As a web site designer I work with clients, but I also talk with online business newbies, and on a regular basis I see that people don’t have a clue about what they should have as a web site. They know what they want but they don’t realize the need for pre-planning the structure and content of a web site in today’s market place, The Internet.

That led me to write this article. I trust it will help new online business owners preplan before they jump right into creating an online business web site that just sits there.

There are step-by-step solutions to online business web site success.

Step #1 – Target Group, finding your best prospects can be the difference between earning pennies and dollars.

Researching your ideal target group is so important that it should be step 1, 2 and 3. New online business owners don’t seem to focus their attention on their target audience, instead they seem to think that if they build it people will come, and spend all their hard earned money on your site.

Well I guess it would be silly to make your target group focus as step 1-3, but when you think about it, your target group is all important in online business success and for that reason it should be part of all pre-planning steps. Without a target group you are just wasting your time and cluttering the Internet with more pages that will never be seen or read.

Okay so the first step is to know your target group. Learn all you can about them, because the more you know the more likely you will be to find more ways to sell to them. Plus you will be able to find complimentary products that your target audience would like.

Knowledge is POWER, but only if you apply the knowledge you gain to your Internet marketing and offline marketing.

Just a note about target groups. If you have a hobby that you spend lots of money on you should be setting up an online business to promote what you know best.

Step #2 – Keywords and Phrases your best prospect uses to find what you sell.

Your new online business web site will need to be keyword and content focused for best results. Spend plenty of time learning the keywords and phrases that your best prospect would type into a search engine text box to find exactly what they want.

Learn how to contact your target group and ask them some questions through surveys. The time you spend on learning your target audience will be time well spent and remember that your time is worth money. Everything comes down to your ROI – Return On Investment.

Your time is part of that investment, so make the best of it.

The more you learn the more you can earn, it is as simple as that.

Step #3 – Competition can be a online business destroyer if you are not prepared for it, but learning what they do can actually put you ahead of them in the major search engines.

If you take the time now to learn who you are competing with you will spend far less time changing your web site content later and again time is money. The more time you spend wasting your time the less income you will be earning and the more frustrated you will become. Eventually that leads to either total meltdown and quitting or it forces the Internet marketing newbie to spend the time learning and fixing web site problems.

So you see the time you spend at the beginning in pre planning your online business web site will be a much better ROI than trial and error strategies.

Find your competitor’s web sites and learn all you can about their use of keywords and phrases they use to attract their target group. You will also want to view their source code to discover what keywords they use in their title, description and keyword tags.

Step #4 – Find sites that compliment your site and products.

Again your competitors can help you succeed. You can learn about web sites with products and services that would compliment your products and services and that means more income for you.

If you are selling cars you might just want links on your site that would show your prospects how they could improve the appearance or performance of their car.

Always try to make it a win-win situation. You provide the best products and services you can and in turn your target group will come back to your site and buy from you. Plus they will follow the links you have to more products and services.

So like I said from the start…

1. Know your target group
2. Learn the keywords your target group uses to find what you provide.
3. Study your competitors and do what they do for success and then go one step further.
4. Find sites that compliment yours and link with them so you provide better service to your target group.

Once you have done all your research you are ready to build.

Almost daily, I see a report about a company or individuals who is trying to fool Google through Bristol SEO. When are they going to learn that you just cant fool Google? Why would you even want to try it, with when you risk being banned from the biggest search engine in the world? Many people seem to try just because they wonder if it could ever be done. As a general rule of thumb: it can’t!

There are some instances in which people think that they have tricked google. They believe that something that they have done has rocketed their site to the top of Google’s listings and they truly believe that they have managed to “stick it to the man.” Nine times out of ten when this happens they either performed an Bristol SEO procedure that Google allows or even endorses or they just happened to fill Google’s criteria better than other sites in their category without even realizing it.

Once in a while someone will actually come up with a way to fool Goggle. They will be enjoy a nice high spot on google’s listings for maybe even several months, but then the end comes for these proud sites. As soon as Goggle notices that it has been cheated, these sites are removed from the index; sometimes permanently.

