Three Big Search Engine, Your Website Must be Present and Visible , WHY and How

Presence ; here stomper net discuss a very basic , the presence of your website , its either you are in or you are out . So here is the Big Three Google, Yahoo and MSN. no1. Google – its the clear market leader and hit wise you see them with 60% market share consistently and in stomper net personal business experience, they always see such a huge number of referrals from Google versus the other search engines even when the website has similar rankings which is very interesting .You have to focus on Google first , It is the 600 pound gorilla in the room but you could also get traffic and also conversion from Yahoo and MSN. So you also had do pay attention to the visibility and how the sites maybe indexed on all three of the search engines . It has also had to do with demographics . Google is used by good portion of males and females tend to gravitate to Yahoo and MSN and interesting is most online buying tends to has a females influence which most webmasters dont realize , they ignore that , so you have to realize that you also have to pay attention to other two search engines . The key is to make sure that as much presence and visibility on all three of the search engines , sometime you have 500 pages index on Google 8 on yahoo and 3 on MSN , guess so you have some work to do.

Visibility – is an important matrix that too many webmasters just ignore . We put up a website with 100 pages then we assume that you can find it in Google, Yahoo and MSN search results, guess what ? It does not happen that way , you have to work it out , you have to pay attention on what is your visibility on the three search engines and you can have a site that have 80 pages in Google , 70 pages in Yahoo and 2 pages in MSN and it happens all the time and the people are totally ignoring that which is a problem in the indexing. You may not be the problem but these three search engines have different algorithms in indexing and searching your websites.

HOW TO INSURE YOUR PRESENCE AND VISIBILITY IN ECO-WEB SYSTEM

Sitemaps - stompernet is not recommending HTML kind of sitemap . They are recommending XML kind of sitemap ,which could index all of the pages of the websites . Also understanding were your problems are in your pages , Google will tell you if there is an issue on any of your pages . Also its important to update your pages , whether you made changes to your file , including adding to your content or taking away any content. You have to understand that there is a huge difference between HTML version of a site map and XML. There is also some tricks that could be done in XML sitemap . In XML there is a column there which is called priority , and it assigns how the page is prioritize with all the other pages . 1.0 is always assigned for the homepage , and by default many webmasters assigned 0.9 to sub pages ..but your ABOUT PAGE is not as important as your sales pages , so how to assign priority through XML sitemap is very important . Assigning true priority of each page , for good indexing, how to correct or adjust is a course given by stompernet.com.

Google Page Rank – Well Google only publishes information on page rank 4 times a year on the average , so the information you see on the toolbar is sometime 2 or 3 months old. So do'nt go by the way to see your sites importance or sites authoritativeness. There are other ways to do that no. 1 , I would suggest using Yahoo site's explorer, that will give you a better measure on how authoritative your website is the more links you have the better the authoritativeness of your site.,.no 2 some page rank could be forge , when it come on buying domain names . There is an issue where people actually do re routing of their site which is a garbage with a domain name which has a high page rank say page rank 8. What happens google makes an update and so what will be indexed is the rerouted site . Ebay is literally with a ton of fraud domain sites up for sale that go for $10 thous to $20 thous which is not even worth $30. So be careful , always make a check , to see how many links are coming from other sites . That is the no 1 clue on authoritativeness.

Backlinks – MSN kill the ability to look at backlinks in the search engine , why because MSN doesnt want to dedicate a resources for people to look at backlinks check because it takes a lot of resources . So what is only available are backlinks from Google, and Yahoo. One thing the backlinks being provided by Google are incomplete, fictitious , what they can show you “they admitted it publicly” that they will show you backlinks that they do not count , and not show you what the backlinks that they do count, and the will show you what they want, and when they want to show it to you. The main reason is to “throw you off”so you could not break the black box . And also , not show MR Gates and folks on Yahoo learning something...so the BEST SEARCH ENGINE to know your backlinks is YAHOO!, site explorer .And site explorer is being updated daily , but Google updated their information 2 or 3 months or when they feel they like it. More backlinks is better , you also want to see where the backlinks are coming from , you want to look at the page title of the actual pages that are linking to you , and you could also see the anchor text , so you could see its on your theme , if its not then it would not so beneficial for your site.

