Are you working on getting your web site up onto the internet?

There are a few different elements you need to think about when first putting up your new web site. Starting with the basics and building from there is the best way to go. Optimizing your web site and getting it ready for the Internet World to see is what you need to concentrate on first. Here are a few helpful hints to get you on your way to success.

When optimizing your web site and making sure it is ready for the search engines to crawl frequently, there are a few key areas that you need to pay attention to. The three main fundamentals for creating successful search engine optimization are Link popularity, Meta tag creation and optimizing your web site. We will specifically concentrate on creating meta tags to help optimize any web site.

What is a Meta Tag?

A meta tag can be found in the "html code" within a web page. Each meta tag is used by the search engines to determine what your web pages are about. The meta tag Information provides the "essential guts" of your website page. Your Web site "Title and Description" Tags are an essential part of this meta tag creation. The "Title, Description and Headline" Tags can be the first thing any web searcher will see when they do a search on the internet.

Since first impressions are everything, the importance on making "the Title, Description and Headline" meta tags readable, relevant, attractive and properly optimized are absolutely essential. The true key is not to over optimize because you are likely to be banned entirely from the search engines if you choose to do so.

What happens when the search engines crawl your web site?

Now that you have set up your meta information, the search engines will crawl your web site and use this essential information as the brochure to your web site. When a search engine crawls your site, it determines the relevance of this meta information compared to the content on your page. The keyword Frequency on your web site should appear as much as possible on a page without being considered as something that sticks out like a sore thumb. If this does occur, you may be penalized as spamming.

What is key word frequency?

Keyword Frequency describes how many times a keyword (or phrase) occurs on a page. The most simple example of keyword frequency is if your key word appeared on a web page 5 times in every 100 words viewed by an engine, then your keyword density would be 5/100 or 5%.

The real trick to ensure a good ranking on the search engines is to produce quality content-rich pages which make the keyword density climb higher. But repeating your main keyword phrases can be tricky because you must still ensure that any content on your site isn't compromised by your search engine optimization effort, so as to not confuse your reader. If you can keep a reader coming back to visit your web site, you definitely know you have accomplished this task.

In conclusion, keyword frequency should match your meta information with the content on your pages. The search engines have changed dramatically so trying to trick them by spamming with only hurt or jeapardize your web site.

Don't try to spam the engines by submitting content-low pages full of keywords. You want to attract visitors to your site because of the good content your are providing to your readers. Take the time to optimize your site correctly so that you can get the most out of your web site rankings. When you have good content on your site, you will find those search engine rankings climbing to the top.

Good luck optimizing those web pages,

Jennifer Schilling

Copyright ฉ 2004 Jennifer Schilling

Jennifer Schilling publishes home business tips newsletter dedicated to supporting people like YOU! If looking for home business opportunities, the latest time saving tips and a mentor for support, come by and grab a F-R-E-E subscription today at: http://www.internet- business-success.biz Or visit her other web sites at http://www.thinkingfaster.com and http://www.internet-business-opportunities.biz for help getting started with your own home business.

Unfortunately, not many Search Engine Optimization companies know what this involves. You may see a "one size fits all" package, link popularity development in the form of submitting to link farms, or even the dreaded "Submit Your Site to 1000's of Search Engines" scam. While the basic premise of each of these ideas is true, the execution of them is extremely important.

First of all, your web site needs human attention. A real person should thoroughly analyze your site before any work is done. Get them on the phone and ask them questions. There should be a clear process that the Search Engine Optimization company uses and tailors to each client. The SEO company should also have a clear idea of what your goals are for your web site.

The first step in any work that is done should be keyword research. Like any kind of advertising, you need to know where your target market goes and how they find businesses like yours. The keywords chosen should apply to the theme of the web site. High rankings for these keywords should also be obtainable given your budget. If you are a computer repair shop with one or two locations in a city and can not service computers outside your area, then targeting a term such as "computer repair" is overkill. The cost for obtaining high rankings for a term such as that will be far greater than what you will make from the exposure, as much of your web site traffic will not be targeted enough.

Once keywords have been chosen for the web site, the content should be updated to reflect them. This may include subtle changes to the meta tags, page titles and text headings; or it could involve adding additional sections to the site, rewriting content and reorganizing the web site's structure. It all depends on the specific requirements of the site and market.

