The Morality of Paid Links and Google's 'Intent Algorithm'

Article Written by: Bill Platt

It is Google's fault actually. No one can be blamed for this matter more than Google itself.

Google came up with a brilliant plan for determining the best web pages to show in their search engine results. And then without telling us the intimate details of their plan, they told us about part of their algorithm by explaining the importance of inbound links --- the Google PageRank (PR) system --- in their calculations.

Google itself planted the seeds its own future headaches. Nobody did it to them; they did it themselves.

I am sure the fault really lies in Google's marketing department. They wanted to tell the world what made their search engine algorithms more powerful than the competition. It probably was an innocent mistake on their part. But once the genie is out of the bottle, it is impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.

So, now the whole world knows that if you want to get good search rankings in Google, you must have links pointing to your website from other websites on the internet. Everyone also knows that if you want better search rankings in Google, then you should strive to create even more links with the appropriate keywords in the anchor text of those links.

Building Links

There is always more than one way to skin a cat. There are many methods that people can employ to build links to their websites.

1. Register free websites so that you can create inbound links back to your own site.

2. Register new domains where you can place other links back to your website.

3. Leave comments on blogs.

4. Link Exchanges.

5. Getting your own listing in any of the directories that are available (dmoz.org, yahoo.com, etc.).

6. Signature File - getting involved in discussion forums and actually adding value to the discussions.

7. Submit product and service testimonials to those product distributors and service providers.

8. Social Networking - bookmark web pages through social bookmarking sites.

9. Link Baiting - creating a resource that people will want to link to for the benefit of their website visitors.

10. Article Marketing - writing an article and giving webmasters the opportunity to use your content on their website, IF they agree to post your link on the page with the article that they
are using.

11. Press Releases - writing and distributing press releases online.

12. Buy advertising on a website.

13. Buy Link Placements on a website.

Good Links Versus Bad Links

I have always focused my attention on practicing White Hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, instead of Black Hat SEO techniques.

Most of you know what I am talking about, but I have been surprised a number of times when people did not understand what was meant by "white hat" and "black hat." So, for those of you
who do not know what I am talking about, here is a brief description. "White hat" and "black hat" are references to the old serial cowboy westerns. The good guys always wore "white hats," and the bad guys always wore "black hats."

By far, the link building techniques I employ most often are article marketing, press releases, and link baiting. I still frequently participate in forums and buy advertisements on other websites, but I do those for public exposure and not for search marketing.

A Black-and-White Issue

I have always been extremely concerned with White Hat techniques for building links to my websites and from my websites.

"Providing good quality content as the foundation for my linking activities" has always been my golden rule. And, it still is that main driving force behind everything that I do.

I like a black-and-white world where everything makes sense, and I had no reservations about my thoughts on this topic.

The Morality of Paid Links

A couple weeks ago, I was reading Matt Cutt's thoughts about paid links on his blog. Most folks in internet marketing know who Matt Cutt's is, but if you don't, he is a software engineer that works behind the scenes with Google in their quality department.

Generally, if Matt Cutts says anything at all about improving your rankings in Google, you can take his words to the bank.

Now, Matt has made it more than clear that we do not want to buy "paid links" to our websites as part of our link building campaigns. Paid links are a big no-no according to Matt. That is his advice, and I have always trusted it at face value.

That is why I have focused my entire link building activities towards "content-driven linking."

I was reading a discussion of paid links in Matt Cutts' blog at:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-pagerank/

After I read Matt's thoughts, I continued reading the comments on the page. Many good points were made and responded to by Matt. It was an interesting read.

And then, my black-and-white world was turned upside-down when I read the comments presented by Dan Thies of SEO Research Labs at:
http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/

Here is what Dan said:

Search engines are free to develop their algorithms as they see fit. They're free to decide which links they want to trust. Maybe I'm the heretic here, but I don't see anything wrong with Google identifying sites that are selling text links, and dealing with that however they like.

I just hope Matt and his co-workers aren't expecting this to solve their problem. He's already seen that people are looking for better ways to game the system. I hope Matt and his co-workers don't seriously expect the entire web to start labeling paid links for them.

The Google ideal may be that "the best links are earned and given by choice," but what does that mean?

If I add text links to my favorite florist, favorite online casino, favorite unlicensed pharmacy, favorite travel site, etc. will Google decide that my site isn't worthy to participate in developing their "democratic" search results? If I "vote" for George Bush or Michael Moore as a miserable failure, am I no longer qualified to vote?

What's the algorithm for determining intent, Matt?

Intent Is Abstract and Important At The Same Time

There is the rub. How can Google know the heart of the webmaster? They can't, unless the webmaster pointedly describes their intent.

