Avoid getting banned by Google

If you wake up and find one day that your website isn’t showing anymore in Google, you have been a victim of a Google Ban. This is the worst thing that can happen to your website, especially if you are running a business through your site. Several factors can trigger a Google Ban. Here is a list of ways you can keep your website on Google’s good side.

1. Make sure your have the best uptime possible for your website. This means you must have reliable web hosting. If Google visits your website and it is not up, you may risk Google banning you site.

2. Do not use spamming techniques to promote your website. This will almost definitely lead to condemnation of your website for at least 6 months. Never use “black hat” methods like doorways, hidden text or cloaking. You are only setting yourself up for disaster.

3. Make sure your content is original and relevant. Websites that duplicate content are punished with lower rankings and even bans. Your content should always be made for human consumption and relate to your website’s theme.

4. Linking is a two way street. Not only should the links going out of your website be quality, but be certain that the links that lead to your website are from Google respected locations as well. Avoid link farms and any paid linking service. Also, excessive linking is a red flag for Google. When you add internal links on your own sites, make sure you do it in moderation and with purposeful intent.

5. Be sure your site is Google friendly. Build your website so that Google is able to index every page. Include a sitemap. Be sure all your pages are working and that there are no broken links.

If you follow the Google “Tips for Optimizing” you will be fine. Don’t try to fool Google with tricky tactics. The price you will pay is far worse than the effort it takes to do things the right way!

Thanks to www.vodahost.com

How Google rates the Links and Link Building?

We learned from Google’s patent application last year that Google was changing how they rate links. This didn’t get nearly the attention that I think it deserves and it’s important so I am going to recap the info again now.

Not every link is weighted or valued the same. Google is weighting them based on how likely a “reasonable surfer” would be to click on that link.

To try to figure this out, Google is looking at 2 things:

• link visibility (placement and appearance)

• link relevance

So, no more small text links in footers, no more links buried in comment spam, no more link exchanges where your link sites on a link page with a bunch of others. You need quality links that stand out and are likely to get the click. (Hear that link spammers, no need to keep emailing to ask for link exchanges!)

Linking methods that are no longer effective:

• Forum posting and blog commenting. (Still do it to add value to a conversation and help people but don’t count on link juice from it)

• Social bookmarking. It’s still a helpful resource so use it to be helpful but don’t count on link juice from this.

• Bulk directory submission. This has been a bad idea for a while but it’s worth repeating.

• Bulk link exchange. Bad idea and could result in penalties or being banned from the engines.

Linking methods that are effective:

• Guest blogging. Great way to get exposure for yourself and get a high quality link back to your site.

• Link baiting. This means just putting great content out there that acts as bait and people can’t resist linking to it. The content has to be really good and it really needs to be spread around.

• Press releases. With some effort and some luck, you can get a quality link from big media.

• Social Media. As I mentioned earlier in this article, you can attract links via Twitter (and Facebook).

• Article Syndication. A great way to spread your content (but it has to be good)

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A Indian based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including reputation management, social media marketing, email marketing, website conversion metrics and mobile phone application development. Please contact prachar@ymail.com to learn more

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A Simple jQuery Slideshow

For starters, our main goal should be keeping the markup as clean as possible:

Now let’s use CSS to position the images on top of each other and bring the active image to the top level with z-index:

#slideshow {

position:relative;

height:350px;

}

#slideshow IMG {

position:absolute;

top:0;

left:0;

z-index:8;

}

#slideshow IMG.active {

z-index:10;

}

#slideshow IMG.last-active {

z-index:9;

}

Due to absolute positioning, we need to define the height of the slideshow DIV. Also, notice that we defined three different z-indexes—we will manipulate these soon using jQuery.

For the slideshow animation we are going to switch between each photo at a set rate. So let’s start by writing a function that brings in a new photo on top of the last active image:

function slideSwitch() {

var $active = $('#slideshow IMG.active');

var $next = $active.next();

$next.addClass('active');

$active.removeClass('active');

}

$(function() {

setInterval( "slideSwitch()", 5000 );

});

Here we set a JavaScript interval to call slideSwitch() every 5 seconds. Then slideSwitch() applies the CSS class ‘active’ to bring the next image to the top of the stack. Since we will select the images more than once within slideSwitch(), we define the variables $active and $next for selector performance.

Next we should incorporate a fade animation. For a gallery like this, fade in and fade out are identical, but let’s not forget to think about what we fade against:

function slideSwitch() {

var $active = $('#slideshow IMG.active');

var $next = $active.next();

$active.addClass('last-active');

$next.css({opacity: 0.0})

.addClass('active')

.animate({opacity: 1.0}, 1000, function() {

$active.removeClass('active last-active');

});

}

$(function() {

setInterval( "slideSwitch()", 5000 );

});

We start by applying the ‘last-active’ class we defined earlier. Since ‘.last-active’ falls after ‘.active’ in the stylesheet, the z-index of 9 takes priority, and the top image drops back a level. Next, we set the opacity of the new image to 0 so that we can fade it in using the animate() function. Finally, we attach a callback to remove the z-index classes from the previous image when animate() completes.

