SEO Dance

Do you ever just search for words to see what is listed at the top of the search result? Some days when I feel there is nothing new to see on the Internet, this is what I do. Today I decided to see just what is at the top of the search results for the word ‘Christmas.’

For Google, it wasn’t really a surprise to see the first link to be the Wikipedia page. Google must love Wikipedia because their search results are usually number one or close to it. The second spot on Google belongs to Northpole.com. The third result is a like from History.com on the history of Christmas.

Let’s move on to Ask.com. The top search result at Ask is Northpole.com followed by Merry-Christmas.com and How Stuff Works.com’s answer to Christmas questions.

Yahoo must be in a love triangle with Google for Wikipedia’s affection since the Wikipedia page is at the top of the search results. Kaboose.com’s subdomain on holidays and Christmas comes in second followed by How Stuff Works.

It’s interesting to see some of the same results on search engines and wonder why one site takes top result. It’s a fun game to put off all of those holiday tasks I should be tackling instead.

I take more pictures with my digital camera in a month that I ever did with a film camera. That might be a slight exaggeration since I have piles of pictures taken throughout the years with a film camera. I average about 200-300 pictures a month. Most are not that spectacular but a few I am proud of. Those that I want to share, I load onto my Flickr account.

Users can share your Flickr photos through Digg, delicious, or countless other social bookmarking websites. With each photo, you can write a little something about it. You can also tag your photos, add friends and join groups. Flickr is a fun way to connect with others. SEO is only part of the battle when it comes to Internet traffic. While you can’t directly put in your website address into your profile, pick a username that if searched will help curious folks find you. Networking with people can help with long-term success.

Besides, it’s a lot of fun to share my favorite photos with the world.

Google may not be the only search engine in town but there is no doubt that they are very powerful. Millions use their search engine to find the information they are looking for while webmasters try their best to optimize their website to get noticed in the search results. But what happens when your search ratings fall because of lost PageRank or even worse, de-indexed by Google?

It is hard to overcome a loss of traffic but with time and a plan, that traffic will come back. Here are some suggestions for marketing your website should you find a sudden loss in traffic.

For blogs:

Taking part in a MEME is a nice traffic booster even if it might only be for a day. When taking part in a MEME, choose one closely related to your blog and then comment on other participant’s blog. Over time, MEMEs can help build your community of readers.

Blog carnivals are a collection of articles that all cover a common theme. Blog carnivals are advertised as magazines with some being published as often as monthly. Blogcarnival.com will list the blog carnivals and their next publishing date, how to submit, etc.

Comment on other blogs. It’s amazing how many people do click on URLs through comments. Say something insightful, thought provoking as a comment. Help add to the conversation, and you will certainly pique the interest of at least a few readers.

For websites:

Link exchanges are a way to find new visitors. It does take time and patience, i.e, not a quick fix solution. Sadly, other than paying for visitors, it will take time to once again have traffic flowing to your website.

Have a contest or write an in-depth article. Then write your own press release then submit to press release distribution websites that will help to get the word out about your news.

Submit to directories. Even if some are paid, if they are well recognized then it could possibly be worth it.

For blogs or websites:

Submit articles to social networks like Digg, delicious, and Stumble Upon. Be sure to take part in the social network communities by commenting and voting for other articles. Build your friends and network with Send out bulletins of your best article to your friends on My Space.

Being penalized by Google can really hurt traffic and search results. It might take time to bounce back but using web resources can help you gain exposure and win some of that traffic and hopefully more within time.

What is this? An article on New Year’s resolutions? But we haven’t even made it past Christmas yet you might be saying. The New Year can be full of hope and promise, so why not start planning for it as soon as possible? Besides it will get your mind off all that Christmas shopping still left to do.

