The Basics of Search Engine Optimization in Internet Marketing

Search engine optimization is a class of interrelated techniques that serve to increase the positioning of a web site in the search results of the major internet search engines. Since most users find the information that they need via the major search engines such as those provided by Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL, the rank of the internet site in the search engine results is a very important factor in determining how many web surfers will find and view the page.

There are a number of techniques that can be employed when using search engine optimization. One of the primary ways that web masters use search engine optimization is to increase the number and placement of key words on the web site that customers are likely to use when searching for goods and services offered by the web site. Many search engines index a page based on key word phrases and oftentimes add value if the key word appears within a certain concentration range. The caveat here is that many search engines will lower the web page ranking if the keyword appears too many times since this is perceived as an attempt to fool the search engine. Keyword search engine optimization uses not only keyword concentration but also keyword placement. Many search engines place higher emphasis on key word phrases that are placed in web page titles and HTML header tags.

Another method of SEO is to increase the number of links to the web site being optimized. Most search engine companies design their algorithms with the assumption that a page that is highly linked to is more likely to offer quality content then one that has no links to it. Many web masters took advantage of this assumption by using link exchange programs to increase the number of links to their site. For this reason, many search engines now devalue two way links in favor of one way links. This means that a major goal of modern search engine optimization is the creation and maintenance of one way links.

Since one of the main goals of the search engine optimization specialist is to increase the number of one way links, a number of methods have been developed to accomplish this goal. One great way to create one way links is to provide testimonials on web sites. These testimonials will often feature a link to the testimonial provider’s web site. Another way to create one way links is to make postings on internet message boards and include the web page URL in the signature line.

Search engine optimization is a vital component of any internet marketing strategy. By positioning a web page to rank highly in search engine results, it is possible to increase the number of visitors to the web site.

About the Author

Dustin Cannon is owner of JustArticlesVIP.com and writes on a variety of subjects. To learn more about this topic Dustin recommends you visit: rws1.payitforward4profits.com/

The Basics of Search Engine Optimization in Internet Marketing by Dustin Cannon

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Google’s Penalty – Pagerank 0 – PR0

As a part of the fight for the quality of search results, the Google search engine started to penalize websites that use invalid site promotion techniques. The penalty applies to a specific webpage or at times to an entire website.

PageRank 0 – PR0 When a certain page is penalized, its PageRank decreases to 0. This is referred to by professionals as PR0, and I shall also refer to it so further below.

The main signal of a penalty is when a webpage, a group of pages or an entire website that had a positive PR in the past suddenly has a PR0 – this can happen as a result of modifications that were made by the site’s owner to the webpages, or changes in Google’s algorithm that is searching for invalid site promotion techniques.

In order to learn how to check a webpage’s PR, please refer to our PageRank article.

How does Google discover invalid site promotion techniques? The search engines (allegedly) use three main methods to expose rebellious websites:

Automatic Flagging Google’s robot searches for some of the evident promotion techniques that are invalid. When a robot encounters such an incident, it will “put up a red flag”. User Reported Websites Search engines enable (and even encourage) users to report usage of invalid promotion techniques. If you encounter a website that uses this technique, you can report it to Google via a special page dedicated to reporting websites using invalid techniques (spam). Forums This technique may not be official, but it seems that the people from Google read site owners’ forums, and when they stumble upon a site that does not play a fair game, they take action. Reporting a website that uses spam techniques: Google Spam Report:http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

How do you receive a pardon? The PR0 penalty is usually automatic, meaning that once the search engine recognizes use of invalid optimization techniques, it will activate the penalty without human intervention. Innocent webpages may be harmed this way, but this is the only way Google can deal with the number of pages that exist in its cache. However, an automatic penalty will last a fixed time (30 days), and when the problem is fixed, there is a good chance that the page will return to its previous status.

In cases of a manual penalty or a significant deviation from site promotion norms, it is possible that the penalty will apply for a long period of time, up to a permanent penalty. Even when the domain expires and someone else purchases it, he will discover that he can’t appear in Google.

The meaning of PR0 penalty PR0 webpages are not completely removed from search results, but suffer a substantial harm to their placement in search results, which, in competitive fields, is the same as being deleted.

Why a PR0 penalty is applied There are many opinions on this subject because of the lack of information on behalf of Google on this subject. The only way to understand the way the penalty works is by examining the common features of all penalized pages.