Although our slideshow is working well, we should make it more robust by building in some default variables. First, let’s define a default active image, in case we need to put less stress on the back-end. Also, we can use defaults to make the gallery animation loop.

function slideSwitch() {

var $active = $('#slideshow IMG.active');

if ( $active.length == 0 ) $active = $('#slideshow IMG:last');

var $next = $active.next().length ? $active.next()

: $('#slideshow IMG:first');

$active.addClass('last-active');

$next.css({opacity: 0.0})

.addClass('active')

.animate({opacity: 1.0}, 1000, function() {

$active.removeClass('active last-active');

});

}

$(function() {

setInterval( "slideSwitch()", 5000 );

});

We first define a default image for the $active variable, which interestingly enough needs to be the last image on the stack. This is because through absolute positioning, the last image appears on top, and we need to start with it if we want to avoid any flicker.

For the loop it is pretty simple: all we have to do is point the $next variable to the first image once it has gotten to the end of the line.

If you want to improve this function, try setting the animation speed with a variable so the main slideshow function can be thrown into the core and left alone. Also, this slideshow is easily converted to support DIV’s instead of IMG’s—try programming a slideshow with more content.

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including Reputation Management, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Website Conversion Metrics and Mobile Phone Application Development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more.

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How to Add Slideshow in Blogger?

Adding Slideshow to your blog can be a fun way to draw visitors or to promote your art or photography for a business blog. Here's how to add one to your site. Note that as of today, Jan. 01, 2011, there are still bugs in the Slideshow program; but read on for some suggestions for overcoming those bugs. They're easy and work like a charm.

Instructions

Log on to your Photobucket album.

Create a "subalbum" (if you haven't already) by uploading photos that you'd like for your Slideshow. Note-- do not choose the "create a Slideshow" option in Photobucket.

Keep your Photobucket page open for later use.

Log on to Blogger in another window.

Go to "Dashboard."

Click "Layout."

Click "Add gadget."

Click "Slideshow."

Title your Slideshow and then choose "other." Keep this window open.

Go back to Photobucket and at the bottom of your "subalbum" in the left hand corner it will say "public feed" and "album feed."

You want to right click on "album feed" to open it in a new window. If you click on "public feed" it will create a Slideshow of all of your Photobucket images.

Copy that URL.

Go back to blogger and paste that "subalbum" feed address into the box that says "feed."

Preview the Slideshow.

Save changes. You're done.

Create a Free Slideshowtripwow.tripadvisor.com/slideshow

Create free stunning videos from your travel photos in minutes

Auto Publish Your Blogdlvr.it

Distribute Your Blog to Twitter Fast. Easy. Free. Schedule Posts.

Plugin For Blogs - Gamesdailygame.org

Automatically post a new flash game to your blog every day

Get Twitter Followerstwiends.com

Get twitter followers on this novel new service. No auto-tweeting.

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including Reputation Management, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Website Conversion Metrics and Mobile Phone Application Development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more.

BACK LINKS - Weak links or strong links?

This is a question that raises a lot of debate among the SEO and internet marketing communities. Some argue that it is far better to work on building lots of links that perhaps have lower power, whilst others feel that gaining a few very powerful links is the way to go.

As I have quite a lot of experience in of link building I thought I would give the pros and cons of both type of link and explain which I think is best.

Weak Links

It is not actually that easy to define what makes a link strong or weak, but for the sake of this article we will consider a weak link to be any link from a site with a PageRank of under 3 and have less than 1000 links pointing to its domain.

I realise this is a bit of a crude generalization, but it gives an rough impression of the kind of links I am talking about.

Pros:

• These links are often easier to build than powerful links, meaning more can be gained in the same space of time.
• With less powerful links it is often easier to link to deeper pages on your site, thus helping power distribution and the ranking of pages lower in the site hierarchy.
• It is often easier to acquire your anchor text of choice when building weak links, and this is important when trying to rank for your desired keywords.
• As weak links are quicker and easier to build, you can gain links from many more independent domains compared to when building powerful links. Domain spread of links is very important.

Cons:

• Weak links don’t pass a great deal of link juice to your site.
• Weak links can often look spammy, despite whether they are have been acquired by white-hat or black-hat techniques.
• Weak links are more likely to drop off over time as the sites linking to you have a greater chance of shutting down or being redeveloped.
• Weak links are easier for your competitors to match or acquire for themselves.

