The tag <meta description> appears near the top of a Web page’s source code and is one of the most important SEO tips. It is used by search engines to describe the content of the page in search results.

As an example, go to Google and conduct a search about "search engine optimization." In each entry, the first part of the display is the title from the document with a link through to the site. The second part is usually taken from the meta description.

But not always.

If a search engine can’t find a meta description in the document, it may display part of the content of the page in its search results instead. If it does find the meta description, it usually will limit the number of characters it displays to 255.

Scroll down the page of the search results for "search engine optimization." Notice that some of the descriptions end with an ellipses (…). Google displays the ellipses if it is using content from the page or if the meta description is longer than about 255 characters.

While the writer of the description can go longer than 255 characters, there is little point in doing so if searchers don’t see anything beyond the character limit. If the most important of the description lies beyond the limit, the searcher may be more likely to click on another page that has a better, more appealing description.

Any site that wants to maximize visits from search engine results will be wise to make sure that every page has a meta description and to write concise ones that don’t exceed 255 characters.

Click SEO tips for more insights about online promotion, advertising, site development and search engine optimization.

Scott Bateman is a professional journalist and online publisher with lengthy experience in major media. He has launched and managed numerous Web sites for media companies, local businesses and non-profit associations.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/meta-description-length-impacts-search-engine-clicks-1470392.html

That’s very much a question that’s open to debate, depending on who you asked, you could expect to hear a whole range of answers. Networking has become engrained in the Internet marketer’s psyche, building relationships whilst interacting with your fellow professionals and consumers. But can it really compete with building an impressive linking infrastructure when it comes to marketing your website online?

Let’s start with the positives…

Both techniques work in very different ways. You build links by making requests, payments (only to the right people – directories and the sort) and creating content that causes a stir. Networking can of course help this process. When you get noticed by more people, they may be inclined to link to you; there’s no guarantee of course, but social media is a way of raising a profile and showing off your expertise to the world – prime link bait conditions.

There are easy ways to get links and hard ways. Even if you create a fantastic blog, a great new piece of shareware or a stunning design, there’s no guarantee that people will find you. Quality links are often those that happen organically, the kind of thing that you can’t force. Article submission and press releases will guarantee at least one (sometimes more) link back to your site; whilst the every little helps strategy is a good one, that link can take time to gain and time is precious, particularly when the outcome doesn’t quite justify the means.

Of course the main reason most people create an article or release, at least in an SEO capacity, is to get it picked up and syndicated across a number of sites. The dream ticket is a major news agency picking up a story on their newswire and sending it global; this of course is extremely rare. To do this, it needs to be relevant, it needs to be interesting and it needs to offer something new. Regurgitating the same stuff over and over again may save time, but that could well prove to be a false economy.

But once again we’re thrust back into the realms of Web 2.0. If you want to get people talking about your content, you may first need to start shouting about it. Herein lies the weakness though of social media.

…Now for the negatives

There is still a cloud of mysticism that hangs over the social side of the Internet. Just how effective is it? If you have the time to dedicate to interact with the wider community day in day out, then the benefits can’t be argued. Normal people have become celebrities, whilst the celebrities themselves have been out there growing legions of new fans. All very positive. But what is the value of a follower or a friend? Commenting on blogs, reciprocating tweets and conversing offers a fantastic community spirit; allowing users from all around the world to get involved in a continuous conversation.

What all this won’t do, necessarily at least, is improve your site and its strength. You might get traffic, in fact you will almost certainly get traffic, but if this comes from the same basic group of people, none of whom have the slightest interest in using your business or buying your products, is it really worth the investment of time? Friends and followers aren’t just an ego trip; it shows a level of influence and provides a wider sphere of influence. A strong linking strategy though goes further.

Every link you earn will join a wider group of inbound pointers. Google likes websites that people like pointing to. Therefore Google likes nothing more than a site with links going to all pages, coming from a variety of sources and in a natural fashion. Whilst there are dangerous links out there, toxic ones that will cause more damage than good, these can be avoided and banished if needs be.

