Retail sites see big gains

The official start of the holiday shopping season saw Americans flock to online retail sites, boosting several categories, including toys, consumer electronics and department stores, to double-digit traffic gains in November, according to comScore.

“The current economic situation has caused retailers to slash prices and offer highly attractive offers, such as free shipping, to appeal to cost-conscious Americans this holiday season,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.

“With budgets a top concern for consumers, the ability to conveniently search the Web to find the best prices has become an increasingly important part of the holiday shopping buying process, for both online and offline purchases.”

Retailing was the top-gaining category for November with retail toys growing 24 percent to 31.3 million visitors during the month, led by Toyrus sites with 15.4 million visitors (up 65%), Barbie with nearly 4 million visitors (up15%), and KB Toys with 2.6 million visitors (up 119%).

Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals drove growth at department stores sites, which jumped 20 percent to 80 million visitors during November. Walmart.com landed the top position in the category with 44 million visitors, an increase of 50 percent from October. Target rose 26 percent to more than 39 million visitors, followed by JCPenny with 18 million visitors (up 39%) and Sears.com with 16 million visitors (up 76%).

With popular electronic items like the Wii, iPods and Garmin GPS on holiday gift lists, consumer electronics category increased 17 percent to 55.8 million visitors. Bestbuy.com led the category with nearly 20 million visitors, a gain of 66 percent from the previous month. Circuit City followed in the second spot with 15.4 million visitors (up 42%), and Wal-Mart electronics grabbed the third spot, more than doubling to 9.5 million visitors.

Google sites continued to be the most visited property in November with 147 million visitors, trailed by Yahoo sites with nearly 144 million visitors and Microsoft sites with 123.5 million visitors.

The holiday shopping season boosted several retailers including, Amazon (up one spot to #8 with 63.5 million visitors), Wal-Mart (up seven spots to #15 with 47.4 million visitors) and Target (up six spots to #18 with more than 39 million visitors). Busby SEO Test

Busby SEO Test Tips for using social media

Sandy Carter, author of “The New Language of Marketing 2.0″ talked with WebProNews about the different aspects of using social media in marketing.

Should businesses be more involved in social media or less involved?

Busby SEO Test SC: “In today’s economic climate, I would advise companies to be more involved in social media.  The ability to be nimble and move quickly in the market will be THE key element in successful marketing.  Marketing organizations need to ensure they are not reactive to change but driving and leading change in a proactive way.  Social Media allows your company to be more nimble.”

How?
Busby SEO Test SC: “First, it encourages free-flowing experimentation.  You can test an idea online at breakfast and by lunch see the response. You can get fast response and make changes on the fly.   It drives changes in how you listen to your customer.   Blogs for instance allow you to listen into water cooler discussions you never had access to before.  Social Media drives change in how you communicate to the customer as a dialogue versus a broadcast message.”

“And messages meant for one type of audience, are being read by all audiences.
And finally, it cuts down costs.   I do not advocate for just using social media techniques however, but rather combining them into your marketing mix allows you to optimize the places where you can maximize their impact.”

What are the best ways for companies to get their messages out using blogs?

Busby SEO Test SC:  Determine your goals for blogging.  “Is it to solicit input and co-create a new product?  For example, IBM’s Project Zero used blogging to get product development direction involving our customers in defining the requirements needed in the marketplace. Make sure you know why you are doing a blog!”

Be personal. “Bloggers share personal tidbits about their lives.  Remember that your blog gets you closer to your customer.  It strengthens the relationship. Blogs espouse a world view with the voice of the author reflecting his/her ideas (either knowledge or a unique perspective) that may influence perceptions and position those opinions in the marketplace.   They foster discussion, debate and even a sense of community.  It is most important that you write from the heart.”
What do you see as some of the risks with company blogs?

Busby SEO Test SC: “There are 3 big risks with company blogs.”

“The first is not being honest.  Or pretending to be something that you are not.     There have been several examples where companies have paid others to blog for them.  Then it is exposed that they were sponsoring the site.  Make sure that your blogs reflect the honest facts and truth of your company values.”
“Second is not listening.   I think not listening is worse than not even asking.   I have worked with companies who put feedback tactics in place but then ignored the feedback.  Businesses no longer hold absolute sway over the decisions and behavior of consumers.”
“And finally, it is consistency.  Developing, planning and maintaining a good blog takes a great deal of time. You must be realistic about the number of posts needed to keep the online relationship with readers alive.   This is a commitment.  You need to understand how much time it takes not only to set it up but to keep it current and exciting. You must keep building your readership and online relationships”

.  “I spend as much time reading other blogs and finding out what’s going on in the blogosphere as I do writing on my own.  To have something to say, you must know what’s being said.”

