A Google Sitemap is a very simple XML document that lists all the pages in your website, but the Google Sitemaps program is actually much more important than that. In fact, the Sitemaps program provides a little peek inside Google’s mind – and it can tell you a lot about what Google thinks of your website!

Why Should You Use Google Sitemaps?

Until Google Sitemaps was released in the summer of 2005, optimizing a site for Google was a guessing game at best. A website’s page might be deleted from the index, and the Webmaster had no idea why. Alternatively, a site’s content could be scanned, but because of the peculiarities of the algorithm, the only pages that would rank well might be the “About Us” page, or the company’s press releases.

As webmasters we were at the whim of Googlebot, the seemingly arbitrary algorithmic kingmaker that could make or break a website overnight through shifts in search engine positioning. There was no way to communicate with Google about a website – either to understand what was wrong with it, or to tell Google when something had been updated.

That all changed about a year ago when Google released Sitemaps, but the program really became useful in February of 2006 when Google updated it with a couple new tools.

So, what exactly is the Google Sitemaps program, and how can you use it to improve the position of your website? Well, there are essentially two reasons to use Google Sitemaps:

1. Sitemaps provide you with a way to tell Google valuable information about your website

2. You can use Sitemaps to learn what Google thinks about your website

What You Can Tell Google About Your Site

Believe it or not, Google is concerned about making sure webmasters have a way of communicating information that is important about their sites. Although Googlebot does a pretty decent job of finding and cataloging web pages, it has very little ability to rate the relative importance of one page versus another. After all, many important pages on the Internet are not properly “optimized”, and many of the people who couldn’t care less about spending their time on linking campaigns create some of the best content.

Therefore, Google gives you the ability to tell them on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0 how important a given page is relative to all the others. Using this system, you might tell Google that your home page is a 1.0, each of your product sections is a 0.8, and each of your individual product pages is a 0.5. Pages like your company’s address and contact information might only rate a 0.2.

You can also tell Google how often your pages are updated and the date that each page was last modified. For example your home page might be updated every day, while a particular product page might only be updated on an annual basis.

What Google Can Tell You About Your Site

Having the ability to tell Google all this information is important, but you don’t even need to create a sitemap file in order to enjoy some of the perks of having a Google Sitemaps account.

That’s because even without a Sitemap file, you can still learn about any errors that Googlebot has found on your website. As you probably know, your site doesn’t have to be “broken” for a robot to have trouble crawling it’s pages. Google Sitemaps will tell you about pages it was unable to crawl and links it was unable to follow. Therefore, you can see where these problems are and fix them before your pages get deleted from the index.

You can also get information on the types of searches people are using to find your website. Of course, most website analytics tools will give this information to you anyway, but if the tool you use doesn’t have this feature, then it’s always nice to get it for free from Google.

But the best part of the Sitemaps program is the Page analysis section that was added in February of 2006. This page gives you two lists of words. The first list contains the words that Googlebot associates with your website based on content on your site. The second list contains words that Googlebot has found linking to your site!

Unfortunately, Google limits the number of words in each list to 20. As a consequence, the inbound links column is partly wasted by words such as “http”, “www”, and “com” – terms that apply equally to all websites (hey Google, how about suppressing those terms from the report?). That said, this list does provide you with a way to judge the effectiveness of your offsite optimization efforts.

When you compare these two lists, you can get an understanding of what Google thinks your website is about. If the words on your Site Content column are not really what you want Googlebot to think about your site, then you know you need to tweak your website’s copy to make it more focused on your core competency.

If, on the other hand your inbound links don’t contain any keywords that you want to rank well for, then perhaps you should focus your efforts in that direction.

Above all else, you really want these two lists to agree. You want your inbound linked words to match up to the site content words. This means that Google has a clear understanding of the focus of your website.

Additional Benefits of the Sitemaps Program

Google has even started notifying Sitemaps-participating Webmasters if they are breaking any of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This can be very valuable information if your site suddenly becomes de-listed on Google and you don’t know why.

Only Sitemaps participants can get this information, and it is only provided at Google’s discretion. In fact, Google will NOT notify you if you are creating worthless websites that offer no original content, or if you are creating thousands of doorway pages that are redirecting to other web sites. Google doesn’t want to give the sp@ammers any clues as to how to improve their techniques.

How Do You Get Started with Google Site Maps?

The first thing you must do is obtain a Google Account. If you already have a Gmail, Adsense, or Adwords account, then you are all set. If not, you can register an account by visiting the Google Accounts page (https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount).

Building your sitemap file is pretty easy to do if you are familiar with XML, and if you aren’t you can always use a third-party tool such as the ones that are listed on Google’s website (http://code.google.com/sm_thirdparty.html). Google also has a “Sitemap Generator” that you can download and install on your server, but unless you are fairly adept at managing Python scripts, you should probably stick to the third-party tools.

At any rate, once you have your Google Account and your Sitemap file built, the rest is very easy. All you have to do is:

1. Log into your account (http://google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview)

2. Type your website’s URL into the “Add Site” box and click on “OK”

3. Click on the Manage Sites link for the website you are adding, and add your sitemap file to your account.

Google Sitemaps – An Excellent SEO Tool

Google Sitemaps help Googlebot quickly find new content on your website. They allow you to tell Google what’s important, what’s new, and what changes often. The tools provided to webmasters through the program can play a vital role in helping you understand how the search engines (especially Google) view your website.

Using this information you can dramatically improve the position of your website and quickly clear up any issues Google finds. You can also use the tools provided by Google to gauge the effectiveness of your off-site optimization efforts so you can better focus your time and energy on activities that bring you the most success.

Matthew Coers is an Internet marketing expert. His website, ProfitChoice.com contains online courses designed to teach entrepreneurs how to build a website and make money online. Download his FREE Internet Marketing report, 7 Days to Website Success.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matthew_Coers

So how do you pare down your Googles? Let’s take a look at two of the biggest search engines: Google. Now, I’m a Google nut, but I have also used Yahoo from time to time.

Let’s start with the basics on Google. You type in a couple words and viola, pages return with information. You start sifting through.

Tip #1: Get exact results by adding “quotation marks” around your search term

Most people know that if you type in more than one word, for instance, a name, search engines will return every result that contains those two words. I searched first on my name, Judith Brandy. Google brought back every website that had the words, Judith and Brandy in its title or description. It included a liquor site, people who were names Brandy with a different first name and assorted other junk that was irrelevant to my search. I was Googling myself to see where my articles had been placed. So, Brandy DVDs and Videos at Search Extreme, would not help me. Surprisingly, I popped up at the top as an ExpertAuthor on an article site and found out that a couple of my articles had been picked up on some other websites already. This was nice know, but as I scrolled down, I found relevance disappearing before I reached the bottom of page one. So I added the quotations, and viola, a much more narrow, relevant search result was returned. So the addition of quotations was a real plus.

Tip #2: Narrow the results you receive by adding a space followed by a minus signed followed by the words you want to exclude.

For example, say you want to search on Battletar Galactica, but you don’t want to get every website and blog out there. You don’t want to get the original Battlestar Galactica television show from 25 years ago. You want the new, reimaged Battlestar on television now. So you type into the search box “space” (that’s not the word, by the way. You hit the space bar once) and then type a minus “-” sign plus the term you want to exclude like I’ve done below:Search term: Battlestar Galactica -original – This takes out any website that covers the 1978 original television show, Battlestar Galactica.

Tip #3: Get up-to-date stock quotes without going past the search page.

This is an easy one. Simply type in a stock symbol and it will return the company name, latest price and price chart at the top of the page, plus all relevent websites connected to it below. So I typed in GOOGLE STOCK SYMBOL to get back GOOG, then I typed GOOG into the box and it returned a chart, the open-high-low as well as other website where it can be further researched. Needless to say, Google is doing quite well. Google now has a new web browser called Chrome, geared completely to Google and Google products.

Tip #4: Type in certain questions about people and places and get answers.

Are you interested in the population of Tokyo, Japan? Or New York City? Would you like to know where Edward James Olmos or Joe Flanigan were born? Would you like to know what is “rabbit proof fence”? These are the kinds of questions you can ask Google.

Simply type the following:

“population of Tokyo, Japan” with no quotes and Google returns “Japan – Population: 127,417,244″

“population of New York City” with no quotes and Google returns “New York City – Population: 8 Million”

“birthplace of Edward James Olmos” and Google returns “Edward James Olmos – Place of Birth: East Los Angeles, California, USA”

“birthplace of Joe Flanigan” and Google returns “Joe Flanigan – Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, USA”

“who is Joe Flanigan” you wonder? Well, type it in and you’ll get an answer. “Joe Flanigan … has long-running guest roles on numerous television series, including Profiler, First Monday, …” and a link to where you can find out more.

