John from http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/ gives us another excellent tip today, be sure and check out their seo workshops and if you have the chance be sure and attend one!

Latent Semantic Indexing or LSI for short, is an extremely powerful influence to relevancy.

Just remember that it does not ever replace good basic optimization factors, but it is something that you can study and apply to specific pages for those occasions where you have very low KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) phrases, that are highly competitive.

LSI is an influence that is at work in the background rewarding you for writing higher quality, (well written) content.

When you hear Matt Cutts from Google talking about writing better quality content, he is not offering deep hidden meaning in his advice. There are EXCELLENT reasons to right higher quality content that reads well to your visitors.

Best advice is to create content that is useful, reads well and that serves some legitimate purpose.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Blogging For SEO: How To Get Maximum Search Benefit From Your Small Business Blog

If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It’s simpler than you think.

The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That’s why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog:

1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword
2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning
3. Use subheads with or tags that also use your keyword
4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts
5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword
6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases
7. Be sure to ping the directories
8. Include tags for all of your blog entries
9. Use categories effectively
10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website

Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that’s an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don’t give up on keywords and anchor text.

You’ll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group.

Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don’t use “main” or “uncategorized.” Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines.

There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress, and several other blogging software platforms, you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free.

Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, “Find Out More About Keyword.” Then add another link that points to your home page.

The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Thanks to John at Search Engine Workshops for another great tip

-Create content that serves your customer’s needs FIRST and your
own needs second.

-Create content that will meet your visitor’s exact search query
and satisfy it.

-Create content your visitor will be GLAD that they found - something
of true merit.

-Create content that is based on real “behaviorally based research”
rather than guessing at keywords.

-Create content that is written for your specific visitor so that
it flows smoothly and reads well to them.

-Create content that is original and you feel proud to have created it.

-Create content that has a solid, well written “call to action.”

Popularity: 14% [?]

If you are in the midst of creating a new article or content for your Web site, remember that time is your friend. Don’t be in a rush but take your time to release your finished work over at least 48 hours or longer.

Our thoughts creatively continue as the old expression suggests…as we “sleep on it.” This applies especially to creative writing or even just copywriting in general. Try working on two or three different projects at a time and over a period of a few days.

Don’t be in a big rush to finish something off quickly. But give yourself the liberty to be creative over a  period of time. Fashion your articles as you assemble your thoughts onto paper. Writing is something that flows with practice. Great articles are often born as you take the time you need to write them.

Thanks to John From Search Engine Workshops for this great tip

Popularity: 10% [?]

When doing new keyword research in Wordtracker, instead of researching keyword phrases try watching for “behavioral trends” or keywords that “tell a story.”

Examples of keywords that are telling:

“miniature doll instructions” KEI 961.0
“golf swing instruction dvds” KEI 1741.0
“how to build secret compartments” KEI 280.3
“building a basement in your home” KEI 512.0
“easy build shed kit” KEI 520.0
“How to Build an Icehouse” KEI 661.0
“build a reptile rack” KEI 676.0
“how to build military bunkers out of sand bags” KEI 729.0
“how to build custom furniture” KEI 1444.0

Thanks to John Alexander at http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/ for this great tip

Popularity: 5% [?]

As often happens with updates at Google - today we see another adjustment in Page Ranks of many of the sites hit in the last couple of days. For example both of my blogs have recovered and returned to PR6. Not all have though - you can see a list of some who have and haven’t at Andy’s blog (by the way Andy has done a great job at following this story).

I’ve had confirmation now from two sources at Google that this latest round of updates was ALL about the selling of text links. You can see Jeremy Twittered the same thing here. Some of those who have had their updates reversed today were falsely penalized for selling links (like ProBlogger which used to do it but stopped months back).

This latest furore has all been about the selling of links and is a warning shot to bloggers and webmasters who engage in the practice. Of course not everyone who sells links has been hit (there’s no way Google will get everyone) but it’s a sign of what Google are continuing to crack down on.

So what Should Bloggers Do?

So what does this mean for bloggers who sell links? I guess it means there is risk associated with it and that the risk is loosing page rank (at the least) from selling links. Whether this also leads to a loss of traffic we’re yet to see.

If you have been hit by the penalties and want to recover your ranking in Google’s eyes the way forward is simple. Remove the links and ask for a reconsideration from Google using the tool in Google’s Webmaster Tools. To do this you need to have your site registered in Webmaster tools and log in - you’ll then see a ‘Request Reconsideration’ link on the right hand side of the screen that allows you to report your changes and ask for reconsideration.

