Good content the key ingredient with Google.
Why do SEO’s keep preaching that if you want rankings on Google you have to have good content? Well in my opinion, its becoming one of the single best ways to be found on Google. It should be first on any good SEO or Search Engine Marketers list of onsite optimization.

Obviously, you have to reseach out the keywords, and do a complete analysis of words to go after, but once you have the right words … start creating the content based on those words. I am amazed more and more, as of late when this is done correctly.

For example, a site that I have been working on content and keywords for the last month (only working on the onsite optimization) can already be found on MSN, Yahoo! and Google in the top 3 results for some pretty big keywords. I have not done any link building or offsite optimization yet. The site just has really good content that is original and based on the keywords we researched out.

Its not rocket science, but when most people focus on link building, and offsite optimization first they lose track of one of the most important key factors in getting rankings…content! Work on unique good content, and your onsite optimization efforts will be rewarded!

The original Article on 97floor

Take 10 Minutes To Make Google Love You
by Bonnie Boots

Because Google is the most-used browser, it’s vitally important that you have a good relationship with it. If you have a web site or a blog, it’s likely you’ve already introduced yourself to Google, either by submitting your website URL to them, or by creating a Google Sitemap for your web site.

By introducing yourself to Google isn’t a “set it and forget it” prospect. It’s a relationship you have to work at.

In an effort to always be improving the results it delivers to people, Google is constantly tinkering with the way it searches and indexes information. That means the rules that run Google the day you first submit your web site will surely change in the future.

And that means that you should check in with Google every now and then to make sue you still have a good relationship with it.

Any time I read a news story that says Google has changed the way it indexes web sites, I make a point of looking over my web’s meta data.
Meta data is the words that are put into the web site especially for search engines to read. I look at that meta data and ask myself,”Is there anything I can add or change to improve my relationship with Google?”

I checked my meta data a few weeks ago after hearing Google had made some changes. I ran a Google search for the keywords I used to describe The Internet Wizards Magazine and much to my surprise, my web site didn’t even appear in the first 2or 3 pages of results.

I’ve worked hard to build a site rich with original content and all related to a single topic–making your own products and marketing them on the internet. So I was surprised to find that people searching on that topic wouldn’t find out about me from Google.

I took a good look at everything that goes into the home page of my web site–the page Google considers most important for meta data–and found a few things I should change.

The next morning, I again ran a Google search for my chosen keywords. This time, The Internet Wizards Magazine turned up as number two on the first page of Google search results.

That’s how people achieve the results they crow about in seals pages titles “Find out how I went from zero to Number 1 on Google—OVERNIGHT!”

The fact is, it’s not hard to do if you just pay attention to what Google really likes–actual content–and you pay attention to a few basics of SEO–Search Engine Optimization.

If you’re eyes are rolling back in your head at the mere mention of SEO, don’t be afraid. The fact is, there are 3 VERY simple things you can do to make sure you’re on good terms with Google. In fact, if you’re not already doing these, adding them will almost instantly improve the way Google thinks of your web site.

It’s fast, it’s easy, and –since I’m going to tell you exactly how to do it yourself–free.

Here we go:

Look at the html that makes up the home page of your web site. If you’re using a WYZIWIG “What You See IS What You Get” html compiler, you’ll need to look at your home page in html or “code” view rather than “design” view.

At the top of the page, you’ll see a couple of words between “tags,” the little marks that look like arrows pointing right or left. The first “tag” word will be , followed by . After that, you’ll start seeing the meta data I want you to pay attention to right now.

Tip Number 1: Make sure your page title is written for search engines AND human readers.

Most people name their pages for people. If the page has an article title “12 ways to spoil your dog,” people will make the meta data page title “12 ways to spoil your dog.”

The thing to remember is that BOTH people and search engines read the page title. So it should contain both a brief article tile AND a list of keywords. Or, if you like, it may contain ONLY keywords. It’s up to you.

What you want to consider in writing your page title is that the search engine is most interested in your keywords, which it will use to sort and index your page.

And then you want to consider that human beings will read your page title when it turns up in search results. You want the tile to be informative enough that people looking for your type of information will click on it.

Here are bad and god examples:

“The Internet Wizards Magazine” …is NOT a good page title. Yes, it’s the title of the magazine, but it doesn’t give the search engines the keyword information they like. And it doesn’t tell human readers what the focus of the magazine is.

The Internet Wizards Magazine–product creation + internet marketing” is a good page title. It tells the search engines what keywords I think best describe my content, AND it tells human readers what the focus of the magazine is.