Try the last one yourself. Type in what is “rabbit proof fence” and Google returns . . .

Tip #5: Find out where an area code or zip code is located quickly and easily.

Ask Google. Type – area code “610″ and Google will return this answer – Area Code Look Up and ReferenceListing of the majority of Area Codes throughout the US and the world. … 610, PA, SE Pennsylvania: Allentown, Reading, 484, 835 … – no muss, no fuss, just the facts at lightspeed. Tip #6: Get the weather of any place in the world Type “weather plus a location” and Google will return the current weather plus, for places in the United States, four days worth of weather and a few graphic representations in 0.09 seconds. Much faster and easier than surfing over to the weather channel and looking it up. You don’t need the quotation marks, by the way.

Tip #6: Google is a calculator

Type in 25 x 25 and Google will calculate and deliver you the result of 625. Instant calculations online. Divide = / and Multiply = *. Plus and minus are + and -.

Tip #7: Get the local time any place on Earth.

What time is it in Venice, Italy? Now you could surf on over to the World Time Clock, scroll through and find the country, find Italy, find the city of Venice, but why waste time? Simply type in “what time is it in Venice, Italy” and Google will return the correct answer, plus a link to where you can get more information all in 0.26 seconds. Be sure and check out Google’s new web browser called Chrome, geared completely to Google and Google products.

Tip #8: Going to a foreign country? Do current monetary conversions.

Simply key the following into the search box – 23000 yen in US dollars – and Google will return a quick conversion: 23 000 Japanese yen = 196.68197 U.S. dollars. If you’re headed to Asia, this is invaluable and easy.

Tip #9: Check on flights and airports.

Do you want to find out if a flight is delayed or if an airport is having weather problems? Here’s an easy way to find out before you start surfing and calling. Type in the airport number for instance PHL Airport and search. The first link that pops up will take you to the AIRPORT STATUS INFORMATION which is provided by the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center. The status information provided on this site indicates general airport conditions… It also provides a link to a Glossary of Air Traffic Management Terms if you need clarification.

Check on the flight is just as simple. Type the following “United 134″ as an example and Google will return Track status of United Airlines flight 134 with links to Travelocity, Track status on Travelocity – Expedia – fboweb.com.

Tip #10: Google tracks Fedex, UPS and USPS packages

If you have a tracking number type it in and Google will return the latest information on your package:

- UPS tracking numbers example search: “1Z9999W99999999999″

- FedEx tracking numbers example search: “999999999999″

- USPS tracking numbers example search: “9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 99″

Google also has a spell checking option which automatically looks at your query and checks to see if everything is spelled right. Did you ever “sort of” know how to spell a famous person’s name? Google’s spellchecking is based on the number occurrences of all words on the Internet, so it is able to suggest common spellings for proper nouns (names and places) that might not appear in a standard spell check program or dictionary. You can also use it as a spell checker in a way.

Word Speller: If you type in a word that you kind of know how spell, Google will return “Did you mean: spell aardvark” It’s not a dictionary, but it is a quick way to get words you already have an idea how it’s spelled.

Google has a wealth of other features which I haven’t even touched on yet. I encourage you to click on the I’M FEELING LUCKY which give you results, check out the Advanced Search which gives you many more choices and links, Language Tools which has a small translater with a good number of languages and an option to add yours. There’s even a language called “Bork, bork, bork!” Go find out what it is. It’s all quite interesting and will greatly expand your Google mindset. There is a lot more you can do with Google than the tips I’ve outlined. Check out my website link to their features page for a complete look at Google features. And even though they have a lot of features listed, I keep finding other ways to use Google. I think of this search engine as a creative entity constantly growing.

Free report on the new Google Chrome Web Browser

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judith_Brandy

You could start with same word as many times as you wanted and never end up in the same place twice. It was the information highway, and you went on a road trip. It was an ocean of information, and you went surfin’. We didn’t care what it was we were looking for at first, because we found all this other cool stuff we would have never known about.

Times have changed. Google pushed relevancy to the extreme. Or have they? Let’s face it, search engines are nothing more than word searchers, and add posters. Any good word processing program has a way for you to search a document for key words. That is what Google, Yahoo, MSN, and all the others do. It used to be the words would link to other words in ways you would have never dreamed. You would just follow those paths. Now these word search programs have become more and more advanced. Google has led the industry by taking good idea’s and making them better.

They took search engine’s to new level. They grew to such power that they are now shaping the world wide web into their vision. To not be indexed by Google is almost certain obscurity. So, you have to play by their rules. Yet, they keep changing the rules.

Google said content is king. Quantity of links determined popularity. And key words were aptly named because they were the keys to the indexing. Webmasters and Search Engine Optimization companies scrambled to meet Google’s demands. Google had become the most popular search engine because it promised relevancy to it’s users. Link farms, and link trading sites sprung up over night. SEO companies made huge profits giving advise that many never followed. Some found loop holes and used them to their advantage. To get to the top of Google required money, and/or, innovation. Google saw it’s rules were being bent, so, it changed the rules.

They have apparently decided that too much emphasis was on the links, at least the link trading. They still wanted content to be king, however bloggs were doing their share of bending that rule too. Just before the biggest shopping week of the year, they mixed it all up again. Many of those that were at the front, are now in obscurity. Some that were doomed into obscurity are now scrambling to meet the demands that they suddenly face. Everyone is in a rush to get their sites to meet the new Google standards. We now write articles, or use others, with key words used in very specific positions in hopes that the word search program we know as Google will find our site relevant to their users. They have launched new beta programs that will build new ways to determine relevancy.

One of those, allows Google to pier deeper into web sites than ever before. Google site maps beta. Good news is webmasters now have the Google ruler in front of them, and can now, instantly see how they measure up. They can now tweak their sites to conform to the Google mold. Bad news is, this is a stepping stone to a bigger shake up, and a mold made of concrete. They want to see what your users are doing on your site to help determine popularity, and relevancy.

This could lead to dead locks. A site will have to be popular to be at the front of Google. How do you get to be popular without being at the front of Google? If Google doesn’t send you traffic, then how do you get your site in front of everyone. The sites that get to the front will grow in popularity, while those at the back are forever doomed. Or, will they be?

Google is all about making money. How do they make money? With click through adds. The links Google says have the most relevancy are one way text links. Like an add. If your site is in obscurity, then you will have no choice, but to create good content and purchase adds. And, of course, one way to make money is to put Google adds on your article pages. Google is creating a money machine. Hey, I have no problem with that. I believe in free enterprise. The problem is in the content and relevancy. Remember Google got to the top by providing that to it’s users. When you typed in apples, you got apples. Do you really?

If content is king, then those with the most articles about a given subject will be at the forefront of a key word. I wanted to know how to make a motorcycle helmet. I typed in “How motorcycle helmets are made”. What I got back, was a bunch of sites trying to sell helmets. None of them had articles on how a helmet is made. I looked through page after page of Google listing and could not find the information I was looking for.

On the flip side, if I want to purchase some lingerie for my wife, and I type in lingerie, I don’t want to read about it. I want to see some lingerie, and make my selection at a safe, cheap, and secure web site. I don’t care about the history of lingerie, I just want my gal to look sexy. How do I know if the site at the front of Google is going to offer me the best deal? Granted Google, and other search engines have come up with shopping links. You can compare prices on the same item listed at many different sites. Cool, that is what I want when I shop. Then why is a shopping site listed in front of information sites when I type in lingerie? What happened to all the cool sites I used to find when I typed in apple?

I don’t think the relevancy problems are going to be fixed any time soon. Not until someone splits the web. At least two sections. Shopping, and information. If I have lingerie for sale, should not my site be indexed on shopping experience. If I am a search engine, and someone wants to shop, I should want to provide them with the best possible shopping experience, at the best possible prices, and the best possible selection. All the shopping sites are trying to fit the Google mold so creativity is lost.

For instance, Google frowns on javascript. I can’t have fun javascript pages and get to the front of Google. I thought it would be cool if I could create a virtual reality mall. The shoppers walk into the front door (mouse manipulation) and tour the mall and look at the various shops. Will never be indexed. I want to create a super clothing store where shoppers can but shoes, purses, clubwear, lingerie, sportingwear, and accessories. Too many departments depletes your relevancy in any one department and destroys your indexing power. Google has destroyed web surfin’. Web users and web builders are now conforming to what Google says is relevant. Will this ever change? They greatest thing about the web is, it is ever changing.

