Presignify

Search engine optimization experts are having fun with Google. Experts, with DarkBlue.com at the helm, are holding a contest to determine how Google really works. Experts are competing, with the goal of optimizing a webpage for a non-sensical phrase: ‘nigritude ultramarine’.

On May 7th, the day the terms ‘nigritude ultramarine’ was announced, typing the phrase into Google generated no search listings. Search engine optimizers hoping to define themselves as industry leaders are all vying for the number one spot. Others see the contest as an opportunity to test theories and experiment without jeopardizing existing traffic. Some webmasters are leery at staking their professional reputation on a contest with an undefined number of participants.

As an added incentive for search engine experts and webmasters to participate and work their magic, DarkBlue.com is giving away an Apple Mini iPod and a Sony Flat Screen Monitor to anyone who can take their page to #1 for the phrase ‘nigritude ultramarine’. The contest is scheduled to run for two months and will conclude on July 7th, 2004.

Magical Phrase

The phrase generating the frenzy, ‘nigritude ultramarine’, is likely to bring out the best and the worst in optimization tactics. The black magic optimization techniques that are suspected in having sites banned from Google are likely to be exercised, along with tried and true optimization practices. Immediately after the contest was announced experts snapped up hyphenated domain names and began tweaking their text. Many experts were surprised to see how quickly ‘nigritude ultramarine’ made its way into the Google’s listings, with new listings appearing daily it is clear that the contest is well underway.

The experts will be at the mercy of Google and any new algorithms implemented over the course of the next two months. Experts will have to anticipate and update on a regular basis, to ensure that they are able to obtain and retain a strong listings.

Results

The results of the contest are unlikely to have any lasting effects, as Google will likely implement filters that will prevent search engine experts from reaping the rewards of any tactics that are found to be effective. Regardless the sense of adventure and a method of testing Google are intriguing.

About The Author

Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.small-business-software.net

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New Online Marketing in 2009

Online Marketing today comprises of a long number of undertakings going from SEO over PPC to SMM. Find out where you’ll get the most profitable ways to spend your on-line marketing budget.

Search Engine Optimization/SEO/Search Marketing

By optimizing your web site for Google/Bing/Yahoo your traffic will rise with all the fresh traffic from the search engines. Search Engine Optimization/SEO/Search Marketing is a long time enterprise which includes projects like link building, keyword analysis and html code optimization. Most SEO Offices today engage specialists/experts in each domain.

Nowadays the most fundamental and most time intense SEO job is link progressing. Correctly done link building will do wonders for your Google rankings, so if link analysis exposes want of inbound links, then link construction is the starting priority. Substance still counts and enough select content/copy is essential too. Website coding in ways that either blur search engines or misguides them are frequent, especially for CMS, so check for indexing barriers on your site before you start. We can help you get more traffic from search engines via our SEO expertness .

PPC/Google Adwords/Paid Search

In most states it’s enough to campaign on the major PPC networks like Google Adwords or Microsoft Advertising. Some nations require localised knowledge of wide utilized local PPC networks. We can help you find the right PPC/Paid search options for your commercial enterprise. Paid Advertising is also possible on social media places like Facebook, and MySpace shows Google Adwords.

Social Marketing

Social Media Marketing on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube is essential in any winning online marketing campaign. The power of today’s media has shifted the balance and today it’s the people who are in charge. Anybody can build a blog, a Facebook or Twitter account and start pointing out on you, your company or your products, so presence on social media is required both to listen and to respond. We can help you construct a social media strategy to strengthen your business and branding in social media.

In a recent report for a new client, I wrote:

“Remember, a visitor’s search doesn’t end when they leave Google. Their search and the phrases associated with it continue right through to the completion of the task they have in mind.”

Many of us pay attention to the keywords and phrases being used by our visitors when they arrive via a search engine. It makes sense not only because it gets you higher rankings, but also because the use of the right search terms signals to your reader that your page is relevant to them. In other words, your heading and intros are directly relevant to their search.

But all too often, once those key phrases are in place, we think the job is done. Not so.

There are other key points on your homepage where getting the phrase right can make a big difference.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say you are working on two pages; the homepage and a second level page. Working with your site logs and a tool like WordTracker, you optimize the homepage with the best keywords and phrases you can find. And that’s great. You now have text that is relevant to your visitor’s search.

But here’s something else you can do…

Use the same process to identify the best words for the links from your homepage to the second level page.