Powerful Links

For the sake of this article will class powerful links as having the opposite traits as weak links. That is to say any link with a PageRank of 3 or more, and over 1000 back links.

Pros:

• These links pass more link juice to your site. This power is then more likely to spread to deeper pages and help you rank for a wider spectrum of keywords due to increased authority in the eyes of search engines.
• More powerful links tend to provide more traffic than weak links as the sites linking to you are by definition often more authoritative and more popular.
• Powerful links not only help increase your site-wide ranking ability, but they also improve you perceived trust, making you less likely to be penalized for any Grey-hat activity.
• Powerful links are less likely to be removed than weak links and are harder for your competition to acquire.

Cons:

• Powerful links tend to take more time to procure meaning you get less of them for your efforts.
• More powerful websites are less likely to provide a link to deeper pages in your site and some do not provide anchor text links.
• Because powerful links pass more link juice and have a larger effect on site power, when they are removed for whatever reason, the negative ramifications tend to be larger for your site.

So there you have it, a summary of the strengths and weakness of strong and weak links. So what you may ask is my concluding advice? Well, perhaps rather predictable I suggest garnering a mixture of the two.

It is very difficult to build links to every page of your site so powerful links are useful for enhancing the profile a little for all your pages.

However, when you are trying to rank very specific pages for certain keywords, lots of weaker links can often do the trick due to multiple instances of targeted anchor text links.

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including Reputation Management, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Website Conversion Metrics and Mobile Phone Application Development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more.

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Don’t Cheat Your Business by Going Cheap On SEO!

Are you a bargain hunter? I am. I'm always looking for the best deal, the cheapest price and the least expensive... whatever. If you're like me, that frugality carries over into just about all areas of your life, including searching for an SEO company. But one thing that bargain shoppers tend to find out the hard way is that sometimes the best deal isn't always the best deal. In fact, the bargain often turns out to cost you more in the long run.

But before I get into the details of SEO bargain hunting, let me first give you a real-life story of non-SEO bargain hunting that went right, only to turn into a disaster.

Several years ago we needed some concrete work done around our house. We received quotes from a handful of contractors and found one that was about half of what everybody else was charging. We hired them, they came, did their work and the end result was fantastic.

The next year we needed some additional concrete work so we called the same guys. Again, they came and did a masterful job. Then the next summer, we had one last batch of concrete work (and some minor landscaping) to be done and again, we called the guys who were cheap and had done great work for us in the past. This is where the nightmare began. The new concrete work, next to some of the old, didn't match. It was almost like a completely different kind of concrete was used, which made it obvious that this was two separate works done at different times (and no, I'm not just talking normal wear and tear here.) I didn't make a big deal out of this, but it gets worse.

When they put in the landscaping, they failed to reroute the yard drainage. So instead of the sprinkler system draining down around the house and to the street, it drained under the new concrete pad they put in. Now, whenever the sprinklers run on one side of the back yard the water drains to the other side, under the new concrete work, and then it filters out, creating a small pond of stagnant water. In our attempts to get them to come out and correct the matter, we kept getting promises of days and times, all of which were broken. Then we could no longer get a hold of anybody and could only leave voice messages.

It was a few months later that we found out that their contracting license had recently been revoked, and they were no longer in business.

We had two great experiences with the contractor in question. It was only the third go 'round where things went sour. In thinking about that, I realized that it had to happen sooner or later. This company worked for years giving quotes that could not support a legitimate business. It should have tipped me off when their kids were out there helping them pour concrete when they should have been in school!

While the work they did for the first two years was great, somewhere along the way they began to cut corners and leave work unfinished, or worse, in a problematic state. In hindsight, this was inevitable.

Those that provide bargain SEO services will ultimately be forced to go in one of two directions. They either increase their fees in order to support the business and their ability to provide quality work for their clients, or they'll begin to cut corners, not and/or implement strategies that are counter-productive in the long run.

It's nice to think that you've found an SEO provider that can optimize your site for a very limited budget. You may even have a good experience with them for a time, but sooner or later you're going to find your situation radically changing, either with higher prices or lower quality work, which comes with non-timely responses to your concerns and sometimes even search engine penalties.

Be aware of low-priced SEO services. That's not to say that high-priced SEO is an automatic guarantee of quality, but with discount SEO’s, it’s a good bet that somebody is underpaid, which means that they won't put their full efforts into their work. And if they are not underpaid, well, then you'll get exactly what you're paying for.

With SEO it makes sense to shop for quality over cost. Your business is far more important than a patch of concrete, it's your livelihood. Don't cheat yourself by going cheap on SEO!

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including reputation management, social media marketing, email marketing, website conversion metrics and mobile phone application development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more

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13 SEO footprints Best Avoided!

Lots of people go on about footprints and how to avoid them, well there are oodles of things that the bad people (Google) can do to find your sites, which you may or may not be linking together in a sneaky fashion.