The fact is that these people dont understand the power that Goggle has. Anyone with a real interest in making money from the web should consider that getting banned from the search engines effectively removes your site from the web. They dont have to let you back in, and they dont have to give you any right to respond youre entirely at their mercy. You dont want to get in their bad books.

Aside from the fact that Goggle will remove you from its listings, there is another incentive against trying to fool Goggle. If you fool Goggle, you are fooling your clients. There is no reason to try to lure visitors onto your page expecting to get something and really giving them something else. This is a poor way to conduct business and more often than not it will chase the customer away for good.

If you want your website to be found in categories that dont apply to it, try purchasing ads on pages that are listed towards the top of the Goggle listings in these categories. You can actually increase your sites reputation in Googles eyes rather than hurting it by adding another link to your site. This is an excellent form of marketing because it allows you to reach out beyond your market simply by dishing out a few dollars a month.

Some of the most popular methods of trying to fool Google’s PageRank system are link farms and link exchanges. Link farms are basically websites that exist only to get links to specific sites counted by the search engines. Link exchanges are groups of websites that each pay a monthly fee to link to each other like link farms, only more expensive and dodgy. In both cases, the websites involved are attempting to climb the ranks of Google’s search results through the sheer quantity of links to them this is known as Googlebombing. But it doesnt always work.

Goggle knows that cheaters can ruin their search engine for the rest of us. After all, if link farms inflate the rankings of less-useful Websites, then well all start seeing worse search results. Thats why Goggle constantly updates PageRank to keep those kinds of sites away. The Page Rank formula that Goggle implements is mysterious and ever changing. This is the primary reason that Goggle cannot be fooled.

It has been found recently that Goggle is now sending out cloak bots, disobeying robots.txt to find out whether sites are cloaking serving a different page to search engines than what visitors see. These cloak bots are controversial but seem to have some positive effects on the Googles results.

Unethical methods make it difficult for people who are trying to do Bristol SEO the proper way, which is one of the reasons why it needs to be monitored so carefully. If people stopped trying to find ways to manipulate the system, it would be much easier to keep up with whats going on.

As you may already know, Goggle publishes a list of guidelines suggesting legitimate ways to improve a site’s ranking, by making it more accessible and better. One of the tips is to make pages for users and not for search engines. Youd do well to listen to their advice.

Choosing the right search engine optimisation (Bristol SEO) firm and online marketing company is the most important phase in your business website’s existence. It is important to align yourself with a company that are good at selling products and services online in order to ensure you reap the benefits that Bristol SEO can truly deliver. Using in house Bristol SEO staff is often flawed so when a business makes the decision to choose an external source for their online marketing solution then I always encourage the company to do a lot of research on the potential firms.

As search engine optimisation (Bristol SEO) requires expertise the first thing I suggest is searching on Google for “Bristol SEO” and “Online Marketing” in your regional index and taking note of the top 5 companies for each search result set. Compare them. Then make a list of the companies that are repeated. The reason I suggest searching on Google is that

- Google holds over 85% of the search market in Australia. I am not sure on other regional areas in the World but as far as I am concerned Google dominate and they have the most advanced search algorithm.

- Any company that can successfully market its own products – Bristol SEO and Online Marketing, and be placed in the top 5 results are very good at online marketing and as these terms are very competitive it is the cream of the crop being listed.

So, now you should contact each of the firms that are repeated in the list and ask to make an appointment with them to discuss how Bristol SEO can best benefit your business website.

As long as you have done the searches above then there are several questions I like to ask at this point.
1. Where do they place in the search engine results pages for their own products? – Bristol SEO and Online/Internet Marketing?
2. Do they have at least 10 examples of Bristol SEO clients in comparable industries (B2B/B2C) that they can show online marketing success with? – look for traffic graphs and keywords being searched on to get to the website.
3. How many staff do the Bristol SEO firm have?
4. Does the Bristol SEO company have 24/7 support and phone contact?
5. Are they professional and expert in their handling of your questions and delivering clear honest answers?
6. Read some of the Bristol SEO firm’s testimonials.

