Archive for the ‘Search Engines’ Category

How To Use Search Engine Synonyms To Your Advantage

July 2, 2008

Lately webmasters have noticed that some pages are appearing very high in Google SERP (Search Engine Ranking Pages) without even a single presence of the search term; albeit topically succinct. This is a significant departure from what is widely known that for a page to appear for the search term “Apple Computer”, the term should be used in the page fairly frequently. Infact this has been the basis of a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactic called Keyword Density.

This then means that when you do a search for “Apple Computers” you will tend to see pages that do not contain this particular term. But they will contain terms like Mac, Macintosh or G4. These are what are termed as SE (Search Engine) synonyms. Evidently Google seems to consider the terms “Mac” etc similar in meaning as “Apple Computers”. This is comparable to the way you would use the words “car” and “vehicle” interchangeably. And consequently instead of serving back pages strictly with the terms Apple Computers it also includes pages without the term but include terms it considers similar like Mac and Macintosh.

These SE synonyms are an expression of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) discussed here last week, peculiar so far only to Google search. But of more importance to a web business is that it impacts significantly on what you can rank for and how you optimize your web pages on this leading SE. Previously, to rank for all the keywords related to “Apple Computer” you would need to write separate pages for each term. But with this development, it seems the same page could appear for any of the search terms – even without those other terms present within the content.

If you particularly use SEs to drive your online business, LSI adds one more strategy into your bag of SEO tactic. The tactic is simply this; when writing content for your website, make a conscious effort to include SE synonyms in the page. So instead of only using the term “Apple Computers” interchange it with G4 and Macintosh. This will greatly improve the relevance of your page. Not only will Google notice your main keywords but also the use of synonyms. This makes the page super-relevant to the synonymic search terms in the eyes of the SE algorithm.

To determine SE synonyms use the toogle key before your search query. The toogle key is the key with the “~” sign. You will need to hold down the shift key. For example, if you type it before the term “Apple Computers” you will notice that in the resulting SERP include the words Mac, Macintosh and G4 in bold. The bolded words are what the SE also considers as synonyms to the search queries.

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How To Get Other Websites To Link To Yours

July 2, 2008

The use of back-links to improve a websites Search Engine Rank Position (SERP) in search engines (SE) has been very effective in diffusing some level of black-hat search engine optimization (SEO). Black-hat SEO involves using “illegal” techniques with the express purpose of fooling SEs to rank a website favorably. Back-links on the other hand are hyper-text links from other websites that link and direct their visitors to your website. They are also referred to as incoming links.

An everlasting question on an internet marketers mind is how they could get other websites to link back to their website. The more the number of links, the higher the website’s Page Rank (PR) and most likely the better the SERP. The better the SERP the more visitors the website attracts, and the more the visitors the more sales the site can make.

One such technique is article marketing. It is so called as it uses reprintable articles to market your website. The driving force of the internet as a whole is information often referred to as content. Consequently, SEs love content, more so new, unique and/or frequent content. Article marketing targets to satisfy this insatiable need of SEs and webmasters.

An article is a literary composition on a distinct and independent subject such as the one you are reading. This is as opposed to series, book, or other such literary works. The idea in article marketing is to compose on a subject related to your website. For example for a tours and travel website one could compose an article about giving tips on dealing with jetlag or choosing a family safari. Ideally, the article should be more than 500 words but less than 1500. You then make the article available for reprint by any other webmaster. They can choose to use it on their websites, blogs or publish it on their newsletters.

The trick behind getting a link back to your website from the websites’ whose owners choose to use the article is in the resource box. A resource boxes is a widely acceptable format of including hyper-linked text at the end of your article with a little marketing message. It is usually a sentence or two. In here you should add a link pointing to your website. As reprint content, an interested webmaster is only allowed to use the content as is – they can neither change the content nor the resource box.

Each website that uses your article automatically gives you a back-link. Highly informative content tends to attract wider publishing by other webmasters.

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How Search Engines Help Your Local Business

July 2, 2008

The discussion of Search Engines (SE) may sound way off for a local offline business. Infact most will only consider a website if their business goes beyond the country’s borders and particularly if they are targeting markets overseas. This explains the content starved brochure like websites developed by most local companies and businesses.

What is not commonly known is that SEs are advanced for local searches. This then means that one can search for information, products or services provided within walking distance of where you live. As of right now, SEs are looking into ways to encourage this kinds of searches as they are seen as the next frontier in the industry.

It is anticipated that you will be able to search for even an obscure thing like “Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary” and find a copy at the local second hand dealer not far away from your home. But for this to happen, the local second hand dealer needs to have a website not only optimized for their products, but also for their local area.

SEs are already designed to tell the difference by the type of results served between, for example, “Brake repair” and “Brake repair Nairobi”. Someone searching for the former would often be searching for information on brake repairs. On the other hand, a search specified with a location like the latter is often someone in need of those services within the specified area.

So what does this mean for a local business person? It means having a website is not only a sign of being with the times. A well positioned website has potential to introduce a whole new market to your business you otherwise wouldn’t reach. Keeping in mind the cost of hosting and maintaining a website, you should easily make profit.

Secondly, you need to optimize your website to be found for both you products and you local area. This translates to removing those four paragraphs you lifted from the brochures and creating informative content. On the brake repair example above, you could detail on how different braking systems are damaged, to show of your expertise and what you do at your repair shop to correct the damage.

Thirdly, sell you visitors. In the same repair shop example, you could offer a substantial discount if the surfer actually visits your shop at Industrial Area for a brake repair job.

Already some, like Lovepot.com, are testing the waters with local online business. And though they might not be getting huge traffic from the still infant local search, it is reassuring for their visitors that they do not have to convince their new found “love” to pay for their flight to physically meet them in France. An affordable cup of coffee at The Stanley will do just fine. That’s local search for you.

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