How to Optimize Internal Web Pages for Maximum Adsense Revenue?

Meta Tags

Title Text

However, you can try to mix the high paying keywords with traffic attractor keywords too.

Give Headings

Again, you can use these headings either to optimize for traffic, fighting competition, or getting more payouts.

Embedding Keywords in the Content

Some people follow a strategy of hosting less content on a web page. This helps focus ads on specific keywords and avoids dilution of ads by other keywords that you may have mentioned even once in the web content. This works when you are optimizing for Adsense, but has some traffic drawbacks too. Furthermore, Google may consider it as SPAM. Therefore, it's never advised to host 2 or 3 lines and expect good earnings. Chances are that you will be hit by smart pricing.

On the other hand, don’t make lengthy web pages as it might mislead Ad-bots to get some wrong ads, resulting in dilution of relevant ads. Sometimes, Ad bots can be very sticky to a certain keyword you used just for a reference. If you are getting irrelevant ads, changing meta tags and Title text is the first thing to start with, then move on to your content.

Internal Linking

Increasing Penetration

Full Article

In the click: want all the right people to notice your business? Then you need to make the most of today's hottest marketing method—search engine opti
In the click: want all the right people to notice your business? Then you need to make the most of today's hottest marketing method—search engine optimization
Entrepreneur

You can't resist the temptation. Fixated on your computer screen, you anxiously type keywords relevant to your business into your favorite search engine. A list of search results appears. You cringe as you spot several competitors, then grumble because your company's Web site is nowhere to be seen. Where is it? That depends. Where is your search engine marketing strategy?

Gone are the days when adding keywords in meta tags to your site produced rankings. Search engine marketing has evolved into a complex and competitive program. It's also profitable--according to a March 2003 report by Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Safa Rashtchy, online search is the most cost-effective direct-marketing method. The average cost per lead from search is 29 cents, far less than e-mail (50 cents), the Yellow Pages ($1.18), banner ads ($2.00) and direct mail ($9.94).

Gather your Web design and marketing staff; both teams are required. Understanding search engine marketing basics will help your team execute a strategy in-house or outsource it to specialists. The sooner your site is visible for relevant keywords, the sooner future customers will find your company.

HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK?

Many business owners are unaware that search engines feed their results to each other. For example, if you type a keyword into MSN Search on Microsoft's consumer information and entertainment site (www.msn.com), the Web site listings displayed could be from Inktomi, Microsoft or Overture. Overture provides search results not only to MSN Search, but also to AltaVista and Yahoo! Could a top site on Overture then appear as a top site on a distribution partner's site? Yes. Unfortunately, these distribution relationships change frequently, making it difficult to determine exactly where results come from.

The challenging part, however, is figuring out how to land a top position in the search engines. There are two complementary yet completely different types of methods: optimization and advertising.

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to enhancing your Web site design to make it more appealing to crawler-based search engines. An automated robot, also referred to as a spider, is sent out to crawl the Web looking for site pages to add to the search engine's database. A mathematical algorithm then determines the ranking of pages in the database for the keywords consumers use. These rankings are referred to as natural or organic listings.

Search engine advertising, on the other hand, enables you to buy listings for your keywords. Positions achieved this way are referred to as paid or sponsored listings. The most popular program in this category is pay-for-placement. These programs typically allow advertisers to open an account for $5 to $50, then bid on keywords for a minimum amount of 5 or 10 cents per click. Advertisers outbid each other for a higher position by increasing their bids by 1 cent per click. Only when a consumer clicks your listing is your account debited.

Are you disappointed to learn that search engines don't magically and objectively find the "best" sites on the Web? That's understandable. However, it was always possible to influence search results. Today, it simply costs more. Yet, for companies willing to invest the time and money, it's well worth it. The plan begins with the right set of keywords.

MAKING KEYWORDS COUNT

If you have the wrong set of terms, your site won't rank well in algorithm-based search engines. Plus, you'll waste money on pay-per-placement programs by attracting browsers, not buyers. To create an effective list of keywords, start with these suggestions:

* Company names: Start with the name of your company, products and services. Include misspellings and plural forms of words, if appropriate.

* Themes: Consider related words your customers might use to describe your business. People looking for an automobile insurance company might type in "car insurance" or "auto insurance." Perhaps drivers are likely to switch insurance providers when they buy a new car or used car, which would be good terms, too.

* Profile your competitors: Your competitors are excellent sources of ideas. Study the keywords in their Web sites and their metatags. From your browser toolbar, click on "View," and then select "Source." If they're using metatags, you'll see keywords listed at the top of the page.

Then, brainstorm ideas about how your customers are looking for your business. "Think like your customers," recommends Nacho Hernandez, 30-year-old co-founder of online Mexican grocery store MexGrocer.com, a La Jolla, California, firm that projects 2004 sales to hit more than $1 million. "A majority of our customers are English-speaking Americans, but most use Spanish keywords because they want the more authentic products. So they'll search for 'salsa verde' instead of 'green sauce,'" Hernandez says. "While we market hundreds of keywords equally split between Spanish and English, we were surprised to see [that] 440 percent more traffic and 200 percent more sales come from the Spanish words."

