Google's SEO Advice For Your Website: Content by: Joel Walsh

The web pages actually at the top of Google have only one thing clearly in common: good writing. Don't get so caught up in the usual SEO sacred cows and bugbears, such as PageRank, frames, and JavaScript, that you forget your site's content. I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web. Of course, that shouldn't be a surprise, considering how often officials at Google proclaim the importance of good content. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing. Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really ignore traditional standards of quality in the publishing world? Does Google, like so many website owners, really get so caught up in the process of the algorithm that it misses the whole point? Apparently not. Most Common On-the-Page Website Content Success Features Whatever the technical mechanism, Google is doing a pretty good job of identifying websites with good content and rewarding them with high rankings. I looked at Google's top five pages for the five most searched-on keywords, as identified by WordTracker on June 27, 2005. Typically, the top five pages receive an overwhelming majority of the traffic delivered by Google. The web pages that contained written content (a small but significant portion were image galleries) all shared the following features: * Updating: frequent updating of content, at least once every few weeks, and more often, once a week or more. * Spelling and grammar: few or no errors. No page had more than three misspelled words or four grammatical errors. Note: spelling and grammar errors were identified by using Microsoft Word's check feature, and then ruling out words marked as misspellings that are either proper names or new words that are simply not in the dictionary. Does Google use SpellCheck? I can already hear the scoffing on the other side of this computer screen. Before you dismiss the idea completely, keep in mind that no one really does know what the 100 factors in Google's algorithm are. But whether the mechanism is SpellCheck or a better shot at link popularity thanks to great credibility, or something else entirely, the results remain the same. * Paragraphs: primarily brief (1-4 sentences). Few or no long blocks of text. * Lists: both bulleted and numbered, form a large part of the text. * Sentence length: mostly brief (10 words or fewer). Medium-length and long sentences are sprinkled throughout the text rather than clumped together. * Contextual relevance: text contains numerous terms related to the keyword, as well as stem variations of the keyword. SEO Bugbears and Sacred Cows A hard look at the results shows that, practically speaking, a number of SEO bugbears and sacred cows may matter less to ranking than good content. * PageRank. The median PageRank was 4. One page had a PageRank of 0. Of course, this might simply be yet another demonstration that the little PageRank number you get in your browser window is not what Google's algo is using. But if you're one of those people who attaches an overriding value to that little number, this is food for thought. * Frames. The top two web pages listed for the most searched-on keyword employ frames. Frames may still be a bad web design idea from a usability standpoint, and they may ruin your search engine rankings if your site's linking system depends on them. But there are worse ways you could shoot yourself in the foot. * JavaScript-formatted internal links. Most of the websites use JavaScript for their internal page links. Again, that's not the best web design practice, but there are worse things you could do. * Links: Most of the web pages contained ten or more links; many contain over 30, in defiance of the SEO bugbears about "link popularity bleeding." Moreover, nearly all the pages contained a significant number of non-relevant links. On many pages, non-relevant links outnumbered relevant ones. Of course, it's not clear what benefit the website owners hope to get from placing irrelevant links on pages. It has been a proven way of lowering conversion rates and losing visitors. But Google doesn't seem to care if your website makes money. * Originality: a significant number of pages contained content copied from other websites. In all cases, the content was professionally written content apparently distributed on a free-reprint basis. Note: the reprint content did not consist of content feeds. However, no website consisted solely of free-reprint content. There was always at least a significant portion of original content, usually the majority of the page. Recommendations * Make sure a professional writer, or at least someone who can tell good writing from bad, is creating your site's content, particularly in the case of a search-engine optimization campaign. If you are an SEO, make sure you get a pro to do the content. A shocking number of SEOs write incredibly badly. I've even had clients whose websites got fewer conversions or page views after their SEOs got through with them, even when they got a sharp uptick in unique visitors. Most visitors simply hit the "back" button when confronted with the unpalatable text, so the increased traffic is just wasted bandwidth. * If you write your own content, make sure that it passes through the hands of a skilled copyeditor or writer before going online. * Update your content often. It's important both to add new pages and update existing pages. If you can't afford original content, use free-reprint content. * Distribute your content to other websites on a free-reprint basis. This will help your website get links in exchange for the right to publish the content. It will also help spread your message and enhance your visibility. Fears of a "duplicate content penalty" for free-reprint content (as opposed to duplication of content within a single website) are unjustified. In short, if you have a mature website that is already indexed and getting traffic, you should consider making sure the bulk of your investment in your website is devoted to its content, rather than graphic design, old-school search-engine optimization, or linking campaigns. About the author: [Formatting: for web, please use "website content provider" as the link's anchor text (visible link text)] Joel Walsh's archive of web business articles is at the website of his business, UpMarket Content, a website content provider: http://UpMarketContent.com