I have seen Data in Star Trek and I get the idea that patterns can always be found. In this case Google and Data are the same, trust no one, least of all them..

The footprint should not only be the concern of the "Blackhat SEO", it should also be part of what the cleanest of clean SEO’s look into. Why is that, well Blackhats anticipate losing sites, but when your real site goes MIA it can be very teary eyed times.

Also with all your competitors snooping around, you don’t want them seeing what works, if you can help it or let them know that you may be behind some good ranking.

I have seen grown men nearly cry (the big Jessies is what I am saying and sticking to it) when losing, a lot.

Now this is not an exhaustive list, just the sort of thing I would be looking for in my clients SEO programs or link networks etc etc., before I get bored or have to take my dog out for a leak. The dog is ticking!

1. Whois details. If you are daft enough to buy all your interlinked sites with the same whois info you have done a major faux pas. Sorry to say, I would reckon that Google has access to all whois, with their history too. If they say they don’t have access it, it is your duty to not believe them and assume they do. I would, if I were them sneakily buy this info, they have lots of cash and this is a cold war of sorts. Bad search results can make share prices drop! Vary NS, registrants, have legit whois info. You need real for real sites, as you can get that letter from Nominet saying you are not real.

2. Loose lips sinks ships. If you tell no-one or not many people about your stuff you can’t get it outed or investigated. A friend of mine has some amazing rankings and pushes the boundaries. But loads of us know his sites so we can look at what he is doing and maybe recreate it. If he never told us who his client was we would not have mooched around in the SERPs to find his stuff. If you value your private cutting edge stuff, keep it that way. That means, not sneaking a link from a performing site for your own private stuff (cheeky!) or getting that not really needed foot link.

3. Same templates. Using the same designer or free templates might not be the best thing in the world. I like to adapt (ahem) other people’s templates to remove footprints of links home. Naughty I know, but hey no-one is going to die, it is not brain surgery is it? To mix it up fella, keep it random. I suggest using different designers as even when told they need to be different some designers flip things around with CSS and an image change but 99% of the template is it the same.

4. Coding footprints or Onpage footprints. Ok obvious stuff like saying the same thing on all your sites (simple example) can find your whole set of sites. Taking it a stage deeper and on a similar line to CSS faux pas below.

5. Same CMS. If you always use the same CMS, or blog or whatever, well you don’t need me to tell you more do you?

6. URL structures. Always using the same structure, be it folders or html, htm, underscores etc will be a big obvious no no. I have seen sites in sectors I watch and I know who owns them before I even check it out thoroughly.

7. Same webserver techs. Well this is more or a mixing it up thing. You work it out.

8. Same IP blocks. If you always put your sites on the same IP start looking at new Cat C’s (or whatever it is called these days). You have seen the IP command in MSN I presume. That’s what we have access to. To be uber safe maybe try and hunt down different Cat B’s.

9. Stupid linking. Linking back to one source or even worse heavy cross linking could get you dinked. You need to ringfence those suites of sites, so if you do get a direct hit, you only lose a %, not the whole lot.

10. CSS naming conventions. Always using the same naming id’s and class’s could get you a good shoeing. The argument that lots of people may use them and they can’t kill everyone is not a good one. Why? because they don’t just nuke everything, they could build up a pattern, a number of black marks, to piece together the whole story, then you get a kicking.

11. Same onsite monetization. Yes sites need to make money, but making $2 a week for some cack feeder site and losing a whole network is not worth it. If you are daft enough to put Adsense on all the sites, at least make sure you have several accounts. Which is not that easy and requires serious discipline not to let them know.

12. Crazy surfing patterns. What do you check out on a daily/weekly basis, do you do nutty things like SERPS checks using WebPosition Gold? Or maybe other things like flick home to Google after looking at your sites with the Toolbar installed or being logged in. Whilst they say they may never use that data, it was a long time until MediaBot was acknowledged as doing some indexing. To me that always seemed obvious, but what do I know?

13. Avoiding others peoples footprints. Keep this one short, if you buy links, how good are they. Are there lots of other links going from the pages to 100% different things? Best maybe not take those links, you could get entwined in a web of shit.

Ok, well that’s it for now, there are lots more things to look out for, but not sure if I want to out them, as I would like to keep something back. You could always offer me money to tell you.

Cheers for now

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including reputation management, social media marketing, email marketing, website conversion metrics and mobile phone application development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more

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What are SEO Footprints?

If you’re serious about SEO, you need to spend some time learning about footprints, how to not leave them, and how to detect them. A SEO footprint is the imprint you leave on the internet that can be used to trace your activity through various sites. It can be used to locate multiple accounts and multiple sites you own. If you’re an SEO tech, this is important. A footprint is an obvious sign of search engine manipulation and can be used to by Google or competition to rip apart your network.