Of course, if nobody is looking for certain keywords, it's pointless to promote those. That's why a popularity check is important. Search engine marketers typically use Overture's free Search Term Suggestion Tool (www.overture.com) and the subscription-based program Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com). These tools reveal how many people search for your keywords. Moreover, these tools and Google AdWords' free Keyword Suggestions tool (https:// adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd= keywordsandbox) will provide suggestions of related phrases consumers use. Finalize your list to include relevant yet popular keywords.

GETTING OPTIMAL RESULTS

Modifying your site to please the search engine spiders can be tedious. Be prepared to wait weeks or months for your site's natural rankings to improve. Although top listings aren't guaranteed, time-consuming efforts can pay off.

"The credibility boost is huge," says Gary Salzman, 47-year-old co-founder of coffee resource retailer site WholeLatteLove.com. The Victor, New York-based business projects 2004 sales of more than $10 million. "Consumers see that natural listings are awarded to highly relevant sites. That's the match they want."

To make your site relevant for your keywords, it's important to realize that sites don't compete against other sites for rankings. It's Web page against Web page. Therefore, each site page needs to be assigned a set of keywords. Focus on the pages that have valuable content for your visitors and are good for new visitors to land on first. A few places your keywords need to be include:

* Meta tags: This tactic alone has absolutely no impact on your rankings, but your keywords still need to be in the meta title, description and keyword tags of each site page you'd like ranked. The page title and description are often used as the Web site listing in the search results.

* Alternative text (ALT tag): Mouse over an image, and you may see a text box appear if the Web designer has used alternative text. Try to use a different, but related, phrase for each ALT tag on a page.

* Page copy: The keywords you want your site to rank well for must be in your page copy. The thought is, if your site visitors can see them, then your page is relevant for those terms.

* Hyperlinks within your site: Don't link "click here" copy to other pages within your site. Hyperlink keyword phrases instead, because search engines follow these links and the keywords in them.

Link popularity is also a chief ingredient in an SEO campaign. Your site needs to link to other related sites and, more important, well-ranked and content-relevant sites should link to yours. Run a search for your keywords in Google or Teoma (www.teoma. com) and evaluate the natural listings. Contact sites that aren't direct competitors, and offer to trade links or buy one. Marketleap (www.marketleap. com) has a free Link Popularity Check tool which shows you how many pages link to yours and how many link to your competitors.

You're not done yet. Once your site is optimized, a majority of search engines need to be notified to crawl your site. Unfortunately, most search engines now require an inclusion fee. It may be a per-URL fee, a fixed per-click fee on any site rankings you achieve, or a combination of both. Inktomi, Overture and Teoma are examples. Google is still free and will index your site on its own; however, you can use the "Add URL" form if your site isn't in its database.

"Analyze, optimize, submit, monitor, then repeat the process," says Shari Thurow, webmaster and marketing director of SEO firm Grantastic Designs and author of Search Engine Visibility. "Getting top-10 positions and maintaining them is an ongoing process. A site should always get consistent, high-quality traffic from the search engines," Thurow adds. "It's also an ongoing challenge to determine what competitors are doing to achieve search engine visibility."

Thurow recommends evaluating site statistics reports monthly. Once your site is fully optimized and submitted to the search engines, maintenance can usually be done on a quarterly basis.

Is your anxiety level increasing yet? Don't worry. There's a quick way to get any position you want. Just buy it.

BUYING YOUR WAY TO THE TOP

Pay-for-placement is the easy way to get a top position in search results. Open an account, then choose your keywords, set keyword bids, write a title and description for each keyword or group of keywords, then designate a landing page for each keyword or group of keywords. Your ad listings will be live as soon as editors approve them. Typically, these listings are placed under a "Sponsored Listing" type of header to set them apart from natural listings.

On FindWhat.com, Kanoodle.com and Overture, positions are awarded to the highest bidder. A one-penny bid over an advertiser moves your listing above his. On Google AdWords, positions are given based on the combination of bid amount and click-through rate. That means the highest bid doesn't automatically get the number-one spot. Consumers are part of the voting process. Ad listings that aren't clicked will drop.

Wondering how often to update your bids? Watch your competitors. If they perform daily or weekly updates, you'll probably need to do the same to keep the positions you want. Maintaining a top-three to top-five position is important, because those generally appear as sponsored listings across the distribution network. That means greater visibility and resulting traffic.

Bid management tools such as BidRank and PPC Pro automate this process for you. Companies such as Atlas OnePoint (formerly Go Toast, www.atlasonepoint.com) and Did-it.com even offer tools that manage your bids based on your cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale goals. Pay-per-click is still time-consuming to manage, but at least the results are instantaneous and often rewarding. For example, these campaigns added more than 60 percent to WholeLatteLove.com's total growth in 2003.