Google's Good Writing Content Filter by: Joel Walsh

The web pages actually at the top of Google have only one thing clearly in common: good writing. Don't let the usual SEO sacred cows and bugbears, such as PageRank, frames, and JavaScript, distract you from the importance of good content. I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing. Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really only display web pages that meet arcane technical criteria? Does Google, like so many website owners, really get so caught up in the process of the algorithm that it misses the whole point? Apparently not. Most Common On-the-Page Website Content Success Factors Whatever the technical mechanism, Google is doing a pretty good job of identifying websites with good content and rewarding them with high rankings. I looked at Google's top five pages for the five most searched-on keywords, as identified by WordTracker on June 27, 2005. Typically, the top five pages receive an overwhelming majority of the traffic delivered by Google. The web pages that contained written content (a small but significant portion were image galleries) all shared the following features: Updating: frequent updating of content, at least once every few weeks, and more often, once a week or more. Spelling and grammar: few or no errors. No page had more than three misspelled words or four grammatical errors. Note: spelling and grammar errors were identified by using Microsoft Word's check feature, and then ruling out words marked as misspellings that are either proper names or new words that are simply not in the dictionary. Does Google use SpellCheck? I can already hear the scoffing on the other side of this computer screen. Before you dismiss the idea completely, keep in mind that no one really does know what the 100 factors in Google's algorithm are. But whether the mechanism is SpellCheck or a better shot at link popularity thanks to great credibility, or something else entirely, the results remain the same. Paragraphs: primarily brief (1-4 sentences). Few or no long blocks of text. Lists: both bulleted and numbered, form a large part of the text. Sentence length: mostly brief (10 words or fewer). Medium-length and long sentences are sprinkled throughout the text rather than clumped together. Contextual relevance: text contains numerous terms related to the keyword, as well as stem variations of the keyword. The page may contain the keyword itself few times or not at all. SEO "Do's" and "Don'ts" A hard look at the results slaughters a number of SEO bugbears and sacred cows. PageRank. The median PageRank was 4. One page had a PageRank of 0. Of course, this might simply be yet another demonstration that the little PageRank number you get in your browser window is not what Google's algo is using. But if you're one of those people who attaches an overriding value to that little number, this is food for thought. Frames. The top two web pages listed for the most searched-on keyword employ frames. Frames may still be a bad web design idea from a usability standpoint, and they may ruin your search engine rankings if your site's linking system depends on them. But there are worse ways you could shoot yourself in the foot. JavaScript-formatted internal links. Most of the websites use JavaScript for their internal page links. Again, that's not the best web design practice, but there are worse things you could do. Keyword optimization. Except for two pages, keyword optimization was conspicuous by its absence. In more than half the web pages, the keyword did not appear more than three times, meaning a very low density. Many of the pages did not contain the keyword at all. That may just demonstrate the power of anchor text in inbound links. It also may demonstrate that Google takes a site's entire content into account when categorizing it and deciding what page to display. Sub-headings. On most pages, sub-headings were either absent or in the form of images rather than text. That's a very bad design practice, and particularly cruel to blind users. But again, Google is more forgiving. Links: Most of the web pages contained ten or more links; many contain over 30, in defiance of the SEO bugbears about "link popularity bleeding." Moreover, nearly all the pages contained a significant number of non-relevant links. On many pages, non-relevant links outnumbered relevant ones. Of course, it's not clear what benefit the website owners hope to get from placing irrelevant links on pages. It has been a proven way of lowering conversion rates and losing visitors. But Google doesn't seem to care if your website makes money. Originality: a significant number of pages contained content copied from other websites. In all cases, the content was professionally written content apparently distributed on a free-reprint basis. Note: the reprint content did not consist of content feeds. However, no website consisted solely of free-reprint content. There was always at least a significant portion of original content, usually the majority of the page. Recommendations Make sure a professional writer, or at least someone who can tell good writing from bad, is creating your site's content, particularly in the case of a search-engine optimization campaign. If you are an SEO, make sure you get a pro to do the content. A shocking number of SEOs write incredibly badly. I've even had clients whose websites got fewer conversions or page views after their SEOs got through with them, even when they got a sharp uptick in unique visitors. Most visitors simply hit the "back" button when confronted with the unpalatable text, so the increased traffic is just wasted bandwidth. If you write your own content, make sure that it passes through the hands of a skilled copyeditor or writer before going online. Update your content often. It's important both to add new pages and update existing pages. If you can't afford original content, use free-reprint content. Distribute your content to other websites on a free-reprint basis. This will help your website get links in exchange for the right to publish the content. It will also help spread your message and enhance your visibility. Fears of a "duplicate content penalty" for free-reprint content (as opposed to duplication of content within a single website) are unjustified. In short, if you have a mature website that is already indexed and getting traffic, you should consider making sure the bulk of your investment in your website is devoted to its content, rather than graphic design, old-school search-engine optimization, or linking campaigns. About the author: Joel Walsh is the owner, founder and head-writer of UpMarket Content. To read more about website content best practices, get a consultation with Mr. Walsh, or get a sample page for your site at no charge, go to the SEO website content page:http://www.upmarketcontent.com/website-content/##seo

