My Digital Coach Blog

Top 10 Most Popular Websites in the States

Author: Brett Barrington

Have you ever wondered what the biggest and most popular sites on the web are? Well you shouldn't wonder because you probably already know what they are. Here is a list taken from Alexa's ranking system that is 100% correct. Alexa is a website monitoring/ranking site that is extremely accurate and is a good way to check the progress of your blog or website.

The Ten Most Popular Websites are -

1. Google - Google has become the number one search engine site in the world. They get the most traffic everyday. I personally have them as my homepage and I'm sure 90% of all Internet users use them at least a few times a week.

2. Yahoo! - Yahoo used to be number one, but recently in the past few years lost it's lead to Google. Yahoo is a fantastic search engine and is known as a top search engine competitor.

3. Myspace - Everyone who is Hip has a Myspace. It's a great way to stay in contact with friends and a great time killer. Tom(the owner) must be filthy rich now.

4. YouTube - Who doesn't visit YouTube when there bored? YouTube just recently in the past two to three years became so popular. It's a great site to host home made videos on and has millions of postings of every category you can think of.

5. Facebook - Facebook is getting very close to myspace status. Facebook is a little bit more mature looking than myspace and is directed toward college students mainly. I prefer Facebook over Myspace.

6. Windows Live- Well windows live has been around a long time, but now it contains many different things, from Hotmail accounts to online video game accounts, Live is all about Microsoft.

7. MSN - A good search engine and ISP. They have been around a while and are still maintaining one of the top websites, good job MSN.

8. Wikipedia - I truthfully never go to Wikipedia unless Google takes me to it when I'm trying to find help for college work, but it's a great informational site with listings about almost everything.

9. Ebay - The top Internet auction site, I'm surprised it's not higher on the list. People make their livings off this site and it has established it's name as the number 1 Auction site ever.

10. AOL - I'm actually surprised people still go to the AOL website. They used to be the best ISP out, but it has been a while since I've heard anything from them. Although I do use AIM (AOL instant messenger) it doesn't require me to go to their site much. Congrats AOL for still being top 10.

Okay so we have covered the top ten. If you would like any more information about your site or the other sites under rank 10, then please check out my website "technology-article-blog.blogspot.com". Remember the internet is an amazing place and anyone who is dedicated can make a decent living off of hard work. Don't give up and hopfully one day you can become the next Google.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/top-10-most-popular-websites-in-the-states-596744.html

About the Author:
Thanks for reading my post. If you would like to know more things like this then please feel free to visit my site Technology Article Blog and Business Help 101.

Domain Names And How They Relate To Search Engine Ranking

Author: Joseph Nyamache

Is it better to renew your domain name for a long period of time? If so, how long is long enough? Well let's face it, most of us wish to stay ahead of the game. Therefore one of the first steps that you'd want to do is to check for how long your competitors have registered their personal or business names.

If you notice that your competitors have registered their domains for one or two years, then you can go that one step ahead and register your domain name for 5 or 10 years. Your search engine ranking may be assisted if you stall the expiration date of your domain name. However, it is important to bear in mind that this may only be a small victory when it comes to search engine rankings.

Registering a domain for a minimum of 10 years is good business sense. Many of us have too many things on our minds or more important things that thinking about our domain names. For this reason, the process of renewing your names every year is a task that you could really do without. It is greatly advised to obtain a domain name that you wish to keep for a sufficient amount of time and renew them on a 5 to 10 year plan.

There is a possibility that if your name expires, someone will immediately register your domain at the first opportunity. It is important to remember that there are domain names 'watch lists' that people can view in order to grab an available domain as soon as it becomes available. Therefore, if you do not renew your name, for whatever reason, someone that is watching that list may attempt to capitalize on the online business that you have built up over the years. These people will be aware of the fact that there is potential website traffic simply by renewing your old domain. For this reason it is better to renew your domain name for several years so that it will not be opened up to expired domain name buyers.