Alexa – most people use it , most people hate it but you have to know it . The Alexa Ranking , look at it as a Golf score , the lower the number usually the more traffic it gets . Most website doing business with it sometimes top 1000. I would suggesst that you not install the Alexa tool bar but instead go to Alexa.com and do your research information . People want to know how do I be listed , Google index your site as well as Alexa

RSS - RSS feeds are very important when entering the social media or the blogging eco system, RSS means Real Simple Syndication , which is a kind of funny name but its actually very accurate . It enables you to very easily share your content in various methods and the leading one is to allow people to subscribe to you on RSS feed in the very similar way that they may subscribe on your email list and there are many feed reeders out there that you may use. Having an RSS feeds is a requirement if you are looking at or enter the social media world and what s wonderful about or CSS , Content System Management ,.on the word press blog platform the come standard with RSS feeds , so it must be visible on your blog to allow people to subscribe easily . Also we recommend Feed Burner , which was acquired by Google. In other platforms like word press there is this RSS feeds for comments . And a tip for RSS feeds they can and should be ping , so with word press and other blog platforms pinging is built in . But with other you have to ping it using Pingoat or pingomatic . RSS is critical for you to participate in blogging ecosystem and also critical for participating in web 2.0

DEL.ICIO.US – social bookmarking is a new way to get your sites in front of actual customers and buyers without depending on search engines for traffic. It is better to be rank high in Google , Yahoo or MSN but being involve in social bookmarking universe as part of web 2.0 gives you access to other specific human beings , its actually people online right now in your niche market who are using bookmarking social sites looking for products , that they may be interested in and I see direct referrals coming from these various bookmarking services. You also have the ability to focus on Tags . So social bookmarking is a very important part of diversified promotional strategy and understanding Web 2.0 .is another focus of Stomper net. So its not only important to be present in Google, Yahoo and MSN but its equally important to be in Delicious, Furl , Blink list and there are hundreds and hundreds of social bookmarking sites out there but start with the largest one . Here is a great tip , In each of your niche market , there will many times be a social bookmarking sites specifically for your niche. So how do you do that , go to Google and type in your , name of your niche like “dog walking” as an example ..And if you dont find your niche , then guess what , its an opportunity for you to create one .In Stomper net , they give training in creating a social bookmarking sites .

Technorati --it is an important part of the social media and web 2.0 ecosystem. It is one of the first and still today one of the leading blog aggregation and search engine available . You can find blogs on Google and Yahoo but many of the more active blogs are still spending time on Technorati and you want to know who the celebrity bloggers on your niche for several reasons , you want to know what they are talking about , you want the opportunity to comments on their blogs and leave something of value that is relevant on their discussion, then they will bring back attention on your blog on your own website and you also want to know who your competitors are so technically Technorati has a unique feature vs traditional search engines . It is about recency vs not only authority or relevancy and recency in the blogging is critical because you want to know who is blogging something now or withing the last few minutes or the last hour . You dont want to find a blog or site that might be considered by Google relevant or had a lot of authority of backlinks . So being able to rank in Technorati for recency is critical because from my niche marketing I want to know and I want to be in what is happening in my niche and I wanna follow and tract , what the celebrity bloggers are talking about ., cause it will help in the marketing plan and help me develop producst . Technorati has also a very important aspect in web2.0 , its the concept of Tags...is a way to identify or label what your blog post is all about.. So it also a way like you use in keyword in your meta keyword tag..Tag is very very important not only in blog but across the social media and web 2.0 ecosytem..In Technorati you can also see your rank similar to Alexa rank . It also make you see blog reactions ,, who is commenting on your blogs and its a brilliant way to see vs waiting for backlink report from the search engine.

This is it , the last part of stomper net discussions on the evaluation report they had made to flipantasticweb.blogspot.com with a discussion on basic SEO. I have learned a lot and actually had started reviewing , made changes and plan to do more fixing on these blogsite. If you had taken something , good and if not probably you have a question then dont hesitate to give comments under these .