Whether it’s on a directory, bolted onto an article or has come from a respected source organically, the power of the link is hard to question. Aside from a permanent new gateway for targeted traffic to find you, it adds vital strength to your website’s overall profile. PageRank maybe all but defunct, but that doesn’t mean that links are treading the same path.

We would never discourage people from using social media; it has fantastic potential and is evolving all the time. But if website promotion and search engine marketing is what you’re looking to do, the tried and trusted link may well prove a more constructive use of your time. It maybe a quieter way of going about things, anti-social even, but links get you seen on search engines and search engines get you seen by consumers.

Your online profile may ebb and flow, your popularity wane, but when you build a strong link profile you create stability and open the door to continued development. They are the foundation to any successful site; so whilst it’s always nice to have flighty friends, the stability and long-term benefit of a link is still very much the method of choice for most.

Stephen Logan works as a Copywriter for leading Hampshire-based SEO Agency Impact Media. They offer a full range of search marketing solutions including expert Link Building services.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/gain-links-or-make-friends-which-is-better-online-1429040.html

DO research your keywords to find out what users are actually searching on in the search engines right now. Be sure to review your selected keywords periodically, since the terms that searchers use will change over time.

DON’T just guess which keywords you think searchers would use to find your site; you know your business so well that you may overlook the phrases that “outsiders” use to describe what you do.

DO limit your keywords to between two and four per page. This will allow for more natural-sounding text, and will help keep the page focused on a single topic.

DON’T cram as many keywords as possible onto a web page. This will only dilute the effectiveness and value of each keyword, and can lead to page content that is confusing for visitors.

DO select keywords that match your business and services. Keeping a narrow focus will help drive the most qualified traffic to your web site.

DON’T use keywords that are only loosely related to your business. For instance, if your site is about auto engine repair, don’t include keywords like “auto body repair” or “oil changes”, even if these terms pull in a lot of traffic. You don’t want to waste your visitors’ time, or attract visitors who are not looking for engine repairs.

DO write keyword-rich titles, descriptions, and link text, since these elements are taken into consideration by the search engines and can help improve your rankings.

DON’T count on the keywords meta tag to help you – Google, as well as other major search engines, have repeatedly said that they do not use the keywords in this tag when ranking sites. You need to know which elements are useful to the search engines and focus your time and attention on those.

DO write content that reads well to your human visitors. Make this a priority, because the text must make sense to your target audience first and foremost. Write your text so the keywords seem natural and they don’t “stick out” as obvious keywords.

DON’T use keywords in your content at the expense of readability for your visitors. Sure, you need to appropriately mix your keywords into the content of your pages, but nobody wants to read awkward, nonsensical content that has been obviously stuffed with keywords to please the search engines. It can also make you look amateurish and can damage credibility with your target audience.

DO pay attention to how often you use your keywords on a page; you need to use them enough to show that the page’s subject matches the keywords you are targeting for that page.

DON’T over-use the keywords in the text on your page; high keyword density levels may get your page flagged for keyword spamming by the search engines.

By following these “do’s and don’ts” when working with your keywords, you can avoid some common errors while improving your visitors’ experience, your optimization process, and ultimately your results in the search engine rankings!

Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional website, marketing, and social networking services to small businesses and non-profits at affordable prices, giving clients access to customized services that meet both their needs and their budgets. More at www.fivesparrows.com | Copyright 2009 Five Sparrows, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/dos-and-donts-for-using-keywords-1416633.html

To counter spamdexing, search engines have used several ways to reduce the effect of spamdexing. One way that Google used is the "nofollow" tag. nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. According to SEO Philippines consultants, it is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring.