Top 5 Tips for Facebook for Marketing:

(Sandy has extracted the following tips from Chapter 10 of her new
book.)

Use for Marketing 2.0 Intelligence:Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst at Forrester Research, says profiles and network information, as well as the public groups, provide a way to seek insight online.  Learn about what your customers want!

Busby SEO Test Use for Advertising: There are a variety of ways to leverage the power of this community with banner ads, news feeds, social ads and flyer ads.  To reach a new audience:  Since neither those under the age of 25 nor those more experienced use email, according to MarketingSherpa Founder Anne Holland, leverage this new social networking tool in place of email.  It can extend your reach online where other means can’t!
Experiment with Fan Pages: These fan pages can be used in place of sponsored groups.
Not a stand alone:   Integrate your Facebook tactics with your overall strategy.  If this is the audience that you need for your product and offerings, leverage as part of the overall go-to market plan.

Do you think social media is here to stay?

Busby SEO Test SC: “Yes, social media is here to stay.  For sales it is a new channel, and for marketing it is now part of our marketing mix, forever to stay.  Why?   Marketing is all about relationships and all relationships have a set of common factors.   First, all relationships require listening.  Listening has become core to everything.  Second, in the best relationships, there is a lot of active communication and dialogue.  This dialogue is essential to growth in the relationship. Third, a great relationship is one that is built on honesty.”

“The best way to communicate isn’t about using new media types to be hip and cool; it is about understanding your customers and how you can immerse yourself into their conversation.”

How do you think social media and marketing will evolve? What trends do you see?

Busby SEO Test SC: “As all things change, I know that social media and marketing will evolve.  I think that marketers will have to be more business oriented and more technology savvy.  They will have to be able to show the value of what they are doing in language that the CEO and the CFO understand.  They will also have to be more technical.  This does not mean that marketers need to be technologists.  But they cannot be afraid of technology.   Every marketer needs a set of skills as a user of technology and the new Web 2.0 ways of social networking.”

Anything else you would care to add?

Busby SEO Test SC: “I think social media is very powerful, not because it is cool, fun, and the hot topic right now, but because of the results it can achieve.  Marketers, especially in times of recession, get laid off faster than any other type of senior executive because they’re seen as a cost center and not a value center.  Marketers need to be able to convince their peers and the management team that marketing is essential, as essential and important and critical as a CFO or a CIO.  Understanding the numbers can demonstrate the value.”

Busby SEO Test : How Are People Succeeding on Digg? Chris Crum | Staff Writer

Many Elements to the Strategy

Well, some are paying for it directly, but if you don’t want to
do that, you can just develop your reputation and basically make
friends. That is really what it’s all about.

Everyone knows that Digg is a popularity contest. It can still
be a great place to find interesting stories, but it’s not
unbiased. You have to know people (or pay them) to get your
content enough Diggs to really get noticed by the community at
large.

Fortunately for those trying to get a substantial amount of Diggs,
the circle of friends that make up the community isn’t completely
closed. It will however take some effort on your part to earn
their respect and make your way up the ladder of Digg respect.

First of all, Digg’s not supposed to be about marketing, which
is why if you truly want said respect, you need to take the
community seriously, and actually favor them rather than yourself
when submitting articles. You can’t just submit a bunch of your
own content and expect it to go anywhere. You’ve got to submit
appealing content and get your friends to help you digg it.

Earlier this year we covered SearchRank’s five ways to score big
on Digg:

1. Remove Blog Name and/or Sections From Title: all you need is
he title of the post

2. Include Appealing Descriptions (Stay Within Character
Limitations): if you want to practice writing tighter copy, and
you should, sign up for Twitter and practice summarizing your
post in 140 characters, including a link.

3. Submit to the Most Relevant Category (Avoid Multiples if
Allowed): stay on topic; to be specific, stay on one topic.

4. Stay Within The Topic of the Social News Site: SearchRank noted
how sites like Sphinn and Small Business Brief cater to a
dedicated niche. Your submission to these sites should do
likewise. At bigger sites like Digg, keep to the most relevant
category.

5. Will Others Find Your Submission of Interest? Boring only gets
clicked when the facts are truly staggering; think about the
recent revelations about major leaguer Roger Clemens and his
friendship with country singer Mindy McBride.

I would add that stories about Digg are often popular with the
Digg community as well. Probably not a story about succeeding on
Digg, like this one, but ones about things that Digg is doing, why
Digg is great, or what Kevin Rose had for breakfast. Digg users
love Digg, so if you have a lead on something Digg-related and are
the first to submit it, I would say there’s a good chance you’ll
get some play within the community.