Once the on-page content optimization is complete, link popularity development needs to be done. A link development campaign should be done to acquire quality incoming links to the web site. This phase of search engine optimization should take place as soon as possible and can be continued as needed. Reciprocal linking is fine as long as some caution is used. There are many sketchy services out there that use huge networks of gambling and pharmacy sites with no unique content. Always make sure that each incoming link can be interpreted by the search engines as a 'vote' by that site for yours. It is worthless and possibly dangerous if the site links out to link farms and Free-For-All sites (FFA's). Writing articles with a link to your web site, getting people to post on forums and message boards, and advertising or getting links to drive targeted traffic to your site are great methods to use in improving your link popularity.

For the most part, you get what you pay for with Search Engine Optimization. A quick fix will rarely works, and if it seems too good to be true it probably is. Talk to the search engine optimization company about your concerns and make sure they understand your goals. Read their site and make sure they seem legitimate. Ask for results they've obtained for previous clients. Methods that not effective and have a chance to get a site banned include hiding text or links, participating in link farms, keyword stuffing, repeat search engine submissions, and copying web sites to multiple domains.

Proper SEO does not involve tricks. Web sites that have well written and well focused content, have been advertised in one way or another (including link popularity development), and overall are a good informational resource will get traffic from the search engines. Search engines are constantly updating ways to weed out the spamming and illegal SEO methods, so think long term with any search engine optimization campaign.

John Metzler is the co-creator of Abalone Designs, Inc. http://www.abalone.ca, a Search Engine Optimization company in Vancouver, Canada. He has been involved in web design and web marketing since 1999 and has helped turn Abalone Designs into one of the top SEO companies in the world.

The Cold Hard Facts?..

One of the most important factors in being successful in your business is to learn how to rank high in the search engines. It has been said that the search engines can account for as much as 95% of all the traffic to your website! If you fail to take advantage of the major engines you could be neglecting almost ALL of your targeted traffic!

I don't know of any business that can afford to throw away that many visitors.

Is your site ready?

There are many factors in which to consider before submitting your website. Have you prepared your website for maximum placement? Each page will need to be submitted separately, and each page will need the following.

• Page Title
  
• Meta Tags
  
• Keywords in Header tags
  
• ALT Tags on all images
  
• Keyword- filled content
  
• Keywords as close to the top of each page as possible
  
• Keywords in links to other pages
  
• Keywords in outbound links

Page Title

It is crucial to place keywords as close to the beginning of your page title as possible. The search engines will typically display your page title as part of the description that shows up when your website is displayed in search results. Placing keywords towards the top of your page can be extremely beneficial. For example, my website page title is, Affiliate Programs Directory@Smokesoft Inc. This means my website will do well in searches on "affiliate", "affiliate programs" and "affiliate programs directory". Try to create your page title in such a way that you can include as many keywords as possible.

Meta Tags

Although the importance of meta tags is fading each day, they are easy to create and for some search engines they are a factor, so you would be wise to include them in your pages. For the search engines that do not take meta tags into consideration they will merely ignore them.

Keywords in Header tags

This means to create a separate heading for each page containing the keywords you are targeting for that specific page. For example, the heading for my home page is as follows:

Affiliate Programs Directory

Meaning that on my webpage it would appear as:

Affiliate Programs Directory

This will greatly increase your positioning in the rankings. take care to prepare EVERY page with this in mind. [ALT tags on all images]

Another worthwhile little "trick" is to add the ALT attribute to every image on every page of your website. You can effectively place a keyword in each image on your website! Follow this example:

Some search engines will use the text in images when considering keyword relevancy, therefore adding more content in your favor.

Keyword-filled content

There is no excuse for not filling your web pages with quality keyword-filled content this is a major factor in how well you will rank in the search engines. The more keywords the search engines locate the higher your site will rank?.period.

I've found that one of the best ways to accomplish this is with articles such as this one. Imagine for a moment that I used "search engines" or "keywords" as two of my keywords for a given page, now skim through this article and see how many times these two words appear. As you can see this would be a huge asset in determining how well my site places, and this is just one article! If you are incapable of writing your own articles there are many places where you can obtain articles to place on your site from another author. One such place is http://www.smokesoft.net/Articles.html

Keywords as close to the top of each page as possible

This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase placement. On each page make sure that the first visible text is a keyword, the search engines LOVE this! If you do not have keywords placed as the first visible text on your page, you may want to consider modifying or redesigning it to allow for this. It is well worth the time and effort and you will most likely see almost immediate improvement in your search engine rankings.

