Better Search Engine Rankings Is Not In Quantity It Is In Quality

admin    Google     better, Engine, Quality, Quantity, Rankings, Search

In order to improve search engine rankings in your web site it is proven that the idea of theme related quality links is what pushed the rankings. Not only must you target theme related links, but your content on your web site must be sticky and add a better user experience.

Most web site owners do not understand why they cannot rank websites. The simple fact is your web site may just simply not be interesting enough for your users. There are two ways you can go to improve search engine placement for better rankings.

The first is method is focusing on some highly target link building methods. These link should be theme related and must have content that relates to your web site. If you are trying the achieve better search engine rankings gathering links from site which are not entirely relative to yours, you are wasting your time.

Also, remember link exchanges are really a waste of time now-a-days. It has shown that link exchanges with sites and even three way links are not increasing search engine rankings. With the Google algorithms changing and modifying you must be kept up to speed. The foundation of search engine optimization and better search engine rankings is about learning the correct methods. Lot’s of times, marketers who are looking for better placement, are doing all the old ways of ranking a site. Building a link exchange directory, doing reciprocal linking, and possibly black hat SEO.

Ever Wonder Why People Are Exchanging links?

This is because there site is not good enough for better placement. So they are inclined to get you to link up with them. Take a bit of page rank from your site and boost theirs. Now, linking is not bad, but a non-judgmental link from another site is really what is all about. There are ways to improve search engine rankings doing correct search engine optimization. Better linking strategies are available, now the social networks are so huge and everyone loves good content. Stick to trying to increase the user experience and you will be fine.

So if you still want to build better search engine rankings to speed up the process a little… no problem.

To improve search engine rankings is all about correct search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is a tedious project, but following the correct guidelines will help your business exponentially.

To start in ranking your web page, the links that you gather from your web site must be theme related and you should not have ownership of the domains. There is a way around this which Monopolizing Marketing™ talks about and is entire free search engine optimization training course.

So it is really crucial that phrases within your pages and the pages you are linking from have similar key words. You want to lead the Google bot down a line full of great editorial content. This helps improve the user experience. The longer the user sits on each page the better rankings you will see, guaranteed.

The other great technique to use, is develop links with fellow bloggers. Bloggers are great social people and love good content as well. Get on the social networks and send out your content to them. Get connected with RSS feeds and try to autopilot your link building success, simply because your community likes what you have to say.

If linking and need some expert SEO services, have a professional SEO company improve search engine rankings for your company. If you are a do-it-yourself person, a great free resource to help with better search engine rankings called Monopolizing Marketing™ is available for free to sign up to.

Google, SEO, and Quality Links

admin    Google     Google, links, Quality

Once you know how Google measures or evaluates your links then you will be in a better position to conduct a more effective link campaign. Before I explain the current pattern of link evaluation let’s take a stroll down memory lane to see how far things have come.

In The Beginning A link Was The Equivalent Of A Thumbs Up Vote!

The original premise of the internet was to have a bunch of related resources (websites) linking to one another in a natural pattern of progression. Thus someone on a website focusing on gorillas for example would then naturally migrate from that site to one that listed gorilla safaris. Thus quite soon links became (and still are) the standard with which to measure a website’s relevance.

The thinking behind this was that the more popular a website was the greater the likelihood that people would link to it; and since people would only tend to link to sites that offered useful information then it naturally followed a large number of links signified quality, at least that was the idea.

The Birth of Link Spam!

Soon enough wily webmasters realized that they could manipulate the linking concept to their own advantage and make a handsome profit while they were at it. Instead of waiting for people to link to their new sites (a process that could take forever) why not form link directories whereby one, for a certain fee, could amass a large number of links in next to no time at all!

Booming Link market

Getting a new website indexed by Google used to be a task of Herculean proportions. Quite often new websites would languish in obscurity for ages, but those in the know realized that the process could be accelerated. By linking a new website to an established website or webpage with a high page rank (typically page rank (PR) 7 and above) that new website could be indexed by Google within days or a matter of hours depending on the PR value of the webpage on which the link was located. However getting a link from a high PR webpage did not come cheap and it was not uncommon for webmasters to fork over $800 for a one month link on a PR8 webpage!

Debut of The Link Farm

The link market trade flourished for a while, making a mockery of Google’s system of assessing the importance of any given website or webpage. However, a lot of webmasters in a hurry to see their websites scramble up the search engine indexes could not afford the hefty price commanded by a link from a high PR webpage and thus link farms came into being.

