Google is Quickly Changing...

Google is quickly changing...

With the big buzz of Novembers fall within Google comes a newly indexed data-base...

Did Google do something bad to our great placements? No I don't think so and here's why.

While people are screaming for help and wondering what went wrong, I've noticed a MASSIVE shift in page ranking.

If you look at top placements at the moment, according to Scroogle, most of the ecommerce search terms got hit really hard. A lot of the top 100 placements were vanishing and quickly.

Now on the other hand, less impressive and especially smaller ranking sites have been bumped up top. I firmly believe this is all because of Google's "refreshing" their memory and possibly starting to take on web site ID's with 5 characters plus.

What I mean by that is the ability for Google to index more than 3.2 Billion web sites. Adding another character to the already large 4Id's deticated to each site indexed will allow Google to add a whole other list of sites within their database.

Now I could be wrong on that one but here's another phenomenon going on. I've been talking to other ecommerce web sites and helping them gain better rankings. It's been a while since they've had their Page Rank change within their site. Working real hard as I instructed, they have followed all the rules and attempted to boost their page ranks.

Up until now, nothing has changed and people are loosing their ranks within Google since Novembers algorythim change.

Around a week ago I've been getting calls left right and center about page ranks boosting like I’ve never seen.

The previous scare before this November change went something like this. Google stopped indexing more than 3 levels within your site. Ex. www.yoursite.com/level1/level2/level3

I affirm to you this: its pure baloney, more sites now have better PR ratings within their entire site than ever before. I believe that Google is rewarding most great resources online before taking on more listings within their index.

As towards se placements, I also took a major hit for my better search engine placements but a couple of days ago that started to all change. It almost seems as though Google wanted to take out the top placement companies in order to thoroughly crawl through all their information before letting them get back in the game.

I say this because one of my top placements was sitting at #1 for a long time. Since this November change, it immediately dropped to #181 and didn't move one single number for over 3 weeks. To my knowledge, that's a little strange. All of a sudden, my site stats recorded Google browsing through all my 600+ pages and presto, my site is back in the game, just like that.

In Conclusion:

It seems to me that we're all just lined up to sign an application for better search engine placements. The question isn’t if your site will get back in shape, it's a question of when your number will be called.

Have a little faith and a little patience and you too will rise again! Just keep doing what you've been doing all along and don't worry about falling down. The ones who get back up are always the ones on top in the end.

About The Author

Martin Lemieux is a young entrepreneur leading the field in Marketing for Canadians. Having been online since 1991, he knows his stuff when it comes to online marketing.

Affordable Web Design & Web Site Marketing
http://www.smartads.info

ASES - Advertising Search Engine Services
http://www.smartads.info

Re-Print Rights: You may use this article within your web site ONLY if it remains intact with everything included!

Google's Next Big Move

November 2003 might go down in history as the month that Google shook a lot of smug webmasters and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists from the apple tree. But more than likely, it was just a precursor of the BIG shakeup to come.

Google touts highly its secret PageRank algorithm. Although PageRank is just one factor in choosing what sites appear on a specific search, it is the main way that Google determines the "importance" of a website.

In recent months, SEO specialists have become expert at manipulating PageRank, particularly through link exchanges.

There is nothing wrong with links. They make the Web a web rather than a series of isolated islands. However, PageRank relies on the naturally "democratic" nature of the web, whereby webmasters link to sites they feel are important for their visitors. Google rightly sees link exchanges designed to boost PageRank as stuffing the ballot box.

I was not surprised to see Google try to counter all the SEO efforts. In fact, I have been arguing the case with many non-believing SEO specialists over the past couple months. But I was surprised to see the clumsy way in which Google chose to do it.

Google targeted specific search terms, including many of the most competitive and commercial terms. Many websites lost top positions in five or six terms, but maintain their positions in several others. This had never happened before. Give credit to Barry Lloyd of www.SearchEngineGuide.com for cleverly uncovering the process.

For Google, this shakeup is just a temporary fix. It will have to make much bigger changes if it is serious about harnessing the "democratic" nature of the Web and neutralizing the artificial results of so many link exchanges.

Here are a few techniques Google might use (remember to think like a search engine):

1. Google might start valuing inbound links within paragraphs much higher than links that stand on their own. (For all we know, Google is already doing this.) Such links are much less likely to be the product of a link exchange, and therefore more likely to be genuine "democratic" votes.

2. Google might look at the concentration of inbound links across a website. If most inbound links point to the home page, that is another possible indicator of a link exchange, or at least that the site's content is not important enough to draw inbound links (and it is content that Google wants to deliver to its searchers).

3. Google might take a sample of inbound links to a domain, and check to see how many are reciprocated back to the linking domains. If a high percentage are reciprocated, Google might reduce the site's PageRank accordingly. Or it might set a cut-point, dropping from its index any website with too many of its inbound links reciprocated.

4. Google might start valuing outbound links more highly. Two pages with 100 inbound links are, in theory, valued equally, even if one has 20 outbound links and the other has none. But why should Google send its searchers down a dead-end street, when the information highway is paved just as smoothly on a major thoroughfare?

5. Google might weigh a website's outbound link concentration. A website with most outbound links concentrated on just a few pages is more likely to be a "link-exchanger" than a site with links spread out across its pages.

Google might use a combination of these techniques and ones not mentioned here. We cannot predict the exact algorithm, nor can we assume that it will remain constant. What we can do is to prepare our websites to look and act like a website would on a "democratic" Web as Google would see it.

For Google to hold its own against upstart search engines, it must deliver on its PageRank promise. Its results reflect the "democratic" nature of the Web. Its algorithm must prod webmasters to give links on their own merit. That won't be easy or even completely possible. And people will always find ways to turn Google's algorithm to their advantage. But the techniques above can send the Internet a long way back to where Google promises it will be.

The time is now to start preparing your website for the changes to come.

About The Author

David Leonhardt is an online and offline publicity specialist who believes in getting in front of the ball, rather than chasing it downhill. To get your website optimized, email him at info@thehappyguy.com. For a copy of Don’t Get Banned By The Search Engines: http://thehappyguy.com/SEO.html. For a copy of Get In The News: http://thehappyguy.com/publicity-self-promotion-report.html.

Why Google So Behaved..!

The month-old brouhaha over Google's 'changed algorithm', the 'Florida Update', hasn't yet ebbed. With the dawn of new year, the spectre of many 'renowned' websites loosing business looms large. Indeed, for many, Google was the lifeline. And now that comfort is gone. In the ensuing melee, many opinions are emerging. Sane advice like 'not clubbing all apples in one basket' are pouring in thick and fast.

The moot point however remains. As to why Google needed to change. In this article we'll attempt some answers.

Google, the blockbuster

There isn't a dispute here. Founded by two Stanford techies, Sergey Brin and Larry Page some five years back, Google has travelled a long distance in a short time. Maintaining a scorching climb, unmatched in search engine industry, Google is now the de facto king among all its brethrens. That, it would be so, was pointed out by Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineWatch.Com over 5 months back (refer Danny's articles here [http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156431] and here [http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156441]). Echoing similar view, Dr.Ralph Wilson in this article [http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt9/se_dominance.htm] notes that "...Google is the US search engine to focus on.".

Loosing relevance

Viewers expect 'relevant' results in searches. Of late though, Google has been failing. Why so? Because, optimization experts with bits of tweaking here and there could achieve top search results, 'relevant content' be damned. In this article [http://www.ezypost.com/website_design_articles/seo_usability.htm], Scottie Clairborne of RightClickWebs.Com speaks about frustration of not getting relevant search results. And in this article [http://www.highrankings.com/issue077.htm#seo], Jill Whalen of HighRankings.Com almost pleads with Google to recognize relevancy of sites.

Google's advantage

Ever wondered why Google mentions time it took to bring you search results! A subtle reminder that your time is important. Google takes pride in - dare I say- 'flaunting' its speediness. And why not! The fact is Google's infrastructure is spread far and wide all over globe. So, no matter where you search from, you get almost instant result.

Google's other advantage is its database. Crawling millions of webpages every single day, Googlebot has helped build a mammoth storage of data. Others charged for 'prized' entry into their databases, but couldn't make headway. Google didn't charge and is now the king.

The dilemma

With so much going for Google, why would it bother! Make no mistake, Google's earnings hasn't affected. It earns handsomely from paid advertisements, popularly known as AdWords. The question then, why Google would bother!

It would, for it knows competition is sharpening knives to strike back. Moreover, an IPO for an estimated $15 billion reportedly on anvil (Ref: Article *How good is Google?*, The Economist, Nov 1, 2003), Google needs more than ever to clean up its stable [Bloomberg.com in its Jan 5 dispatch confirms that Google has appointed Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to manage its IPO]. Bringing relevance in search results is therefore a priority. For, who else, but Google knows well that for a vast majority of about 200 million searches a day on its search engine, top search results are what that matter.

The picture ahead

Relevance of website content and that with incoming links (oh yes, 'good' incoming links assume significance like never before) will decide ranking in Google's results. Looking farther, perhaps the day is not far when niche search engines dealing exclusively in particular topics will gain prominence.

