Three 5 Star Must Have SEO Book Recommendations...

I highly recommend the following 5 Star SEO Books and CD-ROM to everyone needing to know and learn more about Search Engine Optimization...

1. SEO Answer Book
Now, get your most important search engine optimization questions answered by the same experts who brought you SEO Notebook.

• Why do most people fail at SEO?
• What's the Best strategy?
• How can I get the fastest results?
• How do I assign a dollar value to my SEO needs?
  
  These are just a few of the questions answered in SEO Answer Book. If you've got a Web site and competition, you need this book.
  

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2. Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

If you want potential customers to form a traffic jam at your Web site, Pay Per Click just might do the trick. This book will help you decide! It tells you all about Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search, targeting your customers, watching out for fraud, assessing the pros and cons of Pay Per Click, and making Pay Per Click work for you.


Discover how to:

• Use the right keywords to trigger your ads
• Figure your breakeven point
• Write ads that reach your customers
• Calculate return on investment
• Use geo targeting
• Track your ad results

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3. Search Engine Optimization (CD-ROM)

If you're out of sight on the Web, says Search Engine Optimization specialist Richard John Jenkins, you're out of mind. Braving the wilds of search engine myths and facts, Richard offers essential tips on how to appear at the top of search results in Yahoo!, Google, and other popular search engines. From purchasing placement to optimizing keyword variations, from avoiding "black hat" SEO practices to setting up a search-friendly site, Richard covers it all. He also shares how to best submit your Web pages for indexing, how to monitor page rank, and how to build a solid base of links to your site. A must-watch video tutorial for experienced website publishers and for those just getting into the Web game.

• Search engine optimization (SEO) vs. search engine marketing (SEM)
• Getting to know your searchers
• Crawler-based search engines
• Keywording to rank high in searches
• Keyword combinations, variations, and stop words
• Setting up a site the wrong way: what to avoid
• Creating a search-friendly site
• Submitting websites for search engine indexing
• Building link relationships

I have ALL these Books and CD-ROM and I use them ongoing to reference as needed and you would be surprised how ofter you turn yo these resources during different projects.

Enjoy :)

What are authority sites?

Authority Sites Are...
Websites that a lot of other sites link to as a source of authoritative information are recognized by search engines as authority sites. They have some or most of these characteristics:

• Content on a particular subject, for example, health, or of a particular type, such as a news site.
• Dozens or hundreds of web pages, some of which are updated regularly.
• Many inbound links from related sites.
• Outgoing links to quality sites with relevant content.
• A professional appearance.
• An authoritative domain extension such as .gov or .edu (but authority sites can have any extension).
• A high Google PR rank.

Getting Inbound Links from Authority Sites:
Do you want to have your website rank well in search engine results? Create good content — and get authority sites to link to it.

Search engines treat links to other sites as votes for the sites linked to. But not all links are equal. More weight is given to inbound links from sites that search engines recognize as authority sites. Such links can aid greatly in having sites rank well in search engine results.

However, acquiring those links requires more effort than simply asking the webmasters of those authority sites to link to your site. If a site is seen as an authority site, everyone wants links from them.

Preview a Los Angeles Restaurant, before you go? Now you can at Citysearch.com...

Have you ever wanted to preview a restaurant, before you go? Now you can with Citysearch's new videos. Watch one-minute clips of local restaurants and make an informed decision on where to have dinner, plan parties and special events.

Kudos to Citysearch... I love This New Video Preview Feature!

Just click on the name of a Los Angeles restaurant to view its video:

1. Nic's Restaurant
453 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA
Larry Nicola's cool supper club and martini lounge proves he just can't lose.

2. Cafe Flore
214 S Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA
Quiet stretch of Robertson turns a dozen tables into the Left Bank with a nod to fresh California cuisine.

3. Cannoli Kings Catering
7316 Varna Ave, North Hollywood, CA
Catering company specializes in cannolis and other Italian delicacies; also offers everything from tapas to barbecue.

4. Katana
8439 W Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA
Rustic Japanese fare, sci-fi-inspired decor and a beautiful crowd--a Sunset Strip hot spot.

5. Celadon
7910 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA
Romantic, sophisticated Euro-Asian spot brings out a cool West Hollywood crowd.