Link farms were the poor man’s solution to the hefty priced, high value links typical of high PR webpages. The premise of the link farm was as follows: instead of paying an outrageous sum of money for one link from a high page rank website why not pay a small fee for thousands of low PR links? In essence the link farms abided along the principle of the sum amounting to greater than its individual parts!

The Obsession With The PR Band!

Google thoughtful as ever, made it possible for anyone to determine the relative importance of a website at a glance. This they did by the introduction of the PR band, a small line atop one’s browser fittingly entitled with the word “PageRank.” The pagerank band scaled from a low of zero (PR0) to a high of ten (PR10). The greater the value that Google attributed to a given webpage the higher its designated page rank. In little to no time at that little green slash (PR band) became the highly effective unofficial publicist for the flourishing link market trade.

Webmasters obsessed over the PR band even though in truth the page rank value of a webpage plays little to no part in determining the position any webpage will attain on the SERPs (search engine index results pages). However savvy marketers used the PR obsession of the day to great advantage using it as a tool to establish credibility and ultimately sell their wares to the less savvy.

However somewhat on par with the abuse of the linking system, the page rank concept soon became equally defunct. In no time at all the Google index was awash with spam sites topping its front page! Something had to give; and it did!

Fast Forward To Today…New Link Evaluation Parameters!

Oh how times have changed!

The search engine algorithms have gotten so much smarter that even blackhat SEO (shady search engine optimization techniques) these days is more trouble than its worth. With the continued abuse and manipulation of the system Google furiously tackled the issue of how to maintain website relevance and quality in its index in an increasingly spammy world.

Since its embracement by the public, the internet has seen its fair share of SEO manipulation from blackhat techniques such as multiple-blog-creation software following the debut of blogs (principle behind this system was that one could create thousands of instant one-way backlinks through the instant generation of thousands of blogs) to whitehat techniques such as the widespread dissemination of articles through article distribution software or services.

Some of these techniques still have value today while others have been effectively nullified such as the mass generation of backlinks through the creation of instant blogs.

How Google Currently Evaluates Links.

It used to be that if the PR band of your website/webpage was gray then this signified that said webpage had been banned. That is no longer the case. All new websites/webpages start off with a grayed out PR band. This band will remain that color depending on a number of factors before it turns white (indicating that the probationary period is over) and eventually transforms to green with establishment of page rank above zero.

Link Aging Filter / Link Probation Period

To counter the widespread habit of acquiring links for a short-term period, say a month, so as to get a website indexed or attain page rank quickly, Google now subjects every link to a probationary period in which time the link is identified by Google but not accorded any value. Although such a link is recognized by Google, typically it will not be registered as a link associated with the website to which the link points for a subjective period; for that to happen the link needs to mature, and the rate at which a link matures is dependent on a number of factors.

Factors That Hasten Link Maturity Or Reduce Link Probationary Period

1. Keywords: The keyword incorporated in any given link is going to determine how long that link will be under probation. The more competitive the keyword the longer will be the link’s probationary period. In reality this link probationary system has superseded the Google Sandbox, which was/is Google’s technique of ensuring that super-optimized new sites do not zoom uncontrollably up the SERPs, quickly overshadowing long established websites. With respect to the Google Sandbox concept, if a new website was/is targeting a very competitive market already saturated with millions of sites, then that new website would spend a longer period cooling its heels in the Google Sandbox.

2. Volume of Traffic Across A Link: The more trafficked a link is, the quicker it will attain full SEO-value recognition by Google. This is a relatively new system in play and basically what it means is that a heavily trafficked low PR link will bestow far more SEO influence to the webpage it points to than a little trafficked high page rank link. In essence Google has pretty much nullified the system whereby webmasters could purchase links from high PR webpages in hopes of improving the SEO status of their own site. The application of this system explains why some newer webpages attain PR before older more established webpages on the very same website.

3. Links From Topically Related Sites: A links that comes from a website or webpage that has a comprehensively topical relationship to the destination webpage will have greater value than a link that does not. For example, say your website is about internet marketing, getting a link from another website that focuses on online marketing software would definitely fall under the category of topically related sites.

4. Utilizing Different Keywords In Links: Having the same keyword incorporated within all the links pointing to your site will tend to set off red flag alerts, which means that those links are not going to attain full SEO-value recognition by Google for a longer duration. Another link strategy you should employ is to have your links pointing to some of your inner pages as opposed to all your links pointing to your home page. Having links spread across multiple webpages registers as a more natural link strategy to the Google algorithm and the premise of this algorithm tweak was to nullify the system where webmasters would purchase links from link directories.

