YouTube On Verge Of Supporting 1080p Video

YouTube will soon put even more distance between itself and its old reputation for being a repository of crummy-looking, user-generated content. Support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is due to be introduced on Monday.

1080p is, in case you didn't know, the picture type associated with Blu-ray. It makes very minute details visible (hair and makeup teams were none too happy about its creation), and on YouTube, should simply allow for larger images, too.

Unfortunately, creating and displaying 1080p clips requires enough stuff that not everyone will be able to take part. Content creators who don't have fairly new cameras will be left out. Then, viewers who don't have fast Internet connections, fast computers, and large monitors should probably just stick to what was already available for the sake of not having clips stutter.

Still, YouTube's trying to make the switch easy on people. A post on the YouTube Blog stated, "[T]hose of you who have already uploaded in 1080p, don't worry. We're in the process of re-encoding your videos so we can show them the way you intended."

And the introduction of support for 1080p is important. In the long run, it'll provide an attractive option to professional content creators and advertisers, along with the obvious eye candy benefits for YouTube users.

Google Introduces New Drawing and Form Features for Docs

Google has launched some new features for Google Docs. They have made a couple improvements to drawings and added several new features to Forms.

As far as drawings, Google has made it easier for users to build flowcharts, by adding 20 new shapes for standard flowchart components. In addition, users now have more control over drawing text layout by supporting explicit line breaks in text boxes and text within shapes. The features can be accessed, by simply inserting a drawing into any document, spreadsheet, or presentation.

As far as forms, you can now gather responses for a group of similar questions in a new, compact grid format. The Grid question type lets users label several columns and create a limitless number of new rows. Row results appear in their own spreadsheet columns with their own summary charts.

The summary charts themselves actually have new formatting as well:

The form editor supports right-to-left text input now. “When you enter RTL text in the form editor, it will automatically switch the directionality of the form editor and rendered forms (similar to Gmail and other Google Apps),” explains User Interface Software Engineer Eric Bogs on the Google Docs blog. “This means your text and questions will flip directionality, making it easier for RTL users to create and use forms.”

Google Apps customers have two options for using forms within their organizations now. They can automatically collect respondents’ usernames as usual, and they can also now require sign-in to view a form.

Google Shares New Privacy Policy for Books

Google has introduced a new privacy policy for Google Books, to try and appease the critics of Google's enormous book indexing project. The company has also been in communication with the Federal Trade Commission, and has discussed both the new policy and a letter to the FTC on the Google Public Policy Blog.


Google is still waiting approval from the court on its settlement agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, so some services discussed in the privacy policy don't even exist yet.

"Our privacy policies are usually based on detailed review of a final product -- and on weeks, months or years of careful work engineering the product itself to protect privacy," says Google Global Privacy Counsel Jane Horvath. "In this case, we've planned in advance for the protections that will later be built, and we've described some of those in the Google Books policy."

The privacy policy can be read here.

Windows 7 to run Faster

Microsoft and Intel share an age old partnership of working operating system with processors respectively. Intel is closely working with Microsoft to enable Windows 7 make the best of multi-core and multi-threading supporting chip line up for faster performance. Joakim Lialias, Intel alliance manager, posted about a feature called SMT parking that'll allow Windows 7 to be able to make the best of Intel Hyper threading Technology for 'enabling better performance on hyper-threaded, multi-core Intel processors'. Looks like Microsoft is competing against Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that is capable of using multi-core CPU and GPUs.

When Intel rolled out multi-core chips, the industry stalwarts said that Windows platform and the applications
lacked potential to make best of multi-core CPUs. Apple recently announced new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard with 64-bit computing, multi-CPU, GPGPU and OpenCL support. Basically, Snow Leopard is coded for making the best out of multi-core Intel processors for overall system performance and stability.

On the other hand, Microsoft too boasts of more stable Windows 7 and has tied up with Intel to make it work better with its multi-core processors. Lialias stated that Microsoft has worked closely with Intel on improving 'the boot/shutdown/sleep/resume times on Intel platforms during the development of Windows 7 to identify opportunities to optimize Intel drivers and BIOS as well as Windows 7'.

Traditionally, System performance was boosted by overclocking the CPU clock to make the sequential application code run faster. Gradually, Intel implemented multiple cores on smaller silicon die, thereby giving more room for higher overall system performance. Not many major applications available today are able to make the best of the multi-core processors.

Apart from that, Intel-Microsoft team is also working to technologies that will make Windows 7 work faster on SSDs - obviously it's about netbooks and laptops. The process of read and write would be speedy on SSDs with a firmware update from Intel. In June, Intel had already rolled out graphics drivers supporting Windows 7 which supported DirectX 10. Microsoft has incorporated the upcoming DirectX 11 platform level graphics driver capabilities for splitting tasks to different cores for boosting graphical performance and application processing.

It's just the matter of time when the two titans - Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will battle against each other. This time, it would be on grounds of system performance, hardware acceleration and also system stability.

Resources: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Microsoft_Intel_to_make_Windows_7_run_Faster/551-104853-580.html

Semantics for SEO

Semantics is the study of meaning and relationships and plays a role in SEO. Google makes its money from being successful at crawling, indexing, and ranking data. One important aspect of this procedure is being able to understand content in a manner that is more complex than keyword density. One way of doing this is Latent Semantics Analysis or LSA. Google may not use this exact approach, but Google is sure to use some similar system of semantic analysis to look at textual content.

Intro to SEO Semantics

By using semantics, search engines can have a basic understanding of the English language. There is an understanding of synonyms, antonyms, and polysemes. In addition, Google can relate niches and keywords. They’re able to develop complex relationships with keywords through their huge database of information and linking relationships.

For example, Google can understand the following relationships for a Make Money Online site.

Make Money Online

• Make Money
• Make Money Online
• Make Money Blogging
• Make Money on eBay

Internet Marketing

• Internet Marketing Services
• Online Marketing

Social Media Marketing

• Social Media
• Social Bookmarking
• Web 2.0
• Digg
• StumbleUpon

Blogging

• Blogger
• Wordpress
• Plugins
• RSS Feed

SEO

• Search Engine Optimization
• Link Building
• Article Marketing
• Directory Submissions
• Dofollow
• Nofollow

Google knows that the usage of any of the above keywords is related to the primary keyword of make money online. It can relate long tail keywords as well as related keywords and the long tails of those related keywords.

Role of Semantics when Writing for Search Engines

Knowing that Google uses semantics is important when writing your site’s content and building links. You should use this knowledge to solidify your page’s focus on a keyword.