You Can Watch More Los Angeles Restaurant Videos at: http://losangeles.citysearch.com/roundup/42143

Top Ten SEO Mistakes...

Here are 10 SEO mistakes that YOU never want to make...

Before you publish and submit your site you should know the top ten SEO mistakes most site builders make. Optimize your pages before you submit them.

1) Non-descriptive page titles - if you use a WYSIWYG editor, it may be titling your pages the same as the page name. Pages with the same title on the domain will not get listed. The search engines see them as duplicate pages and won't index past the same title twice. Use a short 7-9 word descriptive title for each page and make sure each page title on your site is unique.

What do you think is a better title for your page is A or B?

A. Home Page
B. Top 10 SEO Mistakes

(B) is the correct title!

2) No meta tags in page - If you don't put a description meta tag on your page and it gets listed, it will list the first few words of copy on your page. Keyword meta tags are not read anymore by most major search engines and just putting a keyword in a keyword meta tag will not you listed for that keyword.

3) Thinking if you build it, they will come - you watch too many movies... here's your reality check. Submitting your site to the search engines is not enough. Without good optimization efforts, you can't compete for keyword rankings on a global basis.

4) It has to be pretty - that depends largely on the purpose of the site. For the most part, design is subjective. What looks good to one person is unattractive to the next. The search engines don't care what your graphics or animation or color scheme is. It just has to be well organized, well-written, user friendly, consistent, logical to navigate, provide a valuable service and be 'sticky'. Killer sites aren't just aesthetically pleasing, they are highly useful, well planned and easy for the search engines to crawl. The design grabs their attention, the content keeps it.

5) Too much animation - Animation has it's place and can be quite clever and appropriate on a lot of sites if used to the best advantage, but too much of it is unnecessary and will aggravate visitors. Never use blinking text or pop up ads... how do you like them?

6) Cannot resize text - When you build a site you have to take into consideration that the web is not print. It's a movable media that displays differently on each monitor. To be useful, you have to offer options to your visitors. If you use .css, you need to specify the text in .em instead of .pt for the vision impaired and Mac users.

7) Different design for each page or section - How will your visitors know they are still on your site if it's pages are not consistent? You can guarantee consistency by placing navigation in the same place on each page and your logo in the same spot at the top of the page. If you have expandable menu items, put them on every page of your site in the same place. Your visitors will expect it to be there and it's not user centered if they have to learn a new navigation system for each section. Use consistent navigation on every page. A different design and way to navigate it for each section is confusing.

8) Background Music - A different song on each page that loads is the most aggravating thing on the internet. Even an on/off button is aggravating if it has to be used for every page load. Unless it's a presentation that the visitor selects, sound has no place on a professional site and what good does it do to optimize for maximum traffic if you alienate your visitor...

9) Poor maintenance - Orphaned pages are pages in your site that have one way links or no links to other pages. Outdated and poorly written pages with broken links could affect getting your site indexed. A lot of broken internal and external links could keep your site from getting indexed.

10) Main focus - You can have several topics on your site, and indeed you should have for interest and support. But there should only be one main focus that tells what your site is all about. One main subject that lets your visitor know exactly what your page content is about. What is the purpose of your site? Spell it out with your headlines, tag line and graphics. If it's not apparent by looking at the main page, your visitors have no reason to dig deeper.

There are a lot more mistakes site builders can make, some biggies and some minor, but correcting the ones listed here will make the biggest impact on your site as a whole and the ability to get it listed properly, and they're so easy to correct.

Search Engine Keyword Tips...

Search Engine Keywords are the words and phrases that people search for in search engines. It is important to use search engine keywords in your documents because that is how the search engines score you and thus rank your site. Higher ranking web sites get more traffic and make more sales. If you choose your search engine keywords wisely you will get years and years of free search engine traffic.

The biggest and best search engine keyword tip is to use: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ the overture search engine keyword tool to research your words and phrases. Basically, type in a single popular word and see what comes back. This tool will tell you how many searches different words and phrases had in the last month. With this information you can build your pages around what is popular, ensuring you'll have plenty of customers that want your products.

