Small Business Web sites and Hosting

Marlar Technologies
Carrollton, TX
214-682-3011

Marlar Technologies

Web development • Hosting • Consulting • Graphics

Web designs Specialist

We provide quality services to small businesses at completive prices and offer a complete line of products to help your web presents grow. Specailizing in getting your business on the net at prices you can afford. We can provide a one-page site to redeveloping your existing site, custom databases, and e-commerce pacakges avaiable.

Providing web services, development, hosting, optimization, marketing plans for small businesses. We can help put on the web and offer several packages to start your business on the web. Small business needs big experience to help them get started call us today for more information visit our website for more information.

214-682-3011

Web Develpoment

Improve your Search Engine Ranking

If you are an internet marketing novice, you are probably facing the seemingly impossible and somewhat daunting task of trying to get your site listed on the first page of the search engines. You probably have no idea how to improve your ranking. For the purposes of this discussion, we will outline the procedures you should follow to climb steadily to the top of the search engines, while still making sure that you attract qualified traffic that will actually be receptive to the products or services that your website offers.

The first thing you need to understand is that your search engine ranking will not improve overnight. There are quite a few charlatans in cyberspace who work as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) consultants. They will charge you an arm and a leg for their services, sometimes as much as $2,000 per month or more. They often make dubious claims that they can get you ranked on the first page of the search engines within a few months, and if not, they will kindly refund your money.

However, there is a catch. Once you pay the initial deposit and the SEO company begins working on your website, they will often optimize your website in such a manner so that you will be able to quickly rise to the top of the rankings for a keyword that is either not significant or will not attract any real traffic to your website.

For example, if your website provides auto insurance quotes, any SEO consultant knows that it will be impossible to expediently get your website ranked on the first page of Google for a highly competitive phrase such as AUTO INSURANCE QUOTES. So, instead, they will pick a variation of that phrase, such as AUTO INSURANCE QUOTES FAST, for which there is no competition, and you will quickly rise to the top. The only problem is no one will ever actually use that precise phrase when searching for auto insurance quotes, so even though the SEO company delivered on its promise to improve your ranking, you will still not get any visitors to your website because you will be ranked high for a keyword that no one will ever use when searching for auto insurance quotes.

So, you need to use a different approach if you want to not only improve your ranking, but also attract qualified traffic to your website. The first thing you need to do is optimize your website for the keywords or phrases that people actually use when searching for products or services related to what you offer. For example, if you sell vitamins, you would want to improve your ranking for the phrases BUY VITAMINS or BUY VITAMINS ONLINE. To optimize your website for your chosen keywords, you should either hire a web designer that has experience optimizing websites, or you should purchase search engine optimization software that will show you how to tweak your website and how to change your HTML code so that your site is properly optimized. You should also try to have a decent amount of free content on your website that relates to the keywords or phrases for which you want to be ranked higher.

The next step is to submit your site to the search engines, if you have not already done so. It seems silly to mention this considering that we are talking about search engines anyway, but some people actually forget to submit their website to the engines, or only submit their site to a couple of search engines and then quit. There are hundreds of legitimate search engines and directories in cyberspace, and you should submit to all them. I recommend that you look for search engine submission companies on Google and pick one that charges a small monthly fee to submit your site to the search engines once per month.

The last step, and probably the most important component of getting ranked higher on the search engines, is increasing your link popularity. The more websites that are linking to your site, the higher your ranking will be. To increase your link popularity, you will need to submit your website to link exchange directories so that you can swap links with other websites (they will link to you if you agree to link to them). Also, you can write articles and submit them to article submission directories. At the bottom of each article you write, you are allowed to include a link to your website. As the articles you write are put into circulation and are published on other websites, your link popularity will increase.

If you employ each of the strategies outlined in this article, you should be able to improve your search engine ranking while at the same time garnering the kind of traffic that you want. No website can improve its ranking overnight, but if you are persistent, your efforts will be rewarded in the long run.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make free HTML forms.

Google Puts Domains Up For Sale

Not its domain names, of course, but ones that people may want to register while signing up for Google Apps for Your Domain services. It could be an indication of Google's future intentions for the Apps services too.

Editor's Note: Google has teamed up with eNom and GoDaddy to offer up different domains for $10 per year. The cool part is that Google Apps for Your Domain service allows registrants to set up free email, IM, and calandar services with company logos. Would you let Google be your registrar? Discuss at WebProWorld.

Come for the applications, stay for the domain. That's Google's approach to enhancing the Google Apps for Your Domain service. The company has partnered with a pair of registration services, eNom and GoDaddy, to offer different domains for $10 per year.

Google engineer Costin Manolache also noted the offer includes private registration. This keeps personal information out of view of whois lookups. Google Apps for Your Domain offers five services that can be private-labeled by the organization. It's a quick and currently free way to offer members of an organization email, IM, and calendar services branded with the organization's name and logo.

Find Your Premium Domain Now! Click Here

A Google feature change article wouldn't be complete without a comparison to Microsoft. The competition between the two has been a wonder to watch, as Google poses a challenge to Microsoft that few technology companies ever have.

Microsoft offers a free domain registration as part of its Office Live service. There are three tiers of service, and they focus on establishing a website and email for the domain; higher tiers provide the Office Live Business Contact Manager service.

But Microsoft tucks in something else with all three tiers. They provide a free copy of the Office Live adManager beta tool, which is used for managing adCenter campaigns.

Google has kept its focus on effective communications over a variety of options. They have noted ever since the launch of the Apps service that a premium version will become available in the future.

Maybe that version will roll out an e-commerce edition of Apps. Google has Base for storing product information, Checkout for processing payments, and of course AdWords, their revenue generator, to promote a website and its products.

Google also has a partnership with Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks accounting software, in play. This placed management of AdWords, item posting to Base, and an option to get listed in Google Maps, in most of Intuit's 2007 product line.

The pieces are mostly there to make Apps a gateway to e-commerce. Instead of Microsoft, maybe Google will compete directly with Yahoo's small business e-commerce service.

Author: David Utter friday december 15, 2006 Webpronews.com

SEO Basics - Good Link, Bad Link

Your link profile is potentially the most powerful aspect of your SEO efforts, especially in the eyes of Google. Quality counts over quantity, but it is important to get a good list of well-balanced links pointing to your site. Diversification really is the key. Try not to concentrate all of your efforts on gaining links from one source, and similarly try not to gain them using a single method. A number of tactics should be avoided wherever possible because they either offer you no benefit whatsoever or your page may be penalized.

This article looks at the acquisition of links purely from an SEO standpoint and, aside from the really bad linking methods, if a link will provide good-quality, direct traffic then it is definitely still a good link and well worth considering. You will have to use your judgment on this, to a certain extent.

Good Links

Directory Links: Directories are viewed as being a very positive source of links by a number of search engines. Obviously, some directory listings carry much more weight than others and some directories are hardly worth the effort. Be careful to drip feed your site with directory links at first because it is possible that too many too quickly will see your site penalized until your link profile becomes more natural.
Start with the major Internet directories and consider getting links from free general topic directories as well as niche directories and also look at paying for inclusion in one or two of the seriously large directories like the Yahoo directory and business.com. As your link profile expands you can add more directories to gain extra weight.