Quick Note on Keyword Density

Google content analysis is more advanced than keyword density. Do not stress keyword density. Keyword density will not help you rank higher. Anyone still teaching you to achieve a certain density is wrong. Keyword usage is important, but there is no set density that you should target. Simply use it naturally, but ideas like LSA move Google away from basic keyword density analysis. Keyword density is not a direct measure of relevancy. The usage of a keyword 10 times does not make it more relevant than a page that uses its keyword 3 times. If anything, the over usage of a keyword can hurt your rankings. The usage of semantics can be used to determine if a site is using natural language. An over optimized keyword stuffed page does not use natural language and may hurt your rankings.

Use Long Tails

Instead of trying to use your primary keyword over and over, use long tails. Research your keyword before you write your article to determine long tail keywords. Select two or three long tails that have your main keyword as their parent keyword. Use them in your content to support your main keyword and do it without keyword spamming. Not only does this create natural content, but this increases the number of terms you can rank for. You can now work your primary keyword as well as the long tails.

Related Terms

In addition to long tails, use related keywords. If you’re writing about SEO, talk about internet marketing. If you talk about McDonalds, talk about hamburgers. If you talk about hamburgers, discuss hot dogs. If Apple, discuss Mac and Ipod. These related terms will support your main keyword because Google understands the relationship. In addition, it will increase the number of keywords you can rank for.

Role of Semantics when Link Building

The classic advice of varying your anchor text. If you get too many links with the same anchor text, Google will consider it a Google bomb. Varying anchor text is important for two reasons. First, it looks natural. Having the same anchor text is a sign of self generated links. Second, semantics comes into play. You can use related anchor text to support your primary target keyword.

A post about BANS (Build a Niche Store) could use any of the follow keyword(s) as anchor text and still support the primary keyword.

• BANS
• BANS site
• BANS ebay
• Build A Niche Store
• Make Money on eBay
• Make Money Online
• eBay Niche Store
• Build an Online Store
• eBay Affiliate

Google understands that all of these keywords are related.

Dominating Multiple Long Tails Keywords

By using this approach instead of keyword stuffing one keyword phrase, you’re able to dominate multiple keyword listings for long tails. You can rank for many long tails by simply mentioning the keyword. Instead of repeating one keyword phase over and over, use semantically related keywords. This will reinforce your main keyword while also increasing the number of long tails you can rank for. As your page gains authority for the main keyword, your authority for the semantically related keywords will also increase. And the opposite is also true, as you gain authority for the semantically related keywords, your authority for the main keyword increases.

Conclusion

Understanding that Google uses semantics to evaluate content can help you improve your on site SEO. Simple measures like keyword density are out dated and should not be used to determine how targeted a page is. So when developing content, consider developing a list of long tails and related keywords that you can sprinkle through your content to help support your targeted keyword.

3 SEO Services That Make a Difference

Web-based business owners understand the importance of visibility. If a potential customer can’t find your store, how is he going to purchase your product or service? And since many people are using the internet, even for local searches, the importance of online visibility has never been greater. The way to guarantee that visibility is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO encompasses all of the tasks that a web-based business owner completes in order to ensure that his business appears at the top of the search engine results page when a potential customer conducts an internet search using words that are relevant to the business owner’s products or services.

There are two ways to go about these tasks. The first is for the web-based business owner to complete them himself. This can be very time-consuming, and SEO can be a steep learning curve. The second option is for the web-based business owner to hire an SEO professional for search engine optimization services. This is the optimal choice for business owners who don’t have the necessary skills to complete SEO tasks, or don’t have time to learn them. In this case, the services of an SEO professional can be invaluable. If you’re busy with the details of setting up your own business, you probably don’t have time to learn everything there is to know about search engine optimization. Here are 3 SEO services that will make a difference in the success of your online business:

1. Keywords. Keywords are one of the primary focuses of search engine optimization. SEO professional know how to determine which keywords potential customers use to search the web for products and services similar to yours, and they can write relevant, compelling website copy that makes the most of those keywords. While it may seem simple to choose appropriate keywords, SEO professionals can use keywords in combinations and variations that make them very effective.

2. Website Creation. There’s no sense in driving traffic to your website if doesn’t look professional and if it doesn’t make it easy for potential customers to find what they’re looking for. SEO services include website design, an easy-to-navigate layout, and features and tools that make it easier for customers to find out more about what they’re interested in and then buy it.

3. Search Engine Results. Top placement on the search engine results page is the result of many different SEO tasks done in concert with one another. Not only do you need on-site optimization, but you also need backlinks from quality websites and relevant copy in which to use your keywords. SEO professionals know exactly how to use all possible tools to ensure that your website receives a high placement on the search engine results page.

In addition to these three SEO services, SEO professionals also know which SEO tactics to avoid. Using sketchy tactics to increase your search engine ranking can get your site penalized by, or even banned from, the search engines. While some individuals use these ‘black hat’ tactics purposefully, other inexperienced business owners may use them without even knowing that they are viewed as questionable by the search engines.

Hiring an SEO professional can therefore help you avoid two major issues. The first is using questionable SEO techniques, and the second is wasting time trying to master the ins and outs of SEO yourself. Your competitors are optimizing their websites. If you aren’t doing the same, right now, then you’re losing customers because they’re finding your competitors on the search engines instead of finding you. It can take up to several months before you see the results of your SEO endeavors, so the sooner you start, the sooner you will reap the benefits.

So don’t waste anymore time. Hire an SEO professional and see what a difference it makes for your business.

Internet Marketing Role of Time Management

“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money but you cannot get more time.”.
Earning an income on the internet is a process that in broad terms involves three stages:

1. Getting your product (acquisition)

2. Developing your product presentation

3. Promoting the product

• In this article, “product” means any tangible product, digital products (ebooks and software) and services such as membership sites, web design and development, hosting, “print on demand” for ebooks, fulfillment for orders and so on.

• By necessity you will spend time in each of these stages. Each stage will involve a learning phase and an action phase. It’s important to identify clearly what stage of development you are currently working on and to focus on completing that stage.
• Getting your product (acquisition).

• Choose between your own product and an affiliate product.

• Key Point: Once you have your product you can stop spending time looking at other product possibilities for the time being.

• 2. Developing your product presentation.

• Once you have chosen your product you will need to develop a presentation.

• This will include your website primarily and can also include auto responder sequences and a newsletter.

• .3. Promoting the product.

.”We have to become better at promoting what we do than doing what we do.”

• This is where it is also important to be clear about what stage you are in. Remember, time is limited, so if you have already chosen your product and developed your presentation it is not productive to keep looking for products or spending a great deal of time “tweaking” your presentation.Time can always be spent tweaking sales copy, images, layout, web presentation, upgrading or trying new software, investigating new product opportunities (before the current one is complete), improving design skills, keeping up with the changing web “standards”… The list can seem endless.Key Point: Time is better spent developing a clear promotional strategy and putting it into action. Only when you are seeing results from your promotional activities should you consider altering your presentation (such as modifying headlines and sales copy) to assess how that affects conversion of prospects to customers.