Of course many bloggers are not doing this because they haven’t seen any decrease in traffic yet and don’t much care about a PR decrease.

It’s a decision that bloggers need to make for themselves and something that I have mixed feelings on. On the one hand I see why Google wants to stop the practice as it makes their task of ranking sites purely based upon whether the site is seen as an authority more challenging.

On the other hand I see bloggers who struggle to make money using AdSense and other ad networks and who have come to rely upon the text link ads. Many bloggers have seen text links become their #1 income stream. I also see this as being somewhat of a slippery slope for Google to go down as it’s going to change the landscape and force text link sellers further underground (see below). There will also be plenty of inconsistencies in their carrying out of the penalization of text link sales and lots of people pointing them out.

My Main Advice

My main advice to publishers whether they decide to sell or not sell text links hasn’t really changed - Forget about Page Rank and Build a Better Blog. Build a quality site that builds community, attracts readers from as many sources as possible (relying upon Google traffic as a sole source of traffic isn’t a smart move) and build a blog that enhances people’s lives. This way you don’t need to rely upon Google (or any other single site) to send you traffic and keep you profitable.

Will We see More and More BlackMarket Text Link Selling?

The selling of text links has always had a black market kind of feel to it - however I think that what Google has done this last week means that we’ll see more and more of the text link selling go further underground. We’ll see it happen less using systems like TextLinkAds and more happening in less transparent ways.

We’ll also probably see more and more selling of links inside of posts or on single pages and less and less on sidebars/footers etc.

It may even mean that we see text link selling become a more valuable thing to do as the supply of publishers willing to sell links dwindles. I know that even in the last month I’ve been approached on three occasions by individuals wanting to buy links on individual posts on my blogs - and the monetary value of these links was significantly larger than anything I’d heard of being achieved before for single links.

I don’t know where this will all end - but I doubt it’s the end of text links and I can only see both those who are in the business of selling them AND Google becoming more aggressive in this little war.

:::::SOURCE:::::

Popularity: 3% [?]

It was a little over 24 hours ago that everything hit the fan around the blogosphere with Google’s Re-Ranking of hundreds of blogs. It’s been an interesting day since I first posted about it with a number of interesting experiences coming along with it including:

• Calls from 3 journalists (one Australian and two US) wanting to get comments on the story
• Emails and IM chats with numerous SEOs sharing their ‘theories’ and ‘inside gossip’ from the Googleplex

Ironically the whole controversy has also had two other results:

Firstly traffic was up today by around 40% - the story has caused a lot of people to check out the ‘de-ranked’ blogs

Secondly and very ironically the controversy has caused a lot (hundreds) of extra in bound links to ProBlogger (and I pressume many of the other penalized blogs and sites).

What we’re being penalized and/or made an example for I don’t really know (Google’s not great at explaining these sorts of things) but the net effect has been that many of the sites being ‘hit’ could well come out of this better off than they went in - with new readers and perhaps even a better search engine ranking in the long run.

I guess there’s a few lessons here:

• Don’t Get Depressed Get Motivated - every person that I’ve ever met that makes a full time living from web publishing has a story to tell about periods where things didn’t go their way (or where they completely fell apart). Those that succeed find ways to push through these times, learn from them and come out stronger.
• Leverage Leverage Leverage - yesterday when I saw my slumped page rank I had a few options before me. I could have ignored it, I could have gotten down and despondent and wallowed and done very little work as a result or I could have found a way to leverage it. I decided to write a post about it and to see what would happen. The result was that today was one of the most productive days that I’ve had for a long time.
• Network - there are days when blogging feels very lonely. The reality is that you’re not alone in the challenges that you face as a blogger - not matter what the issue is, there’s someone else who has, is or will face the same thing. The key is to reach out, find these people, debrief with them, learn from them and work together on solutions.

I know I know - I’m one of those annoyingly optimistic people (it drives my wife nuts). I’m sorry, I can’t help it.

The problem is that it’s actually days like today that make or break bloggers. Not only is it days like today that many bloggers give up - it’s days where many miss great opportunities. Keep Punching!

Original Article from ProBlogger

Popularity: 3% [?]

With Digg getting more and more hostile–and with my baiting habit getting a bit out-of-control–I’ve lately been forced to look elsewhere to get my beloved jolts of social media traffic.No matter. Evolve or die! They won’t send you 5,000 uniques in an hour, but the traffic they do send is more likely to subscribe to your RSS feed, because their members have already identified themselves as part of your niche’s tribe. (And it’s a more targeted tribe than the “gamer wanker” at Digg, or “Politico smartass” at Reddit.)

