Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » search engines http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog Web Hosting Industry News, Latest Trends, and Analyses. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:48:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engineshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2012/01/16/optimize-wordpress-search-engines/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2012/01/16/optimize-wordpress-search-engines/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:14:46 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=4411 We like WordPress for a lot of reasons: It’s easy to use, it manages our content in a way we never could on our own, and it also presents a pretty nice front, what with all those loose themes running around. We’re also tremendous fans of its ability to optimize our sites for search engines with little to no effort on our end. However, just because a few plug-ins can handle most of the load, does not mean we’re taking the most steps possible to fully maximize our Google-spotting potential. In fact, WordPress’ functionality in terms of SEO has only been scratched, if you’re still simply relying on the All In One SEO pack. There are plenty more steps (all of which are extremely simple) you can take to ensure your WordPress-powered website is noticed by such heavyweight search engines as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and DogPile.

Our best suggestion is that you review our methods below, and then work your hardest to integrate them into your daily workflow. It’s much harder to SEO an entire mountain of content once it has been created. It’s much easier, however, to create SEO-content from the get-go. With that fair warning in mind, may we now present our top ways to optimize your WordPress site for search engine notoriety.

1. Tell WordPress to Rearrange Itself

all in one seo pugin

As much as we like WordPress, we have noticed it has one or two nasty habits. The most notable we’ve come across is its tendency to put the name of the website itself in front of the title of the blog post. This is problematic for a number of reasons, but we would simply like to mention right off the bat that there is a quick fix: So, in other words, don’t panic and bring your towel. But why is this such a big deal? Well, for starters – search engines use your titles to determine what the blog post is actually about. Typically, a search engine will only crawl (that means search and record) the first 50 to 64 characters of your title, too. With that in mind, having your blog name in front of your blog post title can cause some problems. You’ll want to reverse this, that way sites like Google get an accurate picture of your newly minted content, rather than a repeat of the blog’s name. A quick way to do this is to swap the title and name sequence within the All In One SEO pack. On another note, if you don’t have this plug-in yet, you should go ahead and snag it, as we’ll be referencing it often.

2. Create Unique and Accurate Meta Tags

meta tags

A case in point, we will again be using All In One SEO with this point, as well. The idea here is that the automatically created meta tags published by WordPress are typically not specific enough to warrant any interest from the larger search engines. Usually, these self-created tags are somewhat generic, and lack any kind of specificity sites like Google desire. With that in mind, the easiest way to correct the problem is to add meta tags yourself. How does one go about this? Well, the easiest method is through that handy plug-in we mentioned earlier. Using the keywords slot, you’re free to add as many meta tags as your heart desires. Just try to be specific, avoiding generic terms like “iPhone,” “Android,” or “Mac.”

3. Stick Around with Permalinks

When WordPress creates a new post, it typically does so with a URL that’s less-than desirable for search engine optimization. This is because, more often than not, WordPress attaches an incomprehensible string of numbers to each and every new piece of content, allowing URL crawlers no added access to what in the heck your post is about. However, this isn’t hard to change, and typically only requires a quick jaunt over to the WordPress admin panel.

Within this panel, look for the settings tab, and then “Permalinks.”

setting permalinks

You’ll see a list of various URL methods, but the only one you want is called “Custom Structure.” Yes, you’re going to have to enter something here, but lucky for you, we’ve already written the appropriate string. Click this box, and then type: /%category%/%postname%

custom structure setting

Now, every time you create a new post, it will be listed in the URL as http://sample.com/your-category/the-proper-post-name. This makes your post infinitely more readable to search engines, and can go a long way toward fully search engine optimizing your content.

