If You Build It, They Will Come...

by: Adrian Kennelly

...No they won't. On the web, building a web site is not enough. If there are no links to the site anywhere, no-one is going to visit it. The site won't even be listed in any of the search engines without some incoming links. To get traffic, you will need to do some promotion.    Web Directories The basic part of any promotion campaign, web directories, whist they may not generate much in the way of traffic, will help in your site's search engine ranking. A good list of free, non-reciprocal, search engine friendly directories can be found at http://info.vilesilencer.com.    Pay Per Click Advertising This is advertising such as PPC Search Engines, like Yahoo!'s Overture, and contextual advertising, like Google's AdWords. Be warned, it is very easy to go through a substantial amount of money for no reward using these services if you are not careful. AdWords (amongst others) lets you pick a maximum budget a day, but, although $5 may not sound like much, $5/day is $150+ per month. Better make sure your keywords are correctly identified, and, in preference, not highly competed on, and that your sales copy is good enough before doing this.    Quality Traffic, not Just Traffic It's what everyone is after, more traffic to their website. Traffic is easy to obtain, though. Autosurfers, manual hit exchanges and purchased traffic will all send visitors to your website. However, this traffic is just visitors, many of whom will just burn up your bandwidth for no reward. Unless you are receiving decent money for pay per impression advertising, such as banners and popups, this traffic can be totally valueless.    Repeat Traffic Unless you only require visitors to visit your site once, because you are selling a one-off product, and your sales copy is fantastic enough that they are hooked to buy on the first visit (and if you are regulary doing this, write an ebook explaining how and sell it), you will want visitors to return. If there is nothing of value at your site, visitors may come once, but they won't come back of their own accord. Typically, it is estimated that a prospective customer will be exposed seven times to a product etc. before buying. Reciprocal Linking Whilst somewhat frowned upon, and generally thought to not be as valuable as one-way linking (see below) for search engine optimization, a relevant reciprocal linking campaign can be an important traffic generating tool. swap links with sites in a related, but non-competing, business to your own. It isn't really a good idea to link to competitors; although visitors will be interested in your product, there is a good chance you will lose them to your competitor, especially if their website or product is better or looks better than your own. Not a desirable outcome. For example, a web hosting site could link to a site that sells scripts and programs; visitors to one will more than likely use the other, but the sites are not in direct competition. You can also swap links with web directories that require a reciprocal link.    One-Way Linking Considered the best form of link for SEO purposes, this can also be a good source of traffic. There are a number of ways of getting one-way links. The easiest is submission to free web directories (see above). Another good source is by writing articles relevant to your site or industry, putting a resource box at the bottom, then posting the article on the directories such as GoArticles, or by sumbitting to the ezines.    Webmasters and ezine publishers are always in need of fresh content, and will publish your article for free. The hardest way of getting one-way inbound links is by having websites voluntarily link to you. The only way to do this is by providing a valuable tool, service or resource that other webmasters will want to direct their visitors to.   About the author: Adrian Kennelly is the webmaster of DirectoryGold Web Directory and Portal at http://www.directorygold.com Circulated by Article Emporium

How to run a successful link exchange program.

by: Joe Balestrino

Link Exchanges are a very time consuming project. The time it takes to find the sites to exchange with, contact them and place a link on your page can seem like an eternity. The hardest part about link exchanges isn’t the research, it's the waiting. This article will give you some tips to help speed response time to your requests.    "How long does it normally take?" you ask. The average wait can be 2 to 3 weeks, sometimes even longer. The reason for this is that many people operate their web site as a hobby or side business and may not be on top of their email. Keep these timeframes in mind before you judge the successfulness of a link campaign. The first step is to find sites related to your web site that DO NOT have a large directory of links posted. You want to link to sites that have less than 100 links on their link page. Their Page Rank (PR) should be at least equal to yours. Higher is better, so always aim for the heavy hitters. Now, on to the business of saving you time.    Once you have located a site to contact, send a short but poignant email. If your email is too long, it may not be read. What should be in your email? First of all, your email should be personalized. Don't send the same email to dozens of people, send one at a time. This will help avoid being thought of as a spammer.    The personalized touch shows you are serious and that the email was sent by a real person. Nothing says "this is of little importance to me" like a form letter, so avoid using them. The letter should also include: The HTML code to your text ad. This will make it easier for people to add your link to their site. A link to your link page. This will make easier for whom ever you are requesting a link from to find your page.    Also, if they ask for you to link first, do so. If you have already been to their site (and certainly you should have if you are requesting a link), you will more than likely know if they want a good faith link up. The email you send them should have a confirmation that their link is up and that you are requesting a reciprocal link. Once you make contact with the web site owner, how long will you wait? A week? Two weeks? Honestly, it may be a month before you see your link unless you show some persistence. It doesn't always depend on how often they do updates. I would contact them once a week after your initial inquiry after checking their site first. They may have placed a link up without notifying you.    So, in summary: Spend time finding sites that will be an asset to your enterprise to save time by not corresponding with those that won't.    Succinct, personalized E-mails Include all coding and links necessary to make it easy on the site you want to exchange with Research their link policy ahead of time .   Be persistent Link exchanges are very time consuming. It takes patients and great recorded keeping to keep track of who has and has not added you. I do this with an excel spread sheet. It makes keeping track a lot easier to do. Especially, if you are doing large link campaigns.    Good luck.    About the author: For more information on SEO visit http://mr-seo.blogspot.com Or, http://mrseonewz.blogspot.com/for the latest on SEO news. For a free web site evaluation visit http://www.mr-seo.com Circulated by Article Emporium