Readers may like to read related articles by Atul Gupta of SEORank.Com here [http://www.seorank.com/google-florida-update.htm] and here [http://www.seorank.com/analysis-of-hilltop-algorithm.htm].

About The Author

Copyright © 2004, Partha Bhattacharya.
Partha Bhattacharya is the author of the ebook, Sure Web Success with 1001+ Top Web Promote Links [http://www.ezypost.com/eb/top_web_promote_links.htm], that bridges gap between possibility and certainty of your web success. Partha's website, EzyPost [http://www.ezypost.com/web_templates/website_templates_1plus/1plus_1.htm], also offers nicely-designed ready templates for websites.
webmaster@ezypost.com

Being dumped by Google? Learn how to avoid becoming a victim next time around!

After Google latest update nicknamed "Florida", many webmasters discovered that their traffic plummeted.

What happened?

More importantly what can you do about it?

And what will Google do next?

What happened was that Google made an algorithm change on how they rate web pages.

Every time you make a search, Google tries to show the most relevant web pages that match your search term. By being able to give the most relevant results for queries, they have become the most used search engine in the world.

In order to keep out competitors they have to constantly adjust and improve how they judge web pages.

Because this judgment is done automatically using software, many webmaster have been modifying their sites in order to improve their position in the search results. To do this they have exploited different shortcuts and loopholes made possible by shortcomings in the software algorithm.

Periodically Google make changes in order to stop some webmasters to get unfair advantages by plugging one or two of the loopholes.

This is what happened during the Florida update.

With this update Google introduced new algorithms which intended to stop overuse of some search engine optimization techniques.

More specifically they seem to have targeted search terms found in text links also called anchor text. Web pages with good positions in the search result, which had had a disproportional number of in-bound links to them from other web pages with the exact same search term in the anchor text that the page was optimized for suddenly, disappeared from the listings.

The pages did not disappear altogether. Just for the search term that the page were optimized for.

For Google, the high proportions of anchor texts with the same text indicate that the texts were put there for one purpose only, to boost ranking.

One suggestion for you is to spread out the anchor text with a mix of different texts to keep your page in the search results. We don't know if your pages will come back after some time if you do this, but it is likely.

Apparently the search result generated after the latest update have been of a lower quality than before.

What seems to have happen is that a large percentage of web sites have traded links with one another. This link trade has been done with the same search term in the anchor text that they have optimized their pages for.

The victims more often than not have been commercial web sites that relied to heavily on search engine optimization technique.

The search results have been taken over by web sites composed of low quality directory and link farms.

Now, what will Google do next?

I don't know, but TRY TO THINK like Google! This is what I would do if I was responsible at Google for this.

First I think that they will modify and adjust the new algorithm they have introduced during the latest update. Changing the threshold or don't let the "over optimized pages" drop out of the search result so easy, but rather penalize them and put them under the threshold point.

I think, Google have a problem! You see, many "over optimized" sites are of higher quality that those that are not. To simply drop them out and say that there are enough pages for the same search term is not always true.

There is a thin line between optimization and spamming and where this boundary should be.

After this, what will Google do next? It is clear to me that the many low quality directory sites found in Google search results is a nuance to Google and to the average web user.

It is in this area that, I think, they will make the next modifications.

Google rate web pages according to relevance. The level of relevance is judge based on the web page content and/or how popular the web page is in the view of Google.

To get a page popular you need to have links from other pages. This can come from pages on your own site or from other sites.

Ideally these links should be many, come from pages dealing with similar or identical subject or come from pages that themselves are popular. The best is to have many links from pages dealing with the same subject that themselves are popular.

This had led to an intense link exchange active among webmasters. And the primary reason has been to achieve better ratings. The primary purpose has not been to increase the visitors experience value.

This goes against Google's principles.

To quote Google webmaster guidelines:

* Make pages for users, not for search engines.
* Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.
* Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or Page Rank.

To counter this I think Google will target several popularity increasing schemes like:

- Low value directory sites which have been created automatically by robots. These sites contain extracts taken from search engines and directories.

Google can easily spot these sites.

- The building of link directories attached to web sites. They are built with link partner extracting software and services. With them you can upload directory structures directly into your site. This way you can build up a massive number of link partners and also identify link partners with high Page Rank values.

Of course, one can say that by doing this you can add to your visitors experience as the directories make it easy for them to find similar web sites.

However this is an argument that Google most likely would disagree with.

Web sites using tactics like this are easy identifiable by Google. The directory pages are composed of outgoing links which either have the Title, Meta descriptor or other content directly taken from the web pages they are linked to.

Google just have to look at the texts from the directories and the text on the web pages for matching.

Using product or services for this purpose is risking you get banned or at least being penalized by Google.

Will this happen? I think so!

When?

I don't know! Anytime soon, next month,..next year! Nobody knows, only Google can tell!

I think Google also will look into reciprocal linking as a whole.

Maybe they will start to identify pages with outgoing links on them that link to other web sites and identify which links are coming back from those domains.

What they like to see is spontaneous linking to your site from web owners that regard you as a valuable resource to link to, without you linking back. I believe that they will limit the impact of reciprocal linking, somewhat!

What can you do to improve your web traffic from Google without violating its guidelines?

Build web sites that give value to your visitors. Make it into a popular site, so that others want to link to your site. Build niche information rich sites. Either as mini sites or as larger information sites. Larger sites within a niche are given higher popularity rating than smaller sites by Google.

If you do this your web site will not be affected next time Google make a change. Unless of course your competitor drops out of Google, then your traffic will get a boost.

About The Author
Per Strandberg is a web marketer and software developer! Currently he operates a web site for backup products and data security information! At http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com

Posturing Yourself As The Expert By Utilizing Google Search

First, go to google and type "dan kennedy" into the search box. At the present time I get about 49,200 results!

Now, type in "jason blackston" into the search box. Well, it's quite a drop from the 49,200 results Dan Kennedy received. At only 123 results, I've got a ways to go to catch old Dan!

Nevertheless, the more articles that I submit to various ezines and the more websites that I have on the internet, my search results are going to continue to grow!

So what does this mean for you and me. Good question. You can establish credibility with potential clients by using the google search. Often times, people approach me wondering what I can offer them. What do I know? How can I help? The list goes on and on...

So what I tend to do, is send them to http://www.google.com and tell them to do a search for "jason blackston" They'll find old articles, news, and websites. This allows them to gain a better perspective of who you are and what you can offer them.

9 out of 10 times, they're impressed and want to learn more about me. This is great news and it generally leads to a positive relationship and potential sales.

And in the near future as your results continue to skyrocket, you'll see people bidding on your name like they do for people like "dan kennedy"!

Yes, that's another form of posturing that comes with this google search. When people type in your name and the results comes up with google adword results also, then people start thinking you're the stuff!

But first things first. Just informing your list members, potential clients, and friends, about doing a google search of your "name", will enable you to posture yourself as the expert!

About The Author

"Discover how to turn your website visitors into paying customers and keep them coming back year after year!" Free e-package available at http://www.govisitors.com.
* Also- Take advantage of your free 3 step guide to website recording at http://www.audioplayerpro.com
webmaster@govisitors.com

Google Adwords – Online Riches Without Owning A Website Or Product!

Did you know that you can make money from Google Adwords without having a product to sell, or even a website?

It’s true and there are many people all around the world quietly making lots of money doing it.

So how do you do it?

Quite simple really, you become an affiliate.

An affiliate is somebody who sells other people’s products for a share of the profits. There are loads of companies on line who are eager for you to become their affiliate, and will pay you very well for generating sales for them.

Did you know for example that mortgage companies and other financial institutions will pay up to $50 per referral? Normally your prospect doesn’t even have to take the mortgage in order for you to pick up the money, you get it for them just filling in the form.

Satellite TV companies are another example of big payers, and there a lot of “high ticket” software products that can earn you $100+ commissions. There are loads of other companies in all walks of life that want you as an affiliate, do a search on Google for affiliate – you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find!

Sign up with an affiliate program that interests you and that you would be happy and enthusiastic about promoting. If you don’t feel anything positive towards what you are trying to promote you will be less likely to commit your energy towards it.

When you do sign up for your affiliate program, you will be allocated an affiliate “link”, a short piece of text with the company’s website and your unique ID in it. Always be sure to use this link in any promotions you do, or you won’t get paid!

So how do you get these commissions from your affiliate program? Google Adwords!

If you’ve been living on Mars for the last couple of years, Adwords are the little boxes on the right hand side of the search results page which show up when you do a search on Google and other search engines.

They are paid sponsor’s advertisements and your goal is obviously to get as near to the top of the search results page as possible, so that as many people as possible will see your ad.

Now to sell the product that you’ve become an affiliate for, you simply write a short advertisement with a catchy title and two lines of text and refer the prospect to the sales website. This does not need to be a website that you own, remember when you signed up as an affiliate you already created an affiliate link to the site with your unique ID in it, so that the commission from any sale made goes to you.

There have been millions of words written about what makes good advertising copy, take a bit of time to read some of them. You’ll find many great articles and ebooks you can get for free, study them!

Google has a set of standard guidelines as to what they deem acceptable when it comes to writing your ad. You need to read these and stick to them.

