The Factors that Play a Role in Your Web Site’s Ranking by Courtney Heard

Have you ever had a proposal, estimate or quote for search engine optimization work and wondered what goes into the pricing? What makes one site need more work than another? Why do some sites increase rankings faster than others? Why do some sites get more trafffrom their top page ranking than yours?
There are so many aspects of a web site that can decrease or boost your search engine rankings. Each web site is as unique as DNA and as such, will react differently to different marketing treatments.

Introducing Google Earth by Chris Richardson

Late last/early this morning, Google launched the highly anticipated full version of Google Earth, the search engine’s stand-alone global map utility. The following is a detailed, blow-by-blow description of the launch provided by Nathan Weinberg.

The post appeared at his blog, InsideGoogle. Nathan was quite impressed with Google’s newest device, and judging by his blog comments, so are many others. With that, here’s Nathan’s account:

Google Earth Launches For Free
Nathan Weinberg

Custom Web Site Design Strategies by Nathan Drew Sire

Web site design has certainly, in the past decade, evolved tremendously. More clients now are demanding custom design, as opposed to the ‘cookie cutter’ sites of yesteryear.

Where once there existed a limit as to the types of fonts used, the types of coding languages used, and the styles themselves, there is now the possibility for more variety in Web site design than ever before. This has come about because of the advances in technology that did not exist even a few years ago, and it has opened up many creative avenues for Web site designers in the creation of custom designs.

Designing Your Web Site to Maximize Trafficby Brendon Turner

Designing your site to maximize traff from the search engines is not a difficult task but it does require you to think ahead and plan your SEO strategy carefully. If you have not yet built your web site and are still in the initial planning stages then you may have an easier time of it. If you already have an existing web site, then you may need to take the time to read up on these SEO strategies and make some changes to incorporate them into your web site.
I will discuss 13 ways in which you can improve on your existing web site or boost a brand new web site into the stratosphere of high rankings. These are NOT SEO tricks but rather tried, tested, ethical and true methods that we know to work effectively. We all know that in reality there are no real SEO tricks. True success is achieved through hard work, research and implementation of a thorough and complete SEO strategy.

What good is a search engine if the results it provides aren’t relevant to the query being performed? The answer? Not much. The largest search index in the world doesn’t amount to much if you don’t have an algorithm that can successfully provide results related to the question being posed.
Because relevance is such an important characteristic, many who study the industry conduct tests to find out which engine is the most relevant and surveys to discover what people consider relevant when it comes to search results.

Don’t Put all Your Promotion Eggs in One Basket by Gary McHugh

One of the most frequent questïons I get asked by my clients is “What is the best way to promote my site?” If a brand new webmaster asks me that question, then I will take as much time as I can possibly muster to answer their request, before they learn about and put on the SEO and ranking blinkers so many webmasters wear with pride.
Allow me to state the obvious, the success of any website is in direct proportion to the amount of visitors it receives. If success is about visitors, then why on earth would any intelligent business person devote 95% of their promotion time and budget to a single method of advertising their site?

Google’s never ending search for providing a quality end user experience has culminated into a bullet with patent number WO 2005/029368 imprinted across the side. Unfortunately for smaller news services, the bullet may strike the heart of aspiring upstarts—a casualty of Google’s friendly fire.

Of course, it will all depend on how heavily certain things are weighed in the news algorithm technology Google has just sealed in the patent offices of the US and other countries. News giants like CNN and the New York Times will barely notice the decrease of air pressure in the blogosphere, and probably won’t mourn the impending loss of younger cousins vying for their thrones.

The 3 Essential Components of a Search Engine Optimization Campaign
By Matt Hockin InteractiveMarketingInc.com

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 Million searches. In a recent Forrester Research report 81% of consumers on the Internet find products and services by using the Search Engines. Search Engine Optimization allows you to achieve top search engine placement and a tap into a new source of qualified visitors who are actively searching for products and services on the Internet.
Unfortunately, only 7% of all websites are visible on the search engines according to a recent StatMarket.com study. The reason for this phenomenon is that most web sites are not properly optimized and promoted to achieve high search engine rankings.

PayPal Alternatives: Do You Have a Backup Plan?
By Merle http://mcebook.mcpromotions.com

Many people think that in order to do business online you need to have an expensive merchant account to have the ability to take payments by credït card from your customers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Merchant accounts can be hard to get and the monthly fees can really add up.
So what’s an honest Internet Entrepreneur to do?

Google Does RSS or How You Can Benefit From Google’s New Sitemaps by Titus Hoskins

Has Google finally embraced RSS with their new XML powered Sitemaps program? Well, sort of, but it seems more like a hug than a strong impassioned embrace!
It does use XML technology which allows for the crawling and updating of your site’s web pages. You can even include your entire web site (all urls) with this indexing program. For anyone targeting the search engines, especially Google, this program (still in beta) is a Must Have.
If you require timely updating of your most popular pages Google’s new Sitemaps may prove indispensable. It’s a little premature to assess the importance or impact of Google’s new program but anyone wanting to give their site a competitive edge should be gearing up.