The concept for the specification of the attribute value nofollow was designed by Google’s heads of webspam, Matt Cutts and Jason Shellen, from Blogger.com in 2005. The nofollow HTML attribute was originally designed to stop comment spam on blogs. Blog readers and bloggers were well aware of the immense problem. Just like any other type of spam affects its community, comment spam affected the entire blogging community, so in early 2005 Google’s Matt Cutts and Blogger’s Jason Shellen designed the attribute to address the problem and the nofollow attribute was born.

However, According to SEO Philippines consultants, the nofollow tag is only capable of rendering a link ineffective for Google, blogs and websites are still vulnerable to automated spamming softwares. Interpretation of the nofollow tag by other Search Engines Google have stated that engine takes "nofollow" literally and does not "follow" the link at all. However, studies have revealed that Google does "follow", but does not index the linked-to page, unless it was in Google’s index already for other reasons. According to SEO Philippines consultants, Yahoo! does follow the tag, but excludes it from their ranking calculation. Bing respects "nofollow" as regards not counting the link in their ranking, but it is not proven whether or not Bing follows the link. Ask.com, however, ignores the attribute altogether. For more information visit to our site at http://www.myoptimind.com

Margarette Mcbride is a copywriter of Optimind Web Design and SEO, a web design and seo company in the Philippines. Optimind specializes in building and promoting websites that are designed for conversion..

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/the-power-of-the-nofollow-tag-1379887.html

A website that is a treat to the eyes may become successful in upholding the attention of the visitors for a while or so, but when we talk about long-term benefits, then good content is the only savior.

Certain things that content writers should keep in mind to make SEO-based article writing or web content writing more effective are delineated below:

• Keyword density and proximity
• Smooth flow of content.
• Try to include keyword phrase on most every heading or subheading on that page
• Well researched content
• Content should generate high traffic
• Content should target towards quick revenue.
• Mix up the anchor text, sub headers and page content
• Keep things easy
• Focus on information
• Content writers should emphasize on the USP of the site

Web content writers should also try to avoid phrases and complex sentence as far as possible and should be able to engage and intrigue the reader and entice emotional interest in your favor. So, no matter where you may be based across the globe, if you want to make impact on the internet, then content writing service providers can assist you!

The author is an experienced cfontent writer and publisher for Business Development. Visit at http://www.brainworkindia.net/ to know more about web development India, content writing and Web Content Writing

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/tips-for-specialized-web-content-writing-1349521.html

Here are five shortcuts that will help anyone engaged in a link building campaign to get better results, faster.

1) Remember The “Link Building Exponential”

Google has many ways of telling when a webmaster is creating an artificial network of links to a page, but savvy SEO´s will avoid trouble by considering the “link building exponential”. This is a measurement based on the premise that incoming links to a page should increase more or less at the same rate as the popularity of the page. In other words, adding too many links too fast to a page that does not seem to merit them blow-up in your face. Avoid this setback by taking your time and get quality links.

2) Get Links From Pages That Are Closely Related To Your Own

My experience has shown me that some of the most valuable links you can possibly get are from web pages that use not only the same key words that you do, but which have links from the same pages that link to you. Get links from these “perfectly related” pages and the effect on your rankings will seem almost magical.

3) Identify Directories That Are Relevant To The Content Of Your Page

There must be tens of thousands of directories on the web and that number will only continue to grow. Some SEO´s waste their time by registering their web page in any directory that will accept the listing, but I have found that it is worth spending the extra time to register the directories that have a direct relationship to the web page I am trying to place. I do not get as many links, but the links I do get have a much stronger effect on my rankings.

Finding the directories that are a good fit for the page you want to place is easy if you use two of Google´s operators: INURL and INTITLE.

Say, for example, that you are trying to position a web site dedicated to graphic design, logically you would want to find all the directories that have a “Graphic Design” category and see them ordered by relevancy:

INURL: “phrase” – returns all of the pages that contain “phrase” within its URL.

