How link popularity can help your search engine rankings

If you have optimized your web page for high search engine rankings and it still doesn't get better listings, it is very likely that your web site has low link popularity.

Link popularity is a very important factor for all major search engines. If your web site doesn't have good link popularity, it is very difficult to get good search engine rankings.

Note that link popularity alone is not enough. The content of your web site is also important so that search engines know what your web site is about.

A combination of optimized pages and high link popularity will bring your web site to the top of the search engine results.

What exactly is link popularity?

Link popularity refers to the total number of links that a search engine has found for your web page. The more web sites link to your web page, the higher the link popularity of your page. High link popularity contributes to a high search engine ranking.

The idea behind the link popularity concept is simple. The more other web sites link to your web site, the more important your site must be. Other sites wouldn't link to your site if there wasn't something interesting on your site or if your web site didn't contain any special content.

It's nearly impossible to manipulate link popularity. Previous ranking algorithms that took META keywords or similar factors into account have been quickly abused to mislead the search engines. On the other side, it's very difficult to manipulate the number of links that point to a site.

That's why link popularity is now one of the most important factors for search engines when they rank a web page.

However, you cannot get high link popularity by submitting your web site to thousands of FFA (free for all) link pages. Not all links are considered equal by the search engines. It does matter who links to you and how they link to you.

Not all links are considered equal

The more web sites link to your web site, the higher your link popularity. However, not all links are equal. Some links count more than others. Links from important web sites have a greater effect on your link popularity and your search engine rankings.

A link from www.Yahoo.com to your web site has more weight than a link from a small private web page. A link from a web site with high link popularity is better than a link from an unknown web site.

It's also important that the web site that's linking to you has a similar topic as your web site. Imagine that you sell shoes on your web site. A link from another web site that is all about shoes will count much more than a link from a web site that links to all kind of web sites.

Finally, it's important how the link to your site looks like. For example, one of your important keywords might be "brown leather shoes".

The link

<a href="http://www.domain.com">Brown leather shoes</a>

leads to much better search engine rankings for the keyword "brown leather shoes" than the following link

<a href="http://www.domain.com">Smith and Partners</a>

By the way, many people think that they can increase their link popularity by submitting their web site address to FFA (free for all) link pages and link farms (Web sites that link to all kind of web sites). This doesn't work.

More and more search engines recognize FFA pages and link farms and choose to ignore these pages. Usually, submissions to FFA pages are a waste of time that only results in many spam email messages.

In addition, you should avoid services that promise you 2000 links to your site within a week or so. If they link to you at all, these 2000 links are of poor quality or they don't have a similar topic as your web site.

Use common sense. Offers that sound too good to be true probably aren't true.

Summary:

• try to get links from important web sites
• try to get link texts that contain your important keywords
• don't use FFA or link farm pages
• don't use services that promise lots of links within days
• focus on quality links, not on quantity

How to find good potential link partners

As explained above, it's important who links to your site. web sites that have a similar topic as your site are more important than web sites with different topics.

In addition, if you can convince web sites with a similar topic to link to your site, you'll also get targeted traffic from these sites.

People who visit your topic partner sites are usually interested in what you have to offer. They are more likely to come to your site and to buy something. It's the quality of the traffic that counts, not the quantity.

Conclusion

Building a good link popularity requires some work but the results will pay for it. Link popularity is already one of the most important factor for search engines to rank web sites.

The sooner you start with your linking campaign, the better the results for your business.

Technorati Tags: link popularity,seo,search engine,ranking

Keep customers on your site with custom 404 error pages

You've probably seen many "404 not found" pages when surfing the web. A "404 not found" page is the page that comes up when someone tries to access a web page that doesn't exist.

This usually happens when someone types a wrong URL or follows a link to a page that does not exist. A typical 404 error page looks like this:

HTTP 404 Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.

The exact wording of this error may vary, but it is normally unintuitive and unfriendly. It is unlikely that the person explores your site further.

People who come to a "404 not found" web page are usually lost visitors. These visitors don't see your web site information and they cannot buy your products.

A custom 404 error page keeps visitors on your web site

Most web hosts allow you to create a custom "404 not found" page. If you haven't done it yet, you should create a custom 404 error page now.

A custom 404 error page is an easy way to keep visitors on your web site. It also allows you to redirect your visitors to the pages of your choice.

For example, you could use the following HTML code for your own 404 error page:

<html>

<head>

<TITLE>Sorry</TITLE>

<meta http-equiv=refresh content="2;URL=http://www.YourWebsiteName.com">

</head>

<body>

Sorry, this page doesn't exist. You'll be redirected to our index page.

</body>

</html>

This HTML code simply redirects people to the index page of your web site so that they can find what they're looking for (replace "www.YourWebSiteName.com with the URL of your own web site).

