I simply assumed that my Google results would improve

Search engines used to rely on webmasters to provide an honest assessment of web site content by simply accepting exactly what was placed in the meta tags of each site. The engines ranked the sites in the beginning by looking almost entirely at those tags and serving results based on whether ...

UNDERSTANDING THE WWW. I came to the web with an itch to build content, and I needed to understand the technology utilized to build the Internet. Early on, I confronted the question about whether it was necessary to use the www. in my website URL. It really began to be a concern to me when ...

There are a number of ways to improve your clickthrough rates (CTR) for ads on Google Adwords. Here are some tips to help you get started. 1. Target your ads to the right Audience. You do this by selecting keywords and phrases which are relevant to your product or service. Avoid keywords that...

After Google latest update nicknamed "Florida", many webmasters discovered that their traffic plummeted. What happened? More importantly what can you do about it? And what will Google do next? What happened was that Google made an algorithm change on how they rate web pages. Every tim...

What makes a good domain name? Well, it's a subjective issue, of course, but here are ten tips to point you in the right direction. 1. Good domain names are easily memorable and easily typed. Generally this means keeping them short. 2. Hyphens should be avoided if possible. When I chose ...

A recent post in a discussion list suggested that Google is becoming the Microsoft of search (dominating web search as Microsoft dominates PC operating systems). So I decided to research a theory - one I'd developed about search engine traffic. I dug into the traffic stats on three of my own si...

The days of free search engine traffic are over! (And the reign of cheap search engine traffic has begun!) Okay, that may not be quite the case *yet*, but you really do have to work hard (or pay someone to work hard), to even get close to guaranteeing a top 10 position on search engines lik...

The headline read, "A funny thing happens when you don't promote your website... NOTHING." Experience has taught me that that's a fairly accurate statement. If you are not promoting your website, you're not building your web business. However, there is one thing you need to focus on MORE than...

Most Internet marketing methods are risky and many will not have any affect on traffic to a web site. Some online marketers will sell you anything from banner impressions, to mass email campaigns (spam), to popup ads. All these marketing tools can work, but they are also extremely risky. Some pe...

Pay-per-click (PPC) search engines are a highly effective and inexpensive way to attract targeted traffic to your web site. With the most popular PPC search engines (www.overture.com and www.adwords.google.com) you can often buy this search engine traffic for 10 cents or 5 cents per click. It is...

Are you using these three little known ways to find link partners? If not you should be. Since decent link popularity is a must if you want to rank well and get more traffic. Not to mention sporting links from quality sites will not only juice your traffic but can boost your Page Rank (PR) ...

1. Start a content driven site. Slashdot, Ars Technica, and PlanetSourceCode are all great examples of sites that do not explicitly sell products or services, but make money anyway. They are all about a certain subject that the authors are familiar with. The authors, although they might not g...

When tracking how well you’re doing against competitors in Google are you winning, losing or just holding your own? Don’t know? Doesn’t surprise me. Most have no clue if they’re winning the Google rankings battle much less the war. Which is a shame since keeping score is so simple. Here’s a...

Google's recent November changes to its algorithm, now known as the "Florida Update, have left many site owners in a quandary. Many who were enjoying top placements, have lost their spots, and apparently, for no real reason. Now keep in mind, that periodic algorithmic changes are a normal an...

Just before the close of business on Wednesday, Google announced that it will be launching Gmail, its new free e-mail service set to offer 1000 megabytes of free space to its users. This announcement comes after a flurry of changes at Google, all of which are geared to securing their place as the d...

During the month of November many website entrepreneurs were shaken when Google made its infamous "Florida" update, wiping out search positions for several high-ranking websites, which disappeared from the "top 100" overnight. While all the details behind the Google changes are still not known, ...

By now, virtually every webmaster has heard or read that the major search engines are responsible for 80% or more of the traffic received by most web sites and that most searchers never look beyond the first 20 - 50 search results. Not surprisingly, an entire industry devoted to search engine r...

Getting your web site listed in the major search engines is an absolute necessity. Why? Because 85% of all people on the Internet use them when searching for information. When they type the keyword or keyword phrase in a major search engine, up pops your web site, or at least you hope so. The...

In-bound links from other web sites to yours provide two avenues to success for your site. First, the number of quality in-bound links pointing to your web site are a major factor that the search engines (including Google) use to rank web pages in their databases. Lots of high-quality in-boun...

Website owners: do you know how many links are out there on the Internet, pointing back to your site? If you're interested in getting free search engine placement for your site, you ought to know. An easy way to find out is to download the Alexa toolbar from http://www.alexa.com. One of it...