How to promote your site and also make it sticky

by: Jonathan White

If you have just designed your own site, then you have probably already realised how hard it is to get visitors to it. You are probably also finding that once you get visitors to your site, you are then having problems in making them return back to your site.    Well there are many ways of promoting your site and also making it sticky so that you can receive returning visitors.    To promote your site you can: 1. Write your own reprint articles that are on the same subject/topic as your sites content. Writing your own articles with your website links contained within your authors bio line is probably one of the best ways to promote your website online. This is because you can add them to some of the article directories where others then can search these article directories and then add your articles to their site, which will then give you credit in return.    Some article submission directories include: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php http://www.goarticles.com http://www.articlecentral.com http://www.articlefinders.com/submit.html http://www.articlecity.com http://www.businessnation.com/cgi-bin/library/articles/add.cgi http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/submitarticle.asp    2. Exchange links with other sites Exchanging links with other sites take up a lot of work but can give you some positive results. This is because exchanging links with other sites will mean that your site will get more exposure across the Web plus your link popularity will increase, which is then most likely to give your website better search engine rankings within some, if not, most of the major search engines.    3. Add your site to some of the free to submit general and specialty web directories Adding your website to some of the free to submit general and specialty web directories is a good thing as you don’t have to provide a link back to their directory. Submitting your website to free to submit web directories is better than doing link exchanges as your link is more likely to be given higher priority than what it would on a site that has two way linking. A lot of web directories do rather well in some of the major search engines and also has a good Google PR, which means your site should benefit from this.    4. Do SEO SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a very important factor to consider when designing your website. This is because in past research it shows that over about 85% of people use search engines first before using anything else to find what they are looking for online. So if your site has poor SEO then you will not do all that well within the major search engines. If you do well with your sites SEO then you are likely to see some good results from the major search engines. Some sites even receive most of their traffic from the major search engines.    To make your site stickier you can: 1. Add games to your website Adding games to your website is a very good way of making your site stickier. This is because a lot of people like to play games when they are either bored or have nothing much to do. http://games.simplysearch4it.com is an example of a site that has got games added to it just so that it can increase its stickiness. 2. Add free reprint articles to your website If you find it hard to find content to add to your site to make it bigger or stickier then a good thing to consider is reprint articles. This is because these reprint articles can be added to your site for free and it makes your sites content larger, which can then increase the stickiness of your website. You can find some free reprint articles at the following categorized article directories: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php http://www.goarticles.com    3. Add features to your site that many others do not offer You could look through a large amount of other sites to see what they have to offer. Once you have done that, you can then see what would be a good thing to add to your site in, which many of these other sites don’t offer. For example, http://products.simplysearch4it.com offers a product price comparison directory, which is a feature that many other sites across the web do not offer.    Doing something like this where many other sites don’t offer it means that more people are likely to come to your site just to use it.    About the author: Jonathan White has been involved in online marketing for over three years now and is the Webmaster of http://www.simplysearch4it.comwhere he also operates the free reprint articles directory at http://articles.simplysearch4it.com Circulated by Article Emporium

