2010 is the year that search engine optimization finally broke into the mainstream, and is now a well-known strategy employed by organizations wishing to boost their website’s rankings. All the same, merely a few years ago, search engine optimization was viewed as a dark art. And nowadays, how things have altered: now search engine optimization needs a broader collection of talents in ethical spheres : content writing, marketing a website across social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and even persuading others to link to your site (by writing great or controversial content that gains links from other websites).

Yahoo!, Google, Bing and other search engines have likewise evolved and are far more refined than merely appraising links to decide rankings : they can find out how long your visitors stay on your site, how many pages they view, and in the main how much of an interesting resource your site is.

Having said that, without doubt links are still critical to decide rankings, and because of this you need to make your website a remarkable resource that individuals feel compelled to link to.

But if you cannot wait months to rank, you can use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. What is PPC? This is a scheme where businesses bid a certain sum of money for every time the ad is clicked on. The amount one bids for counts on the keywords that actually trigger the displaying of your advert in the search engine results pages. Keywords are fundamental to the targeting of the people that actually click on your advertizements, and so Pay Per Click is a wonderful method to discover which keywords convert to sales and which don’t. When you are armed with this information, you can then pinpoint those keywords in your SEO campaign too!

It’s a good idea to hire a firm that offers a search engine positioning service first of all, and gain knowledge and experience from their strategies. In this way you’re not just placing your website in the hands of professional people, you can also acquire knowledge from them as well. To add to that, you should ensure you hire an SEO company who are in your location. Simply type in some keyphrases like search engine optimization + your town, for instance seo nottingham. Why a service provider near you? Search engine marketing is a rather detailed field of study, therefore it’s a wise move to get to know your Search engine optimization business you take on, and there’s no substitute for in the flesh get togethers to talk about the finer details.

I knew things were bad at DMOZ. But I guess I didn’t realize how bad, until I started eavesdropping on a few forums, and reading the avalanche of e-mails I received on the subject.

When it takes up to two years to get a web site listed, there’s a serious problem. When perfectly qualified web sites are rejected for no other reason than the fact the editor considers them serious competition to his or her own site, there’s a serious problem.

When you e-mail DMOZ about the status of your web site and don’t even receive a courtesy response to your questions, there’s a serious problem.

When you have egotistical DMOZ editors fighting each other to have their own web sites listed, there’s a serious problem.

And quite frankly, I don’t see how the mess DMOZ has created can be fixed. With an apparently endless backlog of web sites waiting to be approved, how can they possibly catch up. The answer is, they can’t.

But this isn’t just a performance issue we’re talking about here, this is a morality issue. The very fact that it’s a matter of public record what DMOZ is doing speaks volumes about the character of many of their editors.

After all, much of what I’ve written negatively about DMOZ came directly from the mouths and/or keyboards of DMOZ editors themselves. At least they claimed to be DMOZ editors. And for the life of me, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to own up to that dubious distinction, unless it were actually true.

This is what one DMOZ editor had to say. “Since I became an editor for DMOZ a few weeks ago (albeit for a tiny category) I have seen on the DMOZ editors board that there are a lot of good volunteers there who work hard to try to keep the directory up to date and useful. Its a shame because there are also seem to be a lot of editors there who are lazy, or who have let the “power” of being an editor go to their heads. (The people who DON’T ever post on the editor message boards, or update their categories, etc.)

I think some method to allow webmasters to check the status of their site submissions (and to know why their site gets rejected if it is something fixable, and the site is related to the category and not just a spam submission, etc) would be an excellent first step to improving the system. Unfortunately the editor management system seems to be circa 1998 … I am only guessing based on design/functionality, but I assume big changes are not coming any time soon.”

Even Google may have come to the realization that DMOZ may have finally run its course. Previously found via its own tab, the Open Directory has been demoted to the “more” page.

This was Google’s explanation for the demotion. “We analyzed what people were using, and that had become less popular over time. As the web grows, directory structures get harder to use. It didn’t seem to be worth the real estate on the home page.” Ouch!

Demoting the directory may also be a way for Google to eventually distance itself from the Open Directory Project, which powers it. The volunteer-produced directory was added back in 2000, near the height of the Open Directory’s popularity.