The next job is to decide what people searching the internet for your product might type in as a search, for example if you decide to sell mortgages you might use “cheap mortgages” or “best mortgage deals”.

These phases are known as keywords, and you bid for the keywords on Google. Your bid is the amount of money you are prepared to pay for each click on your advert, and bidding starts at $0.05. So if you get a keyword for $0.05 and you get 100 clicks on your sales page, it costs you 100 x $0.05 ie $5.00.

Now let’s have a look at your potential profits. A good sales page might get a return of 2% - 3%, ie out of every hundred clicks 2 – 3 will be converted into sales or sign-ups. So if you are promoting mortgages, out of the hundred clicks for your $5.00 outlay you could expect two or three sales, ie a return of $100 - $150.

Realistically though you would be doing very well to pay as little as $0.05 per click for a market as crowded as mortgages, you would most likely have to bid up considerably higher. But even at $0.50 per click, you would only be paying $50 for your return of $100 - $150 in the example above, still a very healthy profit margin.

Obviously the more popular the keyword or phrase the higher your bid will need to be to secure it, so you will find that phrases like “cheap mortgages” or “best mortgage deals” will be very expensive but will attract a lot of traffic.

--------------------------------------------

This article was written by Ian McIntosh, author of Introduction to Google Adwords.

Please feel free to include it in any ezine or website as long as it is published intact.

For the whole story on how you can get started making money with Google Adwords, go to http://www.worldofebooks.com/introduction_to_adwords.htm

About The Author

Ian McIntosh is the author of several business articles and ebooks, and is the owner of www.worldofebooks.com.

The Google Toolbar & Search Engine Optimization

Like many other useful toolbars out there so is the Google Toolbar. I consider this toolbar a must have for any serious search engine optimizer and anyone who searches the internet on a regular basis. Here’s why… The Google Toolbar has grown significantly in features since inception. It now features several new useful features but the main focus of this article is on those that aid in search engine optimization. So without further ado here’s the Google Toolbar unfolded.

PageRank

Upon installation of the full Google toolbar you will notice a small bar near the center of it that may or may not be partially filled with a green color as displayed in the diagram below.

http://www.lilengine.com/images/googletoolbar/toolbar1.gif

This is the Google PageRank indicator. PageRank is one of Google’s ways of rating your website and plays a role in the position of your site in their search results. This value is calculated based on several variables including the PageRank value and the number of sites that link to that page. Sites with a higher page rank tend to have better rankings than other sites if all other things are kept equal. I have personally noticed a significant increase in the search engine placement of our Search Engine Optimization (http://www.lilengine.com) site whenever our Google page rank is increased.

The Google toolbar enable you to, at a glance, view the PageRank of your website as well as your competitors’ sites. This helps when looking for sites to engage in with link building as more links coming from sites with a higher PageRank than yours help to increase your site’s PageRank. It is also said that when looking for site to link to yours that you should aim for sites with a PR 4 or higher. LilEngine personally accepts links from any useful and related resources, links from sites with a PageRank of 4 and above are an added bonus. Contact us for an exchange at info@lilengine.com.

A side note

There are times when the Google Toolbar will display your website as having a PageRank of 0 or even no rank at all. If your site previously had a PR greater than 0 and you notice this, watch it for a while or close your browser and reopen it to check as there are times that this feature seems to be a bit buggy possibly due to updates etc at Google.

Cached Version

When Google spiders your site it records the latest version of your site that it has spidered and this can be viewed using the Google Toolbar by going to the Page Info button and selecting cached version. Your browser must be on the page you would like to see the cached version of at the time you choose to do this.

http://www.lilengine.com/images/googletoolbar/toolbar2.gif

How can this help you with your SEO campaign?

If you have optimized your website in hopes of increasing your search engine results in Google, this will indicate whether or not Google has updated their database with the new version of your page. If the Googlebot visits your site regularly the cached version of your site will be updated more frequently than otherwise.

Backward Links

The Google Toolbar also has a pretty useful feature that displays all the web pages that link to your web page, which Google counts towards your PageRank. This information isn’t regularly updated and can’t be expected to take between 1 – 3 months before changes can be seen. Backlinks deal with quality and not quantity. A site with 1000 mediocre backlinks may not have as high a Page Rank as a site with 800 high PR backlinks.

Highlighting

You have the option of adding a highlight feature to your Google Toolbar that highlights all instances of your search term on the web page reached from your search. This can help you see how many times your competitors use specific keywords on their pages and you may modify your SEO campaign accordingly. You may also use this to check your own pages and see if you are or are not using enough of your target keywords on your page for optimum search engine placement. Besides those features listed above there are also some other cool tools on the Google Toolbar such as:

Popup Blocker: This only works in IE 5.5 or later but is a great addition as we all know that there are many sites on the web that bombard you with popups. Some of these even go as far as almost preventing you from going anywhere else as more and more windows keep popping up. Annoyance factor 10/10.

Google Web Search: You can easily search the web using the Google Search Engine via the Google Toolbar by typing in your search terms in the search box area and then clicking enter or clicking the ‘Search Web’ button on the toolbar.

Translate: Easily translate sites into English that you may be interested in for one reason or another.

Unfortunately there is no version of the Google Toolbar for browsers other than Internet Explorer 5.0 and greater but hopefully they will be adding this in the near future.

There are many more features available with the Google Toolbar. Learn more and download it here, http://toolbar.google.com/.

About The Author

Alec Duncan is the founder of LilEngine.com a Search Engine Optimization resource site. Visit http://www.LilEngine.com for search engine optimization tools and strategies. Get our free search engine articles feed and also get a free Google ranking tool on your site.

Yahoo Drops Google...How To Flood Your Site With Traffic In The Next 48 Hours

It official Yahoo has dropped Google and will be using Inktomi's results to power their directory.

Previously when you did a search at Yahoo the top sponsor ads are from Overture and the bulk "free listing" ads were supplied by Google.

A few months back Yahoo purchased Inktomi as well as Overture and the online community was just waiting for the day that Yahoo would power all it's results in house.

That day is here...

Inktomi is a paid inclusion service. What this means is that you pay for each page you want included in the search engines.

Currently Inktomi powers MSN, About.com, HotBot, numerous other search engines and now Yahoo.

The submission charges are $39US for the first page and $25US for each additional page. This price covers your pages for a full year. This is a huge savings over going direct to Yahoo for $199 to $399 with no guarantee of any type of inclusion in their directory.

Your pages are guaranteed to be refreshed every 48 hours and included in all the engines powered by Inktomi.

Please keep in mind that this does not guarantee a certain rank within the search engines. This is why you only submit your best optimized pages.

To take advantage of this golden opportunity do the following:

1. Choose your best keyword optimized page or pages.

2. Go to http://www.All-Paid-Inclusions.com and set up your paid inclusion account.

3. Choose to submit to Inktomi and follow the step by step instructions.

4. Within the next 2 days log back into your paid inclusion account and verify that your pages are marked as "refreshed"

5. Check your rank in the various search engines for your optimized keywords

6. Tweak pages every 48 hours to get your desired results.

You now can cash in on the explosion of traffic from Yahoo within the next 48 hours.

No one knows how long this window of opportunity will last.

The opinion among search engine experts and those in the know is that Yahoo will raise the prices of Inktomi inclusions drastically and without warning.

If you use pay per clicks you may remember when Overture did this. At the time clicks were .05 minimum and they sent a notice stating effective immediately the minimum bid is .10 per click.

So don't wait around get your pages in now at the lower price. You can tweak them later.

--

(c)2004 Rodney Boettger - All Rights Reserved
http://www.right-on-the-money.com/dt/t/68/

To learn more about the ins and outs of Inktomi and how to get higher rankings without needing to be an SEO or search engine expert drop me a line at mailto:inktomi@right-on-the-money.com and I'll send you an updated tutorial to walk you through the process step by step.

About The Author

Rodney Boettger helps small are large business properly market online to gain qualified leads and customers.

How To Use PopUps With Google Adwords

One of the common issues that marketers face when using Google Adwords, is that the use of popups on the target page for their ad is not permitted. Many Adwords advertisers just completely remove popups from their web site, which can not only significantly damage the profitability that results from other traffic sources, but, as we shall see, it is also not entirely necessary. This article looks at alternative solutions, which when implemented can virtually double the ROI (Return On Investment) for Adwords ads.

It is well recognized that by capturing the visitor's email address, and then following up with them via an effective auto-responder campaign, marketers can more than double their chances of clinching the sale. Popups can be a very effective way of doing this, often helping to convert 50% of more of visitors to subscribers.

With Google Adwords however, because popups are not permitted, you need to look for other ways in which you can maximize the visitor-to-subscriber conversion ratio, and thereby also maximize the value you get out of each click-through to your web site.

Here are three main ways in which you can do this:

1. Set your target page for your ad as a so-called 'name squeeze' page - this means the whole page you direct them to is focussed on one thing, to get their name and email address, following which you can always redirect them to your normal sales page to try and 'make the sale'. You still need to make sure of course that your ad accurately reflects your target page.

As an example of how to do this, let's say you sell cheap widgets, and your ad is displayed for the keywords 'cheap widgets'. Write a report or an ebook on 'How To Choose The Best Cheap Widget' and offer it for free on your name squeeze page, in return for their email address.