Reciprocal Links: You may have read that reciprocal linking is dead. While it is true that Google and possibly other search engines now place much less weight on a profile that is crammed with nothing but reciprocal links they still have a place. Keep the number of reciprocal links you use down to a minimum and certainly don't base your entire link building efforts on this one tactic alone.
Again, balance is a big part of reciprocal linking but also of importance is relevance. Regardless of whether you offer a separate links or resources page, or you choose to include the links throughout your site you are still essentially endorsing the site. You will also gain much more credence from a link that is placed on a page containing information relevant to your own page.

Unique One-Way Inbound Links: These should pretty much be the staple diet of your link portfolio. An inbound link that is one way does not necessitate the inclusion of a link back to that page on your site. This can help to give your own pages the benefit instead of handing it out to your link partners. The more relevant and the more important that search engines deem the linking site to be the more weight they give that particular link.

Site Wide Links: Again, these should be used sparingly. Gaining a site wide link means that a link to your site or your pages is placed on a number of pages in a site. Search engines are known to give less weight to links that are procured on this basis but it does help to give your portfolio a more rounded appearance.

Press Release Links: Writing and submitting a digital press release can provide good links. Many press releases are used by other sites and industries related to your site and they may also be included on some major news websites. There are free press release distribution services available, but it is common to need t pay to make the link clickable and to use anchor text.

Article Links: Writing and submitting articles to article directories can provide a large number of links. Not only can you submit one article to numerous directories but each directory has the potential of generating a number of interested websites. These websites also publish your article (which includes an author bio section with your link). This can be a good way to get authoritative sites to link to you.

Community Links: Join forums and include your link in your signature. Post useful comments on other people's blogs and include your link as your username. You should, under no circumstances, spam blogs or forums and only include links on the sites that allow it.
Presell Advertising Pages: Some websites will allow you to include an entire page on their site. In most cases you will either need to pay to have the page written or you, or write the page yourself. Generally the website will also include other forms of advertising but as long as you choose sites carefully this can generate some excellent links.

Bad Links

FFA Sites: An FFA, or Free-For-All page, is one that allows anybody to post any link they like on the page. Typically they are not only useless to your cause, because the search engines ignore them, but they will not generate any natural traffic but may attract the spammers to your doors.

Link Farms: A link farm is a page that contains an excessively large number of links. Some say a page with 100 links directed out of that page is a link farm, but in all honesty it is unlikely that a page will yield much benefit for SEO or non-SEO with more than fifty or so links.

Off Topic: Off topic links are something of a bone of contention. They may offer very slight weight with some search engines because it is quite possible that natural links from certain websites would point to any number of pages on any topic. This appears in the bad link section because they offer very little positive benefit and your efforts would be best placed gaining on-topic links.

Unindexable: Purely from an SEO standpoint, links that cannot be indexed by search engines are completely useless. A search engine spider must be able to follow the link to find your page and provide you with any benefit for that link. Avoid any page that offers to display your link in a frame, or includes the noindex or nofollow robots.txt tags. However, bear in mind that a site that is currently not being indexed by search engines may be a new site. It could also grow up to be the next Google.com and take your link with it.

Conclusion:Your link profile should appear as natural as possible so vary the good links as much as possible and avoid the bad links. Collect links from as many sources using as many tactics as possible and use keyword variants in your anchor text. By following these guidelines you should be able to improve the appearance of your link profile and, therefore, improve your search engine rankings.

About the Author: WebWiseWords is a web content writer and is also establishing theseoglossary.com to help those that want to conduct their own SEO. The site includes definitions, articles, resources, and tools as well as SEO tutorials.

Understanding HTML Color Codes

Understanding HTML Color Codes
By Fred Black (c) 2006

When I help people with web pages, I encourage them to edit
the HTML directly and not rely on programs like Microsoft
FrontPage or Adobe GoLive to layout their pages. One of the
things that most people have a hard time grasping is what
HTML Color Codes mean and how they work.

HTML Color Codes are 6 characters wide and look like
"#80FF12". This is really made up of 3 2-digit hex numbers
that represent Red, Green, and Blue. I probably just lost a
good portion of the readers, didn't I? Let me back up and
explain some things about hex values and color.

How to describe a color using numbers? There are a lot of
ways to specify a particular color, but one of the ways
that's used with computers is to specify the values of Red,
Green, and Blue to mix together to achieve the desired
color. As we vary the amounts of Red, Green, and Blue we
can create most any color you desire.

Why does this relate to computers? Computer displays, TVs,
LCDs, and other "projected light" display devices use
pixels to display what you see on the screen. The color
value for those pixels is specified in a RGB (Red, Green,
and Blue) value. For example, if your PC monitor is set to
1024 x 768 resolution, then there are 768 lines (going
across your screen from top to bottom) on your screen, each
line has 1024 pixels or little dots in it. Each of those
pixels or little dots is actually made up of three smaller
dots or light sources: a red one, a green one, and a blue
one.

Ink is different. Printers that you use with your computer
generally specify color as a four (or more) color
"reflective" ink value made up of Yellow, Magenta, Cyan,
and Black which is abbreviated as YMCK. Your computer uses
formulas to convert the RGB values to CMYK values so that
you can print what you see on your screen accurately.

How does the computer represent a RGB color value? As 3
separate values (one for Red, one for Green, and one for
Blue) and each one ranges between 0 and 255. If you count
the 0 as a value, that's a total of 256 possible values.
When you put the Red, Green, and Blue values together to
represent a color, you get a possibility of 16.7 million
colors (256 x 256 x 256). That's a lot of colors and most
people consider this to be "true" color because it can
represent most photographs and images.

OK then, what is a Hex value? I'm glad you asked! Your
computer stores information as single ones and zeros. Each
of these tiny single values is called a "bit". We then
combine 8 of these "bits" to make a "byte". So a byte is 8
bits. If you recall from high school math, you can count in
various "bases". We normally use base 10 or "decimal",
which uses 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 to represent a
number. Likewise, if we use the ones and zeros I just
mentioned, we're talking about just two possible values for
each digit, 0 or 1, and this is called base 2 or "binary".
However, in computers, we also use base 16, or hexadecimal
(hex for short) because it packs more values into a single
space. Hex uses the following digits to represent a number:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F. To
represent the number 128 in decimal or base 10 takes 3
digits (128), in binary it takes 8 digits (10000000), and
in hex or base 16 it takes just 2 digits (80). So by using
hex values we save storage space and gain efficiency.

OK, my head hurts now, how does this relate to HTML color
codes? HTML colors codes are made up of 3 sets of hex
numbers, one for Red, one for Green, and one for Blue.

For example:
000000 is black (0's for all three colors)
FFFFFF is white (255's for all three colors)
FF0000 is all RED (255 for Red, 0 green, 0 blue)
00FF00 is all GREEN (0 Red, 255 green, 0 blue)
0000FF is all Blue (0 red, 0 green, 255 blue)
FFFF00 is Yellow (255 red, 255 green, and 0 blue)
808080 is a gray (128 red, 128 green, and 125 blue)
Generally in HTML, you also put a "#" in front of the color
code, but this is not necessary when you specify all 6
digits. If you make profiles for mySpace.com, leave off the
"#" too because they filter them and it won't display the
color correctly if you use the "#".

You can use the calculator that comes with Microsoft
Windows to convert between Decimal and Hex values. Open the
calculator and select View and then Scientific. Once you do
this, you'll see more buttons and controls on the
calculator. Click "Dec" and the key in a number. Now click
"Hex" and it'll convert the number to hex. To convert from
Hex to Dec, click on "Hex", key in the number, and then
click "Dec". Sometimes you'll get a color specification in
Decimal, for example (128, 30, 80) and you can use this
method to convert it to hex (80, 1E, 50) which would look
like this for your HTML color #801E50.

