Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Articles - Mr SEO

Ever wonder what the biggest SEO myths are? I have taken the most prevalent myths that seem to be constantly resurfacing and examined them for you. This is a must read for anyone looking to hire an SEO firm or someone looking to do SEO for themselves.

Myth #1 All meta tags are of equal importance
Some meta tags are useful while others are not. I have stated this many times. Search engines are relying more and more about what is on the website than what the tags are telling them. The description tag is used by some (but not all) search engines. The same goes for the keyword tag. Keyword tags are used more by spammers and people using software to find you as a link partner than the search engines. In my opinion, the only tags you should concentrate your efforts on are the robot tag and the description tags.

Myth # 2 You should submit your site to search engines weekly or monthly.Honestly, I never submit any site more than 1 time and sometimes I don't even do that. If you submit your site once, you're good. The engines will come back on their own. You can sometimes speed up the process of getting your site indexed by linking it to a high traffic or high PR site. The search engines will find the URL to your site and index it automatically.

Myth # 3 SEO is too expensive
Actually, SEO is probably the most cost effective form of online marketing. Organic SEO is cheaper to set up and maintain than a PPC campaign or banner advertising. With PPC and banner advertising, you pay for clicks or impressions. With SEO, all clicks are FREE. You simply pay for the set up and monitoring of your site's pages.

Myth # 4 PPC is more effective than natural SEO
In the short term...true. In the long term...false. Why, you ask? Organic SEO is preferred by traffic over 5 to 1 to PPC. People trust organic searches to return relevant results. People also know that the ads to the right of the page are sponsored ads. They have long ago figured out that anyone can bid on any term they want, as many often do, without even a hint of relevance. So, long term SEO structuring can indeed be more effective than PPC, especially when considering the preferences of search traffic. A top 5 ranking may take some time to get, but once you are there (and provided you can maintain it), you will get better results than from a PPC ad.

Myth # 5 Hiring an SEO specialist "in house" is cheaper
The problem with hiring someone in house is, they are paid hourly or by salary. Most SEO firms (Mr-SEO included), charge per item or project. It doesn't matter how long it takes us, you pay a one time charge. When you hire a firm, it's like having a team of SEO experts on your payroll. Paying a flat rate saves you money and speeds up the time it takes to complete a job. Additionally, most SEO firms (again, Mr-SEO Included) have specialists who write, submit, redesign sites, post pages, etc... Hiring one person who can do all these things competantly is highly unlikely.

Myth # 6 I can only optimize my homepage for keyterms
You can and should optimize every page on your site. Each page should have it's own keyterms, with no more than three phrases per page (preferrably one).

Myth # 7 All I need to do is write content with the correct keyword density and my site will rank well
Wrong...especially if you want to rank on Google. You will need off site SEO as well as onsite SEO. Keyword density may work on MSN (for now), but it will take more than that to rank well for all search engines.

Myth # 8 I shouldn't aim for the most competitive keywords and phrases
If the keywords you are competing for are very competitive, should you optimize your site for them? Of Course! I would optimize for some high, medium and low competitive keyterms. Cover all your bases. The worst case is that you won't rank well for the high competitive keyterms and that's ok. You can always work to improve them. Don't shy away from top keyterms just because they are competitive. You may never know how close you could rank for them unless you try.

Myth # 9 Only work with companies that give you a guarantee
Guarantees would be nice if they were worth the paper they are printed on. In fact, most guarantees from SEO firms have the same stipulation in them. This stipulation usually states that as long as they get one of your keyphrases to the top of any major search engines, they have fulfilled their end of the agreement. This is irrelevant to the competition of the term. In other words...it's easy to be number one for terms no one is competing for. Don't be deceived by high rankings listed on SEO sites as they can be misleading.

Myth # 10 SEO requires a 1 year commitment on my part
It certainly shouldn't. Don't lock yourself into a year contract with any company unless you already have an established, favorable business relationship. SEO, in most cases, should be performed on a month to month basis with a mutual understanding of the objectives and relative timetable. Often, both the long and short term maintenance contracts that many firms insist on including with each job are unnecessary. As an example...If you have a new site optimized, especially right after an update, you may not see results for three months. Why pay for maintenance in the interim time? Additionally, you may not be happy with the results of an SEO firm or even the level of service. A long term contract may only ensure that you receive a full year of bad service. So, don't lock yourself in with a year contract, at least until you are comfortable with who you are dealing with.

Hopefully, I put a few common SEO myths to rest. Feel free to contact me with questions you may have regarding these or other SEO myths you want more information on. If you post this article on your site you must link back!

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By: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

So you want to start a business, sell a product or have the next big dot Com idea, huh? Well, undoubtedly, you will need a domain. Wouldn't an expired domain name give you a head start? Think about it...the site attached to the domain already has a page rank and backlinks. Maybe the site is listed in Dmoz or several other directories and search engines. By purchasing an expired domain, you wouldn't have to worry about Google's age factor for new sites. It would likely save you a whole lot of time and money, right? Wrong. Like most things in life, nothing is that easy.
Expired domains are viewed by many as a way for a new domain owner to capitalize on a the previous site's page rank and traffic. Unfortunately, that's simply not the case.

Once a site expires, it loses its page rank, meaning all existing links are no longer counted towards the site. That's right...you start fresh. You'll have to re-establish PR. Dmoz has even mentioned that they will pull a site's listing once it expires. Of course, depending on the popularity of the name in terms of it's relation to search traffic, you'll probably get more traffic than if the site was new. The site already has established links that bring in traffic, they just won't count toward your page rank...ever. But honestly, that's really the only benefit you get, unless you are lucky enough to buy a domain whose name you can benefit from because of a direct relation to your products or services. The chances of that happening are pretty slim. Think about it...if someone owned a successful site with a successful name, would it be expired and available? This is why even the best attempts at garnering an expired domain usually only result in a loose association by name at best. If you want to sell computers, you won't find "computers.com". You might find "discountcomputerperipheralsupply.net", but that's not exactly memorable, is it?

There are many SEO gurus who advocate buying expired domains. I don't necessarily disagree as long as you know what the benefits will and won't be. Google has stated that expired domains will lose their PR and backlinks. I have even heard of instances where attempts to re-establish PR after purchasing the expired domain and registering it have failed. In fact, more than a few people have had problems with Google failing to recognize backlinks set up after the domain is re-established.
So, is there any safe way to get a jump on the SERP's? Well, if possible, you'd want to purchase a domain before it expires. This way, there is no chance of losing the backlinks and PR. Still, if it holds a site with a high PR and good backlinks or is simply a popular phrase or term, it's likely going to cost you a lot more than the registration fee on a domain. The cost could be justified, however, in some instances.

In my research, I couldn't find one instance where Google or any other search engine had a problem with a transfer of ownership regarding domains. This basically entails buying a business with the location, not just an empty store with a sign. Of course, someone could own a domain with no site on it, but then pre-existing PR and backlinks wouldn't be a factor. You would simply be buying a name. For domains with successful sites already established, it's a good way to get a head start if the price is right. If you can afford it and find someone willing to sell, this is one way to avoid the loss of any pre-existing PR and backlinks. Of course, we are talking about domain purchase in the context of small business. If you bought "Sears.com" in 1990 and you don't own the company, it wasn't because your last name is Sears.

Back to expired domains...

If you do decide to buy an expired domain, keep one thing in mind. The site already has backlinks, anchor text and other off site SEO factors. There are two considerations you will need to make before you plunk down your cash:

1. Are you buying the domain because the domain name is related or because the previous site had high traffic? If the site you are planning is unrelated, you won't benefit from the traffic (provided there is any) or off site SEO work.

2. Make sure you know what you are getting into when you buy an expired domain. Any "black hat" methods, links to bad neighbors, paid links and other unethical practices can affect you.

If all else fails or your search for a related expired domain bears no fruit, start from scratch. You will be able to develop your site knowing that the success or failure of it can't be attributed to someone else's efforts. In other words, you will know if your SEO methods are effective for the particular business you are in and not a result of traffic already established by the previous owner. I have written many articles that can help you boost your pagerank and get indexed faster. Sometimes, it's better to start fresh than go through the headache of searching for the right expired domain.


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It's a fact that surfers prefer organic search results, which are the result of organic SEO methods, 5 to 1 over Paid Search engine advertising. I'm not saying this because I'm a firm believer in the long term benefits of SEO over SEM (even though I am), I'm saying it because it's true. PPC does have it's place in online marketing, but before I get into that, let me expound on my previous statement.

Why do people go to the organic listings before they go to the sponsor ads? It's very simple. People know that organic listings are more likely to have what they're looking for. Sites that are shown as a result of a search have creditability over paid listing sites. This is important to keep in mind, in addition to the fact that if your site ranks well organically, you will spend substantially less money on PPC and overall online marketing. I have a few clients that receive thousands of hits a day based solely on organic searches. These results, along with the ever-increasing cost of PPC advertising, make me wonder why more companies don't utilize organic SEO methods.