The industry started with Apple computers and is now at Google. Bill gates started making a program with a bunch of guy’s that eventually formed Apple Computers. Bill Gates went on to form Microsoft. The leaders of Google came from Microsoft. Who knows what, or who will sprout off next. It started with Apple, and may end in Zebra.

James Newton ownes and operates a retail store and a web site called Hot Stuff Leather and Lace [http://www.sweetdeal4u.biz], where he hopes to be at the top of Google one day.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Newton

Jagger

First, let’s discuss Jagger… Just like hurricanes, Google updates have names. (A Google update is a change to the way Google determines its rankings. Google makes these changes periodically, and they’re universally feared because they can impact dramatically on a website’s ranking.) The latest update is called Jagger, and it has search engine optimizers (SEOs) all around the world in a state of panic.

Why was Jagger such a fearful update? Simple… With Jagger, Google once again outsmarted huge numbers of SEOs. You see, many/most SEOs spend their time (and their clients’ money) trying to trick Google into thinking that their websites are more relevant and important than they really are. They do this mostly by swapping links, buying cheap links, and placing links on free directories. While there’s nothing wrong with these sorts of links (i.e. they’re not considered ‘black-hat’), they don’t really show that the site is relevant or important. All they really show is that the site owner has made a deal with another site owner. In these deals, the incentive for the linking site owner is a reciprocal link, money, or increased link volume. Google much prefers it when the linking site adds the link simply to enhance the value of their content or to increase their own credibility and authority.

In other words, Google wants its search results to contain relevant, important sites, not sites that merely appear to be relevant and important. To this end, Google invests millions of dollars and employs the world’s smartest mathematicians to create algorithms which identify sites that are trying to trick them. And that’s exactly what Jagger did; and when it found those sites, it simply adjusted their ranking to more accurately reflect their true importance. (Unfortunately, it also demoted some sites which actually deserve a high ranking. It is hoped that these mistakes will be ironed out with future minor updates, but that’s a topic for another article…)

From a technical standpoint, Jagger was well described by Ken Webster in his article, http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/Jagger. To summarize, Jagger:

1. Increased importance placed on IBL (Inbound Links) Relevancy?
2. Increased importance placed on OBL (Outbound Links) Relevancy?
3. Promotion of relevant Niche Directories (related to #1 & #2)?
4. More weight thrown back to PR @ top domain?
5. Increased importance on AdSense placement relevancy?
6. Possible introduction of CSS Spam filtering?
7. Overall Blog demotions?
8. New and unresolved “canonical” issues?

Some more interesting effects were reported by WG Moore in his Jagger article – http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2005/nov/9.html. Mr Moore runs a number of test sites for SEO purposes. By monitoring the links to his test sites as reported by Google, he established that:

“all reciprocal links had vanished. We think that this is because Google is down-grading or eliminating reciprocal links as a measure of popularity. This does make sense, actually. Reciprocal links are a method of falsifying popularity. Sort of a cheap method of buying a link, if you want to think of it that way… During the second week of the Jagger Update, a few of our reciprocal links did come back up. However, we also noticed that these were from places where we had highly relevant content. They came from articles where we discussed our area of expertise: Web Analytics, or from forums where we had relevant threads. So we feel that these links came back because of content, not linking.

The other group that came back up was one-way inbound text links, regardless of the originating web site. These links also had strong relevance to our web analytics business. In other words, they contained keywords and/or phrases related to our site and its business.”

In short, Jagger undid the hard work of thousands – if not millions – of people! As a result, hard-won high rankings and revenues plummeted.

Interestingly, article PR (article submission) came through Jagger seemingly unscathed. My SEO copywriting website, for example, went from no.4 to no.1 worldwide for “copywriter”, and I’ve employed article PR almost exclusively. Whether it was promoted or the sites around it were demoted, one thing is clear: article PR is one of the best ways to obtain a high ranking.

Google Analytics

The second monumental event to occur recently was Google Analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics/index.html. Google Analytics is a free web-stats solution which not only reports all the regular site stats, but also integrates directly with Google AdWords giving webmasters and insight into the ROI of their pay-per-click ads. According to Google, ” Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site.”

Why is this such a landmark move? Because for the first time ever, Google will have access to your real web stats. And these stats will be far more accurate than those provided by Alexa – http://www.alexa.com . Furthermore, Google’s privacy statement (http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy.html) says: ” We may also use personal information for auditing, research and analysis to operate and improve Google technologies and services.” Now let’s put two and two together:

1. Google is ‘giving’ every webmaster in the world free access to quality web-stats.
2. Millions of webmasters will accept this ‘gift’, if only because it integrates directly with their Google AdWords campaigns.
3. Google will then have full access to the actual web stats of millions of commercial websites.
4. Google will have the right to use these stats to develop new technologies.
5. What’s the next logical step? Google will use these statistics to help determine its rankings, of course!

It should come as no surprise. It’s been on the cards – and frequently discussed – for a long time. For example, Jayde Online CEO, Mel Strocen, recently published an article on this very topic http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/The-Future-of-WebSite-Ranking.html. She quite rightly asserts that:

“Google’s “democratic” vision of the Web will never be achieved by manipulating algorithm criteria based on content. It will only be achieved by factoring in what is important to people, and people will always remain the best judge of what that is. The true challenge for search engines in the future is how to incorporate web searcher input and preferences into their ranking algorithms.”

In fact, the Jayde Online network already owns and operates a search engine, http://www.ExactSeek.com, which incorporates user popularity statistics in its rankings.

The Future of Search & SEO

To date, ExactSeek is the only search engine which uses visitor stats as criteria for its rankings. But Google isn’t far behind. We all know that Google specializes in taking a good idea and implementing and adapting it brilliantly. This is exactly what we’ll see in this case. By combining link popularity and user popularity statistics, Google will be the only major search engine to consider both what other sites think of your website and what your visitors think of your website. And because they have the most advanced algorithms for assessing link popularity, and will soon have access to the farthest reaching, most accurate web stats to assess user popularity, its competitors will be a long time catching up.

So if that’s the future of search, what’s the future of SEO? The future of SEO is undoubtedly one where:

* one-way text links from relevant pages continue to be the most valuable links
* reciprocal linking continue to decline
* the ’shotgun’ approach to link buying declines
* mass email link requests decline
* free directory submission declines
* niche directory submission increases
* article PR (article submission) increases
* article submission sites (e.g. http://www.ezinearticles.com , http://www.goarticles.com , and http://www.articleblast.com ) play a much bigger and more important role in helping online publishers locate quality articles (due to the increasing article volume)
* user popularity is just as important as link popularity, which means:
o the quality of article PR improves in order to increase site traffic, credibility, and loyalty
o the quality of website content improves in order to convert traffic and encourage repeat visits

Clearly, the choices for SEOs will be pretty much limited to paying for links at niche sites and/or engaging in article PR. Being an SEO copywriter, I may be a little biased, but for mine, article PR is the hands-down winner in this comparison:

* It satisfies Google’s criteria for relevance and importance. Linking site owners include your article and link because, in doing so, their site becomes more useful to visitors, and their business gains credibility and authority.
* It generates hundreds of free links quickly enough to make it worth your while, but not so quickly as to raise red flags at Google (in the form of link dampening).
* Links are permanent and you don’t have to pay to keep them there.
* You get a lot of qualified referred traffic who already trust you and your expertise. This satisfies Google’s visitor popularity criteria, while at the same time bringing you a lot of extra customers.

For more information on article PR, read ‘How to Top Google with Article PR’ (articlepr.com/SEO_Article_Submission.shtml).

Conclusion

The lesson from Jagger is, don’t try and trick Google! They’ve got more money and more brains than virtually any company in the world. It’ll only end in tears! Don’t spend time and money trying to make your site look important and relevant. Instead, spend that time and money actually making it important and relevant! Content – the real content behind the optimization – is the answer. After all, whether it’s an article or a web page, it’s the content that keeps ‘eyes on paper’, and that’s what it’s all about.

Happy optimizing!

Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit DivineWrite.com or ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Glenn_Murray

Unless you are a web surfer in the true meaning of the concept, if you are reading this, I am almost certain that you know Google. Or, you think you know Google. You are probably aware that Google is a “search engine”, that almost 80% of the internet searches in the world are done through Google. If you are a metro- or uber-geek, you probably know that the term “to google” became part of the English language, as in “she googled her high school boyfriends”. And if you are really, really on top of things all trivia and have Wikipedia as your browser’s home page, you might even know that the name “Google” is a play on the word “Googol”, which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nine-year-old nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner in 1938, to refer to the number represented by 1 followed by one hundred zeros. But here’s one piece of geek trivia that you might not know: The “Google” spelling is also used in “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, in which one of Deep Thought’s designers asks, “And are you not,” said Fook, leaning anxiously forward, “a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?”