Don’t get all stressed out about finding the very, very best keywords. You can always change them later, when you know more. Right now, just think about what the actual topic of your web site. Then write down the words or phrases you think people are most apt to type into Google when they’re searching for the type of information you have.

Think of it like writing a personals ad. You want to tell Google, in a few words, who you are (your page title) and what you’re most interested in. (your keywords) so the people most likely to be attracted to you can find out about you.

Tip #2: Make sue those keywords appear in the last 25 words at the very bottom of your home page.

Scroll down to the very bottom of your home page. Look at the last 25 words on the page. Do you see your keywords there? If you don’t, then you’re not playing nice with Google. If your keywords appear among the first 25 words and the last 25 words on the home page, then Google gets all happy. It feels convinced that your web site is deeply committed to the topic of those keywords. And because Google wants to deliver actual content to searches, it looks on your web site with great approval, knowing you’re one of the good ones it can recommend.

The easiest way to get your keywords into the last 25 words on your home page is by including them in your copyright information. If you look at the html view of The Internet Wizards Magazine home page, you’ll see that this is, in part, my copyright statement:

All web site design, text, graphics, and the selection and arrangement thereof Copyright © 2008 Bonnie Boots. All rights protected. All wrongs avenged “http://www.theinternetwizards.com” A lively, personal look at product creation + internet
Marketing

You see how the top meta data and the very last line on the page are almost identical? That pleases Google no end.

To better improve your relationship with Google, look over your home page and find one or two more places that you can use your keywords. You don’t need to overdo it. One more use if fine. Two is OK. Any more and Google may suspect you’re trying to do something tricky and think twice about giving you it’s nod of approval.

These 3 simple changes–writing a new page title, adding your keywords to the top meta data and the bottom line of your web page–are very easy to do and bring immediate positive results. So, would you believe they are amongst he most overlooked SEO techniques? Put them into your web site today, and you’ll take a giant leap ahead of all the other people that don’t pay attention to the little details that make Google like you.

Visit the original Article on theinternetwizards

Stingy with your outbound links?…..Mat Siltala

Reading a few posts today made me think of something that has been on my mind for quite some time when it comes to link building strategies. Should outbound links (and I am talking the regular ones - not this no follow bullcrap) be a strategical part of your link building strategies?

My take on it is simple - Absolutely!

Some of the benefits from giving away outbound links could include better recognition from the search engines. They see that you are not selfish and just getting as many possible links to yourself as possible. If you have good content on your website, blog or forum then you do not need to worry about losing visitors clicking away from you. You should be giving them reasons to keep coming back to you because of the content. Another benefit could be that linking to a bigger site in your industry could build up your credibility with them, and they will accept your posted comments (maybe even let you anchor up a keyword if the comment is useful) on their blog as well as possibly add you to their blog roll. Linking out to other sites/blog posts/forums could get you trackback links as well. There are alot of sites that monitor and most of the bigger ones do, but you should never have to worry about getting deleted if you are being upfront and whitehat about your methods of linking out.

It all comes back to credibilty. Credibilty for your site with your readers, and the search engines. From my experience I have had better luck getting sites to rank that are not stingy with their outbound links, and really use it as a strategical part of their linking strategies.

Be careful of some sites that you link out to though as I have read linking out to certain sites can hurt your rankings. I would probably never link to a site that is not indexed in Google (besides ones I know that are brand new). You never want to link to a site that has been blacklisted, or questionable in nature. If you ever have a question about someone you are going to link to … ask yourself this question: “Would Matt Cutts link to this person?” (this link was not a no follow, but who am I kidding, Matt does not need a link from me) LOL … Have a great day!

Read the original Artcle on 97floor

Inter-linking your site…Mat Siltala

A great way to get the search engines to give you better rankings is by making sure you are inter-linking your website pages with anchored text.

What is anchor text? Anchor text is when you make a keyword or phrase a hyper-link (clickable) For example, in this blog if I want to refer to the main page of my website rather then saying “click here” and linking that phrase up to your homepage, you woud use a keyword or phrase that better suits the page you are sending people to. My homepage on this blog is mostly about an internet business directory so you see how I have that phrase as a hyper-link? This is anchor text and it helps the search engines get a better idea what your site is about and how to better rank you.

So when creating pages on your website think about how you will tie them all together and make sure you inter-link them with the phrases that relate to your site and each page using this anchored text.