In regard to PPC, it's certainly an effective way to drive traffic to your site quickly. PPC campaigns are an excellent option for those waiting for a higher page rank or companies that sell high dollar items or have large profit margins. If your average sale is 5 dollars, you can't really afford to be paying much for an ad. If one average order can pay for an entire day's or even week's PPC budget, it's probably well worth the money. Unfortunately, a successful PPC campaign takes a lot more than money.
A successful PPC campaign is all about monitoring. Of the many subpar PPC campaigns I have "inherited" from frustrated site owners, roughly 80% were improperly monitored or tracked. Why is tracking so important? For one thing, without any sort of tracking, how will you know how much you are spending for a lead or a sale? Aside from not having tracking in place, many PPC managers bid on bad keywords, allow poorly written ads and utilize improper landing pages. Again, a successful PPC campaign takes a lot more than money.

Another thing many fail to realize when it comes to organic SEO and PPC is that one can be used to the advantage of the other. PPC can be used to test whether or not the keywords you are targeting are right for you. This works especially well for a company that has a unique service or product. Sometimes, traditional keywords or phrases are ineffective. PPC combined with tracking can help you determine if the keywords you are bidding on are converting. If they are, you can the create pages for the organic search which will hopefully alleviate your need for future PPC spending or at least curtail it significantly. There are also other ways to use PPC to "test" areas in which you could benefit from organic SEO, though many SEM firms will not tell you this. Why? Because they either don't know how to use PPC in this capacity or they want you to remain dependent on PPC for the life of your business. Not all, but many SEM firms view their clients much in the same way that high interest lenders view borrowers with good credit. They want you to stay put and throw your money out the window and will be more than happy to let you do so until you figure out that you don't have to.

The idea behind SEM is to help your ROI. Since I lean more toward SEO than SEM, I tend to use PPC as a way to test the market and to help new businesses bring in traffic. Ideally, organic SEO will help minimize the cost of PPC. It's my opinion that companies who focus solely on PPC are putting all their eggs in one basket and will always be dependent on their marketing budget. As PPC prices soar, so will your PPC expenses.

So, the next time you search for an SEM firm, ask how they can help you save money and achieve better results over the long term by incorporating organic SEO into your overall marketing strategy. If a 5 to 1 preference isn't a good enough reason to engage in organic SEO, then I don't know what is.



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Ahhh...business it is wonderful, isn't it? It's great to know that you can make money online without owning a storefront. Despite the low overhead most online businesses enjoy, there are certainly down sides as well. Instead of competing with other providers of goods and services in your immediate area as storefront businesses must do, yo are competing with everyone in the world. Still, it can be easy to make money on the Internet but even easier to have your business sabotaged. Sabotaged, you ask? Yes, sabotaged! In fact, sabotage is not as uncommon as you might think. Before I go any further, I want to make sure you are aware that some of the things I will be discussing in this article are illegal. I shouldn't have to tell you that anyone who uses this information to harm another could (and should) face prosecution. This article is intended to help web owners spot potential threats and stop them before they get out of hand. With that said, let's move on.

Early in Google Adsense's not so distant history, there was a substantial amount of pay-per-click fraud going on. People were paying others in 3rd world countries to click ads on their sites. That's a common example of someone trying to make money in an underhanded and illegal way. Now read what underhanded and illegal things people will do to put their competition out of business.

Pay-Per-Click fraud can be devastating. It's a sad world when your competitor will click on your ads to deplete your advertising budget. This is not as big problem as it once was, but you can bet your money it's still going on. People have simply become more ruthless and put more effort into their trickery. What can you do about this? Not a whole lot. The best advice I have is to keep an eye on you PPC campaigns. If you average 30 hits a day and it all of a sudden you double or triple that a few days in a row, you may want to contact the search engine you advertise with and have them look into it. Better to be safe than sorry.

This type of sabotage isn't unique. There are also those who will hurt you by helping you make money, at least initially. Earlier in this article I mentioned people having others click on their Adsence ads to make money. It now seems people are clicking on their competitor's google ads in hopes of getting them in trouble with Google and other publishers. These people are more concerned with getting a competitor's site banned than the fact that their actions could get someone locked up or paying a hefty fine. As I stated before with the PPC fraud, keep an eye on your Adsence ads. If they jump higher than normal, look into it. Check your stats to see if there are hits from the same IP and how long the IP stays on your site. If you suspect something, contact Google or which ever search engine you're using to place ads on your site.


I have also come across some tactics that go beyond belief. People have actually created doorway sites for their competition and then reported the sites to Google. Oh yes, it has been done. How to stop that isn't as easy as it sounds. Many hosting sites allow the domain owner to remain incognito. How do you prove you don't own something?

I wanted to make readers aware of some of the negative things that are going on in the SE world. Chances are, none of these will happen to you. Still, knowledge is power, so use it to fine tune your senses. I don't want to inspire paranoia, but there are a lot of bad elements on the net and caution is often necessary. If everyone conducted business with the golden rule in mind, we would never have to worry about these things. Unfortunately, the net is just like the real world...there are always going to be those that want to better their situation at the expense of someone else's.


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Things you need to know before building a website of any kind.

Internet business is big whether your business is solely Internet based or not. It's also true whether you are a large corporation or a mom and pop business with a small site for local clients only. The problem is that many people only do a limited amount of research when it comes to having a website built. Sure, people take the time to find an affordable web design firm or freelancer, after all...money is important. Sometimes, but not always, the lowest bid gets the job. Most business owner take a good look at their portfolio before committing, which makes perfect sense. I have seen people pay as little as $300 for a site. Let me tell you, they got what they paid for. But aside from web development, what do you know about online business? More importantly, what do you know about running a website?

You see, many people think all they need to do is to get a website up and running. There mentality is “If you built it, they will come” and that is rarely true. What people fail to understand is that they will likely need to do extensive research to make their site a success, unless the product or service they are offering is already wildly popular. Building a site is not a "one and done" proposition. You're probably asking yourself “What do I need to know?” Keep in mind, web designers will not give you that information. Why? It is in their best interest not to. If they did, you'd probably rethink your entire strategy for building a website.

Things to keep in mind.

Flash Design: This is popular among companies that like the visual aspect of web design. However, search engines can not read the content in a flash site unless it is designed with both Flash and HTML. Many companies come to me asking me to optimize their site after they spent a small fortune on Flash. I can't do it unless they are willing to allow me to make some changes. So, if you want to have a site that is easy to update (yourself) or want search engines to be able to index you, stay away from 100% flash.

Framed Sites: These are not as popular as they once were. Thank goodness for that. Framed sites are bad for a lot of reasons. Frames are basically 3 or 4 websites put together by frames to make one site. This makes it very hard to index the site properly. This will cause you to miss out on a lot of potential traffic.

Search Engine Submissions: When you finally decide to launch your site, keep in mind that it can take several months to get listed on search engines after you submit to them, and yes, you DO need to submit to them at least once. Have a plan of action if your site will be dependant on the search engines for traffic.

Search Engines Optimization: If you plan to be found on search engines, you need to consider doing some search engine optimization. SEO is about optimizing your site and its content so it can be found under certain keywords and phrases. This will cost less to do on a monthly basis than any other forms of advertising. Unfortunately, if your site is new it will take several months before your content is picked up by search engines. After that, any changes you make will been picked up within days. So, plan for other forms of advertising until you are picked up by the search engines. Then you can cut back on the paid stuff and concentrate on natural SEO.

Traffic: How will you bring traffic to your new site? You will need to plan a monthly budget to keep new traffic coming in. Do you know what your options are? Where are your competitors advertising? Do you know about PPC, banner advertising, article writing, link exchanges or other forms of getting traffic? You should, if you want to succeed.

Remember, just like with any business, you need to promote your site. Unlike a storefront, people will not just pass by your internet business on the way to work. It is much harder to promote a site and get traffic to it without a presence. If your site isn't created for people to find, the aforementioned points don't pertain to you. If your site will be relying on traffic, then keep them in mind and plan for it in your budget. Again, many people don't realize what they're getting into when they build a website. If you don't have the time to make a success of it, at least hire a professional who can do it for you.

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By: Joe Balestrino - Mr. SEO

Mr SEO's suggestions for getting out of the sandbox faster.

What is the Google sandbox?
Some people may disagree that there is such a thing, but the Google sandbox does exist.. Here I will talk about what the Google sandbox is and ways to help avoid it, or, at the very least, shorten your time in it.