2. Everflux – what is that?

Some obscure “Glossary of SEO terms” (SEO = Search Engine Optimization) defines the Everflux as “An anomaly by which pages can quickly appear and then disappear in Google page rankings. Usually occurs to newly added webpages.”

Basically, Everflux refers to the constant change in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), while Google constantly scours the web looking for “minty fresh” content, changing their index accordingly.

In plain English, occasionally, ranks go up or down randomly, link popularity is completely lost, pages that have been indexed for years just vanish and are nowhere to be found in Google and other similar Outer Limits phenomena. Most people whose income depends proportionally on their potential customers’ ability to find them via a Google search, may think their business is destroyed, they are ruined, and I can clearly see why.

According to forums at Webmasterworld, the first sightings of the phenomenon took place in July 2002. Later that year, the following speculation on Everflux emerged: “Lastly, they could be working on the index, rolling indexes back, switching parts of the index, backing up parts of the index, rewriting some offending part of the index, deleting parts of an index – or a multitude of other actions or problems that only Google could know about.”

Legend has it that there is one ex-Google employee who goes by the name of Googleguy, who posts in related forums. He offered this explanation: “As we do a full crawl of the web, we find most of the sites from our fresh crawl and put them in our regular index. My advice on our fresh crawl is to view it as a nice “bonus” on top of Google’s deep index. Users can always search our full index, but sometimes we can serve up even fresher pages as an extra nicety.”

Google introduced a “fresh crawl” process to make their results as relevant and as fresh as possible. It runs each day. The purpose of the daily fresh crawl is to update Web pages in the index that change regularly. This allows Google to provide results that are up-to-date with current events.

Google also does one major update per month, which generally begins anywhere from around the 19th or 20th of the month to approximately the 28th of the month. The update process continues for several days, with search results appearing to fluctuate as the update continues. Once the update has been completed, the new data migrates to google’s partner sites. The main reason for the fluctuation is that Google employs several sites that have to be synchronized (in popular terms). While this process takes place, search results might seem to jump and information might seem to disappear and re-appear. It is similar in concept with the idea of DNS propagation.

The regular monthly crawl takes place at different times for different web sites. The results of this crawl are generally reflected at the time of the following update.

For a number of months, beginning early Summer 2002, spidering of sites and changes have been observed to be going on all month, in between the regular monthly updates. This has come to be known as Everflux, and represents google’s continuing desire and efforts to keep their search relevant, of high quality, and “minty fresh.”

Everflux is another evolutionary step in the process of offering the most recent and relevant snapshot of the web to the public. Google is adding to their value as a search tool by giving their index some of the same qualities as what is being indexed. That is, the more fluid and adaptable an index of the web is, the more accurately it will be able to reflect the fluid and adaptable nature of the web.

These of you who analyze web logs probably notice that traffic surges for certain search terms on certain days. For example, say you create a page on the web (or as the younger generation refers to it these days – you make a blog entry) about a movie which is just coming out on DVD and the “fresh crawl” daily process visits your site and makes note of it. Because of its relevance in time (overly simplified: sort results by pagerank and date), your page climbs to the top of the SERPs for a few days. Eventually, though, the story falls off your homepage and is replaced by another story about another movie which is soon gobbled by Google’s robot. Meanwhile, the long-standing sites regarding that particular movie regain their dominant positions in the SERPs. This is Everflux in full action.

As I am writing this article, there are reports of a potentially calmer Everflux coming to a browser near you. Google has very recently performed an update to their software, dubbed “Jagger”. It appears that “Jagger” affected Everflux, but things started to slow down. It has been reported that the most interesting effect of “Jagger” on rankings has been diminishing the effect of reciprocal linking as a measure of popularity. It looks like “Jagger” has negated the hard work of thousands of website owners. The result is expensive linking campaigns that lead to high rankings and high revenues have plummeted. On the other hand, article submission seems to have come through the “Jagger” update apparently safe and sound. I believe this is happening because Google has put more emphasis on one way links.

The moral of the “Jagger” update story? Make sure that you do not follow the fads and the top new found ranking factors of the search engine algorithm. If you have all your eggs in one basket, I promise you, Google is sure to trip you up eventually. So, diversify your ranking efforts and generally, try to follow the very basic rules that webmasters have been hearing since the beginning of the web: design your website for users, not for Google and not for robots. Make sure every page has a unique title (you know, the tag), don’t put a google of keywords in the title, just one or a few that reflect the content of that page. Make sure every page has different content and different title. Most of us, myself included, get lazy or just copy and paste pages and forget to change the title – Google’s software sees all that and does not forgive. Make use of the old-fashioned tag, that is the “Header” tag. Google considers it to be polite to have paragraph headings. Don’t use images for titles, or anything text.

Google does not care about your images and does not consider a page full of images to be useful – they put a lot of emphasis on good old text. Use the description tag (read about Meta Tags if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and the keyword tags. Do not keyword-spam, do not use gateways, do not hide text (you know, white text on white background). Basically, play nice, a-la late 90s pure HTML websites. If all this is too complex, hire a SEO consultant at the very least. An analogy is the stock market. If you know what you’re doing, you know what you’re doing – basically, you follow the rules and play nice. If you don’t know what you’re doing, yes you can dabble, but most people have an adviser to avoid the ups and downs of the market shift. In the Google world, we call this shift Everflux.

3. Conclusion – don’t be scared of the big bad Everflux

Even if you don’t own and/or design and/or run your own website, it’s interesting to see how all the information collected by humanity over centuries is put into place inside a so called index of indexes. It is interesting to see how the exponential increase in information that has to be indexed presents real challenges to a process that started as a mere science experiment and evolved into a cultural phenomenon. It is also interesting to see how the people at the steering wheel deal with such challenges and the creative solutions they come up with in order to tame the information overload monster that can literally eat it all, if unleashed.

Now if you do own, operate, design websites and if your paying bills on time process depends on the above mentioned process, it can be really frightening, as incertitude is the main enemy of happiness as we know it. The advice we get from the most famous gurus (found in forums postings, of course) unanimously suggest the following: “don’t go hacking your pages to bits on account of Google’s Everflux.” In other words, it’s not something to freak out about, but it’s still something a well rounded webmaster should understand. As always, I believe that while you might not be able to control a process, your happiness will benefit dramatically from just the mere idea of understanding that process. If you can’t beat it, join it – in other words, learn how to understand it and live with it.

4. Conclusion – about Google

Someone should really write a book entitled The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Googling and start it with an excerpt from Google’s own “Information for Webmasters”
resource:

[...] “Don’t Panic.” Just do the normal things you should do:

1. Create a great site.

2. Submit your site to google on our “add url” form.

3. Get a link from the Open Directory Project or other directories (Yahoo, etc.).

4. Don’t panic if your site takes a little while to show up in google. Be patient, and start to look around the web–there’s lots of great advice about improving your site for users and search engines.

Hope this helps,

—
Andrei co-owns Bsleek – a company that specializes in web design, hosting, promotional items, printing, tradeshow displays, logos, CD presentations, SEO and more. Andrei has amassed an extensive technical knowledge and experience through his career as the CIO for a major travel management company and through his past careers in military research, data acquisition and airspace engineering. He also consults for Trinity Investigations, a New York based PI firm.

—
Bsleek – Redefining cheap web hosting

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrei_Smith

It has became a virtual cash-cow for those who have
mastered Google with their marketing techniques.
They know a number one spot for a competitive keyword
or keyword phrase in Google will usually prove very
lucrative, bringing in a steady automatic income.

Regardless of what the other search engines will attest,
seasoned webmasters also know getting a top placement in
Google will usually bring more traffic than a top placement
in MSN or Yahoo combined! Getting a number one spot in
Google for a popular keyword can prove very lucrative,
earning a webmaster revenue 24/7/365.

Therefore, webmasters have to optimize their sites and
keywords for Google if they want to turn a healthy profit.
Optimizing your webpages for Google is a complete industry
in itself, what you really have to keep in mind, besides
on-page optimization like keyword density, mega tags, etc.
is that Google places a great amount of weight on off-page
links and anchor text.

Google ranks all webpages on the Internet by a scale
of PR0 to PR10, higher is better. One-way links from
high PR sites related to your keyword or website theme
is highly valued and will usually move your site up on
the SERPs (Search Engine Return Pages). This is the major
factor why ‘article marketing’ is all the rage and why
articles are great building blocks for getting top
keywords and consequently extremely important for
earning you revenue, directly or indirectly from Google.