Since all of my websites are blogs, my resolutions all revolve around making my blogs better for search engines and for readers. Here is my list of resolutions:

Blog on-topic. I maintain several blogs that all are about a different subject and yet I still manage to stray from the topic.I just cringe when I notice that I have more posts filed under MISC or off topic than that are on topic. I will put my readers first by staying on topic. If they come to my gaming blog, then they will find only game-related articles. It’s so easy for me to get off topic but in 2008 I will try very hard to stay focus.

Comment on comments. I love to receive comments but seldom respond to them. To hopefully encourage more, I will make an effort to respond to each and every comment I receive.

Blog daily. I’ve become quite fond of blogging during the evening hours. I will start dating some of those posts to go live the next day. This way I will have fresh content each day instead of having one day with three posts and then two days with none. It can be very hard to blog each day on every blog. I usually make it to each blog every three days, so if I write a few extra posts when inspired, then I will have fresh content all the time on every blog.

Concentrate on SEO. Maybe not to much on individual posts but as an overall theme for the blog. Some keywords are extremely competitive but are the words people use for searches. So, I will continue to go for long tail keywords but also try to concentrate on a few narrow keywords. An example would be my casual games blog. I will try to work in the words ‘casual game’ more into my articles since this is what my blog is all about.

I will probably add more as the new year gets closer, and I really think about how I can improve my websites.

Twitter is a website that prompts users to answer one simple question: what are you doing? It’s social networking-lite and can be good for your website. How you ask? Well, here is what I think.

First users must sign up for an account. Then you can add a widget -a snippet of code - to your blog or website that will display your last twitter message. You can either post what you are doing or use it to preview new content you are working on. Either way it will be something new for your visitors to see each and every time they visit your webpage.

With Twitter, you can either update through their interface or text your message from your cell phone or through instant messaging. Just think you can add new content from practically anywhere. Suppose that you have a great story but haven’t had time to finish it. With Twitter, you can tease it to your audience. One of the secrets to successful blogging is to have new content each day. New content gives those faithful readers something new each day. Lately I’ve been updating more in the afternoon and always feel rushed to do so. With Twitter, I can put up a teaser in the morning and then feel less stressed knowing that my readers know that some new content is coming.

The Twitter community is growing, too. As more bloggers take advantage of the service, the more potential friends you will have who will see your postings from their Twitter homepage. It’s another way to reach potential new readers while having fun.

The Twitter interface is easy to navigate and uncluttered. Updating it is simply typing in a text box. Your last update is the only one that shows in the widget. All public updates show up in the public time line that is even more exposure to your profile to other users.

‘What are you doing?’ is my two-year-old’s favorite question. It seems we start at an early age curious as to what others have going on. You can share that and other information on the go or from your computer with your readers. Twitter can be a fun way to add new content to your site while giving your reader’s a little glimpse into your world.

The acronym NaBloPoMo is one you might see a lot this month. It stands for National Blog Posting Month, which happens to be November. Bloggers sign up and pledge to post on their blog every day in November. Taking part in NaBloPoMo will help to increase exposure to your blog as well as immerse you more into the blogging community.

Once you sign up with NaBloPoMo, the interface is much like a social network. Join or start groups, add friends, or visit the forums are just some of the features of the community. When you sign up your blog, you’ll be listed in the members area as well as become a part of the randomizer, which displays a NaBloPoMo blog randomly. Oh and did I mention there are prizes? Some bloggers have generously donated prizes that will be randomly given away at the end of the month to bloggers who posted each day.

NaBloPoMo can not only be a challenge to you but might garner new readers, new links, and new friendships. It’s a win-win from any angle you look at it. New content every day is vital to a blog, so taking part in this challenge will help you get into the groove of blogging daily. Blogging daily will keep both visitors and search engine crawlers coming back on a regular basis.

Today is a perfect day to get started since it’s November 1st.

NaBloPoMo

Sometimes Google search results are less than stellar. Some high ranking pages won’t have anything to do with the search term at all. I had thought that I would just have to get over it when this happens but apparently not. I noticed an interesting link located at the very bottom of search result pages.

