SEO and Articles

Search engine optimization will undergo a huge transformation over the next several years. No longer will you be able to track your position for particular keywords and know for certainty that those rankings are what your consumers are seeing. Why? Because personalization, intention and geographical location will all be taken into account to deliver a unique set of search results to each individual searcher.

SEO is going to be a very different ball game, so a more sustainable approach is to focus on mining “the Long Tail” — those products or keywords that are in low demand but, given a large enough catalog/portfolio, can collectively add up to the majority of your business.

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Search engines utilize both automated and manual means for detecting spam. Sophisticated algorithms look for abnormalities in inbound/outbound linking, sentence structure, HTML coding, and so on.

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Even though I’ve received dozens of requests for site gradings, this month I’ve decided to pick a site that didn’t ask for it. Why? Because this month I’m going to air some poor, unsuspecting black-hat SEO’s dirty laundry in order that you might learn from their mistakes and indiscretions, rather than subject a loyal Practical eCommerce reader to potential intense and unwanted scrutiny by search engine reps reading this article. There are so many sites out there committing search engine sins, it was really hard to settle on one.

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Contrary to popular belief, there is more to increasing a website’s visibility in search engines than just sprinkling a handful of keywords on it. The way a site is designed and built has a major impact on whether search engine spiders are even able to access the content. Don’t assume that every programmer or web designer will know how to build a website that is balanced for the target market - and for the major search engines alike.

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Search engine spammers never prosper. Sooner or later, they get caught. And when they do, it’s almost never pretty. Consequences can include ranking penalties, removal of the site’s “voting” power (i.e., ability to pass PageRank), incomplete indexation (i.e., a partial site ban), or, worst of all, getting “graybarred” (i.e., a total site ban, when the PageRank meter in the Google Toolbar is grayed out). You can’t exactly just pick up the phone and give Sergey or Larry a call with a “Mea Culpa” and then everything magically comes right again. It could take years for a business to recover from a site ban.

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In this continuation of ten useful tips about optimizing your blog for search engines, we look at the five remaining tips, including: sticky posts, heading tags, anchor text and more.

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With over 75,000 new blogs created every single day, and tens of millions of blogs already in the blogosphere, it’s not a given that you’ll get found by your target audience and develop a loyal following of readers. What can you do to pull in the crowds and to rise in the rankings? Read on and I’ll share my secrets…

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AirTroductions (www.airtroductions.com) is an ecommerce-enabled matchmaking service for road warriors (currently over 11,000 of them) who are looking for someone interesting to sit next to on their next trip. It could be for companionship, a date, business networking, or just shared cab fare. What a great business idea! And they’ve got a solid website to back it up.

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Optimizing the content of a website containing dozens, or hundreds, and certainly thousands of pages may seem daunting. It doesn’t have to be. It just requires a “SMART” plan of attack and commitment to see that plan through.

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If you use Google regularly, following this guide will save you time and frustration and help you find the right result, quicker.

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