There are countless strategies for getting those top
keyword listings in Google. But in my opinion, one of
the best experts on the net for website SEO is Brad
Callen. His ‘SEO Elite’ is top quality SEO software and
his soon to be released ‘Keyword Elite’ will greatly
impact how keywords are used by webmasters and
marketers.

Once you have gained significant traffic, you can use
Google AdSense to earn revenue from your site or blog.
Google AdSense lets webmasters and bloggers earn
advertising revenue by placing the AdSense code on
their sites. These can be text links, images, or banners.
These AdSense ads will be directly related to your
page’s keywords. Top or highest paying keywords will
naturally return more revenue. AdSense ads are
extremely targeted and is an effective way of
earning money from your site. Learn more:
https://www.google.com/adsense

One of the undisputed top experts on using Google
AdSense is Joel Comm. A seasoned marketer who has
created some well informed products on Adsense — mainly
his Google AdSense Secrets ebook and courses.

Of course, Google gives marketers another option, you
can buy your way onto Google’s first page results by
using Google AdWords. This is the popular Pay-Per-Click
advertising system offered by Google. Perfecting the
AdWord system is an art form in itself; do it right and
you can create very lucrative cash streams. Do it wrong,
and you can create your very own personal money pits!
https://adwords.google.com/select

Therefore, it is strongly advised that you learn more
about AdWords before you risk your hard earned cash.
One of the best sources for Google AdWords is still
Perry Marshall’s excellent ebook ‘The Definitive Guide
to Google AdWords’. It will give you all the basics on
Google AdWords.

Just about everyone knows about Google’s two popular
programs AdWords and AdSense, but there are other ways
marketers can earn money promoting Google products or
services. Google has started to list products that an
affiliate can promote through the AdSense program. You
can earn money by promoting the Firefox browser with
the Google search box and you can also promote Google’s
AdSense program to other webmasters and earn money by
referring new users.

The next logical step for Google is to offer more
products through its AdSense affiliate program. Many
seasoned marketers are promoting Google’s AdSense, it
would be counterproductive for Google not to take
advantage and offer other products/services through
this marketing system. Its own products or other
closely related third party products. Many marketers
would gladly promote products under the Google banner
mainly because any Google branded product would be an
easy sale for most affiliate marketers.

Google pays monthly but you do have to earn $100 before
they send you a check. Getting a check from Google is
somewhat special, no matter what the amount, show your
family and friends a check from Google and their eyes
will pop open! If you’re an online marketer you may get
quite a few larger checks from different online companies
but nothing will get you the respect a Google check does.
Just goes to show how much Google has permeated into our
everyday lives.

Not that you need it, but it’s just another reason to
start earning money for Google. Try some of the programs
listed above and you will be smiling all the way to… now,
where the heck is that Google Bank?

……
Everyone is profiting from Google, find out how you can too! Click here: Google Cash File

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Titus_Hoskins

Fellow webmasters will recognize my slight desperation,
my total sense of unease when Google dances. It all has to
do with pre-conditioning, psych majors will know this,
I am well conditioned to react. I have been burnt horribly
by Google dances in the past so my panic is almost palatable.
Forget Pavlov’s dog, when Google dances, webmasters like
me salivates.

And Google is really dancing this time, Jagger has nothing
on this baby. Nobody dances like Google, even puts Seinfeld’s
Elaine to shame. And if you’re new to the webmaster’s favorite
folly, a Google dance happens with Google adjusts its ranking
algorithm, causing a ripple effect and adjustments in the
rankings of keywords. Sites move up or down. Previous major
Google dances have been called Florida, Austin, Bourbon…

When Google dances, webmasters sweat bullets. And it’s not
all in their heads. It’s not psychosomatic. Horror stories abound,
about honest hard working webmasters (not a black hat to be seen)
suddenly waking up to find their site or sites gone from Google.
Thousands of daily visitors/customers to their site vanish
in an algorithmic fog overnight. Swift. Brutal. Painful.

Gone, top ranking keywords nowhere to be seen. Gone, visitors,
visitors, visitors. Gone, sales, sales, sales…

More times than not, the sites come back or regain their
positions (rankings for popular keywords — for the totally
uninitiated, keywords or keyword phrases are what people type
into search engines to find what they’re looking for), keywords
are the conerstones of the whole Internet. Without them, the
Internet as we know it, would not work.

Mastering Google means mastering your site’s keywords or phrases.
Get a top ten SERPs ranking for your keywords and changes are
very good you will have a successful site. Webmasters work
for years getting their site’s keywords up into the
top keyword ranking spots. Countless fortunes have been made
by those who have mastered the game. Countless fortunes have
tumbled when Google dances.

Of course, the sensible thing to do is for all webmasters
to unite and bring Google down a peg or two. At least in our
own minds, if not in the real world. Don’t place so much
importance on Google. Yes, it’s very important, but snap out
of it. The more webmasters whine and moan about Google’s
erratic dances, algorithm and rankings – the more power we are
giving Google.

Why is Google still so important to webmasters? MSN and Yahoo
are gaining ground but Google is still the top dog and here’s
why: As far as the search engine market goes, whether it’s
wearing a halo or a cursor, Google is still the only game in town.
According to Alexa, a company that tracks web traffic, the top
three sites on the Web are 1-Yahoo, 2-MSN, and 3-Google. However,
when you compare where people go on these sites: search.yahoo.com
accounts for only 9% of Yahoo’s traffic and search.msn.com only
7% of MSN’s total traffic; whereas most of Google’s traffic is
search traffic. This is a big distinction.

Once burnt, twice shy. Years ago, the Florida Update totally wiped
my site from the Google Radar. Hence my total apprehension
when one of these dances comes along. I wanted my site to survive
the next Google dance so I put some simple strategies into place that
would hopefully help me weather this and future Google dances.
Strategies that you might also find helpful to fight your
own private battle with Google.

Here’s what I did and what you can also do:

Find A Good SEO Expert

Find a good SEO expert and have him or her in your corner.
I found Brad Callen. One of a very few people who truly
understands Google and knows how it works. I learned much
of what makes Google really tick from Brad. I advise you to
find or hire a SEO expert like Brad to help you out with your
site or sites. Just the fact of having a SEO expert in your
corner makes handling Google a little bit easier.

Link Only To Safe Sites

One of the simplest ways to keep on the good side
of Google is to make sure all links on your site
link only to sites that have a PR4 or over.
Don’t link to bad neighborhoods, avoid linkfarms like
the avian flu.

One Keyword To A Page

The major mistake most webmasters make – they don’t
focus on one keyword phrase per page. Try to keep
your pages separate, write on one or two closely
related keyword phrases for each webpage and you
will see a big improvement from Google. Don’t keyword
spam but sprinkle your keyword phrase and variations
of it throughout your copy.

RSS To The Rescue

Creating an RSS feed and Blog for your site’s major keywords
is as simply as starting a free blog with Blogger.com
(owned by Google), it can be done in a few minutes.

I favor using Blogger because it now has the Google Blog search
bar at the top. Blog search will bring in a lot of traffic and
your content is instantly indexed in Google. What more can you
ask for. Whatever you do, don’t underestimate RSS, it’s going
to play a major role in the Internet of the near future. Especially
when Microsoft comes out with its Longhorn browser which will
be RSS empowered.

Embrace Article Marketing

If you can string two sentences together start writing articles
on the major keywords or topics of your site. Place your
links in the resource box of your articles and submit them
to online article directories like EzineArticles.com or
buzzle.com. Write helpful ‘how-to’ articles and other
webmasters will place your articles on their sites and
you will get an ambundance of one-way links back to your
site. Google loves these kinds of links and since the
sites picking up your articles will all be related to
your site’s topic, these will be relevant links.

Customer/Visitor Focused Content

Besides high PR links to your sites, Google also loves
content. Write unique content that’s related to your
site’s topic and write a lot of it. It’s the main reason
anyone bothers to come to your site in the first place,
so make sure you have good original content. Add high
quality articles from sources you respect and your
visitors will have another reason to visit your site.

Keep saying to yourself: content is king, content is
king. Make sure you put that belief into practice and
Google will reward you nicely. Well, maybe. Nine times
out of ten.

Actually, this time my site jumped to PR5 and my Google
backlinks went up. Also some of my keywords are up but
most have stayed the same. Overall, my traffic from
Google remains the same which is very worrisome, if
I moved up to PR5 — my traffic should theoretically rise
also. I saw a dramatic rise in traffic when my site
went to PR4.