Tools alone won't improve your conversion rates. Compelling ad listings and landing pages that persuade people to complete an intended action make or break your results.

"Don't misrepresent your offer," warns Salzman. He noticed that out of 60 competing ad listings for "espresso machine reviews," only 38 percent showed what they said they would in their ad copy. "Consumers make snap judgments in seconds. Lose their trust, and they'll back out of your site to click on your competitors' listings. The back button is not your friend."

Don't panic over this crash course in search engine marketing. In addition to the resources listed here, you can turn to SearchEngineWatch.com, the educational hub for search engine marketers. You can also meet with search engine representatives and marketing experts at Jupitermedia's Search Engine Strategies conferences, or breathe easier by outsourcing your campaigns. Just make sure your Web site can be found by using relevant keywords. Your customers are waiting.

GET PROFESSIONAL HELP

Do you prefer to let a team of specialists worry about fluctuating algorithms and bids? You're not alone. However, finding a quality search engine marketing firm is challenging, especially for search engine optimization (SEO), because much of it happens behind the scenes, and you can't easily tell if a company is using ethical tactics. Here are a few tips:

* Find the experts. Read articles and books, and attend conferences to identify the companies with strong industry visibility. Even if they're not good matches for you, they could recommend other reputable firms.

* Interview firms. Don't be afraid to quiz companies about their marketing philosophies, process, tools, reporting and results. Ask them to define spam, then refer to your resources to see if experts agree or disagree.

* Avoid responding to e-mail spam. The "Get a number-one position for $99" spam is likely from companies that will spare the search engines, too.

* Speak to client references. Ask them to describe their experiences, results and recommendations for working with the company you're interviewing.

* Outsource. Some companies manage their own paid placement campaigns in-house while other companies manage SEO. Find out what your options are.

Programs and pricing vary tremendously in this industry. However, with a little research, you'll find the right marketing partner.

TABOO TACTICS

There are good and bad search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Good methods can improve your rankings. Bad tactics put your site in danger of losing rankings, getting kicked out of the search engines' databases, and possibly being banned forever. The following activities are considered spam, and, if caught, your site could pay the penalties:

1. Stuffing keywords in your meta tags: Repeating a keyword too many times in your meta tags is a red flag. Study other top-ranked sites to see what seems to be an acceptable range.

2. Hiding keywords: For example, avoid hiding text on your pages by making it the same color as your background.

3. Using tiny text: Think tiny text is too difficult to read? Maybe by your visitors, but not by spiders.

4. Using redirects: This code is placed on a Web page to send visitors to another page without the visitors clicking any links.

5. Linking with free-for-art sites: These sites link to each other for the sole purpose of improving their link popularity. Don't link to or from them.

These aren't the only dangerous SEO tactics. But they're some of the oldest and most obvious forms of spam, so avoid using them.
Full Article

In the click: want all the right people to notice your business? Then you need to make the most of today's hottest marketing method???search engine opti
In the click: want all the right people to notice your business? Then you need to make the most of today's hottest marketing method???search engine optimization
Entrepreneur

You can't resist the temptation. Fixated on your computer screen, you anxiously type keywords relevant to your business into your favorite search engine. A list of search results appears. You cringe as you spot several competitors, then grumble because your company's Web site is nowhere to be seen. Where is it? That depends. Where is your search engine marketing strategy?

Gone are the days when adding keywords in meta tags to your site produced rankings. Search engine marketing has evolved into a complex and competitive program. It's also profitable--according to a March 2003 report by Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Safa Rashtchy, online search is the most cost-effective direct-marketing method. The average cost per lead from search is 29 cents, far less than e-mail (50 cents), the Yellow Pages ($1.18), banner ads ($2.00) and direct mail ($9.94).

Gather your Web design and marketing staff; both teams are required. Understanding search engine marketing basics will help your team execute a strategy in-house or outsource it to specialists. The sooner your site is visible for relevant keywords, the sooner future customers will find your company.

HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK?

Many business owners are unaware that search engines feed their results to each other. For example, if you type a keyword into MSN Search on Microsoft's consumer information and entertainment site (www.msn.com), the Web site listings displayed could be from Inktomi, Microsoft or Overture. Overture provides search results not only to MSN Search, but also to AltaVista and Yahoo! Could a top site on Overture then appear as a top site on a distribution partner's site? Yes. Unfortunately, these distribution relationships change frequently, making it difficult to determine exactly where results come from.

The challenging part, however, is figuring out how to land a top position in the search engines. There are two complementary yet completely different types of methods: optimization and advertising.

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to enhancing your Web site design to make it more appealing to crawler-based search engines. An automated robot, also referred to as a spider, is sent out to crawl the Web looking for site pages to add to the search engine's database. A mathematical algorithm then determines the ranking of pages in the database for the keywords consumers use. These rankings are referred to as natural or organic listings.