There does become a point where you can have to much anchor text (for the search engines as well as the people viewing your site) so make sure you don’t turn your website into a spammy looking anchored text fest. I try to make sure I have no more then 20 links on really quality content pages. So if you have pages with less content reduce the amount of anchored text.

Visit the Mat article on 97floor

Can linking to other websites improve my rankings?………Mat Siltala

This is a great question. Actually the best of the week! This is an area I have been running a series of case studies on. ( I will give some specifics in a later post ) For now lets talk about the bottom line and answer the question:

Can linking to other websites improve my rankings?

Yes, if done correctly. Let me explain. Lets talk about directories. We all know that we can get a ton of low level links to directories that are basically no names that carry little if no page rank. Most of the directories that are new have little links on each category or subcategory. What if we were to link to the actual page that our “anchored text” link was on?

It works really well if you have several sites with page ranks of atleast 4 or higher at your disposal. You can just link to the specific page your link is on and improve that pages rank. Remember the earlier post on how Google ranks webpages not websites.

It does not just need to be directories, you can link to blogs you have posts on, you can link to articles that have been submitted (in your favor). You can also link to just regular webpages you may have a link on to improve the ranking of that page as well.

In turn helping these pages that link to you gain better page rank and popularity your website rankings can improve. Just make sure you are getting your main keywords or phrases anchored on the pages you are trying to improve.

This is a great strategy for improving your link popularity, increasing your traffic and getting better rankings. Keep in mind that the page your link is on needs to be pointing to a subpage on your site to help improve your “deep linking”.

Test this out for a few of your pages and you may be impressed.

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Directories full of Adsense or Ads (follow-up)..Mat Siltala

This is a post to simply follow up what I ranted about yesterday in my blog. I feel that if directories (or websites for that matter) want to use Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Ads or any other ad paying program out there to make extra money on thier website then its totally fine and does not take away from the legitimacy of your site. With that said, there is an extreme level certain people can take with these ad programs. In regards to the directories, the thing I don’t like to see is when they place the ads right next to any submit buttons, or and buttons that you need to click on the navigate the site with right next to the ads. (Example would be a directory that has a submit button titled “add url” inbetween two adsense ads that both have the words “add url” in the ads…(see the trick)) It can be confusing and people can click on these ads and get taken away from the site they are on. (this is the goal of this website to strickly make money this way) I think this is breaking the TOS (terms of service) that most of these sites have. They say not to trick, manipulate or advertise to “click here” essentially thats all these type of sites are doing. They have fallen trap to “whoring” out thier sites to Ads.

There are legit sites and directories that use ads to make more money and do not take away from the integrity of the site. You can tell if a directory does not have Ads all over it, then they are making money in other ways and are satisfied, and do not have to turn to these ad paying programs.

So my final thought on this subject is if you have a site that is legit, (and you want it to stay legit and credible) You place the ads where it will not trick me to click on. I have clients that make a good living on these ad paying programs, but every one of these clients are keeping the integrity of thier site, and have not fallen to the dark side of Ad-spamming thier site.

Read The original Post on 97floor
Former Article….
*Beaware of this directory
*Good Directories and Good Traffic

SpamSense, Scraper Sites, and Directories NOT to submit to: Mat Siltala

I still can’t get over how much I have been thinking of directories since ZEAL decided to close down shop. I have been asked so many directory related questions in the last two weeks its not funny anymore. These questions have not drove me mad, but they have made me consider a few things when it comes to directories.. To answer (again) the biggest question: NO DIRECTORIES are not dying!!! With that said you can be more careful about the ones you decide to submit to. Things to consider:

• Is it a SpamSense Directory?
• Is it a scrapper site clearly a part of the black hat seo world?
• Does it have casino/gambling related ads all over it?
• Do they allow porn related sites?
• Is the directory banned by Google? (I will answer how you check in a minute)

What is a SpamSense directory? Its a directory that is full of Google Adsense Ads in the most “spam-erific” places such as right next to the “submit button” or “add url” button. They are almost tricking you to click on the ads to make them money. My feelings is that this is a breaker of the Terms of Service with most of these kind of programs and you start to get involved in click fraud and that is NO GOOD. ( I know you have seen this and know exactly what I am talking about.)

You can go to Google.com and type in the URL of the directory in the search and if they are not listed, or do not show up as a result it means one of two things:

1. They are such a new site that they have no credibility in Google
2. They have been blacklisted.

(Either of which submitting to will do you no good) Think about the big picture with directories, they help you build credibility, improve rankings and increase traffic. If you go to a directory and there is no way they can do any of that then stay away. Remember you don’t want your site showing up next to the Porn site for credibility!