• Here are a few tips to keep you on track:

• Name your project

You may name your project as a final name of the product or you may just give it a code name that means something to you.

• Understand what part of the three step process you are in: Acquisition, presentation or promotion.

• Here is a simple question to ask yourself to check if you are on track with your time budget, “What is this activity designed to do?” or perhaps, “What is the outcome of this activity?”

This will help you to identify if you are spending time in the wrong area at the wrong time.

• . Set up check lists to make sure everything is covered. Focus on completion.

• Promotion: Clearly define your action steps.

• . Track the results or your promotional campaign in terms of traffic, click through rates, subscribers and purchasers. Include costs of conducting your campaign and compare that to your sales to determine your return on investment. It is only by tracking the results of the promotion that you will know how to effectively change the presentation for further testing.A spreadsheet is an invaluable tool as a template for specifying your promotional campaign and also for tracking results, costs and return on investment. Adding in columns for each day of the week allows you to allocate your time so that all your promotions are covered in a time effective manner. This becomes your business gauge by which you assess the effectiveness of your promotional campaign.

source: http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/Internet-Marketing-Role-of-Time-Management/298597

Three Things Online Marketing Services Can Provide For UK Businesses

A lot of companies in the UK create a web presence and persue Online Marketing Services and advertising, but they miss other importent elements of an effective overall strategy. A good Online Marketing Servicesmay do these jobs for you.

1. The Secret of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

This helps to ensure that search engines such as Google find your website when people look for a certain term. Well written content and a clever look and feel are often the prime concerns for businesses who want a website. That’s fine for the folks who visit the site, but it won’t help them get to the site in the first place. To the keyboard Robin, that’s the SEO signal.

To achieve a higher search engine ranking the SEO specialist might recommend the addition of key words and phrases to the web site. Often the addition of a word here or there has a huge impact. When people look for a company or service like yours, your website better be on page one of the search results instead of page sixteen.

2. Pay-Per-Click Advertising Revealed

Advertising services like Google Adwords can be profitable. They allow you to target customers and only charge when someone clicks a link to your site. It’s a cake walk to build the ads, and anyone with fingers can create a new account with Google or Yahoo or any other search engine.

However, what these sites may not tell you is that it’s not so simple to run effective, profitable ad campaigns. It’s a bidding competition with other advertisers, and the stakes are losing profits if the final cost is too high. Internet marketing services pride themselves on effective pay-per-click campaigns.

It often seems search sites like Google and Yahoo work to make it harder for advertisers who undertake pay-per-click advertising. Sudden ad cost rate hike often confuse first time advertisers. Rate increases are often based on the results of a software quality check on your site. It takes quite a bit of education to learn the ins and outs of this system, and you are often better off using a service with experience navigating these procedures.

3. Utilizing Niche Marketing

Zero in on the market segment that results in profits for online efforts. Under-tapped and even untapped segments may exist within your business area.

For example, if you run an online bookstore, it may be that if you advertise mainly as a bookstore, or as someone who sells mysteries or bestsellers, you will have so much competition that it will be difficult to compete with larger businesses. However, an UK online marketing services might assist you reach a niche inside your market -perhaps first edition books by 19th Century poets- that not many other businesses are advertising.

Internet Marketing is a process that’s very different from other traditional marketing techniques your business may use. At Infomedia-Direct Technologies, we’ll do a thorough analysis of both your business and your products or services. Then we’ll design an Internet marketing plan that will deliver proven measurable results. Simply put, we’ll help transform the people who visit your site into customers, using marketing techniques unique to the Internet. Internet marketing is so much more cost effective that other types of marketing and advertising, especially in terms of the fact that it elicits immediate an immediate response (good or bad) from a prospective customer. We’ll be sure that the response to your products or services not only is positive but also designed to close the sale.

source: http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/Three-Things-Online-Marketing-Services-Can-Provide-For-UK-Businesses/311218

Internet marketing: On-Line Marketing Strategies

These days an internet marketing strategy plays a vital role in the overall marketing plan of any small business. Getting your website viewed is important for any size business - large or small.

Remember: You can’t put up a terrific web site on-line and “hope” that people will just arrive. You have to let your prospects know, IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY, that your web site is there. This HAS to be part of any Internet Marketing Strategy you develop. This is actually a basic marketing principle. Unless you have something as needed and wanted as the original and authentic Fountain of Youth, your customers are not going to look for you; you have to look for them.

There is a lot of hullabaloo about promoting your web site. In fact, building traffic to your web site is the subject of thousands of web sites, e-zines, books, courses and seminars. Using the web to promote your site, however, still assumes that your customers are surfers. Even though you may be an avid internet user, there is a large percentage of our population that are not as savvy with the internet as we would like them to be.

So, what do you do about this large percentage of the population who are not internet adept? They will only find out about you through traditional marketing and public relations media. This is particularly true if you serve a fairly local market. Fortunately these are the easiest and cheapest prospects for you to reach off-line.

Off-Line Marketing Strategies

Off-Line Internet Marketing Strategies are still alive. I recently read a statistic of the US Postal Service that stated that consumers spend an average of 25 minutes with Direct Mail and 30 minutes with catalogs. (There are more facts in the Mail Moment series of free white papers form the USPS.) Yes, they may go through their mail like Speed Racer and cull through the mail they want and the mail they don’t want at record velocity; but those that catch their eye and grab their attention, they actually read and spend time doing so.

You need to tap into that market and utilize that statistic. Become part of that pile of mail that your prospective consumer spends time reading. Direct Mail should be a pivotal point of your on-line marketing strategy. You need to ensure that you have a direct mail marketing campaign to drive traffic to your web site.

Unless you have a high budget, the TV, radio, classified ad route is not recommended but if you do run ads, be sure to mention your web site everywhere. Make it part of your Internet Marketing Strategy.

What’s So Great About Postcards?

If your prospect sees your website on a billboard as she’s driving home, she probably won’t look you up when she gets to the office the next day.

This is not the only medium that has problems like this. Newspapers are bulky, radio has to spell it out and with billboards most people are driving at the time. On the other hand, if your prospect is sitting at her computer and a postcard comes in the mail announcing your web site, she can just turn around and type in your URL and she’s at your web site.

Now, if someone is in the office reading a trade journal and comes across an article about you in the magazine, it’s not difficult for him to copy your URL into his browser and pay your site a visit. If they are not in the office, there will be a lag time in logging into your web site. Also a percentage of those journal readers may not write the web address down or even remember to check out your site.

On the other hand, direct mail postcards are generally received at the home or office where a computer is present, and if received somewhere else they are small enough to keep with you until you can get to a computer. This way, your prospective customer will be able to take the postcard right over to their desk top computer, type in your address and go right to your site. Brilliant!