Search engine advertising, on the other hand, enables you to buy listings for your keywords. Positions achieved this way are referred to as paid or sponsored listings. The most popular program in this category is pay-for-placement. These programs typically allow advertisers to open an account for $5 to $50, then bid on keywords for a minimum amount of 5 or 10 cents per click. Advertisers outbid each other for a higher position by increasing their bids by 1 cent per click. Only when a consumer clicks your listing is your account debited.

Are you disappointed to learn that search engines don't magically and objectively find the "best" sites on the Web? That's understandable. However, it was always possible to influence search results. Today, it simply costs more. Yet, for companies willing to invest the time and money, it's well worth it. The plan begins with the right set of keywords.

MAKING KEYWORDS COUNT

If you have the wrong set of terms, your site won't rank well in algorithm-based search engines. Plus, you'll waste money on pay-per-placement programs by attracting browsers, not buyers. To create an effective list of keywords, start with these suggestions:

* Company names: Start with the name of your company, products and services. Include misspellings and plural forms of words, if appropriate.

* Themes: Consider related words your customers might use to describe your business. People looking for an automobile insurance company might type in "car insurance" or "auto insurance." Perhaps drivers are likely to switch insurance providers when they buy a new car or used car, which would be good terms, too.

* Profile your competitors: Your competitors are excellent sources of ideas. Study the keywords in their Web sites and their metatags. From your browser toolbar, click on "View," and then select "Source." If they're using metatags, you'll see keywords listed at the top of the page.

Then, brainstorm ideas about how your customers are looking for your business. "Think like your customers," recommends Nacho Hernandez, 30-year-old co-founder of online Mexican grocery store MexGrocer.com, a La Jolla, California, firm that projects 2004 sales to hit more than $1 million. "A majority of our customers are English-speaking Americans, but most use Spanish keywords because they want the more authentic products. So they'll search for 'salsa verde' instead of 'green sauce,'" Hernandez says. "While we market hundreds of keywords equally split between Spanish and English, we were surprised to see [that] 440 percent more traffic and 200 percent more sales come from the Spanish words."

Of course, if nobody is looking for certain keywords, it's pointless to promote those. That's why a popularity check is important. Search engine marketers typically use Overture's free Search Term Suggestion Tool (www.overture.com) and the subscription-based program Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com). These tools reveal how many people search for your keywords. Moreover, these tools and Google AdWords' free Keyword Suggestions tool (https:// adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd= keywordsandbox) will provide suggestions of related phrases consumers use. Finalize your list to include relevant yet popular keywords.

GETTING OPTIMAL RESULTS

Modifying your site to please the search engine spiders can be tedious. Be prepared to wait weeks or months for your site's natural rankings to improve. Although top listings aren't guaranteed, time-consuming efforts can pay off.

"The credibility boost is huge," says Gary Salzman, 47-year-old co-founder of coffee resource retailer site WholeLatteLove.com. The Victor, New York-based business projects 2004 sales of more than $10 million. "Consumers see that natural listings are awarded to highly relevant sites. That's the match they want."

To make your site relevant for your keywords, it's important to realize that sites don't compete against other sites for rankings. It's Web page against Web page. Therefore, each site page needs to be assigned a set of keywords. Focus on the pages that have valuable content for your visitors and are good for new visitors to land on first. A few places your keywords need to be include:

* Meta tags: This tactic alone has absolutely no impact on your rankings, but your keywords still need to be in the meta title, description and keyword tags of each site page you'd like ranked. The page title and description are often used as the Web site listing in the search results.

* Alternative text (ALT tag): Mouse over an image, and you may see a text box appear if the Web designer has used alternative text. Try to use a different, but related, phrase for each ALT tag on a page.

* Page copy: The keywords you want your site to rank well for must be in your page copy. The thought is, if your site visitors can see them, then your page is relevant for those terms.

* Hyperlinks within your site: Don't link "click here" copy to other pages within your site. Hyperlink keyword phrases instead, because search engines follow these links and the keywords in them.

Link popularity is also a chief ingredient in an SEO campaign. Your site needs to link to other related sites and, more important, well-ranked and content-relevant sites should link to yours. Run a search for your keywords in Google or Teoma (www.teoma. com) and evaluate the natural listings. Contact sites that aren't direct competitors, and offer to trade links or buy one. Marketleap (www.marketleap. com) has a free Link Popularity Check tool which shows you how many pages link to yours and how many link to your competitors.

You're not done yet. Once your site is optimized, a majority of search engines need to be notified to crawl your site. Unfortunately, most search engines now require an inclusion fee. It may be a per-URL fee, a fixed per-click fee on any site rankings you achieve, or a combination of both. Inktomi, Overture and Teoma are examples. Google is still free and will index your site on its own; however, you can use the "Add URL" form if your site isn't in its database.

"Analyze, optimize, submit, monitor, then repeat the process," says Shari Thurow, webmaster and marketing director of SEO firm Grantastic Designs and author of Search Engine Visibility. "Getting top-10 positions and maintaining them is an ongoing process. A site should always get consistent, high-quality traffic from the search engines," Thurow adds. "It's also an ongoing challenge to determine what competitors are doing to achieve search engine visibility."