Simply go through the same process with that second page. Use your logs and a keyword tool to find the most relevant terms for that page.

And then use one of those terms in the link from your homepage.

Do you get the idea? The core of this process is to recognize that your visitor hasn’t completed their ’search’ when they arrive at your homepage. The search is just the beginning. Part of your task is to understand how best to write the links that take people deeper into your site. And one way of maximizing that clickthrough is to use terms that are directly relevant to the visitor’s continuing search.

SEO helps us focus on writing in ways that are directly relevant to the task our visitors have in mind. My point is, don’t consider the job completed when you have optimized the homepage or any particular landing page. Use the same approach, the same way of writing, to help that visitor all the way through to the moment when they complete their task, whatever that may be.

Nick Usborne is a copywriter, author, speaker and advocat of good writing. You can access all his archived newsletter articles on copywriting and writing for the web at his Excess Voice site. You’ll find more articles and resources on how to make money as a freelance writer at his Freelance Writing Success site.

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For the first few months after Yahoo decided to go their own way
with natural search (and MSN decided to get serious about the
search business), the search results provided by those two could
only be described as bizarre. Enough time has now passed that
the dust has somewhat settled and there are three main (from a
traffic standpoint) sites for quality natural searches.

The term “natural search” is to distinguish true searches, as
opposed to paid advertisements which appear in the search results
for many search engines these days. I guess you can’t really
fault the search engine companies from wanting to make some money
(actually, BIG money) selling ad space, but the debate over the
virtues of natural search versus paid advertising search is
something that could take up a very large book and still have no
clear resolution…much like arguments revolving around religion
or politics.

Like most people that have been working as online home business
entrepreneurs for a few years, I was strongly conditioned to the
need to “feed the 800 pound gorilla” of the search engine world.
Basically, “if Google didn’t love you”, it was very difficult to
get any meaningful natural search traffic to your website. Since
Google was actually the search engine that was serving up the
results for most of the popular search portals, if Google didn’t
look kindly upon your site and rank you well, you would not be
ranked well for most of the high traffic search sites on the
Internet.

However, the search landscape changed dramatically early in 2004
and things have been very fluid and interesting since that time.
Its not that Google has stumbled, or become ineffective as a
search vehicle, its just that major players like Yahoo and
Microsoft (via MSN) have decided to make a major thrust into the
search business.

Having been firmly conditioned (since shortly after 1998) that
Google was the “supreme deity of search engines”, I took the
highly publicized search entries of Yahoo and MSN with more than
the proverbial “grain of salt”.

Throughout a very recent two month period, one of my websites
occupied the #5 position on Google, Yahoo, and MSN for a very
popular and important (at least in my line of business) three
word search term. This situation provided an opportunity to
measure the current popularity of each of these three search
providers.

If asked “before the fact”, I would have guessed that Google
would still be the overwhelming #1 search choice and that
Yahoo and MSN would be distant #2 and #3 choices. Therefore,
I was somewhat surprised by the results that were tabulated
during this recent 60 day period.

For the period in question, the search popularity results were
as follows:

Google: 34%

Yahoo: 31%

MSN: 20%

All others: 15%

Granted, the above results are for a single search term over a
particular 60 day time period, but the results clearly show
that Yahoo and MSN are already important players in the search
business.

Webmasters that stick to the old ways and focus entirely on
Google are missing out on a lot of search traffic these days if
they are not also well ranked by Yahoo and MSN.

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and
coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.
Visit his website at
Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.

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One of the most consequential aspects of any online strategy is how do I win in the major search engines. How do I have my site to rank easily in Google or Yahoo?

One of the most weighty aspects in doing substantially better in the search engines (knowing the basic principles suchlike killer content are already organized) is earning links aimed at your web presence. You can do this a few different ways, some looked at positively by the engines and some not so positively.

A authentic styles, that the search engines think is passable is link building with articles.

Essentially this requires writing a great article, preferably around something from your industry, and then sending it to a free article directory.

You really cannot undervalue the importance of link building. If there is one indicator that means the most to the search engines, in general, it is links. Fine, there are masses of other signals, such as the domain name, but you are kidding yourself if you think you are going to be listed well, and easily heard, if you do not gain any links.

Building links with articles is easy. It is something the search engines say is okay. And, it adds value to the web, by providing valuable content that might be interesting or useful to users. The real question is what are you waiting for?

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