Busby SEO Test Basic Google SEO Optimization Tips and Tricks by Alwin Clores

Basic Explaination:

Search Engine Optimization or mostly called SEO is one of the component of Search Engine Marketing,  this is the process of Search Engine Ranking to appear in high position when visitors or users conduct a search in specific keywords.

Here are the simple steps to follow:

On-page Optimization

1. Meta tag assigning like meta title, meta description and meta keywords, these are the most important tags that the Search engine reads all the time.

Meta tag Title or Page Title is refer to the Title at the top of your browsers, this can also seen at the search engine results.

Meta tag Description allows you to influence the description of the page(s).

Meta tag Keywords are the list keywords or phrases that you’ve targeted for that specific page.

What Does This Meta Tag Look Like?

The meta tags is placed between the head tag section <head></head>:

<HEAD>
<TITLE>your TITLE KEYWORDS title goes here</TITLE>
<META NAME=”DESCRIPTION” CONTENT=”Your keyword rich marketing sales meta description goes here”>
<META NAME=”KEYWORDS” CONTENT=”your keywords,separated by a comma,but not a space, like, busby seo test”>
</HEAD>

2. The information on a website is its Content, place relevant keywords to your contents. Take note, your keywords to your contents should be appeared because some search engine penalizing your website. Content is the king for your visitors and for search engines as well. I’ll add Busby SEO Test as a keyword.

Internal Links are very important for search engine optimization, always remove your broken links or missing page and make sure search engine bots/spiders can reach all of your pages.

Anchor Text is the text that you see for links on page or offpage, always include your keywords in the anchor text of your internal links, this is very important to inform search engines for your target keywords.

Hidden Text is a text that match your background color ( same color both  text and background color in your page) and can’t be seen of your normal visitor, NEVER use any hidden text tricks for your keywords, because search engines will penalize or may even remove your site from their index or search results!

Off-page or Off-site Basic SEO Tips

This is an optimization outside of your page or website, the most powerful way to change your position in Search Engine Result Pages or SERPs.

Components are:

External Links is the most powerful SEO factor; search engines like Google said: If there are many good sites linking to yours then you must have a good content. This is the reason why they will give you a higher rank.

PageRank or Google Page Rank – PR is the quality of the pages that points to your site have more power than quantity. For PageRank checker, you can install to your browser like Firefox or Internet Expolorer at http://toolbar.google.com

Anchor Text of the external links to your pages has the greatest effect for your Search Engine position. If more people are linking to your site using variations of your keywords in the anchor text, this will give you a powerful push for those search terms.

Off-page Content: The content of the pages linking to you is very important for your SEO, the more related content they have to your keywords, the more power those links you can get.

Outbound Links are the links that have a big effect on your site. Always make sure you are linking to good sites or related sites.

Those are not the final words for my Basic SEO Tips but I have tried to post again most important points and most Advance SEO Tips.

About the author:
Alwin Clores is a SEO Consultant / SEO Analyst with far superior SEO knowledge and SEO Experience and owned the Pinoy SEO, a Philippine SEO site. Currently joined the SEO World Cup Busby SEO Test Contest 2008 that goes fastest top 10 ranking for a minimum of 10 days period time.

Busby SEO Test : Google Answers Some Tricky Questions By Jason Lee Miller

Well, most of them
Recently, during a live chat Q&A, Googlers Matt Cutts and Maile Ohye, among others, faced the burning questions of webmasters around the world. Together, they put to rest some fears and myths, and confirmed some speculations. busby seo test

Below are the meatier results, with the straightest answers given first, followed by responses that were a bit on the ambiguous side, which we took the liberty of translating. Did you know there are about 200 factors that go into determining a site’s ranking in the search results? How about that Google made 450 tweaks to its algorithm last year?

Only one question during that session received conflicting answers from Googlers and wasn’t reconciled: Busby SEO Test : Does the age of a website/domain affect its ranking?

Ohye answered this way: a site’s reputation can be a indicator to search engines, but of course, it’s not everything. Having a site for a long period of time can establish credibility with users, and as a search engine we also want to reflect this type of credibility. Of course, newer domains can also gain users and credibility. It seems like running a good site is a bit like running a reputable business. So yes, if your domain has been credible for years it can help. If you buy an old domain and put all your content on it in hopes of getting instant rankings, that’s not the best idea. busby seo test

But, when the question was rephrased from another webmaster, Cutts answered: In the majority of cases, it actually doesn’t matter–we want to return the best information, not just the oldest information. Especially if you’re a mom/pop site, we try to find ways to rank your site even if your site is newer or doesn’t have many links. I think it is fair for Google to use that as a signal in some circumstances, and I try never to rule a signal out completely, but I wouldn’t obsess about it.