Thurow recommends evaluating site statistics reports monthly. Once your site is fully optimized and submitted to the search engines, maintenance can usually be done on a quarterly basis.

Is your anxiety level increasing yet? Don't worry. There's a quick way to get any position you want. Just buy it.

BUYING YOUR WAY TO THE TOP

Pay-for-placement is the easy way to get a top position in search results. Open an account, then choose your keywords, set keyword bids, write a title and description for each keyword or group of keywords, then designate a landing page for each keyword or group of keywords. Your ad listings will be live as soon as editors approve them. Typically, these listings are placed under a "Sponsored Listing" type of header to set them apart from natural listings.

On FindWhat.com, Kanoodle.com and Overture, positions are awarded to the highest bidder. A one-penny bid over an advertiser moves your listing above his. On Google AdWords, positions are given based on the combination of bid amount and click-through rate. That means the highest bid doesn't automatically get the number-one spot. Consumers are part of the voting process. Ad listings that aren't clicked will drop.

Wondering how often to update your bids? Watch your competitors. If they perform daily or weekly updates, you'll probably need to do the same to keep the positions you want. Maintaining a top-three to top-five position is important, because those generally appear as sponsored listings across the distribution network. That means greater visibility and resulting traffic.

Bid management tools such as BidRank and PPC Pro automate this process for you. Companies such as Atlas OnePoint (formerly Go Toast, www.atlasonepoint.com) and Did-it.com even offer tools that manage your bids based on your cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale goals. Pay-per-click is still time-consuming to manage, but at least the results are instantaneous and often rewarding. For example, these campaigns added more than 60 percent to WholeLatteLove.com's total growth in 2003.

Tools alone won't improve your conversion rates. Compelling ad listings and landing pages that persuade people to complete an intended action make or break your results.

"Don't misrepresent your offer," warns Salzman. He noticed that out of 60 competing ad listings for "espresso machine reviews," only 38 percent showed what they said they would in their ad copy. "Consumers make snap judgments in seconds. Lose their trust, and they'll back out of your site to click on your competitors' listings. The back button is not your friend."

Don't panic over this crash course in search engine marketing. In addition to the resources listed here, you can turn to SearchEngineWatch.com, the educational hub for search engine marketers. You can also meet with search engine representatives and marketing experts at Jupitermedia's Search Engine Strategies conferences, or breathe easier by outsourcing your campaigns. Just make sure your Web site can be found by using relevant keywords. Your customers are waiting.

GET PROFESSIONAL HELP

Do you prefer to let a team of specialists worry about fluctuating algorithms and bids? You're not alone. However, finding a quality search engine marketing firm is challenging, especially for search engine optimization (SEO), because much of it happens behind the scenes, and you can't easily tell if a company is using ethical tactics. Here are a few tips:

* Find the experts. Read articles and books, and attend conferences to identify the companies with strong industry visibility. Even if they're not good matches for you, they could recommend other reputable firms.

* Interview firms. Don't be afraid to quiz companies about their marketing philosophies, process, tools, reporting and results. Ask them to define spam, then refer to your resources to see if experts agree or disagree.

* Avoid responding to e-mail spam. The "Get a number-one position for $99" spam is likely from companies that will spare the search engines, too.

* Speak to client references. Ask them to describe their experiences, results and recommendations for working with the company you're interviewing.

* Outsource. Some companies manage their own paid placement campaigns in-house while other companies manage SEO. Find out what your options are.

Programs and pricing vary tremendously in this industry. However, with a little research, you'll find the right marketing partner.

TABOO TACTICS

There are good and bad search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Good methods can improve your rankings. Bad tactics put your site in danger of losing rankings, getting kicked out of the search engines' databases, and possibly being banned forever. The following activities are considered spam, and, if caught, your site could pay the penalties:

1. Stuffing keywords in your meta tags: Repeating a keyword too many times in your meta tags is a red flag. Study other top-ranked sites to see what seems to be an acceptable range.

2. Hiding keywords: For example, avoid hiding text on your pages by making it the same color as your background.

3. Using tiny text: Think tiny text is too difficult to read? Maybe by your visitors, but not by spiders.

4. Using redirects: This code is placed on a Web page to send visitors to another page without the visitors clicking any links.

5. Linking with free-for-art sites: These sites link to each other for the sole purpose of improving their link popularity. Don't link to or from them.

These aren't the only dangerous SEO tactics. But they're some of the oldest and most obvious forms of spam, so avoid using them.
Full Article

Adsense Secrets: Getting More Clicks on Your Ads

Do you own a High CTR website?