Following are the main reasons that can result in PR0 that is not a penalty:

A new webpage Before you panic, it is quite possible that a page received a PR0 only because it was uploaded after the last PR update. Checking the domain without “www” If you perform a PR check of a page with the “www” removed from the domain’s name (check “domain.com” instead of www.domain.com, then you might definitely see a PR0 for this page. There is a difference in Google’s eyes between “www.domain.com/page.htm” and “domain.com/page.htm”. A temporary Google malfunction This may also happen quite frequently, when Google does not return the PR fast enough, or can’t return it all because of a technical problem, it will be displayed as PR0 on the toolbar. Dynamic Pages When pages are created dynamically, Google may treat them as new webpages, and give them a PR0 as a result. No links to the page The page is an “orphan”: there are no links pointing to it. This can sometimes be a result of linking through Flash. There are several techniques that are considered as invalid site promotion techniques or spam as they are called professionally. Using these techniques may result in a PR0 penalty for a page or an entire website.

For additional information regarding invalid site promotion techniques, please refer to the Spam – Invalid Site Promotion Techniques article.

Does a link from a page with PR0 harm the target page? The answer is no. If this was the case, a war would have started on the Internet, with site owners linking to their competitors to damage them. In addition, a site owner has no control over his incoming links, only his outbound ones.

Links from websites with PR0 are neither harmful nor useful with regards to your page’s PR calculation, but on the other hand, the page that links to you may have received a temporary PR0, therefore a link from that page may turn into a good investment in the future.

You should avoid linking from your site to PR0 pages: since you do have control over this type of action, it may result in a penalty.

About the Author

Eye Logic Media is a full service, professional Search Engine Management Solutions that specializes in helping companies of all sizes to get their web sites highly ranked in the search engines. Eye Logic Media has offices in Richmond Hill, Canada and Tamil Nadu, India. For more information visit http://www.eyelogicmedia.com or call 905.508-3164.

Google’s Penalty – Pagerank 0 – PR0 by eyelogic media

The Google Sand Box Effect

The sand box theory is a name given by website promoters to an unexplained phenomenon that started affecting Google’s search results around the middle of 2004. This event’s main characteristics are: a new site that was submitted lately and appeared for the first time on Google’s search results a short time ago. For the first period, the website will be placed well in the search results, but after a certain period, this website simply disappears from the search results for a long time. This phenomenon is called the “sand box”.

It is important to emphasize that this relates only to new sites and not new pages on existing sites.

Who is affected by the sand box effect? The sand box effect affects websites that were submitted as of March 2004. This effect is not influenced by the site’s pagerank, the webpages’ optimization level, the number of incoming links or the amount of the relevant quality information on site. The sand box effect does not depend on certain categories or search words. It can happen to any new website.

It appears that coming out of the sand box is done in groups. We had a good example of a massive coming out of the sand box on February 2005 during a major Google update at that time.

The complete nondifferentiation of this phenomenon results in the assumption that this effect is a result of Google’s algorithm.

How to fight the sand box effect? Since it’s clear that the above effect has to do with a site’s age, we can say the following two things:

It’s better to optimize an existing website than create a new one. If you are still in need of a new site (that has a new domain), upload several pages to it in the early development stages and make sure that these pages are scanned by Google. Simultaneously, start getting incoming links to your site. This way you can add the website’s development duration to its age. It looks like aside from the abovementioned, all there is left to do is perform good site promoting actions, so that when your site comes out of the sand box, it will directly appear in a high placement.

Possible explanations for the sand box effect There are several explanations for the sand box effect, but all of them remain as a theory in light of the absolute silence kept by the Google people. The big problem in finding an explanation for this phenomenon is that this effect prevents “good” sites from appearing, and by this it actually lowers the quality of the search results. Then, it’s clear that this effect has to do with a website’s age, but the question that remains is why?

My opinion on the subject (and it is only an opinion) is that the goal of this effect is to prevent “meteor” websites that soar up the search results by massive links purchase. My opinion is that the waiting period is not because of the website, but rather because of its incoming links. This way, a new link to a webpage enters a waiting period until it begins to have an effect. New websites have only new links, so they are the ones that suffer the hardest.

How does this effect harm links sellers? Consider the notion that you have to buy links from a website that sell links, to pay a great amount of money for it, and not know when this link will begin yielding results.

About the Author

Eye Logic Media is a full service, professional Search Engine Management Solutions that specializes in helping companies of all sizes to get their web sites highly ranked in the search engines. Eye Logic Media has offices in Richmond Hill, Canada and Tamil Nadu, India. For more information visit http://www.eyelogicmedia.com or call 905.508-3164.

The Google Sand Box Effect   by eyelogic media

Can Someone Please Define Internet Marketing!

ack in 1994 after you created a website for your business, marketing was fairly simple. Generally you would make changes to your HTML code for search engine optimization and for the most part promoted your website through offline methods. These may have included business cards, letterhead, print advertising and other such methods. Whether or not your site was listed on the only search engine, Yahoo, at the time was purely based on how well you optimized our web pages. If you did a good job then multiple pages of your site would be listed consecutively for a search.