Official translation: Sometimes, when we say it does. busby seo test

GOOGLE STRAIGHT TALK

Busby SEO Test : Do 301 redirects carry over PageRank?

Where appropriate, ranking signals will be transferred across 301 redirects (if the same page has moved from one URL to another). This may take some time, so you should probably leave the redirect in place as long as you have control over the URL.

Busby SEO Test : How many 301 redirects are acceptable?

It’s ok to chain a few together. The HTTP 1.0 standard allows for a maximum of 5 redirects for a URL, so keep it minimal.

Busby SEO Test : Why do pages translated into different languages each have different rankings in their respective engines?

Google looks at content on a URL-by-URL basis, so even if you have translated top content from one language to another, Google might not treat it the same way as they would treat the original content. It’s also possible that the translated content is not as relevant as other original content in that language. Generally speaking, making sure that your content is as unique and compelling as possible for the users in that target market is the best thing to do. busby seo test

Busby SEO Test : Do backlinks from bad sites negatively affect my PageRank?

Those links might be positively affecting your PageRank (PageRank does not go down from “bad” links like those from adult sites). In general, you don’t have to worry about bad links like that which point to your site that aren’t under your control.

How often does your search algorithm change?

We change the algorithms all the time – last year we had over 450 changes. busby seo test

Could sharing an IP address with a bad site get my site penalized?

The situations where it would matter are when the server is overloaded (can’t respond to your visitors) and when it’s incorrectly configured (not returning your site to your visitors). But otherwise that is no longer a concern.

Does Google have a problem with rank-checking software?

Rank-checking software is against Google’s Terms of Service and could result in blocking your IP address, and it doesn’t really help, especially when it comes to personalized or geotargeted results. busby seo test

CIRCUITOUS ROUTES AND TRANSLATIONS
Question: Is there PageRank boost from .edu or .gov links?

Google’s Answer: You don’t get any PageRank boost from having an .edu link or .gov link automatically. If you get an .edu link and no one is linking to that .edu page, you’re not going to get any PageRank at all because that .edu page doesn’t have any PageRank.

Translation: If the .edu or .gov page is linked to, then yes, because that webpage now has some authority, just like with any (non-.gov or .edu) page. busby seo test

Question: Does a page load time play a crucial role in Google Page Ranking? If yes how important is it?

Google’s Answer: I think the more important issue here is user experience. If your site loads fast, your users will be happy; if it loads slow, users will be less happy. Make your users happy, right?

Translation: Yes, and as important as 200 other factors.

Question: Aaron D’Souza of the Search Quality team was reported as stating that publishing the same content on two separate geotargeted paths under your domain will not trigger the dupe content filters. Is this correct?

Google’s Answer: In general, in a case like that, we’d try to pick the best page based on various factors, including geotargeting and language choices. If that page is one which is also available for other geotargeting/language choices, we will generally try to pick the version that our algorithms feel makes the most sense. busby seo test

Translation: Yes, we think.

Question: I have reported sites that clearly have paid links (e.g. the backlink page says “Advertising” above the link), but Google does not seem to take action. Why would that be the case? These are .orgs who are clearly selling their .org juice.

Google’s Answer: While paid links and spam reports are being taken very seriously by Google, the results may not be seen immediately for users or even not at all. This does not mean no action is being taken on the offending sites. Also, the TLD of the sites should not be a factor being taken into account. For this reason reporting both, web spam and PageRank passing link selling makes sense and contributes in an important way to the quality of Google’s index. busby seo test

Translation, partly based on .gov/.edu response: Google treats all top level domains the same, so a .org would have no more juice than a .com or .info. Further, clearly marked paid links (ones on pages labeled “Advertising”) are not necessarily violations of Google’s guidelines. If the links you reported were found to be nofollow links, then no action would be necessary. But keep trying to sabotage the competition. Business is war.

Question: Is it true that the fewer the links FROM your website, the more influence they have on the sites receiving those links?

Google’s Answer: PageRank is split up over the links from a page, but I would recommend not concentrating on this (as you won’t be able to “measure” and act upon it anyway) and instead making your site as usable as possible for your visitors. busby seo test

Translation: Yes, the more you link the more the link juice passed on is diluted, but don’t go trying to figure out the formula in order to game the system. We’ll figure you out. We’re Google.

Question: Does getting a lot of comments in a blog help in being well indexed/ranked by Google?