Keywords in links to other pages

You should try to insert keywords into your links whenever possible. For instance, if you are targeting the keyword "marketing" on a particular page, create a link to a page on your site and call the page "marketing tactics". The page the link leads to could consist of articles you have written on marketing tips you have discovered. Not only will search engines use the text in a given link to determine what your page is about, but they will also use it in determining the subject of the destination page. If you really want to take it to the next level, try using a keyword filled link as the first visible text on your page. This too will skyrocket your rankings in the search engines.

Keywords in outbound links

This concept is identical to that of linking to other pages except you instead will be linking to another site. For example if I were linking to another affiliate promotion site I would place the keyword "affiliate program" somewhere in the link.This is a must! My advice to you is to save this article and refer to each and every step when you setup a webpage. This is by no means all there is to know about search engines however, if you follow these guidelines you will do extremely well.

Good Luck!

About The Author

Adam Buhler is the owner of Affiliate Programs Directory: http://www.smokesoft.net Adam is the author of the weekly newsletter "Affiliate Secrets". He is offering a free copy of the ebook "Internet Cash Machines" For a limited time to anyone who subscribes at: http://www.smokesoft.net/newsletter.html

smoke@dwave.net

Search engines have become so intimidating lately - most people think that search engines are just out to get them - everyone's becoming afraid... They also think that getting #1 rankings is near impossible.

Yes, if you're trying to trick search engines, THEN - they're out to get you - BIG TIME.

BUT, if you're willing to work with them and help them, then they can seriously be your business's best friend.

Here's how:

Writing Articles for Search Engines
Actually, you're writing articles for TWO people.

1. Search Engines
2. Your Potential Customers

. Why for Search Engines?

Because search engines love content, and it's that very content that let's you invite traffic from search engines.

These articles help you optimize your website for search engine rankings (more on this in a bit).

. Why for Potential Customers?

Because these articles are what your prospects are looking for on search engines - they land on that page, find the information they need and then see your "recommendation" - aka affiliate link and they click, click BUY.

So, your articles eventually lead to sales and commission for you.

So once again, the purpose of articles:

. Provide content/information for:
. Search Engines
. Potential customers
. Promoting traffic to your affiliate program

Optimizing your Articles with Keywords
We don't want to make your head spin here, so we'll try to keep this AS simple as possible.

There are certain places you want to insert your keywords when building an article webpage.

Here they are:

. The title of the page
. The Description META Tag
. The Keyword META Tag
. In your Headline, use HTML Tag < h1 >< /h1 >
. Your first line of text
. Once or twice per paragraph
. Once/Twice in bold
. In the text of a link

Some other tips:

. In your graphics - use keyword in HTML ALT tag
. Use a secondary keyword also - a few times

Some Cautions:

. Don't Overkill - repeating your keyword an obsense number of times will not help you at all - it will hurt you.
. Never hide keywords - never.
. Nothing tricky - if it's tricky, don't do it.
. Don't have a LONG keyword META tag

The above is how most search engines determine how relevant your webpage is to a specific keyword.

This is NOT the only element involved in search engine optimization, however, it's one the most important. The next strategy we're going to discuss is also critical - for Google, especially.

You can learn a lot more about How to Dominate Search Engines and also get Step by Step Instructions to turn that traffic into $300.00, $600.00 or $900.00/month in residual income at DominateSearchEngines.

A Linking Strategy
Alright, now, we're going to discuss the one, quite possibly most important element to ranking well in Google - the # of incoming links.

Google has been giving more and more importance to what they call their "PR" - short for Page Rank. The PR is based on a scale of 1-10 and the higher it is, the more incoming links you have.

The PR is determined by the number of INCOMING and OUTGOING links you have. You should have the maximum number of incoming links.

See, Google's theory is that by having a site link to you, that website is basically "voting" for you - that site is telling Google

"Hey, I like that website, it has good content, I feel comfortable sending MY visitors there, so should you..."

The more sites that tell Google that, the more willing Google is to send it's traffic.

So, bottom line, recruit incoming links.

How?

How did we know you're going to ask that million dollar question?

Our answer is not that "great" -

"Just ask..."

Contact websites in your niche and ask them for a link exchange.

How to find these websites?

• Check the sites linking to your competition on Alexa.com








• Do a search on Google.com for your keyword and contact all the relevant websites.

Send them an e-mail, call them, etc...and let them know what's in it for them - a reciprocal link to help THEM with search engine optimization as well.

NOTE: A linking strategy is VERY important if you want any chance at making it to the Top 10 page on Google and then staying there...

Kusuma Widjaja is President of Yahoo Cyber Technology, CV., based in Surabaya. He has over 2 years experience in Internet Marketing Arena, Custom Web Site Design and Graphic Design Services. For more information go to http://www.whycity.net or you can reach us at +62-8315-838474.