What is the Google Sand box?
The Google sandbox is a filter that appeared around March 2004. Your site may be indexed within a few weeks of submission, however, it may not rank for any keyterms for several months. This period of purgatory, if you will, is un-affectionately referred to as "the sandbox". The reason for the delay is that Google is doing it's best to make sure your site is not using any methods that they feel would constitute spamming. They want to be sure that your site is of a quality nature and useful for some purpose. Google may also use this time to see what you are doing in relation to your site. Are you adding content? What kind of content is it? Are you building backlinks? Are they one way or reciprocal? Who is linking to you and are they related to what your site is about?

Let's take a new build as an example. We register the domain then build the site and submit it to search engines and wait for it to be indexed. But...what if we wanted to speed the process up? How could we go about doing so?

We know that Google loves domains that have been around a while. Unfortunately, we just built our site from scratch, so everything is new. Here's the best way to cut down the time frame for getting indexed:

While our site is being built, we create and place 3- 6 pages of real content on the site. When I mean real, I mean readable content related to our site. No one will be visiting our site but we want the search engines to start indexing it site as soon as possible. For that to happen, we will need some content. We want to show the search engines that our site is about quality from the start. The design of the site should be a secondary concern and can always be tweaked later on. Google wants to know about what you have to offer them in terms of content, so let's show them.
While our site is waiting to be spidered, there are additional steps we can take.
We can start working on backlinks. Link exchanges are alright in my book, but no substitute for links created through quality content.

There are many reasons why articles about topics related to our business should be written and submitted, the least of which are the quality one way links they will create. Let's say we write a few generalized articles about the types of products or services we will be selling on the site. Now we are one step ahead of the game. We have created articles that will help build backlinks and advertised our site as well.
Another thing we can do is to plan our submission to Google right after a Page Rank update. Planning a time frame for our site's indexing is important. Updates happen roughly every 3 months. We need to plan our site launch and indexing for the time immediately after an update.

If we launch in the middle or towards the end of an update, we'll miss out on any links we have worked on. It will be at least another 3 months before we can earn some PR, so we need to plan our site launch time wisely.
Another thing we can do is to allow Google to find our site first. How do we go about doing this? If we can find a site with a decent PR (let's say 4), that doesn't have many links going out and get them to link to us once our domain is registered, Google will get to our content pages as fast as we can post them.

My business partner and I recently created the site http://www.articleuniversity.com The domain was purchased and the site built in 2 weeks time. I linked from my blog to the new site and made sure we had content in place as soon as I set it up. After only a few weeks, it is ranking #50 for "free article submissions" on Google. Granted, all my pages aren't indexed and I have a Page Rank of 0...but the point still stands.
I have been working on one way backlinks, so by the next update I should have at least a PR 3 or 4. This will help boost my rankings and by then all my pages should all be indexed and start ranking for keyterms. The point is that it didn't take three months to get indexed. There is more that can be done than to reduce the amount of time spent in the sandbox, but these basic steps will certainly help to get your site indexed faster. Please do not use this article unless you plan to keep my author's bio intact and links active


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The Internet is known as the "Information Super Highway", and for good reason. The Internet holds an incredible amount of information and is growing at an extraordinary speed. The flood of new information, valid or utterly useless, will only increase.

Content on the Internet has become a way to promotes one's business or services. People are creating content with the hope of building an image and creating more sales. If you can offer some useful information or insight on a particular subject then the benefit to the reader can be substantial. Additionally, the knowledge you have shared will create a buzz about you and your business.

You will be on the road to branding your name and business, which is the first step toward the coveted recognition that can make you a household name. For this reason, the quality of the articles you submit is so important. I have been writing content on an off the Internet since 1998. I trying my very best to put together a masterpiece every time. I tend to fall short of that much more often than not, but I do try nonetheless. For me, the reason I write is not only to share my knowledge with the reader, it is also to prove my expertise in the SEO field. It certainly won't help my reputation or my business if I am anything less than accurate and insightful. Writing articles also helps me to market myself and keep my name in front of people as much as possible so they will associate my name with the type of work I do. Familiarity builds trust with the reader.

People get to know me through my writing and are consequently more comfortable doing business with me than someone they would consider a stranger. Building these bonds with the online community will result in lasting readership and sales. This brings me to my next point.

Content is also a great way for people to build backlinks to their site, unless they are using programs that generate content. These types of software hold no value whatsoever. Why would you want to associates your product or service with poorly written articles? You will only succeed in giving people who read your content a negative perception of your business while doing a great disservice to those of us who write articles for the benefit of the reader and ourselves.

The only reason I would come to your site from a software generated article is to see what the name of your site is so I'll know in the future to stay away from it. Even if you were into spamming and offering Viagra pills or bogus get rich programs on the net, these articles will just show people how much of a fraud you really are. If people thought your service or product was bogus, you could try to plead your case with well written articles. Fortunately for the public at large, there isn't much that worthy to write about if you are in these types of businesses.
What if you can't write well?

There are plenty of services out there that can help improve your original content or write outstanding articles about your business. If done correctly, articles will accomplish three major things:

A) They will brand you or your company as a leader in your field and separate you from the competition.

B) They will drive quality traffic to your site. Your chances of a sale are increased 55% if someone reads your article and then goes on to your site.

C) They will build quality, one way backlinks to your site which will help increase your Google Page rank.

So the next time you think about where you should spend your advertising dollars, remember this article. A well written article will not only drive in high quality traffic but can also spread like wild fire on the Internet. The life expectancy of a high quality article is much longer than any paid advertising you will ever use. Best of all, you'll have an opportunity to educate the public about your business and show them that you want them to be educated consumers.If you use this article you must use the bio below and make all links active!


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by Joe Balestrino Mr-SEO.com

As an SEO expert, I do site evaluations daily. It amazes me how people are willing to put Google ads all over their pages in the interest of earning a few extra bucks without considering the consequences to their business. Think about it. If you are selling a service or product, why would you allow the ads of your competitors on your site? Are you willing to sacrifice a sale for the few pennies you’ll make if someone clicks on the ads? It's ok to include Google ads in some instances, even I have some ads on my site. Knowing where and when to allow google ads on your pages is key to maximizing revenue from your traffic while minimizing the chances of lost business.

Google ads are based on the content that is on your site. Because your content is about a particular product or service, the ads on your site will also be about similar products or services. If the ads are compelling enough, people will click them and leave your site. Sure, you’ll make some chump change, but how much would you have made on a sale if you hadn't given your customers a window to the competition?

Many site owners know where to put ads to get the most exposure but not where to place them for minimized risk. Places on the top of the page, side and middle are the most common areas for Google ads. An ad on the top of the page will be seen before your content. If you absolutely must place ads, at least put your content first and place the ads on the bottom. If they've already looked through your material and haven't found what they were looking for, you can still make a little revenue on their way out.

Many websites don't sell products or services, but instead rely on Google ads for revenue. For these businesses, Google ads make perfect sense. Other businesses sell products for which Google ads can still be a benefit. For instance, if a business sells a specialized product that can be found nowhere else, Google ads aren't going to be a source of competition. Perhaps you sell an aftermarket car product that you yourself manufacture. If there is nothing else like it on the market, why not allow other aftermarket manufacturer's ads on your site? Your customers won't find your product on another site, yet they might be looking for other products in addition to yours that you don't sell. Another reason to allow competing Google ads on your site is if you are certain that the products or services you are offering are a great value. If you are cheaper than the competition, and you know it, it's a boon to your business to encourage your potential customers to comparison shop. In all likelihood, they will come back to you to make a purchase and you will have made a little extra money in the process.

You are probably saying to yourself, “Joe, we can block ads we don’t want on our site”. My reply is..."Why have ads at all, then?". Think about this: blocking your competitor’s ads will not only reduce the number of ads to display on your site, but also decrease the relevance of the remaining ads. The more urls you block the less the chance of the ads being relevant. So what's the point of having them at all? In that case, they'll serve no purpose but to clutter up your pages.

What do you think it says about your business if you are using Google ads to generate extra income? I tell you what it says to me. It says you’re not selling. If you're not selling, chances are your products and services, prices or website are not up to par or your site hasn't been optimized and you have no traffic.

In general, sites that sell services or products should be pushing their own stuff and not someone else's. When did business change? Just because you can make money placing ads on your site doesn’t mean it is always (or ever) in your best interest.



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Real estate is big business. You don’t need me to tell you that. Not just online but offline as well. Many real estate agencies fail to use the internet to their advantage. Yes, having a website is great. You can have people browse real estate listings whether buying a home or renting an apartment.

Real estate, being the billion dollar industry it is, can make for difficult optimization.