The search in Google would be:

INURL: “web design” + “add url”, or, INURL: “web design” “add url”, or, INURL: “web design” + “add your site”

Another option to find directories relevant to your web page is to use the operator “INTITLE” which shows all the pages that have the keywords in the title.

In this case the search would be:
INTITLE. “phrase” , which returns all the pages that contain “phrase” in its title.

The search in Google would be:
INTITLE: “directory” + web design

These simple steps can save countless hours in finding the right directories, and the links you can build from these focused sources will give your page more weight.

4) Position For Certain Regions Or Countries

Google determines the location of a page by the extension of its domain (ex. .uk, .es, .com.ar, etc). In the case that the domain has a generic suffix, (such as .com, .biz, .net, .org, etc.), Google will assume that the country of origin is the same as the country where the page is being hosted.

Depending on the content of the page I am working on, I will sometimes want to position the page in international AND country specific search engines. If this sounds like a strategy that would help you, simply concentrate your efforts on obtaining links from pages and directories which, in the eyes of Google, “reside” in the country you want to target.

5) Vary Your Anchor Text

Too many SEO´s use only their main keywords in the anchor text that links to their page. I have found this to be bad practice, since search engines interpret these links to be “unnatural” when they find too many of them.

Get around this by switching the order of the key words in your anchor text to create new variations. For example, say you want to build links to a web page that specializes in link building, your anchor texts could read: “link building service”; “cheap link building”; “effective link building”, or “link building company”. Get 500 links using these four different descriptors, and you will get more than twice the effect as 1000 links using only “link building”. This strategy has worked for me, and it should work for you, too.

Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips and hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to Internet Business, do please browse for more information at our websites. http://www.allhottips.com http://www.bookstoretoday.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/5-tips-for-successful-link-building-by-carlos-marruffo-1324978.html

Alexa addresses some of these concerns on their website. They give a general disclaimer which states:

Generally, traffic rankings of 100,000 and above should be regarded as not reliable. Conversely, the closer a site gets to #1, the more reliable its traffic ranking becomes.

And although the Alexa ranking is not regarded as the most accurate ranking system, Alexa rank is important if you plan on monetizing your site. Often advertisers and ad networks use the Alexa rank to determine the value of a link or ad spot on a particular website. So it may be to your advantage to increase your rank.

Below, we give six ways to improve your Alexa rank:

1. Add An Alexa Rank Widget To Your Website. Installing a widget on your website will give you an almost immediate increase in rank. As stated earlier, only visitors with the toolbar installed are reflected in your traffic rank. But by having an Alexa rank widget on your website, your traffic statistics will include all visitors. To get a widget from Alexa, click here. We’ve shown an example of a typical widget at left, but there are multiple options for size and features.
2. Install The Alexa Toolbar In Your Browser. This is another great way to boost your website’s traffic rank because all of your visits to your website will be reflected in your rank. For added effect, be sure to set your website as your homepage.
3. Encourage Your Visitors and Friends to Install the Alexa Toolbar. The more visitors to your site that have the toolbar installed, the better your Alexa rank will be.
4. Use Alexa Auto-Surfing Websites. This will probably only be helpful if your Alexa rank is extremely poor, but these websites will send visitors to your website that have the toolbar installed.
5. Stalk Webmasters. Web developers and other technical savvy people are most likely to have installed the Alexa toolbar in their browsers. As a result, if you go to places on the internet — such as discussion forums, tech blogs, etc… — you can get them to visit your website. One easy way to encourage them to visit your site is to ask for feedback on your website.
6. Write An Article About Alexa Rank. By writing an article on the topic, you are likely to generate quite a bit of traffic. And most visitors will be people who are interested in increasing their Alexa rank. As a result, they are likely to have the toolbar installed. And this will boost your Alexa traffic rank.

Clearly, Alexa traffic rank is not a true indicator of your website’s performance, and it should only be used in conjunction with other performance metrics. However, if you use the tips above, you can improve your rank, and thus the value of your website in the eyes of a potential advertisers.