It is worth looking at some values and strengths of a few technical and promotional elements of your website that will help you to lay a foundation in building profitable online success. Once you have decided on your market and have chosen a relevant domain name for your online business, you need simple and effective tools and methods to put and keep your business on a profitable track. Ideally you will want to make use of easy-to-use methods for your business that keeps the visitors coming to your website and deliver results. Lets look at a few practical ideas.

When a visitor comes to your website you have to get their follow-up information by collecting their email address. It is important to 'enable' your web site to automatically deliver quality content to visitors and allow you to follow up with extra information when necessary. Top marketers agree that this forms a large percentage of their online success. How do you do this? You create forms on your web pages, giving visitors the chance to subscribe to your opt-in list, newsletter or report. This allows you to introduce your service and offer something valuable in order to build relationship. Email follow-up through autoresponders is totally free and an absolute necessity for implementing. All you need to do is integrate the autoresponder into your web site via a form so that you can pre-load it with your newsletters. Subscribers can now begin to see you as an expert on the subject and look to you for the solutions that your business is already offering.

Once your newsletter is up and running, you can use these very same tips and ideas you share with your subscribers and also write a weekly article about your product or service, and then submit it to ezines online. This is very easy to do and will have great response for your business. There are tens of thousands of ezine publishers online that needs good content, and will give you valuable exposure for your business. You will have many sites linking to your site and people will be able to read what your business is about and visit your website. Then they will also be able to subscribe to your newsletter which provides even more information about your product or service. Each article has got a resource box at the bottom which allows visitors to visit your web site. Write your 4 to 6 line resource box by viewing some samples online and making up your own. Finding details of ezine publishers can quite easily be done through looking up in search engines.

Let's go a step further and look at newspaper classifieds. By using little snippets of ideas from your newsletters and articles, you can come up with short eye catching promotional messages to use in newspaper classifieds. There are newspaper companies that offer state wide and nation wide advertising in their papers, often covering readership in excess of 2 to 3 million. By placing 10-15 word tiny classified ads all over the globe can dramatically increase your website traffic. A big mistake people make when doing this is to try and make sales directly from their ads instead of just generating leads for later follow-up. You would want to get your leads to your web site first from where they can subscribe to your automated content.

Lastly lets consider the eye opener an affiliate program can have for your business. With the right product or service it is by far the hottest way of building your business and customer base. Submit your program to affiliate directories across the web. You'll have affiliates making sales for you and not paying a cent in advertising until you've made the sale! Your advertising will be covered by your affiliates, and you can concentrate on providing customer service and continue follow-up with your increasing customer base through newsletter delivery and other product offers. By becoming familiar with how important it is to stay relevant in implementing these factors will benefit your business and you will find that you'll be achieving better results.

Peter Jordaan owns a hosting company and shares information regarding values of hosting a successful online business. In his free onsite e-course he covers more relevant information about these qualities. You can visit his site by going to http://wirelessbusinessmedia.com

Having your website rank well in the major search engines is crucial to a successful Internet business. However, the information on doing so, which abounds on the Internet, can be perceived as complex and contradictive. Many website owners end up overwhelmed by all the data and simply quit and move on to other areas of promotion. By following the handful of steps presented in this article you will be well on your way to solid rankings.

Primer

Each webpage is its own unit, which has its own title and theme. A theme is most commonly referred to as keywords or a keyword phrase. The theme should be based on the most dominant data for that webpage. Therefore, if you have a webpage that lists ten types of coffee cups, "coffee cups" would be the likely choice for the theme. However, if the theme is too general then you should work to compact it as there will be far too many results in the search engine to contend with. Perhaps your webpage lists ten types of coffee cups which all have American symbols on them. Two of the various possible themes would then be "American coffee cups" and "patriotic coffee cups".

To determine if a theme might be too broad, search for the theme at a popular search engine and see how many results come up. It is typical to see up to a few million results for any theme. However, one hundred million results would be extremely high and a different theme should be chosen.

Step One:

The title of your webpage means a lot. A website should never have a loose and thoughtless title. The title should be clear, compact, and related directly to the main theme of the webpage. Let us look at three title examples for a webpage that sells different types of red coffee cups.

• Bad Title: Welcome to Joe's!
• Better Title: Joe's red coffee cups.
• Best Title: Red coffee cups.

Notice how we trimmed the title down to simply the main theme. In the bad example, the title does nothing to describe the products offered on the webpage and therefore will end up hurting the search engine rankings for this webpage.