How my page rank went from 0 to 5 in one update. How yours can too

by: Joe Balestrino

Increase Your Google Page Rank! This article will put a damper on web sites that sell information which will supposedly increase your page rank. I may make some enemies here, but this is already common knowledge. In fact, to make sure it worked, I designed a new site just for this purpose. Before you shell out money for an ebook, software, or CD telling you how to do this; read this article. If you achieve great results after following my advice and feel it was worth some money, feel free to write me a check for any amount you choose. I 'll add my own zeros.ƒº    Page Rank. We all know what is. We all want to rank higher. Higher rankings mean a lot of things to a lot of people. To web masters it means achievement. They have accomplished a move in the right direction. A high page rank to a website owner is money in the bank. It is also an impressive accomplishment. To other website owners your page rank may be a source of envy.    To Google your page rank means quality, importance and relevancy. It lets Google know you are a viable resource and a valuable asset. Google takes your Page Rank and combines it with their text-matching techniques. This, combined with a page¡¦s content and the content of the pages linking to it, determines if your site is a good match. So, a higher Page Rank will certainly help you on Google.    As for surfers. Most of them could care less about your Page Rank. In fact, many of them don't even know what it is. However, those that do use it in a different way. Some use it as a way to unofficially gauge your credibility.    Ok, I am sure you've been wondering when I was going to tell you about how to achieve a ranking like I did. I went from a 0 Page Rank to a 5. Now, mind you, I did not purchase any links from high ranking sites, or any sites for that matter. I did not launch a link exchange program. I did exchange links with about five directories related to my site¡¦s topic, but that was it. Actually, 97% of my links are all one-way links (links pointing to my site).    So, how did I do it? Any ideas? If you know SEO you may already know the answer. Link Farms? Of, course not. We know Google will frown on that method. Did I design or optimize sites and add my URL? Hmmm..Yes! However, that is a small percent of the success. SEO companies don¡¦t usually add their URL to sites they have optimized. Ok, so what else?    Content? Yes, content is king as always. Content is what was used to help boost my ranking. But how? I create articles. These are quality articles, just like the one you are reading now. These articles were not generated from any program. I authored the content from my own knowledge and researched over 100 web sites that accept articles in my area of expertise. SEO happens to be a very popular topic. These sites agree to post my articles on their site, along with my url(s). Many of these sites have a decent Page Rank of their own. Their rank will transfer over to my site. Also, as time goes by, those articles will have a PR effect of their own which will transfer to my site(s). Don¡¦t forget, other people may pick these articles up and use them on their site as well. They will also include my URL(s) on their sites.    Now, if I do 100 sites a week times four articles a month, that's at least 400 articles a month. The last Google update was 86 days, the longest has been 111. That could lead to 1200 or more links between updates. What will Google think about all these links at once? They¡¦ll love it! Content, quality, one way links. I also promoted my blogs and my website in some of my articles. This way, they too have their own PR generating effect. They also link to my site and my site to them. This, in turn, increased the PR to them as well. At the time of this article and the most recent Google update, one of my blogs went from 0 to 3 and the other 0 to 4 all in the same update. These tips should help you increase your page rank. The hardest part will be creating content related to your field and finding sites that will post your work. You can always hire writers and/or article submission services. Here's to the next Google update. Cheers!    About the author: Joe is owner of http://www.mr-seo.com check out his site for a FREE SEO site Evaluation. You can read the latest SEO news on his blog http://mrseonewz.blogspot.com/ to read more of his articles visit http://mr-seo.blogspot.com/ Circulated by Article Emporium

How important are back links?

by: Jakob Jelling

www.sitetube.com When setting up your website for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on Google there are several factors you need to look at in order to obtain a high rank on their search engine. Of course your content and meta tags must be inline with positive density percentages and reciprocal links. Google then takes your website and performs a mathematic equation and places a numeric value on your website depending on one of the most important features, reciprocal or back links.    A back link and reciprocal link are identical. They both say the same thing to the Google engine, that your site should be ranked higher in the order because other people find value in what your website has to offer, thus they provide a link to your site. In turn, you keep a closed loop by reciprocating the favor to the other website by extending the same courtesy of a back link. Thus creating a solid network connection. Google likes to see interconnectivity and will reward your website well for planning it this way.    There are drawbacks to the equation. As things change a website that you are affiliated with may drop a hyperlink or a page may get accidentally deleted. When the Google robot goes through your website and finds a dead link it notes that you aren’t keeping good care of your website and punishes your web rank by reducing its point value. If you wish to know what your sites current point value is download The Google Toolbar and search for your website www.yourwebsitename.com in the box and perform a Google web search. Upon reading the full URL, Google will go directly to your site first thus pulling up your home page.    There on the toolbar will be a page rank for your website between 1 and 10. 1 being a less visited and noted website and 10 a site that screams traffic 24/7. Some of the individuals you share reciprocal links with may in fact scan all their links for continuity, should they receive a bounce back for a broken link on your website you can be assured you will receive an email from them. Keeping your website in balance with other sites you share links with will keep the Google engine happy. If you go off and add a company that is not Google friendly, meaning they have no back links you may also lose points.    About the author: Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.comVisit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites. Circulated by Article Emporium