To stay ahead of the game, you may wish to consider registering or renewing your choosen name for 100 years. At this present time, the only available option for this is with Network Solutions at www.netsol.com at the cost of $999.00. You can also visit GoDaddy at www.godaddy.com in order to renew or register a domain name for 10 years at a discount price of $6.95 per year. When you do not register your name in time, you can lose critical positioning in the search engines. This may result in you having to begin the SEO process all over again!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/domain-names-articles/domain-names-and-how-they-relate-to-search-engine-ranking-580467.html

About the Author:

Join us in the autos forums conversation and identify some unique auto tips that you may use next autos domain name

Importance of Back Links to a Website and How to Obtain Them

Author: Kanaga Siva

Back Links or otherwise known as Inbound Links are links pointing to your website from another website. The number of such back links that point towards your website indicates the importance and the popularity of your website to the search engines.

It is not just the number of back links that matter to the search engines; it is the number of links from quality high page rank websites that the search engines are interested in. Furthermore the content or theme of the website has to be relevant to that of your website.

For instance, if you have a website about home based business, you might not want to obtain a link from a website about Cocoa Cultivation. Your link will not be helpful or relevant to the visitor of the Cocoa Cultivation website, and hence search engines will consider this linking as non-relevant.

For search engine optimization, obtaining quality, relevant back links should be your most important priority. It is these inbound links that will play a significant role in increasing the visibility of your website, increasing your link popularity and your page rank. The ultimate benefit being increased traffic and increases sales.
Search engines use the number of inbound links that a website has as one of the important factors for determining the website's search engine ranking.

If you have unique and high quality content in your site other websites will link to your site with the idea of providing their website visitors a good website experience. This will give you useful inbound links and valuable targeted traffic.

Having Anchor Texts in your back links with your keywords in the text link will give the search engines a good indication what your website is all about thus creating opportunities for increased traffic to your website.

The back links play such a major role, that in some instances the very survival of the business is totally dependent on the amount sales generated through the targeted traffic thus generated.

When Webmasters began to realize the importance and the significance of these links the natural tendency for them is to get as many relevant inbound links as possible. There are several methods that are used by webmasters to obtain these links.

Writing quality articles displaying your expertise and submitting these to article directories, article banks and article distributors with your website URL in the resource box. This can create a viral effect with webmasters picking up these articles and publishing them thus producing hundreds of back links.

Submitting your website to high page rank quality directories and to specialized directories related to the theme of your website.

Participating in Forums and posting comments in Blogs with your website URL in the signatures.

Writing reviews of products that allow you to post your URL along with the reviews.

Submitting articles to Social Bookmarking Sites. Most of these sites have a high page rank and are a valuable source for inbound links and traffic.

The importance of back links should now be very obvious. In addition to helping the websites to rank high in the search engines for the designated keywords, increase page rank and link popularity they can generate a huge amount of targeted traffic for the success of your business.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/importance-of-back-links-to-a-website-and-how-to-obtain-them-561576.html

About the Author:
Copyright © 2008 Kanaga Siva For more Tips and Ideas on Internet Business Opportunities , Home Based Business and to learn the secrets of operating a successful Home Based Business you are welcome to Kanaga Siva's Website and Blog.

The Major Advantages of Link Building

Author: Terry A

Link building and link popularity are the elixir of life for both flagging and fledgling websites on the Internet. Link popularity, which refers to the amount of text links that lead to your website from other sites, is a crucial web marketing tool because of the huge impact that it makes on any web page's search engine ranking and Pagerank. In fact, link popularity is the most important factor that is used for calculating a web page's rank and any web site that wants at least a fighting chance for survival in the virtual jungle needs to make a conscious and concentrated effort at achieving a high link popularity.
 
Even if your web site is not facing a life or death situation, you should turn towards link building because of the huge advantages that it offers to web masters. Some of the main advantages of link popularity, which will undoubtedly make you give a second look to text links are:
 
• Link Popularity Increases Your Pagerank: The Google Pagerank is a crucial factor that decides where your web page will feature in a user run search result or not. And page rank is something that is mainly based on a site's link popularity. The larger the number of existing links to your site, the higher will be its page rank (PR) and the better will be its search engine results page (SERP) ranking.
 
• Link Popularity Leads To Traffic Generation: A link to your web site on any other site on the Internet acts as an advertisement for people to come and peek into your site, and this is what a lot of users actually do! Therefore, any website that has a large number of links from related websites pointing to it automatically gets an increased flow of relevant traffic. Since most reputable websites will be ready to place your back link for free if you put in a blog, comment or article, link building is almost akin to free advertising.
 