4. Make Meaningful Connections

Another fantastic way to optimize your site for search engine use is to link related sites and content pieces within your article.

link existing content

This means that words like “phone” should be linked to other articles about similar models, operating systems, etc. Your goal is to create a map within the blog post that directs the user—and search engines—to other content that’s closely related to your own. With that in mind, blindly adding links with no regard for what they mean will not help you at all. If you’ve written an article about how to cook a turkey, and you link it to an animal rights page, Google won’t get much out of it, and may even scrap your site in its ratings. There’s also a limit on how many links Google is willing to stand. If you attach a URL to every word in the post, most search engines will treat it like spam.

wordpress related posts plugin

A great way to avoid this is to use a “Related Posts” plug-in. There are about a thousand in the WordPress plug-in library, so we won’t offer any specific suggestions. Just know that these create a separate box for these helpful links, alleviating the need to bugger up your viewers’ reading experience with bothersome links. Likewise, there are plenty of plug-ins out there that will automatically generate in-text links, should you decide you’d rather have plenty of those. Typically, they work quite well, but the only way to guarantee your optimization is to add these links yourself.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2012/01/16/optimize-wordpress-search-engines/feed/ 0 Using FreshDrop.net to Find Domain Names That Already Have a High PRhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/06/25/using-freshdrop-net-to-find-domain-names-that-already-have-a-high-pr/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/06/25/using-freshdrop-net-to-find-domain-names-that-already-have-a-high-pr/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:20:55 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=968 Building the Page Rank of your site requires time, dedication and a lot of backlinks. Contrary to popular belief, the Page Rank (PR) is not the position of your site in the search engine as it relates to a particular keyword. It is actually a score from 0 to 10 given to every website that is indexed by Google. The higher your page rank, the more powerful your site is in the eyes of the search engine. A PR of 0 indicates a brand new site with little to no links (or a penalized site), and a PR of 10 indicates the most powerful kind of site in existence. The higher the PR of the site, the easier it is to have the site listed at the top of the search engines, for any keyword that you may target. The problem is, it can take a very long time to build up a solid PR for your website. Fortunately, you can use many sites to find domains that have recently expired, and that still have valid backlinks and PR.

Backlinks in Yahoo and Google

Aside from the age of the domain, there are a number of factors that contribute to the success and authority of your website in the eye’s of the search engines. In fact, there are many domains that are under a a year old that have higher PR than domains that are 7-10 years old. The leading contributor to the authority of a domain is by far the number of backlinks that are indexed by the search engines. There are two columns in the FreshDrop interface that relate to backlinks, the Yahoo column, and the Google column. Since Yahoo backlinks are difficult to accumulate they signify a greater value than Google backlinks.

Bidding on Domains

There are many sites online that let you bid on domain names with ease. These sites are great for finding rare domain names that could greatly increase your chances of having success in your niche, however it is often difficult to get a decent price on the domain name of your chance. Sites like FreshDrop.com are different, in that they purchase domain name as they expire, and then resell them at a fixed price depending on their value, which is established based on a variety of factors such as backlinks, pagerank, domain age, and the domain extension among others. Most of the domains at FreshDrop.com cost only a few more dollars than the original registration fee, and thus are perfect for using with micro blogging and other concentrated niche endeavors.

Using the Search Function

There is also a search function included within the FreshDrop interface that lets you search for domain names based on a wide range of criteria, including but not limited to domain extension, age, keyword, backlinks, PR, and any combination of these choices. Thus, it is simple to narrow down your choices, and you can even save your domain name hunting projects in your account to continuously find good domains in your niche.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/06/25/using-freshdrop-net-to-find-domain-names-that-already-have-a-high-pr/feed/ 0 Search Engine Optimization – The Basics Explainedhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/01/18/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-the-basics-explained/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/01/18/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-the-basics-explained/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:57:13 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=710 As the internet grows exponentially each day, it becomes harder to gain recognition as a small business owner. Having to compete with large corporations that possess seemingly infinite advertising funds is a difficult task to say the least. In fact, it would be literally impossible without a thorough knowledge in search engine optimization. Search engines are responsible for more than 80 percent of the traffic distributed on the internet. If your site does not rank highly in the search engines, then there is simply no way you can become a formidable presence in your niche. There are many secrets to be learned before you can master the art of search engine optimization, however learning the basics will give you the head start needed to compete with experts in the field.