I hope you understand more about HTML Color Codes and how
colors are stored and specified in computers.
===========================================================
Visit Fred Black's web site www.InternetMakeMoneyOnline.com
(http://www.InternetMakeMoneyOnline.com). Discover how to
Make Money Online with internet marketing techniques and
skills that are easy to master - 100% Guaranteed.
===========================================================
Copyright © 2006 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.

Advanced SEO for Beginners

Advanced SEO for Beginners
by Chris Rutledge

Images or Text?

Situation: Navigation is based on images, even if these are images of text.
Problem: Search engines find links very important and only read text. they like to match the topic of the target page to the text in the link that pointed to the page.
Solution: Use text only navigation. the text and containing elements can by styles with CSS to make them look like images, give a background image, or at least make them look a little fancier. The alternative is to ensure that there is some text based navigation elsewhere on the page.
Benefits: Search engines will be able to match the topic of the target page with the reputation (link text). A higher relevancy is better. Ensuring there is text on the page will also help the visually impaired who use text only browsers in conjunction with braile-output devices or text-to-speach software.

Links, and Link Relevancy

Situation: You want lots of links to your website
Problem: Although links may be great for visitors and search engine spiders, the true value of the link may not be fully clear to you. Visitors are unlikely to click on irrelevant links and search engines hate them. Reciprocal links (you link to me, and I'll link to you) can be of use when relevant, but carry less weight in the search engines than one way inbound links.
Solution: Avoid link farms (pages of links, for the sake of links), treat reciprocal link requests with caution and stay relevant.
Benefits: Spending time and thought on your link profile will ensure natural growth of links. Search engines hate anything that looks artificial, or anything that could be interpreted as 'Search engine Manipulation'.

Duplicate Content

Situation: A webmaster copies content from another website, or sets up multiple sites which are identical, or very similar.
Problem: search engines apply duplicate content filters to the search results. Although the idea of increasing the market share is a good idea, multiple similar sites is not the way to go about doing it. Efforts put into the secondary sites will be wasted .
Solution: Ensure all of the pages on each of your sites are unique. Querying a search engine for an exact match of long strings of text will show you if the content is found elsewhere. If a webmaster does have duplicate pages and wishes to avoid any penalties or filters, the webmaster must choose one page to have the other identical pages redirect to. Redirects are covered later.
Benefits: Your efforts are not wasted, time and money can be saved.

Multiple Sites

Situation: Following on from duplicate content, there are multiple sites. A single webmaster has several closely themed sites, all inter-linked and hosted on the same IP address.
Problem: This is seen as search engine manipulation, the linking structure and multiple sites just isn't natural. Penalties can apply.
Solution: Such site structures can work if set out properly. this means that each site must reside on it's own IP address where, at least, the C class is different. IP address are covered later.
Benefits: Increased market share, well linked and spiderable sites, no penalties applied.

Unfriendly URLs

Situation: The URL (web address) of some of your sites pages look like [http://www.my-site.com/product-info.php?product-id=12345&category=6789&sid=f29a3483270cc10b3783706916216e3a]
Problem: Search engine spiders are getting better and following and indexing these type of URLs, bit not all of them. The spiders are scared of getting caught in an endless loop of identical pages with 1000s of different URLs. they are also off putting to your site visitors who could easily remember [http://www.my-site.com/products/autos/boost-valves.]
Solution: Use Search Engine Friendly URLs. If you are running the Apache webserver on Linux enabled server use mod_rewrite to translate the URLs into something nicer
Benefits: Higher chance of being indexed by more of the search engines, keywords in your URL, higher chance of being clicked on in the SERPs

Redirects

There are two main redirects, based on the HTTP specification
301 - moved permanenty
302 - moved temporarily
You should use 301 redirects where ever possible. this can be done in your server side scripting, eg

Code: php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Found");
header("Location: http://www.my-other-site.com/");
redirects can also be set up in your .htaccess file, if you run the Apache web server

IP addresses (C class)

IP addresses are the numerical addresses of computers connected tot he internet. For ease of reading they are broken down into four parts, each called an octet as they contain 8 bits of data when written in binary form. An example my be 209.85.76.114. in this example the C class is 76 (and everything up to it), so if you have several sites hosted on this IP they would all have identical IP addresses. If each had a unique IP address that started 209.85.76. then they all share the same C-class IP address. As the allocation of IP addresses within a server environment is usually configured so that each server has it's own C-class; this means that a search engine knows hat all sites on the same C-class IP address are all located on the same server

About This Author
Chris Rutledge is the Technical Director of JV Members Ltd - a revenue sharing article marketing and publishing system.

Adhering to Web Standards to Improve Business

Adhering to Web Standards to Improve Business
By Yuri Filimonov (c) 2006

Taking web standards into account when designing a website may
not be a primary concern for many site owners, but when it
comes to finding an extra edge to improve their business, they
are more than willing to do anything required to increase
revenues. Let's see how complying with Web standards can
help a business website.

What are the Standards?
On the Web, the main standards are the languages used when
creating websites. The most wide-spread ones are HTML, XHTML and
CSS. HTML or XHTML are used to create the backbone of websites -
the structure. (The difference between HTML and XHTML is that
XHTML was formed from XML and is forward compatible.) CSS, in
turn, is used to style, format and position the structure and
content.

What is Web Standards Compliance?
Put simply, web standards compliance is using web languages
correctly. This involves using HTML tags properly and the way
they were and are intended to be used. For instance, one of the
most common felonies against the web standards is using table
tags for layout, while the correct usage is to use them only for
tabular data (information to be put in tables).

Benefits of Standards Compliance

Creating quality, standards compliant code has a number of
benefits:
* website forward compatibility
* increased site download speed
* browser compatibility
* easier site maintenance
* broader target audience

How Can This Help Business?
Perhaps every entrepreneur is asking himself right now, "And
where is the money here?" Probably every benefit can either
increase revenues or save expenses. Let's look at them in
detail.

Site Forward Compatibility
Web standards, such as XHTML and CSS, are designed to work
forever. They will also be supported for an almost unlimited
period of time. Designing a site according to web standards will
ensure the website backbone will not need to be redone any time
soon, which reduces the amount of work on the site and the
expenses of the site owner.

Increased Download Speed
When using XHTML for content and structure and CSS for styling
and formating, page size is reduced when compared to a page,
designed with tables for layout. For instance, a site with a
relatively small number of images is 50% smaller than a
table-based website. Because users enjoy fast-loading websites
(they start leaving after eight (8) seconds beyond clicking on
a link), they will be more likely to become a clients of a web
standards compliant website.

Browser Compatibility
A web standards compliant site is displayed correctly (and looks
the same) in all standards compliant browsers. Adjusting the
site to suit a less helpful browser (Internet Explorer, for
instance) is much easier with CSS than with tables. This saves
enormous amounts of time for a web designer.

Easier Site Maintenance
When separating content and styling with XHTML and CSS, it is
much easier to edit any of those, because they are located in
different files. Should one need to adjust the look of the main
page heading (

), he/she will just need to change a line or
two in a style sheet to change the appearance of all headings on
the website. Editing content is easier as well, because no
styling and formatting is in the way and it is easy to spot the
content in clean and semantically correct code markup.