Google’s answer: Having a lot of enthusiastic users commenting on your posts and doing so generating content on your site, certainly does not harm your rankings Furthermore, a large fan base gives the webmaster a bit of independence from search engine traffic, which is the reason why generating original and compelling content in order to nurture a group of committed users is something I would highly recommend to any blogger

Translation: Yes.

Question: Recently, you removed this suggestion: “Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!” from your guidelines. Is there any chance that you will be discounting these kinds of links for ranking value in future?

Google’s Answer: There’s always the chance that we’ll discount directory links in the future. What we were seeing was quite a few novice people would see the “directory” recommendation and go out and just try to submit to a ton of directories, even if some of the directories were lower-quality or even fly-by-night directories that weren’t great for users. Right now we haven’t changed how we’re weighting directory links–we’ve only removed the directory suggestion from the webmaster guidelines. busby seo test

Translation: Possibly.

Question: Until recentley (the last six months or so) a high ranking was achievable by submitting articles to article directories (providing they were 40%-60% unique),  it no longer seems to be the case.  Have links from article sites been de-valued at all?

Google’s Answer: In my experience, not every article directory site is high-quality. Sometimes you see a ton of articles copied all over the place, and it’s hard to even find original content on the site. The user experience for a lot of those article directory sites can be pretty bad too. So you’d see users landing on those sorts of pages have a bad experience. If you’re thinking of boosting your reputation and getting to be well-known, I might not start as the very first thing with an article directory. Sometimes it’s nice to get to be known a little better before jumping in and submitting a ton of articles as the first thing. busby seo test

Translation: Yes. Busby SEO Test

Busby SEO Test : What Google’s Matt Cutts Sees In 2009 By Mike Sachoff

SEO is Changing
WebProNews’ Mike McDonald caught up with Matt Cutts of Google at the Hofbrau Haus in Las Vegas during PubCon to get his views on a number of topics.

Is Ranking Dead?

Cutts said, “I’m not sure I would say ranking is dead but it’s not as important as it used to be. The fact is the smart SEOs are not just necessarily looking at the rankings. They are looking at conversion, they are looking at their server log. It’s great if you’re ranking for a phrase but unless that leads to sales that doesn’t help you very much.”

“The challenge is not to pay so much attention to ranking, pay attention to traffic, pay attention to conversions and keep building good content and don’t worry about ‘can I show people that I rank number one for my trophy phrase.’”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EP5_idUFKQ[/youtube]

Universal Search In 2009

“Universal is really useful and I think it will continue to expand and what that means in 2009 you can’t just think of yourself as an SEO,” said Cutts.

“SEOs are starting to embrace the fact that they are marketers. It’s a broader spectrum. You have to think about how you build buzz, how do you get loyal customers, how do you optimize your ROI. All those different things and that can include how do I make good videos, do I have a book, things like that.”

Cutts says that people will continue to pay attention to video and images in 2009 but noted a down side. “Of course anywhere there is money there will be spam.” Google has been focusing on its different properties to manage the spam issue.

Busby SEO Test: Metadata

Google has gotten better on Flash and submitting a video to video sitemaps is really helpful in getting onto Google Video Search. “We want to be able to present video from all kinds of places,” said Cutts.

Video File Format

“Whatever file format you want to use is totally fine.”

Busby SEO Test: Mobile

Cutts says that just because search engines are getting better at Flash does not mean mobile is. On mobile devices you can’t just think about search engines. You have to think about the user experience.

Competing with Black Hat SEO

“Black Hat SEO is getting a little more malicious. In a world where Black Hat is moving towards really illegal things as an SEO you have to decide your risk tolerance and do I really want to try to compete with people who are doing illegal stuff or do I want to make a long term site that’s gonna stand the test of time.”

Subdomains

There is no real advantage to using Subdomains. If you have a lot of Subdomains that can be a lot of work. You don’t want to overdo it. Really it’s what ever is easiest for you.

Busby SEO Test : What is a keyword?

It’s anything people type into a search engine. It could be made up of one word or several keyword phrases joined together. Every person uses their own method of searching, and that makes anticipating those keywords that will connect their websites with the right visitors very difficult. Keyword research starts with the understanding that finding lots of related keywords that deliver targeted traffic is the ultimate goal of any keyword research. Busby SEO Test

Sending thousands of visitors to a site who have no interest in your product, let alone in buying it, is just wasted effort and doesn’t do any good for your business. If possible, we want to find the customer who has a clear knowledge of what they want and is close to buying something soon.

We would ideally want a few visitors who are seriously looking to buy in the near future. In order to achieve this, we want to find the least competitive keywords with the highest number of searches that are the most relevant to our website.