Today, there are often complaints that the ODP, has not keep up with submission demands. In addition, there have been delays in getting the most current data out in a format that ODP partners such as Google can use.

Ultimately, any problem with the Open Directory–which is not in Google’s control–still reflects badly on Google.

I do have a solution to this whole DMOZ mess, if anyone wants to hear it. I say nuke the site for morbid, and put it out of its misery!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net

Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net

One of the most fundamental facets of any web strategy is how do I come through in the serps. How do I make my site to rank well in Google, Microsoft’s Live or Yahoo?

One of the most consequential aspects in doing winning in the search engines (assuming the fundamentals suchlike brilliant content are taken care of) is bringing in links for your business. You can do this a number of ways, some taken positively by the search engines and some not so favorably.

One of the true ways, that the search engine engineers think is tolerable is link building with articles.

Fundamentally this involves composing a acceptable article, rather around something from your business, and then publishing it to a free article directory.

You really shouldn’t undervalue the crucial nature of link building. If there is one indicator that takes precedence to the search engines, in general, it is links. Fine, there are rafts of other signals, for example the domain name, but you are kidding if you think you are going to be listed well, and easily heard, if you do not expect any links.

Building links with articles is easy. It is something the search engines say is okay. And, it adds value to the web, by providing valuable content that might be interesting or useful to users. The real question is what are you waiting for?

Today’s article is about the wonders of SEO. SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. If you know anything about our world wide web, than you surely know that the sites bringing in the most monstrous traffic are search engines. In the world of traffic, search engines control almost all of the pieces. If you stop and think about it, if you want to find something on the web, what do you do? Odds are you hop on over to Yahoo, Google, MSN, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, Kanoodle, and the list just goes on and on. Almost every method of obtaining traffic, other than offline sources and direct, random domain visits, all of your traffic is coming through these engines. Pay Per Click advertising, sponsered search, directory submissions, all these play off the search engine.

But what if there was a way to outsmart the search engines, (and keep your wallet nice and fat!)to use their own patterns and logic against them? Before we get started, you should know that a search engine finds you (for the most part)by sending spiders to your site, to index your pages and collect info, such as meta tags. But how does a search engine find you, and keep coming back?

1. The internet is literally a web, and every new site created is basically below the web, in a gigantic sand box. Your new site is literally one of millions sitting in the box, and your only way out is to be found by a “spider” (a search engine “robot”). You can play the waiting game, and wait and wait until it randomly passes over you (this could take anywhere from 1 month to many years depending on your site itself), or you could do something to attract the spiders. No, not by putting dead flies on your homepage (yes that was lame, bear with me), but by getting links. As the internet is a web, if you are linked to site a, you potentially have all of their visitors connected to you. The bigger and more popular site a, the more often spiders will visit that site, and if they have you linked on it, the spiders will deem your site (site b) worth visiting based off of a few factors: The popularity of site a, and the content of site a in relation to b.

Any easy way to get a ton of links to your site is by creating “blogs”. If you don’t know what blogs are, you should try googling it. You can create a blog with Blogger.com, owned by Google, and post updates it in with links back to site b. Google will index the blog (they own it!), find the links, and follow them back to your site. On average, with 3-5 posts a day on your blog, google will find your site within about 3-5 days. You could also create multiple blogs and do this, but that may be more effort-to-effectiveness than you want. If you are focused on Yahoo, use MyYahoo.

2. Content. Search Engines love content, the more relevant content the better! Even more important than the amount of content, is the frequency. If you were to update site b every hour, the search engine spiders will feel curious to what your updates are all about, and will often come back to check them out.

Updating content too tedious? Don’t do it yourself silly! Learn to harness the powers of RSS. Don’t know what RSS is? No one really does, although what we have learned from the little green martian men inside our heads is this, it stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a means of using xml code to connect to “channels”, where the channel operaters (the webmasters, etc) may add content to the channel, almost always in the form of articles and news related stories. The beauty of this RSS system, is that MANY sites let users borrow thier xml code, and insert it into their own sites. Big deal right? Wrong! Every time your rss source (where you got the code from) updates their site, or their feed, your’s updates too! Search Engine spiders realize that, and think you updated your site too, when all you really did was kick back and watch the traffic flow! If you really want to step things up a notch, you can become a content alligator. Oops! Content Aggregator! This is simply the practice of adding more than one channel into your rss feed, creating a mixture of more than two seperate feeds. This could mean that in theory, the spiders are seeing your site being updated every few minutes!

