SEO Dance

Exchanging links is a common practice among website owners. But before agreeing to a link exchange a little background check will make sure that you want to exchange links. You wouldn’t invest in a stock without doing your homework or let your teenage daughter go out on her first date with a total stranger. Then why link to a website that might be a suspected bad neighborhood.

Just what is a bad neighborhood on the World Wide Web? It’s a website that either takes part in black hat SEO practices or could be a spam website with no real content just links or ads. You can use a text link checker to see just exactly the website links to and if any of those sites are suspected as being questionable. It’s simple to conduct a check. Just enter the website you want to know more about.

You’ll then get a summary of all the outgoing links on the website. Listed at the bottom of the results will be any questionable links. You can then judge for yourself if the website is still one you want to link to. When I did my website, some of the questionable links were to websites that were perfectly fine but have a category entitled “sex,” so it garners them to be flagged by this checker. So, look over the results before making a decision about linking with a website. Some flags might just be the wording of a category and not necessarily an indication of content.

Technorati can be a great tool to use for blog promotion. It’s simple to add tags to your blog. You can either check to see if your blog software supports tags, install a Wordpress plugin, like Simple Tags, or add tags manually to your post. Using Technorati tags will ensure that your blog post is filed and indexed with them. Not everyone is sold on the idea that Technorati is worth the extra work needed to tag their blogs. Deceth over at WebDevNotes talks about his feelings on the subject of using Technorati tags.

Tags can be thought of as categories. In fact, if you are not tagging your stories, your category might be used as your tag. This can be fine for some posts but if you have a “general” category or “MISC” then it really doesn’t tell what the post is about. Tags should be short and sweet, usually one word will do the trick. I like of tags to my stories this way. I think of the game show Password in the final round where the one teammate can only give one word clues to get their partner to say the phrase on the big money board. If I write a post about a subject, what words have I either used or what words would get person to think of this subject.

I believe Technorati is here to stay, or at least as long as blogging is around. So, using tags in your post could be a wise move to garner traffic and exposure through Technorati.

Technorati

Matt Cutts of Google recently answered some questions about the elusive PageRank. Some have been speculating that a lack of an update to us civilians that this might just be the end of Google’s PageRank. Apparently, PageRank is happening at any given moment. It’s just the push of those numbers outside the Googleplex that is taking so long.

Cutts answers are interesting and an education on PageRank. For more information on PageRank, read his insightful answers. I try not to obsess over PageRank but it’s hard when the gamer in me takes over and wants to know how my latest standing. At least with having a few answers about PageRank I can be satisfied at least for now.

PageRank

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

Maintaining a blog or website creates its own set of challenges. Design, content, regular updates are all subjects that weigh on the mind of website owners. Then to add to the list search engine optimization practices, suddenly this fun adventure can become very stressful.

I love to blog but sometimes the well of ideas is dry. No matter how much I read or think, new subject matter just does not seem to come into my mind. The longer I go without an idea, my stress level rises. I feel more tense, more likely to snap at comments, and just in general an unpleasant person to be around. When I feel this coming on, I try to relieve the stress I feel simply because if I don’t, then I will begin to worry about other things, which will cause more anxiety.

My best plan for dealing with stress at it relates to SEO is to walk away from the computer. I unplug for a few hours. I might watch a little TV or take a walk. Doing something else besides trying to think of ideas is a big help in relieving stress. Most of the times I usually find inspiration when I’m away from the computer. I also try to remind myself that even though daily updates are important especially for blogs that all will not be lost if I miss a day.

Also a good night’s sleep does wonders for the creativity and to clear the mind. Sometimes website SEO can stress me out. It’s at those times that I try to relax and take my mind off of it. Then when I come back to writing it always seems better.

Here is a video on You Tube explaining how to make your WordPress blog better for search engines.

In the news this week, Microsoft unveils a new search engine, Tafiti, which means “do research” in Swahili. The new search engine is geared toward more people doing research than the average web surfer.

Here is a roundup of stories on search engines and what they are doing right and wrong.

This past week the Search Engine Strategies conference was held in San Jose, CA. Here is another roundup of stories of news from SES August 23rd.

There is so much to read and catch up on. This week has been a little hectic around here. Hopefully I can find a break from moving this weekend and get a good handle on the SEO news of the week.

Some of the regular blogs I visit will every once in a while have a guest blogger. I have read how guest blogging can be good for increased exposure to your writing and also help introduce new readers to your blog. This assumes that the guest blogger has a following. When I see a guest post, I usually skip right over it since even if the blogger is blogging on topic, it isn’t the person’s opinion I came to the blog to read. Some guest posts have caught my attention while scrolling past it.

What makes me stop to read a guest blogger’s thoughts? I always read the headline of the blog post. If I’m interested, I will read a few sentences and then make a judgment if I’m reading something of interest. So, here are my suggestions when you are either guest blogging or asking someone to guest blog.

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