Meta Description, Heading, Image Alt Text and Tagging - Do it Right part 2

Meta Description - The Meta Description is indexed and used by Google, Yahoo! & MSN. It is recommended that you keep the description to less than 200 characters. The Meta Description works with the Title to attract potential customers. Our testing shows when a prospect performs a search in Google, the results displayed are the Title (hyperlinked) and the Description only if the Meta Description contains the keyword phrase the prospect used in the search. If you do not include a Meta Description, most search engines, by default, will use the 30-40 words of your copy, which could look very unappealing to a prospect. Be careful not to keyword stuff your description.

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Google: Google will pull from the Meta Description Tag as shown above as long as the keyword phrase performed in the search also is contained in the Meta Description Tag.

Yahoo!: If your site is listed in the Yahoo! Directory, the description will be pulled from the directory listing. This is the case, even though Yahoo! is pulling the Title from the website and not the directory listing. Notice how the title spans two lines.

MSN: They currently "mesh" the description. The first part is from the actual meta description and then ellipses will occur followed by the second half which is taken from the first paragraph of text on the page.

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In terms of SEO, the Meta Description Tag is not very important to Google, has average importance to MSN, but is very important to Yahoo!.

Keep your description to 150 characters (including spaces) or less. Your focus should be in creating curiosity with the reader, but not satisfying it with your Description. If you do it right, you will achieve higher click traffic to your site. Do not repeat any keyword phrase more than three times, and do not have the same keyword phrase word repeated back-to-back.

TIP : Warning: Make sure you can back up any claims you make in your Meta Description. If you can't, you may be sued. To not allow Yahoo! to display the Title and the Description from their directory and use the ones on your website instead use:

<meta name="robots" content="NOYDIR">

Where is the description?

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Site's Title Here</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Your Site's Description Here">
</HEAD>

Is your Title and Description compelling?
Does it solve a problem?
Does it suggest that it solves that problem quickly?

If you answered "no" to any of the above, you need to do a rewrite. Remember when a search is performed on a search engine, two elements are displayed in the results list - the site's Title and the Meta Description.

Heading Tags - There are six types of headings: <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>. They also rank in the same order for importance, so <h1> is the most important in terms of On-Page SEO.

You can use the headings to list your "headline" (h1) with its "tagline" underneath (h2).

For example:

<h1>Complete Home Security System</h1>
<h2>Self-install your home security system in One Hour or Less!</h2>

In the above example, it allows for the key phrase "home security system" to be used naturally in both headings, thus increasing the on-page optimization score for the key phrase.

IMAGES are important to your visitors / customers. They help build brand identity and improves the overall design of your site. But search engines today can't "read" your images so SEOs have been "keyword stuffing" the image ALT tags to gain better rankings. We advise against this practice.Instead, we recommend the ALT text be descriptive of the image...not a place to inject 18 kabillion keyword phrases.

ALT Text Importance - There is a major difference between indexing and importance, or what SEOs call "relevancy". Many webmasters will point to the fact that their site comes up #1 for the term "Glendale Arizona top residential and commercial real estate specialist for 2008" and state, "See, the only place that text occurs is in the ALT tag, so search engines do index it and it counts."

Okay, let's be reasonable here. What is the likelihood of someone actually typing the above search string? Besides the SEO, the person being referenced and his mother? Slim to none, right? Over the last few years we have seen a trend here at StomperLabs which shows that using ALT text for SEO purposes has diminished. The American Disabilities Act (ADA) has strict guidelines in order to be ADA compliant. I guarantee you, they do not look favorably at ALT text that has been keyword-stuffed. Have you ever witnessed a visually-impaired individual use the Web? With a device which reads aloud the contents of a Web page, the impaired individual will be inundated with "ALT Text Spam". Sometimes the reader is stuck on one graphic for more than 40 seconds reading all of the keywords that have been stuffed. That isn't a good experience for them.