If you have any unique, personal content being updated by you or your webmaster, consider making your own feed for that, and submitting it into rss directories, for even more links.

Those are two of the most important factors, and for the rest, stick around for part 2!

Chris Everson in partnership with Mark Shay
http://www.therealincome.com
Serious Income, we don’t sponser crap.

The advent of Internet has affected lives of almost the entire world and websites, e-mails and chating on net none need any introduction even for young kids. There is an outpour of websites throughout the Internet all offering numerous services to attract the potential visitors online. The question actually matters is what’s the foolproof way to keep visitors glued to a particular site and not jump to other numerous sites that are upcoming each new day. What makes one of the web pages much more popular than the other when both are based on almost similar theme. The answer lies in the way of presenting the information and the simplicity with which the users can avail services offered.

One site that has proved to rise at a highest pace in the web world in a shortest span of time is unarguably the google. It’s been a hot favorite amongst the search engines on web and the one that is most preferred by web users. It’s simple design targeting only the specific service that it intends to provide and a very efficient scripting language behind the scene has won a top position among the most popular sites in the web world. Google the name actually does not require any introduction it’s already headed on top of the list for advertisers and regular or casual visitors on net.

Some time back the Google team started the service of e-mail even that caught the fancy of online visitors in a very short time. It offers its users with lots of free space on Internet around more than 2000 MB and still amount of space is increasing each day. One more aspect that makes it different from its counterparts is membership-acquiring process, which is possible only through invitation by anyone already using Google.

Next, good news is that the Google team is shortly coming up with its new venture for offering instant messaging services for its users. Just as the earlier performances by Google this too promises to be a messaging service with a difference. It definitely would offer newer facilities and opportunities for its visitors something quite better than what the existing chatting services offer. The facility would be readily available for existing users of gmail account and others can also avail this opportunity to create a gmail account and register themselves at the Google site.

Just as e-mail has been popular around the globe similarly the instant messaging system captured the hearts of frequent visitors on web. A client “Gaim” in required to be installed on the computer that wants to use the Google instant messaging services. This client program is capable of performing various tasks required by its users. Apart from the new registrations pouring in by the advent of Google talk current gmail members would also be more than happy as now they would not need two id’s on their computer one for e-mails and the other for instant messages. Google talk makes it easy for all its members to manage their entire Internet requirements at one single place i.e. the Google site and to add flavor to already existing recipe is the news that all of this is free

Mansi aggarwal writes about google talk. Learn more at http://www.ugfc.org/2005/08/google_talk.html

There has been endless webmaster speculation and worry about
the so-called “Google Sandbox” - the indexing time delay for
new domain names - rumored to last for at least 45 days from
the date of first “discovery” by Googlebot. This recognized
listing delay came to be called the “Google Sandbox effect.”

Ruminations on the algorithmic elements of this sandbox time
delay have ranged widely since the indexing delay was first
noticed in spring of 2004. Some believe it to be an issue of
one single element of good search engine optimization such
as linking campaigns. Link building has been the focus of
most discussion, but others have focused on the possibility
of size of a new site or internal linking structure or just
specific time delays as most relevant algorithmic elements.

Rather than contribute to this speculation and further
muddy the Sandbox, we’ll be looking at a case study of a
site on a new domain name, established May 11, 2005 and the
specific site structure, submissions activity, external and
internal linking. We’ll see how this plays out in search
engine spider activity vs. indexing dates at the top four
search engines.

Ready? We’ll give dates and crawler action in daily lists and
see how this all plays out on this single new site over time.

* May 11, 2005 Basic text on large site posted on newly
purchased domain name and going live by days end. Search
friendly structure implemented with text linking making
full discovery of all content possible by robots. Home
page updated with 10 new text content pages added daily.
Submitted site at Google’s “Add URL” submission page.