2. Use a special type of popup that doesn't actually display in a new browser window, but 'hovers' over your existing web page - this type of popup is not detected by Google (nor for that matter can they be prevented by popup blocker technology), and works in a similar way to dynamic menus, which of course are perfectly permissable. I have been using this type of popup very successfully for many months in conjunction with Adwords.

You can get a free copy of the software I use by sending a blank mailto:optinover@takanomi.par32.com.

3. Put popups on other pages - Google does not stipulate that you should no popups on your web site, only on the target page for your ad. This means that if your target page encourages visitors to click through to other areas of your web site, you can add put popups on these other pages to help capture your visitors email address.

For example, if you have a long sales letter, try splitting it up onto two or more pages. Your popup(s) can be placed on any of the other pages. I use PopUpMaster Pro to ensure that the popup does not appear if certain links are pressed - this means that you don't show the popup to visitors who click through to read other pages of the sales letter or to order, but otherwise (if they leave your web site) you show them an exit popup to try and grab their email address before they are 'lost forever'.

Use one of the above methods, and you should find that you capture the details of many more visitors who click through from your Google Adwords ad - and by doing this, together with an effective autoresponder campaign, your return on your ad could greatly increase too.

------------------------------

Steve Shaw creates systems and software for effective e-marketing. For the technical edge on e-marketing, and to claim some valuable bonuses, you can subscribe to his popular newsletter at http://takanomi.com/newsletter.

Copyright 2004 Steve Shaw

About The Author

Steve Shaw has been marketing full-time online since March 2002, developing software products and systems for effect'ive e-marketing - for more information see http://takanomi.com.

Stop Whining About Google!

Blame Game

Nearly anyone and everyone involved with search engine optimization and Internet marketing is aware of the famous "Florida" update by Google that caused many commercial sites to lose their Google ranking and position.

Industry experts speculated as to why Google made such radical changes to their algorithm. Those sites that no longer ranked well for popular search terms had to take drastic steps in order to salvage the holiday purchasing season. Many noted the timing and thought perhaps Google was attempting to capitalize on the Google Adwords Pay-Per-Click advertising program. Others simply whined that though their site contained commercial material, it also contains valuable content and was unfairly penalized.

What many failed to acknowledge is that Google has every right to make algorithm changes and if they choose to drop sites that lack relevance, it is their business. Listings in Google's main search directory are free. Many have profited from Google's ability to send traffic for years. Google doesn't owe anyone, anything, least of all an explanation of their algorithm changes. Businesses that rely on Google's free listings as their sole source of web traffic lack good sense. Google, being an independent company, reserves the right to run their business as their management sees fit. If you are unhappy with Google stop using them for searches.

If the results that Google serve lack relevant listings, then find another engine to use! It has happened before and it will happen again. It is the law of supply and demand. If Google is unable to provide relevant content that searchers demand, Google will become irrelevant. Look at the how the search engine landscape has changed over the past few years: AltaVista is no longer the leader, Infoseek no longer exists and others are barely resemble what they once were.

As for the commercial sites who have been battered by the Florida update here are some suggestions:

* make your site relevant!
* submit to other search engines (MSN, Inktomi, Lycos etc..)
* pay for traffic (pay-per-click and pay-for-inclusion)
* develop traffic from alternative sites
* rely on traditional methods of advertising
* promote your website in your signature line in newsgroups
* promote your website on your business cards or on mailings
* participate in industry specific directories
* participate in vertical market pay-per-click the return on investment tends to be *much* higher though the traffic is significantly less

The bottom line is become proactive rather than reactive, stop whining about Google and find alternate sources of web traffic.

About The Author

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

Auto & Trucks Business & Finance Computers & Internet Education Family Food & Drink Gadgets and Gizmos Health Hobbies Home Improvement Humor Kids & Te

If you ever used Google AdWords to advertise your product or service online, you’d have experienced the sheer power of this online advertising medium.

In fact, more and more online marketers, both large organizations and ‘one-man’ companies alike, use Google AdWords for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to:

* Increase website exposure
* Sell existing products and services
* Launch new products and services
* Drive traffic to website to capture e-mail leads and build prospect list
* Test various marketing strategies e.g. web copy effectiveness, product and services pricing etc.
* Research primary and secondary keywords for Search Engine Optimization strategy
* Research consumer and business wants and needs
* Market and sell own &/or affiliate products
* And much much more…

However, as with any pay-per-click service, a poorly designed Google AdWords campaign will NOT bring you the results your desire.

Worst still, a poorly implemented Google AdWords campaign can even ‘break your wallet’!

So, how does one develop an effective Google AdWords campaign?

Here are 7 useful strategies you can use to maximize your Google AdWords campaign:

Strategy #1 - Identify a large number (preferably 300 above) of low-cost but highly targeted keywords/keyword phrases

It is important to understand that Google AdWords is a pay-per-click system and you only pay when a prospect clicks on your AdWords ad - regardless of the number of impressions.

And you can use this knowledge to your advantage by developing a huge keyword list for each campaign.

Here are some tools you can use to generate keywords and key phrases:

Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions tool:

http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox

Good Keywords:

http://GoodKeywords.com

7Search.com’s Keyword Suggestion Tool:

http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsuggestion.aspx

WordTracker:

http://WordTracker.com

Misspelled Keywords:

http://SearchSpell.com

Strategy #2 - Develop various ad headlines and descriptions and split-test them to identify the most effective ad

Actually, Google AdWords does this for you automatically i.e. it displays the ad that receives a higher click-through more frequently.

Here’s a quick and dirty way to develop a killer ad headline and description – model other Google AdWords ads!

Notice I said ‘model’ and NOT ‘copy’.

All you need to do is type in relevant keywords in the Google search box and review the AdWords ads that show up.

Ask yourself which AdWords ad attracts your attention and note down how the headline and description are written.

Here’s a Copywriting 101 Tip – Your headline and description should mention the BIGGEST benefit of your product or service.

Strategy #3 - Use the ‘Keyword Matching’ option to better target your ads

Unlike conventional pay-per-click models, AdWords ads are ranked based the following formula:

Cost-Per-Click (CPC) X Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Keyword matching helps you achieve a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for your ads and therefore, a higher ad ranking - without increasing the Cost-Per-Click (CPC) of your campaign.

For example, a phrase match keyword like “popup generator” will show up for the search query “best popup generator” but will not display for the search query “popup a generator” - so using the ‘Phrase Match’ option will minimize ‘untargeted’ impressions and result in Click-Through-Rate (CTR) improvements.

Strategy #4 - Limit the ad impressions to certain countries and/or regions once you've received customer data from the initial sales generated

For example, if most of your customers are from the USA, you may wish to focus your advertising revenue on the US market and target your ads to only US customers. This strategy will also help you to achieve a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for your ads.

Strategy #5 - Add a subscriber sign-up box on ALL the websites you're promoting.

This will allow you to build your subscriber list at the same time! Place your subscriber sign-up box at the top left or right side of your webpage to increase subscriber sign-up rate.

Strategy #6 - Add a DHTML (Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language) pop-up on your websites

Here's a 5-STAR SECRET Google doesn't want you to know: You CAN use pop-ups on your landing page (i.e. the page a prospect sees when he/she clicks on your AdWords ad) as long as the pop-up does not result in the OPENING OF A NEW WINDOW!

A DHTML pop-up is technically not a pop-up - it is really a 'floating menu', made to look and act like a pop-up!

You can find out more about 'PopupMaster Pro', a 'new-generation' pop-up software (that also beats pop-up blockers) here:

http://PopupMaster.net

Installing a DHTML pop-up on your websites WILL dramatically increase your sales and subscriber sign-ups!

Strategy #7 - Monitor and manage your campaigns

You'll be able to access valuable information and find out which keywords have the highest impressions, which keywords generate the highest click-throughs etc. once your campaign is live.

And you should use this information to tweak your headline, description and cost-per-click accordingly - to maximize your campaign effectiveness.

Use the various strategies described above and monitor the effectiveness of each of them. It will help you maximize your Google AdWords campaigns and reduce your campaign costs.

------------------------------

Copyright 2004 Fabian Lim

Fabian Lim is a Management & Internet Marketing Consultant. He helps organizations and individuals succeed online. Visit his website at http://BizSuccessOnline.com. To subscribe to his free newsletter, BizSuccess Tips, send a blank e-mail to:

mailto:bizsuccesstips@webcopywritingcourse.com

About The Author

Fabian Lim is a Management/Internet Marketing Consultant. He helps organizations and individuals succeed online. He publishes 'BizSuccess Tips', a free newsletter. To subscribe, send a blank email to: mailto:bizsuccesstips@webcopywritingcourse.com

The Budget Webmaster’s 6 Step Guide to Improving Existing Rankings in Google

You know the scenario. You get an occasional click from Google for a certain keyword. You go to find out why you aren’t getting more clicks, and you find out that you’re ranked in the 30's, 50's, or heaven forbid, the 300's. “Great”, you think, “I finally get ranked for a good keyword and it’s a worthless ranking”.

Not necessarily.