An real estate agency has a substantially better chance of increasing traffic to it's website by focusing it's optimization efforts toward a specific geographical area. Doing so will help in establishing a presence for the site while eliminating the need to compete based on standard industry termed content that will not differentiate an agency in Seattle from an agency in Sarasota. A Blog is a great way to begin achieving results by sticking to this formula. The idea behind a blog is that you can create optimized content that your potential clients would find useful and bring them to your site. Simply include your geographically related keywords and phrases in the content. For example, if you have listings for apartments in NY, a good posting for a blog might be "What to Look For When Apartment Shopping in NYC". You could discuss what a renter should look for when shopping for an apartment in NYC, the necessity of renter’s insurance in NYC, overpriced areas of NYC, etc... Try to keep the content fresh and exciting to read. Remember, people may come across your article on a search engine and consequently decide to visit your site and use your services.

One thing that has made a blog a valuable tool is RSS. RSS lets us announce information as soon as it happens. How does this help a realtor? Let’s say I am hunting for an apartment. I may not have the time to check your site every few hours for updated listings. If I have a “my yahoo page”, my MSN or any RSS reader set up, I would know instantly that a listing became available.
With RSS, you won't have to worry about spam filters blocking your emails. It's beneficial for both clients and agents.

The point is to stand out from your competition. Setting up a blog and utilizing RSS are two ways that can be achieved. Also, try to set the goal of becoming the most valuable resource for information pertaining to your market and specialty.
Whether buying or renting, people need a place to turn to for information. If you can provide it, you will have plenty of traffic and clients to match.


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Landing pages are important to anyone running a pay per click campaign. Some people may disagree. In fact, I know there are many people that believe there is little use in spending time on them at all. These are usually people that have never attempted to optimize their landing pages. Several large and medium sized businesses use pay per click. Some have even taken the step to make all their “buy” pages landing pages. If profitable businesses take notice of landing pages, shouldn't you? So what is a landing page and what are the benefits?

Landing pages have everything a visitor needs to make a decision and purchase all on one page. You may be asking if this is necessary. Couldn’t you just link to the home page? If you do that, the visitor now needs to surf to find what they want. Trust me, they won’t. It is easier to hit the back button and try another site. Landing pages go hand in hand with your ad. If your ad is mentioning a specific product, the link should take them to the page featuring this product. Your site’s landing pages should be accessible from your site map. It needs to be indexed but doesn't need to be viewable by your visitors unless they are coming in from your PPC ad.


Some inside secrets:

Some people will leave your landing page without scrolling down or reading the content on the page. Whatever layout you decide to go with, keep that in mind. If visitors can't find what they need within 10 seconds, they'll likely move on to someone else's page. Make sure your photo, content and “call for action” are in immediate view of the visitor.

Use the same heading for your title page on your landing pages. This will help reassure your visitors that they are on the right site. Use words for your hyperlinks. Worded links tend to catch visitors eyes first. Use this to your advantage. Links can be whole sentences if so desired. Bold any words that may be of interest to the visitor. Words such as free, guarantee, low prices and other similar words will guide the reader to where you want them to go. Also, most visitors will jump through a few hoops to purchase your product. Just don't make them jump too often. Make your forms simple and easy to fill out. If your form takes longer the 2.5 minutes to fill out, you may lose the sale.


Here are some small factors that can make a big difference in sales. Try:

* Changing colors
* Lowering shipping charges occasionally, and indicating it to the visitor
* Reassuring buyers with a money back guarantee or BBB seal
* Limiting navigational options
* Simplifying content (Just list the information a visitor needs to know to make a purchase)
* Making it as easy as possible for the visitor to make a speedy purchase (If the shipping and billing addresses are the same, do they really need to fill it out twice? Why not use an automated indicator box?) Offering better customer service options (If you can, give them the option to call you - especially if you offer 24 hour telephone service)


Test other layouts. Try adding different photos, text, fonts and colors. Make each landing page different. Then compare your clicks vs sales. The landing page with the highest conversion may be the one that works best. If you see a remarkable difference in your click to sale ratio, implement the same layout to the other pages. Your conversion rates should move up. Remember to keep your pages simple. In this case, less is more. Remember to keep a close eye on your conversions and adjust accordingly. You should see your ROI increase.


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I look at a lot of sites on a daily basis. There are a lot of common problems I see on sites. Some people may have tags set-up improperly or use tags that have no real purpose. I have compiled a list of the 5 top do-it-yourself SEO errors. It's safe to say that many do-it-yourselfers may have at least one of these errors on their sites. These should help you omit these often costly mistakes and pull you up in the ranks.

1) Keyword tag – A keyword tag is for keywords, but not for any keywords. You can’t just stuff this tag with keywords that your entire site is related to. The tags should reflect keywords only on that particular page; not the entire site and not every keyword you think your site might be searched on. Also, you should have no more then 20 words in the tag. You should not repeat any word more than 3 times. If you sell tickets, for example, don't write: Broadway tickets, circus tickets, hockey tickets, boxing tickets and so on. Do use Broadway, circus, hockey, boxing, tickets and so on.

2) Abstract tag – It is sometimes used as a replacement for or combined with a description tag. However, more and more people are using these to stuff keywords. Search engines like Google are interested in what is on the page. More specifically, what visitors can view. In my opinion, the abstract tag has no place on a site.

3) Description Tag – The whole point behind this tag is to describe what the “page” is about. Keywords related to the page should be implemented as well. The limit on words should be 20 – 25. I see many website owners stuffing this tag with keywords, or having a description that is entirely too lengthy. Stay within these guidelines and you will be fine.

4) Title tag – This, to me, is the most important tag. This is the first tag the search engine reads. It tells the search engine what the” page” is about. Don't put your web address here. Do not add your company name in the beginning of this tag either. It should not exceed 60 characters.

5) Content- If you notice, I have been commenting on relevancy to the “page”, not your overall site. Each page has it’s own keywords. Tag the title tag, description and keyword tags. All of these keywords should be the same. Add them to your content as well. Now your page should be fairly well optimized.

Why do sites fall short? Simple, content is not optimized. Search engines are, for the most part, pretty basic. You type in a search term and it retrieves sites containing those terms while also taking a few other factors into account. So, if your site doesn’t have these terms, how will you be found? You won’t. Over do it with keywords and you will experience the same result, but for different reasons. Sometimes reading everything about SEO can be bad. Trying too many tricks, tips or methods is like too many cooks spoiling the soup. In the end they can do more bad than good. These are very basic rules that should be followed by all. In, doubt? Always consult or hire an SEO professional.


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Why Designers don’t do it. Why website owners need it.

More and more website owners and web designers are beginning to understand the value of SEO. They know that SEO is one of the most, if not the most effective form of advertising on the internet. Surprisingly, I still come across web designers that still do not know what SEO is or who question the necessity of it.
Some web designers know SEO is important. However, most do not offer it to their clients. Usually, this is because they don't want to pay someone to do it for their clients. More importantly...they don’t care. They want to design your site and get out. They know you can greatly improve the value of your site by implementing an SEO friendly design into the build and save you money in the process.

The least they should do for you is create an SEO friendly site as this will affect your success far more than any graphic or layout ever will. They should design a site for you that allow spiders access to the content, not in frames or 100% Flash. It is the consumer who gets hurt in the end by designers who fail to consider the purpose of a site with an eye for aesthetics only. Once they learn about SEO and realize how un-SEO friendly their site is, it is too late. Now they have to pay for SEO and possible restructuring of the site, which could have been avoided. Many website owners who know of SEO try to get away with as little as possible.

Some people want tags optimized but refuse to optimize content. Why bother?
Web designer often come to me asking for optimization on a site with less than 20 words or refuse to change the content. It’s unreasonable to expect an SEO specialist to move mountains if his or her recommendations are not followed. It is safe to say that at least 80 percent of traffic comes from search engines. So why wouldn’t you want your site optimized? How do you plan to advertise?
Banners? PPC? Pop-ups? Come on. SEO is the most effective form of advertising. You can still use those other forms of advertising. But, the money invested will be less with proper optimization.

Large companies are starting to learn the value of SEO. However, designers are not pushing SEO. If Flash is what they want, that's fine. Use flash movies and banners inside HTML. You can still create an awesome look. The content should be HTML. Not only for search engines, but for the simple fact that it makes it so much easier to change the content and import RSS feeds. SEO has not reached its peek in the marketplace. People are still not using SEO to its fullest potential, but those who are reap the benefits everyday. Yes, SEO does cost money and yes, it can be expensive (especially if your
Site is large). SEO is not a one and done procedure. Of course, you will need to maintain your SEO with updates when necessary. Still, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Search engines will bring in more traffic than any other form of advertising on the internet.

So why are companies willing to pass it up? Is it because there is no guarantee of a top 10 ranking on Google for a brand new site? People who have unrealistic expectations are uneducated in regard to SEO. Those who are educated will know what they can reasonably expect with a competent SEO professional. It is up to the SEO specialist to meet those expectations. Once the initial SEO implementation is finished, maintaining and reporting will increase its effectiveness.