* May 12 - 14 - No visits by Slurp, MSNbot, Teoma or Google.
(Slurp is Yahoo’s spider and Teoma is from Ask Jeeves)
Posted link on WebSite101 to new domain at Publish101.com

* May 15 - Googlebot arrives and eagerly crawls 245 pages
on new domain after looking for, but not finding the
robots.txt file. Oooops! Gotta add that robots.txt file!

* May 16 - Googlebot returns for 5 more pages and stops.
Slurp greedily gobbles 1480 pages and 1892 bad links!
Those bad links were caused by our email masking meant
to keep out bad bots. How ironic slurp likes these.

* May 17 - Slurp finds 1409 more masking links & only 209
new content pages. MSNbot visits for the first time and
asks for robots.txt 75 times during the day, but leaves
when it finds that file missing! Finally get around to
add robots.txt by days end & stop slurp crawling email
masking links and let MSNbot know it’s safe to come in!

* May 23 - Teoma spider shows up for the first time and
crawls 93 pages. Site gets slammed by BecomeBot, a spider
that hits a page every 5 to 7 seconds and strains our
resources with 2409 rapid fire requests for pages. Added
BecomeBot to robots.txt exclusion list to keep ‘em out.

* May 24 - MSNbot has stopped showing up for a week since
finding the robots.txt file missing. Slurp is showing up
every few hours looking at robots.txt and leaving again
without crawling anything now that it is excluded from
the email masking links. BecomeBot appears to be honoring
the robots.txt exclusion but asks for that file 109 times
during the day. Teoma crawls 139 more pages.

* May 25 - We realize that we need to re-allocate server
resources and database design and this requires changes
to URL’s, which means all previously crawled pages are
now bad links! Implement subdomains and wonder what now?
Slurp shows up and finds thousands of new email masking
links as the robots.txt was not moved to new directory
structures. Spiders are getting errors pages upon new
visits. Scampering to put out fires after wide-ranging
changes to site, we miss this for a week. Spider action
is spotty for 10 days until we fix robots.txt

* June 4 - Teoma returns and crawls 590 pages! No others.

* June 5 - Teoma returns and crawls 1902 pages! No others.

* June 6 - Teoma returns and crawls 290 pages. No others.

* June 7 - Teoma returns and crawls 471 pages. No others.

* June 8-14 Odd spider behavior, looking at robots.txt only.

* June 15 - Slurp gets thirsty, gulps 1396 pages! No others.

* June 16 - Slurp still thirsty, gulps 1379 pages! No others.

So we’ll take a break here at the 5 weeks point and take note
of the very different behavior of the top crawlers. Googlebot
visits once and looks at a substantial number of pages but
doesn’t return for over a month. Slurp finds bad links and
seems addicted to them as it stops crawling good pages until
it is told to lay off the bad liquor, er that is links by
getting robots.txt to slap slurp to its senses. MSNbot visits
looking for that robots.txt and won’t crawl any pages until
told what NOT to do by the robots.txt file. Teoma just crawls
like crazy, takes breaks, then comes back for more.

This behavior may imitate the differing personalities of the
software engineers who designed them. Teoma is tenacious and
hard working. MSNbot is timid and needs instruction and some
reassurance it is doing the right thing, picks up pages slowly
and carefully. Slurp has addictive personality and performs
erratically on a random schedule. Googlebot takes a good long
look and leaves. Who knows whether it will be back and when.

Now let’s look at indexing by each engine. As of this writing
on July 7, each engine also shows differing indexing behavior
as well. Google shows no pages indexed although it crawled
250 pages nearly two months ago. Yahoo has three pages indexed
in a clear aging routine that doesn’t list any of the nearly
8,000 pages it has crawled to date (not all itemized above.)
MSN has 187 pages indexed while crawling fewer pages than
any of the others. Ask Jeeves has crawled more pages to date
than any search engine, yet has not indexed a single page.

Each of the engines will show the number of pages indexed if
you use the query operator “site:publish101.com” without the
quotes. MSN 187 pages, Ask none, Yahoo 3 pages, Google none.

The daily activity not listed in the three weeks since June 16
above has not varied dramatically, with Teoma crawling a bit
more than other engines, Slurp erratically up and down and
MSN slowly gathering 30 to 50 pages daily. Google is absent.