Such are the little puzzling mine-fields, whether intentionally
or not (I can’t believe anyone could be this sadistic!) Google
throws every webmaster’s way. Over time, if you let it
get to you, it will drive you stark raving bonkers.
Especially, if you are seriously building an income, lifestyle
and well-being around the Internet and by default Google.

For every webmaster, Google is a never ending endurance
race of strategies, positioning and planning. Keeping
one step ahead of this search engine while keeping
your eyes peeled for the men in white, is a never ending
struggle. One every webmaster must fight and win on their
own terms. Follow the simple steps above, and you will be
better prepared for the next Google dance.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Titus_Hoskins

All knowing, all seeing, ever present!

Google has permeated into almost every aspect of life on this planet and beyond.
It has become a mainstream fixture for computer and Internet users around the
globe. All the while, cementing its position as the only real facilitator of the
world’s collective intelligence.

Can you remember a day when you have not Googled?

But Google’s reach doesn’t stop with the mouse or the cursor. It has moved beyond
the computer screen, snapping up resources, sites, and people at a frighteningly
steady pace. Perhaps, the first indication Google wasn’t just satisfied with staying
within the wired confines of the world wide web was when it partnered with universities
such as Harvard, Oxford, Stanford and others, to scan and index the contents
of their libraries — then making this material accessible through Google Print.

Then it casted its aspirations heavenward with the introduction of Google Maps and
Google Earth. Mapping services that bring the world’s geographic information into view,
it is as if Google had literally ascended, watching us from far and near, tracking our
every move as well as our every keystroke. Even using satellite imagery to provide
it with eyes in the sky; leading one to wonder, from those lofty heights can divinity
be far behind?

All kidding aside, Google, whether it wants to or not, is developing a god-like
reverence in the eyes of many. But is this such a leap of faith? Is the idea of
Google as a god-like force in our lives so preposterous? so ludicrous? so sacrilegious?

In prehistoric times, pagans used to worship the sun gods. Ancient Egypt, Greece
and Rome all had their gods who satisfied the basic human need we have to believe in a
superior being or force. They even raised ordinary humans who displayed unusual
courage or bravery up to a god-like status. Are we now entering into a new
post-modern pagan era — will we be worshipping at the feet of Google?

Not really, we treat all our knowledge givers with respect, some even reach
a god-like status. We raise them up above the crowd, give them special meaning
or reverence in our lives. Humans have been doing this since we stood upright
and walked on the plains of Africa. The shaman or high priest of ancient times
– holders of the secret rites, holders of a group’s history or knowledge; we show
these people respect and we elevate them to a higher status.

Google falls into this category.

And Google does deserve some respect, as far as the search engine market goes,
whether it’s wearing a halo or a cursor — Google is still the only game in town.
According to Alexa, a company that tracks web traffic, the top three sites on
the Web are 1. Yahoo, 2. MSN, and 3. Google. However, when you compare where
people go on these sites — search.yahoo.com accounts for only 9% of Yahoo’s
traffic and search.msn.com only 7% of MSN’s total traffic; whereas most of
Google’s traffic is search traffic. This is a big distinction.

And what about the purchasing power of these search engines; latest data presented
by Score Networks, Inc. shows MSN searchers at 48%, Google searchers at 42% and
Yahoo at 31%. That is Google searchers were 42% more likely to purchase online
than the regular Internet user.

Another aspect of Google’s commercial might is its online advertising system. Through
its Adsense and Adword programs, Google has commercialize and monetized most of the
web’s free content. Depending on your opinions or stand, this may be good or bad.
Regardless of viewpoints, Google has been more than generous with sharing this ad

revenue with all concerned parties — content providers, web writers and journalists,
professional bloggers, ordinary webmasters and marketers — all have reaped the
benefits of these programs.

If you feed it with fresh high quality content — Google will take good care of you! In many
cases, it can be argued that Google is subsidizing or facilitating the creation of quality
content on the Net through its Adsense program.

Google’s dominance of all aspects of the Internet is also taking on a god-like force.
It is acquiring and building at an almost god-like speed. Google Acquisitions include:
Outride, Blogger, Neotonic Software, Applied Semantics, Ignite Logic, Genius Labs,
Picasa, Keyhole, Urchin software… how did all this madness start?

Initially called BackRub, referring to the way it back linked to web sites, Google was
founded by Stanford graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google, the name
itself is a play on the word googol, and refers to the number represented by 1 followed
by 100 zeros… opened its doors on Sept. 7, 1998, in Menlo Park, California. It had
a corporate staff of three. In 2004 Google offered its IPO with a price per share at
$85. By June 7, 2005, Google was worth $80 billion, making it one of the world’s biggest
media companies.

Perhaps, one of Google’s most brilliant (some believe absurd) moves, happened just recently.
It has applied (via Nelson Minar, a Google Engineer), for patent rights to transmit ads through
RSS feeds. Few people know, even more won’t believe, but the Internet has undergone
a fundamental shift in how information is exchanged on the web. RSS stands for ‘Really Simple
Syndication’ and was first popularized by blogs because blogs use XML and RSS feeds
to syndicate their content.

Don’t come to us, we will deliver. People can view a site’s contents through RSS readers
or an RSS equipped browser without actually going to the sites.

RSS will revolutionize the Internet. Microsoft in its Longhorn Statement has announced
the next version of Windows will have RSS integrated into its Operating System. RSS
applications, under the Creative Commons license, will change the way we use our
computers and the Internet.

Google, if it is successful with this patent application will build on its already god-like
status. The stakes are enormous and Google knows it. This patent could put Google
directly into the mix, but the rewards are beyond belief! And that’s not all, there are
rumors Google may be developing its own RSS powered operating system and browser.
Why not, it has the resources and financial clout to easily carry out such an undertaking.
Google is already the owner of the domain name “gbrowser.com”!

One can only wonder, is Google positioning itself to not only be the brains of the
Internet but also placing itself into the very core of the nasty beast? Does it desire
not only to be a mega hub, but also to be an innate part of the whole structure?
Positioning itself, in essence, to becoming the web’s nervous system.

Any movement of data, information, or commerce on the Internet will have to pass
through and be affected by the Google Factor. More or less, cementing Google’s
influence on the whole scheme of things. And in the process, further weaving
Google into the very fabric of our lives.

Now if that’s not God-like, nothing is.

Everyone is profiting for Google, find out how you can too! Click here: Google Cash File. Get a Free Desktop Calendar & Planner compliments of the Author and DATEwise.

Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins
This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Titus_Hoskins

Telling search engines about new pages or new websites use to be what the submission process was all about. But major search engines stopped using that process a long time ago.

Google has for a long time depended on external links from pages they already know about in order to find new websites.

For webmasters and website owners Google Sitemaps is the most important development since RSS or Blog and Ping, to hit the Internet.

Using RSS and Blog and Ping enabled webmasters to alert the search engines to new additions to their web pages even though that was not the primary purpose of these systems.

If you’ve ever waited weeks or months to get your web pages found and indexed you’ll know how excited we webmasters get when someone discovers a new way to get your web pages found quicker.

Well that new way has just arrived in Google Sitemaps and it’s a whole lot simpler than setting up an RSS feed or Blog and Ping. If you haven’t heard of Blog and Ping it’s a means by which it’s possible to alert the search engines to crawl your new website content within a matter of hours.

If you’re a webmaster or website owner Google Sitemaps is something you
Can’t afford to ignore, even if you’re also using RSS and/or Blog and Ping

The reason you should start using Google Sitemaps is that it’s designed solely to alert and direct Google Search Engine crawlers to your web pages. RSS and Blog and Ping are indirect methods to alert search engines, but it’s not there primary purpose.

It works now, but like most things it’s becoming abused. Search Engines will find ways to combat the abuse as they’ve done with every other form of abuse that’s gone before.

Abusing the search engines is a short term not a long term strategy and in some cases certain forms of abuse will get you banned from a search engines index.

You may also be thinking, don’t we already have web page meta tags that tell a search engine when to revisit a page. That’s true, but the search engine spider still has to find the new page first, before it can read the meta tag. Besides that meta tags are out of favour with many search engines especially Google, because of abuse.

If talk of search engine spiders leaves you confused, they’re nothing more than software programs that electronically scour the Internet visiting web sites looking for changes and new pages.

How often the search engine spider alias robot, visits your website depends on how often your site content is updated, or you alert them to a change. Otherwise for a search engine like Google they may only visit a website once a month.

As the internet gets bigger every second of every day, the problem for search engines and webmasters is becoming evidently greater. For the search engines it’s taking their search spiders longer to crawl the web for new sites or updates to existing ones.