So How Are Footprints Created?

Basically, not enough variety. No creativity. Being lazy.

Do you use the same theme on several sites you own? Do you have the same link in the footer on every site? Use the same anchor text or wording on every site? Do you get links in the same places for all of your sites? All of your sites on the same server? All sites have open WHOIS?


Starting to get the point? All of that kind of stuff can be detected by a smart SEO tech. We might backtrack your links and notice you’re getting sitewide links on 20 different sites with the same anchor text. we check them out and they’re all BANS or all Wordpress or all directories. A quick IP check shows that they’re on the same server. We check out the WHOIS and they have the same owner … And We've busted their network. We look for a pattern they use, then do a search on that pattern. If we can do this, you can bet Google can too, especially if they’re tipped off.

How Can You Find Footprints?

To Find You Competition’s Links Go to Yahoo

linkdomain:site.com -site:site.com
Find Backlinks for Given Keyword

linkdomain:site.com “make money online” -site:site.com

Find Backlinks from Footprinted Software

linkdomain:site.com “Powered by Build A Niche Store” -site:site.com

Find Backlinks from .info Domains
linkdomain:site.com +site:.info -site:.com -site:site.com

Find Backlinks from .info with Keyword
linkdomain:site.com “make money online” +site:.info -site:.com -site:site.com

Find Back Links From .info with Footprinted Software
linkdomain:site.com “Powered by Build A Niche Store” +site:.info -site:.com -site:site.com

So, those are just a couple of searches that can be used to locate and track your competition’s footprint. You can use a variety of combinations and keywords to location various sites your competition is using to get links.

What Are You Looking For?

All of the above searches return hundreds of links, but what are you looking for. You’re looking for links that do not appear natural. These may be footer or sidebar links. These may be tons of links with the same anchor text. This could be a lack of variation in themes. Once you find this, you can check out the IP and WHOIS information to determine the owner.

Once you’ve found a few footprints your competition uses, you can locate sites on their network. Then continue the process on their network sites to find even more sites. They might be link laundering and layering their network sites to hide them. Its possible to work your way back pretty far if they don’t make effort to mask their footprint.

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including reputation management, social media marketing, email marketing, website conversion metrics and mobile phone application development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more

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Killer Tips to Building Effective LinkWheels That Drive Laser Targeted Traffic by IndSEO

LinkWheels can be very powerful if you know how to use them correctly. This short article is going to show you some essential tips you can use to make more powerful LinkWheel systems.



First, lets take a look at what a LinkWheel is. A LinkWheel consists of several "properties." These properties link to each other and to your "money site" or the page you are trying to promote. The properties themselves generally consist of web 2.0 sites, article sites, and video sites.

Here are a few quick tips to help you build your own LinkWheel:

Do not close your LinkWheel. A closed LinkWheel is when you have a set of LinkWheel properties that complete a circle. Google can detect these LinkWheel systems and may flag them as link manipulation. This could result in a Google slap. Instead, make sure your LinkWheels are open.

A great way to make sure your LinkWheels are not closed is to use a free online mind mapping tool that you can use to draw out your LinkWheels and interlink them randomly. Once you visualize your LinkWheel you can write out in a notepad which property connects to the next.

Do not use six properties! Using six properties in a LinkWheel is effective, however, you should be building more advanced LinkWheel systems to really make your LinkWheels even more effective. When I make LinkWheels I usually start with eight properties.

Why?

Because everybody else starts with six. I want to get a leg up on the competition any way I can so I start with eight and add more properties if needed. Some LinkWheels will require 16 properties while others may only require eight. Find a number that consistently works for you and stick with it.

Update your LinkWheel content. Yea, that's right - you SHOULD update your LinkWheel content on a regular basis. This will keep it fresh and help your sites gain more authority. Your LinkWheel will naturally grow stronger this way.

Do not get me wrong - its not like your blog that you update every other day. Think of it as more of a twice a month type of chore. This will help you tremendously in the long run.

Sometimes properties in your LinkWheel will start to develop into their own money making sites. When this happens you can seriously leverage the power of your LinkWheel to generate massive traffic and ultimately generate a lot more money.

And what's the point of all of this? Well, to drive traffic to your website to make money of course!

Learn my methods for driving massive traffic to your website right now.

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including reputation management, social media marketing, email marketing, website conversion metrics and mobile phone application development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more.

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How to Set up a Link Wheel?

Currently, there are many different types of individuals that make use of various schemes as a means of ensuring that their website can do very well in a search engine. One such type of techniques that is used by many is the link wheel. Here is the great one of the greatest schemes to get backlinks as each of the websites that are being used in the construction of such a link wheel are displayed on different C class IP addresses. Consider the following example.