Broader Target Audience
Furthermore, web standards are used not only on computers, but
also by PDAs (hand held devices, palm computers), phones and
other devices. A site, adhering to web standards, will be
displayed correctly either without editing or will require very
little work to be displayed correctly on a platform other
than a computer. Such easy availability will make the company
site easily accessible for a wider range of potential customers,
increasing the chances of business success as well.

So What To Do?
Naturally, there may be several choices for a business site
owner:
* do nothing and wait till something more noticeable becomes
obvious about the web standards.
* wait, research the topic, get more proof and then redesign
with web standards and visitors in mind.
* redesign the site right now, either with the help of an
in-house web designer or a professional, specialized
company.

Any of the choices above solely depend on the situation of the
business site. Most probably, making a site web standards
compliant will be most beneficial to starting or young websites,
which will reduce the amount of work needed in the future.
Mature websites can consider adjusting their websites to improve
the quality of their visitor experience. Those, whose sites are
barely important can live as they are, provided the site works.
Thus, it all depends on the site owner and the situation the
business is in.
================================================================
The article is contributed by Yuri Filimonov, a usability consultant for MyNeatSite.
MyNeatSite specializes in improving overall website usability
(http://www.myneatsite.com/services/redesign-web-site-design.php).
================================================================
Copyright © 2006 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.

How To Use Images, Graphics And Thumbnails To Promote Your Site

How To Use Images, Graphics And Thumbnails To Promote Your Site
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2006

Images, graphics and thumbnails play an important role in
the overall look and feel of your website. They can greatly
improve the usefulness of your site; making it more
user-friendly and easier to navigate. More importantly,
the visual images on your site can be optimized to improve
your search engine rankings.

Despite their importance, many webmasters ignore images or
graphics when it comes to optimizing their web pages. Don't
make the same mistake.

There are some simple rules to follow when using SEO with
your onsite graphics. Here are a few tips:

First, you must know exactly what an 'Alt Image Tag' is in
order to optimize for the search engines. You must also
realize search engine robots can't see your images, they
can only read text - the text in your Alt Image Tags. So
you have to construct your Alt Image Tags with this factor
in mind and feed these robots with your popular keywords.
Search engine robots usually spider popular sites every day
or so.

What is an Alt Image Tag?

Every image, graphic or thumbnail on your site will have
html code similar to this:

<[sample code] img src="http://www.YourDomain.com/images/logo.jpg" Alt="Your Keyword Image" width="600" height="200" [sample code]>
Your Alt Image Tag will be:

alt="Your Keyword Image"

Always include an Alt Image Tag description for all your
images, graphics and thumbnails. This includes all headers,
background images and even thumbnails of other sites, if
you use them. Keep your descriptions of the images short
and related to the image itself. It would be a good idea to
end each description with the word photo, image or graphic.

Many marketers like to include their main keyword or
keyword phrase they are targeting in the Alt Image Tag.
They also place this keyword phrase in the text on their
page, in the title tag, meta description and many alert
marketers also place their keyword phrase in the URL of
that page. You should also include your keyword phrase in
the last 25 words on the same page.

Feed the spiders but be careful!

DON'T repeat the same keyword or keyword phrase numerous
time on your page in the image tags - this may be seen as
keyword spamming by the robots.

Using plurals and variations of your keyword is fine, such
as: faxing service, fax services, efax services.

Many marketers also use misspelled keywords in the Alt
Image Tag as it can only be seen when the image is scrolled
over. Spiders can't spell but they will index these
misspelled keywords and bring in extra traffic!

Graphics

The ordinary website will have more than just photos or
images on a webpage. You will have headers, backgrounds,
liners, etc. all of these should also have Alt Image Tags.
Although in this age of the broadband Internet, your page
loading time is not a major factor as it once was, you
should still reduce all your images so that they will
download quickly.

Many professional web designers place unneeded or useless
keywords (ones that get no searches) in the graphics on
their site. For example, instead of placing 'Welcome to our
site' in a headline - place it in a graphic at the top of
your page. This will free up your headline for your main
keywords.

Placing these useless words in a graphic where the robots
can't read them - frees up your Alt Tags for keywords that
you're promoting. Place your main keywords in the headline
for better SEO. Keep feeding those spiders!

But always keep in mind, you are creating your content or
web pages for real live human beings so you should check to
see what your site's graphics look like in the different
browsers. Try here: www.anybrowser.com

Since we have an ever increasing number of different
screen or display sizes, always check to see how your
graphics look on a different size display. You might be
horrified to find your perfectly designed page on a 15" PC
is totally distorted on a 17" widescreen laptop.

Needless to say, for site consistency, keep all your
background images and logos the same throughout your site.
Same goes for your fonts and text size, it will keep your
site's visitors more focused and on track.

Thumbnails

Many online sites use thumbnails to raise the professional
quality of their sites. It makes for a higher standard of
design, not to mention, it will increase the usability of
your site. It will also increase your click thru rates.

Thumbnails are screen capture shots of a website. They give
the surfer some idea of what a site looks like before they
visit that site. In a billion site Internet, this can be
very important for the promotion of your site.

Using thumbnails will increase the visibility of your site
and make it stand out from the crowd. Many professional
sites like AOL, Network Solutions, and Alexa use
thumbnails. Any site can use thumbnails - check the resource
box at the end of this article for further directions on
how to place thumbnails on your own site or sites.

Conclusion

Using images, graphics and thumbnails to promote your site
can be easily done if you use the advice given above.
Always remember to use Alt Image Tags to position your
selected keywords or keywords in the search engines.
Consistently do this over a long period of time and you
will see your site rise in the rankings. Keep those spiders
well fed and happy!

More importantly, using these visual aids will also improve
the friendliness and usability of your site. It will help
raise the professional look and feel of your site so that
other webmasters and sites will want to link to your site;
further increasing your rankings and the popularity of your
site.

Don't underestimate the power of a simple image - it can do
wonders for your site.
===========================================================
The author is a former teacher who now works full-time
online operating numerous websites, including two sites on
Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try:
MarketingToolGuide.com .To place thumbnails or
thumbshots on your own site, try this free service. Go here:
ThumbShots.org 2006 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed
if this resource box stays attached.
===========================================================
Copyright © 2006 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.

Google Gets Personalized

Google Gets Personalized By Kim Roach (c) 2006

Have you ever become overwhelmed by the number of documents
accessible via a search engine? If you're like most people,
then you probably have. There are often millions of results
and not every result is likely to be of equal importance to
you.

In addition to that, there is also ambiguity of language. Words
often have multiple meanings and people can have different
interpretations of the same word. How does a search engine know
the difference? Well, at this point, they don't.

They certainly can't read your mind so the only other
alternative is to track your online activities in order to
custom tailor your search results based on your recorded
preferences.

Google is one of the first major search engines to test this
new technology. They have released a total of 15 new patent
applications this month in relation to this very endeavor.

Actually, I'm not too surprised that Google is taking a closer
look at personalization. Google has already begun testing many
of these new search features in Google's personalized search
(www.google.com/psearch), which is currently in beta.

Traditional algorithmic search engines have reached their peak.
Personalized search is a natural and necessary progression for
Google and other search engines as well. Some alternative search
engines have already taken the lead in this endeavor. Eurekster
(http://www.eurekster.com/) is one of the main ones that comes
to mind, using a searchers history to bring them more relevant
results.