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and web design go hand in hand. One cannot function without the other. Sure, you could have a well designed website on the internet and pay for traffic and advertising. However, no one will find you while doing a search. The benefits of being found on search engines will cut the cost of paid advertising. Yet everyday there are people who spend a great deal of money to have a site designed but wouldn't think of having it optimized. Why, you ask? Is it the cost of SEO? Would they rather have a site created and avoid optimization to save a few bucks? If that's the case…what do they plan to do with this site when it is completed? Advertise? SEO is advertising. It is actually one of the cheapest forms of advertising.
Were they planning on a PPC campaign? Buying banners? Page impressions on some click network? You've got to be kidding me. Why would anyone waste their money on those subpar options before optimizing their site?

In the long run, you’ll spend more on those “other” methods and receive fewer results than if you optimized and maintained the optimization of your site. Eventually, you’ll wind up needing SEO anyway. Trust me. If you ever wanted to know anything about something, chances are you’ve searched for it first. You didn't click on a banner or surf into it from some click through network. Now don’t get me wrong, PPC is great if you know what you’re doing. SEO paired off with PPC is a great combination. You may even do some PPC while your SEO is taking place. Any method is better than none at all.
Unfortunately, there are those who do business on the web who think that spending money on web design alone will help attract business. You can have the most interesting storefront the world has ever seen, but if you open up for business in the middle of the desert, it won't make any difference.

So, what do you do? Hire a designer and then an SEO guru? That would be costly. Hire a web designer that has some knowledge of SEO to optimize your site? Not a good idea. That may hurt more then help. Search engines today are smarter then they were just a few years ago. You don't want to be penalized for bad SEO methods or worse yet have no real SEO results from contracting a web designer with only marginal experience in optimization.

You need to find a web design company that has an SEO expert on board. SEO is a full time job. You want to make sure the SEO guru is knowledgeable and is up to speed with the latest algorithms. Check their portfolio and ask to see their SEO achievements. You should be able to contact their present or former clients to see if they are happy with their results. Remember, anybody can spot a great looking website, but SEO experience should be researched before you hire anyone. Ask for a proven track record. If you can find the right combination of an SEO guru and experienced web designers in one package, you can save a lot of time and money while taking care of the first two things every business should: getting customers to your site and giving them a reason to stay.




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I bet you are eager to find out just how to do this. "Spamming Google" that is, and getting away with it. Maybe you want to try this method out or maybe you are another SEO guy waiting with baited breath to downplay this concept.
Well, I hope you are ready for the answer regardless.

First, let's go over what is “bad Spam”. I'm not entirely sure that there is good spam, but for arguments sake, let’s discuss what you shouldn’t do.

Spam means (according to www.answers.com), “Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.” Now, search engine spam is different. You can spam by repeating keywords too many times in your site’s content and tags. Hiding text on web pages is also spam. Creating a lot of back links to “bad neighbors” is yet another example of spam. You can also spam by:

Using bad re-directs
Using doorway pages
Cyber squatting
Using micro/mini sites. (sites with 3 or less pages)

Now, I do not support spam, nor do I participate in it. If you come across a site that is spamming, you can and should report them. To report to: Google http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html MSN http://feedback.search.msn.com/default.aspx Yahoo http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_reportsearchspam

The type of spam you CAN get away with is content. I know what you are going to say... "Content isn’t spam". It is, I assure you. I write 4 articles a month. I submit them to approximately 130 sites per article. That's over 500 links a month. That is a tremendous amount of links. However, Google does not see it as spam. This is the only form of "Spam” Google permits. Those 500+ articles all create valid backlinks. That's all the search engines accept. There may come a time when the search engines may evaluate these articles to see if they are of “real" content and not generated (which mine are, so no worries there), but as of now, this method is acceptable.

Another way to use this content is with blogs. Search engines tend to favor
blogs over websites. Writing keyword rich content can help pull in some traffic. Remember, choose the name of your blog wisely as this can make or break your blog. Be sure it is a keyword phrase that describes your content in general. You can create as many content rich posts as you would like. The trick is that the content needs to be real content. The keywords should be at least 5% of the overall content. The title also needs to be optimized. I don't advise anyone to write content solely for the sake of having a place for keywords. Think of why you want those keywords to exist and you now have something to say.

You may disagree that this is spam, but indeed it is. I wrote an article earlier this year titled, "Out of Exile: How to get un-banned from Google". On Yahoo, nearly 3,000 sites have pick this article up.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22Out+of+Exile%3A+How+to+get+un-banned+from+Google.%22&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&xargs=0&pstart=1&fr=FP-tab-web-t&b=91
Under any other circumstance, this would be bad SEO. Since this is content (and content that has certainly helped out quite a few people from the feedback I've received), it is allowed. 3,000 links in a few months is spam. No doubt about it. So, Spam away.



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Why would my site need a redesign?

There are a lot of reasons your site may need a re-design. Some may be more obvious than others. You may have asked yourself the question: Can my site benefit from a re-design? Hopefully, by the end of this article, you will have an answer. The most common reason to redesign a site is that it's outdated. If your site hasn’t been updated in the last 3 to 5 years you may want to have it evaluated. Some new programming has come out over the last few years. Today’s newer sites have cleaner designs. Some scripts are no longer needed. Newer programming can improve your sites functionality. If your site is an e-commerce site, your code may have too many charters in the query strings. You can benefit from a clean up of those dynamic urls.

Does your site have a plain or “flat” look to it? Are the colors dull and lifeless? How does your site stack up to your competitor’s site? You want your site to appeal to your visitors. If your site looks amateurish, people may be hesitant to buy from you. An attractive layout tells potential customers that you take your business seriously and so should they. Is your site hard to navigate? Have you added links to your menu that are now out of control? Re-designing will help you organize your site for better use by the user. If your site is too confusing and people cannot find what they are looking for, they will leave. Depending on what type of business you are engaged in, there may be thousands of sites just like yours. If potential customers can’t easily navigate to what they need at your site, they will quickly go somewhere else.

Is your site still hosted on a goecities or other free hosting service? Domain names are cheap. Some even come with free or low cost hosting. There is no reason why you should be on a free service. To be taken seriously you need to establish your company name or brand. That starts with a domain name.
Finally, is your site optimized to help you acquire a high ranking on search engines? If not, your site is likely not helping you reach your full potential. Remember, no matter how good or bad your site looks, no matter how easy it is to navigate and no matter how clearly your layout expresses what you have to offer, nothing will come of it unless users actually visit your site.

Think about whether or not your site suffers from:
Bad color scheme
Use of old or bad SEO methods
Confusing layout
Lack of overall optimization. (Save money doing SEO and re-design together)
Long loading times
Unnecessary, old and outdated pages
A programming method that precludes you from initiating your own updates
Non search engine friendly pages

These are just a few reasons to have your site re-designed. There's a lot of improvement that can come out of a site re-design. Ask yourself if these common problem areas may pertain to your site. If they do, you may be losing potential customers or clients. In short, you may be losing money.
After you have your site re-designed, write a press release. Let the world know your site has a new look. If “Mr SEO “does your site re-design, we will distribute your press release for FREE.



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MLM has been around way before the Internet. It is a few steps above a chain letter. Well, maybe more then a few steps. MLM has paved the way for people to have their own business. It can start out as side money and flourish into a very profitable business.

Now, you are probably saying to yourself “Joe, what do you know about MLM?” Well, folks in the early days I did MLM. Yes, I am a not proud of it. Not because it’s MLM but, because I wasn’t any good at it. Thank goodness though. I may not have found my calling in SEO if I did. What I am trying to say is...MLM is hard. Nowadays, they try to make it easier by offering you a cookie cutter site. What? A cookie cutter site? Isn’t that bad SEO? YES! MLM in their attempt to help their down-line are actually making it harder. You want to spend more time promoting your site by:

Writing content
Testimonials
Recommendations
Providing tips about the items or products
..and so on.

MLM companies force you to throw more of your hard earn money into advertising. If you know the name of a well established MLM company type it into Google. What you get is dozens of sites. Many of them are the same exact site dominating over the others. It is usually the companies own site. Generating leads that YOU will have to pay to get. While your cookie cutter site fights for spots on Google adwords. Which by the way YOUR MLM has the top 3 positions. So, how do you win?
Create your own web site. Find keywords related to what you sell and not the company name. If you cannot do that then create a blog. Place tips, recommendations, and testimonials and so on in your blog. Do your own Google campaign. Find message boards, blogs and websites that have interests in what you sell. You can even do a link exchange with other blogs.