Google’s New Direction - Could Your Linking Strategy be Hurting Your Rankings?

by: Courtney Heard

Over the past week, most people have noticed significant changes in the SERPs at Google. Web sites that previously held number one positions have dropped to number 89, and some web sites have disappeared off the Google results pages altogether. As is the case with all major Google updates, SEOs have been panicking in forums and there has been much discussion about one topic in particular: reciprocal linking.    The first thing you have to do to understand the direction in which Google is taking with this update, is to get into the minds of the people who run it. Something that is so often overlooked is the fact that Google (and any other search engine) is first and foremost, a business. The reason they offer the service they do, is to make money, to make stocks soar and to keep shareholders happy. Google’s income comes from many sources, but the main one is advertising. In order to be able to sell their advertising real estate for a profitable price, the ad space needs to be seen. In order for the ad space to be seen, many, many, many people must visit the Google web site and use the Google search engine. In order for Google traffic to be at such a level, Google must offer a great, if not the best, search engine service.    So, how does Google offer, or attempt to offer, the absolute best service possible? By having the most relevant, and most useful search results.    Useful and relevant web sites are sites that are extremely visitor-friendly, sites that offer a lot of quality information in many different forms, from RSS feeds, to articles, to forums. Sites that are organized and have developed, naturally, a respect on the internet. A great example of such a site is About.com - search for any topic on About.com and you get a page with a lot of information on that topic and many, many links to other web sites that carry further information. It is, undoubtedly, one of the best places on the Internet to go for information.    Now, here’s where it gets tricky. In the past, Google has evaluated web sites by looking at areas of the site that are easily manipulated by webmasters and SEOs, such as meta tags, alt tags, keyword density, page titles, etc. We all know this has changed. Google has begun to reward sites with a more natural approach to these areas, and to penalize sites that have been over-optimized.    The key now, is visitor-friendly, natural web sites. Google will attract more repeat users, and thus, more advertising capital, if their search results always yield web sites that have the information searchers are looking for and are easy to use and understand.    Natural web sites are web sites who’s page titles reflect the page content in an easily understandable way. They are web sites who’s keywords meta tags contain only the words that apply to the page content. They have description tags that reflect the content in a concise, easily understood way. They have image alt tags that describe the image properly. Most importantly, natural web sites are web sites that develop a natural link popularity. That is to say, they don’t have someone working on finding web sites to swap links with. This is an unnatural linking strategy. A natural linking strategy is to offer a good, resourceful web site and have people link to it of their own accord because it’s such a great resource. Such a strategy also includes linking out to quality web sites that offer further information on your web site’s topic, whether or not they link back to you. This is a huge indicator that the goal of your web site is simply to offer the best information possible to web site visitors.    Cross-promotion will happen naturally as well, and links that are a result of cross-promotion are still considered a natural linking strategy, and as a result, Google or any other search engine cannot not outlaw reciprocal linking all together. But you have to be extremely picky about the sites you decide to engage in cross-promotion with. They must be very relevant and should have a decent presence on Google. Stay away from automated linking programs, link farms and most importantly, exchanging links with excessive amounts of web sites. Your links page should look like an excellent place for your visitors to go should they require further information on the topic your site deals with.    In short, the most important factor contributing to your Google ranking, is visitor-friendliness. Amassing enormous amounts of link exchanges simply does not work anymore. You absolutely must have your web site visitor’s needs foremost in your mind. If you meet those needs, you will be rewarded both in your rankings and in repeat traffic.    About the author: Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs - http://www.abalone.ca, a search engine optimization company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney's articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/ Circulated by Article Emporium