Sofia Sapojnikova Vesta Digital http://www.vestadigital.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/6-ways-to-increase-your-alexa-rank-1295427.html

Don’t Use Your Company’s Name as Your Title Tag for All Pages!

I hope your website isn’t one of those sites that has the same title tag for all its pages: your company name! If so, do something about it today. The fact is that we have more than one page at our sites/blogs, because the content of each page is different. So, if the content is different, the title tags must be different.

The title of each page is that page’s topic and represents the content written in it. How could all pages of a website have the same content? For the same very reason, title tags should vary.

It could be OK when you use your company’s name for some pages to make it unique! You may wonder what I mean by this. Here’s an example: every website could have privacy policy, but Company X should choose a title tags like the one below for its "Privacy Policy" page:

Company X’s Privacy Policy

What makes this title tag unique is the name of company. This is an exceptional case, but I still would say that using your company’s name as the only phrase at your title tags isn’t a wise decision.

Avoid General Repetitive Title Tags

It’s been observed over and over again that some websites are using titles like:

O Homepage
O About Us
O Contact Us
O Services
O …

Such title tags cannot be called unique as many sites/blogs have got exactly the same wordings in their title tags. As you can see, these are the titles that could represent similar pages in all websites. Here’s the question: what is different about your "About Us" page?

For instance, you can change it to "Contact X for relocation in San Diego!" This helps your website keyword "relocation in San Diego" as well. On the other hand, if your site visitors find your page in search engines and enter your site from this page, they will know what you offer.

It should also be noted that implementing this practice will help you increase search engine ranking as well.

Avoid Using the Same Site Key Phrases at All Title Tags

Some may think it’s a good on-page SEO practice to use the same keywords for all the pages of the website. I think it is a harmful practice for your site, because it is a type of spamming search engines. Your descriptive title tags should reflect the unique content of that page, not the keyphrase of the site. When a site visitor lands in a page, she wants to know about that page. Your page content and navigation menu should introduce the site’s main topic to her.

Site Booster helps you increase search engine rankings of your site either by its SEO services or providing free SEO tips at its blog. Visit: http://www.site-booster.com.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/the-role-of-title-tags-in-your-organic-seo-results-1273023.html

There are a lot that of things that go into the creation of a web page and you want to be for sure you get the most, by getting all the website traffic that you can. So how do you accomplish this?  Simple; you have to increase your search engine visibility. This may be a foreign concept, but once you get an idea of what it is all about, you will find it fairly easy. There are various ways in which you can improve your visibility on search engines.

Below is a list of a few approaches for you to take into consideration when developing and marketing your website.

Web content:
To begin with, it would be a good idea to do a keyword research. Find out what words people often use when they are looking for a type of business or company like yours. Generate appealing content which are based on these words. The better optimized the content on your website, the better search engine visibility you will have. Ultimately, you will get more website traffic.

Optimized press releases based on keywords:
Once you know the keywords people are most likely to use, you can then have a press release written. This can get you an instant page with results in the different sites of news engines. Make sure that each press release has relevant and news worthy information. These press releases will also get picked up in the search engines, as well as related websites and will automatically increase the incoming links; thus, raising your site’s visibility in search engines. Afterwards, you may add each of the releases to your website.

Create an E-newsletter:
Send out a newsletter that provides useful information to aid the public in understanding how your product and services work, as well as what you can provide for them with. Post these newsletters to your web page and offer them to other websites. A good example would be E-zine sites, which allow you to use free content and bring you more website traffic.

Write articles:
Create articles for other websites magazines and newspapers.

Create a Corporate Blog:
his is one of the best ways to build up a huge amount of content on the internet. It is also a great way to have your brand all over the internet.

Group with RRS:
Really Simple Syndication. This technology allows you to make your content available to a wide range of people, who you would not have otherwise been able to contact or reach. When you optimize your website, you can increase your web page’s search engine visibility as well as increase its website traffic.