I have seen the greatest success in off-line web site promotion with direct mail, and specifically direct mail postcards. The most successful people on the internet market with Direct Mail to drive traffic to their site. The virtual world is just that – virtual. It really is not the real world so if you want your virtual business to be creditable in the real world, apply real world principles.
Source

What Makes Good Marketing? Good Content. What Makes Good Content? Good Marketing.

When the blogosphere was beginning to catch fire, like many of our clients, I was getting very excited about starting a blog. We were installing blogs for our clients and showing them how to use their shiny new blogging tool. What we did not teach is that you must blog often, or not blog at all. This is much more obvious today as blogs are visited, trusted and relied on by millions of users.

No matter the topic, a good blog should always lead to good marketing. Whether you are promoting your company or yourself, blogging should draw in visitors like a trout to a caddis fly. Interesting content will not only put you on Google’s radar, but will also give users a reliable place to learn more about you, your company, your area and your website.

So how do I begin to build a good blog you ask? Well, think about marketing. One of my favorite blogs is on a local ski resort website. The purpose of the website is to sell lodging and activities to people visiting the area. However, the blog does not just discuss “heads in beds,” rather it touches on personal stories of the blogger, cool ski runs, dining experiences and a whole slew of different and interesting topics. It’s personal and authentic. It gives me an “insider’s perspective” on the resort. It makes me want to come back to see what the blogger will be writing about next. And thus the website has evolved as not only a resource for skiing and lodging options, but also for in-depth information on the resort as a whole...

source: http://www.bluetentmarketing.com/blog/

Inside the SEO

It is a bit interesting to see your site is ranked in the SERP (search engine result page), but when you are working as SEO, you toiled hard to get the satisfaction. The factors influencing your rankind are devided into 2 parts: on-page and off-page optimization.

On the page optimization relates with the following key terms:
1> Site analysis,
2> Competitor analysis,
3> Link structure analysis,
4>Keyword research and analysis,
5> Content analysis,
6> Keywords optimization
7> Meta tags preperation,
8> Other optimization factors,
9> Image optimization,
10> HTML & CSS validation,
11> robots.txt & XML sitemap creation,
12> Performing google webmaster tools,
13> Google analytics set up,
14> Demodraphy Performance

source: http://seodiscussions.blogspot.com/2009/07/inside-seo.html

Why Article Submission

Introduction to Article Submission

One of the best ways for one-way link building is through article submission. Now-a-days article marketing has kept the internet marketing a step further. Article submission provides any site with high quality traffic and virtually free of cost.

How Does Article Submission Work?

First you need to write high quality, informational articles and then submit them to online popular article directories. These directories have its own editorial guidelines which need to be strictly followed in the time of submitting the articles. This is important otherwise the articles can be banned permanently from the article directories. Usually, every article submission directory has a specific, standard format. You should add the title in the Title Box, then the body of the article in the main section and finally at the end is the Resource Box. It is the place, where all the promotion takes place. Promotion in the article body is not allowed.


source: http://seodiscussions.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-article-submission.html

How to Measure Success and Benefits of Social Media Campaign

While social media campaigns are becoming increasingly popular among Internet marketers and is today considered as a mainstream marketing tool, it is important that we define some method to measure the success or effectiveness of such campaigns.

The traditional methods of measuring success of any internet marketing campaign can be put into two points

1. Increase in Unique Visitors and Page Views
2. Increase in ROI

However, with Social Media Campaigns none of these seems to be the perfect parameter to measure success. Social media is about people and building relationships. Social Media campaigns develop by fostering connectivity between people and developing communities. It is therefore powered by collective knowledge and gives a closer reflection of the real life., which makes it very difficult to quantify the success of a social media optimization campaign.

Eric Peterson puts up a more logical view to calculate effectiveness of Social Media Optimization by measuring how "engaged" a visitor is when they come to your website.

Eric defines an engaged visitor as one who involves in

1. Reading my weblog
2. Reading other user generated content on the web site
3. Participating in a truly social activity facilitated by my site
4. Joining a social network of web analytics people
5. Contributing content directly to the web site
6. Submitting a comment to my weblog
7. Emailing me directly

Now considering these points, we need to agree that visitors who subscribe to some type of "push" feed are more engaged compared to the ones who view content sporadically. Also, it can be concluded that a visitor who just reads the blog has got moderate level of engagement, while someone reading the content and contributing to the content has got a higher level of engagement.

Now what do we get from this "engaged" visitors? Do they actually contribute to your sales and improve your ROI ?

As Jeremiah Owyang says:
"Some folks tied measurement back to hard ROI: (Does Social Media shorten the sales cycle/reduce cost, and does it increase revenues). For other companies, business blogging is about thought leadership, or building better products, how could you apply these models to the Wells Fargo blogs, that are designed at reaching out to communities?"

Your Social Media Campaign can actually help you to create :

1. Thought Leadership
2. Provides a platform for two way communication with the consumers for the companies
3. Get valuable customer feedback that contributes towards improving your existing product ideas
4. New product ideas can generate through user contribution
5. Increase your credibility
6. This "engaged" users can be a great media to spread the word about your new products and service.

So, though not directly contributing to the sales, SMO has actually become an extermely important marketing weapon for the corporates and can effectively contribute to brand building and also gives them a direct access to understand their consumer reactions.

Causes for 404 Error Code and Solutions

This morning I received an email from one of my blog readers who is a bit disappointed by the overwhelming number of 404 error code that shows in his server log. He is aware of the fact that 404 HTTP status code stands for "Not Found" but that confuses him further because all his links are working fine and there is no link that leads to a page not found. ( Well, I guess he is missing the fine difference between "Not Found" and "Page not found" )

Instead of answering his email I thought I would put up a post here, so it can be of help to all my readers who are struck with such 404 error issues.

As per the W3.org, 404 HTTP status code is defined as "Not Found". It further says,

The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable.

Here are some of the common causes of 404 Error

• Moving a Web Page - At times you reorganize your website or move resources from one page to another for various reasons. Now even after you have removed the page it is likely that you will still have some references to the page both on-site ( links from other pages) as well as off-site ( search engine result pages, links from external sites etc) While you can take care of the internal pages and remove all references you are helpless with the external references and any visitor following those links would get a 404 error.
  Solution: Set up a 301 redirection from your old page to new page. All your visitors would be able to find the page. Search engines would also recognize the move, drop the old page and index the new one.
  
  
• Mistyping by Type in Traffic - If your website is very popular you might be getting a lot of type in traffic. Any mistyping by those visitors would return a 404 error page.
  Solution: Not really a solution for this because you don't know what your visitors are going to type but as a best practice try using file names that are logical, short and easy to remember. Also, you can gain back some of these traffic by using a custom 404 error page ( will write a separate post on this soon ) .
  