Finding the Right Web Host

Feel free to use this article. Please include the advertisement and active link at the end. Thank You.....word count 521 Finding the Right Web Host Choosing the right Web Hosting service for your website can be a little bit confusing. There's so many choices out there and many people aren't exactly sure what they should be looking for. Here's a few things you should take into consideration when looking for a Web Host: File Storage Space/ Disk Space How much disk space do you need? That depends on how many files (pages) you plan to upload to your hosting space. If it's a personal or ecommerce site (a site that sells products) with just a few pages and graphics, than 25 MB of disk space a month should be more than enough. If it's a multi-page site such as an online shopping mall, then 2000 MB would be safe. Storage space is specified in kilobytes KB, megabytes MB, or gigabytes GB, a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes and a gigabyte is 1000 megabytes. Bandwidth / Traffic / Transfer All words above are used interchangeably. It's the amount of data that flows through your site, the amount of hits or how many people visit your site. If you're expecting a few hundred hits a day then 10, 15 of 25 GB of Transfer should be enough. If you're expecting hundreds of thousands of hits every month then you should get a hosting account with as much Bandwidth as possible. Bandwidth is usually expressed in Gigabytes. CGI Common Gateway Interface, is a protocal script used to make your site dynamic. Flash banners, moving objects. With the right web design program or scripting knowledge and a host that offers CGI you can easily bring your site to life. Frontpage Extensions Now-a-days more sites are offering Frontpage extensions. Microsoft Frontpage is a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) web design program that lets you easily create web pages while the software does all the coding behind the scenes. The great thing about using Frontpage and having a host with Frontpage extensions is once you design your webpages all you have to do is click one button that says "publish site" and all your pages go from your computer to your hosting space with one click. Shared Hosting / Dedicated Servers Shared hosting, or sometimes called basic hosting means that the webspace that you rent will be shared on the same web server with other clients of the company you've purchased web space from. This is the most common. If you purchase a Dedicated server it means your website will have it's own unique server. This is the preferred choice for sites with a huge amount of traffic and many graphics that would take to long to load on a shared server. Finding a Web Host can be confusing if you're not sure what to look for. If you're planning on having an average website with a few hundred hits or fewer a day, than shared hosting is the way to go. About the author: COMPARE TOP 20 WEB HOSTS! FIND THE RIGHT ONE! Basic and Shared hosting, Reseller Accounts, Dedicated Servers as low as $29.95, Virtual Servers, CGI, Mysql, webpage builders, Frontpage Extensions and much more. http://www.top20webhosts.marketing-maneuvers.com