If you got ranked for a keyword you wanted At All, the game’s not over yet. If your site’s content is geared towards that subject, you can get your ranking in search engines increased, at no cost. How?

The first thing you want to do is find out how well you are ranked for this keyword. For Google in particular, this used to be a difficult chore. In the old days of 2003, you’d spend your valuable time doing a search on your desired keyword, then a sub-search for your site, and crawling through pages of listings to find out exactly where you stood.

Now there is hope in the form of the following website. Direct your browser to: http://www.googlerankings.com/index.php

You can use this site to find out what number you come up for in the Google listings, which can be very powerful information if used correctly. If you’re ranked in the top 1000, you have a shot at raising your listing for that page by tweaking the page to be a little more relevant.

So, secondly, you have to know how good a shot you have at getting a better listing. Go to: http://www.searchguild.com/difficulty/

I posted a tip about this a month ago, and it’s also in the free optimization Guide I released the week of March 7th. It tells you how hard it is to rank well for certain keywords in Google. You’ll need a free Google API key to use it.

Now that you know your chances, the third piece of information you need to know is how much traffic you can expect. Digital Point has a free tool that gives an approximation of how many hits per day a good ranking gets. Access it here: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Okay, let’s say everything checks out so far. You rank in the top 1000. The term you want won’t be that hard to get, and will get you enough traffic per month to justify your efforts.

Our fifth step is to take the term you chose and optimize your page.

This site does periodic reports on the search engines, and their February report gives their analysis of what the best ranking pages in Google have in common. And as a free bonus, it will also tell you what Yahoo wants. Follow the following link for details - http://www.gorank.com

Now that you know what to shoot for, you need to know how the page you want will measure up- you need to calculate your keyword density. You can also do the sixth step at gorank.com - it has a free tool that will calculate it for you. Prepare your page with that in mind, re-upload, and you’re almost done.

Great, you’re all set. Now you should submit your site to Google, right?

Wrong. Absolutely not. If you can help it, you should never, ever submit any page of your site to Google. Let it find you. HOW it finds you can affect your page rank. I don’t mean that there is a standard penalty for submitting. There’s been speculation on that for a while but I have yet to prove it matters.

What I DO know from personal experience and testing on my member’s sites, is that getting the Googlebot search engine spider to happen upon your site shaves up to 6 weeks off the standard time it takes for indexing. You can show up in Google in as little as 4 days.

Which site links to you can also affect your Google Page Rank. While this is not as important as it once was, it still carries significant weight– my site didn’t start getting spidered on a daily basis until my Page Rank increased to 5.

So even if the spider comes to your site on a Monthly basis, you’re better off waiting for the spider to come back by. That’s the seventh step, let your page be re-discovered with it’s great new changes.

And yes, there’s an even faster, better way to get Google.com’s search engine spider to re-index that page, but that’s another article, isn’t it?

Copyright 2004 Tinu AbayomiPaul

About The Author

Tinu is a free traffic FANATIC. She has been offered treatment for this condition but says it just saves her too much money!

Subscribe to Free Traffic Secrets to find out how to get the Googlebot spider sooner at ftdsecrets-subscribe@topica.com or visit http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com to get more time-tested information on getting Free Quality Traffic to Your Site.

Diary of a Google Gazumpee

Back in November, when the Google Dance began, Barry Lloyd of makemetop.co.uk wrote an article entitled "Been Gazumped by Google?" GAZUMPED! What a wonderfully descriptive term. In fact, it succinctly describes what happened to us when our website went from #1 to oblivion a few months ago.

We were gazumped, swindled, cheated out of what was rightfully ours. Okay, who's to say what search engine position rightfully belongs to anyone. I mean, let's face it, getting to the top of the search engines for coveted keywords is really just a crap shoot, isn't it?

Or is it?

The SEO Cycle...

We've been at this internet game for a long time, a decade, in fact. Dinosaur days! We don't pretend to be search engine experts, it's not our forte. Nevertheless, we have been around long enough to see some patterns emerge.

Here's a recurring pattern we've observed in Search Engine Optimization:

1) The SEO experts research and make claims of what works to get a website to the top of the search engines.

2) It works for a time, and websites implementing their tactics move up the ranks.

3) Eventually, the algorithms change, and websites gain or lose rankings.

4) SEO experts make adjustments, then back to step one in the cycle again.

Around and around we go like mice on the optimization exercise wheel. Furthermore, we do not foresee any chance of stepping off of the optimization wheel for years to come. From our experience, as long as search engines exist, the algorithms will always change, and the SEO experts will always have a job.

But, is Search Engine Optimization really necessary?

To Optimize or Not...

If you've set up a flow of traffic to your website outside of search engines, there really is no need to optimize. However, if you want search engine traffic, you'll need to step onto the wheel. Furthermore, you need to know there's some pretty fierce competition riding the same wheel. But, be forewarned. Once you step onto the wheel, it will become part of your regular marketing exercise.

Is search engine traffic worth stepping onto the endless wheel?

Marketing experts tell us all the reasons why search engine traffic is targeted. But, let's put that aside for a moment and talk about real-world experience for a minute. In the past 10 years, our websites have received traffic from every imaginable source. But, you want to know about search engine traffic, right? We'll give it to you straight.

Search engines have sent us some of our best customers. A significant number have stayed with us for years, and a surprising number have made purchases on their first visit - direct from the search engines.

Now, with this is mind, perhaps you can understand why we have felt gazumped after losing a significant amount of search engine traffic.

So, what exactly happened to us?

Dancing With Google...

For years, we have been building a professional community where home-based entrepreneurs can network with one another and find the resources they need. As a clearinghouse of information, it has been a real task to organize the thousands of pages of information and make it user-friendly.

We had been #1 on Google for years for the coveted term "home business," among other terms. As such, we enjoyed traffic that brought us a significant number of customers and subscribers. Traffic and sales grew consistently for those years. Our Alexa rating showed the continued growth by going from a ranking of 30,000 to almost 15,000 in a year.

Enter the 'Florida' Update.

In November, we were still #1 on Google. Traffic and sales were good.

In December, it appeared the Update was good for us. We remained #1 and sales were at an all-time high. "We're getting through this just fine," we gloated. Nothing to worry about.

But, then things began to change - drastically!

- Gazump #1

Around January 3rd, our traffic plummeted to an all-time, two-year low

( http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=http://www.homebusinessonline.com/ ).

After a quick perusal of our traffic logs, it became obvious Google was playing with our rankings. You know, playing the dance floor. Google may have come to the dance with us as her date, but she left with a different partner.

A little research confirmed that not only had we dropped in our rankings for our coveted search term, but we were nowhere to be found in even the top 1,000. What? From #1 to oblivion? How could that be? The date was over... Gazumped by Google!

- Gazump #2

Some weeks later, typing 'link:www.ourURL' in the Google toolbar brought another startling revelation. While our inbound links before the dance were around 800

(http://www.linkpopularity.com/linkpop.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homebusinessonline.com),

Google now listed only 69. Now, that doesn't even make sense after almost a decade online, especially when typing in our URL returns 2,620 links

(http://www.google.com/search?q=%22homebusinessonline.com%22).

Gazumped by Google!

- Gazump #3

But, why stop there? Let's add a little salt to the wound, shall we? It also appeared that Google was only spidering a few, select parts of our website. No more deep crawls where all the meaty content can be found. Gazumped by Google!

So, where from here?

Lessons Learned...

After two months of a substantial drop in traffic and sales, we are not out of business. Why not? For one, we have not counted on Google as our sole source of traffic. We are still receiving decent traffic, but we could be doing better. I'm afraid we had been gliding on the coattails of Google for too long. Sometimes you just need a good kick in the pants. This wake-up call has been good for us. Like multiple streams of income, we will up the anti on multiple streams of traffic. That way, when one traffic source dries up, it will not effect us significantly.

It's time to make some well-needed changes to our website. It could be better. A lot better. We're going to stop talking about them, hunker down, and make those changes.

We believe this dance is not over yet and Google may decide to return to the dance floor. Considering 'Gazump #2' above, it only makes sense that there are still plenty of bugs to be ironed out.

We'll get our traffic back and in a big way. If not through Google, certainly through other traffic sources. There's more than one way to reach the summit.

The Very Best Strategy...

The fact is you could spend hours upon hours in search engine optimization, and while we believe that optimizing your website is important, it shouldn't be the main focus. We're of the opinion that websites should first be built for customers and prospective customers, and second for search engines. Take a look at your website from your customer's perspective. Does it do what you want it to do?

Go ahead and hop on the optimization wheel. Get it turning, but don't become obsessed with it. If you have the resources for it, consider hiring an SEO specialist to help. Be sure you have plenty of traffic sources, don't rely on just one or two.

Finally, anything online, including the search engines, are driven by the market's opinion. When the dance is over, if Google doesn't provide the very best search results, the market will go elsewhere. For this reason, no matter what might happen to us personally through the Google Dance, the end result will be better search results - if not Google, then another search engine.

Either way, the market will determine who wins in the end.