Step Two: Use the H1 tag.

On the top of your webpage put the main theme in a H1 tag. This will help establish what the webpage is about and Google will take the data enclosed in the H1 tag more seriously which helps boost the overall theme in its ranking algorithm. This should be at the very top of the webpage if possible and include only the main theme. Using our title example above, you would insert the following on top of the webpage:

Red coffee cups

Step Three: Utilize the written word properly.

The main keyword phrase (theme) must be printed on your webpage multiple times. It must appear natural in the flow of writing and not just thrown on the webpage somewhere a few times. After massaging your keyword phrase into the copy, bold one instance, underline one instance, and italicize one instance.

Again, basing this example from the one above:

• Bold One Instance: My name is Joe and I sell red coffee cups.
• Italicize One Instance: Our red coffee cups ship directly to your front door.
• Underline One Instance: Order today and receive free shipping on all red coffee cups!

By doing this you will help enforce the theme of the webpage and achieve better search rankings.

Step Four: Establish incoming links.

Before going any further, I recommend you visit google.com and install the Google toolbar. This will allow you to see what is called PR (page rank). Knowing a website's PR is extremely helpful, and basically mandatory, for this step. It is more important to have links today than ever. To rank high in the search engines, you must have people linking to you. Failure to acquire incoming links results in low or non-existing rankings. Here are some techniques to build up incoming links:

• Submit your website to directories. Once listed, directories, such as the ODP (dmoz.org) and business.com, will increase your incoming links. When viewing a directory, check to see if they have PR. The higher the number the better.
• Purchase text links. Many websites today sell text links at varied rates. Purchasing a text link can help you gain traffic and will increase your incoming links. Text links must be purchased or placed only on websites that have either the same or related theme as yours. If your website is all about coffee-a link from a website about oil changes is not going to help you much-and could actually harm your website rankings in the future.
• Link Research. Find out who is linking to top ranked websites under your keyword phrase (theme) and try to get listed on them. The idea here is to not reinvent the wheel, rather do what already works. To find out who is linking to top websites, visit Google and type the following text in the search box: "link:site.com"-where site.com is the website URL.

Step Five: Work to ensure anchor text from incoming links contains your main theme.

When other websites link to you, try to get them to use the keyword phrase for the webpage they are linking to as the anchor text. This is not always possible and that is ok. You simply want to try and get as many links on target as possible. Not all links need to go to your homepage because having incoming links to a webpage within the website is beneficial also.

Conclusion

It is possible, I believe, to go certifiably insane trying to deal with the all the information out there on search engine positioning. Everyday the game changes as search engines alter the way they rank listings. Can you do more to improve your rankings? Yes, but I have listed the more powerful items. Following the above, especially the link steps, will help you build a solid foundation that will withstand the changes-and keep you out of trouble.

Getting listed in the search engines and some directories takes time. Changes and new listings can take weeks to a few months to appear. The best way to get your website in a search engine is to let the search engine find you. Do not waste your valuable time trying to submit to search engines or paying someone to do so. By gaining incoming links, the search engines will find your website and rank it accordingly.

For more information on marketing and all the aspects of running a business on the Internet, please visit Internet Business Entrepreneur-a website I setup to aid those doing business on the Net.

This article is copyright Jason Andrew Martin LLC.

Jason A. Martin has been conducting business on the Internet for 11 years. He is a free-lance writer on many topics and is currently working on obtaining a degree in Journalism and Law. His official blog can be viewed at: Jason A. Martin

If you are like me, you created web site metatags with the help of your Web master. Maybe like me, you didn't spend time or money submitting to search engines because you weren't techie enough.

Now you can optimize your search engine placement these five easy, non-techie ways. My Web site is now # 1 in Google.com and others. If you are in the top ten listings in your category (mine was book coaching) you are in good shape. This placement has put my web site URL on 4700 other sites with a link back to mine. With targeted viral marketing my sales are 30 times what I started with each month--now over $4500.

Here's Five Ways to Get Search Engines to Boost your Ratings:

1. Makeover your signature file that goes out with every email you send. Include your fre.e report or ezine offer, your email, URL, and phone numbers plus a line with your product or service name on it. See more on this in my fre.e article "Top Ten Things to Do to Make your Signature File Sell" at www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article124.shtml.

2. Submit short articles to dozens of opt-in ezines who need content daily. Make a special offer in each signature file that relates to your article. Through a hyperlink, offer a free ezine with a free report by autoresponder. To get started, go to www.yahoogroups.com and subscribe to one of the opt-in ezines (no spam).