The Internet Marketers Answer to Frontpage and Dreamweaver by: Michael Jones

Leading Web site design packages have a serious contender called XSitePro, a new software package geared toward the rapidly expanding world of Internet marketing. XSitePro is a new web site design package that creates entire web sites, not just individual pages, with ease. Unlike leading web design programs, XSitePro approaches the whole process of site design from an online marketer's perspective, incorporating easy-to-use features that differentiate XSitePro from other site design software. "We are confident that XSitePro offers the alternative to Microsoft's FrontPage and Macromedia's Dreamweaver that Internet marketers and other web designers are looking for," says Paul Smithson, president and CEO, of Intellimon Ltd. "Our customers can create professional Web sites in a fraction of the time it would take them using other web design software." XSitePro users don't need to know how to write code to create a professional quality web site. Anyone who has word processing skills can create web pages using the built-in "What you see is what you get" page editor. Users will also find that XSitePro is a great program for keeping their web sites updated after they have been created. Using the page layout feature it is possible to change the whole style of a site in minutes rather than days. You no longer have to settle with existing designs, or be intimidated by the workload of redesigning your sites. "It is refreshing to see the product designed from the ground up for marketers," says Ed Keay-Smith of AdWords Marketing. "I love the built in automation of affiliate and Google AdWords links…I have now chosen to use XSite Pro over FrontPage as my major money making website builder." Here are just a few of the great features that this software offers: -Add Google AdSense ads with just two clicks of the mouse, adding extra income streams with little effort. -Hide unattractive page urls by creating redirect pages that automatically forward visitors to alternative locations. -Include navigation menus that automatically update themselves whenever new pages are added. - Use the 130,000 word built-in spell-checker to guarantee spelling mistakes do not occur on any pages. -Split long documents into multiple pages that include complete page navigation menus. -Keep track of all of the essential information regarding web hosting, which means users will never forget any important information such as usernames, passwords, mail server details, etc. -Export sites into other Web design programs, such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver. XSitePro also assists users with optimizing their Web sites for the search engines. Users can designate keywords that are automatically added to the meta tags of every new Web site or Web page created. They can also measure if they have used keywords the correct number of times on each page and quickly make corrections so that they maximize the chance of ranking well in search engines. You don't need to worry about backing up your data either as the software can back-up all your web site work to a single file in just one mouse click. In my opinion XSitePro is definitely one of the most exciting software packages to have been released in recent years. You can find out more XsitePro by visiting their web site at http://www.xsitepro.com # # # Š Michael Jones. This article can be reprinted, used in newsletters or on web pages as long as it is credited to Michael Jones, it appears in its entirety and the resource box below is included. About the author: Michael Jones has been reviewing the latest releases for computer magazines since the early 1980s. His specialties are CAD, web design, and expert systems. Michael can be contacted by email on michael1jones@hotmail.com