Remember anything that appears suspicious to the Googlebot is ultimately going to decrease the effectiveness of your SEO campaign. There’re many more factors that play a role in determining how high and how fast your website will make it up the SERPs (Google of course doesn’t spill all the beans) but if you conduct your link campaign with these few tips in mind you won’t go far wrong.

Consistency is Key to Quality PPC

admin    PPC     Consistency, Quality

Online marketers often focus on the effects of PPC copywriting and the click-through rate it achieves. That click-through rate is not the be all and end all. The overall goal of PPC copywriting is not to get people to click to your site this is merely step one, the ultimate goal is to get visitors to take action once they reach your site. The sole purpose of PPC ads is to drive visitors to your site where they can collect enough information to take action, whether that means buying, subscribing or joining.

UK Internet Marketing know that consistency is an important characteristic to successful PPC campaigns. Including the same keyphrases in the PPC copywriting throughout the rest of the steps in the conversion process can make or break your end results. All a PPC ad consists of is copy. If you mess this part up the rest won’t even get a chance to boom because the visitor will never make it past the search results page.

When you write PPC ads, if possible, include the keyphrase in the headline. If not, then you’ll want to incorporate the keyphrase into the body copy. When developing your landing page, use a headline that matches or is similar to the copy in your PPC ad. Research has proven that the closer the page content and ad copy are the longer visitors will stay on your landing page. If your sales channel is a multi-step process, then you’ll want to continue using the keyphrase all the way to the end.

When I land on a page after clicking a PPC ad that specifically mentioned the item I wanted, I expect to see the product, or range of products, I have just searched for. What’s more, I’ll need to actually read the phrase, or a similar phrase, that I have just searched for to clarify that I’m in the right place. When I click onto the item I think I want I’ll expect to see the phrase that I have just searched on the product description page, so I still know I’m in the right place. When I add the item to my cart I still expect to see the same keyphrase, just like when I check out and when I’m sent my order confirmation.

Don’t stop with your PPC copywriting. It’s simply not enough. That’s a mistake most online marketers make. You have to convey a uniform message all the way from beginning to end to get the highest conversion rates possible from your PPC campaign. When you do, your sales will flow in with more consistency!

10 Critical Steps to Improve Your Quality Score and to Pay Less For Your Google AdWords Campaigns

admin    Google     Adwords, Campaigns, Critical, Google, improve, Less, Quality, Score, Steps

Getting a good Google quality score is important to lower the minimum bid price for your keywords on your Google AdWords campaigns. The quality score ranges from 1 to 10, where 10 is best. I think it’s not absolutely necessary to get a quality score of 9 or 10 for all of your keywords, but you should aim to get a quality score of at least 7 or 8 for most of your keywords.

How does Google actually calculate the quality score for your keywords? Well there are many different factors that determine your quality score and only Google knows the exact rules.

Nevertheless, the following tips and guidelines should allow you a get a sufficiently high quality score – somewhere around 8 or even 9 – for most of your keywords:

* Put a privacy policy on your website

* Add some valuable content to your site – 5 to 10 short articles containing 300 – 500 words should be enough.

* Create some backlinks to your site: For example, submit your articles (or at least a few of them) to various article directories.

* Add a “Contact Me” page to your site.

* Add an “About” page to your site.

* Add a “Resources” page to your site with links to valuable and relevant sites. Consider sites with a high Google Page Rank as well as .edu and .org sites.

* Add a sitemap to your site.

* Make sure your site is clean, has a professional look and feel and doesn’t contain any “under construction”- or similar pages.

* Make sure your ads are relevant. A good practice is to use the keyword you are bidding on in the headline of your ad.

* Make sure your landing page is relevant. Don’t try to sell guitar lessons on your landing page when your ad is talking about an easy way to learn piano. You could even create a dedicated landing page for each of your adgroups – although that’s not always necessary.

Ok, all this sounds like quite a lot of work, but on the other hand it’s not really that much either. Look, the majority of these pages won’t contain much content, some of these pages could be generated automatically (for example the sitemap), the “Resources” page is just a list of a few links… Also, some of these pages can be easily reused (with a few minor modifications) for other websites and other AdWords campaigns.

And following the steps outlined above will not only assure you lower minimum bid prices for your keywords, but they will also drastically increase your sales conversion. Why and how? Let’s have a quick look at the entire process:

* Someone searches for a solution to a specific problem on Google

* This person finds your ad on the Google search results page and because you used the keyword he was searching for in the headline of your ad, he clicks on it.

* He is arrives at your landing page, which delivers what was promised in the ad and contains even more mouth-watering information.