Here is an abstract from one of the Google patents entitled,
"Systems and methods for analyzing a user's web history"
(http://tinyurl.com/ycdhxl):

"A user's prior searching and browsing activities are recorded
for subsequent use. A user may examine the user's prior
searching and browsing activities in a number of different ways,
including indications of the user's prior activities related to
advertisements. A set of search results may be modified in
accordance with the user's historical activities. The user's
activities may be examined to identify a set of preferred
locations. The user's set of activities may be shared with one
or more other users. The set of preferred locations presented
to the user may be enhanced to include the preferred locations
of one or more other users. A user's browsing activities may
be monitored from one or more different client devices or
client application. A user's browsing volume may be graphically
displayed."

Now, let's talk about all of that in English. Over time, we
develop a history of search queries, selected results that were
clicked on, advertisements that were clicked on, and a multitude
of other browsing activities. Each of these actions reflect our
preferences and interests. Other examples of user activity
Google may begin tracking include instant messaging, word
processing, particpation in chat rooms, and internet phone calls.

Talk about an invasion of privacy. Unfortunately, we don't have
enough time to get into that issue.

Within the proposed system, users are able to access their past
searching and/or browsing activities to enhance their experience.
Each of their online activities gives clues to what they might
ultimately be looking for or related areas of interests.
In addition, users can also modify their profile information to
better represent their interests. For example, a user may delete
a search query from his/her history or he/she could also provide
updated information as to new areas of interest.

One of the most interesting aspects of the patent filings
involves the re-ranking of search results according to the
user's preferences.

After a query is made and the results are received, they are
then adjusted based upon information from the user's history.
The order of the search results can be adjusted in accordance
with a history score and/or any user modified result score.
Search results can also be ordered based upon the combined
search result score and the history score to come up with
optimal results.

A searcher may also be shown an indication of previously visited
pages among the SERPs, including information such as the date
and time a page was previously visited and the number of times
that the user has visited the site within a certain period of
time.

A certain number of the most highly ranked results that the user
has previously visited may be displayed in a region above the
search results for easy access (kind of like memorized favorites).
They could also be displayed in another section of the page, or
even in a separate window.

These previously visited pages may be ordered based upon a
number of different ranking criteria, including the history
score, pagerank, time of last access, number of accesses, etc.
A user's browsing activities may also play a part in the ranking
of search results. For example, if a website was previously
visited by the user, it could have its score boosted based upon
the number of times the user has visited that particular website.
Google may also track how long a visitor stays at any given
website. A site that is bookmarked and visited frequently will
almost always rank higher.

On the other hand, search results that were previously presented
to searchers but not clicked through could be lowered in the
results.

What does this mean for you as a webmaster and SEO? It means
that your focus should be on quality. In creating your website,
you must emphasize visitor optimization and content optimization
over search engine optimization.

The visitor always comes first and you must create a valuable
experience for them. Allow them to quickly and easily bookmark
your website. Give them a reason to hang out for a while,
whether it be a forum, lots of great content, or fun quizzes.
The future of SEO is about creating quality, authority sites.
============================================================
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews
(www.sitepronews.com) and SEO-News (www.seo-news.com)
newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on
webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog
(blog.sitepronews.com/). Kim's email is: kim @ seo-news.com
=============================================================
Copyright © 2006 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.

The 10 Commandments of Link Building

The 10 Commandments of Link Building:

Links today are what keywords were several years ago -- the hottest topic in SEO. Search engines, particularly Google, use link popularity to help evaluate and rank your website. Link popularity refers to the number, quality and relevance of inbound links from other websites to yours.

Some people waste a lot of time seeking links in the wrong way and from the wrong places. The "10 Commandments of Link Building" will help you avoid such time-wasters and achieve true linking success.

1. Thou shalt recognize the value of links.
For now, and for the foreseeable future, link building and SEO walk hand-in-hand. Linking profiles are one of Google's top ranking factors, and the "other" engines use them as well. Once upon a time, you could simply write a lot of keyword-rich content and rank well for it. While that may still be the case with MSN / Live Search, it no longer carries you very far with Yahoo or Google. That's where links come in.

2. Thou shalt begin link-building on thine own website.
"What is this heresy? Link-building starts on my website? Who ever heard of such a thing?" All too often, I see website owners throw up a new site and go out hunting for links before they have a site worth linking to. Link building always starts on your own website.

Think about it for a moment. Aside from directories and paid listings, few people will link to a bare-bones website that offers nothing unique, helpful or interesting. If you start hunting for links before your website has earned its place on the web, you're going to have a long, hard time of it.

On the other hand, if you build the kind of website that makes others in your industry or niche say, "Wow, that's really something! I know some folks who would like that," then your link-building efforts will be a breeze. It all starts with what you put into your website.

3. Thou shalt pursue the right kinds of links.
Not all links are created equal. Sure, you want a lot of links to your website ... we all do. But you should always put link quality before link quantity. Jim Boykin, SEO expert and owner of WeBuildPages.com, said it well:

"It’s not always 'He with the most links' who wins the game … Really, very often, he with the right 10 links can beat the guy with 1,000 of the wrong links. I see it all the time."

What makes for a quality backlink? Generally speaking, the most valuable links for SEO purposes are those that come from older, well-established sites within your topic area.

4. Thou shalt alternate link text.
To gain visibility for more of your key phrases, and to make your linking profile seem more natural to search engine algorithms, it's a good ideas to mix up your link text. For instance, instead of having a thousand backlinks to my site using the phrase "real estate marketing," I strive to get a broad mix of link text. I shoot for "real estate marketing" and "Realtor marketing" and "real estate SEO" and ... you get the picture.

5. Thou shalt find links everywhere.
Links are everywhere, and they're what make the web, well … a web. So link opportunities are everywhere, as well. You can gain links by publishing articles online, syndicating press releases, submitting to directories, participating in forums, growing a blog or becoming an authority in your field. You are only limited by your imagination, and imagination is our next commandment.

6. Thou shalt be creative.
Quick story. I was doing some link building for a home buying website once, and I thought I had exhausted my options. I had submitted press releases online, submitted the site to directories, published articles with the big article directories, and even written a few link request letters (which I normally don't bother with).

Then it dawned on me. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of websites out there looking for the kind of content I could provide, but not knowing where to look. So I began searching phrases like "home buying articles" and making a list of websites that provided this content.

Next, I emailed these sites one by one and invited them to use any of the 100+ articles I had written on the subject. All I asked was that they keep the author's note with hyperlink. By being proactive with my article publishing, I earned more than 30 new and highly relevant links! When you combine quality content or a unique website with strong imagination, your link opportunities are limitless.

7. Thou shalt not waste time with silly link requests.
The higher your website ranks, the more link-request emails you are going to receive. It's a law of the Internet. Let me save you some time and energy by saying you can delete 90% of these emails. Why? Because 90% of the time they are from sites looking to "feed" off your good rankings, but offering nothing in exchange.

I have one website that's ranked very well for its key phrases. It generates a lot of email requests from brand new sites that aren't even indexed yet, much less ranked well. Is that a fair exchange for me? Hardly. What's worse, most of these sites have nothing to do with my subject area. This is the 90% you shouldn't waste time with.

Once in a while, however, you'll receive an email that's actually personalized and specific. It will be intelligent, it will be from a site similar to yours, and it will be worth considering. In other words, it will be part of the 10% club.

8. Thou shalt track thine own progress.
If you put a lot of energy into your SEO program, you need to be able to track your progress. There are business reasons for this. But more importantly, there are morale reasons for it. You want to feel good about what you're doing, right? You want to see some positive results to justify your hard work, don't you? Of course you do. So keep track of your link-building progress the same way you keep track of your traffic and rankings.

