SEO NEWS ARTICLES

More and more companies are working on complex websites
which means they don't have the same time to fix things by
having just a little knowledge in the HTML Language.

This has saw an increase in company's seeking information
on CONTENT MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS (CMS).
There are of course so many available at a vareity prices and
company owners are asking what do they look for in such a package.

First of all businesses will need a clear understanding of why the
CMS is being built and how it is going to be maintained.

What is seen as the most cost effective way to deliver what company's are now requesting is currently via Open Source.

Open Source is a program whose source code is made available for use or modification. Open Source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available. The idealigy behind Open Source is one of sharing knowledge and expertise.

There are several questions that should be asked before choosing a package.
What do you require the CMS to do?
Is it for a brochure or an e-commerce site?
Does it have flexible hosting arrangements?
Is it going to be expandable so that you can add modules in the future? and most importantly is it WEB and SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY? Especially so that GOOGLE can find and catalogue the pages being produced.

One additional point to consider is whether you have the in-house skills to develop and manage it.

Talk with your ebusiness advisor at MPTS who has knowledge on a vareity of vendors offering
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE and what each package has to offer.

Interested in reading the CONTENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE report - Click on the link below

FIND OUT MORE............................

Is Overnight SEO Success Still Possible?
By Michael Pedone, (c) 2005 eTrafficJams.com


As the owner of a search engine optimization company, I have seen the SEO industry evolve a great deal over the years but nevër more dramatically than it is right now. Lately I have noticed signs that the "free ride" of getting easy website traffïc from search engines is coming to an end. And that has caused many optimizers and website owners to ask themselves, "Is overnight SEO success still possible?"

In the early years (very early), it sure seemed like it was. One could simply add a bunch of keyword meta tags and get almost immediate results. Then, meta tags were out and doorway pages were in.

The next fad was links from any and all sites, the more the better. When relevancy in links became a factor, many webmasters rushed to get link scripts installed and set up link directories with relevant categories.

Then content got a good run for a while. And most recently, text link ads (paid links) became all the rage.

Paid Links: The Straw That Broke Google's Back?

As soon as link popularity became the holy grail of SEO and webmasters began learning how to artificially increase it with paid links, Google began working on filters to stop ranking manipulation. It also seems to have inspired the rumored "aging delay" in which new sites on newly registered domains face long waits to get indexed by the grand daddy of all engines.

While catching cheaters is a good thing, a lot of legitïmate, quality sites are also getting caught up in Google's new fishnet. There is plenty of grumbling among webmasters who report waiting up to nine months to appear in the Google rankings for even the most obvious keywords such as their company name.

Yes, getting top rankings in Google is definitely a lot harder (and slower) than it used to be. This is partly because more sites are being indexed and the sheer volume of competition is making it tougher to rise to the top. But that's only part of the picture.

Google and the other engines are hellbent on preventing rankings manipulation, and since they hold all the cards, we'd better learn to play the game by their rules. And that, funnily enough, could mean going back to some of the "no brainer" promotional methods in use four or five years ago, when many of us took our businesses online for the first time. Back then, we did things like distributing articles and press releases and buying classified ads in relevant publications – not for the incoming links but for the visibility, traffïc and credibility they generated. It just made sense.

With overnight SEO success no longer possible, we as online business owners/operators not only have to change our tactics – we also need to adjust our expectations.

Keeping SEOs on Their Toes

Responsible and workable SEO these days means not wasting your time or monëy trying to trick the search engines into ranking you highly for keyword phrases that you have no business ranking for in the first place. That's why it's so important before signing on with any optimization company to discuss these new expectations with them. You need to be an informed consumer because there are still SEOs living in the (very recent) past and still deeply committed to paid linking schemes, keyword stuffing, etc.

Today more than ever you as an SEO client need to investigate the optimization companies you're considering. That means pumping them for details not just about their proven results but about their methodology such as keyword selection and link popularity before you pay the deposit.

Another reality check: SEO is going to be a tad more expensive in this new world (unless you are among the few who have the time, skills and resources to do it yourself). Reaching your target audience with interesting and compelling information about your industry is nöw the best way to achieve link popularity. But it's definitely not as easy, fast or cheap as buying 100 site-wide text link ads or swapping links willy nilly.

If you don't have the resources to produce regular copy about your business or industry, hiring an optimization company that has content writers to do the research and writing for you is probably your best bet. The benefits of greater link popularity AND visibility will be worth it over the long haul.

In Conclusion...

SEO continues to evolve, which these days means we all need to accept that getting top ten placements for competitive terms will not happen overnight nor in one month or even two.

Your task as a responsible SEO consumer is to do careful due diligence in selecting an optimization company. Be wary of any SEO that offers a quick fix, uses dubious tactics, and guarantees #-1 rankings. Expect your optimization results to improve gradually over time.

No, overnight SEO success is no longer a reality but don't let that get you down. It's still worth doing... only nöw it's worth doing well.

Anyway, the alternative – doing nothing – isn't really an option. It reminds me of a saying hanging on the wall in my karate class: "While you are sleeping, someone else is training to kick your...."

I'll let you guess the rest.

About The Author
Michael Pedone is founder of eTrafficJams.com, a professional search engine optimization company that specializes in getting targeted, eager-to-buy traffïc to your site. You can also catch him blogging at: http://prs10.blogspot.com.

Having a website that gets found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc. isn't hard to do, but it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here are my latest and greatest tips to get you started:

1. Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to. Due to Google's aging delay for all new domains (see this forum thread), your best bet is to use an existing domain/website if at all possible. If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.

2. Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines. This may sound counterintuitive, but hear me out. The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those "someones" are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet *their* needs. If you don't know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another. Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This information will be crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copywriting.

3. Research your keyword phrases extensively. The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page.

Nevër shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.

4. Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research. Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let's say your site sells toys. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child's stage of development?

(Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.") Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching. Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.

5. Program your site to be "crawler-friendly." The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScrïpt links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will nevër find those resulting pages. You'll need to make sure that you always have some kind of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site. From those pages, you'll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links. There's nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)

6. Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible. Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click-through. Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "clïck here" or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.

7. Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see." This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly. (Purchase and read our Copywriting Combo for exact tips on how to implement this correctly.)

8. Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag.

Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weïght with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.

9. Make sure your site is "link-worthy." Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without you even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.

10. Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings. If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffïc, salës, and conversions. (You can sign up for a frëe trial of ClickTracks, which easily tracks and measures those things that truly matter.) It certainly won't hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something. It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a diatribe on the history of your products. Neither your site visitors nor the engines really give a hoot!

About The Author
Jill Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and host of the frëe weekly High Rankings® Advisor search engine marketing newsletter. Jill's handbook, "The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" teaches business owners how and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines.

Jill specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations, site analysis reports, SEM seminars and is the co-founder of the new search marketing and website design company, Search Creative, LLC