  
• Misspelled URLs in External Links - Its always good to get links from other websites, but if the URL is misspelt all visitors would get a 404 status code.
  Solution: Monitor your 404 error logs and see if they are sent by any particular site. If it is a case of misspelt URL, contact the webmaster and request them to change the link with correct spelling. If that is not possible, create a page with the misspelt URL and set up a 301 redirect from that page to the intended page.
  
  
• Renaming Documents & Change of URL Structure - At times pages are also renamed or URL structures are modified. This is a common case with old dynamic websites with complex URL structures with parameters who might be changing over to a nice static looking URLs with URL rewriting. Even in this case the old URLs and file references remain in various locations on and off the site and any visitor trying to access the old URLs would get a 404 error.
  Solution: Again 301 redirection is the best solution that you can have to avoid these 404 error codes.
  
  
• Case Sensitive File Names - While this is not an issue with IIS this can be a major problem if your website is on Unix or Linux server. Apache is case sensitive in respect to file names. If your file name is seo.html and you have linked to SEO.html , your server would return a 404 Http status code.
  Solution: Be very careful while naming your files. Its a generally accepted practice to have file names in lower case and following the convention should save you much trouble in case you are on Unix or Linux server.
  
  
• Old Domains - Many of us would buy an old domain and put our site on that in lure of those few extra backlinks, PR juice and domain authority. Now these domains might have some of their pages still indexed in search engines or linked from other websites which can give you a trickling flow of visitors and most of them getting a 404 error code ( unless coincidentally some of your URLs are same as the old site).
  Solution: You would probably like to ignore this traffic unless the traffic is highly relevant to your website and the volume of traffic is also good. In case you see a good amount of traffic flow, you can always set up a new page based on the old URL.
  
  
• Missing Favicon.ico - Favicon.ico is a small graphic icon that gets displayed on the address bar when you open a URL in Firefox or when you try to bookmark a URL in IE. Its great for branding to have a small logo beside your URL or eside your bookmarked URL. Some of the browsers like Mozilla would call for this favicon.ico file whenever it opens a page and IE would call for this file whenever somone tries to bookmark a page. Now if you don't have a Favicon.ico it your server returns a 404 http status code to the user agent .
  Solution: Simple ! Add a favicon.ico to your website. If you are good with graphics you can do it yourself using Photoshop or other similar programs. Alternatively use this Favicon generator.
  
  
• Missing Robots.txt - All search engine spiders and bots calls for the robots.txt file whenever they visit your website. A robots.txt file contains the directives that tells the bots which part of the website they should not spider. These days robots.txt file is also used to provide links to XML sitemaps so it is easier for spiders to crawl the entire website. Each website must have a robots.txt file in their root directory. Even if you don't want to block any part of your website from the spiders, upload a blank robots.txt.
  Solution: Make sure you have a robots.txt file in your root directory. In case you want to know more, read how to create a robots.txt .

30 SEO Tips in 30 Days to turn your website SEO ready

Having less time to do SEO by your own :) do not worry, now you have a chance to turn your website SEO ready in just 30 days by applying one SEO tip a day? Here are those 30 SEO tips

Tip [1] Add Titles related to targeted keywords, place only important keywords, do not exceed more than 25 characters
Tip [2] Meta description should be unique for each pages with targeted keywords. Do not stuff keywords into Meta description.
Tip [3] Layout pages with CSS, avoid tables
Tip [4] Add Keywords towards H1 tag as page headlines.
Tip [5] Implement Bread crumbs for increasing web site navigation structure example Home >> Service >> SEO
Tip [6] Create Static Header and footer navigation links, Links should be text not as images
Tip [7] Analyze your targeted keywords using Google suggest
Tip [8] Keywords in navigational links play a vital role and have its own importance to search engine eyes
Tip [9] Use most important keyword in file name or URL
Tip [10] Minimize table especially nested tables
Tip [11] Say yes to Quality links and No to Quantity links
Tip [12] Never try to place hundreds of link for a new site on the very first day
Tip [13] Your targeted keywords need to vary a lot in anchors
Tip [14] Always have a good combination of links from new and old sites
Tip [15] Try writing articles having links and have them in the resource page of your site
Tip [16] Images are important, make sure your site logo contains your keyword
Tip [17] Put CSS and JavaScript into external file / folder
Tip [18] Pay special attention to your content
Tip [19] Make sure to have sitemap as text links
Tip [20] Place robots.txt in root on your server
Tip [21] Create Google site map to your web site
Tip [23] Start a blog and participate with other related blogs
Tip [22] Submit site to open directories
Tip [24] Create feed xml and ror xml for xml search engines and directories
Tip [25] Try to avoid automatic directory submission and build manual links
Tip [26] Monitor your hits and traffic by using free Google analytics
Tip [27] Know how to analyze the reports and to optimize the results
Tip [28] Know about redirection methods and theory - 301, 302, and 200 response codes
Tip [29] Implement, understand and react to website analytics reports
Tip [30] Make your body copy sufficiently long and keyword rich

g talk tips and tricks

• If you want open more than one instance of Google Talk at same time or Run Multiple Instances of Google Talk follow these step
  
  1. Right-click on the desktop
  2. Select New
  3. Select Shortcut
  4. Paste this into the text box: “c:\program files\google\google talk\googletalk.exe” /nomutex
  5. Click Next
  6. Name it whatever: Google Talk2 etc.
  7. Click OK
  
  More Detail
• First, create one copy of the Google Talk shortcut on your desktop - leave the original intact.
  
  
• * Right click on this shortcut and choose Properties.
  The Target box will show you the path of the EXE for Google Talk - something like “C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe”
  
  
• * Change this to: “C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe” /nomutex and click OK.
  
  
• Now you can login with as many gmail accounts as you like. Hurray.

Google Ranked Third Worst Spam Provider

The problem Google, along with every other online service provider, faces is that online services that can be abused will be abused.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
January 6, 2009 06:35 PM

[google]
Google has been ranked the third worst spam service provider by Spamhaus, a nonprofit organization that tracks spam operations.

Spamhaus' current Top 10 Worse Spam Service ISP list includes a few other familiar names:

1. ) sistemnet.com.tr;
2. ) hostfresh.com;
3. ) google.com;
4. ) vsnlinternational.com;
5. ) gilat.net;
6. ) cnuninet.com;
7. ) uatelecom.co.ua;
8. ) sprint.net;
9. ) verizon.com;
10. ) simplenet.com.