Former post “Good Directories and Good Traffic“

Read and visit this article on 97floor

Directories are not going anywhere!

With all the recent postsabout ZEAL closing up shop (which I think is a stupid move for a good directory) and all the talk about the future of directories I have to include my thoughts about it.  (mostly for all the people that have asked me this last week-no kidding about 30 different clients have asked me.)

ZEAL closing shop is really not that big of a deal.  Here is why.  Other then the fact it was a really good directory (that many complained about being hard to get into) there are many better directories out there.  Take for example DMOZ and the Yahoo Directory.  A link with one of these guys can be worth more then 50 links on other directories.  Also a factor that Google takes into high consideration is that Yahoo directory is not a guranteed listing.  You have to pay them $299 just for review and consideration.  So if you get listed it carries alot of weight for that simple fact (atleast on Google).

Gaining popularity on the search engines directory submissions should only be ONE method you use.  By no means can you expect to achieve all the rankings you want to simply by submitting to a directory.  You should take into consideration if the directory will get you traffic or not.  If it will not get you traffic you might as well just not waste your time.  A directory that is not getting you any traffic is probably not very popular with Google so again its not really worth the effort or money.   On the other hand take a business directory like USCity.net who offers NO anchored text in its listing to keep its directory pure does get its users alot of traffic (but it will do nothing for your SERP).  I have a site listed in this directory and about 10 percent of my traffic comes from this directory alone.

Things to consider:

• How long has the directory been in business.
• What is thier page rank?
• How long have they registered thier domain name for?
• Do they have any SERP? ON Any engines?
• Are you using them simply for an anchor text link?
• Do you think you will actually get traffic from the directory itself?
• What kind of traffic is the directory getting?
• What is their Alexa ranking?
• What kind of integrity does the directory have?
• Does the directory have Google Adsense all over it, or other ads?

These are a few things that I heavily take into consideration when submitting to directories.  Alot of posts recently that I have been reading are talking about directories that have Google Adsense over them.  You can’t blame these guys for wanting to make more money on thier website so I unlike some others out there do not have a problem with directories having Adsense all over them.  BUT, what I do have a problem with is the directories that are tyring to include these ads right where the submit button is…trying to trick you into clicking…in my opinion this is a terms of service breaker as bad as telling people to click on the ads…I really think if you have the ads on the page where it does not get in the way of the directory and the listings and its clearly seperated then I have no problem with it whatsoever!  With that said, let me give you a list of my top 10 (for now).  These are directories that will get you traffic as well as help your search engine rankings:

1. http://sbd.bcentral.com
2. http://dir.yahoo.com
3. http://www.dmoz.org
4. http://www.abilogic.com
5. http://www.greenstalk.com
6. http://www.business.com
7. http://www.uscity.net
8. http://www.octopedia.com
9. http://www.eplanit.biz
10. http://www.gimpsy.com

I have many others on my list that I use for both reasons.  An internet directory can help you with rankings on MSN or Yahoo and some help you on Google.  Some just get you traffic right from thier site.  Bottom line before submitting to any directory or trying to build links, just ask yourself if it can get you traffic?  So with all this said,  I will continue to use directories and I personally don’t think they are going anywhere!

 This artcle from 97floor.com

Headsmacking Tip #1: Link Requests in Order Confirmation Emails

Tonight I made an online purchase at a store called Widgetco.com (no, I’m not kidding, and I’m not using “widget” as an example, the site is actually www.widgetco.com). Sixty seconds later, this email shows up in my inbox:

When I read the second-to-last line of the message, I realized that SEOmoz needs a “headsmacking tips” series on the blog, and that this was a perfect candidate. It’s unreal that in all the link building tips, all the blog posts and Whiteboard Fridays, not once have I brought up what a terrific idea it is to leverage your customers for link building.

Why Should I Have My Customers Build Links For Me?

• They already like you
• They have a relationship with you, so the link request is more like “If you liked our barbershop, please refer your friend.”
• Google loves these kinds of links - in their greatest dreams, the Internet, through links, is a realistic model of the relationships between people, companies and organizations. Links like these get them one step closer to that fantasy.
• Your customers are usually relevant to you, and it’s likely that if they link, the post they use or the content they link from will have the right kind of relationship with your niche.
• It’s scalable - the more customers you get, the more you can ping them with link requests and the more links you’ll receive (again, bolstering Google’s desire to show the most popular and successful businesses on top of the results).