There are a number of tools online that can help you identify links from other websites to yours. Yahoo Site Explorer is my favorite. You can use Site Explorer (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com) to quickly and easily find out which websites are linking to yours. You can also export this information into a spreadsheet for further use. Nice, huh?

9. Thou shalt keep the big picture in mind.
Yes, links are a big part of your website's visibility. But there's a lot more to SEO than links. In fact, let's look at the bigger picture and say there's a lot more to online success than gaining links. If you tend to get carried away with certain tasks, like I do, then schedule your SEO efforts to avoid focusing only one thing. Set aside some time for link-building, article writing, website improvement, product development, etc.

In other words, don't adopt "SEO tunnel vision" to the point you neglect your website's primary offering (whether that be products, services, content, or a combination of the three).

10. Thou shalt enjoy aging well.
One of the things I live about SEO is that it gets easier as you go. When you put the right fundamentals in place up front, you'll be able to increase and/or maintain your visibility with less effort over time. Most search engines -- and especially Google -- place a lot of emphasis on the age of your domain, your individual web pages, and the links coming into those web pages. Like a good wine, links get better with age.

About This Author
Brandon Cornett is the author of the "Agent's Guide to Search Engine Visibility," available for immediate download at ArmingYourFarming.com. Learn to practice real estate search engine optimization the right way. Download your guide today at: http://www.armingyourfarming.com/search

SiteProNews: November 10, 2006 Feature Article

Article printed from SiteProNews: http://www.sitepronews.com HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html
How Blogs Can Break Or Make Your SEO Strategy
By Jon Rognerud (c) 2006
Blogs are a great way to get started authoring content and
sharing your knowledge and insights with other people. Plus,
mix work and play - and you can get rich doing this.

You don't have to be an MBA-accredited author by any means.
However, there are some rules to play by, and I'll break those
out below. We will talk about the top blogs, practicalities
around blogs and creative ways to get started, including how
you could possibly ruin your good-standing ranking and having
to change your Search Engine Optimization strategy.

Blogs - Structure and Layout

I work in the field of Search Engine Optimization. It has a wide
range of options, from the technical to the more strategic. Tons
of discussions are found on off-page and on-page factors, latent
semantic analysis, content scope, quality, HTML/CSS development,
site navigational structure, spamdexing, 301 redirects,
plagiarism, link strategies, directories, blogs, search engine
news, email marketing tips & online (internet) marketing. Most
all of the top 10 SEO firms (http://microsaw.stikipad.com/) out
there agree that blogs are a "must" for driving traffic and to
get established in the Internet community.

There is a right way, and a wrong way. We'll discuss these below.
Be warned - too many folks out there are thinking about "how to
outbeat the search engines" and use the latest-and-greatest
(blogs) to elevate their rankings, essentially via content and
blog spam. Blogs are a powerful way to get seen by the search
bots. Blogger (Google's own) is an important key to the puzzle,
but there are many.

The Un-Official Top 7 Blogging Best Practices For SEO

1. Start here, begin a quick review of the world's top blogs:

http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs - updated daily
http://www.problogger.net/ - he makes #16,000/month
http://microsaw.stikipad.com/ - web 2.0 blogs

2. Get an account - it's free. Log in - and - don't start! What?
No, you must first continue by scanning the list above and get a
sense for what people are writing about. This could be more
generic at first, but start looking to yourself. What do you
know? What do people come to you for? Anything that you
specialize in? (Hint: don't think "how can I sell this" - but
"how can I share this?") You'll also learn how to use trackback
functions to allow other people to be notified. Permalinks are
great for SEO and should be used where appropriate. So, now you
learned something big: be yourself!

3. Think about an interesting headline. You don't need to be
a copywriter, but you should think about your headline and the
topic at hand. More importantly, is it something that you are
passionate about, or can contribute something to? It's ok to
spend some time here, writer's block can come up. Think about
other sites, can you re-write their UVP (unique value
proposition)? How would you write yours (thinking theme here).
What I've found to work is simply sit back and start talking as
if you were discussing a (hot) topic with a friend, and then
break it out into sub-groups from there.

4.Writing tips: casual, friendly and interesting (meaning you
have something to write and you don't copy others) works well
in blogs. Make sure you stay on topic and that you are truthful.
Would you lie to your mother? Of course not - then think about
this when you are writing online (and she will not come after
you). Yahoo's blogging policy is a good one: "Be respectful of
your colleagues, get your facts straight, provide context to
your argument, and engage in private feedback." Also, make sure
to include images (flickr) and video (youtube, google video)
where you can. Make the images rich and colorful, don't worry
about sizing too much.

5. Committment, persistence and discipline. Sound like an
extract from Jim Rohn or Anthony Robbins? Well, they probably
are - but it applies to most of the things you do in life. So
be it with blogging. Carve out 1/2-1 hour every day to nurture
your blog business. Think of it as your morning ritual - right
after you have attended to your family and other duties. Plus,
often you are not going to be in writing mode - but rather,
maintenance mode - reviewing and responding to other blogger's
input.

6. Search engines start picking up your blog, and traffic
increases. Be prepared and if it gets out of hand, be able to
manage that too. I'm not simply talking about traffic, but as
others join and comment, you may need to defend your stance,
including admitting mistakes if / when you make them. Folks
appreciate other folks who are big enough to admit mistakes if
it gets there. For example, you may have folks who don't like
you - even if you're Bill Gates. This guy created a Corporate
Weblog Manifesto (http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2003/02/26.html)
that I found interesting.

7. Run and host your own blog service. More expensive, but this
could have a large impact on your ability to control not only
the content, but custom HTML layouts, code and information
architecture that are important to search engines. You can offer
this as a service to others in your niche market.
http://businesslogs.com/ is a great resource to use for starting
this process, and more hands-on development companies like
http://www.leveltendesign.com/ can be an option for you. Keep in
mind that the market has developed niche-companies, from
real-estate to healthcare, and you should research those
specifically.

Content is important for Search Engine Optimization - be on top
of it, keep a schedule.

Voila - that's it, there you have it. Watch how the search
engines will start picking up your content. You can run tools
to see how you are ranking, how often you are showing up in the
search engines. We like http://www.UrlTrends.com as a simple
beginner starting point. However, it's not 100% accurate, other
SEO tools can provide more detail.

Keep your content fresh, updates daily is preferred - and
definitely once a week and your search engine marketing (which
includes search engine optimization) will become more visible
than it was just last week. Then, use http://pingomatic.com/ to
alert search engines that you have made updates. It's a free
service, and will help your visibility.
================================================================
Jon Rognerud is a recognized authority on the subject of search
marketing, and has spent over 10 years developing websites and
marketing solutions at companies like Overture and Yahoo. His
website, http://www.microsaw.com, provides a wealth of
informative articles, resources and free email courses,
including complimentary site ranking reports at
http://www.microsaw.com/emailpage.asp
================================================================
Copyright © 2006 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.

The Death of Google Adsense

Titus Hoskins (c) 2006 wrote

Recent changes in the Google Adsense program has many online website owners and marketers seriously concerned. Many have seen their Adsense profíts and income flatline... seen their four or five figure monthly Adsense income disappear overnight. For many the Google Adsense bubble has burst.What happened?