If the webmaster calls those links "paid links" or "sponsored links," then Google can know that webmaster accepted money to provide those links.

If I buy advertising on a website, to attract potential buyers to my website, how does Google know my intent? Did I do it to get traffic from that website, or did I do it to game the Google results? They cannot know my heart.

Even if the webmaster does not call the shown links "paid links" or "sponsored links," does the suspicion of the pay-for-placement model label the webmaster as a "bad egg?" How does Google really know if Dan is linking to a site because he wants to, or whether he has accepted payment for that link? They cannot know.

And the final example on this topic comes from a poster named Shelley who participated in the discussion at:
http://weblog.philringnalda.com/2005/08/19/

Shelley stated that she allowed two "paid links" on her well-respected blog, because she had a car payment to make. She traded on her brand name to get enough cash to make the car payment in tight times. Will she be penalized for selling "link space" to advertisers on her website?

In Conclusion...

Based on the comments that I have read from Matt, Shelley should not be worried about her acceptance of "paid links" on her website. If I have interpreted his comments correctly, her site will not be hurt by her outbound links.

However, we are meant to believe that if you and I were to buy links on her page, then we should be concerned about our future in connection to the Google search results.

So these questions remain for the search companies to figure out...

Webmaster's Intent:

1 Which links are paid links, and which links are freely given links?

2 Who is selling links to pass on their PageRank value, and who is providing a useful or valuable link for their visitors?

Link Buyer's Intent:

1. Who is trying to game the Google results, and who is trying to attract buyers to their website?

2. Who should be treated as a spammer, and who should be treated as an honest performer?

This last question is the tricky one. We all know a spammer's website when we see a spammer's website. But, how can the search engines deal with the spammer's, without damaging the innocent in their quest for search results perfection?

Yes, that is their problem, not mine. But, if Google's paid links policy hurts my own placement in the search engines, then the paid links equation becomes my problem too.

More Questions Than Answers...

Yes, it is true. I have posed more questions than what I have presented answers. But sometimes, the questions are more important than the answers. This is one such case.

About the Author:

Bill Platt owns and operates the "Links And Traffic" Link Building program. Bill's team utilizes content-driven link building processes to develop links to his client's websites. People like this system and methodology, so much so that Bill has doubled his staff in the last eight weeks. If you would like to learn more about Bill's Links And Traffic program, feel free to visit his website at http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com or give him a call at his new office at 405-780-7745. Bill can be reached between 9am-6pm CST, Monday through Friday.

Easy Work From Home Ideas

Article written by: Barry Millman

The ads have been around for years in magazines and newspapers. Now they've moved to the Internet. They promise easy work from home ideas, unlimited opportunities and high pay. Unfortunately they usually promised more than they delivered, and the buyer was disappointed once again. There are real business opportunities though. It just takes personal discipline to determine which the best business is for you. An honest and thoughtful analysis of your skills, abilities knowledge and resources is the first steps to choosing an easy work from home idea.

Here are some ideas to get you started.

Online store

Looking for easy work from home ideas? You can start in a matter of minutes with prepackaged software and name brand merchandise. You don't need to stockpile inventory, you arrange for drop shipment from a central warehouse directly to your customer. You don't need to pay for expensive office or sales space, just a corner of your kitchen or den.

Web site design

In order to do this job you will need to be creative and understand computer program. You can use one of the web site design software programs. Many small businesses would welcome your assistance in going online. Be sure to maintain a portfolio of your work to offer to show future customers what you're capable of. Easy work from home ideas such as this guarantee a bright future.

Content writing

Creative writing ability and a good command of grammar and punctuation are prerequisites for this easy work from home idea. You need to have access to the Internet. Answer an ad on one of the good freelance opportunity sites to soon have more work than you can handle. Again, it's important to maintain a portfolio of your best work to demonstrate your abilities to potential clients. There is other easy work from home ideas that we can list, so keep reading!

Multi-level marketing

There are many multi-level marketing programs out there, not all of them are good opportunities for work at home. Choose carefully, look for companies, which offer real products and provide good compensation plans. Easy work from home ideas such as multi-level marketing is great for people inclined towards sales.

Online Surveys

There are many companies who want you to sign up to take surveys. Choose sites that pay for the services with cash or merchandise. You shouldn't need to pay for the service. Sometimes these sites also include cash for reading emails offers. If you receive gifts for surveys and it's an item you don't want, consider selling it on one of the online auction sites.

Online auctions

The most well known of these sites is eBay. You can offer new or used merchandise at auction. This is a simple and easy work from home idea and requires very little in the way of up front costs.

Trading Domains

Good domain names are out there. You can find names, which are underused and link them to your own site or another site. Sometimes, you can even receive a commission as an affiliate for items that are purchased through your link. Or, sell the domain names directly on an online auction. Easy work from home ideas does not get better than this!