192.132.14.2 And

192.132.14.3 Here both the address are located on different D addresses which is of no use whereas

192.132.14.2 And

192.132.15.2 is located on different C class IP addresses which can help the link wheels.

When you decide to go ahead and start building any such a type of link wheel, what you have to remember is that it is best you start with any types of those website that have a very good relevancy in the world of web 2.0. Always it is best that you create a website that is within the very same niche. Once you have managed to make web 2.0 pages such as Squidoo or Hub pages, what you have to remember is that you have to go ahead and create some type of content for the website. If you created an article at Squidoo, the next thing that you would have to do is to go and create another page at hub pages or vice versa. Now comes that very important part of you having to interlink these two pages together. Now what you will have is two pages on the internet with one page linking to the next. The next thing that you can do is to either completely close the link or continue building more pages like this. Everyone has a different opinion on which is the better of the two alternatives. If you are planning on going on and closing your link wheel, what you have to remember is that all that is left is for you to go ahead and link it back to the main site. In other words, you have gone ahead and created a wheel that links on and on.

Instead of simply going ahead and closing the wheel, another special option that you can choose is to go ahead and continue the wheel. This is very essential as you will now be creating multiple websites that now link to each other, with the first website linking to your hub pages page. Building such types of links is very vital and important as you can be sure that your overall backlink value tremendously
increases.

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including reputation management, social media marketing, email marketing, website conversion metrics and mobile phone application development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more

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How to make the googlebot love your website!

The Googlebot is a very sophisticated computer program. It is a search engine spider that scours the Internet and inspects web sites in order to have them ranked according to Google’s standards. It’s “job” is to look at your web page, make a few notes and then report back to Google, who in turn give your page a ranking.

In this article I’m going to tell you a little about how to attract the Googlebot to your website and how to make sure it’s happy with what it finds. Think of it like this: The Googlebot needs love too.

1] Read Google's Webmaster Guidelines: Most of Google’s algorithms (search rules) are really secret; we can only guess what they are. Their guidelines are very simple and precise, however. Following their guidelines can’t “hurt” your site's ranking and Googlebot will “enjoy” its time with your website. Disregarding their guidelines can and probably will hurt you and your website in the long run.

2] Make the links in your site text links: Google says: "Make a site with a clear hierarchy (structure) and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link."

The native language of the Googlebot is text; this is not to say that you cannot make your site really pretty and fill it with lashings of Java Script and Flash but you MUST have regular text and standard text links. Usually you can achieve the desired effect by having extra navigation menus based on standard text links.

3] Give every page a complete and meaningful title: This is also directly from Google's Webmaster Guidelines. Have a look at Rule #1.

The "title" tag is supported by every web creation tool out there, and goes in the header of a web page. Make sure your title is not just a list of keywords and that it is related to the actual content of the page. Google can and will check that, before deciding on your page's 'relevance' and fate...

4] DO NOT place important text inside images: Google says: "Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Googlebot doesn't recognize text contained in images."

It is very tempting to create images with text inside them, for the very simple reason that you are not limited to the very few font options that basic HTML allows. Also, different browsers tend to display things differently nowadays, so it is much easier to create a text image, which will be shown consistently and not worry about styles, operating systems, etc. Unfortunately, the Googlebot doesn’t like this one bit...

5] Use descriptive "ALT" tags: The "ALT" tag is used as a text alternative for images and image links and was designed so that text browsers do not just display a generic 'Image' for every picture link you might have. If all your links say 'Image', how would a potential visitor know what they are?

Make sure that the text description is meaningful and accurate. If the "ALT" tag only says "display", that is what Googlebot will see and index. If the tag says something like "example of a tradeshow display design", that is certainly more useful to the information-hungry Googlebot.

6] Use meaningful descriptions for links: Whether you use picture links or text links, please use meaningful text inside your tags so that Googlebot can associate that text with that link.

In other words, if you intend to put a link to a set of sample coffee mugs promos, say something like "link to samples of Y.O.U.R. branded coffee mugs", not just "coffee mugs", or even worse, "click here for pictures". Never use link text like "read more" or "go here" or "download it", "click here", "don't click here". Googlebot will not understand what you mean...

7] Use a "description" tag for every page: Include a "meta name="description" content="[insert your site's description here]" tag in your page header to summarize your site. Use a meaningful one or two sentence description and certainly do not keyword spam.

Even better, include descriptive text on the site's front page where users can actually read it. It is this text will appear as the description for your site in Google results.

You should place more important content higher in the page than less important content in a page. The Googlebot does categorize text on a page based on it's position, text at the bottom of a page is considered less relevant.

8] Use robots.txt: Google says: "Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server. This file tells crawlers which directories can or cannot be crawled."