• Link Popularity Creates Credibility And Trust: When a surfer comes across text links to your site on many different web pages, he or she is bound to think that you are a trusted name in your industry. If you are using article posting or blogging as a means of link building and providing your readers with genuinely helpful insights and information, they will instinctively start trusting your advice and buy whatever you are selling based on the reputation that you have created through link building.
 
• Link Building Has A Lot Of Financial Advantages: Apart from providing a whole lot of unpaid for or cheap advertising, text link building is financially profitable in a number of other ways. For one, since link popularity will get only relevant traffic to your site , in most cases, this would lead to conversions-be it buying the products you are selling, downloading your stuff, reading your content or clicking on the ads that you have on your site. Another major advantage is that a site with high link popularity will always get you higher rates in case you want to sell your website to a new owner. Even if you are not planning to sell, a high Pagerank and link popularity will ensure that you get higher ad revenues.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/the-major-advantages-of-link-building-459508.html

About the Author:
Terry is the owner of one of the Internet's most popular link building websites -  www.iSellPagerank.com.  To find out more, please visit   www.iSellPagerank.com

You've Got a Great Idea for a Web Site, But How Can You Make it Succeed?

Author: Charles J. Bonner

Your definition of success with your Web site depends on the purpose of your Web site.  But whether the purpose is to support an off-line business, to sell your products on-line, to generate passive income from affiliate programs or other advertising, or simply to share your interest in a hobby or profession, your Web site will need appropriate traffic.  And in order to draw traffic, you must first think very carefully about what need your Web site addresses.  Who will visit your Web site, and why will they choose your Web site out of all the millions of Web sites out there? 

You need to define the market or audience you want to address, and you need to assess whether that market is already being addressed.  Assessing the market for your Web site idea is something of a Goldilocks decision:

 * Some markets are too small
 * Some markets are too big
 * Some markets are just right

 Obviously, you want that "just right" market, but how do you identify it?

Keyword Research 
The main tool is keyword research.  Keyword research will tell you two crucial things about the wide world of the Web:
 1.  What are people looking for?
 2.  What are people finding?

You need to discover what people are looking for on the Internet that is relevant to your great idea.  Sure,  you  think it's a great idea, but does anybody else?  Is there a need for it?  Is anybody really looking for whatever it is you intend to offer?  Good keyword research can tell you what they're looking for, and what specific terms they are using in their searching. 

Once you know what Web surfers are looking for, you need to know what they are finding.  The point here is that you need to know how much competition you will be facing.

There are two main things you can do when faced with competition:
 1.  Out-market the competition.
 2.  Avoid the competition by choosing a different market (or, preferably, a specialized slice of the market).

Keyword research won't help you much on that first option.  Competing in a saturated market will require money, time, and luck.  Lots and lots of all three.  (Good luck.)

Most of us are richer in great ideas than in greenbacks, so the second option is the only way to go.
Keyword research will help you with this, too.  And it will identify both the market and the competition in one operation.

Specialize to Avoid Competition 
Let's take a particular example.  Suppose you are an expert on tuataras.  (Don't know what a tuatara is?  It doesn't matter.  It's just an example of a subject somebody might be interested in.  I intentionally chose a term with ridiculously low search engine value, so that this article will not "hijack" too much traffic.  Apologies to all those seeking information about tuataras.  

(a) No, I didn't make it up, and (b) if you actually are interested in creating a Web site about tuataras, here's a little free keyword research.)

Preliminary keyword research indicates that there are about 150 searches per month for terms that include the word "tuatara."  (That's not good, but let's go with this example.)  Further research shows that there are well over 400,000 Web pages out there that have something to do with tuataras.  This means that the keyword "tuatara" by itself is not of much value.  There is some interest in it on the part of Web surfers, but that interest is being adequately met by nearly half a million Web pages.  The "keyword effectiveness index" (KEI *) for the word "tuatara" is an abysmal 0.03 (as of the date of this writing). (*  Side note.  "KEI," a numerical value based on popularity and competitiveness of a search term, is the subject of many articles all by itself.  Virtually all keyword research tools will report the KEI of each term.)