Linking campaign has been minimal with posts to discussion
lists, a couple of articles and some blog activity. Looking
back over this time it is apparent that a listing delay is
actually quite sensible from the view of the search engines.
Our site restructuring and bobbled robots.txt implementation
seems to have abruptly stalled crawling but the indexing
behavior of each engine displays distinctly differing policy
by each major player.

The sandbox is apparently not just Google’s playground, but
it is certainly tiresome after nearly two months. I think I’d
like to leave for home, have some lunch and take a nap now.

Back to class before we leave for the day kiddies. What did
we learn today? Watch early crawler activity and be certain
to implement robots.txt early and adjust often for bad bots.
Oh yes, and the sandbox belongs to all search engines.

Mike Banks Valentine is a search engine optimization specialist
who operates http://WebSite101.com and
will continue reports of
case study chronicling search indexing of http://Publish101.com

I set out with the intention of writing a self improvement type article with an original temporary working title of ‘How To Overcome Fear’.

Being the sound marketing man that I am though, my first action was to research whether this was relevant to many peoples lives.

What followed was a mistake.

I had read recently about a ‘Google Suggest’ in Beta test mode (http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1), and so I thought I would give it a whirl.

I should have known better - distractions on the web happen to me all the time.

The next hour passed effortlessly away as I played with the new found toy.

This is Google’s own description of the tool:

‘What is Google Suggest?

As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you’re typing and offers suggestions in real time. This is similar to Google’s “Did you mean?” feature that offers alternative spellings for your query after you search, except that it works in real time. For example, if you type “bass,” Google Suggest might offer a list of refinements that include “bass fishing” or “bass guitar.” Similarly, if you type in only part of a word, like “progr,” Google Suggest might offer you refinements like “programming,” “programming languages,” “progesterone,” or “progressive.” You can choose one by scrolling up or down the list with the arrow keys or mouse.

That’s pretty cool. How does it do that? Our algorithms use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see. For example, Google Suggest uses data about the overall popularity of various searches to help rank the refinements it offers…’

Here are some thought provoking results:

‘How to overcome fear’ - 2,580,000 results

‘How to overcome anxiety’ - 119,000 results

At least I am right to be targeting my article towards those expressing concern about fear.

But here is the strange thing - Google sponsored AdWord links for ‘anxiety’ is twelve, but ‘fear’ only has three.

There are many more anomolies such as this in a very short time.

Furthermore, look at these interesting results from Google Suggest:

The really amazing thing is how big some of the search results are:

‘How to be happy’ 95,000,000 results - sponsored links, nine.

AND

What about these:

‘How to be hot’ - 192,000,000 and get this - NIL Google sponsored links.

‘How to be humble’ - 6,700,000 - NIL Google sponsored links.

This last example has been included, as it is more surprising in that even the normal Google search for the keyword phrase ‘how to be humble’ throws up results that bear vary little resemblance to the searched term. Try it and see.

What absorbed me were the ranking figures showing on the right. IF the figures are correct I can confidently state that product producers, affiliates and advertisers are really missing out on a lot of massively searched niches.

Have I found a goldmine? Should I be revealing all this?

Well I don’t know, and frankly I am puzzled by what the ‘Google Suggest’ numbers really represent.

I am not going to get that excited as I have just been to Wordtracker which gave me these results for two of
the above terms.

‘How to be hot’ - 13 searches in the last 110 days

‘How to be humble’ No searches in the last 110 days.

So where do the ‘Google Suggest’ figures come from? Can you throw any light on this, because if you can it will save me being distracted further in search of the truth.

Oh - and there is still that article to write about overcoming fear. Down to it.

Keith is the Managing Director of Creative Eye and has over 10 years experience in website design, development and project management.
To read more from Keith Watson, visit http://www.creativeeye.co.uk/articles/

We get so caught up with internet marketing and “web building” that most of us tend to forget the “olden days” of marketing; offline marketing. Years ago, the web did not exist, yet, people still made millions!

Why is it that all of a sudden most of us think that offline marketing is not worth the investment? If anything, the lesser the people that promote offline, the more the opportunity for you to slide in.