SEO Tips in few Days to turn your website SEO ready

Revised 30 SEO Tips in 30 Days - Explained in Google Knol (Won best knol of the Month March 2009 & Top Pick Knol Award)

Having less time to do SEO by your own :) do not worry, now you have a chance to turn your website SEO ready in just 30 days by applying one SEO tip a day? Here are those 30 SEO tips

Tip [1] Add Titles related to targeted keywords, place only important keywords, do not exceed more than 25 characters
Tip [2] Meta description should be unique for each pages with targeted keywords. Do not stuff keywords into Meta description.
Tip [3] Layout pages with CSS, avoid tables
Tip [4] Add Keywords towards H1 tag as page headlines.
Tip [5] Implement Bread crumbs for increasing web site navigation structure example Home >> Service >> SEO
Tip [6] Create Static Header and footer navigation links, Links should be text not as images
Tip [7] Analyze your targeted keywords using Google suggest
Tip [8] Keywords in navigational links play a vital role and have its own importance to search engine eyes
Tip [9] Use most important keyword in file name or URL
Tip [10] Minimize table especially nested tables
Tip [11] Say yes to Quality links and No to Quantity links
Tip [12] Never try to place hundreds of link for a new site on the very first day
Tip [13] Your targeted keywords need to vary a lot in anchors
Tip [14] Always have a good combination of links from new and old sites
Tip [15] Try writing articles having links and have them in the resource page of your site
Tip [16] Images are important, make sure your site logo contains your keyword
Tip [17] Put CSS and JavaScript into external file / folder
Tip [18] Pay special attention to your content
Tip [19] Make sure to have sitemap as text links
Tip [20] Place robots.txt in root on your server
Tip [21] Create Google site map to your web site
Tip [23] Start a blog and participate with other related blogs
Tip [22] Submit site to open directories
Tip [24] Create feed xml and ror xml for xml search engines and directories
Tip [25] Try to avoid automatic directory submission and build manual links
Tip [26] Monitor your hits and traffic by using free Google analytics
Tip [27] Know how to analyze the reports and to optimize the results
Tip [28] Know about redirection methods and theory - 301, 302, and 200 response codes
Tip [29] Implement, understand and react to website analytics reports
Tip [30] Make your body copy sufficiently long and keyword rich

search engine optimization (SEO) terms

On-theme
refers to content specific to a particular topic

Outbound links
links that direct "off-site" to another website

Affiliate Marketing Tips

Today, many of us want to pack up our jobs and be our own bosses. The idea of working for you attracts many. However, the reality of making it happen soon stops most. In fact the vast majority of us cannot get a business off the ground due to 2 main factors; the first being money and the second being risk.

Starting even a small business takes a fair amount of money. You need to buy or rent premises, purchase your stock and equipment and pay staff if you have them. You will also have other outside expenses such as advertising.

Risk is the factor that kills most businesses off. Even if youre lucky enough to get the capital to start, nearly 90% of all small businesses fail in the first year. If yours is one of the lucky ones, you have to keep reinvesting your time and money to build up the businesses reputation. It could be anywhere from 5-7 years before any significant profit is seen. Most of us cannot wait that long which is what makes affiliate marketing such an attractive offer.

Affiliate marketing involves you, working as an affiliate for a merchant or company. You sell either goods or services and youre paid on how much you produce. There are no costs and no risk. You put in what you choose and are rewarded accordingly.

Running an affiliate marketing business is challenging. Youll have to work very hard to build it up. However, youll be rewarded for your hard work not someone else. Getting an affiliate marketing program going may seem difficult. The truth is it is down to you and how much you want to put in. There is no sure fire way to success but there are some good tips that you can follow to make you affiliate marketing scheme as successful as possible.

There are literally thousands of programs for you to choose from. However, to get started you may want to choose something that you are familiar with. This product or service may not be the hottest thing on the current market or make you a millionaire, but you will come off more confident and sincere with something you know and believe in.

This will also help when it comes to creating your site. Something familiar will allow you to be personal and creative. Trying to create a site around something you know little about will soon become boring and tedious.

Working with something familiar will also give you the some experience in the program. You can always expand at a latter time when you are more familiar with how things work.

Another good piece of advice is to watch the number of banners that you put up. A site full of banners will make the site look ugly and put off potential buyers. Carefully place your banners and use them to accent your site. Stuffing it full will not help.

Remember, in the world of affiliate marketing there is no such thing as the perfect program. Any particular program will be stuffed full of varying testimonials. Some will be great will others will have not done so well. You need to decide for yourself and not be put of by a few bad experiences. In the end it is down to you and how much you want to put in.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money and work for you. The risk to you is minimal and there is no start up cost. There are many great affiliate marketing programs out there and choosing the right one may seem like a daunting task. When you first start out remember to stick to what you know. Find something you know about and have an interest in. Make your site attractive to others and resist the urge to fill it with banners. This may end up having the opposite of your desired effect. Finally remember, there is no perfect program. Some will have success where others have failed. It is all down to you. Dont give up.

Affiliate Marketing Tips

Make money online, Google adsense tips

The fastest way to start making money with AdSense is with an already established website. You see when you first put together a new website it takes a few months for the search engines to get your site completely cataloged and referenced. Just like Rome, you can’t build a website and get a huge flow of traffic overnight. Be patient, good things come to those who wait.

• If you need to make money immediately, this is not the right program for you. Don’t just toss the idea that you can make money online with AdSense out the window if you are in this situation. Just put it on the back burner and get your cash flow going somewhere else first. Then return to getting started at making money from AdSense ads.
• You don’t have to do just one thing when you start making money online. Most webprenuers have more than one income stream in operation. You see the average small business on the Internet doesn’t make thousands of dollars every month. By having a collection of different small income streams you have enough cash flow to earn a decent income.
• Don’t bite off more websites and blogs than you can chew. You need fresh content to keep your traffic coming back and to keep search engines referencing your pages as important places for search results placement. Make sure your content is loaded with great information and is original copy. Also be sure to do your research and plan your site properly and the money with follow.

Make money online, Google adsense tips

How to Spring Clean Your Website

Spring is a wonderful time of year but it might not be so wonderful for our online business. The weather is getting nicer and people are spending more time outside, away from their computers. One way to get more people to come to your website is to do some spring cleaning and I don’t mean your house! Our websites can get stale and outdated if we do not clean them up periodically.

There are lots of things you can do to freshen up your site and bring new life and new customers to your online business.

1. Add a new section filled with resources, information and maybe even some special deals for your customers. Use relevant keywords to improve your ranking. For example: if you own a home decor business, offer decorating tips and advice. Show people how to decorate on a budget or how to redecorate with things they already own. By providing information and resources along with your products, you are giving people a reason to keep coming back. This is how you build trust with your visitors and get more sales.

2. Remove all dead links, outdated information and products. Nothing is worse than going to a site and finding links that don’t work or information and/or products that are no longer useable or helpful. Go through all the links on your site and freshen up the content to offer up to date information!

3. Give your homepage a facelift by adding new graphics, text, etc. Redo your banner and give it some new life. Take out the old graphics and add some fresh new images. Research your keywords and revamp your text with some effective keywords. Write a new introduction to your site detailing all your new additions.