For the webmaster it’s taking longer and becoming more difficult to get web pages found and indexed by the search engines

If you can’t get web pages found and indexed by search engines, your pages will never be found in a search and you’ll get no visitors from search engines to those pages.

The answer to this problem at least for Google is Google Sitemaps

Whilst still only in a beta phase while Google refines the process, it’s fully expected that this system, or one very similar, is here to stay.

Google Sitemaps is clearly a win-win situation

Google wins because it reduces the huge waste of their resources to crawl web sites that have not changed. Webmasters win because they alert Google through Google Sitemaps what changes or new content has been added to a website and direct Google’s crawlers to the exact pages.

Google Sitemaps has the potential to speed up the process of discovery and addition of pages to Google’s index for any webmaster that uses Google Sitemaps.

Conventional sitemaps have been used by webmasters for quite some time to allow the easier crawling of their websites by the search engine spiders. This type of sitemap is a directory of all pages on the website that the webmaster wants the search engines or visitors to find.

Without sitemaps a webmaster runs the risk of webpage’s being difficult to find by the search engine crawlers, or never being found at all.

Do I need Google Sitemaps if I already have sitemaps on my websites?

Google Sitemaps are different to conventional sitemaps because they’re only seen by the Search Engine Spiders and not human visitors. Google Sitemaps also contain information that’s only of value to the search engine in a format they understand.

Creating Google Sitemaps in 5 steps

1. Create Google Sitemaps in a supported format ( see end of article )

2. Upload Google Sitemaps to your Web Hosting space

3. Register for a free Google Account if you don’t already have one

4. Login to your Google Sitemaps Account and submit the location of your sitemaps

5. Update your Sitemaps when your site changes and Resubmit it to Google

From your Google Sitemaps account you can also see when your sitemap was last updated and when Google downloaded it for processing. It will also tell you if there were any problems found with your sitemaps.

Google Sitemaps can be used with commercial or non-commercial websites, those with a single webpage, through to sites with millions of constantly updated pages. However a single Google Sitemaps file is limited to 50,000 web pages. For websites with more pages, another Google Sitemaps file must be created for each block of 50,000 pages.

If you want Google to crawl more of your pages and alert them when content on your site changes, you should be using Google Sitemaps. The other added benefit is it’s free.

If you’re expecting this special alert process with Google Sitemaps to improve your Page Rank, change the way Google ranks your web pages, or in any way guarantee inclusion of your web pages, Google has made it clear it will make no difference.

Google Sitemaps web pages are still subject to the same rules as non Google Sitemaps pages.

If your site has dynamic content or pages that aren’t easily discovered by following links, Google Sitemaps will allow spiders to know what URLs are available and how often page content changes.

Google has said that Google Sitemaps is not a replacement for the normal crawling of web pages and websites as that will continue in the conventional way. Google Sitemaps does however allow the search engine to do a better job of crawling your site.

The Google Sitemap Protocol is an XML file containing a list of the URLs on a site. It also tells the search engine when each page was last updated, how often each page changes and how important each page is in relation to other web pages in the site.

Google Sitemaps 7 Benefits You Can’t Ignore

1. Alert Google to Changes and Additions to your Website Anytime You Want

2. Your Website is crawled more Efficiently and Effectively

3. Web Pages are Categorized and Prioritized exactly How You Want

4. Speed up the process of New Website and New Web Page Discovery

5. No Waiting and Guessing to see when Spiders crawl your web pages

6. Google Sitemaps is likely to set the standard for Webpage Submission and Update Notification which will extend the benefits to other Search Engines

7. The Google Sitemaps service is Free

Exactly how to create a Google Sitemaps file to upload to your website is in the continuing part of this article in Google Sitemaps.

Tony Simpson is a Web Designer and Search Engine Optimizer who brings a touch of reality to building a Web Business. It’s a No-Hype, No B.S approach from his own 5 year experience. He provides advice, product reviews and products at Web Page Add Ons to Make Automation of Your Web Site Work for You.

The continuing part of this article about creating Google Sitemaps is at Google Sitemaps

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Simpson

Sign up for the Google Adwords program is free but they require a $5 USD deposit before they will start to display your ad copy. Google provides an excellent interface to work with. A pleasant modular design groups all of your work into nice “containers” that can be manipulated and viewed in a variety of ways.

The system reporting is by no means real time but the delay on their results display is palatable when comparing them to the other major PPC provider, Yahoo-Overture.

A nice feature that sets Adwords apart from other PPC providers is that your ads display almost instantly after you place them in their system. They have built a lot of their editorial guidelines into the ad entry system.

Their system will flag your ad before you can enter it if it doesn’t meet their terms of service . That is a lot better than waiting 2-5 business days to find out if your ad had a problem or not. Time is money.

Also provided with your Adwords account are a number of free tools to help you with your campaign management.

While several of these tools are great starting points I have found the need to augment what Google provides through my own online research, tools and software as well as e-book purchases.

The lesson learned, everybody that uses Google Adwords has access to the same tools that you do, including your competitors. It goes without saying that if you want to get an advantage here you will need other resources to supplement your knowledge other than what Google provides.

Having said that the Google Adwords system is still extremely powerful . Providing you with keyword suggestions, automated bid management, campaign optimization (by Google staff), geo-targeting, roi tracking, and all the reporting you can handle, their system allows you a b level of control over your spending and the ability to truly identify who your customer really is.

What I really like about the Adwords system is the fact that the guys with the most advertising dollars are not guaranteed to win any particular market.

Google tracks the Click Through Ratio (the percentage of people who see your ad and click on it) for each of your ads and keywords. Their system gives you a better position in their display listings if more people are clicking on your ads.

Why do they do this?

To reward people who take the time to write relevant ad copy and marry that to a tightly relevant keyword list.

You see, Google will reward you for doing your homework . The time you invest studying and learning their system will save you money , which can be just as rewarding as making money.

Hey, if I could afford 5 dollars a click I would pay it, but I can’t. I need to lower my advertising costs while at the same time generating as much targeted traffic to my site as possible.

Unfortunately, my experience with their support system does not paint as rosy a picture of the mighty Google . In general, their online information is pretty good. It will solve your routine questions such as “when exactly does my credit card get billed? ) ” quite well.

Google’s support system seems geared towards keeping you off the phone with them. They like to refer to their repository of online documentation and use template driven email communication.

In instances where I needed specific information (i.e. why is this keyword disabled even though I created a brand new campaign to put it in?) I received “canned” emails with my support persons name “pasted” into the email.

Often times I was required to send them another email asking if they had even read my first one and to get the answer I was REALLY looking for.

At the end of the day I was left feeling that eventually my problem was going to be solved I just wasn’t sure when that was going to be and how many times I would have to contact them in order to get the answer I really wanted.

Typical Costs associated with Running an Adwords Campaign

There’s two ways to approach this:

Are you going to manage your own campaigns?

or

Do you want to leverage someone else’s experience and invest money in a company that can manage your Adwords campaigns?

Let me suggest that you manage your own accounts at least in the beginning . Start small and start collecting reference materials while you learn how the system works.

Search for other products and resources that can help you but keep in mind some of them won’t work out . Don’t let that stop your research, there is material out there that can truly help you and save you a lot of money.

Investing in a $40 e-book is a lot cheaper than blowing $500 or more with Google while you are learning the ropes .

Having said that if you want to get a successful campaign started now you can enlist an SEO company to manage your Adwords campaigns.

The question is: How will you know who to trust?

You can burn several thousand dollars for overpriced, untargeted traffic if you let the wrong companies manage your campaigns. How can anyone honestly know what to look for in an Adwords Management company if you haven’t even tried the system out for yourself? Food for thought. If you manage your own campaigns at first you will get a feel for the system.

Campaign Costs

Ok, let’s talk about the typical costs you can expect running a Google Adwords campaign. The good news is Google Adwords gives you the potential to reach millions of surfers in a matter of minutes for pretty much as little money as you want to spend.

The bad news is after the novelty of having an Adwords account and setting up your first few campaigns wears off it can begin to feel like a ball and chain. There are a lot of monotonous tasks that have to be managed daily and it can be a tough thing to manage unless you are a disciplined person.

Before you spend money on campaigns and resources acquire this mental discipline. Realize before you begin that it isn’t going to be fun after a while. Google Adwords is a business tool, one of many, and as such it has it’s advantages and flaws . It can make you a lot of money or it can cost you a lot of money and create a lot of stress for you depending on your ability to consistently manage your campaigns.