Your Ad Position and Color: Old, but very effective

https://www.google.com/support/adsense
/bin/static.py?page=tips.html#17954

Get Targeted Traffic - The Most Essential Part

Choose the Right Anchor Text for Back Link Campaigns

Wisely Choose the Title Text of Your Web Page

Help Google Detect the Theme of Your Web Page

Meta Tags

Title Text

Headings

Google Mediabot gives importance to the Heading text enclosed in

Boost Relevancy Artificially - Use Google's Section Targeting

For more information on the same topic, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense
/bin/answer.py?answer=23168&topic=371

Use Channels for Analyzing Your Ads' Performance

Block Junk Websites and Competitor Websites from Showing Ads

https://www.google.com/support/adsense
/bin/answer.py?answer=21593&ctx=sibling
Full Article

How Do Search Engine’s Spiders Crawl My Sites?
Spider visits an internet-site, read the content on the actual web site, the site's meta tags and likewise follow the links that the web site connects. By checking how pages link to one another, an engine may both find out what a page is with regards to, whether or not the keywords of the linked pages are alike to the keywords on the basic page. The frequency with which this happens is determined by the moderators of the search engine. A spider is an automated program that is run by the search engine scheme. dissimilar search engines create dissimilar rankings because not each search engine uses the same algorithm to search through the indices.
Full Article

Using The Proper Meta Tags
Meta tags are not a magic solution. Meta tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the header on a web page after the title tag. Meta tags are contained in the HEAD section near the top of the page.[...]
Full Article

Search Engine Submission Tips
This link covers search engine submission, placement and marketing issues. It explains how search engines find and rank web pages, with an emphasis on what webmasters can do to improve their search engine rankings by properly submitting, using better page design, HTML meta tags, and other tips.
Full Article

How to write Meta tags?

Meta tag (definition of Meta tag) is the HTML tag added in the head section of the HTML code as seen in the screenshot below. The purpose of this tag is to inform the search engine about the web page and its contents. There are quite a few Meta tags that provide description, keywords and copyright information to search engines. In this article we are going to concentrate on Meta description tag and Meta keywords tag.

Full Article

Best Free Online SEO Analyzer
This free Online SEO Analyzer will measure the ranking potential and will perform a basic analysis for a single web page. The meta tags and associated information, keyword densities, and other information are critical elements for optimization. If you like the tool, a $5 donation would be warmly appreciated! Your donation will help them keep [...]
Full Article

Tips: Meta Keywords and Meta Description Tags Optimization

Have you ever wondered why some web pages get higher search engine rankings than others? You can optimize your meta keywords and description tags to improve your page rangking.

Full Article

Market Motive's Scott Milrad Interviewed by Eric Enge
Published: January 26, 2009

Scott Milrad is the Director of Online Education at Market Motive, developing Internet marketing courses and curriculum for Market Motive's online education programs. Originally on track to go the traditional collegiate teaching route, Scott completed his Masters Degree in literature and creative writing at San Diego State University before diverting his scholastic attentions and finding himself as a multimedia developer at the heart of the dot com boom. Always vowing to get back into academia, Scott landed at Market Motive with the promise of combining his passion for teaching with the unlimited possibilities of the Internet.

Interview Transcript

Eric Enge: Can you provide us an overview of your role at Market Motive?

Scott Milrad: My title is the Director of Online Education, so I put together all the course curricula and I work with the faculty on new content. This includes planning out new videos, filling in the gaps where we have problems in our curriculum, putting together the learning paths for extended courses and certifications and then running the Master Certification Program.

Eric Enge: So, you are the in-charge of the curriculum?

Scott Milrad: Yes.

Eric Enge: Can you give us an overview of the Market Motive Master Program then?

Scott Milrad: Currently we have four Master Certification tracks - SEO, Web Analytics, Pay Per Click and Online PR. What we have is a program that takes a group of people through one or two of those over a three month period that includes online video classes quizzes, live workshops with the faculty and a final peer review.

So, in our first month, each member goes through those series of videos, take the quizzes and at the end there will be one big comprehensive test of about fifty to one hundred questions, depending on the discipline. They need to pass that test to move on to the next level. After that, there will be two or three longer essay questions relating to the program or the discipline, which they have to answer. After that, members complete an hands-on project that represents a culmination of their learning. All work is reviewed by peers and the dream team faculty.

An SEO, for example, will build a website from scratch with SEO in mind. Starting from a blank template, they have to build title tags, Meta description tags, page copy, do some page sculpting, build the internal linking program and the site architecture.

Then they have to write an essay about why they did certain things, their strategies and how to go about doing various things within the SEO program. After this, they go through a peer review. We exchange projects and one person will evaluate another one based on their criteria for building the project. Finally, we finish with the all-faculty panel review. This is where the faculty looks at everybody's projects. And then, we'll ask a series of questions on something that someone has done and ask them a little bit about that. Along the way, each of those projects has to have a basic level of high quality to move onto the next level. It then culminates with the faculty panel, where our students must earn three faculty endorsements to graduate.

Eric Enge: It sounds like the SEO is focused on onsite SEO type practices, is that right?

Scott Milrad: For the hands-on project, it is practical to focus on onsite SEO,

Eric Enge: Link building isn't currently a part of the curriculum then?