Quality Content

When web surfers search for a phrase in a search engine, they are looking for an answer. The website that best solves this question, according to the search engine, will appear at the top of the search results. A search engine judges the usefulness of a website based on numerous factors. One of the ways search engines judge your site’s usefulness is the amount of time each visitor spends on each page. If your visitors only spend 30 seconds at your site before leaving, then the search engines will view your website’s content as relatively useless. Another way search engine’s judge the usefulness of your site is by calculating the number of links containing your website’s URL that exist on the internet. These links are called backlinks. The more backlinks in existence, the more useful your site appears to be. In order to boost your site’s search engine ranking, you’ll need to provide engaging content updated on a regular basis.

Keyword Optimization

Simply having useful content is not enough. You want your content to be based on keywords that will attract attention for your niche. Try to remember that you are targeting search engine queries, so you’ll want to include key phrases within the content of your website. Before you begin writing or buying content for your site, you’ll want to do some keyword research. Find out what the most popular current search phrases are in your niche. You’ll also want to choose a keyword that is not over-saturated with competition. You can find out all of this information by using keyword research tools provided by Google. You can even find out what the hottest keywords of the day are by using Google Hot Trends. Once you have decided upon your keyword, it is important to use the proper keyword density. Search engines frown upon spam content that is littered with over-used keywords. You want your content to have a keyword density of about 1-3%.  Make sure you place the keyword in the beginning, middle and end of each article on your website. It is also important to include keywords in the design of your website, within title tags, meta tags, and even anchor text.

Getting Indexed

Once you have created your website and filled it with useful content, you’ll need to get the attention of the search engine crawlers. To do this you can submit your sitemap to Google and a few other popular search engines. You can also submit your site to a few popular online directories and social bookmarking sites. As your popularity increases the search engine crawlers will begin to notice your site, and eventually your site will be fully indexed. It is best to have a site that is heavy in basic text, as search engine crawlers index this kind of information more efficiently.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/01/18/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-the-basics-explained/feed/ 1 Locate the Perfect SEO Experthttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/11/19/locate-the-perfect-seo-expert/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/11/19/locate-the-perfect-seo-expert/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:42:30 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=627 Having a fantastic web site available on the web will do nothing for one’s business if no one can find it.  Once built, an essential part of having a web site is optimizing it so that search engines can easily locate it.  This requires a bit of expertise with regard to keywords and phrases, good content copy that reflects the chosen keywords and even knowing which page URLs will work or not with search engine spidering.

Don’t do it yourself

Instead of attempting to do this on one’s own, it is prudent and recommended to seek out and hire an SEO consultant.  A professional SEO consultant will be able to determine which services are needed to make one’s business web site optimized for search engines and how to incorporate SEO marketing.

There are dozens of specific tasks and elements that go into good SEO and going the “do-it-yourself” route may end with one’s web site not showing at all in the major search engines.

Check their previous work

The first thing to ask for when looking for the perfect SEO expert is previous examples of SEO content as well as web sites they have helped optimize in the past.  Check the rankings of these web sites with the major search engines – Google and Yahoo are perfect examples – and use the Alexa web site to view overall rankings.  Alexa is a free web traffic metric analyzer that will give one a good overview of how well a web site or company is doing over time.

A good showing with increased rankings over time is an indication of how effective an SEO consultant can be.  Rankings that are dropping or maintaining an unchanged level would indicate locating another SEO expert would be in order.

Look at rates

Check the rates of the SEO consultants one is considering.  Very low rates can mean the person in question is just starting out and is trying to build up their portfolio.  Very high rates but with a less than stellar portfolio can also indicate a novice in the SEO field or one that isn’t terribly good at what they do.

Alternatively, as the world economy has taken a beating lately, many professionals have dropped their rates accordingly.  This is an important factor to keep in mind when researching rates.  Check to see if the SEO professional in question has recently dropped their hourly or project rates – one may get a bargain out of this.