After these questions have been answered then you will generally have a very good idea of how good the company actually is. What their philosophies are and whether they are a good fit for your business website objectives.

There are several things I would also consider very strongly.
- Never trust a company that is willing to make any kind of guarantees on results. There is no way that an Bristol SEO company can know for sure that your website is going to be listed in the top 10 in the search results. If they do make promises then it is likely they will be optimising your website for less than optimal keywords that are uncompetitive. For example you sell “Blue widgets” and you would like to be listed in the top ten for blue widgets but it is very competitive. This dodgy company says they can get you in the top ten, but they don’t say for what keywords and they do deliver but its for a keyword phrase like “blue widget with flowers in Melbourne Australia” – this is completely useless and will not sell any more of your products!!
- Never choose an Bristol SEO firm on price. Trust me when I say this – You get what you pay for! Aligning your business website with the best Bristol SEO firm, which may be more expensive, is going to get you a lot more traffic than a lower ranked Bristol SEO company. A more experienced Bristol SEO firm is likely to have many, many testimonials and graphs of clients to show you. Align with the best Bristol SEO Company and you get the best results it’s as simple as that – there is no doubt in my mind on this.

Now that you have narrowed down the list, take a day to go through all of the information gathered. Assess everything on its merits and choose wisely. As I said above, never choose based on price, you pay peanuts and you will get monkeys. Graphic design and coding the building of a website make up about 20% of the success of the website, the other 80% is getting people to come to your website and buy your product or service. A similar comparison is opening a shop. You can make it as plush and nice as you want inside but if no one is coming through the door then it really doesn’t matter how nice it is does it? You could well have a warehouse and market more and you would likely be far more successful. In summary, align your business website with the best Bristol SEO firm that you can find.

Meanwhile, for completeness of information, here below some links related to previous articles in reverse chronological order:
- July 2007, Google, penalized or floating website?
- March 2007, Google: from dancer to surfer

But when started these fluctuations?

The first events were recorded at the end of February 2007 and completed by the 20th March, 2007. The second wave began in the last days of June 2007 and seems not to have arrested yet.
Let see point by point what connect websites victim of this particular swinging condition in search results of the Californian search engine.

How to understand if a website is in floating step?

1) Unfortunately, the easiest way, is the most “painful”, in fact just look at the chart path from the site visits by our software collection of statistics web. In fact, this chart will be easy to focus all sine waves that the site has passed. For example, if we take this example:

In fact, here we can see the behaviour of visitors (then the Google access “unfortunately”) over the past 5 months, with a down of the site initially for 1 day, lifts the next day, down to about 3 months, the up for 15 days and the phase fluctuation continues that characterizes daily this site.
From this chart, you can also see and quantify the frequency sine wave, long since up to a week before the PageRank export, but now closer in a few days.
2) the pages of the site is properly indexed in Google, to check do a search on site:nomesito.com

3) the site is not penalized. To check do use some small query listed in that other post (Understand if a site is penalized on Google)

4) the site is no longer present in the top positions of Google (first 2 pages) in the searches for keywords before fluctuation brought traffic to the site. Usually the site for these keywords is about 10-30 results of the first results omitted in the final page (around 950th position)

5) Not all keywords are vanished, but only those secondary and the long-tail (long tail, which means the combination / extension of multiple keywords for example, the long-tail “Rome hotels” can be “hotel in Rome near the station and a vista of the Coliseum”).

6) The site for historical keywords or major ones does not seem to suffer “penalties” in SERP (search results) if not by some “natural” lowering of any position (maximum 5 or 6 positions). This allows the site to have a reduction of traffic generated by Google equal to 90% and not 100%.

7) The fluctuation is not made with regard to the site nor to the page, but precisely for each keywords. Indeed it is possible that a different page for keywords present in a natural way or fluctuation..

What is shown in SERP instead of the site?

Through a somewhat comparisons and analysis with colleagues and friends of the web, I can say that usually instead of “downgraded” sites are proposed search results rather unique, in addition to sites that “merit” in the engine ranking:
- List directory containing the backlink to the site in fluctuation (although this appears to be inserted in the directory)
- Sites SPAM (spam engine, sites that use black-hat techniques, etc.)
- Sites with duplicate contents
- Sites without valid content and concerned for the end user (for example, an e-commerce site that has similar materials but does not have those)

What kind of sites have been affected?