If you are just starting out, it definitely would be to your advantage to target lower competition terms. Having success with low competition terms will lead to increased confidence to target more competitive terms with higher search volumes.

Thinking like your customers

Thinking like your customers is easier said than done.

All merchants are guilty of thinking in terms of features and specs of the products and not thinking in terms of benefits it can provide to the customers.

You know your business and market too well. The industry jargons and slang are in your every day language. No wonder when you start your keyword research you have a very narrow keyword focus. You become your own worst enemy in exploring other ideas.

Here is an example: what is the most popular search term, “cheap flights,” “cheap seats,” “low fares” or “discount fares”?

As you can see it’s not that simple to pick the best keywords, is it?

The hardest part of keyword research is to keep an open mind about all possible search methods people might use to look for the same thing. Keyword research is part science, part intuition, and imagination. Since we can’t get into the heads of every possible potential visitor to your site who may be interested in your products or services, we have to rely on keyword research tools to tell us what people actually search for and how often. Busby SEO Test

There are a handful of very powerful keyword research tools that are worth using, but the amount of information you can mine from them is mind boggling.

Another great resource for proven keywords is to look at your competitor’s website. We are talking about finding the highest ranking competitors on the search engines using your target keywords. Once you find the top 5-10 competitor sites, perform a quick review of their keywords on the web pages.

This can be a lengthy and slow process, but luckily there are free Keyword Analyzer tools that can dig up keywords from your competitor’s sites in a snap. We’ll cover in detail how the Keyword Analyzer can be used to add hundreds of keywords to your keyword research project. Busby SEO Test

Keyword research is like a job interview process

In order to find the right candidate you may need to interview hundreds of applicants to find the perfect fit for the job. Well, the keyword research process is very similar; you have to cast a widenet first to capture all the possible combinations of keywords known to man. Even then, it’s almost guaranteed you will discover new keywords you have missed in the original research only a few weeks earlier. What this tells us is the keyword selection and refinement process never ends, or at least it should not end until you are happy with the number of visitors you are receiving to your site.

Where and how to look for keywords

In order to find the best keywords for our website we need to gather information from a variety of resources. Some of these resources may include: Busby SEO Test

Brainstorming: Getting your brain to go on a magic carpet ride is one of the best ways to find relevant keywords for your website. Don’t just settle for asking the obvious question, what does my website sell? Ask questions such as: “What is this product made up of?” or “Who is using my services?” or “What problems do my products solve?”

Finding the main and secondary keyword phrases should take less than a month for even 2 or 3 websites. This does not mean your keyword research has ended forever, but finding the 4-5 word long secondary key phrases can be done with the free keyword research tools if your budget is tight.

Free keyword research tools: You can gain access to the powerful and free Google external keyword tool to expand your keyword list. Unfortunately the Google external keyword tool only gives a search volume indicator instead of the actual search numbers. Another very valuable feature in Google external keyword tool is the “Site-Related Keywords” finder. By simply entering the website URL of your competitors, you can find out in seconds which keywords they target on their web pages. Busby SEO Test

Another free keyword research tool available without creating an account is the Overture keyword inventory . As of now, August 2007, this tool only shows the January 2007 search volumes as it’s being phased out, but Yahoo! is promising a replacement. If you have a Yahoo! Search Marketing account you can still gain access to their keyword tool albeit without the search volume numbers. Busby SEO Test

Related search terms suggestion tools: One of the fastest ways you can find hundreds of related keywords is to use online lexical or thesaurus tools. Busby SEO Test

Creating a large initial keyword list that includes a large number of synonyms and acronyms is essential to effective keyword research. Discovering related phrases that are not simply stemming from the original keyword term is a cornerstone of semantic latent indexing . Semantic indexing can be described as the grouping of related documents based on not only direct relationship between words, but the meaning of the words as well.

Some of the search engines provide a related search command list in their search results. Try Clusty by entering a search command and take a look at the “clusters” side bar. You can get dozens of ideas from the keyword clusters by playing with different combination of keywords. You can also visit Technorati a well known blog aggregator and social media tagging site to help unlocked your brain and generate new keywords. Enter a search term and observe the “Related tags” section directly under the search results. Busby SEO Test

Visitor statistic reports: These can be generated from web server log files or from script based visitor statistic programs. This can help you uncover new keywords for your website by discovering what the visitors are typing into the search engines to find your websites. In some cases, you’ll find keywords you didn’t expect to come up for in the search results. You should further research those keywords and uncover new keyword niches. Busby SEO Test

Site search engines: This can be a great source of new keywords and a potential data mining source. As well as further analysis of the average number of keywords, keyword length and other important keyword metrics. Busby SEO Test

Top ranking competitors: These websites are already well optimized and contain keyword rich web pages. Why not leverage their efforts and harvest the best keywords for your own website? With the help of the SEO Studio keyword analyzer you can extract hundreds of keywords from their META keywords and HTML page content in seconds.