But what's that on the list?  The term "diagram of tuatara" was searched 18 times this month, and there is only one page on the entire Web that matches.  This term has a KEI of 169 (as of the date of this writing) which is very good, and by far the highest KEI of any term having to do with tuataras. 

So, this can be your specialty.  If you can build the greatest Web site in the world relating to diagrams of tuataras, you can compete with that other Web page for all 18 of those users.  You can study the competing pages (or page) to make sure that you have the very best tuatara diagram page out there, and that you keep it that way.

I hope you get the idea:  Use keyword research to determine whether there really is an interest out there for the Web site you envision, and use it to identify specialized areas of interest that are not overly competitive.  And for most areas of interest, you will find more than one search term with a KEI of greater than 100 that you can use to choose your specialty.

When You Must Generalize 
But what if you were the poor unfortunate whose passion and expertise really are in a subject like tuataras, for which there is effectively no interest on the Web?  You're not going to generate enough revenue to pay your domain hosting fees from 18 visitors per month.

In effect, a situation like this is telling you that your original great idea wasn't so great.  But rather than just give up, you can continue your research to find related ideas that might work better.

What you need to do is to generalize a bit.  Instead of tuataras, do a little keyword research on "reptiles."  (Yes, a tuatara is a reptile.)  Here you may find that there is plenty of interest, relevant search terms that are used many thousands of times each month, and you can narrow in again on specialties that are less competitive.  Maybe you will find high KEI on search terms related to captive breeding of endangered reptiles, and you can build your Web site around that.

It's not exactly the great idea you started with, but it's close enough to keep your enthusiasm going, and there is a market that you can serve.

Next Steps 
Now, take a deep breath, and consider carefully all the powerful things you can do with the results of your keyword research.  This will set the direction for how your original great idea for a Web site will become a genuinely successful Web site.  This keyword research will give you:

 * Ideas for an effective domain name.
 * Ideas for effective titles for your Web pages.
 * Ideas for effective descriptions of your Web pages.
 * Ideas for content of your Web pages, to help you focus your expertise onto the particular specialty you   have identified.
 * Ideas for articles you can write and publish to help drive traffic to your Web site.
 * Keywords you can use in a "Pay Per Click" (PPC) campaign.

Look what happened!  Your original great idea has become a whole flock of ideas, just waiting for you to act on them.  All of those things are the subjects of other articles.

The important thing to remember from this article is this:  Before you act on your great idea for a Web site, do some research to determine whether other people will think it's a great idea, and refine your idea into something that you can turn into a successful Web site.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/domain-names-articles/youve-got-a-great-idea-for-a-web-site-but-how-can-you-make-it-succeed-438453.html

About the Author:
Charles J. Bonner is the founder and principal project manager of   www.FreeLanceSubmit.com  .  For more tips, techniques, and services for turning your great idea into a successful Web site, visit   www.FreeLanceSubmit.com  .

Choosing a Catchy Easy To Remember Domain Name

Author: Gav Shannon

Choosing a business domain name can be one of the most important parts of owning an online business. Like a business name, you want something catchy, something that people will remember, something that draws clients to your website and something that is going to do well in the search engines. Once you have narrowed your choice down to a few, ask for some feed back from your friends and clients. Be open to new and different approaches to your business domain name and website theme as the "perfect name" may be already taken.
 
Creating a new directory within an existing domain name. You will need to check with the web manager of the parent domain name if this is possible for your preferred subdomain. This can usually only be set up if the online information is located on the same web server.
 
In the modern world of the Internet, where people automatically turn to the Web for information, it pays to have a domain name that reflects your site or business. There are just fewer things for your customers or visitors to remember. Moreover, you don't seriously think that they'll try to memorise an unrelated URL just because you want them to, do you? The only people who'll memorise it are you and your competitors who want to compare your prices.
 
What if you cannot get the domain name of your choice? It really depends on how committed you are to that particular name. If you have an existing brand name that you're known for, you'll probably not want to ditch that name just because you couldn't get the domain name. After all, it took you a lot of time and money to establish that name. If so, you might simply want to try to buy over the domain name from the current owner. Check up the "whois" information for the domain, and contact that person listed to see if they're willing to sell it. You probably should be aware that they are likely to want to charge a higher fee than you'll normally get when buying new domains (assuming they want to sell it in the first place).
 