This almost ancient and very standard mechanism for directing well-behaved robots like the Googlebot will allow you to specify places where the robot is not welcome, for whatever the reason. You might want to keep the robot away from your cgi-bin directory and other places you maybe don't want available to the entire Googling population of the world. Remember this is a guideline, not a barrier; robots that are not programmed to comply will ignore it. So, use the robots.txt to guide the noble Googlebot but not for any real security enhancing reason.

9] Make a sitemap: Google says: "Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages."

A site map is just a page on your website where you guide your users through the structure of your site. The most basic form of sitemap is a page that lists all of your pages, with a brief description and a link - ALL TEXT, of course; the Googlebot cannot read sitemaps that are not in plain text. When you make the sitemap, follow all the rules above and don't forget that the purpose of the sitemap is to guide your human visitor.

10] Google Webmaster Tools: You should also check out Google Webmaster Tools 101, a great way to find out why Google is or is not listing your website in its search results.

Contact us for your SEO / SEM needs.

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10 Lies Freelance Copywriters Like to Tell You

Could it really be possible that some freelance writers would lie to you, saying whatever it takes to snag your business, justify their exorbitant fees, and turn you into a submissive client who does whatever they tell you?

Well… yeah.

It’s sad, but in the years I’ve been in the business, I’ve seen companies burned, stung, robbed, and strung out by unethical copywriters who couldn’t care less about them. To them, you’re just a walking ATM machine, and they lay awake at night, figuring out how to press all your buttons.

I know because my clients have told me. Sometimes, they tell me because the lie worked, and they’re thinking about taking their business away from my firm, but lots of times, it’s the opposite. They know it’s a lie, but they just can’t figure out how.

As much as some freelance copywriters would like to believe it, business owners aren’t stupid. You know when someone isn’t being straight with you. Maybe you just need someone to verify it, and so that’s what I’d like to do.

It’s ironic for me, a freelance copywriter, to be writing on the lies told within our field – but who better to reveal their lies than someone who’s right in the thick of it?

And here’s why: they make the honest ones look bad. Plenty of copywriters operate with full integrity, but when we have to struggle with a reputation given us by less ethical writers… well, it’s time to fight back.

Here are 10 of the most common lies copywriters like to tell. Take a look, so you’ll be ready:

1. “Every project is unique and I can’t quote you until I know more.”

Every project is unique, true, but top copywriters wouldn’t be where they are today if they didn’t have a good idea of ballpark rates and averages. Most top copywriters display their rates in plain view – they have nothing to hide.

Anytime you see this line, you can be sure that you’re dealing with either an inexperienced writer who isn’t sure of what to charge or a sleaze who is out to charge an arbitrary rate based on how much they think they can squeeze you. Either way, you can do better.

2. “I need to know your budget before I can quote.”

Why? So you can take all of it?

Writers who ask for your budget before giving you a quote are usually trying to figure out how much you can afford, or who want to push you just over your budget so they can get more out of you.

The good writers? They’ll either try to find a solution that fits or say they’ll be there to help when you do have the money saved up.

And they’ll never ask you for your budget.

3. “I’m qualified, because I have a degree in English literature.”

While having a degree is nice, those English lit degrees aren’t any measure of quality copywriting. They’re actually pretty useless where copywriting is concerned, because the field has far more to do with sales and marketing than with literature. Truth be told, most top copywriters don’t even have degrees.

Degrees don’t matter. Results do. The good copywriters aren’t going to show you their credentials; they’re going to show you what they’ve achieved for other clients, and they’ll tell you about the results they can get for your business.

4. “I had to quote high because of the time I’ll need to write this.”

Want to know a dirty little secret?

Top copywriters produce fantastic copy in minutes. The actual writing doesn’t take much time at all, and no copywriter worth his or her salt charges on an hourly basis. High rates are high because of the writer’s skills, experience, reputation and ability to get results. Good copywriters charge that much because they’re that good, not because they’re that slow.

A writer who justifies high rates with high hours is trying to make you think he or she is slaving away for days. It might be true, it might not, but the bottom line for you is that you expect results, and a copywriter whining about time doesn’t help you get them.

5. “Your email hit my spam folder.”

This time-stalling trick isn’t just used by copywriters – it’s the perfect excuse for anyone who wants to avoid dealing with you, for whatever reason. Maybe they’re running behind and can’t deliver on time. Maybe they don’t feel like making changes you’ve requested.

Whatever the reason for wanting to stall, the spam folder provides an easy excuse. Your communication disappears as if it never existed, and by the time the copywriter says, “Oops, I’m sorry,” it’s just too late.

The good copywriters? They know business, and they know that regular spam checkups is just part of the routine – no one’s email gets lost.

6. “I’m booked, so I can only squeeze you in if you pay a rush fee.”