Unlike previous fluctuations associated with new sites with little popularity and low TRUST, the fluctuation of the end of June struck several very authoritative sites with hundreds of backlink, contents valid both at Bristol SEO level and users.

Moreover, it seems not to be no association between the nature of the affected sites. Indeed were downgraded websites:
- E-commerce
- Showcase / Institutional
- With / without Adsense
- From industrial to adult content
- Etc..

When you have these fluctuations?

The fate has it that the beginning or the end of fluctuations coincide with the PageRank export/update. Much more difficult is to find the link between these two actions carried out “simultaneously” by Google.

Why these sites suffer such penalties?

Hard to say, but what I can say is that the idea of cleaning SERP is no longer reliable, given that times are too long and would not guarantee a good service to the end user.

Probably this is the fluctuations due to inclusion/activation of new algorithms that Google tests and try again and re-evaluate the results obtained from the SERP.

But how can a website resolve this situation?

My suggestion is always the same, continue the promotion of the site as if nothing had (I know it is difficult but now there are not immediate remedies) trying to create original content and collect spontaneous links even from sites with high TRUST (we will see later how to recognize and capture the trust of a site).

The ideal would be to became independent from Google, by creating a community always present on the site through a blog or a forum or other innovative services that provide users loyalty.

I have seen in many forums that now a days website owners are little confused regarding link building for their site. They are not very sure what link building strategies they should adopt. Not to mention Google and yahoo heavily rely on quality back links. Content optimization is always a factor but these two search engines are heavily relying on volume of links and of course quality of links. A link back from a page where there are hundreds of links would not help you much. At the time of link building most people forget about the importance of link building. A theme based link back is more powerful than 20 non relevant link backs. Some times people reject link exchange request due to lack of pr of the link page. But you should know that relevancy is more important than page rank of a link page. If you get an offer for link exchange then first check if the site is any way related to your business ? If yes then check it’s link page for (a) Number of outgoing links on that page (b) Does that link page has all kind of sites ? (c) Does that page is accessible from home page ? These 3 are must.

We often get questions that our site is new, no one wants to exchange link with us. Yes it’s a big problem for any webmaster. But think if you propose a link from some of your other websites to the webmaster then he’ll certainly exchange link with you. But what if you don’t have any other site, then how you can do one way link building ? Many Bristol SEO companies, including us provide this kind of service at very reasonable rate, you can hire those companies. Let’s get back to the topic. There are thousands of sites for any category of sites you have. If you start gathering a list of relevant sites through search engine you’ll get bogus data/ search results after you cross page 20 or more. So it’s not a solution to gather sites from search engines. You should follow your competitors link backs and then approach relevant ones for link request. How you’ll find link backs list of your competitors ? it’s very simple just use linkdomain:www.yourcompetitorurl.com in yahoo search to find link backs of that site. Then sort relevant ones for your site and then email those sites such a way that they should feel interested to your proposal. You should know here that One way links are many times more effective than reciprocal link building. So if you have other relevant site then you can use that site to propose a link exchange to your relevant sites. If you don’t have any other site to propose link back then you can always use directory submission, Blog submission join forums to get some links to your domain.

Hard problem what anybody face at the time of link exchange if you don’t have page rank on your proposed link page. 80% link requests get trashed because of “no pr” or “low pr’. After directory submission, Blog submission wait for next Google PR update. You’ll surely get pr 3-4 if you have 100-150 link backs. Now when you have good Pr then start link building for your site. If you are going to propose a well established site be sure you linked back the site first. Otherwise they may reject your proposal. The process I’m discussing here is actually 3 way – for your site A you are proposing a link back to site B from your site C. So this is 3 way link building. This kind of link building is hard to get detected by search engines because they can’t find a clue. But remember you should host your site C on a different server with different ip. For this different server and ip factor search engines can’t detect the link.