It is possible that your small business may grow into different areas of interest, or even change tack altogether. For this reason, it may be an idea not to make your domain name too specific to one area of your expertise.
 
Short is important because you want to put your domain name everywhere on business cards, on your letterhead, in your phone message and on your bumper. Short names are easy to type and easy for visitors to remember.
 
So now you have the one and only illusive domain name that everybody would like to acquire and you wish to advertise your good fortune to prospective domain name buyers.There are quite a few of domain name brokers on the net now that specialize in the selling of domain names for clients and listing yours with one is one way to start. They usually charge a percentage of the selling price for their services and may also have other stipulations they require of you so it's best to read the fine print before listing. Creating your own website, maybe with one of the free website providers, and advertising your name or names for sale is another good idea.
 
Sometimes, it isn't a bad idea to register several similar domain names. You can register your full company name and a shorter, easier to remember version. Some people even register common misspellings of their company's name. You don't need a separate Web page for each.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/domain-names-articles/choosing-a-catchy-easy-to-remember-domain-name-442652.html

About the Author:
Gav Shannon is a Network Marketing Professional who writes about different topics that he feels may be of an interest.If You want to know more about him go to  http://www.gavshannon.com

How to Create a Website Address

Author: Richard Adams

One of the most common questions asked by those looking to create their own website is how to create a website address so in this article we're going to focus on just that question.
 
Website addresses, also known as domain names, are unique. What I mean is, if one person owns a website address, then nobody else can.
 
So the first trick is to find a suitable website address, then the second is to actually create it.
 
Good website addresses tend to have the following things in common:
 
1) Top Level Domain
 
Website addresses can end in all sorts of things - with .com being the most popular. Lesser known endings like .tv or .us tend to be cheaper to create but harder for people to remember.
 
Because of this I recommend you buy what is known as a "top level domain" - that is one ending in .com, .net or .org.
 
Typically .com is for a company, .net for an online service (like email or web hosting) and the .org is for a non-profit organization like a charity for church.
 
2) Short And Easy To Remember
 
Try to make your website address easy to remember to encourage your visitors to come back again and also to increase word of mouth.
 
3) Consider Keywords
 
Research has shown that if you make a website address that contains the exact phrase your customers are searching for you will increase the number of people who click your listing in the search engines. As a result you will increase your visitor numbers.
 
So if you're selling a course on dog training, so your ideal customers will be looking for phrases like "dog training" in the search engines, try to include this phrase in your website address.
 
An example of all the three rules so far could be EasyDogTraining.com as a website address to create.
 
I suggest coming up with a list of 20-30 possible website addresses because as already mentioned, they are all unique, and you'll be amazed how many of the possibilities you come up with are already registered!
 
Once you've got your list, head on over to BetterWhois.com and type each website address in, one at a time. This free service will tell you if the website address you just typed in is available or not.
 
If not, cross it off your list.
 
At the end you should have a short list of available website addresses from which to choose your final domain choice.
 
Actually creating the website address is easy. You need no license, no registration with the government etc, is required. You just go to a company known as a "domain registrar" and place an order for the website address you want.
 
Examples of domain registrars are GoDaddy and 123-reg.co.uk but there are literally thousands out there and a quick search in your favorite search engine should pull up a long list. There is a lot of competition so searches on "cheap domains" and so on can reveal some real bargains.
 
You'll pay just a few dollars to create your website address, provide a few personal details to register you as the official and legal owner and then within a few days your website address will be made and available for you to use.
 
And that's how easy it is to create a website address!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/how-to-create-a-website-address-442452.html

About the Author:
Download your free " how do I build a website" tutorial  videos today at:  http://www.5DollarsAnd5Steps.com

Understanding Keyword Research And The SEO Long Tail Of Keywords

Author: K. Hanks

A core SEO principle involves understanding the SEO long tail of keywords and how to leverage its potential with your on page and off page strategy. When a search engine optimization specialist masters long tail keyword research he (or she) is enabling the website's ability to maximize search engine ranking potential. A long tail keyword strategy can be applied to both natural (organic) search rankings and pay per click (PPC) advertising.
 
