amount. And because we live in a quick-fix society, with limited time on our hands, we need something to make surfing the web a lot easier, something that will sort out all this influx of information into a logical order.
The Other Side of the Search Gods Abracadabra!
Thousands of servers ...billions of web pages.... the possibility of individually sifting through the WWW is null. The search engine gods cull the information you need from the Internet...from tracking down an elusive expert for communication to presenting the most unconventional views on the planet. Name it and click it. Beyond all the hype created about the web heavens they rule, let's attempt to keep the argument balanced. From Google to Voice of the Shuttle (for humanities research) these ubiquitous gods that enrich the net, can be unfair ...and do wear pitfalls. And considering the rate at which the Internet continues to grow, the problems of these gods are only exacerbated further.