Cheaper isn’t better

Don’t attempt to take the cheapest route.  While initially it may seem like a good idea and cost effective, a low rate SEO consultant can mean poor work produced for one’s business web site.  This, in turn, will mean ineffective search engine optimization, low rankings (if at all) within the major search engines and pretty much a loss of money overall.

Careful research should be done when looking to hire an SEO consultant.  Look at their previous results, experience and rates.  Remember that great search engine optimization can mean more customers and hiring a professional to do it correctly can only bring about a return on one’s investment.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/11/19/locate-the-perfect-seo-expert/feed/ 0 Search Engine Optimization – XML Site Mapshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/10/08/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-xml-site-maps/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/10/08/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-xml-site-maps/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:26:15 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=560 In the never ending battle of increasing traffic to web sites, one of the more crucial elements needed to ensure success is the site map.  Exactly what is an XML site map?  How does one create an XML site map?  Answering these questions will enable us to create an XLM site map that search engines will be able to index properly.

What is a site map?

A site map is the listing of all the pages held within a web site.  It is created with the intent of easily informing search engines about pages that are on a web site and available for crawling or indexing.  The listing starts at the home or base page and then branches out accordingly.  This listing can be done in several different formats – XML, text file or a syndication feed (RSS).  One or all formats can be chosen but in order to be effective, the site map(s) created must be in a format that allows search engine spiders to properly index all the listed pages.  As XML is a standard by  most search engines, XML is the best formatting choice.

A bit about protocol

To be truly effective, an XML site map should follow the standard site map protocol.  It must begin with the opening tag <urlset> and end with the closing tag </urlset>.  Within the <urlset> tag the proper namespace should be declared – in most cases this would be “http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″.  The numbering at the end of this url indicates the latest site map schema version as indicated by the sitemaps.org site (the official site for site map protocols and more).  Within the <urlset> beginning and closing tags, each page within the web site is listed.  This listing begins with the <url> tag and ends with the </url> closing tag.  The <url> set then contains all the vital information regarding the specific page.  This includes the actual url, the last date the page was modified, how often the page changes and a priority numbering.  At a minimum, each <url> set must contain the url of the page or <loc>.  The remaining information is optional.  More information on protocols and the proper creation of a site map can be viewed at http://www.sitemaps.org.

How to create one

The creation of a site map is quite easy.  If your web site is only a few pages, you can create an XML site map manually.  However, if your web site is rather extended, the best option would be to use one of many different programs available on the web.

There are many programs you can download and use on your computer to create your site map.  Alternatively you can use an online site map creator.  One such online option is available at XML-Sitemaps.  This site offers a straightforward four step operation – you type in your base url, select how often your site is changed, indicate the last modification date, select the priority number and click start.  Once your site maps is created, you simply download it to your main site folder.  This site creates XML site maps that work perfectly with Google and will enable you to use the Google webmaster tools to enhance your SEO efforts further.  One thing to keep in mind with XML-Sitemaps is the online version will only index up to 500 pages.  If your site is much larger than this, you would be better off downloading a piece of software that will index larger sites.

Conclusion

Creating an XML site map for your site is just one step in the SEO process.  It is simple to do either manually or with some online help.  A properly created XML site map will ensure your site is thoroughly indexed by search engines and will contribute to your SEO efforts.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/10/08/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-xml-site-maps/feed/ 0 Leveraging the Press Release as an SEO Toolhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/30/leveraging-the-press-release-as-an-seo-tool/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/30/leveraging-the-press-release-as-an-seo-tool/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:56:27 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=548 A large number of webmasters and site promoters neglect to implement press releases into their SEO campaigns.  This is primarily because most associate them with some sort of news related publishing piece.  While that holds true from a traditional aspect, press releases are quiet effective in print media and the world of online marketing as well.  If you have not considered using them to promote your website, this article will give you all the reason to leverage the old press release for SEO purposes.