With long tail strategy the SEO specialist understands that even though the majority of searches are typically centered on a one, two or three word keyword search phrase that there is an extensive amount of value in the total combined search volumes of four and five keyword targeted phrases. Why would your strategy focus around long tail keywords?
 
Keyword Strategy and the Long Tail:
 
If you knew the majority of searches where not occurring among four-word for five-word keyword phrases, then why target them? There are several reasons why this strategy might be adventurous, mainly because the barriers of ranking naturally for shorter keyword phrases are too high. This might be because the sites currently ranking well for the shorter keyword phrase are older (more established), have a significantly larger website, or have more links pointing to their site, some of which use the targeted keyword phrase as anchor text.
 
Understanding that you may not rank for certain high traffic two or three keyword phrases the SEO professional must think more creativity. The SEO professional must look to find "deeper," or long tail keywords. Typically the search volumes are much lower for long tail keywords, so it becomes a strategy of volume. If planned correctly ranking for the sum of long tail keywords will have a greater value than just ranking for one or two high traffic keywords.
 
Applying the Long Tail to Natural Search Keywords:
 
Keyword research uncovers the ability to find keyword phrases that might not appear obvious, but have search volumes significant enough for the SEO professional to target. It is important to remember that different stemming words and plurals can help create a vast combination of unique targeted keyword phrases. The additional for a descriptive adjective or geography can further help distinguish a SEO long tail keyword from a root keyword phrase.
 
Ranking for search engine optimization is more difficult than when geography is added into the mix. In the example of an SEO agency in Atlanta, GA the root keyword phrase search engine optimization is highly desirable, but not necessarily achievable. In this example the agency might want to target a long tail phrase such as:
 
- Atlanta SEO agency
- Search engine optimization in Atlanta, GA
- Georgia search engine optimization
 
Applying the Long Tail to Pay Per Click Keywords:
 
Long tail keywords is a presents a great PPC opportunity. If you have the capacity and organizational ability to manage the complexity of the campaign you'll be rewarded with less competition and a dramatically lower cost per click (CPC) for your long tail keywords. If you feel your budget is inadequate for your PPC ad spend, looking to long tail keywords is a smart strategy to maximize you ability to reach the most amount of potential online consumers with your budget.
 
The more a SEO specialist can understand about the consumer, the better he is able to design content and online campaigns that will target and appeal to the consumer performing a search. Each keyword phrase is different and recognizing the connections between on page and off page strategy can help the SEO professional provide maximum value to the website's ability to communicate its message to the online community.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/understanding-keyword-research-and-the-seo-long-tail-of-keywords-440333.html

About the Author:
Keith Hanks is an  Atlanta SEO agency  Account Manager. He has a passion for  Georgia search engine optimization  and  Search engine optimization in Atlanta, GA .

Search Engines: the Mystery Debunked

Author: David Marlow

Copyright (c) 2008 Global Web Expressions

So you finally have your great website, all ready to go with the latest coding and graphic technology.  Do Yahoo and Google just pick up your site automatically? Believe it or not, no! Search engines use many tools and formulas to determine how your site appears on them.  One such tool is called a "meta tag", which is embedded within your HTML documents that "rank" your site against other sites out there in the big Internet world.

Search engine optimization (SEO) sounds intimidating but it's not so bad. Here are the search engine optimization basics: SEO simply involves choosing the correct amount, type and order of words in your content and meta-tags to give you higher rankings in search engines. Yes... it is that simple!  Quality content on a quality website provide the best opportunity to rank high on a search engine.

SEO is usually performed by a search engine optimization specialist, but can also be performed by even a novice web user.  Knowing the resources available and practicing, make SEO achievable by anybody.  What happens if you don't SEO your site? Usually, you'll find that your site will rank very low in the millions of similar sites out there! You won't be able to find your website on the first 80 pages of the search engine. You built your site so that you could share with the world how wonderful your product or service is, so it behooves you to make sure that your SEO strategy is sound and sustainable.