It’s a link that allows you to voice your concern about the search result to Google. While they will not respond to your comments, it might just help them make Google better. I can’t stand to have a search result that has a 4 year old forum posting as the top result. Now finally I know what I can do about it.

In the form you basically write what results you were expecting. There is also a box to add any websites that you were hoping to find from that result. So if there is a relevant website that has content on the subject you are searching and you think it should be in the results, you can suggest it.

Now at least maybe I have a sounding board to voice my disappointment when searching with Google.

When I was in college, the one element of building a website was always the site map page. The site map is like a legend in that it lays out all in one place what can be found on the whole website. It makes navigating a website very easy for visitors. Having one in place is not only extremely helpful to visitors but can help with search engine indexing.

Since the site map holds a link to every page on your website, it’s like one-stop shopping for a search engine crawler. Site maps or site indexes save visitors from having to search all over your website for just the right page they are looking for. Here is a look at a site map.

Site maps do not have to be fancy, just functional. Group pages together by subject, then list subjects alphabetically with links under corresponding heading. Since web pages can have thousands of pages, to keep your site map manageable, either just include the most relevant web pages link with their best keyword or have keyword links that will direct a visitor to an unabridged site map.

Since site maps may seem like a way just to create internal linking, it can also be useful to both search engines and web visitors.

sitemap

You’ve probably heard the saying, “No man is an island,” meaning no one can do everything, and sometimes we have to rely on others. With websites and the every-changing Internet, the same logic can be applied. You seldom see a website or blogger do every aspect of their website themselves. Some can build webpages and might even be good at promotion. Still it’s much easier and the rewards can be great when a webmaster pools his resources with someone else.

That’s how I think of blog networks. It’s a collaboration of like-minded bloggers out to help each other by driving traffic for each other. I’ve just joined a fairy new network with one of my personal blogs and am excited to see the network startup find its feet and hopefully become a great success.

It’s nice to be on the “ground floor” since I hope it will be a good learning experience about marketing on the World Wide Web. Being a part of a network will hopefully grow my readership and exposure.

It’s always better to do tackle a task with someone, so it just makes sense to adopt that attitude when garnishing more attention to your website.

One thing I have learned over the years it to never say never to an idea. While some ideas might not fit your ideals now, it doesn’t mean that you won’t in sometime in the future use them.

My case in point is a blogger whom I admire and read quite a bit. She had commented one time that she did not like paid blogging and thought it was just a bad idea. A few months later she posted how she was going to give paid blogging a try. Now it is quite possible that she was just trying it for the sake of blogging about it but still it is something that she was going to do that she previously had written off.

It’s a good example of how sometimes a bad idea one day might not sound so bad the next week or six months from now. Certain SEO techniques like link exchanges or forum postings might not be appealing today but in a few months might be the perfect way to garner new interest.

Sometimes it’s best not to discount any method for garnishing more traffic to your website unless it’s an underhanded practice. Keeping an open mind will help make sure that you at least give new ideas a try. While some might not be successful, you could be surprised at how effective some tactics that you thought were a waste of time really pay off in the end.

SEO

The absence of a recent PageRank update has some wondering if an end has come to the Google practice of ranking websites. PageRank is updated every three months and is overdue. The last PageRank update should have happened mid-summer. What has happened to the PageRank update?

Well, just like your hairstylist is the only one who knows your natural hair color, only Google knows what is happening to the PageRank. Google spends a lot of time tweaking their service, so it is possible that the PageRank is undergoing a transformation. There is no official word as to what exactly - if anything - is going on with PR.

Google could very well be overhauling the current PageRank system that gives a blog a numeric ranking from 0 to 10. In the scope of just how many websites are online, this ranking does seem a little lacking. While the Alexa ranking - in theory - is a better judge as to a website’s popularity, it is still severly handicapped because only those surfing with an Alexa toolbar are casting votes for websites. Google PR is a more complete approach to judging websites; however, the simple number is sometimes misleading. Some new websites with little to no PR have found quite a loyal audience while older, established higher ranking PR websites might not be as cutting-edge as they once were. Of course, it’s hard to really rank websites but maybe Google is working on a system that improves their formula.