Generating Traffic with Press Releases

Press releases are not limited to introducing a new product or service.  However, link popularity and all the most popular keywords on the web will not aid your efforts if traffic is not coming to your site.  With a good press release, you can reel in traffic from the following sources:

Direct Traffic – In the ideal environment, your published press release will be syndicated across a network of related sites.  If you are able to snag readers with an intriguing headline, people will check out the piece and follow up by paying your site a visit.

Subscribers - By signing up with a reputable press release service, you can have your publication submitted to leading news wire sites like, EIN News, Google News, Topix and several more.  These sites maintain an existing database of subscribers so when publishing a press release, they will be able to view your piece in their news readers.  If they like what you have to say, they will visit your site to find out what else you have to offer.  This is certainly an avenue you want to consider because these sites combine to offer the potential of millions of visitors every month.

Search Engines – The most valuable traffic source that can be obtained is generated directly from the search engines.  This could turn out to be a long term source because your press release will remain online for as long as your site is up and running.  Should the traffic from the news wire sites start to diminish, you can always rely on the search engines for that consistent stream needed to keep up your exposure.

Organic Search Engine Rankings - Since publishing a press release is merely another aspect of SEO, your search engine rankings will naturally improve, thus resulting in more organic traffic.  When following this up with quality backlinks, you can boost your traffic numbers considerably very fast.

Tips for Press Release Writing

If you want to write a press release to improve your SEO efforts, keep the following tips in mind:

- Right your press release in the third person.

- Compose an intriguing headline to entice readers.

- Emphasis facts and benefits; avoid fluff.

- Make sure your press release is not too short or too long.  500 or so words should do the trick.

- Remember to insert your primary keywords into the press release.  Do not go overboard with keywords as you want your piece to flow as naturally as possible.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/30/leveraging-the-press-release-as-an-seo-tool/feed/ 1 Textpattern: The Text-Friendly CMShttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/03/textpattern-the-text-friendly-cms/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/03/textpattern-the-text-friendly-cms/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:38:12 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=505 In World Wide Web years, TextPattern is a mature CMS that has been around in alpha and beta versions since 2001 and finally distributed under the GNU GPL in 2004.  The product has been dramatically improved over the years and the most notable enhancements yet can be seen in the latest version release, TextPattern 4.20.  If you need an easier and more efficient way to manage your content, the features of this open-source CMS tool may be of interest.

Word Processing-Like Environment

One of Textpattern’s key features is Textile, an intuitive syntax that allows you to easily convert plaintext into well structured rich web content.  Often nagging elements such as hyperlinks, tables and image tags can be created with one or two markers, making it closer to working with ordinary text as opposed to complex code.  When you are ready to publish your content, Textile takes all marked copy and automatically converts it to clean, valid XHTML.  In addition, all articles you compose in Textpattern can be viewed in plaintext, XHTML or a rendered preview.

Versatile CSS Editing

Textpattern offers full support for CSS, offering two modes that allow you to customize and enhance the presentation of your site in different ways.  Manual CSS mode lets you to create or edit any CSS data directly from the administrative interface.  This enables you to quickly edit styles without dealing with the hassle that often results from uploading via FTP.  You can create your style sheets from scratch or by using one of many compatible WYSIWYG editors.  Automatic CSS mode is an advanced feature that utilizes an organized interface to make CSS parameters more comprehensive and manageable.  CSS can really enhance the performance of a website and Textpattern allows you to harness all the power of this optimal design technology.

Link Friendly

There are quite a few CMS tools that offer power and ease of use, but lack the features needed to easily increase visibility via the search engines.  This isn’t the case with TextPattern as the software excels in SEO-friendly pages and link management.  You can store an unlimited number of links in an unlimited number of categories anywhere you want on your site.  It also makes it simple to add news links through the built-in editor or a Javascript book marklet, which displays a popup window to use where ever you may be on the web.