Here is a list of search engine keyword tips that will help you when you describe your products:

• Use Phrases instead of single words. You stand a better chance of winning the search engine wars, and it helps to narrow down exactly what people are searching for.
• Make each page for a particular keyword phrase. You should have a new page for each term you want a good ranking on.
• Instead of using words like "it, this, that, item" use the actual search engine keyword throughout your article.
• Don't use the search engine keyword more than about 1 of 20 words. More is considered spamming.
• Put the search engine key phrases in strong and emphasis HTML tags once or twice
• Don't use more than 2 directory levels when naming files. website.com/one/two/file.html is as deep as spiders will go
• Only put keywords in metatags that actually appear in your document
• Use 350 to 2000 words in your document
• use pictures, with file names that have keywords in them
• make sure that the keyphrase is in the title of your document and that the title matches what the document is about
• put the key phrase in the first paragraph of your document, search engines read from the top down and give more weight to the higher text
• include the paragraph tags properly in your document. Search engines look inside of those tags specifically
• use key phrases in your file names and domain name: keyphrase.com/keyphrase/keyphrase.htm
• use key phrases in your link, anchor and link title tags
• use key prhases in table summaries
• use key phrases in the image file name and alt tags
• use key phrases in the names of your css, js and included files
  
  

11 Meta Tag Terms Every Webmaster Should Know...

Understanding Meta Tag Terms...

Title Tag must be different for every page, create a keyword rich title relevant to the content of each page

Meta Keyword Tag must be different for every page, keyword must be relevant to the content of each page, each page is good for 2 or 3 keyword phrases only.

Meta Description Tag must be different for every page, use the first 50 words of first paragraph or header of each page

Page Header includes your site name in text, a keyword laced slogan and a recognizable logo, be consistent and make it the same on every page. Don't confuse your site visitors by making your web pages look different than your main page.

Body Header Tag top of each page, keyword rich, repeat the page title tag if possible. Do not use this to welcome your visitors, welcome is not a keyword. Do not use your company name unless it is descriptive of the product line. There is a big difference between "Welcome to Rudy's Product" website and "Anti Aging Skin Care Products For Younger Looking Skin" and watch the caps and bolding, don't shout at your visitors.

Body Content Text at minimum 100 words, keyword or phrase 3 times, beginning, middle and end. relevant to page title. Link to product and information pages within your website.

Graphic Alt and Title Tags use them, each search engine uses the alt or title tag as needed and ignores the tag it doesn't need.

Internal Links link each page to the next using the keyword of the next page in the link.

Content Links link products on content pages to the product pages DON'T OVER DO IT!

Navigation The menus were simplified. although drop downs and sliders are very nice, the menu bars make a great keyword link if formatted correctly. I recommend staying away from drop downs and sliders, as well as flash based and graphic menu systems. Give the spiders what they want, text. We did format the menu item hover over in the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). I've seen this before where novices add multiple links in there menus that either go to a duplicate pages or the same page. One menu link per page. Your customers will find what they are looking for much easier. The site just left me confused when I first reviewed it. If you mention your products in the content of your page, link to the product page mentioned in the text.

Sitemap As for the sitemap, this CMS has programs that generate and update the sitemap on the fly. Get yourself a Google account and submit the sitemap. If the sitemap is properly formatted your site will be crawled and indexed within days. Recently the search engines announced that the sitemaps URL can be added anywhere to the Robots.TXT file in this format Sitemap: http://mywonderfulsite.com/allmypages.xml. This does simplify the process, but the as yet to be determined question is how will you know if the sitemap failed verification. The only way I know if the sitemap failed verification is to add the sitemap manually using the Google webmaster tools. Within a short time Google will report on the sitemaps validation. The sitemap will also give you a visual of how well organized your website is.

>> Website layout and navigation is key to the usability of your website.

Part 1: Important Web SEO Terms YOU Need to Know...