You could also create a custom 404 page that tells your visitors that the page is not available anymore. It also makes sense to give your visitors some choices.

A custom 404 error page is important to the success of your web site

People often mistype URLs and some web sites have links to non-existent pages. This can happen when redesigning a web site or just through typographical errors.

With a custom 404 error page, you make it easier for end users to find where they want to go on your web site.

Most web space providers allow custom 404 error pages. Ask your web space provider how you can create a 404 error page for your web site.

Technorati Tags: 404,error,page,url,seo

How to rank well with Flash sites

Flash movies are a popular way to make web sites more compelling. They are useful if you want to impress your web site visitors or if you offer web design services.

Unfortunately, if you use Flash movies, or if you even design your complete web site based on the Flash technology, your odds of getting listed in the search engines are greatly reduced.

Search engines can only "see" pure text. They are not able to recognize text on an image or text that appears as a graphic in a Flash movie.

Google advises on its webmaster guidelines page: "If fancy features such as [...] Flash keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site.".

So how can you achieve high search engine rankings in spite of Flash contents?

First of all, you should re-consider using Flash on your web site. Keep in mind that many visitors still use slow dial-up connections to access web pages. They don't like to wait 1-2 minutes only to see your company logo fancy animated. Your Flash movies must carry invaluable information to the visitors, otherwise they will be disappointed.

Entry pages that only show your company logo are becoming more and more annoying to users. Using web pages like company brochures only show that your company didn't get the whole Internet idea.

Keep in mind that not everyone has installed the Flash player. Always add a link to a web page that contains the same important information as found in the Flash movie in plain text.

For these reasons, not using Flash or building a duplicate site without Flash are the easiest ways to make sure that your web site visitors and the search engines can access your web site.

If you really must use Flash on your web site, the following tips can help you getting your Flash contents indexed by the search engines:

• Provide links to alternate pages that contain a lot of text and some keywords that the search engines can index.
• Place some text above and below your Flash movie that contain your keywords. Along with your title and maybe your meta tags, this gives the search engines some contents to index.
• If you embed the Flash movie in your HTML code, use your most important keywords in the movie filename using the HTML tags <param name="movie" value="movie-filename.swf"> and <param name="src" value="movie-filename.swf>.
• You can use the <object standby="your message to show while loading"> attribute to include some text that is displayed while the Flash movie is being loaded. In addition, you can use the <object title="your movie title"> attribute to include a keyword-rich movie title.
• Use the <noembed> tag to provide text for web browsers which don't support the Flash plugin. Use it to describe the contents of the Flash movie as search engines can index that description.
• You may want make your Flash movie transparent and place it "over" your web page using CSS layers. However, some search engines might consider this spamming.
• Some search engines offer pay for inclusion programs that guarantee the inclusion of your web page regardless of the contents. Note that these search engines still need text to index.
• You could provide an alternative, "pure text" web page solely to search engine crawler programs. However, this technique is called "cloaking" and search engines don't like it (click here for details).
• Link from other pages of your web site to your Flash page with a keyword-rich link text.
• Use the Macromedia Flash Search Engine SDK to convert a Flash file's text and links into HTML for search engine indexing.

Macromedia, the developers of the Flash technology, have recognized the difficulties in getting Flash contents indexed. For this reason, they have developed an accessibility kit that helps you to embed pure text and links in the movie file.

Macromedia hopes that search engines will learn over time to read the embedded text.

Flash is a trade mark of Macromedia Corp. You can find out more about Flash here.

Technorati Tags: rank,well,flash,macromedia,seo,site

How to convert visitors into sales

Even if you have obtained high search engine rankings for your web site under your important keywords, and even if you have hundreds of visitors per day, web surfers still might not purchase something on your web site.

Why do visitors sometimes don't convert into sales? We'll give you several reasons that can prevent surfers from buying on your web site.

Reason 1: Your web pages don't load fast enough

Web surfers hate to wait for slow loading web pages. If your web pages don't load fast enough, many web surfers will go away without taking a look at them.

No matter how great your product is: if your web site is not fast enough, web surfers won't see it. Fast loading web pages are crucial if you want to sell something on the Internet.