First, Google made a change in its Adsense program, letting advertisers choose between putting their ads in the search results or on the content pages of Adsense publishers. Search won out and started to receive the higher bids. Search results convert better than content ads.
Next, Google has cracked down on Junk Adsense sites, like they should. These sites consisted mainly of software generated re-hashed search engine links and were totally annoying to say the least. But Google also cracked down on 'squeeze pages' or 'affilíate landing pages' - a lucrative source of income for many online marketers, mainly because these pages helped marketers build an opt-ín list or use permission based email.

The results of these changes produced an Adsense meltdown for many online marketers.
Some Internet marketers are speculating recent changes could even mean the death of Adsense. One online marketer, Scott Boulch even published a free report entitled 'The Death of Adsense".

Many affilíate marketers would agree with Boulch on some of his points, especially the obvious fact that using Adsense on your web content is starting on the bottom rung of the online marketing ladder. Instead of receiving pennies per clíck with Adsense, alert marketers and webmasters have already discovered that by using CPA (Cost-Per-Action) and direct affilíate links, they can produce significantly more revenue from their web pages. Why eärn pennies per clíck when you can eärn $5, $10 or OVER $100 per clíck?

But the fine people at Google are catching on...

In the past Google has made its own swing to the Cost-Per-Action direction with its referral system for the Firefox Browser and giving webmasters credít for signing up Adwords and Adsense accounts.

Many online marketers believe Google needs to expand on these baby steps and open their Adsense affilíate program up to third party products/advertisers. In a recent company statement Google offered some hope: "We're always looking for new ways to provide effective and useful features to advertisers, publishers, and users," the company stated "As part of these efforts we are currently testing a cost-per-action (CPA) pricing model to give advertisers more flexibility and provide publishers another way to eärn revenue through AdSense." Basically, in cost-per-action, advertisers pay for leads, purchases or customer acquisition. It would help with the clíck fraud issue and the monetary returns could potentially make Adsense's revenues pale in comparison.

As more and more commerce goes online... acquiring customers for such diverse services as ínsurance, real estate, telephone, marketing, web hostíng, travel, mörtgage loans, cable TV, banking... you name it, almost any service or product sold in the marketplace is now turning to the Internet for customers and lifelong clients.

Enormous sums of monëy will change hands. Perhaps, the most lucrative of these is customer acquisition. Advertisers are turning to the Internet and webmasters/marketers for acquiring these lifelong customers for their respective services and products. Businesses and companies are quickly realizing paying an attractive lead generating fee/commission is smart business. They quickly build a client base for their services or products and quickly recoup their expenses - realizing in the long run these leads will generate huge profíts.

It can also mean huge profíts for the CPA networks like ValueClick's Commission Junction and Rakuten's LinkShare who supply the advertisers with publishers and website marketers to harvest these leads. It can be a lucrative venture for all involved, especially for those online marketers who have cornered the search engines for lucrative niche markets in big ticket items. Even small ticket items pay quite well for those marketers who know how to market online.
Contextual advertising is fine, but CPA (Cost-Per-Action) will offer much better returns for the website owner. Making any profitable site much more profitable. It will and is opening up a whole area of marketing opportunities that nevër existed before we had the Internet. Creating a complex structure of advertisers, publishers and the Affilíate/CPA companies that connect the two.

Of course, cutting out the middle man has always been even a more profitable venture for most marketers. As more and more webmasters realize they can make much more with dealing directly with companies, rather than going through a middle process like Google Adsense or the countless other affilíate/CPA networks ... online marketers can reap even bigger rewards.
For an online marketer when you get a telephone call or email from the CEO or the affilíate manager with a company or service you're promoting with your website - you know you have made it! Dealing directly with a company usually means bigger commissions and special exclusive deals just for you or your sites.

Only fly in the ointment, all that extra paperwork and business wheeling and dealing. Many marketers and website owners like the idea of someone else handling all the tracking, collecting payments, promotional materials... they just like to sit back and build more websites and content. It gives the affilíate marketer a lifestyle that they are looking for on the web. They just like to market and promote with their sites and let someone else worry about the details. Therefore, there will always be a place for contextual ads like Google Adsense... "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

However, could CPA be a better alternative for the current Adsense contextual ads?
Google would be the natural choice for a middleman if there ever was one. Besides, many savvy marketers know the Google brand name is trusted online, any product/service promoted through Google would be an easy sell. Many argue Google already dominates the web, why should it not be the one to handle these CPA transactions through its Adsense program.
On the flip side, over countless updates and changes to its indexing, many webmasters have experienced more than a few negative dealings with Google. Many have won, many have lost in this Google Age, but all have realized riding the Google Search Engine is like running with the bulls at Pamplona, totally thrilling unless you're one of the unfortunate few who get trampled in the process.

Ten SEO tips

Optimize your entire website

Optimizing each webpage is overlooked by many websites and can be the difference between competing for a highly competitive keyword phrase such as "Technology Services" and competing for less competitive keyword phrase such as "Technology Sales and Support". The search engines are not looking at individual websites and ranking them, they are ranking every page from in the world. If your website contains more than a single page you should optimize each page for the specific content found on each page.


Select appropriate keywords

Keywords are the most important thing to do when optimizing your website for search engines. The keywords that your customers type into Google, Yahoo, and MSN, are the keywords you should be using within the specific areas of your webpage. The most recommended and user-friendly keyword finders are Wordtracker and Good Keywords.

Optimizing your Page Titles

Incorporating your keywords in the Title description (the blue bar at the top of your screen) is one of the most important SEO techniques and will allow your visitors to remember what your page is all about; also it provides a description when they save it to their "favorites".

Optimizing your Page Content

It is difficult to write content for your website. You need put the information that you want the visitor to see in front, also have to include the keywords that your page is targeting so that you can rank better within search engines.

Inbound linking strategy

Submitting your site to online search engines is a way to drive traffic to your website. People will find your listing in a directory and click on the link to go directly to your site.

Labeling your links and images

This allows your visitors to know what the link is that they are going to click. Just labeling you anchor "click here" is not enough. Be descriptive with every text and graphical link on your site. Anchor text and alt attributes need to be and describe the page you're pointing to. Using keyword phrase which is another factors with search engines when it comes to ranking your web pages.


Robot and spider-friendly

It is important that search engine spiders can't read this code. Robot text files describe how and when to index your site, and include a sitemap.xml files describing each page and provide navigation alternatives to allow the spiders crawl deep within your website and index the web pages within their results.

Fresh Content

Create fresh content regardless of the format. If search engines know any given site is adding new articles on a frequent basis, they will come around often to index it. Blogs are effective way of adding new information to your site on a regular basis. But, only add a blog if you have something of interest to say on a regular basis.


You Can’t trick Search Engines

If you are doing something that benefits your websites visitors then the search engines will reward you for it. If you try to trick the search engines your sites will be removed from the search engines and it will take you a long time to get back in.

Offer something unique

If your website offers something that is unique to the market and it is optimized you will rank well within the major search engines, you will also get the benefit of people linking through forums, blogs, and other websites which will send your site more visitors and create more inbound links which will help it rank higher.

10 Commands you should master when working with the Cisco IOS

by David Davis CCIE, MCSE+I, SCSA Published: 7/25/06

#1: The"?"

It may seem entirely too obvious that you should know how to type ? to ask for help when using the Cisco IOS. However, the Cisco IOS is completely different from other operating systems when it comes to using the question mark (help key). As the IOS is a command-line operating system with thousands of possible commands and parameters, using the ? can save your day.
You can use the command in many ways. First, use it when you don't know what command to type. For example, type ? at the command line for a list of all possible commands. You can also use ? when don't know what a command's next parameter should be. For example, you might type show ip ? If the router requires no other parameters for the command, the router will offer CR as the only option. Finally, use ? to see all commands that start with a particular letter. For example, show c? will return a list of commands that start with the letter c.