Ok, your minimum initial deposit is $5 to get started as we learned above. Start here, and I suggest resisting the urge to JUMP in and start spending like crazy… stay at or near this $5-$50 level of investment until you use it up .

You’re not going to see any returns on this investment financially but you will gain valuable knowledge of how best to use the Google Adwords System to generate income without learning the hard way.

You have a lot of learning to do before you want to start pouring money into your account. Google is in the business of making money and their system makes it “REALLY” easy to spend as much as you want.

Minimum bids start at a reasonable $0.05 USD. After developing your keyword list and dumping it into Google’s system you have to start making financial decisions.

If you take Google’s suggested bid prices for your keyword list you can pay a lot of money for your web traffic depending on how large your keyword list is and how much traffic these keywords generate.

Rest assured Google’s system will provide you a lot of traffic quickly if you want to pay for it. It’s not uncommon for Google’s big management system to suggest max bids in the $20 – $30 range.

You don’t have to accept these outrageous suggestions of course so your first big money saver is to lower the max bid to something you find acceptable and enter it for all of your keywords.

Please note Google’s system will not charge you this full amount unless someone else is willing to pay that much for the keyword. Leave this number set higher if you want to produce a lot of clicks quickly.

Bidding into position’s 1-3 will deliver the most traffic, but will be less targeted than position’s 4-6.

Position 1 will get the most clicks but many of these clicks will be untargeted “impulse” clicks. Taking the time to scan all the way to position 6 in the listing and click on the advertisement at that position suggests that the searcher is extremely interested in the subject being advertised.

Over time you will learn which keywords are making you money and which one’s are simply too competitive for your budget. Google’s campaign tracking abilities in conjunction with other 3rd party ad tracking software can help you identify these profitable keywords and track your website visitors.

Unfortunately every system can only provide so much traffic and you will find the larger companies can afford to bid pretty high for more general, high traffic keywords because they can afford it.

Large companies will pay $5 for general keywords like “credit cards” because they know over the lifetime of using a credit card they will recover their investment.

The big boys can squeeze you out of the Google Adwords World just as easily as in the “real world”. Of course it’s not all “doom and gloom”. You still have a powerful and relatively inexpensive tool in your hands if you can exploit niches and find the “bargain” keywords.

Google’s system of tools leaves you high and dry in this respect unless you have a lot of money to blow on “throwing out a wide net” by trying a large keyword list and then refining your campaigns as you start to get clicks and track your conversions.

You can get a lot of garbage clicks by bidding your way to the top for general keywords . This is expensive, less targeted, and lower converting than if you bid to position 3-5 or spend time finding the less expensive niche keywords (using your third party software or e-book techniques).

Chances are when bidding on more general high traffic keywords you will be competing with large companies and competitors using SEO company services to manage their campaigns.

These companies can afford to pay a lot more than you or I for their clicks. In order to counteract this you need to tightly target your campaigns and find niche keyphrases to be profitable with Google. I can’t stress this enough.

To make proper decisions you will need to gather as much data as you can on how the Adwords system works. Obviously, you won’t have this data until you run a campaign or two which is why I suggest running your own Adwords Campaigns for a while to get familiar with their system.

Study the stats provided by Google which are really quite good in conjunction with one or more 3rd party stats tracking packages.

You will start to notice trends in the numbers which will allow you to make more effective use of your time and money by bidding only on the keywords that are generating sales.

Analysis may also prompt you to tweak your site content if you notice a niche you want to start competing for (better yet start up another site or tier two web page on your site targeting that niche and remove these keywords from the original campaign moving them into a new campaign pointing to your new content).

Minor tweaks can save you BIG money using Adwords

Some Notes on Scalability:

Google allows you to bid on 3 types of keyword matching options which immediately gives you three times the keywords to bid on without any more brainstorming on your part.

Each matching option provides different results and should be managed on a keyword by keyword basis.

Google also provides two methods of displaying your ad on their network: Content Match Listings and Search Network Listings .

Effectively this allows you the potential to be noticed by:

1) anyone searching on Google’s portal

2) anyone searching portal sites that get their search results from Google

3) anyone viewing a site displaying Google’s ads that has content related to the keywords you bid on.

4) anyone reading an email with content related to your keyword at Google’s free email service Gmail.

That’s a lot of options and a lot of potential exposure. Tweaking to find the right combination for your particular situation and spending requirements is something you simply have to do on an ongoing basis. I think the benefits are obvious to you by now.

A final word on costs. You may have noticed that I didn’t use a lot of numbers in my discussion of campaign costs with Google. What I think I have illustrated is a Google campaign truly can cost as little or as much as you want it to.

It can get you as much or as little traffic as you want it to. What kind of traffic it brings and how much it costs is up to you.

Where will your ads be displayed? More places than you might think:

At the time of publication AOL, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, AT&T Worldnet, EarthLink and Excite all get some or all of their search results from Google.

Content Match Listings vs. Search Network Listings

When user’s do a search on one of the Google family of portal sites your paid listings appear either along the top of the search results highlighted as sponsored listings or to the right of the actual search results in text boxes.

Your position on these search pages is determined by your keyword list and your bid for that keyword.

Your results with the Search Network Listings can be quite successful as long as you manage your account using some of the techniques suggested in this article.

Use the included Geo-targeting capabilities built into the Adwords system to ensure your ads display only in areas that are potential customers for you.

Content match listings appear as inserts on web pages not in search engine results pages. My experiences with the content Match Listings haven’t been as successful as with the Search Network Listings although I still use this option for some of my campaigns.

Google’s system analyses the content of web page and serves up ads to those pages based on the what it feels the page is about . A web page on motorcycles may feature ads about buying motorcycles, motorcycle catalogues, parts distributors … I think you get the idea.

And this idea is a good one since the ads it displays are usually pretty close to what you would think they should be. When you display ads on your website using Google’s Adsense program for example, you are effectively joining their content network.

A drawback to the content matching system is you can’t really know who is clicking on your ad. It could even be a competitor clicking on your ad from their own site! Google gives you the option of disabling either of these display methods if they aren’t working out for you with the click of a button.

You can do this on a campaign by campaign basis only enabling/disabling what is working for you. If you want to minimize your risk but still utilize the Content Matching system you do have an option.

You can set up a separate campaign with lower bid prices for your keywords and only enable content matching for this campaign. Remove the content matching option from your original campaign and voila! you’ve minimized your risk.

A few more notes on Google Campaign Optimization

I can’t stress enough the importance of getting a good Click Through Ratio (CTR) for your best target keywords. Google has really offered you a chance to save some big time money if you know how to get a good CTR for your ads and keywords.

Getting a good CTR allows Google to sell more ad space which makes them more money. Google transfers some of this money to you the advertiser by increasing your ranking within their search results it displays for your keywords, at no additional cost.

That’s right, if you can write relevant ads for your target keywords you don’t necessarily have to pay the higher bid prices for those keywords that your competitors are paying. More money saved!

Advantages of the Google Adwords System

- Highly configurable system with an intuitive web-based interface.

- Reporting system is near real-time so you can tweak campaigns on the fly

- Since their system is web based you can access your account at any time.

- Good list of Free tools and guides (although third party tools may still be required)

- Rewards advertisers that pay attention to providing relevant content to their search clients not necessarily the highest bidder. Get a better CTR and your ads are cheaper.

- Geo-targeting capabilities. Target by City, Country or display your ads Globally.

- Multiple ad delivery systems. Content and Search listings, Partner Network listings, Email.

- Multiple keyword matching options including the ability to ‘filter’ keywords.

- Reasonable minimum startup cost of $5 with no monthly minimum spend requirements

- They have licensed their search results to several other large search engines improving your web site’s exposure to people that don’t use Google as their main search portal.

- Free ROI tracking tools.

- Minimum bid is a reasonable $0.05 USD.

Disadvantages of the Google Adwords System

- Learning curve can cost you a lot of money.

- Not the most expensive PPC search engine but certainly more expensive than all other PPCs except Yahoo-Overture

- Click fraud is an unavoidable risk.

- Content matching system does not always deliver the same ROI as their search listings. If both ad delivery systems are enable for a particular campaign the content match results can lower your overall campaign CTR and get keywords disabled.

- Support system is email template driven. It can take you a few tries to get the information you REALLY need from Google’s support.

- Interface does not indicate what your competitors are bidding, only the maximum bid for any particular keyword, making the implementation of bidding strategies much more difficult.

Google Adwords Resources: Google Adwords Homepage

About the Author

Michael Lawrence is the webmaster for the Cobrasurf Directory of search engine optimization resources. He also publishes an SEO Blog, SEO Web Guide featuring SEO articles, news, tools and services.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Lawrence