Copyright 2004 Heidi Perry

About The Author

Seasoned entrepreneurs, Dave and Heidi Perry have developed half a dozen businesses and are founders of HomeBusinessOnline.com and PrettyGreat.com. Known for their unique insights and straight-shooter style, Heidi and Dave are editors of HomeBizBytes. Receive a free issue at http://www.HomeBusinessOnline.com/nsl.htm?sya

Affiliate Alternative; Google Adsense

The Rise and Fall of Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs were once a great source of online revenue, a savvy webmaster with an eye for marketing could easily parley a site into a money making machine with a little luck and effort. However, the evolution and growth of the Internet has hampered the growth of fortune making affiliate programs. Constant search engine algorithm changes, along with the search engine's clear distaste for sites participating in affiliate programs; have made it a little more difficult to earn a healthy affiliate revenue. An influx in the use of software programs that terminate cookie tracking and privacy programs that prevent webmasters from tracking referrers, have also hindered the affiliate sales channel. While it is still possible to make money through affiliate marketing, other alternatives ought to be considered.

A Healthy Alternative or Supplement

Google's Adsense program allows approved websites to dynamically serve Google's pay-per-click Adword results. This has become a popular alternative and an effective revenue sharing program for webmasters. Google's spider parses the adserving website and serves ads that relate to the website's content. While the Google's Adsense program still has some issues, they are making efforts to improve it.

The website maintenance related to Adsense is very easy and requires very little effort. Webmasters need only to insert javascript into the webpage or website template. The javascript calls the ad from Google and will ensure that ads are served each time a visitor goes to the webpage. If the visitor clicks one of the Adsense ads served to the website, the website owner is credited for the referral.

The implementation, while simple, has its drawbacks. Google dictates the format of the ads. Webmasters can select from a handful of preformatted text boxes that lack creativity. A recent improvement allows webmasters to modify the ad boxes to resemble the website's color scheme. Still, a far cry from some of the creative ads webmasters are accustom to.

The example below reflects how the color scheme can be modified to match the look of the website, but the ads physically don't fit well into the overall website design.

sample modified to match sites color scheme:
http://www.hospital-software.com (scroll to the bottom)

Google determines the content of the ads that are shown/ Sometimes the ads are poorly targeted, and of no interest to the website visitors.

sample of poorly targeted ads:
http://www.real-estate-supply.com

Adwords can be a great addition to a website, and when well matched to the content the revenue stream from Google is consistent and effortless.

sample of effective Adsense program:
http://www.police-supplies.com (scroll to the bottom)
http://www.small-business-software.net (scroll to the bottom)

Not that the Google Adsense program is not without its problems.as the reporting provided by Google is lacking. Google has not implemented any way to track multiple sites that serve ads; they simply show the number of ads served, the percentage of clicks received, and the revenue earned each day. Google does not disclose the amount of the revenue they share, what percentage of the revenue they earn and what someone can expect to receive for each click. Webmasters with multiple sites will have difficulty determining which websites are producing the money in the Adsense program.

With affiliate programs many webmasters implement a new browser launch with each click off the site, Adsense removes the visitor from the website and there is not currently an option to launch the visitor into another browser.

Early on Google implemented a filtering system that allowed webmasters to prevent a specific domain's ads from being served on the website. Ad blocking meant that webmasters could prevent their competitors ads from being dynamically served on their website.

Overall, adwords are great supplements to websites where affiliate programs are either not performing or when affiliate programs don't exist that target the sites content.

Give it a Try

Implementing and maintaing Google Adsense program on a content site requires very little effort and can often bring a steady stream of additional revenue for webmasters. Consider supplementing content and see what happens.

About The Author

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

How To Get Banned From Google Adsense In Just 2 Clicks

The darkest nightmare a hardworking affiliate webmaster fears is receiving a dreaded Google Adsense Warning, or even worse, a notice that Google Adsense has been disabled for the entire account.

The notice starts out like this:

"It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on the ads on your web pages. We have therefore disabled your Google Adsense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers."

Some webmasters use Google Adsense to generate 100% of their website income and the account may hold many different websites. In that case, every website is disabled at one time. An automatic disqualification can be devastating, especially when Google has no obligation to explain its decision in detail.

Not only does the account become disabled, but also existing click-through earnings are refunded back to the advertisers.

Life gets tough, but is it that easy to get an account banned? Yes it is.

The terms of service every Google Adsense Webmaster accepts, describes the easy do's and don'ts.

Do use the Adsense approved formats only

Do keep your click-through data and income private.

Don't display Adsense on registration or thank you pages.

Don't use Adsense code and a competitor's content-targeted advertisement on the same page.

Don't encourage anyone else to click on ads.

For a complete list, read the Adsense policies and terms

https://www.google.com/adsense/policies

https://www.google.com/adsense/terms

The easiest method an account can be banned is by a Webmaster clicking on the site's own ads.

Just how many click-throughs are needed to get a site banned isn't exposed, but Google Adsense watches for multiple clicks from the same domain. One person was banned who clicked twice from the same domain within a 24-hour period. That doesn't mean that is Adsense policy, because Adsense appears to place suspect sites on watch status until the action is duplicated.

Spikes in click-through percentages are hefty red flags. Those are the changes worth becoming proactive over by emailing Google Adsense. A site that rises from a consistent 1% click-through rate to a 10% click-through rate on one day could become suspect. The actual percentage that creates the flag isn't made public for obvious reasons.

What's the safest way to protect an account?

Don't click on the site's own ads ever.

Deceptive practices work for a short time, but they always come back to hurt the originator.

Follow up with more tips to help protect your account status here http://www.car-accident-advice.com/google-adsense.html

About The Author

Mike Oliver is a programmer/analyst who survived injuries from a serious multiple car accident. After speaking with attorneys who looked to create a case and then take up to 50% of any settlement, Mike Oliver knew there must be another way to get the legal help he needed, conquer the insurance nightmares, and keep 100% of his settlement without fear of a do-it-yourself-kit. He found it and saved thousands of $$$. You can, too. Get the lessons Mike paid to learn Free at www.car-accident-advice.com

Five FAQ About Google PageRank

Five FAQ about Google PageRank

1. What is PageRank and why should I care about it?

PageRank is a formula that assigns a value to every page in the Google index. Google displays search results based on an algorithm which includes the value of PageRank. So the higher your site's PageRank, the more likely it is that you will receive a top listing on the search result page when someone types in the keywords for your site.

2. How can I view the PageRank of my own or other websites?

It's very simple to see anyone's PageRank. Just download and install the Google toolbar. It's a very quick and easy install. Just be sure to choose the Advanced option during the install so the PageRank of each site you visit will be displayed on the toolbar.

3. How is PageRank calculated?

I've seen a formula for PageRank posted on Internet websites and forums but have failed to see anyone give a satisfactory explanation of the formula. The formula appears so complex you would probably have to be a mathematician to even have a chance to decipher it anyway. It looks something like this:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(t1)/C(t1) + ... + PR(tn)/C(tn))

I will attempt to explain it for you in plain English. Basically it works like this. The more links that point to your website the higher your PageRank will be. The higher the PageRank of the referring page that has your link on it, the more PageRank you receive from Google. For every outgoing link that a page has, the value of those links drop. So for example, a link from a page with a PageRank of 4, and only 3 other links, is worth more than a page with a PageRank of 5 and 100 links. It is also believed that Google assigns more value to a link that comes from a site with similar content. So as you can see, there are many variables when calculating PageRank.

4. How do I increase my PageRank?

Again, PageRank can be increased by the number of incoming links to your website from other sites on the Internet. In addition, it requires anywhere from five to seven times more to get from one level of PageRank to the next.

So for example, (and this is not a true formula) if 100 PageRank 3 sites with a link to your page give you a PageRank of 4, then it would take around 500 more PageRank 3 sites to link to you before you became PageRank 5. However if you had 1 link from a PageRank 8 site, that might be enough to give a higher PageRank all by its self. It's really all relative and trying to figure it out will simply drive you mad, so don't bother. :) The best thing you can do is obtain as many quality incoming links from other sites with similar content as you possibly can.

Another important factor is the number of pages on your site. The more pages on your site, the higher potential you have to gain in PageRank. More pages doesn't mean you will get a higher PageRank only that you won't hit a ceiling. Apparently Google has a cut off point somewhere on the highest PageRank it will give to sites with a low number of pages.

5. When will my PageRank be updated or change?

According to the Google website, they update the index about once a month. However if you spend any amount of time reading search engine forums, you will find that results vary for every webmaster. PageRank may not update or may change drastically for a long period of time which is often times unexplainable. Usually as long as you follow good web site optimization techniques and maintain enough quality incoming links, the index will eventually assign your website PageRank and adjust any changes which may have been made in error.

About The Author

Most Relevant Links Directory http://www.most-relevant-links.com/. Free marketing information and links for the online entrepreneur.

Make Free Money With Google

Have you received your check from Google? If you own a business web-site you should be receiving a check from Google. Why not accept a check every month from Google by placing their ads on your site?

Google AdSense allows you to serve text-based Google AdWords on your web site, (ads are relevant to your web site subject) and receive a share of the pay-per-click payment. There are pay-outs of 50 cents or more per click being achieved through AdSense. It is simple to join and it's free.