Even if you are just promoting an affiliate website, offline marketing can still be an incredibly profitable means to drive traffic. However, as with all marketing, do it slowly, track meticulously and learn as you go.

Here are 5 of the cheapest ways you can start getting your hands into offline marketing:

1. Inexpensive Business Cards

There used to be a day when business cards were expensive, but today, companies such as www.vistaprint.com are giving away business cards for free!

You run into hundreds, if not thousands of people everyday just during your normal daily tasks; restaurants, neighborhood, grocery store, clubs, works, etc?

Simply have a business card on you and ready to go as you meet someone and they ask what you do? Refer them to your new start-up business and build their curiosity.

So what if this technique won’t have you boasting thousands of visitors in a month, over time you can build very targeted visitors ? all while you also brand your company!

2. Press Releases

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am very big on publishing articles and content and then distributing them online. I have scored BIG traffic by doing this and so have those who learned from me.

Well let’s take the concept one step further and spread press releases. Press releases and content are similar in nature, just written differently. Press releases can spread like wild-fire and if picked up by any form of media, you’re set!

This strategy may take some time, but be patient. With great, easy-to-use services like www.prweb.com, it’s a shame to not use this strategy!

3. Bumper Stickers!

Honestly, don’t lie ? you know you’ve been intrigued by the messages you see written on cars. You may have even called a few of those companies.

When you’re sitting a red light, there’s nothing better to do than to read the message on the car in front of you. A simple bumper sticker with an enticing offer and web address can slowly work charms.

More on those here: www.speedysigns.com

4. Speak your way to stardom

One of my latest strategies that has been getting me A LOT of business is to make myself available as a speaker at local events. I have been speaking at business events, schools, colleges and anywhere else where someone wants me to speak.

By speaking publicly, I am quickly being recognized as an expert. This strategy works so well that listeners don’t even wait to see my website, they buy on the spot!

5. Direct mail

I saved this strategy for last because it’s not for everyone. If you have some money and are willing to take a small risk, this is the strategy for you. Remember, highest risk equals high potential reward.

Sending direct mail (offline) to prospects still works as long as it is done correctly. You need to research this topic more and make sure you gather a targeted list of prospects.

The latest trend seems to be in sending postcards because they are short, to the point and the least expensive to prepare and send.

No matter what, if you decide to try this strategy, I highly recommend researching in depth.

There you go, now there is absolutely no reason for you to only market yourself and your business on the internet. I have only revealed 5 of the many ways to market offline, there are still many other techniques.

The main suggestion I want to give is that marketing offline typically costs more money than online and that you should always thoroughly research before you try (and make sure you can stomach the potential risk).

So why is local search important for the brick-and-mortar businesses? Let’s explore the facts and figures:

• Current estimates say 40 percent of search engine queries are for local businesses and services

• Research shows that 92 percent of local searches convert, but at a later date and offline

• 54 percent of people use the Internet instead of the phone book or newspaper to find local information

• Trends indicate that the Internet will likely surpass the newspaper in the near future for local advertising

These impressive numbers have confirmed the emerging pattern of consumer behavior and the major search engines are paying attention. We’ve got Google Local, Yahoo Local, AOL Local, and MSN Local all vying for the local searches and continuously releasing improvements such as aerial photos, directions and even satellite mapping.

Small businesses are taking notice and shifting some of their marketing budgets over to Internet marketing. There are three easy ways to market your local business online and participate in the continuing growth of local search. Here are some ways in which your dollars will be well spent.

First, get listed on the major search engines local search. It’s easy!

• Sign up for Yahoo Local here http://listings.local.yahoo.com/. Option to enhance your listing for $9.95/month.

• Sign up for Google Local here - https://www.google.com/local/add/login.

• Get listed in Ask Jeeves Local by submitting to www.citysearch.com (see below).

• Get listed in MSN Local. MSN’s business listings come from publicly available local telephone records for published telephone listings. To add your business, go to Add a New Business Listing form. MSN’s local web results come from the indexed sites within their search engine. Make sure to include your full address on your website and that it is not solely defined within an image. Image based addresses cannot be indexed by search engine crawlers.