Twelve years later in 2006 the entire perspective of marketing your site on the web has become a science requiring a degree. Although, we are all eager to market our website on the web we are somewhat unclear how to accomplish this task through a maze of policies set by the Big 3 search engines – Google, MSN and Yahoo. Most businesses would first seek out professional advice. In the process of seeking professional Internet Marketing advice, your story may look something like this.

“By now I had heard about pay-per-click, something called Ad Sense, link exchanges, banner advertising and it all sounds quite confusing. After all as a business owner, my forte is to run my company, not try and figure out how to market a website on the Internet. As I seek out professional advice I get quite a variety of different stories. One person calls themselves Internet marketer and the only thing they provide is Pay-Per-Click advertising campaigns. The next person I speak to also consider their business to be in Internet Marketing, yet the only service provided is Search Engine Optimization. Even that term was somewhat vaguely defined to me. I continue to hear about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but it seems to vary from changes to our website to advertising on the web. I am most definitely puzzled at this point. Can anyone describe what Internet Marketing is actually about?”

Advertising and Marketing has always been handled by professional firms that have college educated individuals and understand the difference between Advertising and Marketing. In case you are wondering, here are the definitions of Advertising and Marketing.

- Marketing is the process or technique of promotion, selling and distributing a product or service.

- Advertising is to make your product or service publicly known; an announcement to call public attention by emphasizing qualities to arouse a desire to purchase.

One of the primary issues of advertising and marketing on the Internet is that you may not necessarily reach someone educated in the field of advertising and marketing. Instead it is someone that has educated themselves about a particular area of Internet Marketing. For instance they may have specialized in Affiliate Marketing or Pay-Per-Click campaigns while another individual may know more about making changes to your website for search engine optimization. Currently these types of services are fragmented and they do require someone with the appropriate skills to manage an entire Internet marketing campaign.

If we take a look at all the different areas of Internet marketing you will find the following in your list:

Research, Analysis, Planning and Strategy We need to research key phrases and look at the data to determine our title and description.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) I believe it is safe to say that SEO is not advertising on the web. SEO is strictly modifications to your HTML code and website. Making sure your website is HTML validated, density checks, the keywords, phrases, content, alt descriptions, anchor titles and so on are in place for the entire website.

Internet Marketing This is the actual process of promotion as the definition of marketing was described earlier. Some would call this Natural Propagation Marketing, others will call it Organic marketing. With this form of marketing you can rest assured the shelf life of the efforts put forth can be measured in years.

Internet Advertising Although, the shelf life of Internet advertising can be measured in seconds and can hemorrhage a business financially, there are three areas of Internet advertising. The first would be to utilize an Internet Advertising Network (IAN) to submit a variety of banners through out a variety of websites in order to narrow your advertising to an area with the most response. Another area is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns such as Google Ad Sense or Yahoo Search Marketing. Lastly, you may consider direct advertising on websites that you have found to be of value to your business with high page ranking.

Management & Reporting It is necessary to monitor all the various activities you are pursuing on the web. Internet marketing gives us the ability to measure almost all aspects of our advertising and marketing campaigns with the push of a button. You will want to keep an eye on your website statistics, check your Google page rank, your Alexa traffic ranking, and your link popularity overall to name a few.

If we consider all the various parts that are required for proper business Internet marketing, you will find the industry moving towards consolidation in the future. Equally, we will find that advertising and marketing on the web will eventually fall back to educated professionals who not only understand advertising and marketing, but will now include their education in Internet marketing as well.

About the Author

Melih Oztalay is the CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing. Internet marketing is not only about knowledge and experience, but also about imagination. Can Someone Please Define Internet Marketing!

ack in 1994 after you created a website for your business, marketing was fairly simple. Generally you would make changes to your HTML code for search engine optimization and for the most part promoted your website through offline methods. These may have included business cards, letterhead, print advertising and other such methods. Whether or not your site was listed on the only search engine, Yahoo, at the time was purely based on how well you optimized our web pages. If you did a good job then multiple pages of your site would be listed consecutively for a search.

Twelve years later in 2006 the entire perspective of marketing your site on the web has become a science requiring a degree. Although, we are all eager to market our website on the web we are somewhat unclear how to accomplish this task through a maze of policies set by the Big 3 search engines – Google, MSN and Yahoo. Most businesses would first seek out professional advice. In the process of seeking professional Internet Marketing advice, your story may look something like this.

