web hosting

Yahoo Maintains its Competitive Spirit

Last month, Microsoft and Yahoo finally struck a deal that will make these two internet super-powers a worthy competitor to Google.  However, it isn’t necessarily what Microsoft had hoped for.  Rather than a merger, the two have agreed to combine their search and advertising expertise to generate revenue through their respective search engines.  Despite the news, an announcement made in a Monday press conference proves that Yahoo is gearing up to do battle with its old rival Google, as well as its future partner, Microsoft.

While Microsoft’s Bing will power the search efforts for both companies, Yahoo will work independently on its search engine user interface.  According to internal sources, it plans to make this interface more efficient than the offerings of both Google and Microsoft.

Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President of Yahoo Labs and Search Strategy, said that the company is collaborating with Microsoft on the back-end, but will continue to complete on the front-end.  He noted that crawling and indexing are currently of less importance than enhancing the web experience via the user interface.  Raghavan and his colleagues emphasized that the company does not intend to abandon the field of search innovation entirely, making it clear that the Yahoo search engine will continue independent of Bing.

In late July, Microsoft and Yahoo agreed to a much anticipated partnership that will enable Microsoft Bing to power the Yahoo search site.  Per the agreement, Microsoft will maintain the pay-per-click search advertising models while Google will sell advertising services of both companies to premium subscribers.  Barring clearing from the United States Department of Justice, the agreement will equate to a 10-year partnership.  Executives for both companies have stated that the implementation process could take as long as two years to complete.  In the meantime, Yahoo is gauging the response of a new search results page.  The new page is randomly available to worldwide internet users, offering features that allow them to filter queries to more efficiently refine search results.  The company is also in the process of creating a more intelligent engine that automatically learns from previous searches and makes the according adjustments for the benefit of the user.

In addition the above enhancements, Yahoo is looking to feature more tools such as Search Assist, that allow users to refine their queries on the fly, as well as Search Pad, which helps users organize the information they find within search results.  It also desires to let its users perform more tasks within the search engine interface by incorporating more information into results.  One idea involves delivering this information through popular customer review sites like Yelp.

According to Larry Cornett, President of Yahoo Search Products and Design, all of these efforts and more are designed to create a Yahoo search engine that is more personally relevant than what has been seen in other search engines thus far.  More importantly, it shows that Yahoo is still moving forward independently in light of the likely future partnership with Microsoft.

Google Launches Homepage Enhancements

Search engine giant Google, recently launched a new set of tools and gadgets designed to help all iGoogle users in the United States leverage the OpenSocial API platform for social network applications.  Not only will these enhancements change how users interact in social networking environments, but on their homepage as well.   According to Google, these tools will enhance the way users communicate, play games and share content right from their iGoogle page.

Some of the most notable social enhancements in the Google launch include:

Content Sharing - Google has enhanced content sharing in a number of ways, including the implementation of an NPR (National Public Radio) gadget that allows users to browse the latest news headlines and share stories with friends.  Also available is a Flixster gadget that allows users to rate, review and browse films, along with a CoGomics tool that permits users to share comics and cartoon strips with friends.

Games – With gadgets such as Scrabble and Chess, users can play some of their favorite games with friends or other internet users.  Another fun tool is a New York Times crossword gadget that allows user to complete any given weekly puzzle with the aid of friends.

Communication Tools - iGoogle users can now share tasks and lists with friends by utilizing the To-do gadget.  This tool makes it simple to add and remove items, check items when done, prioritize lists and modify item descriptions.  Also on the menu is the Social Photos gadget, which allows users to upload and share photo galleries from Picasa and Flickr as well as browse the albums and top photos of friends.

In conjunction with the launch of new gadgets, Google also released two new features for iGoogle: Friends Group and Updates.  The Friends Group feature allows users to create a list of friends from their Google contacts.  It also enables them to interact and share social tools with friends.  The Updates feature  provides users with the ability to check the status of friends by sharing social tools, photos and more on their iGoogle page.  These features are entirely optional and can be disabled by any user who does not want to use them.  Furthermore, not all these tools are social-enabled.  The ones that are can be identified by a special icon.

Google’s overall goal is to quickly connect iGoogle users with the information that is the most essential and useful to them in a simple and customizable manner.  The new social gadgets and tools are only the beginning as Google plans to continuously offer a greater range of options that enables user to create feature-rich, personalized homepages.  These benefits are not strictly limited to end-users as developers can leverage iGoogle’s fast-growing community of users to promote their applications.  Even more, they can earn revenue from their creations by using iGoogle as and advertising.  .

Google continues its mission of innovation with a personalized iGoogle homepage that lets the user customize their web browsing experiencing.  With the addition of new tools and gadgets, users now have convenient access to movie schedules, popular games, weather information and the latest news right from their homepage.

Four things to Consider When Hiring an SEO Firm

Hiring an SEO firm is a move that cannot only improve the optimization of your site, but also help you save time and increase your bottom line over the long haul.  However, this is a large decision and one that deserves careful consideration on your part.  Choosing the wrong company could damage your reputation and ultimately hinder the success of your business.  While some of these experts companies can provide valuable services, others have blemished the market with unethical practices, utilizing overly aggressive marketing tactics to manipulate the SERPs (search engine result pages) in ways looked down upon by search engines.  These practices tend to violate guidelines and could result in a penalty that lowers your sites’s ranking or complete removal from the search engine index.  There are many pitfalls that must be avoided, thus this article will let you know what to look for when choosing an SEO firm.

1.) Know the Facts

It is very common for SEO firms to make the claims of being able to deliver guaranteed rankings.  They often allege special relationships with major search engines or boast the ability to guarantee high rankings with priority site submissions.  These are the type of companies you want to avoid at all costs.  There is no such thing as guaranteed rankings or priority submissions.  If a particular company is offering something that seems too good to be true, it probably is.