#2: show running-configuration

The show running-config command shows the router, switch, or firewall's current configuration. The running-configuration is the config that is in the router's memory. You change this config when you makes changes to the router. Keep in mind that that config is not saved until you do a copy running-configuration startup-configuration. This command can be abbreviated sh run.

#3: copy running-configuration startup-configuration

This command will save the configuration that is currently being modified (in RAM), also known as the running-configuration, to the nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM). If the power is lost, the NVRAM will preserve this configuration. In other words, if you edit the router's configuration, don't use this command and reboot the router--those changes will be lost. This command can be abbreviated copy run start. The copy command can also be used to copy the running or startup configuration from the router to a TFTP server in case something happens to the router.

#4: show interface

The show interface command displays the status of the router's interfaces. Among other things, this output provides the following:
Interface status (up/down) Protocol status on the interface<>). From there, you type enable to move to privileged mode (where the prompt looks like #). In privileged mode, you can show anything but not make changes. Next, type config terminal (or config t) to go to global configuration mode (where the prompt looks like router(config)# ). From here, you can change global parameters. To change a parameter on an interface (like the IP address), go to interface configuration mode with the interface command (where the prompt looks like router(config-if)#). Also from the global configuration mode, you can go into router configuration using the router {protocol} command. To exit from a mode, type exit.

#7: no shutdown

The no shutdown command enables an interface (brings it up). This command must be used in interface configuration mode. It is useful for new interfaces and for troubleshooting. When you're having trouble with an interface, you may want to try a shut and no shut. Of course, to bring the interface down, reverse the command and just say shutdown. This command can be abbreviated no shut.

#8: show ip route

The show ip route command is used to show the router's routing table. This is the list of all networks that the router can reach, their metric (the router's preference for them), and how to get there. This command can be abbreviated shipro and can have parameters after it, like shiproospf for all OSPF routers. To clear the routing table of all routes, you do clear ip route *. To clear it of just one route, do clear ip route 1.1.1.1 for clearing out that particular network.

#9: show version

The show version command gives you the router's configuration register (essentially, the router's firmware settings for booting up), the last time the router was booted, the version of the IOS, the name of the IOS file, the model of the router, and the router's amount of RAM and Flash. This command can be abbreviated shver.

#10: debug

The debug command has many options and does not work by itself. It provides detailed debugging output on a certain application, protocol, or service. For example, debug ip route will tell you every time a router is added to or removed from the router.

David has been in the IT industry for 12 years. Currently, he manages a group of systems/network administrators for a privately owned retail company. David also does networking/systems consulting on a part-time basis; his Web site is located at http://www.happyrouter.com/. His certifications include: IBM Certified Professional-AIX Support, MCSE+Internet, Sun Certified Solaris Admin (SCSA), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Cisco CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, and CCIE #9369.

Windows Vista new search feature

The more I work and play with Vista the more I find the new search feature usefull. While Microsoft claims that it one of it’s best new features I find it to lack and hopefully once the offical release comes out we will see better preforance. I find that it needs overall improvement to functions as they advertise.

Over all Vista work as should but, your going to need a workhorse PC to run it or suffer failing hard drive. I loaded Vista on a laptop that met basic systems requirements and while it functions ok, I do not think the hard drive has stoped spinning at all.

In any event, Vista stepped up and took its search function to another level. From the Start menu, you can search for just abut anything: applications, files, documents, music, pictures, mail messages, offline files, and more. I found out that it is easier to type the names of applications instead of trying to find them in the Start menu.

Marlar Technologies goes beyond your expectation and services the small business community, providing corporate technology at affordable rates. Find out more visits our web site @
http://www.marlartechnologes.com

Small Business Technology Support

Marlar Technologies
Carrollton, TX
214-682-3011

Marlar Technologies

Service • Support • Consulting • Solutions Provider • Sales

Information Technology Specialist

We provide quality services to small businesses at completive prices and offer a complete line of products to help your business grow. We go beyond your expectations and provide quality service to meet today’s demands.

We provide technology service for the small business at the right price! 15 years of experience specialized in workstation and server maintenance, virus cleanups, computer repair home or office, network troubleshooting, wireless internet installations, VPN installations, data recovery, customized disaster recovery plans, office design-installation, office moves and much more.

We are a preferred provider by the small business community in the DF/W, Denton area. With an outstanding record of accomplishment of helping small business/homes, get the job done right the first time. Call us today of visit our website for more information or contact us! We want to become your business partner and provide quality service when you need it.

214-682-3011

Service

Lexar "Power To Go"

In July, Lexar will include PowerToGo on all of its Platinum series flash drives ($53 for a one-gigabyte model, $90 for a two-gig; a four-gig model is due in August). PowerToGo noted that it will also run on older Lexar drives (www.lexar.com/powertogo), you'll have to pay $30 after a trial period.

If you have some other brand of flash drive, you can download Ceedo Personal from www.ceedo.com; again, it's a 30-day trial is free, and then you have to pay $40. Keep in mind, however, that faster flash drives provide a much zippier experience; Lexar stated that its Lightning models, are two to six times faster that the typical flash drives.

The installer for a Windows program and add alot more to windows than just the program's name to your Start menu. Behind the scenes, it adds all kinds of little support files into Windows archipelago, placing them into special locations in your Windows folder, making changes to your registry (the master database of Windows software and settings) and so on.

Take look at the product today it’s a true pocket pc for those travels that want it all and not carry a laptop. While it’s limited on what it can do I think it’s just the beginning.

Marlar Technologies

providing web services, development, hosting, optimization, marketing plans for small businesses.

We can help put on the web and offer several packages to start your business on the web. Small business needs big experience to help them get started call us today for more information visit our website for more information.

Marlar Technologies

My mug for the photo section...

Don't forget to check out Marlartechnologies, Creemall, or Petnbeds.

Google announces video advertisement

The click-to-play video advertisements starts today, and will be available to advertisers in the US, Canada, and Japan. Visitors in Google's network of AdWords publishers will have complete power over the video ad occurrence. Google's AdWords team announces that only a motionless image would be loaded upon reaching a page containing a video ad. Once started, users can advance the video, pause it, and regulate the volume of the playback.

The video ads will compete for placement on sites in the Google content network with other text, Flash, and image ads and, as with our other image ad placements, you can choose to bid on a CPC or CPM basis. These ads will support on site- and keyword-targeted campaigns. You can choose to publish your video ad on a particular site or on pages in the Google network that relates to your manufactured goods or services. You have the capability to target your video ads internationally, nationally, or locally. Video ads will charge more than the text ads.


Visit Marlar Technologies for all your small business needs.

Marlar Technologies Arrives

Just stated a new business called Marlar Technologies which can be found on the web here Marlar Technologies. It has been a rough starting with no clients, but the last two weeks have been promising. To find out what I can do for you just click on the link above.

If anyone is looking for technology support, web designs, or help within the small business community then please look me up. I work in the Dallas, Ft. Worth area and I have affiliates in the following cities

• Houston, TX
• San Antonio, TX
• Austin, TX
• New Orleans, La
• Tulsa, Ok
  

My focus for this venture is small business with no technology support or staff. I work by the hour, day, project and I have monthly maintenance programs available.