Why SEO Will Make or Break You, Part 1

Today's article is about the wonders of SEO. SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. If you know anything about our world wide web, than you surely know that the sites bringing in the most monstrous traffic are search engines. In the world of traffic, search engines control almost all of the pieces. If you stop and think about it, if you want to find something on the web, what do you do? Odds are you hop on over to Yahoo, Google, MSN, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, Kanoodle, and the list just goes on and on. Almost every method of obtaining traffic, other than offline sources and direct, random domain visits, all of your traffic is coming through these engines. Pay Per Click advertising, sponsered search, directory submissions, all these play off the search engine.

But what if there was a way to outsmart the search engines, (and keep your wallet nice and fat!)to use their own patterns and logic against them? Before we get started, you should know that a search engine finds you (for the most part)by sending spiders to your site, to index your pages and collect info, such as meta tags. But how does a search engine find you, and keep coming back?

1. The internet is literally a web, and every new site created is basically below the web, in a gigantic sand box. Your new site is literally one of millions sitting in the box, and your only way out is to be found by a "spider" (a search engine "robot"). You can play the waiting game, and wait and wait until it randomly passes over you (this could take anywhere from 1 month to many years depending on your site itself), or you could do something to attract the spiders. No, not by putting dead flies on your homepage (yes that was lame, bear with me), but by getting links. As the internet is a web, if you are linked to site a, you potentially have all of their visitors connected to you. The bigger and more popular site a, the more often spiders will visit that site, and if they have you linked on it, the spiders will deem your site (site b) worth visiting based off of a few factors: The popularity of site a, and the content of site a in relation to b.

Any easy way to get a ton of links to your site is by creating "blogs". If you don't know what blogs are, you should try googling it. You can create a blog with Blogger.com, owned by Google, and post updates it in with links back to site b. Google will index the blog (they own it!), find the links, and follow them back to your site. On average, with 3-5 posts a day on your blog, google will find your site within about 3-5 days. You could also create multiple blogs and do this, but that may be more effort-to-effectiveness than you want. If you are focused on Yahoo, use MyYahoo.

2. Content. Search Engines love content, the more relevant content the better! Even more important than the amount of content, is the frequency. If you were to update site b every hour, the search engine spiders will feel curious to what your updates are all about, and will often come back to check them out.

Updating content too tedious? Don't do it yourself silly! Learn to harness the powers of RSS. Don't know what RSS is? No one really does, although what we have learned from the little green martian men inside our heads is this, it stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a means of using xml code to connect to "channels", where the channel operaters (the webmasters, etc) may add content to the channel, almost always in the form of articles and news related stories. The beauty of this RSS system, is that MANY sites let users borrow thier xml code, and insert it into their own sites. Big deal right? Wrong! Every time your rss source (where you got the code from) updates their site, or their feed, your's updates too! Search Engine spiders realize that, and think you updated your site too, when all you really did was kick back and watch the traffic flow! If you really want to step things up a notch, you can become a content alligator. Oops! Content Aggregator! This is simply the practice of adding more than one channel into your rss feed, creating a mixture of more than two seperate feeds. This could mean that in theory, the spiders are seeing your site being updated every few minutes!

If you have any unique, personal content being updated by you or your webmaster, consider making your own feed for that, and submitting it into rss directories, for even more links.

Those are two of the most important factors, and for the rest, stick around for part 2!

Chris Everson in partnership with Mark Shay
http://www.therealincome.com
Serious Income, we don't sponser crap.

---

Search Engine Tips & Techniques

As you are building your site or getting your site... Read More

Search Engine Metrics: Organic Search vs. Paid Placement

Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004... Read More

Are You Hung-Up on Page Rank and Back Links?

It's unfortunate that many website owners are so hung-up on... Read More

Search Engine Optimization for Dummies

Lets face it. Search Engines rule the World Wide Web... Read More

Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. If you... Read More

Internet Marketing and Search Engine Indexing.

The world of internet marketing is a highly competitive place.... Read More

Emerging Methods for Effective Search Engine Ranking

Search Engine traffic has always been and continues to be... Read More

Dont Get Banned by Google

There are many Black Hat techniques that people use to... Read More

An SEO Checklist

Would you like a checklist of the important steps to... Read More

Search Engine Optimization For Blogs

Blogging software is really a simple Content Management System (CMS)... Read More

4 Tricks For Lightning Fast Indexing

The biggest problem that most are running into seems to... Read More

The Search Engine Showdown

If you're anything like me, you have a favourite search... Read More

How Do I Improve My Web Site Conversion Rate? Part 1

Question 1.What do you mean by conversion? Do you mean... Read More

Search Engine Optimization: What Is It?

Search Engine Optimization is the creation of a web page,... Read More

Reality Check: A Straightforward Guide to Keywords and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Web site owners need to have realistic expectations when it... Read More

What are My Chances to Get the First Place in Search Engine Listings?

You must have heard the stories how people became rich... Read More

Google News - Just another article announcer?

In Google's recent battle towards becoming an international news center,... Read More

Googles PR System Explained

The complexities of Google's PR (Page Ranking) System have grown... Read More

3 Principles Of Google

When online "Use it. Use it. Use it."Google is our... Read More

Google is Quickly Changing...

Google is quickly changing...With the big buzz of Novembers fall... Read More

2 Powerful Ways To Capitalize on Your Search Engine Traffic

Many marketers know that search engine marketing is among one... Read More

Internet 2005: The Ten Billions Pages Search Engines

To see each and every page during 10 seconds would... Read More

So, Where Has Your Search Engine Been Today?

Visit Google, Yahoo, MSN or one of the lesser search... Read More

Optimizing Your Website

Search Engine Optimization, optimizing your website for it to be... Read More

Keyword Research And Overture

Many of us who build websites get in the habit... Read More

Has Google Lost the Plot?

With the help of MSN, recently I've been reminiscing about... Read More

Most Overlooked Search Engine Optimization Technique

Some of the basics when it comes to SEO and... Read More

Search Engine Optimization: Site Structure and Popularity

In the Global Internet era the industry presence is undoubtedly... Read More

SEO Expert Guide - Black Hat SEO - Activities to avoid (part 8/10)

In parts 1 - 7, you learnt how to develop... Read More

Internet Directory Submission Tips

Internet Directories and their ImportanceThere are two very pertinent reason... Read More

How to Increase Alexa Ranking of Your Website

Alexa toolbar also useful to Browse expired websites database. Many... Read More

Absolute Top Five Search Engine Marketing Myths Uncovered!

It's no secret that Search Engine marketing can drive significant... Read More

Are Search Engines Worth It Any More?

The "Number One" Question - the question that I (and... Read More