Online stock, commodities and Forex (foreign exchange) trading

Are you interested in easy work from home ideas relating to finance? Learn to be a trader through the educational programs available on broker websites, start with a virtual trading account, practice with virtual money, and when you have gained confidence and experience, try it with real money. You will need a computer with a reliable Internet connection.

About The Author:

Kelvin Tan is an Internet Business Expert where he created $10,045 sales in 24 hours just by sending out 5 emails without any list or website. Click here - http://www.mysecret2success.com to know how he did it. To learn about the secrets of easy work from home ideas, visit
http://www.mysecret2success.com

How To Start Your Own Successful Business

Article written by: Chris Angus

Running your own business can be a daunting experience, you
give up a secure income and go out and risk it all. If you have
a family it makes it even more nerve wracking.

However, the rewards can be brilliant. These include, more
money than you earned in your job and no boss that constantly
tells you what to do.

Like everything in life working for yourself has its up's and
downs. If you want to do really well you may find yourself
working long hours for little pay for the first few months
while you get yourself going.

It is normal for you to get slightly stressed during this time
and ask yourself why you made the decision to move across.

You need to be patient at this point because in business,
things seem to have a habit of building like an elastic band,
there is nothing for a long while and then it all happens at
once.

Many people have said to me that they haven't started their own
business because they don't know what to sell.

This is rubbish because you can sell almost anything in this
world as long as there is a market for it.

You don't need to know everything about the product or have
loads of money behind you.

You can start off small and then grow big; it's not that hard,
it just takes patience, perseverance and hard work.

The first step to starting your own business is making the
decision to do so. The next step is then to stick with that
decision 100%.

You then need to decide what products to sell and find out
whether there is a market for it.

Once you have decided what you are going to sell you need to do
a cost analysis and see if the business is viable.

If it is possible to make a decent amount of profit and you can
live on what the business pays you then it is time to start
selling.

You need to market your product; the way you do this depends on
what your individual product is.

Every product will sell better or worse depending on how it is
marketed.

You may want to take an advert in a local paper or get some
flyers printed and then drop them off.

Maybe you can call some local businesses up and try and sell
them your product or service.

Once your product starts selling you need to reinvest as much
money in the business as possible and keep the profits in the
business.

Keep this going until your business is in a healthy situation
financially.

If you are diligent about the way you conduct your business,
you will reap the rewards.

Working for yourself is 1000 times better than working for
anyone else.

Remember, if you don't take the risk there is no chance that it
will ever happen.

About The Author: Christopher Angus helps promote the following
sites: http://www.mdhsasbestosconsultants.com
http://www.the-printing-company.com
http://www.everest-oxfordshire.co.uk

Automated Foolproof Website Traffic Generation

Article Written by: Willie Crawford

Running an online business can involve so many tasks that you should automate where appropriate. There are literally thousands of pieces of software available that make the job of growing and running your business much easier!

On the other hand, there are many pieces of software that can make your job easier in the short-term but that do more harm than good in the long-term. This is the topic that I'd like to share two recommendations on today. These recommendations are tempered by ten years of experience as an internet marketer.

One of the biggest challenges faced by most webmasters, that I've talked to, is attracting enough qualified traffic. It's a problem that has an incredibly obvious solution to me. The solution is simply to go to where the traffic is and redirect it.

As an example, sites such as Ebay (TM), MySpace (TM), and the major search engines get the majority of online traffic. That means that you should go to those places too, and get in front of
that traffic, and redirect it.

There are dozens of easily implemented ways to redirect that traffic. Let's look at just two of the easiest methods.

The single easiest, free, long-term technique that I've used is article marketing. That's why I've written over 500 articles on internet marketing, and spread them throughout cyberspace.

Article marketing can be as simply as generating quality content that the search engines (and your visitors) will love and then feeding it to them.

Let's think outside the box for a second on this topic, and redefine articles as pieces of information that your ideal customers are looking for. That opens up a whole new world of possibilities for you. For example, now I can think of my recipe database as a database of articles. It would be more accurate to define it as a database of content, but I'm approaching it as many would approach articles because I want to share with you how I use this.

I use automated software to post many of my recipes online to attract my ideal customers... people online looking for recipes who will also buy my cookbooks. I simply use a piece of software that can grab hundreds of my recipes (text files on my computer), insert them into a template, and upload them to my websites. That means that I can generate a QUALITY, very focused, useful website that the search engines and my visitors LOVE ... in mere minutes.

The software that I use to generate hundreds of highly focused, quality web pages, in mere minutes saves me HUNDREDS of hours per month, and generates an incredible amount of traffic for me each month.