But here is a big question – is it completely valueless if we do reciprocal link building ? NO it’s not. reciprocal link building has value but not as one way. Search engines now understand that both sites have mutually agree to show each others link to gain link popularity. But in case of one way it can’t trace a link back. That’s why it gives more value to those one way links. Why one way links are important ? Think of a situation : can you ask Google.com or yahoo.com to place your link on their home page ? No, if you even do they’ll not place your link. But many web sites place a link of google/ yahoo/ msn on their page. That creates the one way link for those domains. They are doing nothing to get a link back. When a site continues to get more and more one way links then search engines also start to think that the domain must be important so other sites are linking back. I would suggest you do mixture of everything. 1) Do one way link building 2) submit your site to free and paid directories 3) Make your own Blog and submit it to Blog directories 4) Use article submission.

Internet traffic flow is simply the paths taken by people to navigate between web pages. Some of these paths are eight lane freeways with thousands of people passing through each minute. Others might seem more like a city street with a four way stop every other block. Then there are the back trails in the woods, rarely traveled and known only to a few.

Think back on your daily internet activities and you will realize that you have traveled a few paths, some more traveled than others. When you logged on you probably checked your email. I might be going out on a limb here but this is probably a fairly narrow yet beaten trail. You are probably the only person to travel this path and I would guess you navigate through it often.

Then you may have traveled to your favorite blog to see what PtrWigg thinks about international business today. You read his latest blog and find he has a link to a related business site to illustrate his point. You decide to swing by that site to get more background information. While there you find a link to another interesting site on globalization. The process of traveling though the blog, through the business site and into the globalization site is in itself a path.

Alright, that is all pretty basic. Im sure you already understood this much even if you have never thought of the internet in this way. While this concept is very simple in nature I dont think webmasters always take it into consideration when developing a website and Bristol SEOs seem to rarely consider it while optimizing for one.

So how does a webmaster develop a site with the Flow in mind? I believe the first step is in realizing that each page not only contains a path within itself but more importantly is a step within a path. Lets say you have created a page with an article on how to give a business presentation. You may have superbly supplied a facet of information but all information by itself is useless.

Does it really matter if you know how to give a business presentation if you cant dress yourself, tie your shoes, comb your hair, eat breakfast, drive to work, operate a projector and speak in public? Obviously we are going to assume that your users are capable of doing everything up until the operate a projector step. Information is only useful when it is collaborated with other bits of information.

So ask yourself what path your average user is most likely on and if possible provide for him or her to continue on that path. All it takes is a little forethought and a few links to appropriate resources.

I think for the most part webmasters are pretty good about developing their sites with traffic flow in mind. While professional Bristol SEO experts may take the internet traffic flow model into account when promoting a website through link building this does not appear to be a common practice among webmasters.

Today the primary objective in link building seems simply to get ranked by the top search engines. The two most common link building techniques completely ignore internet traffic flow. Webmasters like to get links from directories and exchanging reciprocal links. The problem is the average user does not spend very much time viewing average directories and even less time viewing link exchange pages.

Doesnt this seem a little backwards? Webmasters are trying to gain exposure for their sites by spending time listing their sites in places that other people generally dont visit. If we were to apply this to offline marketing it would be like if I purchased a billboard in the middle of the desert promoting bottled water. People in the middle of nowhere may want bottled water but doesnt it seem like a better idea promoting where there may actually be people to see it?

Im not saying webmasters should not submit their sites to directories but I absolutely believe that their marketing mix should not consist of only directory submission and reciprocal link exchanging. I believe it is very important to focus on link building within the flow.

The concept isnt difficult. Figure out where your site naturally fits within the flow. Then try to contextually exchange links or purchase links on pages within paths your target user is most likely on. This will help you tap into long term sources of targeted traffic regardless of your search engine rankings. This method will require considerably more time to build the same number of backlinks but the search engines will reward you for the superb quality of links.

This year, like many people, I wasnt able to attend. However, I wanted to keep up with the news, so I found a great source of reports and updates. I will summarize the most important sessions to the best of my ability.