Fast Web Design For The Skint Webmaster by: T. O' Donnell

About two years ago, I had a go at commercial web site design. I put a medium-sized ad in a London classified ad paper. Nothing fancy: "Web designer seeks work ..." etc. This was expensive, about Ł500 for a month's run. Got a few replies. Lesson number one: advertise where clients of the calibre you want will see it. The clients I got thought Ł300 was a lot for a web site. They didn't want to pay web hosting. They wanted a lot of bang for their buck. 'Mission creep' was a term I grew to know and loathe. This set me thinking: how could I give these people all they could ever want, but not spend a lot of time and money? Lately, I realised how. So how can you get a full featured site up in a day? Easy (ish!). 1. Mambo Content Management System http://www.mambo.com I wish I'd found this software a couple of years ago. It's freeware. The default set-up allows people without web design skills to update the site. It has a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) option. This adds HTMLArea code to text input form fields. Each HTML code input box becomes a mini HTML editor. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can add formatted HTML code to the site. To get it running you need to know how to install MySQL databases, or have PHPMyAdmin as part of your web-hosting package. You can add articles, edit them, send emails to members, and be contacted by users. The only criticisms I have of this software are: 1. The admin interface is confusing. It's all there, just finding and using it is the problem! 2. You need to search around template sites to find ones suited to your site purpose. I wanted simple, clean, business ones. Most of those available seem to have a fat graphic which covers half the screen. There are more restrained ones out there. These are minor gripes, compared to the relief of finding what is essentially a web site in a box. It can be installed in an hour, once you get familiar with it. To add ecommerce to your site: Oscommerce Shopping Cart http://www.oscommerce.com Again, this is a full-featured, freeware software. You can add lots of freeware 'plug-ins' to it, to get a professional shopping cart. Therein lies the danger. Some of these plug-ins require altering or overwriting the default cart files. When you try to upgrade the cart version later, you may 'break' it, by overwriting a plug-in, thus creating errors. The trick here is to only install plug-ins that add files (rather than overwrite them) or that require minor alterations to existing files. What I do is download all the versions of the plug-in type I need e.g. a WYSIWYG editor. I then choose the one which has the least files, or which creates a new directory for its files. If it requires that important files be overwritten, or is complex, I chuck it. Mambo and Oscommerce. Don't try to integrate them! Hyperlink from one to the other. I've tried integrations of other softwares, like PhpBB and PhpNuke. Fine, when it works, but when you upgrade one or the other, arrgh! *Keep databases separate*. If one goes skew-whiff, then at least the other will still work. Same goes for adding chat rooms and the like. If they're all running off the one database, and that database becomes corrupted ... It may offend your sense of tidiness for your visitors to have to sign up twice at your site, but you'll thank me for this sage advice later. Remember KISS is the basic rule of computing (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). About the author: T. O' Donnell ( http://www.tigertom.com) is an ecommerce consultant and curmudgeon living in London, UK. His latest project is an ebook on conservatories, available athttp://www.ttconservatories.co.uk.T. O' Donnell freeware may be downloaded athttp://www.ttfreeware.co.uk.

Computer Learning Center for Kids is Committed to the Federal "No Child Left Behind" Law