Scott Milrad: Link building is definitely a part of the curriculum as is keyword strategy and more. We have several training classes on off-site strategies and Todd Malicoat gives some fantastic video classes on link building strategies. We initially were going to include that as part of our other project, but we would have had to extend the program longer, so we decided to focus the hands-on project on straight onpage SEO.

Another example of a time-sensitive hands-on project is out Online PR people having to contact a series of bloggers to persuade them to blog about our program and the Master Certification Final. Interestingly, online PR is a short form of link building . It also crosses over into SEO; the cool thing about a lot of this stuff is that there is definitely cross over.

For example, Landing Page Optimization and Pay Per Click are integrally tied together in the same way that Online PR and Social Media are. You can make an argument that there is crossover in most of the disciplines.

Eric Enge: Right. And, which of the programs have you found most interest in so far? PR, Pay Per Click, SEO or Analytics?

Scott Milrad: SEO is definitely the most popular and I think Online PR is a close second. SEO is so popular because that's where people feel they should start out. So then, they add Online PR, or Analytics, or PPC. Generally, you don't have people doing SEO and PPC together, but I'd say many of the candidates are recognizing the need for cross training.

Eric Enge: Who is signing up to participate in these programs?

Scott Milrad: That's another really good question. So, we've got people that are running their own business. We have senior directors at significant public companies. We've got people that work for agencies. We have people that already work for the specific discipline that we are teaching. We have people that are in the analytics track that work for analytics companies and want to be taught by the best and truly master analytics.

For this next round, we have a lot of agencies who want to get their interns through the program and up to speed so that they can actually put them on the contracts and have them do some real work.

We also see some young folks right out of college who want to get into Online PR and Social Media.

Eric Enge: Right. So, do you offer a lower-level certification or is it just the master certification?

Scott Milrad: We do have a lower-level certification; we have a practitioner certificate program that we send people through. It's actually a part of our monthly subscription model. So, people who are existing members at the all-access level can participate in the practitioner certificate, and it's similar to the learning path of the Master Certification Program.

It has approximately the same amount of videos, weekly workshops and quizzes, but a less demanding test at the end and no hands-on projects, peer review, or publicity. If they pass that, they get a practitioner certificate to show that they've gone through a program and learnt the basic of whatever discipline they've gone through.

Eric Enge: So do a lot of people start with the more basic stuff and then move on to the next level after that?

Scott Milrad: Several of our candidates were already in a program. Because they've already seen some of the basic classes and they may have even gone through the practitioner track, they were ready for the next level, which is what master certification is all about, going to that next level.

I would say people that are true beginners can still do well if they are really dedicated, but I think you kind of need a little bit of a base if you're going to just jump into a higher level.

Eric Enge: What about industry endorsement of these programs, has there been any of that?

Scott Milrad: I think that the industry has been keeping a really close eye on us, and, the program. We have some pretty interesting people that have already registered to be part of that, both observers and A-list guests that are going to come and participate, But yes, the industry has received us pretty well because it's not just some slides and a test. It includes hands-on real life projects and a peer review of the top names in the industry.

Eric Enge: I would think your goal would be to get some rock stars to come out of the program.

Scott Milrad: Absolutely. I mean, now you are hitting on what this is all about. We don't take it lightly, we don't put people through the program and just go, "oh, we took your money and we'll give you a certificate." We are putting our own name behind this and we are expecting that when people come out of this they have the ability to go and run an agency or on their own and put the things that we taught them in the program into practice effectively. So yes, we are definitely looking for some superstars to come out of it.

Interestingly enough, the interactive nature has resulted in a really great group of people and they've got to know each other well. We do a weekly office-hours conference call where we get on and talk about what's going on depending where we are in the program. We discuss the classes and projects in Online PR, or PPC or Analytics; we just get into discussion about whatever anybody is having problems with.

What we found is that people are actually really starting to help each other, so we have a few people that have already excelled at the program and we got them to help us out with it a little bit. Then it becomes a symbiotic relationship and they help each other. So yes, we are really excited and hopeful about people coming out of here and being true superstars.

Eric Enge: So in October you started this latest round of Master Certification, right?

Scott Milrad: I think the program actually started at the very beginning of November.

Eric Enge: Can talk a bit about the specifics of what people have been through during the past months and how it's going to culminate in your interactive event?

Scott Milrad: Mastering internet marketing takes a significant commitment, and a three month program is just about right for folks with a fulltime job, and have a fulltime family too. . If we were all in college then this would just be a nice little semester or quarter course. Being out in the real world is a bit of a time commitment, so not everyone has what it takes to finish. Those that stick it out are already benefiting from the results.

Essentially we spend the first month reviewing the online classes and attending live online workshops. There are approximately ten to fifteen hours worth of videos that candidates must attend, depending on which discipline it is.

The second month is dedicated to articulating what you have learned via essays and planning for the hands-on project, taking everything you have learned and putting it into practice. And then, the final part is going through the peer reviews. People are really turning around and are now able to access another person's project from the outside.