4. If you haven’t yet tried blogging, read up on blogging and zap some life into your site. Some free blogging sites are Blogger and WordPress. Blogging is a great way to improve your search engine ranking while expanding your network.

5. Update your product line. Add some fresh new products and offer the old products at clearance prices. Have a Spring Sale and liven up your sales! Keep those customers coming back for more!

6. Add a What’s New page so you can let everyone know about all your updates now and in the future. This feature could get more people to return to your site to see What’s New?

7. Research the colors used on your site. You may find changing the colors of your site can bring a whole new life to your business.

8. Put a small survey on your site. Ask your visitors what they would like to see and what type of products they are looking for. Getting the information straight from the horse’s mouth could do your business a lot of good. Offer your visitors a small gift for answering the questions on the survey.

9. Renew your goals! Make new goals and write out a new business plan. Learn from your experiences, good and bad, and improve your plan for success.

Spring is a time of renewal, revitalization and reenergizing! Our online businesses are no exception!

Seo Security

Whether the tools of script kiddies or more advanced hackers; a breach in security can result in a website being flagged as badware by Google. This wouldn't affect a mom and pop personal website to a major degree but would surely carry a negative view for a site which purports to be somewhat professional in nature.

Supposing one was to sell hosting, scripts themselves or security even; then it would look particularly bad for a customer or client to stumble upon a search engine result page which won't bring them to their site but rather to a page which suggests that they should pick another result........Disaster!

Of course in real terms, its not a disaster but perception can be everything.

Following are some guidelines which may be helpful.

1. If you don't already have a Google webmaster account, then sign up. Ensure too that your account email address is kept functional rather than forgotten.
2. If using a content management system for publishing, ensure also that heed is paid to the security aspects associated with that particular cms. Its not enough to publish and forget!
3. As a matter of good practice, be sure to chmod files and directories with as tight permissions as possible without upsetting the functionality of the site.
4. Passwords can be a pain, but are so called, for a reason. Make these difficult to crack.
5. Sometimes, it can be enough to view the source code of a webpage, to find hidden and malicious code. Seeing iframes where they don't belong is a give away.
6. Patrol files on your server to see if anything is there which shouldn't be there. Remove such files once you determine that you or your host are not the instigators. Sometimes, new files are created to quickly help a hacker to quickly find re-entry information such as database names and passwords.
7. While it is good practice to become familiar with all files and directories of a given cms, some will not be competent to this level. If this is the case, then the total clearance or deletion of all server files and folders may be the quickest option. Once done, known and safe backup copies can be quickly uploaded. Likewise for the database, where undesirable code may be inserted.
8. While one might feel popular by having hundreds or thousands of users; not everyone is your friend. Limit the ways which your users can manipulate your database, usually by limiting their webform input. If you don't know how, then ask someone trustworthy.
9. Get the latest possible update to your software. As well as increased functionality, updates are for plugging security vulnerabilities as they arise.
10. A reliable host is a great line of defense as well, as some of the better ones will monitor activity on their servers and can spot nastiness. Most of the time though, responsibility is yours. In the western world at least, there are choices of where to shop and set up your stall.
11. Finally, Google does not appear to punish publishers harshly and tend to help actually. For an established domain, they seem to have a good idea that such hacks are not the intention of good people. If hacked, join the forum at stopbadware.org where these great volunteers may help you to clean out your cupboard.

One thing for sure is that it is difficult enough to get into the serps in the first place. When that is done, you don't want anyone to find a page which might suggest that your site and all indexed pages of it; are not exactly fit for public consumption. Worse again, would be complaints to you that the innocent surfer suffered personal computer damage and associated malware, by simply visiting your website. What good then, is an S.E.O.?

Seo blogger - get traffic your blog

It’s the dream of every blogger to get a lot of traffic, but something first time bloggers often don’t realize is that just publishing a few posts will not get them regular readers. I am no expert in getting traffic, but I have been working on a few things which has increased my traffic a lot.
When I first started this blog I used to get only about 10-20 visitors a day.

After the first few months, I started getting traffic from Google and other search engines and my unique visitors increased to about 100 a day. Now for the past few weeks I have been getting about 550 visitors a day.
The sudden increase in traffic I had from about 100-500 visitors was mainly because my recent posts were linked back from many sites. So yes, linking can get you traffic depending on which sites link to you. Links can be thought of as the currency of blogs.
I received a lot of emails (even while writing this) from bloggers asking how they can get more traffic, I hope this helps…

Blog Design
A good design won’t bring you traffic but it will get your visitors to stay longer. No one will stay on your blog too long if the layout or navigation annoys them. So the first thing to do is to select a good theme for your blog and then design your own header. The goal is to have a unique blog that stands out from all other blogs (making your visitors want to come back again and again).
Often bloggers select a theme and forget about the design. The problem here is that your blog will look similar to hundreds of blogs that use the same theme.
Your design should allow your visitors to access the main pages of your blog and to contact you easily. Your blog should have an about page and an author photo. The more a reader knows about you, the more they trust your content.

Quality Content
Your blog should have good content inorder to keep your visitors coming back. By good content I mean well written posts that are unique and useful at the same time. Writing original content is definitely the key.
Do not copy-paste contents directly from other blogs to your blog. Re-blogging is a bad thing and will kill your traffic. The solution here is to write that content in your own words adding your own unique ideas to it. And don’t forget to link to the original post.
The more engaged you are with your content, the more interesting it will be.

Get Links
The more links you have the more traffic you get. Like I said before links are the currency of blogs. So how do you go about getting links to your blog?
Well written posts are often linked back by many sites. You are lucky if you get linked by heavily trafficked sites.
Another way is to get links from other bloggers. Link to their blogs and ask them politely to do the same for you. Also visit the ‘links’ section of a blog (if they have one) and check for a link exchange form. If there is, submit your blog after linking to theirs.
You may also take part in other link exchanging programs.

Join Conversations
Most of my first visitors came to my blog because I left a comment on theirs. When you comment on a blog leave your blog address. Often people like to know who is reading their blog and will come visiting you.Readers of that blog will also pay a visit to your blog.But do not comment just for the sake of it. Make genuine comments that relate with the post. In the process you will not only get visitors to your blog but might also make friends.

Take part in Blog Top Sites
Submitting your blog to Blog Top Sites like blogtopsites.com and top100bloggers.com is another way to get more traffic. These networks make your blog easier to find and search for as well. After you sign up for an account on their website, you just need to copy a bit of code and paste it somewhere on your blog.
You can also take part in blog traffic exchange communities like BlogExplosion and BlogClicker.
To join these blog traffic exchange communities - visit the site, sign up, confirm your account, add your blog to the member directory and then start visiting other member’s blogs.
Basically, you need to earn ‘credits’ in order to get blog traffic exposure. These credits are often gained by visiting other member’s blogs. When you have enough credits, your blog becomes eligible for promotion. Usually, a link or graphic to your blog will be shown on the main site or in fellow member’s blogs. This is how other people find your blog.
Of course, the more members there are in the community, the more potential visitors. So, if you are part of a blog traffic community, it’s good to promote the communities you belong to as well. Besides, when you promote the community through a referral system, you get more credits too.