Google Page Rank Is Dead - Part III

by: Martin Lemieux

HELP! My PR page rank is grey, call the development doctor. As the world of Google is turning a mile a minute these days, some really big changes are happening. This weekend, marketers all around the world don't believe what they are seeing... Google's Page Ranking system is dead.    Is it really dead? In an online forum post from WebProWorld.com (A discussion on Google), people from all over are speculating about what is going on. In fact, one member was quick to point out that the last big shift Google had, we saw the PR system go down as well. This begs the question...    Are we on the verge of a BIG PR shift? or, Are we seeing a Google marketing scheme just to shake people up?    In many ways, Google needs to be improved upon their "broken down PR system". There are so many areas if they payed attention to forums and blogs all around the world, they would have more than enough feedback about their PR system to fix this growing PR issue.    Page ranking is a potentially a great system. It CAN be a great system if it directly ranks websites properly by content, relevance, and not simply by the number of links pointing to an individual website. These days, you see a website with 15 "medium relevant" links pointing to it while its front page holds a PR of 7-8 out of 10. How do you justify that?    What will it mean if Google's PR systems stays down? I believe it will mean a big shift to online marketing. Many newbies out there that are barely legal when it comes to SEO have an opportunity to measure everything they do. In turn, the newbies may even sound professional to their clients. Take away these tools and you are left with true marketing gurus that have stood the test of time and can deliver results for themselves and their clients.    The internet is vastly growing into a pool of professional fakes and scammers. This is really giving the internet marketing community a bad name. Without the Google PR, many people won't be able to prove their results nor will they have that "fake respect" that you get from having a website with PR 7/10.    What about MSN & Yahoo? In growing efforts to keep up with MSN & Yahoo's strong and growing marketing campaign, Google may be feeling left out these days. Many people think that their PR system is simply a gimmick; a gimmick that attracts a lot of attention. By disabeling this system, you create mass fear and confusion. Bad publicity is still publicity neverless?    So, is Google trying to create a buzz? This could be possible and it could be possible that everything will be back to normal within a couple of days. We won't know until time catches up with us.    Until then, take this "dark saga" moment and find other ways to build your business online. Don't worry about what Google is doing, worry about what you are doing to improve your internet marketing campaign.    About the author: Martin Lemieux is the president of the Smartads Advertising Network. His company specializes in building communities online and effectively marketing their clients to the right audience. Visit the Smartads Network Today! International: http://www.smartads.info Canada: http://www.smartads.ca Canadian SEO Consultants Directory: http://www.seoconsultants.ca Circulated by Article Emporium

Google manipulates search results: A boost for small business?

by: Glenn Murray

As more and more businesses strive for a top ten Google ranking, it's becoming harder and harder to achieve. This is especially true for smaller businesses that simply don't have the budget for a big link popularity campaign. But hope may be just around the corner. If a top ten ranking for your primary keywords has been eluding you, then read on!    Google manipulates the results Google is trialing an 'enhancement' to the way it displays its results. Instead of showing the top ten results for the exact words you enter, in the trial Google suggests three related results that you might want to check out. Where does it display these suggestions? It shunts (or replaces) results 6, 7 and 8 !!!    In this article, I refer to these results as 'intruders'.    To see some 'intruder' results in action, search for "piggy bank". Results 6, 7 and 8 are actually 'intruder' results; they're the top three results for the more specific, less popular search, "piggy bank lyrics". Google assumes that people searching for "piggy bank" will probably be interested in results of a search for "piggy bank lyrics".      On first impressions, it's tempting to think that this makes it harder to get into the top ten (because now it's really the top seven, and the last two results may be easily overlooked). But it may actually make it easier - especially for smaller businesses. Let me explain why...    The advantage for smaller businesses    It all comes down to who can rank in the top ten for the most popular searches - like "computers", "cars", "doctor", "pets", etc. For anyone in these industries, a top ten ranking for these keywords is the holy grail. Unfortunately, these sorts of searches are presently dominated by big corporations with hefty search budgets. Most smaller businesses don't even try to compete. Instead of focusing on these hotly contested keywords, small businesses tend to focus on much more specific keyword phrases - like "computers boston", "second hand cars ohio", "female doctor new england", "discount pets for children", etc.    But Google's trial may change that. Remember, it's replacing results 6, 7 and 8 of a popular, broad search with results 1, 2 and 3 of a less popular, more specific search. If the trial becomes a standard feature, a search for "computers" might well include three 'intruder' results from a search such as "computers boston".    As discussed above, results 6, 7 and 8 are likely to belong to big companies, whereas results 1, 2 and 3 of the more specific search are more likely to belong to smaller businesses. Therefore, when the switch occurs, it's out with the big and in with the small! In principle the enhancement appears to work in favor of small businesses: 1) Big business dominates popular / general search results 2) Smaller businesses have a greater chance of dominating less popular / more specific search results 3) General search results are replaced by specific search results 4) Big businesses are shunted out of the top ten by smaller businesses    Now I hear what you're saying: "Why wouldn't the big companies simply start optimizing for the more specific searches?" Granted, this is a possibility; but for most big companies, it would be a monumental task. Big companies tend to service a large geographic region, and they typically offer numerous products and services. Even a hefty search budget would be stretched to the limit if it was required to bankroll optimization for every single product, every single service, and every single location. And this is what would be required to dominate all of the more specific results, thereby gaining back their number 6, 7 or 8 position. It's far more likely that they'll simply try harder for a position in the top 5 of the popular/general search. This approach would be less complex and probably more rewarding.    The fine print Of course, where Google is involved, nothing is ever that simple. I've oversimplified things above to make the trial a little easier to understand. In reality, the situation is a bit more complex because of the way Google chooses which search the three 'intruder' results come from. Take the "piggy bank" search for example. Google assumes that most users who search for "piggy bank" will also be interested in results from a search for "piggy bank lyrics". This assumption is based on the fact that thousands of other people are searching specifically for "piggy bank lyrics" - in fact, it's one of the most popular searches containing the original term "piggy bank". And that's why it gets the nod.    In other words, the intruder results come from popular searches (less popular than the original, but still popular). This means you'd already have to rank highly in a very popular search before you'd become an intruder. So, in reality, the above "computer" example is a little simplistic; the intruder results for "computer" are more likely to be from a search for something like "computers ibm". In reality, the top three results for "computer peripherals boston" are more likely to appear as intruders in a "computer peripherals" search.    Conclusion The important thing to remember is that if this trial becomes a standard feature, it will be implemented on all searches. And the more specific the original search, the easier it would be to become an intruder in that search. In theory, it has great potential to help smaller businesses reach the next rung of the search engine ladder.    Other examples Here are some further examples if you're interested: Search for "add url" Search for "on demand" Happy shunting!    About the author: * Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He owns article submission service Article PR and copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com Visit http://www.DivineWrite.comor http://www.ArticlePR.comfor further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book. Circulated by Article Emporium