There are several things you can do to speed up your site. Of course, you should make sure that your web host provides fast and reliable servers. In addition to hosting your web site on a fast server, you can do the following to improve the loading time of your web pages:

1. Reduce the number of graphics
   A large number of graphics on your web pages can considerably slow down your page. For each graphic on your web page, the web browser has to make another connection to your server. If you cannot reduce the number of graphics on your web page, then try to combine several graphics to a single bigger one. Use the same graphics on your other web pages so that web browsers can load the graphics from the browser cache.
2. Specify the dimensions of your graphics
   Always make sure to include the height and width dimensions of your graphics in your HTML code. This means that every IMG tag should have the WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes specified. If web browsers doesn't have to figure out the dimensions of your graphics, they can already display placeholders and start displaying the text of your web page before loading the graphics from the server.
3. Make the top of your page interesting
   If a web page takes a long time to load, make sure that the top of the page contains something interesting because visitors will see that part first.
4. Divide your tables
   Web pages that use a single large layout table take a long time to render in web browsers. Break up huge tables into several smaller ones.
5. Specify the dimensions of your tables
   If you specify the WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes for your tables, then web browsers don't have to load the complete table code to calculate the dimensions of the table.
6. Double check cell widths
   Take a moment to check the individual widths of each table cell. If the total is more than the specified table width, then web browsers will have problems displaying your table.

It's important to know the download times of your web pages. In general, your home page should load in 20 seconds on a dial-up connection and the top of your page should be displayed within 5-8 seconds.

Fast loading web pages are the most basic factor of a successful web site. If your web pages are displayed and rendered as quickly as possible, people will have more time to read the actual content of your web pages and eventually they'll buy something on your page.

Now that people can see your web page content, it's important to keep them on your site.

Reason 2: Is your web site trustworthy?

It's very important that your web site visitors have trust and confidence in your company. Your customers must trust you. They won't buy from you if they don't.

On the World Wide Web, you cannot speak face to face with your customer so you have to establish credibility in other ways.

1. Make sure that your web pages have a professional design
   Your web pages have to look perfect. If necessary, hire a professional web designer. Don't use blinking text, funny animations or flashy banners on your page. Make sure that all links on your web site are intact.
   Don't use automatically created web pages. Some software programs allow you to automatically create pages that are "optimized" for a special keyword. These doorway pages don't work anymore on search engines (its simply spamming).
   In addition, human web surfers are turned away by that kind of pages. While doorway pages might look attractive to software programs, web surfers usually hate them. Automatically created doorway pages usually look ugly to human web surfers. Often, they consist of nothing more than a list of buzz-words. You won't get good results with this method because human web surfers will quickly close such a web page.
2. Tell your web site visitors who you are
   Make sure that customers know that a real person is sitting behind this Web page. Include your full contact information on your web site and make it easy to find.
   If your visitors don't know from whom they will purchase and how to contact you, they won't buy anything. Show your privacy policy.
3. Offer free trials and show your refund policy
   The most common things to establish trustworthiness is to offer a free trial and a money back guarantee. If your customers know what they'll get, they'll be more likely to purchase.
4. Use testimonials.

Its far better if other people say nice things about you than you saying nice things about yourself. Testimonials from satisfied customers will show how your business can do a better job than your competitor when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Reason 3: Is your web site content convincing?

It's important that your web pages are interesting to your visitors. Every visitor wants to get a prompt answer to the question "what's in it for me?". In the first paragraph of your web page, you should tell your visitors the following:

• what you do
• why people should stay on your site
• what's in for your visitors

If you don't answer these questions quickly enough, people will go away.

People aren't necessarily interested in your product or in your company. You must convince your web site visitors with good sales copy.

Before starting to write sales copy, make sure that you know your product and that you're passionate about it. You have to fully believe in your product. If you don't, you shouldn't sell it. You cannot write convincing sales copy if you don't stand behind your product. You must be sure that you're doing your customers a favor by offering them your product.

1. What's in for your customers?
   Your customers want benefits. What can your product do for them? What can it do for them now? The benefits of your product should be the first words on your site. Make them bold and make them big. If your visitors don't know what's in it for them after the first few seconds, they'll leave your site.
   People don't read everything on your page. They scan it for interesting information. Grab their attention with benefits.
2. Don't mix up features and benefits
   You must differentiate between features and benefits. Features are the attributes of your product, benefits are what your product promises. For example, if you sell a solar-powered clock, then the feature is "uses new 38/12 solar cells". The benefit to the buyer is "you save money because you don't have to buy batteries anymore".
   Don't bore your potential customers with technical details. Tell them what your product will do for them. How they will feel when they tried your product. Maybe your product or service will make them more money, maybe it will save them time. Tell them and don't be shy.
3. Killer headlines will grab your visitors attention
   Nobody will read your entire page. Make it easier for your customers by dividing your page into paragraphs where each paragraph has a headline. Your headlines should make clear what to expect in the next sentences and they should grab your visitors' attention.
   Use words like "free, proven, benefit, first, discover, complete, exclusive" and avoid words like "should, could" and "but". Make sure that you use "you" more than "I" or "we". Remember: Your customers don't really care about you and your business. They only want to know what's in for them.
4. End your sales copy by telling the reader what to do

At the end of your copy text, you must tell your visitors what to do next, for example "Click here to order now for immediate delivery".