In my opinion, one of the most crucial topics is Vertical Creep.

Vertical creep is when non-organic and non-paid results start occupying top spots in search results. Verticals started showing up in search results back when Altavista was popular, and since then have grown into a much more sophisticated part of the overall search engine results page. Greg Jarboe was the first to speak of vertical creep and introduced everyone to verticals.

All the engines have verticals in some form or another nowadays. Google has its famous OneBox which is generally the place immediately below the top sponsored ads but immediately above the organic results. This is where you will find news, Froogle, and image results which may match a query.

For example, I wrote a few weeks ago about how, when you searched for Olympics on Google, you were presented with video results at the top of the page. But it doesnt stop there. Do a search for New Orleans, for example, and in Google you are presented with not only news results but also map results, pushing the organic results down so that only the top 2 or 3 results are showing. Much less than the typical 4 or 5 we are used to seeing.

One of the biggest impacts of Verticals is the stretching of the search results page. It is becoming ever clearer that everything but the top 1 or 2 organic is worth less because it could be pushed below the fold, whereas sponsoreds value is increasing because there are less organic results visible.

According to Gord Hotchkiss, however, the impact on verticals, at least on Yahoo! And MSN, isnt as great. His firm has recently completed research on how users interact with search engines. The Yahoo! MSN research performed by Hotchkiss firm is a follow up to Google research the firm completed last year at this time.

According to Hotchkiss, Google does a better job of incorporating Verticals into results. Google users are more accepting of them while Yahoo! and MSN users tend to scan more of the results on a page, thereby negating the impact verticals have on organic results.

This could mean a couple of things. First, as Hotchkiss suggests, Google may have trained its users. We are used to seeing the verticals (and hit bolding and inconsistently displayed sponsored results) and are therefore more accepting to the varying page changes, while Yahoo! and MSN users are less forgiving, perhaps because they feel the results displayed are less relevant. This isnt too hard to believe considering he gave an example of searching for New York Pizza on MSN and NOT getting pizza places but getting news about pizza in New York.

Personally, I too have experienced this, especially with MSN. It seems to have more of a problem determining what types of verticals are relevant to the searcher.

Bob Carilli was up next and presented a case study on how effective verticals have been for one of his clients.

Through some analysis they found that Froogle shopping results were showing up a lot for his clients competitive keyword terms, yet the Froogle listings were unoptimized.

They responded by creating a data feed for Froogle which was optimized to target these great phrases which had poor Froogle listings. As a result, his clients site quickly moved to the top of the Froogle listings for those phrases. While it is unclear, I would assume this would have translated into similar top rankings in the Google area where Froogle is displayed.

This also shows that, as search marketers, we shouldnt rely solely on Bristol SEO or PPC. There are dozens of verticals out there we could tap into if we had an open mind.

If you look at Google alone, there are opportunities in Google News (with properly optimized press releases), Froogle, as mentioned above, Google Local, Google Base, Google Video and more. Similarly, with Yahoo! and MSN there are verticals to research. Both engines also have a shopping portal, as well as news, video and local results.

In the end, verticals could become the poor mans Bristol SEO tactic. If you cant compete organically and cant pay for top sponsored, perhaps you can optimize your product feed to appear ahead of all your competitors?

Sites have different goals for search optimization. Some sites search for all kinds of traffic. A Bristol SEO strategy that is broad in scope can be advantageous for sites that cover broad interest, such as directories and periodicals. On the other hand, majority of the sites attempt to maximize their pages for a high quantity of very specific keywords that radiate the possibility of a sale. Usually, focusing on well-chosen traffic produces sales leads of desirable quality, and allows advertisers to pull in more business.

The importance of having a high rank for an advertiser’s site cannot be emphasized enough. Unfortunately, many site owners believe that their site has a high-ranking, when the truth is exactly the opposite. Others who are aware that they do not possess enough presence in search engines do not know that it is possible to achieve the ranking they want, and that they can get it through means that are a lot easier and more efficient.

So what are the techniques that advertisers must employ to maximize their optimization and garner the site activity and profits that they seek? Here are some of the most useful ones.