Get Listed In Google By Making An XML SiteMap and Without Spending A Dime

by: Richard D. Bailey

If you have been unsuccessfully trying to get listed in Google or just hitting roadblocks when trying to get more of your pages listed in Google, then you need to read this short article. I am about to reveal a simple SEO secret that can save you a lot of time, money and effort.    Google has a preferred search submission format that it actually asks webmasters to use, It's called a Google SiteMap.    Admittedly, creating and using XML is no easy task for anyone who is non-technical or inexperienced with web coding, however there is a site or two on the web that can actually help you create an XML sitemap and then submit it to Google so that this venerable search engine can crawl your previously unknown web site and get you listed.    Of course there are no guarantees that your site will get high ranks or that it will meet Google's guidelines for inclusion, so be sure to make sure that your site is properly optimized and meets their guidelines before using these tools.    Before I reveal these tools and show you where to go to find out how to use them, let's take a look at the basics.    XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a special document formatted created to allow communication between applications and also between organizations. XML is a practical system that structurally defines the format and composition of intricate documents and data such as invoices, news feeds, inventory reports, catalog listings and other complex documents. A seasoned programmer who understands XML can easily create XML applications that know how to pull data from XML sources and then format it for presentation to end users.    In the case of Google, this same XML data format can be used to define your site's pages and their position in relation to each other. So for example, your "about_us.html" page is usually connected only one click away from your "index.html" page. When used in this manner to define pages and their positions we are creating what is commonly known as a sitemap.    Google says in the own words, "Google Sitemaps is an easy way for you to help improve your coverage in the Google index. It's a collaborative crawling system that enables you to communicate directly with Google to keep us informed of all your web pages, and when you make changes to these pages."    So in essence, Google is asking us to help them index the web by using this simple technique that will no doubt become a major help to struggling webmasters everywhere.    Google, by the way, will accept simple text file based sitemaps. Please consult their site for more information.    How to get your sitemap indexed. Once your sitemap has been created and uploaded to the main directory of your web site, simply use this URL to submit it:  www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url    Just replace the parameter, "sitemap_url" with the actual URL of your sitemap. Example: www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://www.mywebsiteabc.com/sitemap.xml  You can also open a Google account before submitting to make sure that you can actually track your submission to check your sitemap status. https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount    I promised to reveal the tools used to facilitate the creation of XML sitemaps and here they are...    The Tools Revealed: SiteMapspal:    Use this Google recommended online tool to generate a Google friendly xml sitemap that you can simple cut/paste and then upload to your site. Simply provide your site URL and select a few optional settings and with one-click ease you will have a sitemap, ready to go. http://www.sitemapspal.com/    Google SiteMap Generator: Provided by Google themselves, this is not for the faint of heart, it requires some knowledge of working with Python scripts (a web coding format) and will requires installation on your site. https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html    SiteMap Validator: Use this Google recommended tool to validate your sitemap for accuracy. http://www.smart-it-consulting.com/internet/google/submit-validate-sitemap/    About the author: Certified Guerilla Marketing Coach and speaker, Richard Bailey is an Internet Marketing consultant who develops methods and technology to attract customers. Serving large and small business from Real Estate Marketing to the Chemical Industry. Contact Richard by visiting http://www.ClientByDesign.comor call 914-206-9625 Circulated by Article Emporium