A Web Widget - is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation. They are akin to plugins or extensions in desktop applications. Other terms used to describe a web widget include gadget, badge, module, capsule, snippet, mini and flake. Web widgets often but not always use Adobe Flash or JavaScript programming languages.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_widget

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Social Media - describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. These sites typically use technologies such as blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs to allow users to interact. A few prominent examples of social media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Gather.com (social networking),YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Digg (news sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Miniclip (game sharing).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

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Web 2.0 - a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2003 and popularized by the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004, refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O'Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted. Though the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways systems developers have used the web platform.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

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Algorithm
Mathematical formula used to rank web sites.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/algorithm.html

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Spider
A robot sent out by search engines to catalogue websites on the internet. When a spider indexes a particular website, this is known as 'being spidered'.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/spider.html

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Stop Word
A stop word is a common word that is ignored by search engines because it does not add to relevancy. Words such as 'the', 'it', 'a', and 'for' are considered stop words are ignored by many search engines.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/stop-word.html

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Link Popularity
A measure of both the number and the quality of inbound links. Most search engines take this factor into considering when ranking websites in SERPs. Marketleap is an excellent website to use to check your website's link popularity.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/link-popularity.html

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Inbound Link
This is a hypertext link to a page from another site, bringing traffic to that page. Inbound links are used to calculate link popularity.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/inbound-link.html

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PageRank
A technical asset of Google, it is an exponential-based value that signifies importance of a webpage. Google allows one to view a site's PR [on an exponential 10-base] using their toolbar.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/pagerank.html

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Site Submission
This is the actual process by which a site is directly submitted to a search engine for inclusion into their database. Some search engines charge a certain amount for 'guaranteed inclusion' into their search index.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/site-submission.html

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Spamming
While spamming is generally used to refer to unsolicited bulk mail, spamming in regards to search engines refers to the process of manipulating search engines in order to obtain higher rankings. Such techniques are not tolerated by search engines and if caught, will result in being banned from them.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/unique-visitor.html

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Unique Visitor
This is a real visitor to a website. It is the best measurement of how many people actually come to a website.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/spamming.html

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CSS
Cascading Style Sheet. Used to easily manipulate and effect the design of a webpage.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/css.html

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Alt Text
Short form for Alternative Text, it is an property that is used as a placeholder when the image is loading [and for usability purposes]. In the case of image links, it seems to have weight akin to anchor text.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/alt-text.html

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Description
Pretty self-explanatory, it is descriptive text which concisely explains the purpose of a page. A meta tag exists for this, and is used by some search engines when displaying the page as a result in SERPS.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/description.html

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Ranking
This refers to the process by which search engines display websites so that the most relevant websites appear on the top. Search engine optimization is a technique by which high rankings may be obtained.

Source: http://www.seo-glossary.com/ranking.html

Local Online Advertising Growing...

Local Online Advertising to Grow 31.6% in '07...
U.S. local online advertising is forecast to reach $7.5 billion - 31.6 percent over 2006 levels, according to "What Local Media Web Sites Earn: 2007 Survey," the fifth annual benchmarking report from Borrell Associates, MarketingCharts reports.

Nearly 25 percent of the local media websites in the Borrell survey were on track to generate more than $1 million in gross revenues this year; and 6.6 percent of them are forecast to generate more than $10 million, the research firm said.

According to Borrell's findings:

• Newspapers account for the dominant share of all locally spent online advertising: 35.9 percent
• Pure-play internet companies (Google, Yahoo, Monster, etc.) are right behind with 33.2 percent
• Yellow pages operators control 11.7 percent
• Other Print (e.g., Homes & Land and other local magazines), 9.2 percent
• TV stations, 7.7 percent
• Radio stations, 2.2 percent.

Pursuing non-traditional advertisers is becoming the route to growth, according to the report: "The number of locally based online-only salespeople grew 26 percent in 2006. Budgeted figures for 2007 anticipate an additional 35 percent increase in hiring this year." Read More...

Resource: http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com

5 Tips for Integrating Keywords into YOUR Website’s Copy…

Here are 5 Website Keyword/Copy Tips To Help You Succeed…

1. Try to stick with 4-7 keyword or keyword phrases per page, perhaps up to 10 if they are related.

2. Repeat the keyword or keyword phrase once per paragraph.

3. Weave your keywords within the first 250 words of every web page.

4. Name your page the same as your keyword and use dashes in between words; for example “search-engine-optimization.html”

5. Put in original content always.

Remember your website copy should be written for your visitors first and foremost, by targeting a page per keyword you are ensuring the page is focused on the keyword without being considered spam.