1. Title tags should be written in a creative way. It should be created with the strongest keyword targets as the basis. It is the most important tag of a web site when it comes to optimization. The specific keyword of the web site that is being optimized should be the one that is placed in the title tag. It goes without saying that every site should have its own title tag.

2. Carefully select the words and phrases to be assigned to Alt tags. Alt tags are not really mandatory, but they are provided for text browsers because images do not get displayed in web browsers, and it is the Alt tags that give information to the users about its significance. The rule in Alt tags is fairly simple: only key phrases or key words should be put in Alt tags, overdoing may cause a site to disappear in search results or get banned from it indefinitely.

3. Manage keyword density. Keyword density is the percentage occupied by keywords or keyword phrases in a web page. Ideally, keywords are used once in the title tag, the heading tag, and in bold text. Keywords should be placed at the top of the page, and phrases can be inserted in every paragraph, depending on how long the paragraph is.

4. Determine the appropriate page size for the site. Speed is a vital element to the success of a site, and it important to both online visitors and the search engines. It is recommended to limit web pages under 15K.

5. Create rich themes for the pages. Search engines are increasingly getting particular about themes. Content should be created as often as possible, and the pages should be maintained to 200 to 500 words. The content should be created in relation to the market, and should be linked to the other related content present on the site.

6. Make the site’s design attractive to the viewer. All efforts in optimization will be in vain if the site is poorly designed and if its contents are hard for viewers to read. There should be more text content than HTML content in the web site. Viewers should be able to use the pages in all major browsers. It should be noted that most search engines veer away from JavaScript and Flash.

7. Stay away from the bad techniques. Utilizing them could get a site blacklisted from the search engines. Spamming is a no-no, and the following techniques are considered spamming: doorway and identical pages, tiny or invisible text, cloaking, usage of keyword phrases in author tags etc.

Advertisers should keep in mind that simplicity is the basis of a successful Bristol SEO campaign. Sites should be easy for viewers to locate, follow, and read, and should contain relevant content. Following the techniques above will prove worthwhile for site owners in the future.

Currently, there is a lot of misinformation lingering on the Net regarding Search Engine Optimization or Bristol SEO and marketing, therefore it is imperative that customers and web users get to have some facts laid out clearly, in order to prevent tripping on a lot of errors and misconceptions. Here are some of those common misconceptions about Bristol SEO’s.

* Not Enough Link Popularity.

Some search engines make almost every attempt to qualify the results which are laid out in search results. They try to do this is by tracking the number and quality of the incoming links to a web site. A website with a huge number of incoming links from quality sites is given a higher ranking in search results with regards to Bristol SEO.

This is an important factor to consider, and is sometimes over-looked by those attempting to market web sites. Bristol SEO service providers and link services that promise to link your site to thousands of other sites are far from productive; in fact they can sometimes do more harm than good. Most search engines these days consider services like this to be spam, so-called “link farming” and often give sites with these types of links a low ranking or drop them all-together from the search results.

* Lack of Research On Effective Keywords

If you have a web site, it would be important to ask yourself “Do I know what pages in my site are generating the most interest? Do you know what terms people are searching for that would lead them to finding your site? Let’s cite an example. You own a web site that sells jelly beans, and so you spend some money on paid search advertising, and logically; you assume that the key phrase “jelly bean” is a prime candidate to target.

So, what happens after? Usually one of two things. First, the term jelly bean is such a popular search term that probably twenty million other web sites are competing for the same key phrase. Second, the term jelly bean is so unpopular that it’s unlikely that it’s searched for more than once in this lifetime. Proper keyword research can solve these problems

* Putting Too Much Emphasis on Design, and Bristol SEO later

Most often, even experienced web designers fail to consider the results of design decisions on Bristol SEO until it’s too late. So what’s the point of spending thousands of dollars for a well “designed” web site if nobody even sees it, or clicks on it? One needs to consult with a Bristol SEO specialist early in the design process, even if your web site marketing strategy relies too much on paid search advertising. Consulting with a professional Bristol SEO expert first may expose flaws in your site’s layout.