Use these tips to write as persuasively as you can, but remember not to deceive your customers in any way. You'd risk poor word of mouth, legal action, no repeat business and refund requests.

When people have finally decided to purchase your product, you must make sure that your order page doesn't drive them away.

Reason 4: Is your order page easy to use?

Statistics show that more than 60 percent of online shoppers abort the ordering process. If your order page isn't easy to use, all other web site promotion efforts will be in vain.

Here are the most important points for a successful order page:

Link from the home page and from all product and service pages to the order page.

Give the links on your order page names that your customers can easily recognize: "Order", "Buy", "Store", "Checkout", etc.

Don't hide the price for your products or services. People won't buy if they don't know what they have to pay.

Tell your visitors about shipping costs and state taxes.

Tell your visitors the final price before they have to enter the credit card number.

Tell your visitors who you are and tell them your complete company address.

 

Offer an unconditional money-back guarantee if at all possible.

 

Tell your visitors upfront about your refund policy.

Make sure that your order pages are secure. Use at least 40 bit encryption so that your customers can safely enter their contact and purchase information.

Make sure that your order pages are easy to understand. Test them with your friends or relatives that don't connect to the Internet very often.

Regularly test your order pages to make sure that they work.

Make sure that you'll get notified if your server gets down.

Make sure that your order page displays a meaningful message if the customer forgets to enter the street name or any other required field.

Make sure that your order pages work with international customers. German customers don't know what to enter in the "State" field and usually leave it empty. Some countries don't even have postal numbers. Your order pages should work for these customers.

If your order pages are easy to use and secure, they won't hinder or deter customers from completing their purchase.

It's very important that your order pages are a secure place to shop for your customers. Use as much encryption as you can and join the additional security services that are offered by some credit card companies.

Technorati Tags: convert,visitors,sales,order,page,secure

How to choose the right web page title

The title of a web page is one of the most important elements. Good web page titles can remarkably increase the effectiveness of your web site.

The title of a web page is the text that is written between the <TITLE> and </TITLE> tag in the HTML code of a web page. If you write the right text between these tags, your web site can get more targeted visitors.

Why are web page titles so important for your web site success?

1. The titles of your web pages are important for search engines
   To many search engine spiders the title of a web page is more important than other web page elements. If your web page title contains your most important keywords, it's likely that the web page will have a good search engine ranking for these keywords.
2. The titles of your web pages are important for web surfers
   The title of your web site is the first thing web surfers will see from your web site. Many search engines display the title of a web page as the main link to a web site in the search engine result pages.
   In addition, the web page title is used when a web surfers bookmarks your web site.

While most search engines don't allow you to influence the description of your web site, the title of your web site is often listed without any changes.

What does this mean to you?

It's important that your web pages have compelling titles that are compelling to web surfers and that contain your most important keywords.

For example, if you have a sports shoe shop in London, don't use this title tag:

Welcome to Smith & Son

People probably won't click on that link because they don't know who you are. That web page title doesn't look very attractive to the average surfer. Better use this title:

Buy sneakers and sports shoes at competitive prices in our shop in London. Nike, Adidas, Reebok and all other major sports shoe brands.

Why is the second title better than the first one?

The second title has many advantages over the first title.

1. The second title contains keywords that are important for a sports shoe business: sports shoes, sports shoe, sneakers and several brand names.
   The inclusion of these words in the title increase the change of good search engine rankings for these keywords.
2. The second title informs web surfers about the purpose of the web site and it gives them a reason to click: Buy sneakers and sports shoes at competitive prices.
3. The second title includes geographical information: ...in our shop in London. People who live in Chicago are probably not interested in a shop that's based in London.
   The inclusion of "London" in the web page title allows people to quickly find out if it's worth to visit the web site. In addition, it's more likely that the web site will be found for a search term such as "shoe shop London".

Good web page titles can help you to increase your search engine rankings and to get more people to click on your link.

 

Technorati Tags: web,page,title,click,link

Link it

1.Stick It To The Man
2.Dizzy33
3.Syed Kazim
4.Mungoblog
5.Roshan's Blog
6.sw33tcheeks
7.multsidegeaba
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Technorati Tags: promote,blog,link,exchange

The best restaurant in Brussels

I had the opportunity of having a few meals in the best restaurant in Brussels. La Ballade des Antiquaires offers you international cuisine at the best prices ever in the most cosy atmosphere ever. Belo and his secret( that's the chéf) will have you back day by day. If you want a quick preview of what you can find here, feel free to check La Carte de La ballade des Antiquaires or for further information check the Acueil page.

Bon Apetit!

Technorati Tags: the best restaurant in brussels,belo,la ballade des antiquaires,la carte,acueil