“By now I had heard about pay-per-click, something called Ad Sense, link exchanges, banner advertising and it all sounds quite confusing. After all as a business owner, my forte is to run my company, not try and figure out how to market a website on the Internet. As I seek out professional advice I get quite a variety of different stories. One person calls themselves Internet marketer and the only thing they provide is Pay-Per-Click advertising campaigns. The next person I speak to also consider their business to be in Internet Marketing, yet the only service provided is Search Engine Optimization. Even that term was somewhat vaguely defined to me. I continue to hear about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but it seems to vary from changes to our website to advertising on the web. I am most definitely puzzled at this point. Can anyone describe what Internet Marketing is actually about?”

Advertising and Marketing has always been handled by professional firms that have college educated individuals and understand the difference between Advertising and Marketing. In case you are wondering, here are the definitions of Advertising and Marketing.

- Marketing is the process or technique of promotion, selling and distributing a product or service.

- Advertising is to make your product or service publicly known; an announcement to call public attention by emphasizing qualities to arouse a desire to purchase.

One of the primary issues of advertising and marketing on the Internet is that you may not necessarily reach someone educated in the field of advertising and marketing. Instead it is someone that has educated themselves about a particular area of Internet Marketing. For instance they may have specialized in Affiliate Marketing or Pay-Per-Click campaigns while another individual may know more about making changes to your website for search engine optimization. Currently these types of services are fragmented and they do require someone with the appropriate skills to manage an entire Internet marketing campaign.

If we take a look at all the different areas of Internet marketing you will find the following in your list:

Research, Analysis, Planning and Strategy We need to research key phrases and look at the data to determine our title and description.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) I believe it is safe to say that SEO is not advertising on the web. SEO is strictly modifications to your HTML code and website. Making sure your website is HTML validated, density checks, the keywords, phrases, content, alt descriptions, anchor titles and so on are in place for the entire website.

Internet Marketing This is the actual process of promotion as the definition of marketing was described earlier. Some would call this Natural Propagation Marketing, others will call it Organic marketing. With this form of marketing you can rest assured the shelf life of the efforts put forth can be measured in years.

Internet Advertising Although, the shelf life of Internet advertising can be measured in seconds and can hemorrhage a business financially, there are three areas of Internet advertising. The first would be to utilize an Internet Advertising Network (IAN) to submit a variety of banners through out a variety of websites in order to narrow your advertising to an area with the most response. Another area is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns such as Google Ad Sense or Yahoo Search Marketing. Lastly, you may consider direct advertising on websites that you have found to be of value to your business with high page ranking.

Management & Reporting It is necessary to monitor all the various activities you are pursuing on the web. Internet marketing gives us the ability to measure almost all aspects of our advertising and marketing campaigns with the push of a button. You will want to keep an eye on your website statistics, check your Google page rank, your Alexa traffic ranking, and your link popularity overall to name a few.

If we consider all the various parts that are required for proper business Internet marketing, you will find the industry moving towards consolidation in the future. Equally, we will find that advertising and marketing on the web will eventually fall back to educated professionals who not only understand advertising and marketing, but will now include their education in Internet marketing as well.

About the Author

Melih Oztalay is the CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing. Internet marketing is not only about knowledge and experience, but also about imagination. Visit SmartFinds Internet Marketing.

Can Someone Please Define Internet Marketing! by Melih Oztalay

What is the Google Sandbox Effect?

By Jakob Jelling www.sitetube.com

In the age of fair competition you may find it hard to believe that a search engine may hinder the appearance of a new website. This is what is currently believed to be happening on more web servers today. Some programmers have viewed Google as uncomfortable to rank newer websites until they have proven their viability to exist for more than a period of “x” months. Thus the term “Sandbox Effect” applies to the idea that all new websites have their ratings placed in a holding tank until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence.

However the website is not hindered as much as the links that are reciprocated from other users. Newer links that are created are put on a “probationary” status until again they pickup in rank from other matured sites or placed directly by an ad campaign. The idea behind the hindrance is to prevent a fast ranking to occur on a new website. The usual holding period seems to be between 90 and 120 days before a site would start obtaining rank from reciprocal or back linking.

Some advice has been given to have companies you are going to reciprocate back add your link first to the website. This may help grandfather your site in, thus reducing the waiting time associated with “new” websites. People have noticed a 0 page rank when first signing up and receiving a bolstering 7 page ranking after 4 months. Why the delay? The fact is, that if people realized how easy it would be to get a high ranking, would that take away the credibility of the engine. It depends on whom you ask, but it does seem to be happening frequently to newer subscribers. Do not discontinue back linking, your rank will eventually appear.

About the Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

What is the Google Sandbox Effect?   by Jakob Jelling