There is search engine optimization software available that will analyze the text of your HTML document and choose meta-tags for you. These are OK for small personal sites, but for your business, there's nothing like a real human analyzing content. There are also many services, companies and consultants out there as well.  Prior to utilizing one of these, you will want to confirm that they utilize only ethical search engine practices. Some companies out there will flood their meta-tags with very common words and phrases in order to catch as much traffic as possible. Search engines can penalize your site for this and put you in a worse position than you started.  Likewise, you will want to stay clear of many of the "quick fixes" like link farms and too much paid advertising.

A solid SEO strategy might include a healthy mix of paid advertising, blogging, article writing, press releases, social bookmarking, and directory submission.  Utilization of these practices and quality content is your key to success.

Overall, search engine optimization is a very important step in defining your company or campaign as a serious Internet presence and force to be reckoned with. Done properly, search engine optimization can help you to compete against major companies by bringing qualified traffic and leads straight to your website. Without a SEO strategy, you are throwing the money that it cost you to develop your great site, out the window.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/search-engines-the-mystery-debunked-410153.html

About the Author:
David Marlow has been a technical writer for many years with  Global Web Expressions .  He produces content for various websites, print ads, manuals, and in several other publication types.

10 Questions to Ask Your Prospective Web Designer

Author: Lynne Foster

It can be a daunting task setting up your on-line presence for most. The whole prospect of talking about "domain-name registration", "hosting services", "arranging content", "payment gateways" and "merchant accounts" etc... can seem a totally alien experience for even those initiated with plenty of on-line experience.

So, to help those that are seriously thinking about getting their business hosted on the Internet here are some Top Ten Tips you should be asking a Web Company before you consider taking on their service.

1) "How long have you been in business?"

While there is nothing wrong with going to a one man start up company (we all started somewhere) you may feel safer going with an established company where you can gather testimonials and feel more secure that the company has a history with hosting etc. You don't want to lose your hard-earned website if the developer decides to close down.

2) "Do you have a portfolio?"

First and foremost you have to see samples of work, without seeing this how do you know the Web Developer can do what you're asking? Also, make sure these are live sites and that they actually work!

3) "Do you have any testimonials?"

All good should be able to provide you with testimonials from previous satisfied clients. An established web design company will be happy to provide you with a list of testimonials if requested.

4) "Who works for you and can I meet them?"

You need to know that the company you are hiring can deliver what they claim, ask questions such as "What are your designers histories?" and "How many years of experience do they have in this field?". While all companies out-source at one point or another you need to be safe in the knowledge that your prospective company has staff on hand to deal with urgent queries etc and do not constantly have to rely on a freelancer. Finally, any company worth their salt will willingly let you go into their office and meet with the designers, beware of companies who refuse...what are they hiding?

5) "What is the process in developing a site?"

You and the web design company have to be clear right from the word go what part each of you have to play in developing the site. At certain points your designer will require content and feedback from yourselves and you have to be aware when this will be required.

6) "What happens if I need changes?"

All websites will need updated at one point or another, find out whether this is included in the price or an additional cost.

7)"What can you do to make my site visible?" 

If your web design company also offers Search Engine Optimization and you are considering this service, ask if it's possible to have a short meeting with the SEO specialist. You'll know quickly if they are up to scratch and they should also be able to supply you with previous Search Engine reports and show signs of successful SEO results.

8) "Do I own my site at the end?"

You don't want to go through the process of developing a website only to lose the rights to it if you decide to get hosting from another company after a few months. Ask if its possible to obtain a full copy of your website on completion.

9) "What software/languages do you use?"

You probably don't really care about the answer to this but it is good for you to know your site will be created using industry standard software etc to allow the files to be worked on at a later date with a different company if needs be. Look for software names such as Adobe Macromedia and try to get developers with more than just basic HTML knowledge such as ASP, PHP - should you wish to upgrade your site to a dynamic site it will comfort you to know that your designer will be able to oblige without you having to go elsewhere.

10) "Do you provide hosting?"

All good web design agencies should be able to set you up with hosting and emails and you shouldn't feel that you are paying over-the-top for this service. If they say they can't and you feel the costs are high then be extremely suspicious!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/10-questions-to-ask-your-prospective-web-designer-379635.html

About the Author:
Lynne Foster  is a director of  PoLR Limited  - a  web design, SEO and online marketing company in Glasgow  Scotland.