This is pure psychological manipulation, and it works very nicely. A perception of being in demand makes you want the copywriter more, thanks to the magic of social proof.

The really in-demand copywriters don’t play these games. They don’t squeeze anyone, because they don’t need to. They have plenty of work, they’re not interested in filling up their plate, and they can afford to tell you that you have to wait your turn. Which you should do – it saves you money, and the results are worth it.

7. “You get what you pay for.”

Yeah, maybe, if we’re discussing cars. But when it comes to freelance copywriting, there’s no such yardstick. You’ll find high-priced, poor-quality copywriters ready to take advantage of you and you’ll find just as many low-priced, fantastic copywriters ready to get you results.

Unscrupulous freelancers use this “get what you pay for” routine to elevate themselves and make you feel cheap. This influences you to hire them to show you aren’t a skinflint Scrooge.

But real copywriters? They simply point you to substantial portfolios and testimonials that prove they’re worth every penny. They don’t need to make you feel bad, and they don’t want to.

8. “All you need to make sales is great copy.”

That’s just silly. If great copy was all we needed to make sales, we could do away with websites, marketing campaigns, driving traffic, providing good customer service – there’s just no need!

Uh… no.

The best copy in the world won’t do anything for your sales if you don’t have a clear plan, tools, resources, tactics and strategies in place to draw in potential customers, convey trust and credibility and get their eyes on the page so they start to read. It’s just one piece of a successful business.

9. “This copy will sell anyone.”

Any copywriter worth his QWERTY knows this is a crock. You can’t write copy targeting “anyone” – good copy is crafted to reach specific people with specific problems. It’s laser focused on the ideal customer, and it repels anyone else.

Unscrupulous writers won’t ask questions about your target market, and the result is that they won’t sell much to anyone at all, including your ideal customer. They’ll miss all the crucial elements of good copy, like hitting the right pain point, addressing concerns, providing convincing benefits and drawing in your ideal customer to a sale.

10. “I know what I’m doing, and if you’re smart, you’ll trust me.”

This is meant to position them as an authority, but as anyone knows, people who feel the need to point out they know what they’re doing probably don’t know what they’re doing at all. And frankly, if you weren’t worried before, the statement “trust me” certainly raises an important question in your head: “Can I?”

The answer is… probably not.

Self-confidence in skills and knowledge is something that’s easily communicated and nearly tangible. You don’t have to be told – you can clearly see the copywriter knows exactly what he or she is doing without that person even saying a word.

Does a copywriter asking you to trust them guarantee they are shady?

No, but it’s another red flag. None of the lies we’ve covered here are enough by themselves to condemn anyone, but put several of them together, and it should set off warning bells. The slimiest copywriters use each of these lies intentionally, and having a collection to watch for, it should be easy for you to spot them.

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including reputation management, social media marketing, email marketing, website conversion metrics and mobile phone application development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more

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Plus One! Google Adds Another Match Type - IndSEO

Google's latest targeting feature is the release of the new modified broad match. This new match type gives targeting results that are in between phrase match and the original broad match, but is more closely related to phrase match.


As many advertisers know, broad match can be quite risky, and sometimes not produce the most desirable ROI's. Modified broad match can help advertisers get more impressions and show for more variations than phrase match; however, reduce the number of unwanted irrelevant impressions associated with standard broad match.

The new match type is annotated with a + sign in front of the word that is to be modified. It's important to note that if you are currently using mostly broad match keywords, switching to modified broad match will most likely significantly reduce impressions.

Here is an example of how this match type works:

Regular Broad Match: Buy Makeup
Matching Examples: Buy Cosmetics, Cheap Makeup,

Modified Broad Match: +Buy +Makeup,
Matching Examples: Buy Maekpu, Buy loreal makeup

As you can see above, modified broad match will match you to misspellings, spelling variations, singular/plural variations, and stemmings (e.g., "floor/flooring", "Italy/Italian"); however, not to synonyms as regular broad match does.

If you are going to modify more than one word in the phrase, make sure you put a space in front of the plus symbol.

Correct Annotation:
+Buy +Makeup

Incorrect Annotation:
+Buy+Makeup

If you do not put a space, Google will ignore the plus symbol and treat the keyword as standard broad match!

Here is Google's official announcement of this new match type.

Here at ROI we look at modified broad match as another tool to have more control over your keywords, and squeeze more value out of your advertising dollar. Also, if you are currently only running your keywords in phrase & exact match, then using modified broad match is a great way to increase traffic without having to worry about the increased risk of irrelevant traffic incurred by many broad match searches. This feature is currently available to all advertisers in the US & Canada.

Prachar is the owner of IndSEO, A India based search engine marketing firm offering a variety of SEO related services including reputation management, social media marketing, email marketing, website conversion metrics and mobile phone application development. Please contact Prachar@ymail.com to learn more

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