That kind of goes to the idea of not just being in-house, but being able to look at a company's existing program and evaluate it from the outside.

On the other hand I think if you actually reduce this program by 50% and made it a six-week program, people could still get through it. They would have to commit a lot more, but there is always a balance in trying to figure out the right amount of time to give people so that they have to get on it early enough, yet at the same time we have to make sure everyone has enough time to get things done.

Eric Enge: For the SEO project people get a starter website from you, and then they have to flush it out. Are they supposed to do a certain number of pages or they are just working on that particular website?

Scott Milrad: There isn't a specified page amount. I give them a front page and it's really just a shell, with a couple of images, a few hundred words of page copy and a secondary page so that they have two pages from which to build. We then ask them to modify that to build a site with five to ten pages so we are able to see what architecture they put together and to see how the internal linking.

Things like title tags, Meta tags and page sculpting can be done in one page or two pages. But, the rest of it, inner linking, overall site architecture, is going to obviously require more pages. But, they can put a dummy copy for the final five pages if they want as long as we see the architecture they are putting together.

Eric Enge: Now that their projects are nearing completion, you are planning an event. Could you tell me a little bit about that?

Scott Milrad: We are calling it the Faculty Panel Gauntlet. It's sort of "American Idol meets SEO certification". Right now eight candidates have made it to this level and will participate in the event. There will be at least eight faculty members, plus a few associate instructors as well. As I said, a couple of surprise guests will be on there as well. What we are going to do is a lightning round type of event where there is going to be a series of questions from each faculty member to each candidate.

Michael Stebbins, the CEO of Market Motive, will host the event, and he will decide in what order the faculty members will ask their questions. After each question to one of the candidates, the candidate has a minute or two to respond. We will just keep going that way for about an hour.

At the end of it candidates have to get three faculty endorsements to go on. So, at the very end Michael will be asking for everybody's opinion and get the thumbs up and thumbs down. All we'll do is ask if people are ready to move forward or not.

Eric Enge: This is going to be broadcast?

Scott Milrad: It is going to be broadcast; we are doing a live webcast of everything, a screen share and over the phone where everybody can call in and listen in on the whole thing. It's interesting, because all the faculty members are on it, and they are all over the country, and our candidates are all over the country as well. So, we are going to have a lot of people that are calling in from all over the place participating in one big event.

Eric Enge: What's the date of the event?

Scott Milrad: That is going to be January 27th at 9 am Pacific Time.

Eric Enge: Why did you decide to make it interactive?

Scott Milrad: Because this is how we perform in the real world. As consultants and experts we perform under the scrutiny of a client. Perform under the scrutiny of the know authority in the market, and you have a good chance of serving your clients well. Also, we aren't hiding the fact that this is fun and it generates some publicity for Market Motive.

Eric Enge: You are practicing good SEO promotion.

Scott Milrad: We are practicing good Online PR promotion. It's not a surprise that part of Online PR's final project is to promote this event. It's very circular in that way, and they need to release a press release and try to get the most people to their landing page about the event. By the way, Mario Bonilla at PR-Web was most generous to our candidates.

In the end, it's just an effective way to bring what we are doing to the surface and show the public what we are doing. And again, it's supposed to be fun; we have no intention of trying to embarrass anybody on this call, and we tell people that it is not required that they be on it. If you are uncomfortable with speaking in public or you just don't want to be grilled, they don't have to.

It's also a great way for them to get public exposure, and we are going to publicize the people who finish the program on our site. Part of the idea is to promote the graduates, have fun and to get the word out there about what we are doing.

Eric Enge: Right. It is a lot like site clinics at the major trade shows.

Scott Milrad: Yes.

Eric Enge: Outside people who want to look in on this can think of it in the same way they would think of a site clinic, as an opportunity to see people who really know their trade grow and dig into the issues with a given site implementation. Scott Milrad: Yes, exactly. When you get the best and the brightest up on the panel debating an aspect of Internet marketing, it's pretty exciting. And, we haven't had the entire faculty on one call since that first conference call two years ago. So, it's a good opportunity to get everybody in one place, and we've got some personalities too so it should be interesting.

Bryan Eisenberg is certainly not shy, and Avinash Kaushik is an absolute pleasure to listen to at anytime. Lots of opinions and authoritative people... It should be a lot of fun.

Eric Enge: Thanks Scott!

Scott Milrad: Thank You Eric! I enjoyed it.

Have comments or want to discuss? You can comment on the Scott Milrad interview here.

Other Recent Interviews

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About the Author

Eric Enge is the President of Stone Temple Consulting. Eric is also a founder in Moving Traffic Incorporated, the publisher of Custom Search Guide, a directory of Google Custom Search Engines, and City Town Info, a site that provides information on 20,000 US Cities and Towns.

Stone Temple Consulting (STC) offers search engine optimization and search engine marketing services, and its web site can be found at: http://www.stonetemple.com.

For more information on Web Marketing Services, contact us at:

Stone Temple Consulting
(508) 485-7751 (phone)
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