2.) Get the Facts

Should the SEO firm throw something your way that you don’t completely understand, never hesitate to ask for comprehensive explanations to clear things up.  This is very important because if the company creates misleading or deceptive content for your site, you could be removed from the search engine index entirely.  Although you want a company that operates with honor, in the end, you are held liable for the actions of the firm you hire for SEO.  By gathering all the facts, you can determine if their services will aid in your cause, or end up doing you more harm than good.

3.) Be Cautious of Linking

We recommend steering clear of any firm that tries to persuade you with free-for-all links, link farms or other schemes to achieve link popularity.  You should also think twice about any company that wants to submit your site to thousands of search engines.  In most cases, these practices have no positive bearing on search engine rankings.  If anything, they will end up impacting your rankings in a negative way.

4.) Know What You’re Paying For

There are a number of search engines that combine PPC (pay per click) results with the standard search results.  This is where you really need to be cautious of SEO firms because some will guarantee you a ranking, but have you placed in the advertised section opposed to the regular search results.  To avoid this trick and others like it, be sure to ask the company where your money is going and if any of it will be applied to rankings that show up temporarily on the advertising side of the page.

Three Essential Elements of SEO

You can explain the concept in a number of technical ways but SEO primarily involves optimizing one’s site to be search engine friendly.  Search engines are responsible for most of the traffic on the web and can play a major role in increasing the number of visitors that come to your site.  Because these visitors usually come in with a general interest, webmasters all over the world are looking for ways to increase their visibility.  There are many aspects that go into SEO but these three simple elements are among the most essential.

Keywords and Phrases

The most basic and effective SEO technique of all is the use of keywords and key phrases. Keywords simply refer to the terms users commonly enter into a search engine.  Search engine robots or spiders are trained to crawl the web and find these terms.  Once these words are found, the corresponding web page is indexed by the spider and then listed in a search engine.  For the most part, key phrases are like keywords but simply have more words bundled together.  Key phrases may be presented in the form of a question or other formats commonly associated with a particular niche.  When used properly, both can be the determining factor in the success of your SEO campaign.

Page Titles

If you take a look in the top of left corner of your browser, you will find text detailing the site you’re on and perhaps a brief description of what the page is about.  This is the title of a web page, often overlooked but oh so important.  Some webmasters don’t realize it, however, the title is one of the first elements a search engine spider will detect when landing on your site.  Because of this, you want to make sure your web pages have relative, keyword-rich titles.  When incorporating keywords into your titles, it is important to make sure you keep them relative and to a minimum.  Search engine spiders are designed to ignore sites that contain keyword stuffed pages.  This is why you want to be very careful not to overuse them.

Keyword Density

Because keyword stuffing is often looked down upon by the search engines, one must be cautious of going overboard.  In fact, overusing them can actually be more damaging than using none at all when it comes to getting rankings.  Keyword density is a way to make sure this doesn’t happen.  This technique basically refers to the number of keywords divided by the number of words on a web page.  On a page consisting of 500 words, experts suggest that anything over 5% is considered keyword stuffing while anything less is considered to make less of an impact.  For this reason, you want to find out what is appropriate density for the number of words on your pages.

Conclusion

Every step helps in the race to claim search engine fame.  If you think about it however, the top spots are limited and depending on the competition in your niche, earning high rankings might be next to impossible.   The good thing is that the rankings change frequently so if you stay at it, you could find yourself on the front page of Google at one time or another.

The Importance of SEM

There are many ways to go about promoting your site and SEM is one of the most effective.  Search engine marketing or SEM, refers to the marketing of a website to improve its ranking in the search engines.  It also describes purchasing paid listings among other search engine related activities.  When embarking upon an SEM campaign, it is important to first understand the benefits of optimization and then employ techniques that will bring prospects to your site.  Just as when getting browsers to enter your store in the real world, the goal is the same here – convert those visitors into customers.

Why SEM?

Today’s internet and World Wide Web see more consumers turning to search engines for the products and services and they seek.  If you are out to establish a strong base of customers and strengthen your bottom line, making friends with the search engines is the way to go.  SEM is a proven technique and has worked wonders for business owners looking to increase their online visibility via the SERPs.  This method involves a combination of various techniques and when used effectively, the consumers who are after your products or services will find you much easier.

A recent study shows that nearly 90% of all website traffic is generated from major search engines such as Google and Yahoo.  This is the very reason why almost every online business owner is currently so engulfed with optimization and marketing their sites for search engine traffic.  As we mentioned before, SEM covers a broad category of techniques and the most important of all is optimization.

Below we have provided details on two of the most commonly used methods of SEM.

SEO

More commonly known as SEO, search engine optimization describes the act of creating web pages that appeal to the search engines.  It generally involves building link popularity and most importantly, implementing relative keywords potential visitors are most likely to type into a search engine.  These keywords are to be inserted into the body of the web page as well as title tags and meta tags.  SEO can be so effective that other SEM techniques might not even be necessary.  Although every method is not required for a successful SEM campaign, SEO is one you can’t do without it.

PPC

Because achieving high rankings in a search engine is no easy task, some rely on Pay Per Click campaigns for high profile placements.  This is the type of model where you pay a predetermined fee when a user either clicks or visits an advertisement.  PPC is an SEM technique that focuses on targeted audiences and particularly, generating sales.

The key to SEO and SEM in general, is knowing how web surfers go about searching for products and services they are interested in.  Keep in mind that they rarely use industry jargon so you have to think like your audience in order to attract them.  This is why SEO experts stress the importance of keyword research.  Whether its genuine SEO, PPC or other methods, keywords are the basis of successful SEM.