A few examples of good keyword selection practices

Selecting the best keyword takes experience and a little know how, but it’s always helpful to see how the pros do it, so here are a few basic steps for keyword selection.

Using your favorite keyword research tool Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery or the Keywords Analyzer, type in the main keyword phrase. Start with the broadest possible search terms, this way there is less chance of missing keywords that might otherwise be overlooked. Busby SEO Test

Look for 2-4 word key phrases that have at least a daily search volume of 200 or more. Since the top 3 sites will receive 60 of all searches, it follows you can expect at least 120 or more unique visitors for those keywords phrases. In some cases, you may want to lower the minimum search volume threshold to as low as 50 if the search term is well targeted for your business.

At this point you should have at least 20-30 really good secondary keywords in your basket. Busby SEO Test

Hopefully most of the keywords you have selected will have little competition. Some of the keyword tools we have recommended will also tell you the amount of competition for each keyword, but you can also verify these numbers manually by typing the search terms into the search engines with quotes. Busby SEO Test

It’s very important that you use quotes around the keywords to let the engines know you are looking for an exact match. The rule of thumb we use to assess keyword competitiveness is around “100,000″ websites. Anything above a hundred thousand results is fairly competitive and requires a fair amount of optimization and link building. Busby SEO Test

Busby SEO Test – A look of a website can make or break your business. First impressions always count. Here are ten tips to building a better business website.

1. Colour – A black background is not recommended. It’s hard on the eyes. I don’t know how many people have problems reading white or coloured text on a black background and with that said, don’t go neon pink or glaring orange either. Generally black text on white background is best. Ideally you can choose two colours, but make sure they match and use it consistently on all your pages to maintain fluidity and continuity. Busby SEO Test

For example: Reds and oranges which stimulates appetite works well on a food site while warm pastel colours matches a baby site.

2. Layout – Don’t cram everything into one page. Cluttered websites overwhelms the visitors. Keep it clean, crisp and concise. I had a CMS style website before and although it looked organized because there were three columns, there were also a lot of text. Navigation wasn’t as plain as day and it overloaded the senses. Take these three words to heart, less is more.

3. Navigation – The more user-friendly the better and your visitors are bound to stay longer. You don’t want your visitors to be jumping through hoops to find what they are looking for. Make shopping carts or payment buttons visible and easily accessible. Everything should be just a click away. Make sure all your links are working. Finding broken links becomes frustrating and annoying.

4. Proper spelling and grammar – There’s nothing good about visiting a website to find loads of misspelled words and poor grammar. It’s unprofessional and you can bet your visitors will leave.

5. Speed – When it comes to website loading, no one likes to be kept waiting. They will definitely leave a site if it won’t load properly. People’s time is precious; don’t make them wait.

6. Graphics – Be careful of using big flashy graphics or banners. Too many animated and too many big banners take away a site’s credibility. It also slows down the loading time of your site considerably. Not everyone uses high speed Internet. Remember people don’t wait around for slow loading sites.

7. Audio – If you like it and want it, change the default setting to give the visitor control if they want to hear audio or not. Make sure it’s visibly accessible to the visitor. The last time I landed on a site, I couldn’t find the button to disable the audio so I immediately X’ed out.

8. Pop-up anything – Although many people now have pop-up blockers, it may not be so much of a nuisance, but a pop-up of anything is intrusive, unwanted and annoying. Adding a form to your page in a highly visible spot is much more effective and non-intrusive.

9. Content – Informative, resourceful content will keep a visitor coming back. No one wants to visit a site that hasn’t been updated in a long time. You can add a small graphic or a simple text in red with the word “NEW” or a “What’s New?” page to inform your visitors you have made updates.

10. AdSense ads – Too many AdSense ads on any page looks scammy and it downgrades the quality of your site. If you can handle honest opinions, have someone critique your website. It really all comes down to personal preference and you will never be able to please everyone and that’s okay.

The main goal is building a functioning, well laid out website that is successful and prosperous to you for many years to come. Busby SEO Test

Busby SEO Test The Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, developed Android: the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. To help developers get started developing new applications, we’re offering the Android Software Development Kit.

