Archive for December, 2007

Improve your Google Page Rank

It is a known fact that Google is one of the most important search engines on the Internet. To have your site displayed at the top of the search results, you need to improve your link popularity and you need to understand how Google measures the link popularity of your web site.

What makes a good Google Page Ranking?

Link popularity is the first aspect reviewed by the Google algorithm and is determined by the number of web sites that are linking to your web site. Search engines use the number of links to your web site as a measure of how important your web site is. The more links you have from other sites, the more important your web site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.

But this is not the only factor used to calculate your web site’s link popularity. Your web site is also examined against the relevance of the links your web site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has links from 4,000 other web sites, but those web sites have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm will take that into account, and the link popularity, or page rank score will not be very good.

This means that it is possible for a website with a relatively small number of relevant inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links.

You could try to build links to your web site by using link farms or FFA (Free For All) pages. Not only will this damage your search engine rankings, but your web site may get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Link farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are link directories. Search engines, such as Google, usually penalize web sites that have links coming from these sources.

So now we know that one factor that Google uses in their algorithm is the total number of sites linking to your web site. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, links from web sites that are relevant to the subject matter on your web sites rate higher than links that are not relevant.

Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a web site or page that text and content that relates to the text on your web site. The key terms or text that is relevant are considered keywords. For example, if your site is about weight loss, and another weight loss website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information or textual content (keywords) about weight loss is being discussed.

Google gives an even higher score to a link if it contains anchor text that matches one of the keywords that helps to describe your web site. Anchor text is the text between the <a href=”"></a> tags. So if the link from another web site had the following link code <a href=”http://www.yourwebsite.com”>WEIGHT LOSS</a> the link text is “WEIGHT LOSS”. If there was a link from the blog on another web site about WEIGHT LOSS to your web site using that anchor text, your score would be higher.

Another factor used by Google to score your link popularity is the diversity of keywords contained on sites linking to you. For example, if all the links to your site are from other sites that contain nothing but the keyword WEIGHT LOSS, Google considers that to be unusual. To get a higher score, you need to have links coming from sites that contain a variety of keywords related to your topic, such as WEIGHT LOSS PLAN or DIET WEIGHT LOSS, etc.

It is not an easy task to increase the link popularity of your web site, but this bit of information should assist you in designing a site, and structuring your textual content to improve your score. You might want to consider posting to forums and blogs that contain information that is related to your site, and when you post, include a link to your site using relevant ANCHOR TEXT.

From our Readers: Getting to Grips with CSS

Occasionally, we receive questions from our members about implementing technologies that are still new to them. The following post covers a topic on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) that we hope you find useful.

Martin from WealthyDragon writes “I know what CSS does and what it allows you to do, but I’ve never got to grips with actually using it. There are still murmurings in the forums that getting CSS to work in different browsers still causes headaches. So I don’t plan on using it until those wrinkles are easier to manage.”

“For example: what are the files that make up a page that uses CSS?
On pages that don’t use CSS, you have an HTML file, some image files and
whatever other files you need (e.g. audio files, etc.). What are the
files that make up a page that uses CSS?”
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Do you want a free 125×125 ad?

The contest is over and the winners have been announce. But it’s worth checking in on Novak’s blog as he may run the contest again. You can see the winners of the contest here.

We Won a Free Image ad!

Frozen moments in timeNovak’s Blog just sent me some news about free 125×125 graphic and text-link ads on their main page at Novak’s blog. You can read the post about the competition and while you’re there make yourself laugh browsing through some interesting and funny pictures.

I really enjoy the series on “Moments Frozen in Time“, but they also have a series titled “Stumble on Sunday“. This site has a good PR (“page rank”) and is a good source for web site traffic for our Web Marketers looking for a chance to increase authority and visibility.

Enjoy the pictures!.

fring is in the air!

Fring is in the airWhat the heck is fring?!

First, the boring description … fring is a VoIP application that allows you to make calls, chat with your friend and view real-time presence of your contact, and that works anywhere in the world.

I know, “so what” you say. “I already have an application that does that”.

You’re probably right. But what if I said that fring is a mobile VoIP application for your mobile phone? What if I told you it uses your mobile phones wi-fi or mobile data plan to allow you to make VoIP calls and live chat? Interested yet?

What if I also told you that in addition to being able to perform all of these functions among fring users, you could also seamlessly integrate fring with your Skype, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Twitter, AIM and Yahoo! accounts? Ahhh, now I have your attention! For the more advanced technology crowd, you can even setup your own SIP account and use it through Fring.

We have been using fring for about 6 months now and we are well impressed with it’s features and performance. Initially, we had some issues with connectivity, but the latest version of fring uses Wispr technology to manage your access points and allow you to experience near seamless Wi-Fi roaming between access points and 3G networks. This was the deciding factor in making this a standard application on all of our corporate handsets. The roaming still isn’t as seamless as roaming between mobile cell sites, but once you setup the connections settings for the wi-fi access points you use, you won’t be able to notice the difference.

How does it work? The website has a good section on how fring works? There are also videos on the different fring features, fring ringtones (fringtones), and a fringME widget that web site owners can put on their website to let others see when they are online with quick “click to chat” and “click to find me” options. Unfortunately, the widget only works with a limited number of handsets that support GPS positioning.

We hope you enjoy this new web tool as much as we have.

Better Soonr than later.