3. Rewrite your best list of key words and phrases you used for your Web site. Incorporate them into your excellent, well-edited short articles or tips. For more information go to www.goodkeywords.com or see my special fre.e report "Know Which Key Words Will Bring Targeted Visitors to your Web Site" at www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article-47.shtml

4. Submit to top Web sites looking for new content.. They want and need your information, because that is why people visit any site--for free information. Follow directions for each site. Many want a list of key words and a description. Others require your article by autoresponder. Four years ago, my URL was on 987 other Web sites. Today it's on 4700. Amazing viral marketing!

5. Makeover your Web home page. Place those top key words and phrases in the top half of this page and in the links you list along the bottom or side of your page. Search engines pick up these and you receive a higher placement. For instance, my top key words include: book coaching, eBook, ePublishing, self-publishing, Online promotion, Web copywriting, Free Publicity.

Yes, you can buy key words and put paid ads in Google and Overture, but when I tried that I got almost 0 results and spent a lot of money. The above ways to boost your search engine placement are totally free. It's a building process this viral marketing, but if you are willing to stay a while, you'll get money results as well as becoming well known and trusted for your product or service.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Author of 10 eBooks including "Write your eBook Fast," "How to Market your Business on the Internet," and "Create your Web Site With Marketing Pizzazz," she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, "The Book Coach Says..." and "Business Tip of the Month" at http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml and over 155 free articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com.

There is a lot of competition to get good spots in the search engines. Proper html syntax and a clean code will help toward better positoning.

With website design mostly done with wysiwig editors now, there seems to be a lot of reliance on these tools without realising that they are far less than perfect. Software like frontpage tend to produce a fairly complicated html code and we as users just assume that because it is software generated there won't be any problems with it.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Wysiwig software is very often unable to properly integrate additional code e.g. affiliates links, adsense code, shopping cart codes etc. The more complicated the page, the higher the chance of there being a problem with html.

It is quite surprising how many sites there are out there with html problems. Just run a few competitors pages through the a validator and you will see. Today's browsers are extremely tolerant and will still display a page properly that has all sorts of problems. But it is a different story with robots. They like it simple and easy and will generally take the path of least resistance -- almost human, aren't they ?

So let's say we have two competing sites, both are suitable for the top spot and the search engine has a tough time deciding who to put first. There is a very high chance that the validated site with proper syntax will be the winner. Validation of the html on your site alone will certainly not secure you a high rating, but as with so many other things it will help and might even be the contributing factor to get you across the line.

Also a very important point for webpages using SSI, PHP etc. It is sometimes difficult to validate code offline as there are many small bits that are put together by the server. So you really don't know what you will get in the end. Be sure you validate all of these pages and do it with an online tool. My favorite html validator is validator.org

And a case to the point: I recently installed a datafeed code for an affiliate site. There was one error in the product display, two tr and td tags where the wrong way around. And as each page listed over 20 products the errors of course accumulated...

It will only cost you a bit of your time to validate and maybe a lot of time to fix all the problems, but believe me it's worth it!

Go and validate!

Peter Gautschi is webmaster and owner of http://www.webtoolsbox.com, a site that offers free tools and advice to webmasters. He specializes in helping health sites to reach their full potential.

According to author Frank Peretti, "A fixed point of reference for human beings is always something that is found outside themselves. It has to be something to which we can always come back. If we try to haul our point of reference around with us, we have lost it because it has been moved and we can never refer back to it." He tells a story of being in a dark room with only a chair. As long as the chair stays put, it can be used as a point of reference. If it gets picked up and carried around, it no longer serves that function, because it isn't where it used to be.

In our personal lives, having God as a fixed point of reference means that whenever we need guidance, we can turn to the Bible for advice and know that the advice we get today will not change tomorrow or next week or next month or next year. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is our "fixed point of reference." The rules stay the same; the Ten Commandments have not changed. There are still ten of them and they have not weakened into "suggestions." AND, God still makes the rules.

In the world of internet marketing, the search engines make the rules. Internet marketers spend countless hours and dollars designing their web sites to please the search engine "gods" in order to get a high ranking and bring in traffic which results in sales. The problem with that is the search engines are like the chair that doesn't stay put in the darkened room. The rules keep changing. People who have invested everything to make a web site pleasing to the search engine "gods" suddenly have the rug pulled out from under their feet, and find themselves not only unranked, but in some cases actually banned! Their web sites didn't change. Their marketing strategies didn't change. Through no fault of their own and without any warning, the rules changed, leaving them high and hung out to dry. They then scramble to change their sites, change their strategies, spend megabucks to advertise, do anything to regain the income that was stripped from them. Of course, there is no guarantee that the same won't happen again. And again. And again.