Until MLM companies’ see how valuable SEO is to the success of their business and yours you can never be successful. They will always tell you about the successes and never the failures. It is true it takes money to make money. But, if the main company corners the market on leads how can you ever make it ahead? Go door to door?

Take matters into your own hands. Or, better yet. Demand your up-line provide you with a better way to achieve your goals. They are profiting from all your hard work. So, let them help you as much as possible. If that doesn’t work take matters into your own hands. The worst you can do is make things better.



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I am banned from Google...Help!

What did you do to get banned? Can you get un-banned? Yes! But first you need to know what you did to get banned. Google will not tell you. A sure sign you have been banned is that your web site is missing a page rank. By, that I mean the PR bar is Gray. That is usually the first indication. To double check that, enter site:www.yoursite.com into Google. Replace “yoursite.com" with your URL. If it there are no pages indexed, that is a good sign your site has been removed from Google (if your pages were indexed beforehand). Also try link:www.yoursite.com to see if your back links are still listed on Google. If your site is banned they will be removed as well.

Read through the following list. If any of these ring a bell, you should change them ASAP.

Spam:

Yes, people still do it whether it was intentional or not. Some newcomers get confused in regard to legal, productive ways to help boost their keyword percentage and spam. The keyword tag with too many keywords or keywords repeated too many times is spam. Comment tags are for comments, not for keywords. Your description tag is for a description. Yes, keywords should be in it. However, it should not be blatantly "chocked full" of keywords. Insistently, the keywords in your description should reflect that particular page, not your entire site. Each page has its own keywords.

Another way to spam is to hide text. Creating text and making it the same color as the background is spam. Spam can sometimes be unintentional. If your site repeats the same words over and over it can be seen as spam. For example let’s say your site sells airline tickets. Your site may state that you sell "tickets to New York", "tickets to San Francisco", "tickets to Indiana", etc. If you list all 50 states with the word “tickets" attached…that’s spam!

Redirect:

If you own several domain names and have them redirect to one, that is bad SEO. The only redirect allowed is a 301 redirect. It should only be used to redirect an old site to a newer site (old domain to a new domain). This tells Google that it is a “permanent” re-direct.


Linking to bad neighbors:

A bad neighbor is a site that is considered to use Black Hat SEO methods.
These can hurt you big time. Some examples of bad neighbors are…
1 Free-for-all link farms
2 Adult web sites
3 Gambling web sites
4 Sites that have multiple categories to link to.

It is hard to undo links to bad neighbors. You can try to check your back links and try to find the bad neighbors. Then, try to see if they will remove your link. It usually takes a large amount of bad links to hurt you. If you stick to sites that are related to you and your industry, you will likely be ok. Sometimes people search for an easy way to generate one way links by turning to directories. These can do a lot more bad than good. Plus, many are automated, making removal next to impossible

Duplicated Content:

This falls under the spam rule listed above. Basically, if you create a page and then duplicate it throughout your own site, it will hurt you. If your site is large, you can use this free tool http://www.copyscape.com/ it will help you locate duplicated content on the web. You won’t be penalized if your content (i.e. articles) is syndicated to other sites, only if it is repeated on the same domain. You can use similar content on pages. Google does not tell us the percentage of content that is considered to be spam so I would suggest you keep it below 15%.

Robot,txt:

Sometimes this is inserted improperly. The robot.txt file is a set of instructions for search engine spiders. It tells them what to index or not to index. This file resides in your root directory. If the tag is incorrect it could prevent all search engines, not just Google, from indexing your site. Or, in some cases, removing it from the search engine index altogether. If inserted properly you should be able to located it by http://www.yoursitehere.com/robots.txt to validate that your robot file is in proper order. Visit this site: http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/robotcheck.cgi for more utility options. For more info on how to properly format your robot tag, visit http://www.seoconsultants.com/robots-text-file/ .

These are some of the major things to look out for. If you have been banned from Google, go through this list one problem at a time. After you have made the corrections, contact Google. If you still have problems you may need to start all over with a new domain.

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Link Exchanges are a very time consuming project. The time it takes to find the sites to exchange with, contact them and place a link on your page can seem like an eternity. The hardest part about link exchanges isn’t the research, it's the waiting. This article will give you some tips to help speed response time to your requests.

"How long does it normally take?" you ask. The average wait can be 2 to 3 weeks, sometimes even longer. The reason for this is that many people operate their web site as a hobby or side business and may not be on top of their email. Keep these timeframes in mind before you judge the successfulness of a link campaign.

The first step is to find sites related to your web site that DO NOT have a large directory of links posted. You want to link to sites that have less than 100 links on their link page. Their Page Rank (PR) should be at least equal to yours. Higher is better, so always aim for the heavy hitters. Now, on to the business of saving you time.

Once you have located a site to contact, send a short but poignant email. If your email is too long, it may not be read. What should be in your email? First of all, your email should be personalized. Don't send the same email to dozens of people, send one at a time. This will help avoid being thought of as a spammer. The personalized touch shows you are serious and that the email was sent by a real person. Nothing says "this is of little importance to me" like a form letter, so avoid using them.

The letter should also include:
The HTML code to your text ad. This will make it easier for people to add your link to their site.
A link to your link page. This will make easier for whom ever you are requesting a link from to find your page.

Also, if they ask for you to link first, do so. If you have already been to their site (and certainly you should have if you are requesting a link), you will more than likely
know if they want a good faith link up. The email you send them should have a confirmation that their link is up and that you are requesting a reciprocal link.

Once you make contact with the web site owner, how long will you wait? A week? Two weeks? Honestly, it may be a month before you see your link unless you show some persistence. It doesn't always depend on how often they do updates. I would contact them once a week after your initial inquiry after checking their site first. They may have placed a link up without notifying you.

So, in summary:
Spend time finding sites that will be an asset to your enterprise to save time by not corresponding with those that won't.
Succinct, personalized E-mails
Include all coding and links necessary to make it easy on the site you want to exchange with
Research their link policy ahead of time
Be persistent

Link exchanges are very time consuming. It takes patients and great recorded keeping to keep track of who has and has not added you. I do this with an excel spread sheet. It makes keeping track a lot easier to do. Especially, if you are doing large link campaigns.

Good luck.

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Increase Your Google Page Rank!


This article will put a damper on web sites that sell information which will supposedly increase your page rank. I may make some enemies here, but this is already common knowledge. In fact, to make sure it worked, I designed a new site just for this purpose. Before you shell out money for an ebook, software, or CD telling you how to do this; read this article. If you achieve great results after following my advice and feel it was worth some money, feel free to write me a check for any amount you choose. I 'll add my own zeros.

Page Rank. We all know what is. We all want to rank higher. Higher rankings mean a lot of things to a lot of people. To web masters it means achievement. They have accomplished a move in the right direction. A high page rank to a website owner is money in the bank. It is also an impressive accomplishment. To other website owners your page rank may be a source of envy.

To Google your page rank means quality, importance and relevancy. It lets Google know you are a viable resource and a valuable asset. Google takes your Page Rank and combines it with their text-matching techniques. This, combined with a page’s content and the content of the pages linking to it, determines if your site is a good match. So, a higher Page Rank will certainly help you on Google.

As for surfers. Most of them could care less about your Page Rank. In fact, many of them don't even know what it is. However, those that do use it in a different way. Some use it as a way to unofficially gauge your credibility.

Ok, I am sure you've been wondering when I was going to tell you about how to achieve a ranking like I did. I went from a 0 Page Rank to a 5. Now, mind you, I did not purchase any links from high ranking sites, or any sites for that matter. I did not launch a link exchange program. I did exchange links with about five directories related to my site’s topic, but that was it. Actually, 97% of my links are all one-way links (links pointing to my site).

So, how did I do it? Any ideas? If you know SEO you may already know the answer.
Link Farms? Of, course not. We know Google will frown on that method. Did I design or optimize sites and add my URL? Hmmm..Yes! However, that is a small percent of the success. SEO companies don’t usually add their URL to sites they have optimized. Ok, so what else?

Content? Yes, content is king as always. Content is what was used to help boost my ranking. But how?

I create articles. These are quality articles, just like the one you are reading now. These articles were not generated from any program. I authored the content from my own knowledge and researched over 100 web sites that accept articles in my area of expertise. SEO happens to be a very popular topic. These sites agree to post my articles on their site, along with my url(s). Many of these sites have a decent Page Rank of their own. Their rank will transfer over to my site. Also, as time goes by, those articles will have a PR effect of their own which will transfer to my site(s). Don’t forget, other people may pick these articles up and use them on their site as well. They will also include my URL(s) on their sites. Now, if I do 100 sites a week times four articles a month, that's at least 400 articles a month. The last Google update was 86 days, the longest has been 111. That could lead to 1200 or more links between updates. What will Google think about all these links at once? They’ll love it! Content, quality, one way links. I also promoted my blogs and my website in some of my articles. This way, they too have their own PR generating effect. They also link to my site and my site to them. This, in turn, increased the PR to them as well. At the time of this article and the most recent Google update, one of my blogs went from 0 to 3 and the other 0 to 4 all in the same update.