Go to google.com/adsense and you should be serving Google AdWords usually within 24 hours.You can choose between either horizontal or skyscraper AdSense ads, and they also have a large variety of color schemes to choose from. After your site has been approved you will paste a code into your site and the text ads will appear. Always backup your site before you paste your code, as you may decide to change your AdSense location.

Google also is doing a good job of finding ads that are highly relevant to your site. They go beyond simple keyword matching to understand the context and contents of web pages. They are able to know what a page is about, and can precisely match Google ads to each page. Then they also give you the ability to block certain ads from appearing on your site if you choose.

So what are you waiting for? It's Free and you get paid!

--

This article may be reprinted providing it is published in it's entirety, including the author's bio and link to the URL below.

About The Author

The author, John Baker, is the editor of Best-Home-Business-eNews. A newsletter dedicated to supporting the home business entrepreneur. If you're looking for some of the best home business opportunities, tools, thoughts, ideas, and support from a dependable source, come by, visit,and grab a FREE subscription today at: http://www.best-home-business-ideas.net or email your questions to: mailto:admin@best-home-business-ideas.net

Google AdWords and AdSense - A Dynamic Small Business Marketing Duo

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last year or so, you probably know that Google has become the king of the search engine hill. There are many reasons for this but number one in my opinion is that above all else they put value on content. Today I want to introduce you to two very powerful small business advertising options created by Google.

These two ingenious programs have all but revolutionized the way advertising is done on the web. Warning: If you are thinking..."web advertising isn't for me, I just need a few more clients around the block"...you better read this or be prepared to have your competitors eat your lunch.

Goolge AdSense - Again content is king at Google. This program allows web site "publishers" to add some code from Google and receive "content relevant" ads on their site from other site owners. Here is an example - those ads in the box on the right of the page are delivered by Google and are matched to the content on the page. When someone surfs to the page and decides to check out one of those ads, the web site owner earns a portion of the advertising revenue that Google collects.

The key here is that if you go to a site about quilting, you will see ads about quilting and not about dog grooming. I know this sounds so obvious but Google was the first to really figure this out.

This program has worked so well that some website owners are actually building content specific sites and paying for them solely through AdSense revenue. Small business owners should consider adding this feature to pages on their site for several reasons.

I've already mentioned the fact that there is money to be made, but what many site owners are finding is that because Google is so respected and because the ads are highly targeted...they are no longer looked at by surfers as ads, they are looked at as content.

Some will even go as far as to say that by putting the Google ads on your site you actually better your chances of higher rankings with Google. Google flatly denies this claim and I don't think it is true but I do know that Google AdSense ads should be on every small business owner's site. (Google AdSense)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another Warning: This is somewhat complex stuff. This article is only meant to introduce you to the power of these programs. Check out Google Cash by Chris Carpenter for a deeper understanding of ways to make this work for you.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Google AdWords - I've already talked about those ads you see on websites, well those ads need to come from somewhere don't they. AdWords is Google's program for advertisers.

Any site that wishes to participate bids for "keywords" that are relevant to their product, service, or site and then creates ads to attract hits. These ads show up on private websites, like this example, and on the right side of Google search results like this search for "Free sales letters and tools" As you can see from this Google search you received the content related sites that you searched for but you also get some related ads that are sponsored.

Now here is where Google is genius. Instead of simply subjecting surfers to any ads that anyone is willing to pay for, they actually police the ads that are running. On some pay per click programs, whoever is willing to pay to most wins. Google uses a performance model. In other words an ad that is the most relevant and therefore receives the most clicks will move ahead of an ad that may pay more but isn't as effective. This simple philosophy is why Google has quickly dominated the PPC world.

Okay...and now the really big innovation

Regional targeting. Google recently introduced a system that allows advertisers to target certain metropolitan markets only. In other words, a remodeling contractor who only wants to do kitchen remodels in say, Denver, can bid on the keyword phrase "kitchen remodel" and only have his ads show up for people who live in and around Denver.

The implication this has for local small business owners is staggering. In the example above, our Remodeler can now tap into highly targeted web traffic for pennies per lead. In my opinion, small business owner who learn the ins and outs of this medium will dominate their markets. (Google AdWords)

Look for more on this topic in the future.

Copyright 2004 John Jantsch

About The Author

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant based in Kansas City, Mo. He writes frequently on real world small business marketing tactics and is the creator of “Duct Tape Marketing” a turn-key small business marketing system. Check out his blog at http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php

Googleopoly: The Motivation Behind Gmail

Just before the close of business on Wednesday, Google announced that it will be launching Gmail, its new free e-mail service set to offer 1000 megabytes of free space to its users. This announcement comes after a flurry of changes at Google, all of which are geared to securing their place as the dominant search engine in light of recent competition offered by Yahoo! and soon MSN. The search engine wars have been predicted for some time now by search engine insiders, and the launch of Gmail is Google’s attempt to win the war before it gets fully started. But is Google really ready to take on the big portals?

It is very unlikely that Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page had any idea exactly how big their original search engine (then called BackRub) would actually become. Google was an innocent project through Standford University. It was a project started in the days of optimism about a free Internet not supported by ads or corporate revenues, but rather the free exchange of ideas. As a result, they focused solely on product. There were no worries about creating a flashy interface, hiring a sharp marketing team, or launching an IPO. They were worried about good search results. The result is that Google is now synonymous with searching the Internet.

Today, Google stands with a much different outlook. The success of the launch of AdWords propelled Google into a class all their own. Almost overnight, Google entered the PPC industry and dethroned Overture as the untouchable kings of PPC. Although other search engines such as Lycos, FindWhat, Kanoodle, and Sprinks had been competing with Overture, none of these engines were able to bring the reach and brand power of Google.

The success of AdWords was a notice to every other Internet giant. Companies such as Yahoo! and AOL – who were providing Google’s results to their users – took notice to the fact that Google had an incredible influence on the Internet, and if they desired, they could leverage that influence into a variety of new markets. Worse yet, Yahoo! and AOL helped Google gain such influence by providing Google results to their users. These giants became nervous, and with good reason. Google started to show signs that they were expanding into new markets. Dictionaries, glossaries, news services, Froogle, Catalog search, maps, blogging, and other services were all emerging from the Google labs and news rooms. If Google was able to instantaneously compete and lead in the highly competitive PPC market, what would happen if they moved in on the territory of Yahoo!, AOL, or MSN? These Internet giants helped make Google powerful, possibly more powerful than they were themselves.

The battle for web searches had begun. Yahoo! has taken the most notable steps by replacing their results provided by Google with their newly acquired Inktomi division based results. To fight Google on the advertising revenue level, Yahoo swooped up Overture, still all-star in the paid search market. Overture, now playing catch-up in an industry which they practically founded, launched their own site content match system which rivals Google AdWords.

MSN has vowed to refine their search algorithms to become more relevant. Most of the work being done by MSN has been fairly quiet, but rest assured, there will be a lot of talk about MSN search when they are ready to release their new product to the Internet. And, with every new PC you buy, don’t be surprised if it comes with a host of web searching tools built in.

There have even been rumors over at AOL that they are going to be abandoning their Google based results. The fact is, AOL is scared of Google. As it stands right now, Froogle already steps on their shopping market, and Google News is taking away from AOL’s news delivery service.

By abandoning Google provided results, these Internet giants are attempting to limit Google’s reach. The fact is simple: users still use Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL. They use these services because they offer a host of unique information, updated news, financial reports, maps, phone directories, etc. Most importantly, users visit MSN, Yahoo, and AOL for their free e-mail. While they have these users attention, Yahoo! and MSN will now try to sell these users on their new and improved search results not provided by Google in order to steal a bit of that search engine market.

Just as Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN realized how powerful Google was in the search engine market (and subsequently the danger that posed to them), Google is realizing the real threat that these portals present. If these portals are able to offer suitable search results, users will have less reason to utilize Google’s search. Google has also recognized the main advantage these portals have: free e-mail. Free e-mail is what makes Yahoo! and MSN such popular destinations. People who have e-mail accounts at these locations find themselves visiting these sites multiple times every day just to check their e-mail. While they are there, they have the opportunity to be grabbed by a headline or service offered through these portals. The free e-mail is what brings the users back time and again.

Gmail is a direct attempt by Google to destroy any competition before it arises. With 10 times the amount of storage and what appears to be a superior interface for viewing and organizing mail messages, Gmail is not simply a nice thing to offer to web surfers. Gmail is an attempt to put an arrow through the heart of Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail. The services will not be comparable in quality, and that is the way Google wants it. The goal of Gmail is to make Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail look like laughable solutions to web based e-mail.

If Gmail is successful in converting Yahoo! Mail users and Hotmail users, the search engine wars will most likely be much ado about nothing. The battle and war will be won, and the victor will be Google. But don’t expect MSN, AOL, or Yahoo! to simply watch Gmail launch without developing a plan to strike back hard. Yahoo! alone has invested incredible amounts of money to acquire Inktomi and Overture just so they can compete head to head with Google. It would be uncharacteristic of them to simply fold. And do not forget about the power MSN has with their search. Remember that Microsoft controls what search engine is used by default on most every computer around the world. That is a competitive advantage that Google will have a very hard time overcoming.

Gmail will not be the last new service offered by Google. It certainly will not go unanswered by Yahoo! or another portal. It will, however, mark a fundamental point in this search engine war that appears to now be in full swing.