According to a Google engineer, what you should do is create an ALT [text] that is relevant to the image so it gives the user a good experience, including the visually-impaired. The ALT text is indexed, but it is downgraded in the algorithm. The reason? "We see ALT text as relevant as the Keyword Meta tag," said the Google engineer. That should say it all as Google has never used the Keyword Meta tag due to its high spam rate.

What you need to do is to use ALT text in the manner in which it was designed to be used by the W3C: to describe the image. If appropriate, a keyword phrase can be used, but under no circumstances should you stuff the ALT tag with keywords. Keep it to a simple description. Basically, remember to be compliant, not just with the W3C, but also with the ADA.

TITLE Tag / Meta Tag Do It Right-part1

Title tag found between tags. The Title tag not only displays at the top of the browser window but also appears as the linked text in the search results. The page Title is indexed by all the major search engines - Google Yahoo! and MSN-- and is used as part, or in whole, for the page listing in the SERPS ( Search Engine Results Page).

The Title of your site MUST grab attention create curiosity and evoke emotion to get the user to click. Do not make the mistake of just using your company name. If you fail to get the click, your top ranking is worthless. In terms of SEO, the Title Tag is of average importance to Google for competitive phrases. But Yahoo! And MSN its still very important .

The new standard of Title Tag..

Example : For a corporate Help Desk, instead of using a Title of :“XYZ Corporation- Corporate Help Desk, use Corporate Help Desk/ Meeting Your Core Business Demands “

The title is more effective the main solution the company provides. Plus it does not include any “stop words”

More from Stomper Net concepts and tips ;

A. Search engine do not alphabetize their results so refrain from using symbols such “!!” or “AAA” in your title. That technique was effective back in the late 90's not anymore. Placing your most important keywords in the Title. It is more effective for you to create a killer Title that is highly compelling and generate a top ranking through other means including incoming links. . Your Title must be readable and descriptive – dont just stuff keywords in the Title.

Example: For “Hawaiian Vacations “ one sites Title is : “ Windsurfing vacations lodging Maui accomodations Hawaiian vacation”

The suggessted Title ; “Hawaiian Vacation in Maui – Budget Lodging Available

Result : Shorter title more effective and descriptive, because it targets people looking forvacation in Maui and those who are on a budget. This hotel is generally a two star hotel with affordable prices. Since they do not cater to the “rich crowd” they make that clear in the Title to ensure qualified visitors come to their site. This is alsoeffective in PPC campaign. By direct and qualifying your audience up front, you lower your cost per customer acquisition.

B. Never use ALL CAPS as it makes it difficult to read and it is considered “SHOUTING” on the internet. Instead capitalize the first letter of each word ( when appropriate). Generally your Title should be 5 – 7 words. Google displays a maximum of 64 characters, so ensure you have less than that so you are assured your Title will not be cut off. MSN and Yahoo! Display more but with the market share that Google has it is highly advised you comply with their current standards.

Example:

The above example has “ .......” (Ellipse) at the end of the Title. The Title is too long as “Travel Web Site” is not displayed. This hurts the message being delivered and the click through rate will probably suffer because of it.

Note : Yahoo! Displays 110 characters and MSN displays 70. According to Stomper Labs. More characters are indexed than what displays in the SERPS. For example Google displays 64 characters but indexes 72 , MSN displays 70 but indexes 82. Yahoo! Is the only engine that displays and indexes the same number 110. To see the top scoring Titles for the keyphrase you are targetting , type “allintitle” in Google. For example, if I wanted to know the Titles for the “home security system” it would look like :

It is suggessted to use allintitle command and also use looking at the Top 30 to get ideas on how to make your Title more effective.

C. Dont use more than one Title per page. Although it is allowed on some search engines. It is not a good practise as penalties can be assessed. Dont be tempted to repeat your keywords in the Title tag because search engine may penalize you and never repeat a term back to back in the Title. The reason is not necessarily penalized, it is to ensure your Title is compelling and will grab attention.

Untitled Document is a great example of the “lazy webmaster” who hasnt taken the time to change the default text.