These tips should help you increase your page rank. The hardest part will be creating content related to your field and finding sites that will post your work. You can always hire writers and/or article submission services. Here's to the next Google update. Cheers!


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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for the success of almost every website. The majority of traffic to websites is brought in by search engines. Keywords are an important part of SEO. Unfortunately, many website owners overdo it. Keywords are one of the most important tools in ranking high on search engines. Abuse them and you will suffer the consequences.

Many novices read about places to add keywords, such as ALT tags, anchors and other areas. While these are meant to be used if you want to help boost your keywords, they should be relevant to the image or the place where you are linking. Many people try to stuff keywords into every possible place. There is no benefit whatsoever in doing this.

As a general rule, I would say you can optimize one page with 3 keywords or phrases. I would recommend starting with one or two. Depending on who you talk to, your percentage of keywords in your text should be between three and five percent of the total content on the site. I have seen site tops with percentages as high as ten. There are some free online tools that can tell you the percentage of each word on your site. This one is http://www.googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php
This tool will also show under which of those words your site comes up on.

One huge mistake I see all the time is repeated keywords in the keyword tag. Here is an example: shoes, brown shoes, blue shoes, and red shoes. There are two things wrong here, Do you know what it is? First, of all, the use of the word “and” is not needed. This is called a stop word. Search engines ignore these type of words. Some common stop words are and, the, because, this, that and there. The second thing wrong with the keywords is the word “shoes”. It is repeated four times. You do not need to repeat shoes. The corrected keywords should read; shoes, brown, blue, red. The search engine will know you are offering shoes and will match the color with the word shoe. Repeating “shoes” will just penalize your site.

One final tip on using keywords. Make sure you use your top keywords in the TITLE of your site as well as in the description tag. Do not load the title with keywords. These are the first places the engines will scan. Your description tag is usual what is displayed on search engines when relevant keywords are typed in. So, be sure they are there. Do not just type in key word phrases. No one will know what your site is about. What is the point of coming up in rank if no one understand the description.


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Google has a list of advanced operators popular among the SEO community. However, most web site owners are not aware of these, so I will take the time to explain what they are and how they work.

These operators are used as part of your search, requesting certain information from the search engine:

This one is popular. [ LINK: ]. Using this along with you domain name will show you who is linked to you. Typing “link:http://www.mysite.com” in the Google search bar will return links pointing to your site. This will show you who is linking to you. Do not place a space between link and the address, and be sure to add http:// to your domain name. Results may not show otherwise.

Another great operator is [ INURL: ]. This will restrict your search to one site only. Typing “inurl:www.mr-seo.com Joe Balestrino” will return results for Joe Balestrino only on www.mr-seo.com This is great if you are looking for a specific phrase on a site.

The [INTITLE: ] operator will return web sites that have the requested keyword or phrase in their title tag. For example, “intitle: keyword”. If you have several keywords, you could enter “allintitle: keyword phrases”. This will search for all listed keywords in the title.

Another useful operator is [ CACHE: ]. If you enter “cache:www.mysite.com book” you will see the web page with the word book highlighted. You can also just type “cache:www.mysite.com”. This will just show you how the site looked when it was last cached – good if you want to see at what point your site was last indexed.

To learn about other Google operators, visit http://www.google.com/help/operators.html.
Some operators work on other search engines as well, so try them out. Memorize these operators to help speed up -- and narrow down – your every day searches. But more importantly, use them to keep track of your SEO efforts as well as your competitors.

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I have decide to write this article as a result of numerous emails. It seems more and more people are falling victim to bad SEO. The main complaint is that they are paying entirely too much for little or no results. Additionally, many fall prey to bad SEO practices. If you plan to hire an SEO pro in the future, I suggest you use this article as a set of guidelines.

Before going with any SEO firm or individual, do the following:

A) Find out how established and experienced an SEO firm is before you negotiate.
Do they have a sizeable client list under their belt?
Are they published?

B) Scrutinize their portfolio.
What kind of results have they achieved?
Contact a few of their clients. Were they satisfied with the work performed?

C) Consider and confirm their methods?
How will they optimize your site to reach your keywords?
Do they use organic methods? Some individuals or companies use doorway pages, hide text in the background, utilize re-directs and other blacklisted methods. Stay away from these.

D) Get a least three proposals from different SEO firms.
Look at each one carefully. Are there similarities? Proposals will help you see which companies are honest and which are trying to sell you something you don't need.
What is the cost? The cheapest isn't always the best, however, the highest price may not be attached to a comprehensive and viable course of action. Try to find find an individual or organization that will give you what you want within your SEO budget.

E) Contract, Contract, Contract.
Get everything in writing. Look over the document carefully. Be sure it covers everything you have discussed, including methods of achieving your desired results. Have the copies signed by both parties. If the job is a large one you may want to consult a lawyer.

F) Clearly state the terms of payment.
While most SEO firms will not do any work for free or agree to a results based pay scale, many competant SEO professionals will not shy away from a base plus performance incentive package. I am not a firm believer in prepaid contracts.. Most SEO professionals will abide by the 50% up front, 50% upon completion standard. Make sure all financial terms are as clearly defined in your contract as the actual scope of work. This will protect all parties involved in the event that expectations are not met.

All in all, try to do your best to educate yourself on SEO. Have a basic understanding of SEO terminology and SEO methodology. Anyone offering SEO services should not have a problem explaining how they intend to get you results. If they fail gain your confidence or raise a red flag for any reason whatsoever, keep searching. You will eventually find someone who will help you reach your goals for a fair price. Happy hunting.



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Pay Per Call is the next wave of advertising on the Internet. Similar to a Pay – Per –Click advertising. Pay Per Call has a lot more to offer and a wider audience in mind. The Pay-Per Call (PP-Call) is geared towards small businesses that do not have a web presence on the internet. However, this form of advertising can be used by all types of business or services offered on the net.

Advertisers create an ad similar to a Pay-Per-Click (PP-Click) ad. Advertisers choose key terms in which they would like to appear under. They also choose their geographical location (local, regional or national) Pricing starts at $2 and can exceed $20. The ad itself consists of a headline and 2 additional lines of text, (including a URL if the company has one). Surfers then call the toll free number shown in the ad. After the surfer calls the number, the call is forwarded to the actual business phone. Seems pretty basic doesn’t it? But, I had a few questions I needed answered so I contacted Ingenio and spoke to them about their service.

My first question regarded calls placed after business hours. If my business phones are manned Monday – Friday, 9 to 5, will calls still come in after 5pm on Friday? The answer is that currently there is no automated scheduling that will turn your ads on or off at a specified time. However, you can go in manually and pause your account so that your ads are not shown during non-business hours. The automated scheduling is in the process of being implemented but there is currently no set date for this to take effect. Of course, you can place your business hours in the ad as well but this may take up valuable space that could be better utilized describing products or services. Businesses that have a call center for after hours calls are effectively 24 hour businesses, so this should not be an issue for them.

My next question concerned wrong numbers and short calls. We have all done it. We see one number and dial another. Or, we see something and on impulse we reach for the phone, and then change our mind ten seconds after dialing. So, does the advertiser pay for these types of calls? Is there a time limit a person needs to be on the phone for? There answer is yes. The calls need to last at least ten seconds. This should be more than enough time to establish that a wrong number as been dialed. I also wondered about people trying to beat the system. The trouble with PP-Click is that people may dial and occupy a salesperson with no intent other than to try and boost their revenue off the ads placed on their site. Ingenio has taken this into account. They can track calls that come in through their system. Any numbers seen abusing it can be blocked. Hopefully, this will discourage any type of scam to boost profits on sites that sponsors these ads.

I was also interested to know about ads that did provide a URL. Was there an additional charge levied when someone clicked on the ad? Fortunately, there is not. If a business sells over the net as well, they could certainly use this to their advantage. Of course, one of the main advantages to this type of advertising is that it caters to potential customers that do not, for whatever reason, like to make purchases online. Overall PP-Call may be worth its weight in gold. At least the potential is there. Will it surpass PP-Click as far as the preferred method of advertising? Probably, not. It does however give advertises who couldn’t advertise on the net before a reason to start. Maybe then they will see the importance of having a web presence on the Internet.

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Since the inception of Flash, it has been the programming medium of choice for many companies. Most professionals recognize the superior visual aspects that Flash has to offer. Unfortunately, Flash is also very hard to optimize. Many SEO firms would rather tell you Flash can’t be optimized than to try and optimize it. No, optimizing a Flash site is not simple by any means, but it is entirely possible. The absence of quality content that cannot be indexed is a huge factor regarding any flash presentation.