* Your site is neat, clean and looks professional. There is a privacy policy, a contact form, a sitemap…

* Now you just made a big step towards gaining the trust of your site visitor and you drastically increased your chances that he will sign up for your newsletter, buy your product…

So as you can see, the Google quality score isn’t something that was introduced by Google to bother you or to make your life more difficult than it needs to be. It’s just a means to improve quality and you can even look at it as an indicator telling you if your campaign and website is sufficiently sophisticated to become profitable and to generate a positive ROI.

So, please do yourself a favor, invest a few hours of your time, follow the suggestions mentioned above and I promise you won’t regret it.

Over 60% of IT Professionals Believe Speed-to-Market Pressure Impairs Software Quality

admin    Google     Believe, Impairs, Over, Pressure, Professionals, Quality, Software, SpeedtoMarket

BOSTON, MA and LINZ, AUSTRIA–(Marketwire – December 15, 2009) – According to a recent survey of IT professionals in the US, UK and Central Europe, more than 90 percent of organizations experience pressure to deliver software releases in unrealistic timeframes, while fully 62 percent believe that this pressure directly and negatively impacts the performance and overall quality of the software they create.

Many pundits predict a jobless economic recovery in 2010(1). In this environment, IT and software development organizations are under tremendous pressure to do more with less. Applications of all kinds, particularly Web-based e-commerce applications, are seen as engines of growth that can deliver the elusive combination of increased revenue at a low cost. As a result, pressure to deliver new and improved releases of applications is unrelenting. Almost two-thirds of the survey respondents cited unrealistic lead times in delivering software as a problem of high or medium impact in their organization.

For consumer-focused companies, deadlines imposed by the holiday shopping season place a particularly acute strain on development and IT operations teams to create, fix and update the applications their organizations rely on to turn a profit. Almost half of the survey respondents report losing at least one day every week reproducing and fixing performance and availability issues. This indicates a loss of hundreds of hours that could otherwise be spent building new features to attract, engage and retain customers. Aggressive application delivery deadlines don’t allow for such inefficiency. As a result, the scramble to meet target dates often results in lower-quality, slow-performing software that can disappoint end-users. This can damage a brand and hurt a company’s bottom line. These challenges, noted in a report by Keynote Systems, observed that almost all leading retail sites slowed down on Black Friday and some even had major outages(2).

According to Forrester Research, on average, companies that provide a superior experience have 14.4 percent more customers who are willing to consider them for another purchase than companies in the same industry that offer a poor customer experience(3).

“App dev shops are under increasing pressure to deliver apps faster, but hasty application development can result in lower quality,” said Mike Gualtieri, senior analyst at Forrester Research. “A poor user experience created by bugs or performance problems in applications can be disastrous to a firm’s bottom-line.”

Increasingly, companies are learning that application performance is the most important determinant of the online experience, and that features and elegant user interfaces cannot compensate for slow-loading Web pages. Research from Google and Microsoft, released earlier this year, found that performance issues resulting in delays of as little as a half-second can distract users and greatly impact business. The results of user performance tests, revealed at the June 2009 Velocity Conference by Microsoft’s Eric Schurman and Google’s Jake Brutlag, assess the aspect of performance that is most important — speed. The growing complexity of today’s applications can lead to delays caused by poor performance, which their research found not only distracts users, but can cause them to abandon sites altogether.

The survey, hosted by dynaTrace, a provider of application performance management (APM) solutions, examined the challenges and costs associated with delivering scalable and high-performing applications. Based on responses from almost 500 developers and IT professionals, the study assessed the impact of new technical and organizational trends that complicate efforts to ensure strong application performance. It also evaluated the ability of organizations to deal with these new challenges.

About dynaTrace software Inc.

dynaTrace is the innovator and emerging leader in application performance management (APM). The company offers the only continuous APM system on the market — one that can monitor all transactions at all times and one that is used by all key contributors to application performance — architects, development, test and production. Industry leaders such as UBS, Salesforce.com, Renault, EnerNOC, Fidelity, and Thomson Reuters use dynaTrace’s patent pending technology to gain deep visibility into application performance, identify problems sooner and reduce the mean time to repair issues by 90%. Leading companies rely on dynaTrace to proactively prevent performance problems from happening and quickly resolve those that do occur — saving time, money and resources. dynaTrace can be found online at www.dynatrace.com

(1) For example, see ‘A Jobless Recovery’ in The New York Times (Nov 11, 2009) by Casey B. Mulligan, professor of economics at the University of Chicago

(2) See press release dated November 28 issued by Keynote Systems entitled “On Black Friday Leading Retail Web Sites Slow Way Down, Reports Keynote Systems”

(3) Forrester Research (September 4, 2009). “Best Practices in User Experience (UX) Design”