WHAT TO DO – titles done right

It should be understood that the algorithms of Google, Yahoo! And MSN are all very different . Thus the “ Perfect Title” does not exist. You read that right, the perfect Titles in terms of meeting the Three algorithms does not exist . There is just enough difference to not allow for a top ranking to occur across all three with the Title tag alone.

Examples of Good Title ;

Plastic Surgery - Don't Trust Your Body to Just Anyone - this achieved a 4-1 click through ratio over a listing four spots above in the SERPS, mainly due to the word "trust" being added.

Looking for the Best Mortgage? - this achieved a 3-1 click through ratio over a listing two spots above and the conversion ratios were very good as the landing page contained a graphic, "See Us for the Best Mortgage Offer for your Home". This is a strong call to action.

Get Help Finding a New Job - The director reported that since changing the Title their overall traffic has decreased, but the number of closes for their resume help service has gone up seven fold!! Visitors are not just more qualified, but they come in with an obviously better outlook and attitude.

Health Insurance | Avoid the Traps, Get Expert Advice - This Title has boosted leads to the highest point in this firm's web history. They have their top keyword phrase "health insurance" but they also tell them why they should click - to avoid traps and also get expert advice. Notice that they did not place their company name in the Title, which is often just a waste, unless your company name is part of your main keyword phrase.

Keyword Meta Tag – there is still a lot of misconception about the keyword Meta Tag. Due to spamming issues dating back to the late 90's, the Keyword Meta Tag has been devalued. Google has never indexed the tag, and while Yahoo! And MSN give importance to the tag, it isn't enough alone to get your site top ranking.

D. Warning there are plenty of software designed to scrape Meta Keyword Tag information and many gurus suggest the first place you go to build a keyword list is your competitor's sites and take their keywords from this tag. Instead it is best to fill this tag with very general or generic terms. The boost that you will get from Yahoo! Or MSN is worth sacrificing from allowing your competition to get the keywords in seconds that took you hours to research.

Example of Meta Tag;

E. Is it important to use commas? No. Commas are not indexed, nor are they used by the engines to separate the keyword phrases. Commas are for aesthetic reasons only for the webmaster.

A word of caution: Do not use your competitor's company name, trademarked products or words in your keyword tag. There have been numerous lawsuits filed because of this. This is because use of trademarked terms in your keyword tag can be interpreted as trademark infringement. Most legal experts will tell you that permission is required before using a trademark on your site at all, even in the visible area of your site. Also, there have been lawsuits due to phrases used that sounded or looked similar to the owned trademark. Keep these very important factors in mind when selecting your keyword phrases.

Do you know what your site is all about?

What Google thinks about your site could be determine with the Stomper Net Seer tool. They the founder of the tool integrates their tools with the adwords API of Google, which is a fancy way of saying that they can work it out in the heart of Google and analyze what Google is thinking about our website. It is fascinating set of results because many times we think we know what our website is talking about. But Google sees something completely different and guess what ? WHAT GOOGLE THINKS OF YOUR WEBSITE IS WHAT THEY RANK.. So if you think your website is all about your dog walking and Google thinks your page is about dog food and you wonder you are not ranking for dog walking. Google sees your page as something else.


Example: Result of Stomper Net Seer Adwords Analysis

What Google Thinks of Flipantasticweb ?

So here , the analysis is that Flipantasticweb is a blog, naturally classified under miscellaneous.


So this is a great way to determine and make changes to compliment what Google thinks of your site. It is also a significant way to test our competitors site and see what Google thinks it is all about. This is also important to determine what categories or silos should our website should focus on. And it is the easy way of saying , how you can organize the content of site. It is also easy for the visitors to navigate and also for Google to understand or group site for themes and content. So the power of looking at Googles eyes and heart of knowing what our site is all about is VERY VERY IMPORTANT. You must not skip this part because this is the way Google is analyzing and RANKING your site. So if you really want to know your site have it evaluated..

Know Where Your Blog is Going

It has been mind blogging or lot of thinking. I should have post what I had in mind regarding concepts and analysis of a blog but I could not do it because I am talking to myself if its ready or not , so while waiting to decide , I post about the Entrecards new features which I think is very relevant and needs of all blog masters to proceed to just one direction.