We would like to assist the educational community in meeting those goals by providing a small classroom environment, with a focus on individual student and adult learning at affordable prices. Hiram, GA (PRWEB) February 23, 2004 -- Computer Learning Center for Kids exists to respectively serve as a highly valued resource for this regions educational, economic, social and cultural advancement with a commitment to a teaching / learning environment. And, provide computer training skills for children and adults of all ages in a diverse, ergonomic, safe environment and meet the technological needs in this technical world in which we live. Serving Paulding County, Powder Springs, Carroll County, Cobb County, Douglasville and neighboring counties in Georgia. The pride in understanding basic education and computer skills is priceless. Students will feel secure in the pace of classroom instruction due to the small class sizes and interactive teaching methods. Each student addressed at a personal learning pace that will boost their emotional appeal to learning the computer skills needed for tomorrow. The ease of use of the training programs will attract prospective students to our facility, and encourage existing students to return for more instruction. Computer Learning Center for Kid's Inc will benefit all peer groups of the community. Children will benefit from the advanced computer learning by increasing their appetite for technology and learning. Parents will benefit from the increased appetite for learning their children will experience, as well as the assistance of an additional educational institution to help raise their child's real world IQ. The benefits of our service extend beyond the realms of education into security of childcare and social activities with the belief in “No Child Left Behind”. The learning facility is an 1800 square foot office space located at 1899 Lake Road, Suite 211, Hiram, Georgia 30141. The learning center has a restroom, break room, 6 computer workstations, along with fax-scanier, copier, printer, and e-learning educational manuals that will allow ample supplies for an effective learning environment. A sitting area is available for parents that allow visual observation of their child learning sessions. The learning center for children held at the facility with set business hours of operation of Monday-Friday 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM. Saturday hours 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. The primary objective of our organization is to teach computer skills to children of all ages to include adults and senior citizens. On hand, experienced trainers will lead small class sessions from beginning to end of basic computer functions and tutorial programs. Tutorial courses in math, spelling, reading. Computer training in computer basic, word processing, excel, e-mail,Internet usage and web design explored in a fully comprehensive instructional setting. Visit us on the web @ www.clcfk.com or take a tour of the facilities. Mention this press release and receive 1-hour free computer class. 1899 Lake Road Ste. 211 Hiram, GA. 30141 770.222.6414 Sincerely, Carolyn Blassingill President About the author: Press Release

Build websites easier with premade templates by: Alexandru Marias

To most people the process of building a web site remains somewhat of a mystery. This confusion probably stems from the fact that there is a cornucopia of web sites on the Internet. Even with wide variety of sites, every single one can be divided into two sections: front-end and back-end. The front-end is the first thing that it is designed. It encompasses the look and feel of a web site. This is probably the most established part of the web site production process. Design has been around since Guttenberg printed his first bible. Much of what has been used in print media (especially art magazines) has transferred to the web. Most well thought out web sites start off with sketches on paper. We like using the big huge box of crayons, the one with the crayon sharpener built in. Most of the colors in the "big box" are pleasing to the eye and are web friendly. If you use begin paying attention to sites you'll notice that only a few colors are actually used, 256 to be exact. Only about 100 of those won't give you a headache when you look at them. On request we will give these early designs to a client that wants to control the look and feel of their site. The site, of course, never ends up looking like the early designs. The same idea and concept is there but because of restrictions colors and whole images are lost. This brings us to the next part of the front-end, the actual site creation. This is what many people view as the most important, which is what separates a professional looking site from an amateur one. The images are created using products from across the board. Mainly, designers stick to industry standards like Photoshop and Illustrator. After getting the basic image in terms of proportions and size the designer should create the static HTML page. This is the basic page you would see if you viewed the page source. This is one of the most rewarding, most hated and most tedious part of the web design process. Each browser displays a page differently. Since most users either use Internet Explorer 4+ or Netscape 4.5 we cater to those two. Sometimes we build a different site for each, trying to maintain the same layout. That concludes the front-end section. Personal sites and some small business sites stop here. While this maybe acceptable today, tomorrow any web site hoping to attract and keep visitors is going to have a strong back-end. There are many sites and website designers that offer premade templates, these have the entire graphical layout that a page needs. For those with little or no experience with website design software, templates have quickly become a practical solution to professional website design. Most of the top end sites offer a huge selection of very impressive, easy-to-edit website templates. All you have to do is check your email containing the link to download the .zip file. The html in these templates is compatible with Adobe GoLive, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage. The major advantage is the price, they run anywhere from $20 to $70. Another great advantage is you don't have to hire a web designer, who usually takes 1 to 2 weeks to produce a page of such high quality. Webmasters, either novice or expert, can easily save thousands of dollars on design fees by using website templates. There are also some exception sites, such as http://www.web-site-templates.org that provide packages of templates at one price, instead of providing a different price for each template. About the author: Alexandru Marias is an IT student mentaining software sites like:www.amicutilities.com,www.downloadsplaza.com, www.fungamesplaza.com,www.bluedownloads.com