Second, purchase inexpensive advertising on geographic specific search engines or portals. Minor search engines and portals revolving around local search offer very reasonable advertising fees. Check out the following local engines:

• True Local - http://www.truelocal.com. Only indexes websites that have a physical location. Advertising starts at $40/year! When you sign up, type in the coupon code: mannix

• City Search - http://www.citysearch.com/. Offers pay per performance and sponsored ads. Also feeds Ask Jeeves local listings.

• American Town Network - http://www.americantowns.com. Caters to NY, CT, Northern NJ, Boston and Detroit. Email (info@americantowns.com), call (203- 256-3390 ) or write for advertising details.

• Escape Maker - http://www.escapemaker.com. Caters to New England, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware. Basic listing is FREE. Enhanced options available.

• Switchboard.com - Online Yellow Pages. It only takes a moment to make sure your listing is correct. If you search for yourself and do not find a listing, contact switchboard.com for a FREE basic listing.

• Yellowpages.com offers a myriad of advertising options to get you noticed! Click here

• Albany.com - Check the nameofyourcity.com and see if they offer advertising. Usually city portals have impressive statistics and will send you targeted traffic. Mannix Marketing has developed many portals that are highly beneficial if you do business in upstate New York.

Third, don’t forget old fashioned optimization to get your local business found within the natural results of the search engines. It is still necessary to be placed within the natural listings of the search engines. The value of being found when a searcher types in your city and your specialty (keyword) is still unmatched.

Placing local businesses is not new to Mannix Marketing. We began marketing our local clients on the internet back in 1996. Our local clients are known to dominate the search engines for local searches (keywords with a city or state attached). Our roots and our hearts are with the local businesses. Call 518-743-9424 today for an individualized quote!

Don’t have a website? Don’t worry! Mannix Marketing understands that a majority of small businesses have yet to develop a website. Our design / development team is ready to accommodate you with a professional website. Call 518-743-9424 now and within a month’s time, you will have a website for future marketing!

If you are a local business, don’t underestimate the effectiveness of the Internet. It is a powerful way to expose your business. A few simple steps and you’ll be on your way to attracting searchers to YOUR specialty. It’s never too late to tap into what millions of small business owners feel is a necessary part of any marketing campaign.

Your website is ready. Your content is in place, you have optimized your pages. What is the last thing you should do before uploading your hard work? Validate. It is surprising how many people do not validate the source code of their web pages before putting them online.

Search engine robots are automated programs that traverse the web, indexing page content and following links. Robots are basic, and robots are definitely not smart. Robots have the functionality of early generation browsers: they don’t understand frames; they can’t do client-side image maps; many types of dynamic pages are beyond them; they know nothing of JavaScript. Robots can’t really interact with your pages: they can’t click on buttons, and they can’t enter passwords. In fact, they can only do the simplest of things on your website: look at text and follow links. Your human visitors need clear, easy-to-understand content and navigation on your pages; search engine robots need that same kind of clarity.

Looking at what your visitors and the robots need, you can easily see how making your website “search engine friendly”, also makes the website visitor friendly.

For example, one project I worked on had many validation problems. Because of the huge number of errors generated by problems in the source code, the search engine robots were unable to index the web page, and in particular, a section of text with keyword phrases identified specifically for this page. Ironically, human users had problems with the page as well. Since humans are smart, they could work around the problem, but the robots could not. Fixing the source code corrected the situation for human and automated visitors.

There are several tools available to check your HTML code. One of the easiest to use is published by the W3C (http://validator.w3.org/). While you’re there, you can also validate your CSS code at W3C’s page for CSS (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/). The reports will tell you what source code needs to be fixed on your web page. One extra or unclosed tag can cause problems. With valid code, you make it easier for your human visitors and search engine robots can travel through your website and index your pages without source code errors stopping them in their tracks. How many times have you visited a website, only to find something broken when going through the web pages? Too many too count, I’m sure. Validating your pages makes everything easier for your website to get noticed.

As I said before, what works for your website visitors works for the search engine robots. Usability is the key for both your human visitors and automated robots. Why not provide the best chance for optimum viewing by both?

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing company serving small businesses. She has specialized in Search Engine Optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O’Reilly Media, Inc., a technical book publishing company.

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