Yes direction , every blog is going only in one direction that is to be in the no. 1 spot in the search engine.But to do that it takes a good blog content , lots of readership or subscibers and backlinks . I know this in theory but with what is going on my blog and its results in terms of Google analytics and revenue is not for me satisfactory , though Google rank my blog no. 3.

To have a good basis on what is the status of my blogsite I opted to consult an evaluation group . Coincidentally , I receive an email from Stomper net which has a new software that they want to try with their members. They called it the Stomper Net site seer , its an evaluation software they they use in analyzing the status of your blog site. When I read the offer I said to myself well this is timing . And it pushes me to reply on their email and had my blogsite for evaluation . It is free on the initial evaluation of the blogsite but for a more detailed man to man tutorial on what changes to be made with the web site you have to pay .

They provide guides or concepts on every aspect of the blog site . I believe it is a comprehensive evaluation and analysis that really helps in providing a guide for the basic changes and improvements to be done on your blog site. With just an initial report , it reveals the loopholes in my blogsite and pinpoint changes.

The Salient Points discussed and findings covers the following topics ;

1. Presence

2. What Google Think your site is all about ?

3. Title Tag/ Meta Tag Analysis , What to do – Titles Done Right

4. Keyword Meta Tag / Meta Description

5. Headline ( Heading ) Analysis

6. Analysis of Images

7. Sitemap

8. Google Page Rank

9. Visibility on Google

10. Visibility on Yahoo

11. DMOZ directory

12. Yahoo Directory

13. Alexa Rank, Technorati Rank and Technorati Blog Reactions, Delicious Bookmarks

14. Social Media

15. RSS Feed

16. Keyword Analysisin Adwords

17. Top Myths About Google

The report is a 15 page discussion and evaluation on the basics of SEO . To post it would be too long and I believe every blogs are different from each other , and if you register on Stomper Net you will have your own unique evaluation. So I would just share some of the things that I consider very important for all blog site masters. They shared the following myths .

Top Myths About Google

Myth # 1: The higher your Google Page Rank( PR) , the higher you'll be in the search engine results listing . Page Rank has nothing to do with the ranking of web pages, it has to do with the level of authoritativeness the page has and how often it will be reindexed. Higher Page Rank pages tend to be reindexed more often.

Myth # 2: The Google Toolbar will list your actual Page Rank – the toolbar displays Page Rank and backlink information that is generally 3-5 monts old.

Myth # 3: Page Rank is a value based on the number of incoming links to your site – It is more to do with the quality of the links coming into your site.

Myth #4: Searching for incoming links on Google using “Link” will show you all your backlinks-Google only shows you a small number of the links they know about. The have publicly stated that the links they show you may not all be counted towards Page Rank. Instead use Yahoo or MSN as a qauge to your link progress.

Myth # 5: Being listed in the Open Directory Project gives you a special rank bonus – There is no “special bonus” , you get page rank from the ODP the same as you would from any other site. No special treatment is given.

Myth # 6: Being listed in Yahoo! Gives you a Special Page Rank bonus- See #5 There is no special bonus given.

Myth # 7: Google Analytics is used to track your user behavior for future products with Google- The data is not used by Google per the terms of use. There is no real value for Google to analyze that information , unless Yahoo! Or MSN decided to use Google Analytics.

Myth # 8: Google will not index dynamic pages - Google indexed dynamic content all the time, the issue is , does it index it correctly, and that is the responsibility of the webmaster, not Google

Myth # 9: Google will not list your site or penalize it, if you use Popups – Google does not view pop-ups as an indexing problem. However if the pop ups are abusive, you can be manually deindexed.

Myth # 10: Google will penalize you if, youre linked to by a link farm – While Google has stated that you cannot be penalized because of something that is not in your direct control, they do have systems in place to determine if you are participating in programs which are against their terms of use.

If you find these a challenge on your blogsite , submit your blog site for an evaluation. It would not do you any harm but would help you find your way , the direction and the blog status in the blogosphere. So watch for the changes of a new flipantasticweb in the coming days.