To chase after this kind recognition doesn't make any sense to me. I just cannot see spending all of my time and energy and efforts chasing after an erratically moving target that I may never catch, or that may be jerked away whenever I get close. Either way, I have no control over the outcome. Therefore, the search engines can do whatever they want whenever they want. If this site finds favor in their eyes, great. If not, oh well. I will pursue as many other ethical ways to increase traffic as I can, but will not live and die by search engine ranking. Right now, I am exploring link exchanges and banner exchanges, as well testing the waters by placing occasional inexpensive ads here and there. I will investigate other methods as I become aware of them. I will post what works and what does not work.

One thing I have found that definitely does NOT work is "old" outdated advice. The world of e-books and free-bee give-aways is just clogged with stuff written several years ago. It may have worked then but it doesn't work now. Why do you think they are giving it away? Some times they tell you (in yellow high-lighted capital letters) that it's worth $XXX, but even though people think they are crazy, they will let you have it for $XX.95. That way, they still make money off of it, but you won't. They are counting on you not figuring that out until the money is out of your bank account and safely tucked away in theirs. Save your money. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, and look at the copyright date. Unless it was just a couple of months ago, don't bite. They don't give away the new stuff, and they don't let you have it for cheap, either. That's why and how they make so much money.

Sandi Moses has been involved in internet marketing since November, 2003. Visit her sites at http://www.123iwork4me.com http://www.123-home-based-business-works-4-me.com

Well actually, linking isn't fun at all. In fact, it's quite tedious. Seeking, responding to requests and adding links takes time and effort. But, if you're not actively building links the RIGHT way you are going to be left behind. In other words, your site will be "Lost in Cyberspace". The plain fact is Google, and to a lesser extent, other important search engines, reward sites with links from relevant and important pages.

If you want your site to deliver lots of targeted search engine traffic (and who doesn't?) there are two equally important factors:

1. lots of keyword-rich, search engine friendly content
2. lots of relevant, incoming links from the RIGHT sources

For real success you need to cover BOTH of these strategies. Don't concentrate on one and not the other.

So, how do you go about building your links? It's not rocket science, but as I said, it does take time and effort. From my own experiences, here's what you should do:

1. Download and install the Google Toolbar:
   http://toolbar.google.com/
   This will show you the PageRank of the page you are viewing. PageRank is a measure, rated from 1 to 10, of the "importance" that Google gives to that page. There has been a lot written about PageRank. You don't need to become obsessed with it but it IS an important consideration when determining WHO to link to. A link from a PR-5 page is worth FAR more than a PR-0 page.
   
2. Establish a resource or links directory for your site. This lets potential link partners see that you are willing to exchange links. You should make it clear on your links pages what your linking policy is i.e. under what conditions you will agree to exchange links.
   
3. Your aim should be to build a resource directory that is relevent to your business. Don't try to build a mini Yahoo with umpteen different categories. Keep your directory focussed on your site theme. When you first start out you will be inclined to link to anybody in exchange for a link FROM anybody. This is a mistake. Be patient and choose your link partners carefully.
   
4. Before requesting a link from another site, add that site to your directory. Contact the webmaster and tell them you added their link because you believe their site would be of interest to your visitors (and so it should). Give the url where your link is located and ask for a return link, along with instructions on how you would like your link worded. NEVER demand by saying things like "if you do not link to us we will remove your link". 
   
5. If you have not received a reply after 2 - 3 weeks send a polite follow up. Again, don't demand. No one is under any obligation to link to you. If you do not receive a reply to your second request it means that the webmaster does not want to link to you, or they are simply too busy to respond. In that case, leave it and move on. I receive dozens of link requests a day. Sometimes it takes me many weeks to get around to responding. You'll go mad worrying about links that have not been reciprocated. Your time is better spent.
   
6. When you receive a link request visit the site and check that it meets with your requirements as set down on your link pages. Is it a quality site with good content or just a "link farm"? If it doesn't meet your requirements don't link to it.
   The webmaster SHOULD have already linked to your site but be prepared to overlook that breech of linking protocol if it's from a good quality, high PR site.
   