Add-on Functionality

Although Textpattern is not supported by nearly as many plugins as open-source products like Joomla and Drupal, the platform is very extensible.  All available add-on components can be installed and maintained in a straightforward manner.  Once you have incorporated them, they can be easily enabled or disabled through the administrative interface where you can also access help and parameters used by supported plugins.

Conclusion

Textpattern is an open-source CMS product that is free to download and use.  The software requires PHP 4.3 or higher, MySQL 3.23 or higher and the Apache web server.  Its developer also strongly recommends the use of a Unix operating system, although it states that the software will “probably” work on any platform that supports PHP.  Being a free and user-friendly tool, you may want to check your system requirements and give Textpattern a test drive to see if it meets your needs before giving up your preferred CMS.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/03/textpattern-the-text-friendly-cms/feed/ 1 Database-Driven Sites with FrontPagehttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/08/03/database-driven-sites-with-frontpage/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/08/03/database-driven-sites-with-frontpage/#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:59:20 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=451 Many website owners are faced with the challenge of keeping their sites fresh with updated content.  Maintaining a frequently updated site is critical these days as it keeps your visitors intrigued and also appeals to the search engines.  This means that you are likely to rank higher and therefore, generate more quality traffic.  An easy and efficient way to overcome this challenge is to create a database-driven website.

Databases and Website Content

Database-driven sites are powerful because they offer the ability to easily generate fresh, updated content.  For most developers, this is enabled by the combination of PHP and MySQL.  Unfortunately, these technologies can be very complex and will definitely take some time learning.  Thankfully, a FrontPage web hosting solution can empower you to create a database-driven and use it with virtually any database, including MS SQL, Access, Oracle or the open-source MySQL.

Making a Database Connection with FrontPage

To make a database full of information that will be displayed on the website you created with FrontPage, all you have to do is connect it to the data you want it to show.  A database connection is merely a function that allows your page to connect with a database via server-side scripting.  While this could be performed with PHP and MySQL, doing it with FrontPage is much easier.  This is because FrontPage lets you create a template that will modify the content by communicating with the database and automatically creating a new page without any additional coding.

Before getting to the template, the first thing you need to do is manually create a database in an application such as Microsoft SQL Server, Access, Excel or Oracle.  The database may contain customer messages or just about any other content you want inserted on the pages of your website.  After creating the database, set up the template where you want the information to be displayed.   The advantage of having a template in FrontPage is that it gives you the ability to change the content of your page by importing new content from a database without needing to re-code the page itself.  As long as you connect the page to the new content in the database, it will be generated on the server-side whenever your visitors view the page.

To import content, simply choose “File” from the “Tool” bar and open the “Import” menu.  After browsing for the file you want to import, select “Yes” when asked if you to create a connection for it.  That’s basically it.  FrontPage offers a great way to make sure your pages are frequently updated and appealing to your visitors with fresh content.

Summary

You will have to do a little more to truly customize your database-driven site, but FrontPage hosting is so user-friendly, that nearly every task you want to perform is simplified through a wizard or tutorial that goes along with it.  Because FrontPage is such a forgiving tool, even if you do make mistakes, detecting and correcting the problem will be a piece of cake.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/08/03/database-driven-sites-with-frontpage/feed/ 1 Avoid These Five SEO Mistakeshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/07/24/avoid-these-five-seo-mistakes/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/07/24/avoid-these-five-seo-mistakes/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:05:41 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=439 Though it is often described as one big process, good search engine optimization involves a number of different steps.  The intricacies of these steps is what leads many website owners to hire professional SEO firms that claim to have the magic formula.  Going at it alone could seem very unrewarding even after months of hard work.  When you are not seeing results from your efforts, it usually means that there is a flaw somewhere in the optimization process.  If you truly want to get the most out of search engine optimization, the following mistakes must be avoided at all costs.