Get a top 10 ranking without paying a cent

by: Glenn Murray

If there's one thing that Google loves, it's content. Done right, a content rich website is almost guaranteed to rank highly. But how to get that content? You can write it yourself, but that takes a lot of time. You can pay an SEO copywriter to write it for you, but that takes a lot of money. If only there was another option...    What if you could get your content for free? And not just a little bit of content; a lot! What if you could get an almost unlimited supply of keyword rich, expertly written content, specific to your subject matter, absolutely free of charge? Would you snap it up and upload to your site in an instant? Of course you would! Well here's the good news: you can! Read on to find out how you can get a top ten ranking in the search engines without paying a single cent...    Yes, content gives you a great ranking    Content is king. This is widely acknowledged as fact, but if you need further convincing, consider the following two points:    Point 1 - In Google's own words, one of the keys to a high ranking is to "create a useful, information-rich site" (from “Google Information for Webmasters” - http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html). Point 2 - Google insider, codenamed 'Google Guy', advocates a list 26 steps to building a high ranking site. Step 5 of the list says, "build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words" (from Brett Tabke's "26 steps to 15k a Day" - http://www.searchengineworld.com/misc/guide.htm, advocated by Google Guy in a WebMasterWorld QA session - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/29727-6-10.htm).    But why does content give you a great ranking?    I won't go into any further detail about IF Google loves content. I will, however, briefly explain WHY. Google's love affair with content is based on two key attractions:    1) Google loves sites with a lot of content because it assumes they provide a lot of useful information. And remember, that's the whole reason Google exists - to help people find useful information. The more helpful Google's results, the more traffic (and revenue) it gets.    2) Google loves sites that have a lot of links pointing to them because this means other webmasters hold your site in high regard, and Google assumes this means the content is useful. And naturally, if you create a useful site, other webmasters will link to it because this makes them useful to their visitors (thereby developing site loyalty), and they gain credibility and authority because they're associated with you.    So how can you get free content for your website? Three words: 'free reprint articles'. There are hundreds of thousands of people out there writing high quality, helpful, informative articles on virtually every topic imaginable, then giving these article away to any webmaster who wants to publish them on a website. In exchange for the article, the author asks only that you retain the author bio at the end, complete with all links (e.g. "Glenn Murray is an SEO Copywriter and Article Submission Specialist...).    To find free content for your website, simply visit any one of hundreds of 'article banks' on the Internet such as http://www.ezinearticles.com, http://www.goarticles.com, or http://www.articleblast.com. Browse or search for the subject you're interested in, then take the article(s) for free. There is absolutely no charge. Some of these sites will even send a regular stream of articles direct to your website (using RSS).    Alternatively, you can sign up to any number of article distribution lists and get articles delivered direct to your email inbox. Again, it's absolutely free! Some of the better known distribution lists include http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce, http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content, and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles.    TIP: The article banks and distribution lists mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds more - just do a search for "free reprint articles", "article submission", "article submission site", "submit article", "article submit site", "free articles", or "free content". You may even find a site or list which only deals in articles relating to your particular subject matter.    Why is it free?    Why are these authors giving their articles away? Because it helps the author's own search engine ranking. It's a promotional activity known as 'article PR'. As explained above, Google loves sites with lots of links pointing to them. Every time their article submission is published, the author gets another link to their website. In fact, if the article is really good, it may be published hundreds of times. And each time, it's another link to the author's website. Put simply, article submission is a writer's free pass to the top of the search engines. (In this sense, the "PR" in article PR stands for PageRank.)    Furthermore, like traditional public relations, article PR also conveys a sense of authority because your articles are widely published. And because you're proving your expertise and freely dispensing knowledge, your readers will trust you and will be more likely to remain loyal to you. (In this sense, the "PR" in article PR stands for Public Relations.)    How do I know if the quality is good?    It's a process of natural selection. The better the article submission, the more often it will be published, so it's in the author's interest to write and submit articles of the highest quality. Of course, this doesn't always happen, but in most cases, you'll be reviewing the articles before you post them anyway, so if you discover one that's not up to scratch, don't use it.    In time, you'll become familiar with the authors who consistently put out good quality content - you may even find enough of them that you don't need to go looking for content from anyone else...    Where do I put the free content? Most people put the articles in an 'Articles' or 'Resources' section on their website, but you can put them anywhere you like.    How much free content should I use? As much as you want or as little as you want. It all depends on your needs and the needs of your audience. If your audience expects that at least some of your site is original content, then give it to them.    But what about the duplicate content issue?    It's not an issue!    There's a lot of a talk about how Google penalizes duplicate content. The theory is that when the majority of the content on two separate webpages (on different sites) is the same, the one with the higher PR will be shown and the other one will not.    Whether or not this theory is true is still a hot topic in search engine circles, but regardless, it doesn't affect people publishing free-reprint articles. When you publish the article, just make sure you have unique content around it. Generally, it's enough to have your own unique introduction to the page (which may be common to all pages), and your own navigation elements, headers, footers, sidebars, logos, images, etc.    Conclusion Free reprint articles are a great way for you to achieve a high ranking. And you don't have to pay a cent! So what are you waiting for?    Happy reprinting!    About the author: * Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He owns article submission service Article PR and copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com Visit http://www.DivineWrite.comor http://www.ArticlePR.comfor further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book. Circulated by Article Emporium