Without further adieu, here are 17 25 29 niche social media sites that actually seem to be gaining critical mass:

1. AgentB (Deals)
2. Advert Lover (Advertisements)
3. AutoSpies (Autos)
4. Babblz (Parenting)
5. Ballhype (Sports)
6. blogs4God (Christian)
7. Care2 (Social Action)
8. Dealigg (Deals)
9. Dissect Medicine (Health & Medicine)
10. DNHour (Domaining)
11. DZone (Developers)
12. Game Diggity (Game Videos)
13. Hugg (Environment)
14. JudysBook (Deals)
15. Meme or Lame (Gadgets)
16. News Heat (Politics)
17. PickStation (Music)
18. Pixel Groovy (Web Design)
19. Plant Change (Environment)
20. PlugIM (Online Marketing)
21. qoolsqool (Education Resources)
22. ScoreGuru (Sports)
23. Sk-rt (Lifestyle)
24. Sphinn (Search Engines & Online Marketing)
25. Stylehive (Fashion)
26. TTiqq (Tips & Tutorials)
27. Tweako (Computers & Technology)
28. Video Bomb (Videos)
29. VideoSift (Videos)

It’s a good bet that nearly every linkbait you publish would fit in at at least one of the above sites, so I recommend making ‘niche social media submission’ part of your regular launch to-do list. Just like ol’ fashioned link begging, it’s a great tactic to hedge against the power of the Bury Brigade at Digg. (Save yourself time: Go sign up and get an identical username and password for each site, and then bookmark this page )

I expect that in a year from now there will be a few hundred niche social media sites with a critical mass of users. Let’s hope so, baiting Digg ain’t good for the old ticker

p.s. a message to all you muppets rolling your eyes and saying “great now the SEOs can spam the niche sites, too!”: an SEO submitting to (even spamming!) your social media site is a good sign. Just figure out how to make the community self policing and work through the growing pains.

Thanks to Andy Hagans for the list!

Popularity: 3% [?]

E Marketers are aware of the value of getting top search engine rankings and listing in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN .So, they spend most of the time in website content optimization, getting inbound links, and title tag and Meta Tags optimization. But, What about web design? Many of us close the eyes to the fact that web design structure plays a vital role in search engine optimization (SEO). For optimizing a website, we must ensure that it should have a search engine friendly web design structure.

This article deals with several value added and important search engine friendly techniques to be considered while designing a website.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2% [?]

When you’re searching for something online, is the search a means to an end, or an end in itself? Yahoo is betting that it’s the former. This article examines the changes the venerable search engine recently introduced.Tim Mayer’s recent post on Yahoo’s Search Blog explains the company’s new approach: “One thing we’ve learned since launching our own algorithmic search engine back in 2004 is that at the end of the day, people really don’t want to search; they want to get things done.” The changes in Yahoo’s search engine are designed to give “users the answers they’re looking for quickly and easily, and often in one search.”

Wired made a rather snarky comment about this apparent change in direction, saying that it’s not unusual for a business as beleaguered as Yahoo has been lately to “change the criteria for success to help manufacture the illusion of progress. In this case, Yang and company are trying to convince us that the ease of experience associated with its search is preferable when compared to Google’s battery of results which ultimately promote inaction.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 3% [?]

Go through your site and look for common statements like:

Click here for a quote, or Click here for more information.

These are areas where you can include keyword phrases.

For example, Click here for a mortgage loan quote, or Click here for more graphic arts information. Be sure to make the entire sentence a link, or at least make the keyword phrase a link.

Thanks to John Alexander from http://www.searchengineworkshops.com for this great tip

Popularity: 3% [?]

—————-

I would like to personally apologize to the world for not taking the time to personally write this out myself and giving you a demo on one of my own sites, I was being lazy and just wanted to share in a speedy manner before I started watching tv for the evening. One again, I am sorry I offended everyone so badly by not writing

—————-

This is a GREAT plugin and one of the most useful ones I have found for use in conjunction with the search engines. It won’t get you any more visitors from the SE’s, but it sure will help you capture the SE visitors easier.

What is it? Taken from their site: “When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, they are definitely looking for something specific - often they just roughly check the page they land on and then closes the window if what they are looking for isn’t there. Why not help them by showing them related posts to their search on your blog?
This plugin/guide lets you do that, works with a long list of search engines!”

http://theundersigned.net/2006/06/landing-sites-11/

Wanna see it in action? Go to google and search for Photoshop Mockup see the result for theundersigned.net, click it and check out the plugin in action

DIGG THIS!

Popularity: 4% [?]