Copyright 2004 Mark Daoust

About The Author

Mark Daoust is the owner of Site-Reference.com (http://www.site-reference.com) and TowerSearch (http://www.towersearch.com). Signup for a free TowerSearch account and receive guaranteed top rankings for all of your chosen keywords.

Were You Bamboozled by Google?

It's still happening. "Florida," "Boston," "Ginger," and "Brandy" are just a few of the many Google updates that have hit within the last few months. And Google is still issuing periodic updates as we speak. No one can say for sure whats going on or what to expect. One thing is for sure... unless you want to get bamboozled by Google (again!), youd be wise to take action to prevent it now.

So many people were screaming (and still are) about losing tons of business due to Googles updates. Some have reported 30%, 50%, or even total losses. What can you do? After all, youre at the mercy of Google, right? WRONG!

Why Do Rankings Keep Changing?

Google, like many other engines, changes its algorithm (formula for calculating who ranks where) from time-to-time in an effort to filter out spammers and deliver the most relevant search results possible.

Google has had updates since its very beginning. But now, depending on which theory you choose to believe, they are making more advancements that require more updates. This means, even if you rank at #1 this week, you might not make the top 30 next week.

How Do You Protect Yourself From Updates?

Diversify! It is never a good idea to have all your income generated by one source. You wouldnt depend on having all of your retirement savings from one source (thats exactly why mutual funds are so popular), and you wouldnt have all of your money in one bank. I mean, really! What if that one source went under? The same principle applies to Internet marketing.

While search engines are a phenomenal way to drive traffic to your website, they are most certainly not the only way. In order to ensure you are protected should Google (or whoever is the next "big" search engine) change their formula yet again, you need to create a diversification plan.

Think of all the outlets that reach your target audience. Investigate each one to see how feasible it would be to market your site through those channels. Then implement a plan that includes several advertising avenues (including search engines) that - as a whole - generates as much (or more) business as you originally received from Google. That way, should one of these channels go down, your business would only be slightly affected.

Dont stop there! Twice a year youll want to go over your plan and be sure that everything is working, as it should. If one outlet begins to dwindle in its response, look into finding a replacement. This way you are never taken by surprise.

Once you have your diversification plan working for you, you will be in a much better position to be rest assured that the business you receive will be there for the long haul. You will also feel more comfortable that no one organization can cause the tremendous damage Google has caused and could cause again.

Copyright 2004 Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com

About The Author

Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com
FREE Report: Amazingly Simple (Yet Super Powerful) Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane

7 Necessities To Do Well In Google

Search engine optimization is one of the most popular topics in Internet Marketing. The reasons are obvious. Search engines provide highly targeted traffic at a zero or very low cost. There are a lot of myths, debates, and disagreements over what is good Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We have decided to look at 7 principles that you should definitely follow when optimizing your site for search engines.

Use Meta Tags

You will certainly here a large number of people tell you that meta tags are not important and are useless. There is some truth to this, however, it is largely untrue.

Meta tags were first included in web pages primarily for search engines and directories. Meta tags are to be used as summaries as to what your website is about. Because they were good summaries and a logical way to identify and classify a website, search engines used meta tags in their ranking algorithms. This method was good in the early days of search engines and the Internet.

Unfortunately, everyone else figured out that by “optimizing” their meta tags, they could better their rankings. This optimization quickly turned into spam. Search engine technology developed and soon most search engines would remove meta tags from their ranking algorithms.

However, meta tags are still extremely important in SEO. You want your site to be easy for search engines to crawl. Meta tags are still used by spiders to make a quick assessment as to the nature of a website. Meta tags are also used to identify the author, the company name, various rules for the spider to follow, and a general rating for the spider. An example of the meta tags that you should have are listed below:

This describes what language and format the site is in. This would be different for an XML document or other formats.

Is this site up for only a short time? If so, let the engine know how long the information is good for.

Do you only have regional content, or should the whole world be opened up to see you?

Who owns the site, or who designed the site. This WILL help your rankings if someone does a direct search on your company name.

Obvious important copyright information.

This should be one or two sentences. Make them well-formed sentences…don’t use sentence fragments. Use a few of your desired keywords, but do not spam the sentences with your keywords.

Use anywhere between 6-15 keywords or phrases in this section.

Tell the search engine robot to follow all of your pages. This doesn’t mean that it will, it just gives them permission.

How often do you change your content? Once a day, once a month? Let the robot know this information, but be truthful!

Do you have an adult website? Make sure you indicate that here. If it is for the general public, then let them know that as well.

Meta tags, although not crucial to your ranking, are helpful for search engines. For this reason alone it is good to employ them on your website.

Use Properly Formed HTML

One of the biggest mistakes people fall into is that they use improper HTML on their sites. HTML is relatively easy to code. Well formed HTML is structured clearly and neatly. Poorly formed HTML includes open tags, closing tags out of order, minimal information when forming your tags, and errors that may not show up in a browser.

When a search engine spider visits your website, its task is to ascertain the information on your website and give it a grade. If you have poorly formed HTML on your website, you are making the task of the spider more difficult. Additionally, if you have poorly formed HTML on your website, the search engine may not consider your website to be the best candidate for your desired keywords as poorly formed HTML represents a lack of professionalism.

You should always follow a few rules when forming your HTML:

A. Close All of Your Tags

Every HTML tag has an open and a close tag, with the exception of a line break (). Do not leave tags hanging. For example:

This is my text

The problem with this code is that the person forming the code did not close out the tag. This means that it is still open.

B. Close Your Tags In Order

Although a minor issue, closing your tags in order creates better HTML. For example:

This is my text

These tags are closed out of order. You should always close the last open tag first.

C. Use ALT Tags on Images

A search engine does not know what an image looks like. Most spiders can figure a few things out about an image by its file name, but an ALT tag should tell a spider everything about that image. For example:

Properly formed HTML will make it easier for search engines to know what your site is about. The faster they can digest your information, the more they will digest.

Avoid Excessive JavaScript

JavaScript is a great tool to have. It can make your site interactive and provide better, stronger interfaces for your users. However, it should be avoided at all costs when implementing content.

JavaScript is different than most every other technology on the Internet as it is a client-side technology as opposed to server-side. The difference is simple. When a person views your webpage, if there is JavaScript, the JavaScript will be downloaded to that person’s computer and executed on their computer. If JavaScript were server-side, then the execution of the code would happen entirely on the server where the website is located.

Because JavaScript is a client-side language, search engine spiders are not able to read what they output. So, if you are trying to update your content frequently using JavaScript, the search engine will never know the difference.

JavaScript is still a great resource for forms, validation, and other parts of your page that are not crucial to the meaning of your page.

Avoid Dynamic URL’s

A URL such as http://www.anydomain.com/program.php?id=456&p=4 is not search engine friendly. Search engines have come a long ways in their ability to spider

URL’s such as the one above. In fact, you will probably be included in an index with that style of url, but it is not a friendly URL.

With the introduction of mod_rewrite, you can easily make dynamic URL’s into search engine friendly URLs. Mod_rewrite would give you the ability to make the above url into something that looked like this:

http://www.anydomain.com/program-456-4.html

Search engines will be more inclined to index this type of URL.

Don’t “Over-Optimize”

There really is no such thing as over-optimization. Over-optimization is actually search engine spam. Search engines hate it when people spam them with keywords. A few examples of search engine spam. If you make your site sound natural, but form it around a central topic, you should obtain the perfect balance of keyword density on that page. If you do not, then you should rethink what your website is really about.

Spending all of your time making sure every Alt tag has your targeted keyword in it, or finding a way to include very small or close to invisible text so that you may spam a certain keyword, is a sure way to waste your time and ruin the appearance of your website.

Keep Content Fresh

Search engines LOVE fresh, new content. Constantly add new news to your website, new information, and change your front page. You do not need to change the look of your website, just the content on the front page.

Search engines are always trying to provide searchers with the most relevant, up to date information possible. A page that hasn’t changed since 2000 will not have as relevant content as a page recently published with updated information.

There is also an issue of pride with the search engines. Part of the search engine wars has been to see who can keep the freshest index. As a result, search engines such as Google take note of sites that change frequently. The more frequently your site changes, the more frequently they will come back and re-index your site.

Don’t Rely on SEO

This article has focused on some basics of SEO, but if there is one rule to follow in developing your website it is this: do not rely solely on search engines. There are plenty of ways to develop a steady stream of traffic to your website outside of search engines. Link exchanges, purchasing links, advertising, participating in online communities are great ways to build your traffic. Don’t be afraid to purchase advertising. If you have a great website, people will refer others to your website.

The lesson in all of this is that good search engine optimization stems from organized development, fresh content, and generally an attempt to develop a useful website for your visitors. If you do this, you will be surprised at how SEO really takes care of itself. Search engines are looking for well-developed, content-rich websites. Simply give them what they are looking for and let them worry about filtering out all the people who are attempting to “trick” them.

Copyright 2004 Mark Daoust

About The Author

Mark Daoust is the owner of Site-Reference.com and TowerSearch.com. Add your site to TowerSearch to receive a guaranteed #1 position for free!