Five Time Tested & Proven Ways To Promote Your Web Site

by: Lawrence Deon

One of the biggest hurdles online marketers face is web site promotion. There are literally countless ways to promote online; some are good while others are a complete waste of time.    What works? Well there are several good strategies to get your message out to your niche. Each strategy will produce different results for various niches.    Contests or Sweepstakes Holding a contest or sweepstakes is a proven way to promote your web site. You can announce your site to hundreds of web sites that list free contests and sweepstakes.    Press Releases One of the most powerful promotion strategies is sending out press releases about your contest or sweepstakes. Ask entrants to your contest or sweepstakes if they would accept offers from your business in the future by e-mail.    Chat Rooms or Forums Use online chat rooms to promote your web site. Find the right chat room where your targeted audience or niche would gather. Announce to everyone in the chat room something interesting or free that's offered on your web site to attract visitors.    Always be aware of chat room rules before engaging the visitors in a sales pitch that could be considered spam.    Cross promotional enterprising    Cross promote or joint venture your web site with other sites.    I try to find other web sites that have the same target audience, but are not in direct competition with my business. It’s a sure fire method of increasing my exposure to qualified prospects.    Cross promotional enterprising with other businesses will increases your online exposure, sales, and helps beat your competition to the top of the search engine results pages.    It doesn’t matter what your promoting you’ll find businesses to cross promote and joint venture with all over the Internet.    Traffic Generators You can easily promote your web site by using traffic generators. I’m not talking about magic bullets or hocus pocus schemes either.    They could be free e-zines, a service, e-book or contest etc. Giving away traffic generators gives you the opportunity to get free advertising by including your ad on them.    Take it one step further and make it viral. Write a short ebook and give away the distribution rights. Other webmasters are generally receptive to promote quality content! .    I sweetened the deal for my subscribers by adding a viral ebook, PPC Cash Bonanza and an issue-by-issue contest for free advertising in my newsletter, the Ranking Report.    There are literally hundreds of online directories that will also let you submit your freebie information. Remember; let other people give away your traffic generators.    Email Discussion Groups Posting messages to e-mail discussion lists is another great way to promote your web site. An e-mail discussion list is a group of people connected together via e-mail that can communicate with one another.    When you post a message to a list always make sure you include your signature file at the end. Include an attention getting sentence why they should visit your web site. Just like a headline. Make it provocative and compelling!    There are many more ways to promote your website. If one of these methods doesn’t work for you find another, but whatever you do… do something.    Once you've committed to taking action everything you do online from sending emails to blogging or even just surfing the web, should be motivated towards producing more visitors to your web site and referring prospects through promotional means.    Do nothing… get nothing, do a little & get a lot!    About the author: Lawrence Deon is an SEO/SEM Consultant and author of the popular search engine optimization and marketing model Ranking Your Way To The Bank. http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.com Please feel free to reprint this article. An active link back to http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.comis required. Publishers not linking back will be asked to remove this article from their site. Circulated by Article Emporium