* Splash Pages May Look Nice, But Are They That Effective?

Most often we see entry pages that instruct the user to “Enter”, which are usually decorated with a large graphic or a flash animation. The index page of a web site is the one that search engines read first, and more often than not the only readable content on this type of page is a link that says, “skip intro”. The notion is that splash pages lack indexable content, and generally contain no links and often contain a “redirect” to the real home page. Search engines generally hate redirects, for they want the real thing. It would be best to avoid splash pages unless you aren’t serious about being found by search engines.

Relying Too Heavily On Pay Per Click

For many small and medium-sized businesses, trying to compete in the internet marketplace simply becomes overwhelming. While paid search advertising is a highly effective means of targeting an audience, organic search optimization greatly increases the chances of success for any web site. Ensure that the site you are advertising is one that people can easily locate without the assistance of a paid search advertising campaign, which sometimes could be real costly.

A few days after publishing, I received a ‘please help’ email from Loren, a small business owner. Her website is all about glass art (http://www.headchangearts.com ), and she wanted some clarification on some of the points I made in my previous article. Loren’s questions were good ones, and the answers important, so I thought I’d publish them.

Q: We have a site for glass art. From your article, I gather that if I create an articles page with free reprint articles (written by other people) containing ‘glass art’ type keywords, I’ll get higher search rankings for those keywords? Is that correct? If so, what page comes up in the rankings? The article itself or my Home page? Also, if the article is being used by other webmasters, won’t the search results also include their version of the article?

A: In answer to your first question, yes, having an articles page with keyword rich free reprint articles generally has the effect of increasing your ranking. Google thinks highly of sites with a lot of helpful content, but it all comes down to whether other webmasters do as well. If your site contains heaps of helpful content about glass art, other webmasters in the glass art field (be they suppliers, distributors, or competitors) will be inclined to link to you simply because that link implies (to their customers) an association with you. That association boosts their credibility because you’re obviously an authority in the field. It also may help their own search engine ranking a little as Google will then see them as part of an expert, credible community of sites (although the benefits of this for the linking site are minimal and arguable). So, in a roundabout way, I’m saying that yes, article-based content can help your ranking, but only if it increases the likelihood that other related sites will link to yours.

As to the question of which page (the article itself or your home page) displays in search results, that really depends on which page has the most links to it*. If you have an article which is just THE BEST source of info in the industry, and everyone’s linking to it, that page will display in the search results. This is good because people who click on this result are interested specifically in the content of the article. So when your website displays, they get the information they want, and they’ll be pleased. And assuming your navigation is clear and easy to use, it is likely they’ll at least visit your home page.

And finally, yes, if other sites have published the same article, they may display in the results alongside you. The same is true of the original author’s website. But it’s important to remember that, generally, the site with the highest PR will rank highest in the results, and it’s this site that most users will visit. You just need to work hard to make sure that’s you! For an example of how this works, do a search for a very specific term related to the article of mine which you’ve obviously read. Search Google worldwide for “Google’s love affair with content” (including the quotes). You’ll notice that the no.1 result is actually a page on EzineArticles.com which contains my article. The page on my site (DivineWrite.com) containing the article only ranks no.2. This is because EzineArticles.com has a higher PR than DivineWrite.com, and overall, the keywords are considered more relevant to the rest of the content on their site than they are to mine. Obviously, this means that a good article can display several times in the same search results, but that’s ok – it simply adds to the perceived authority of the article and the sites containing it.

* Above I say that the page that displays in the results will be the one with the most links to it. There are some complicating factors here. For instance, the text in a link plays a big part in how effective that link is. A link to your site that says “Click here” or “check this site out”, won’t do you as much good as a link which says “Glass Art sales” or “glass art creator”. So if lots of people are linking to the page containing the article, but the text in their links is generic, then that page may not rank as highly as a page with fewer – more keyword rich – links pointing to it. Of course, this assumes that both pages are equally well optimized for search engines and for the same keyword phrases.

I know that the above is a very specific question and the answer is full of ifs and buts, but hopefully this exchange will answer a few questions for a few people.

Happy reprinting!