Apps without borders Apps on Android can access core mobile device functionality through standard APIs. Through intents, apps can announce their capabilities for other apps to use. Watch video	Apps are created equal Any app on the mobile device can be replaced or extended — even core components such as the dialer or home. Watch video
Apps can easily embed the web Apps can easily embed HTML, Javascript, and style sheets. An app can render web content through a WebView. Watch video	Apps can run in parallel Android is a complete multitasking environment where apps can run in parallel. While running in the background, an app can produce notifications to get attention. Watch video

Busby SEO Test: One thing I like about Android…

Watch video Browser Tricks

Watch video Copy & Paste

Watch video Reader & Photos

Watch video Media & Browser

Google G1 mobile phone versus Apple iPhone

Busby SEO Test: The G1 was a slicker product than expected, although there was almost universal agreement that, in the looks department at least, it couldn’t hold a candle to Apple’s hugely popular iPhone.

Nonetheless the Android operating system that powers the device, and which was designed in part by Google, looks to be full of potential, and certainly compares favourably with anything the iPhone has to offer. The promise of an Android Market, from which users can download additional software and programs for their phone, acts as a warning shot across Apple’s bows.

Its own App Store for iPhone and iPod touch users has done phenomenally well, with more than 100 million applications downloaded in the first 60 days alone. It’s no wonder that other mobile phone companies are keen to experiment with their take on this business and distribution model.

The G1 doesn’t hit UK stores until November. The handset itself will be free, although customers will have to sign up to an 18-month T-Mobile contract worth an estimated £40 per month. So, if you’re thinking of buying a new phone, which should you go for? The Apple iPhone or the Google G1? Here’s our assessment of the areas in which the new kid on the block outperforms the iPhone – and the areas it doesn’t:

Busby SEO Test: How Google’s new Android mobile phone compares with Apple’s hugely popular iPhone.

Price:
G1 = free on contract with T-Mobile, contracts likely to start from about £30 per month
iPhone = free on some contracts with O2, monthly tariffs start from £30 per month

Weight:
G1 = 158g
iPhone = 133g

Battery life:
G1 = 5 hours talk time, 130 hours standby
iPhone = 5 hours talk time, 300 hours standby

Screen size:
G1 = 3.2in
iPhone = 3.5in

Camera:
G1 = 3-megapixel
iPhone = 2-megapixel

Capacity:
G1 = 2GB, expandable to 8GB
iPhone = 8GB or 16GB

Key features:
G1 = touchscreen, Qwerty keyboard, internet access via 3G and Wi-Fi, additional downloadable content, one-click access to Google search services, built-in GPS and compass for easy navigation, push Google email, instant messaging.
iPhone = touchscreen, virtual keyboard, multi-touch gesture support, web access via 3G and Wi-Fi, additonal downloadable applications, GPS and Google Maps, push-email, full web browsing.

Extra applications:
G1 = extra software downloadable from Android Market. Includes games, such as Pac-Man, and useful software, such as Shop Savvy, which allows users to take photographs of a product barcode, send it to Google, and then retrieve price comparison results.
iPhone = extra programs and software downloadable from Apple App Store, including games such as Super Monkey Ball, and other applications, such as language dictionaries, travel guides, restaurant recommendations.

Entertainment:
G1 = one-touch music downloads from Amazon MP3 store, 2GB integrated storage, expandable to 8GB.
iPhone = one-touch music downloads from iTunes music store, choose from 8GB or 16GB storage. – Busby SEO Test

The new T-Mobile G1 with Google cell phone – Official Site

Many experts believe it is related to relevancy – the key to getting Busby SEO Test high rankings is how relevant your content is to the question being asked? Maybe so, but in order to explain it to a would-be webmaster, I had to find the words that would most appropriately sum up Google’s Busby SEO Test prime directive?

After you go through all the SEO checkmarks, take into account the quality and uniqueness of your content, factor in the credibility and authority of your site and backlinks, and factor in the relevancy issue… this was the simple Google Golden Rule I came up with:

“Always think of your visitor first when creating any content for your site.”

This may or may not be what Google is expecting but all indications are pointing in the direction of the “visitor’s experience” and how good you or your content make that experience? Google is serving up a product, it wants the user of their product to be happy with the results. If they’re happy, Google is happy. And if everyone’s happy then the kingdom grows.

Still anything as simple and as complicated as getting Busby SEO Test top rankings in Google can’t be boiled down to a single catch phrase. You must do your homework and a good starting point would be to thoroughly read Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Studying and listening to the latest Google webmaster chats may also prove beneficial and helpful.

However, there are still those 200 hoops you have to jump through and you must be extremely careful of how you build your site if you’re trying to please Google. Listen when the king speaks. Observe his rules. Be on your guard, and it helps to become just a little paranoid. And always, always remember, an elephant never forgets. Oh busby, busby, busby!