Tag Technorati
Technorati is one of the best traffic providers for bloggers. People find your blogs easily when people search by technorati tags. Technorati will rank your blog based on the number of links from other websites.The higher your rank the easier your blog is to find when people search for things.
If you do not have a Technorati account, signup here. After you have setup the main settings, such as your profile, you need to claim your blog.
Make good use of Technorati tags by tagging every keyword in each of your posts. If you use WordPress, I recommend Ultimate Tag Warrior (UTW) which makes tagging Technorati a lot easier.
By tagging your post effectively you will get a lot of quality traffic to your blog.

SEO Benefits Of CSSSEO Benefits Of CSS

SEO Benefits Of CSS [p]This article is most useful if you are somewhat familiar with HTML and CSS. I explain the concepts well enough that you do not have to be an expert, but I want to provide material that will introduce you to more advanced design in ways you can understand.[/p] [p]Like many other web designers, I began laying out web pages using graphical tools and discovered the wonders of tables for layout without anyone telling me to use them. Since browser support for CSS is better than it used to be, and tables cause problems, CSS offers you a benefit you may not have thought about before, the benefit of better SEO.[/p] [p]I want to say right away that quality content should be your highest priority, not SEO tricks. The advice given here will help you get better search engine results because the key to real SEO begins with good page structure and organizing your content. By understanding how search engines "see" your pages, you can build better page structure.[/p] [p]Search engines use what is called "top down" logic in looking at web pages. They look at your code, not the visual display that users see. Human eyes are drawn to the page content right away, even when there are other things on the page. Search engine robots do not see things the same way, but, they are logical and predictable once you understand them.[/p] [p]You have most likely seen search engine results that do not make sense because some obscure content gets displayed instead of the actual content of the page. I will illustrate top down logic so you can understand how to make CSS work for you.[/p] [p]In the mind of a search engine, the gist of your web page is determined first by what content is at the top of the page. If you start with certain words, they appear often throughout the page, and then again at the bottom so it is essentially your closing point, that, in the automated brains of a search engine is what your page is about.[/p] [p]Your well trained eyeballs will probably look for a title, then read the content; so to you, this is the top down logic of the page. Read your HTML code from the top down. You may be surprised how far you have to scroll before you get to the real content, and, how much other "content" a search engine will see first. If you use tables for layout, the top down logic of your code looks like it has the legs cut off and the place settings are on the floor.[/p] [p]Using CSS, you can organize your code so the search engines see your real content first regardless of where it appears on the page.[/p] [p]Let's use a simple HTML example:[/p] [p][code][html] [head] Insert all your head info, including a CSS link like below [link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="file.css"] [/head] [body] [div id="content"] [!--I will explain this div later--] [h1]Heading With Your Important Keywords[/h1] [h2]Subheading With Important Keywords[/h2] [p]Your important content will be here, with keywords. Notice how this is right at the top of your code. No matter where this is on the page, you want it here at the top of your code.[/p] [/div] [!--This would be the end content div--] [div id="nav"] [!--This div represents a navigation example--] [p]This could have image buttons, text, or both. If using images, make sure to include alt text which should contain keywords. With tables for layout, this would most likely be above the content, now it is below where it should be. The div id above will help you control this.[/p] [/div] [div id="banner"] [p]As the name can imply, this can be at the top of the page, but notice how it is way down in your code because it has no strong SEO elements. It might be your logo or additional navigation. Even though it shows at the top of the page to the user, it is not the first thing you want the search engine to read or display in search results.[/p] [/div] [div id="summary"] [!--This div can be anything, used here as example--] [p]This example of another div is used to illustrate another SEO principle. Use keywords in it so it is like your closing point. By appearing at the bottom of the code, it makes stronger SEO.[/p] [/div] [/body] [/html] [/code][/p] [p]Next, I will show a simple example of how to make the file.css to control the layout. You can use this code in a text editor to see the effects. For simplicity, I will focus on only the layout code, we will not be declaring fonts, sizes, links, etc.[/p] [p]In the HTML example, we have 4 sections (divs). You can divide up by pixels or percentages (or even both). We will be using pixels for simple illustration of the principle here.[/p] [p][code][i]/*Begin CSS*/[/i] [i]/*Just for the record, this is a comment in CSS*/[/i] #nav {position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 200px; height: 500px; padding: 20px 10px 10px 20px; } [i]/*To explain the code above, I listed the divs in a different order than the HTML. This order follows the flow of the way I am doing the page layout. It also follows the flow you would have if you set up a table structure in HTML. The nav section butts up against the top left corner of the page (top and left are both 0px). The # sign defines the "id" of the div followed by the name. I set the width to 200px which is like making a table cell that width. I have used the 500px height just as an example so the summary below will start where the nav ends. You want to be sure everything will fit with the sizes you specify. You can also set padding, but unlike a table cell in HTML, you can set each side separately. In the example above, the first 20px is the top, then it declares each side in clockwise order so the left side is also 20px.*/[/i] #summary {position: absolute; top: 500px; left: 0px; width: 200px; padding: 20px 10px 10px 20px; } [i]/*The summary above starts where the nav ends, at 500px from the top. The other settings match for alignment. I did not set a height because it will stretch just like a table cell when you insert your content.*/[/i] #banner {position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 200px; width: 550px; height: 150px; padding: 20px 0px 10px 20px; } [i]/*The banner will be at the top of the page, but will start at 200px from left where the nav ends. Declaring a height is optional, but it will help for making sense out of where the content below will start. I used 150px just as an example. The reason for 0px padding on the right side is because the remainder of the screen is empty in this layout, no need to pad that side. I limit the width so it will display well down to 800x600 res (the total width here is 750px).*/[/i] #content {position: absolute; top: 150px; left: 200px; width: 550px; padding: 10px 0px 10px 20px; } [i]/*Now the content starts right where the banner leaves off, 200px to the left and 150px from the top. Notice this is last. If you used tables to create the same layout, this would be last in your code too. The search engines would read everything else before getting to the meat of your page. In the HTML used here, it is at the top of your code so the search engines see it first.*/[/i] [i]/*End CSS*/[/i][/code][/p] [p]These are simple examples, but if you can think in terms of top down logic, you can build search engine friendly pages. They will also load faster as complex table structures take longer to load than CSS layout, which is another benefit to CSS.[/p][p][span style="font-size:130%;"][span style="font-weight: bold;"]SEO Benefits Of CSS[/span][/span] [/p]