Running a successful business means that I am in a lot of meetings during the day, socializing in the evenings and rarely in front of my computer. When I am in front of the computer, it is usually spent catching up on the news items I’ve missed and clearing out the Inbox. But my biggest problem, is when I am in a meeting, it never fails, I need access to a file or “that email” so I have a reference point for discussion. Well, I found a solution …

Soonr LogoThis little application allows me to access the files and folders on my PC in the office (and at home), my Outlook folders (Inbox, calendar, etc.) , my Desktop search application (currently Google Desktop), and Skype remotely. And when I’m using a method of remote access, it is a secure method as well. It is available for both the PC and Mac platforms.

To get started, you need to go to the Soonr website, register and download the Soonr Desktop application. This application is a resident application that stays active on your PC and controls the access to the selected content on your PC.

Once you have the Soonr Desktop installed, configure the folders you want remote access to, and active the programs that you want to access as well with a user name and password. You can also configure your mobile device for remote access.

That’s it!

Now, as for remote access, I personally use a Nokia E65 equipped with Wi-Fi. I have activated access to my Outlook folders, a few folders where I store attachments, my folder for all of my pictures, and my MP3 files, and I have activated Google Desktop and Skype for remote access. So next time I am in a meeting and I need that attachment or email, I simply access my PC using my mobile phone. I have also been in a situation where I needed to access files or my calendar from another PC, and this works fine from the Soonr Web Login panel.

I actually have this installed on my Work PC, Home PC and my Laptop, so I can access files from any of my machines. Best of all, I can make Skype calls from my mobile phone. While this isn’t the only option for making free calls, it is a quick solution for contacting people that are online when I really need something.

Generating Traffic to your Blog or Website

Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo and author of one of the more popular marketing blogs, has released a new eBook on getting traffic to your blog or company website.

This is an important update due to “the new playing field enforced by the search engines [that] is eliminating many of the shortcuts that used to be effective”, according to Seth’s blog post. I found this book to be valuable and I think those of you that are web marketers will enjoy it as well.

The eBook, titled Unique, Useful & Updated – Three Secrets to Web Traffic, is written using Squidoo lenses as a template, to help remove much of the superstition that surrounds page ranking.

You can read the post here and download the eBook, or you can simply click here to get the eBook.

Selecting the right Web Hosting plan

Serverfarm OrangeToday’s market for web hosting is competitive and confusing for the average Internet user, to say the least. How many of us have visited Web Hosting sites only to be bombarded with technical terms and specifications that we don’t understand? Let’s take a look at some of the features that you should be the most concerned with, what some of those technical terms mean and why they are important.
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Domain Name Registration and Management

Many of us already understand the importance of having a domain name that correctly reflects to the visitor some idea of what our web site is about and/or the products we are offering. Selecting the right name is important for placement on search engines as well. Some questions to ask yourself about your current service provider are:

  • If my name is not available, do I get a list of suggested alternatives?
  • What other TLD’s (i.e. – .com, .net, .org, .info, etc.) are available?
  • Do I get a discount for multiple year registration?
  • Are there other promotions to reduce my cost?
  • What do I do if the name is taken?

The Basics
A domain name is your website name, the name of your business, your pages, and you online. A domain name is the address where people from around the country or around the world can access you site. Consider your domain name similar to that of your name. What do people call you, how do they address your mail to send you postal mail? A domain name is similar to the address and name in that respect. A domain name could be any combination of letters, and numbers, and then it will be used in combination of .com, .net, .biz and more so that readers can be directed to the correct domain name.

There are many domain name registration services out there. But finding an online company to register your domain name and provide value or savings with additional services to benefit your business is the key.

Some offer free hosting with a domain name registration, others give you a cheap domain name when you buy a hosting package. But for now, the immediate value is in assisting you when selecting your domain name. Once you type in your desired name, the service should tell you if the name is available and provide you with a good list of other (intelligent) choices that might fit your needs.

You also might want to protect the name from your competitors. you wouldn’t want to set up a .COM name and find out your closest competitor registered a .NET and was generating more traffic for a similar product or service. So the service you use should tell you what other extensions (commonly called TLD’s for Top Level Domains) are available so you can protect your brand or identity. The registration provider should easily allow you to add these to you order effortlessly.

Your next choice should be in the number of years you want to own the name. The service provider may also offer discounts for multiple years. But, what if you do not know how successful this is going to be? Perhaps you only want to register for 1 year (the minimum in most cases) and then renew if the offering is successful. So you should consider how easily can you upgrade or renew the domain name?

If your offering is successful, you will also want to protect your domain name from those online thieves that may want to steal your name as soon as the registration period expires. So a service provider that offers domain locking and protection is essential if this is one of your concerns.

Other services for registering your domain name include Private Registration. This is important if you wish to protect the fact that you personally are the owner of the domain name. Spammers and hackers are excellent and crawling WHOIS database providers and collecting personal data and email addresses. With a Private Registration, your personal data is protected from those with prying eyes.

Alternatively, a web marketer could use this WHOIS data to increase their presence and exposure of their product. A Business Registration option would allow you to enter information about your business and advertise your product, complete with a business card and images or links to your web site.

In summary, there are many other services available to us to enhance our web business when it comes to domain name registration. Domain registration is an important step to setting up your business and selecting a provider that offers you the services to add value to your business is essential.

Eric Buckley is the founder of scgdomains.com, an affordable, full service web hosting and domain name registration provider.