Cloaking

The term cloaking refers to having one page designed to attract search engines and others specifically made for your visitors.  While this may seem like a viable strategy, cloaking should be avoided if you want to remain on favorable terms with the search engines.  It might have worked a few years ago, but today’s search engine’s are sophisticated enough to detect this and other unethical forms of SEO.

SEO Guarantees

The web waters are infested with companies looking to bank off the prevalence of SEO.  These firms often guarantee services that will put you on the first page of Google in the number one spot.  What you should know is that no company can guarantee such rankings.  The fact that most of the top ranked sites report to having no dealings with SEO firms should be enough for you not to rely on outlandish claims.

Multiple Search Engine Submissions

Contrary to popular belief, submitting your website to search engines regularly can be a mistake.  There are some companies that offer services utilizing special software that will automatically submit your site on a regular basis.  Don’t buy into this as it can actually get you penalized and hinder your efforts.

Too Flashy

If at all possible, Flash is a technology you want to do without.  Though nice from a visual aspect, Flash can leave your site heavy and difficult to process, making it nearly impossible for search engine spiders to interpret.  The best technologies are integrated with HTML as this the language embraced by all search engines.

Moving Too Fast

Good SEO takes equally good patience.  This is an ongoing process, not something you can do just once and put to the side.  Reaching a top search engine position in two days or even two weeks is virtually impossible.  So, even though an SEO firm may claim to get you there in a short amount of time, stay away from the these bogus claims and keep your money.  Take your time and if the right methods are being employed, you will be rewarded with the search engine notoriety you seek.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/07/24/avoid-these-five-seo-mistakes/feed/ 0 SEO and Your Website Designhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/04/20/seo-and-your-website-design/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/04/20/seo-and-your-website-design/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:49:22 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=295 There are many elements that go into SEO.  Keyword implementation comes to mind along with quality inbound links.  One of the most essential components of all is your actual website.  When preparing to embark on an SEO mission, the first thing you need to ensure is that your site has a user-friendly feel.  This basically means that your pages are navigable, links visible and set up correctly.  It also helps if your site is built with complete, intriguing, quality content.  If the navigation of your site is sloppy with misspelled words and improper grammar, your SEO efforts will likely be less than effective.

When designing your site with SEO in mind, it is important to provide usability for your visitors and accessibility for the search engines.  A proper design will ensure that visitors can get around with ease and do not run into pages that take too long to load.  You should also know that Flash and errors in HTML code could possibly prevent from search engine robots from properly crawling and indexing your site.  A good site structure is one that caters to both your visitors and the search engines.  As a website owner, achieving a site optimized for the search engines could be a challenge, especially if you lack design skills.  When this is the case, you may need to rely on third-party professionals.

Expertise is Key

Because these elements are so important, several companies have emerged to offer their services.  Some even employ both SEO experts and web designers, allowing you to kill two birds with one stones by having someone make sure your site is optimized, and another to ensure that its easy to navigate and use.  The key is to do your research and take a little time evaluating different firms.   The best company is one that responds to your inquiries in a timely manner with satisfactory answers.  Rather than making claims about how fast or where they can ensure your rankings, they are honest and confident that their expertise will deliver results.  In short, you want a reputable firm that has proven the ability to create designs that meet W3C compliance and posses an understanding of the latest web trends as they relate to SEO.

No Guarantees

Even when turning to a professional web designer, one should never automatically assume that shelling out cash will guarantee you a top spot on Google.  The internet has opened up numerous opportunities and because of this, the web is a very competitive arena. Chances are, there are thousands of entrepreneurs who share your ambition for succeeding online.  They could even be targeting the same market as yourself.  You can spend a pretty penny on web design but without optimized content and a good marketing strategy, your beautiful website will get buried in Cyberspace.

Expectations will constantly be higher as the web continues to evolve.  Your visitors expect more feature-rich content while search engines increasingly prefer fast loading sites.  For this reason, the proper coding and effective optimization of your site are crucial.  If you don’t get it right the first time, you could find yourself paying even more to get the right design.

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