You can add META and keyword tags. Unfortunately, many search engines such as Google do not use these tags.Large companies shell out big bucks for Flash sites. They don’t want to hear that their site can’t be optimized because of the format. They love the effects of Flash, but more importantly require search engine optimization for their content. Here are some things you can do to increase a sites ranking when dealing with a flash format:Ideally, you want to get in on the ground floor of a Flash site being developed. Try to persuade the client to have flash headers and the rest of the site HTML based. This would be the most cost effective option. The other option is to create a duplicated HTML.

If neither of these is an option, move on to the next step.Add your META, keyword and description tags to the opening page to be displayed while flash is running. While some may feel that it can clutter a page, the results are hard to argue with. Follow standard SEO protocol. Use keywords in your TITLE tag. Build your link popularity to boost your client in the search engines. Try to link with sites that are pr 4 or more. Never link to sites that have more than 100 links on their link pages. Also, link to sites that allow you to use descriptions. Use keywords in your description. Stay away from sites that only allow banners or no description in linking. Those types of links do not help at all.

Remember, links pointing to your site are more important then links going out, so concentrate on those first and foremost.The next and final tip is controversial. The infamous page re-direct. There are some re-directs that work better than others. My understanding is that Google allows redirects. Google states on their site that a using a "301" code in HTTP headers site direct is recommended if you have moved your site.

So, using this to redirect an HTML page to a Flash site should not be a problem. In other words create an HTML page. Fill it with relevant content. Do not stuff it full of keywords. You will then need to create an .htaccess file. To learn more visit http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/htaccess/and follow the directions. You will need to download the .htaccess file in the root directory of the location where all your web pages are stored.redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htmThat is all you need to do. Save the file and upload it. Typically you would type in the old url (old domain name) and it would take you to the new url (new domain name). But, in this case we will change the old index file to another name. Create a new optimized HTML page.

Then, name it as the old index page. Google will index the new page that is redirected to the flash page. It will look like thisredirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved)/old/old.htm (the original folder path and file name)http://www.you.com/new.htm (new path and file name)Basically, we are just forwarding one page directly to another. Not to another domain name. This sounds more complicated than it actually is. This is usually the best way to utilize a redirect. You could also use a java script redirect.

Never use the META tag redirect. Those have already been recognized as a blacklisted move.I cannot guarantee that these will not get you banned. But, from my research, the 301 re-direct is the best bet. If your site is 100% Flash and you need to rank higher, this will get you results. These are your SEO options for clients with Flash sites.

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Blogs are fast becoming the SEO tool of choice by many webmasters. Why? Content. Search engines love content. The more content your blog can provide on a steady basis, the better your ability to increase traffic. Blogs are easy to start and anyone can for more effective SEO management.

What content do you place in your blog? You can place any useful information or articles about your product or service. If, for example, you are a wedding planner, you should write about tips future brides may not be aware of in relation to planning their wedding. You might talk about wedding scams, catering faux pas, honeymoon hotspots etc... Let the readers know you have something more to offer then just a simple service. People who feel comfortable about a person or organization are far more likely to buy from them. Let your readers know who you are and what you are capable of doing for them.Now that you have your content, you need to get it into the reader’s hands. The advantage of using a blog is that you can syndicate your content.

Rich Site Summary or RSS is a format used to syndicate your content instantly. In other words, people can have your content posted on their web site or sent to their email. Most blog sites will give you your own special URL to submit to sites that syndicate content. These sites will then contact your URL for the content. The more you update your site the more your site will be indexed or PINGED by RSS feeds. To help ensure your RSS feed is being indexed, enter the RSS tag into the <> of your site. Just enter your site title and the URL with your special URL for RSS. This and other tags can be used in most blogs. Take advantage of them.Creating a blog will allow your content to be syndicated which in turn will increase traffic to your web site as well as build your link popularity through RSS and blog directories.

This will give you and your products or services recognition. The knowledge and personal insights that you share will help build your business and your customer relations. The RSS feeds and blog directories will also help build your page rank on search engines. Blogs have all the ingredients to be one of the best free advertising tools the Internet has to offer. Why aren’t you taking advantage?


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By Joe Balestrino / Mr-SEO.com

Getting a high ranking on Google is a big achievement. There are many factors that go into pulling a high page rank. I have put together a small list of things that should not be overlooked when optimizing your site.

Let’s start from the top:

META Tags- Sorry, but Google doesn’t read META tags. That includes the KEYWORD tag. Some search engines, however, still use them.

URL- Having a keyword or words in URL will help you somewhat. Having a key word in your URL is not by any means a guarantee, but it never hurts.

TITLE Tag- This is an important step, use this tag wisely. Place your top keywords here. Remember, your page is indexed starting from the top of the page. Make this one count.Site content- The first paragraph of your site is a crucial part of your optimization. This will also be used as your site’s description. Be careful not to overdo it on the keywords. Make sure your content makes sense. Your keywords should make up a total of 6% to 8% of your page content. An average of three hundred words is a good rule of thumb.

Header Tags- Header tag <>should be considered important. Make headers uniform on your site. I like using them on the top of my page just before the first paragraph.

ALT Tags- These tags are great for adding keywords to images, so take advantage of them. I also use mouse over text with linked text.

Links- Any links you have on your site should have key terms in them. Never use “Click Here” or other unrelated words when creating links.Bonus tip: When exchanging text links, use key phrases as the actual links. This will certainly help you out.
For Example:
Affordable Search Engine Optimization & Web Site Marketing Mr. SEO is the leader in SEO. We handle targeted traffic, marketing and more. We also offer Web Site Marketing Articles to help you get more traffic to your site.

Links exchange- This will help boost your overall ranking. It’s actually better to be linked from another site (one way) than reciprocal (both sites linking to each other). Being linked one way is a huge bonus. However, the following should be kept in mind.
A: The site you are linking to needs to be related to your site.B: Google’s page rank of the site should be higher than yours; the higher the better.C: Avoid linking to sites that have too many links. A site that has forty or more links will only hurt you.Bonus Tip: See where you rank on Google by using this free tool. http://www.googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php
This Google ranking tool will show you under what keywords you are found on. Use this to help adjust the keywords you want to be found under. Be sure to check your ranking before you start any optimization. Then do it again 3 – 4 weeks after you have made your adjustments. See if your ranking has gone up.


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By: Joe Balestrino - Mr SEO

When, shopping for a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company/specialist you need to be aware of a few things.If someone offers you fast results they may be pulling your leg. If you aren’t listed on search engines the average time to be index takes around 4 weeks. Someone offering submissions in less then that is coning you. Websites that are already listed and are just being updated will have a faster result.A guarantee isn’t always reinsurance. Just because a site states they can get you in the #1 spot doesn’t mean they can deliver. Or, they may have you listed under an obscure keyword or phrase. Most legitimate SEO’s will tell you no one can guarantee a top stop on all keywords and phrases. Search Engine optimization is not an exact science. Trail and error along with constant tweaking will help bring your site closer to your goal.Most SEO’s should give you some information on where your site stands currently. You links, keywords, where you rank on major search engines etc.. Or, do one yourself.

My article “Google’s Helping hand” show you free tools that can help you evaluate where you are on search engines. Don’t go into any SEO work blindly. Know where you stand before and after.Price is never an indication of how good a service is. More isn’t always better.Shop around try to get the most for your money, but be realistic. If it seems too good to be true then it may just be. Be prepared to shell out some cash. SEO is not cheap. You should think of SEO as advertising. It should be contestant as should all of your advertising efforts.Ask questions! Do not be afraid to ask what will be done to increase your ranking. Most SEO’s will have no problem telling you what they will do. They may not want to reveal their whole SEO operation. But, they will give you some insight to what they will do. Talk to more then one SEO company. Compare what each has to say.

Do some research on your own. Find out if these companies have been reported to the Better Business Bureau. If the company or persons have had any articles or reviews written about them. Ask around. Try to have some idea of the company or persons creditability.A few additional things to keep in mind are:Is SEO there main business or is it a sideline to other businesses. SEO is a full time job. Especially, keeping up with the constant changes. Do they have a specialist? Do they outsource? How much do they really know?What are there view points on link farms and doorway pages? Will they do anything to get you links and traffic? Even though search engines frown on those practices.Can they explain to you clearly how their plan of action? Are they looking to take small steps with you? Or, are they trying to sell you the biggest SEO package possible?

Follow this outline when you are searching for someone to optimize your site. In the end it will be worth it.

Joe Balestrino’s site is offers affordable SEO, submissions and other articles on SEO and marketing.


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