7. Beware of webmasters who add your site to their "directory" which turns out to nothing but a link farm i.e. has no useful content, just a bunch of links, and asks you to link to an entirely different site, one that HAS good content. These webmasters are playing you for a sucker. The benefit is all theirs.
   
8. As I said in point #1, links from high PR pages are worth more than links from low or no PR pages. Seek out high PR linking partners but keep in mind it is the PR of the actual page your link is on that matters, NOT the PR of the home page. In other words if the home page PR is 5, but the page your link is on is several layers deep in the directory, it will probably have a PR of 0 and be of little benefit to you. Check the PR of the actual page your link is on, or is going to be on, before agreeing to exchange links.
   Each page on your links directory should be no more than one click away from your home page, and your linking partner's site should be the same. If your link is placed on a page which looks something like this - directory/category/subcategory/subcategory with your link - you will derive NO value from that link.
   
9. Be prepared to negotiate your links. Savvy webmasters understand the value of links from high PR pages. If you add a link to a PR-0 page on your site don't expect your link partner to put your link on a PR-6 page, and your link partner shouldn't expect the same from you. Exchange value for like value.
   When you first start out your site may not have any PR due to a lack of incoming links. This reduces your bargaining power. However, you can overcome this by getting your site listed in as many large business directories as possible. Some of these you will have to pay, such as Yahoo and Microsoft's Business Directory, but many others are free. You'll find a good list here:
   http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php
   
10. Be specific about how you want your link partner to link to you. It is MOST important that the link to you contain your targeted keywords in the anchor (linked) text. When I ask for a link to my site I don't want the link title to be:
    Steve Pronger Web Business Solutions
    Instead, I ask for:
    Create Website | Small Business Website Designer
    or whichever keywords I am targeting at the time. A search for those keywords at Google will illustrate my point!
11. And finally, here is an excellent resource to help you find quality link partners. It's called Value Exchange, and will put you in contact with like-minded webmasters:
    http://www.stevepronger.com/value_exchange.htm
    

Steve Pronger is a website designer and affiliate marketer helping small businesses achieve success on the Web. Visit his Web Business Solutions site at http://www.stevepronger.com

If you own or manage a business Website, chances are you are at least somewhat familiar with the concept of search engine optimization (SEO). You may have read any number of books and articles on the subject and possibly given it a try yourself. Or perhaps, after exhaustive research, you decided that your time is better spent in your area of expertise. If that's the case, I have some good news for you. There is such a thing as affordable search engine optimization. In fact, when you know what to look for, it can be a real bargain.

Step One - 3 Simple Questions:

The first step is estimating some target market information. Just ask a few simple questions and write down the answers that you come up with. You'll need this information later:

1. How many people do you think are looking for what you offer?
2. What keywords are they using in search engine searches?
3. Which keywords are the most popular to meet your needs?

Step Two - Verify:

Now that you have your initial estimates, let's validate the information. Visit Overture.com's Advertiser Center and try their Search Term Suggestion Tool located at: http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ac/index.jhtml

Type in any term that you think is close to what your potential visitors are looking for. You will see how many searches were performed, on the Overture search system, for the previous month. TIP - Use a general search term to start with.

Now you have the single most important advantage when dealing with any trained business professional - you are informed!

Step Three - Make it Happen:

Now that you have this great information, you want to see it implemented. This is the best part. I recommend a visit to SEO Partner. SEO Partner (www.SEOPartner.com) really lives up to its slogan "search engine optimization on your terms".

They have assembled an enormous talent pool of SEO developers, who actually compete to work on your project. It does not cost you anything to post your optimization projects. To operate the service, they accept a small commission from the SEO developers (which is only a fraction of what developers would normally spend on marketing efforts alone).

Finally, there's one of my favorite features. SEO Partner protects you from those less scrupulous SEO 'experts' you read about more and more with their protective escrow payment system.

Step Four - Track Your Progress:

Finally, once you have your campaign underway, you really need to track your progress. There are some great tools available for that purpose. Here are links to some of the better products that I have worked with:

www.webposition.com
www.axandra.com
www.searchenginecommando.com

There are a lot of products out there - all at varying costs. I recommend you visit your favorite search engine and look for 'seo tools' and see what you get for a response. Then I would definitely test each one's demo version thoroughly before investing in any one of them. A good tool is worth the investment but there are so many great options out there that it's best to shop around and try before you buy.

I wish you the best of luck in your campaign!

Scott Jason is a search engine optimization project manager with SEOpm.com. With five years in the industry he specializes in assisting small to medium sized companies attain their SEO goals. Feel free to contact Scott, or his associates, at www.SEOpm.com.