For now though, we wait until a PageRank happens or for official word from Google as to what is really happening with PR.

As I’m reading through my morning email, I come across a note that I find interesting. It’s from a website I’m associated with and the need to install the Alexa toolbar. Apparently the Alexa ranking of the website is slipping, not because there is less traffic to it but because so many users have upgraded to Vista. So far there isn’t an Alexa toolbar that it Vista compatible.

I’m not the biggest fan of the Alexa rankings. I know some people are really into the whole Alexa ranking and feel that - like the Nielsen ratings for television programs - Alexa is very accurate. I for one am skeptical to say the least. However, there are plenty of webmasters and others who feel a good Alexa ranking is important especially when it comes to advertising.

Alexa ranks websites by visitors who use the Alexa toolbar. So, if you want to give the websites you visit a “vote” on Alexa, then you have to surf with the toolbar installed. While this system is far from perfect, the Alexa ranking is becoming more creditable every day. Still it will be nice when a true website rankings system is developed. Until then hopefully the Alexa toolbar for Vista will be released soon to help website rankings become more in line to what they once were for some websites.

Well, apparently cable doesn’t run this far up the road, so we are waiting on option B: satellite Internet. I have dial-up but it’s very limited.

Having dialup these past few weeks have made me really appreciate broadband. It also has showed me that there seems to be very few websites that are dialup friendly left. It has definitely been a wakeup call to check my websites for how fast they load with a dialup connection.

There are some websites that will check your page for you. Ironically it would take me too long to find them through searches before getting frustrated and quitting. Some things to keep in mind when making a 56K friendly page is keep graphics to a minimum, and keep blogs as widget-free as possible. Do away with background images and other decorative graphics. No flash, and if you use flash, have an option for a plain text version.

To get the most out of your SEO efforts, make sure that your website is friendly to all websurfers.

Hopefully I will be back online fully next week. Then things will return back to normal with regular postings.

Well I’m sort of back online after the move. It’s dial up but I guess it beats nothing. Tomorrow high speed will be installed, so tomorrow should be a return to the norm around here.

Having limited access the past few days has made me realize how disconnected I feel when I can’t just jump online at any given moment. It also makes it feel longer than it actually has been since being online. It feels like many weeks since I’ve read anything on the subject of SEO when in reality it’s been less than a week!

While using someone else’s computer to access the Internet, I cannot tell at a glance what my PageRank is, so I’ve been plugging my websites into PageRankim.com to see if the update has happened. So far no moment on any of my sites. I was hoping the Google dance had happened while I was offline. Sort of like a nice “welcome back to the Internet” gift of a higher PageRank.

Time to unpack some more and wait for the cable guy. Then it’s back to normal around here. Thank goodness.

Moving this week has made me realize that I am a pack rat. Not that I didn’t know this before, but there’s just something about seeing all of your stuff lying out and not fitting into all of your boxes that drives the point home. It’s also made me realize that not only do I need to streamline our stuff but to streamline my websites as well.

I have a habit of beginning an article and never finishing it. I have so many drafts on one blog that WordPress doesn’t list them all on the write page. I need to go through those post and either finish them or do something else with the posts.

Since I have a couple of fairly new blogs, I need to drive traffic to them. That means start commenting on like-minded blogs and participating in forum discussions. I also can’t forget the importance of search engine traffic and must remember that when writing articles. I get a lot of traffic from long tail searches, which are search phrases rather than keywords. I try to watch my phrasing when writing to include at least one phrase that might be used by someone in a search engine.

One thing this move has taught me is the importance of keeping a clean, uncluttered place to live. I plan to take my new found philosophy and also apply it to my websites. Hopefully the results will make the pages better for readers as well as search engines.

search engine results