Can you see that by using this software, as I do, you can take a batch of articles (or content) on any topic and create a highly focused, traffic generation website in a fraction of the time?

The "secret" tool that I use for this is at:
http://QuickQualityContent.com

I mentioned earlier that places like MySpace.com can send you major traffic. Let me briefly explain automating part of the process there.

MySpace is a social community where much of the focus is on building a "friends" list. You are allowed to invite any of the MILLION of members to become your friend, and part of your network of contacts.

A recent press release stated that there were 106 million MySpace accounts as of September 8, 2006, and that the site attracts 230,000 new members per day.

A "web metrics report" that I recently read put MySpace.com as the sixth most visited site on the internet. You really can't afford to ignore such a HUGE concentration of traffic.

You want to build a list of people interested in your topic, and then invite them to join your friends list. You can then send them messages, or post bulletins, using MySpace's internal system.

There are people who have built friends lists of over 100,000 targeted contacts. Can you imagine being able to compose a simple message and then in a few seconds send that message to your list of friends and have it magically appear in their MySpace inboxes? Assuming your list is highly targeted... perhaps a list of MySpace members interested in collecting comics, or any of
thousands of other niche topics, your "bulletin" would generate a nice stream of traffic.

The key to making this a productive way to generate targeted traffic is to use software to build, manage, and contact your friends list. Without the software, you would spend an inordinate
amount of time just tracking down appropriate people to invite, sending the invites, approving requests others send you asking to be added to your friends list, etc.

The software that I've tested and recommend for automating traffic generation through MySpace is at:
http://TrafficGeneratingMonster.com You do need to be very careful that you don't violate the MySpace terms of service. Also you shouldn't invite inappropriate people, or an inordinate number of people at one time. You should not abuse the system!

Just the two pieces of software that I shared with you above EASILY generate tens of thousands of website visitors for me every day. Most of that traffic is generated by my articles.

There are countless other simple, automated, and semi-automated methods of generating website traffic that do work. They work very effectively, and can work long-term... as long as they are not abused.

Take a look at these two tools today. Study the tutorials available for free that explain how to use each tool. Allow the tutorials to spark hundreds of additional ideas and angles. If I can do it with a topic as mundane as recipes, I'm sure that you can do it in your niche.

About the Author:

Willie Crawford has been teaching highly effective internet marketing since late-1996. His innovative methods have helped thousands improve their online businesses. His latest project to prove that it's possible to earn $1 million in 90 days using internet marketing tactics can be tracked at:
http://MillionDollar90Days.com/results/

Affordable Search Engine Optimization Is The Key To Online Marketing

Article written by: Andy West

In this day and age, the Internet has quickly become the best
and most efficient way to advertise your business's particular
services. Affordable search engine optimization has quickly
replaced standard advertising and is becoming more and more
popular each and every day. The premise is actually quite
simple. Almost everyone who uses search engines will
automatically choose from the first few matches that they
receive. Therefore, affordable search engine optimization is
the perfect answer to increasing your online potential.

On any given topic, there could be upwards of thousands of
websites. If your website doesn't even make the first ten
listings in the search engines, then you will lose out on an
incredible amount of business. Also, the average consumer will
be more likely to trust a site that comes up among the first
matches, rather than on the last page of the results. However,
there are some companies that will charge you an arm and a leg
for this type of service. Therefore, finding something in your
price range is the answer.

There are many companies that offer this type of service but it
is important to investigate their credentials before enlisting
them to help your business. There are some companies that say
that they are experts in the field of SEO but are in fact just
looking to take some money out of your pocket, without ever
increasing your standings on the search engines. A good way to
avoid this is to find a company that seems credible and then
ask them if you could get a reference from one of their past
customers. This way, you will be able to find out first hand
whether or not that company will be able to give you the proper
SEO service that you deserve.

A professional SEO company will not only drive traffic to your
website, but will work alongside of you to ensure that the
traffic that comes to your site will be interested in your
particular service. There is not much point to having people
looking at your site if they have no use for your services.
This is another reason to get a qualified professional to help.
Proper SEO will drive qualified customers to your website.
Customers that are specifically searching for your particular
service and who are looking for it at this very moment.

Imagine the possibilities. Whenever anyone online is searching
for your service, they are immediately matched up with your
company's web site. Once they get to your site, they will
realize that you have absolutely everything that they could
possibly need. So why would they search any further? Affordable
search engine optimization is the single most effective way to
drive more qualified traffic to your site and works better than
any other method. This is perhaps the only way to increase your
businesses online potential and it doesn't even have to cost
you a lot of money. Don't be fooled into thinking that
companies that charge a higher rate will give you better SEO
service. After careful research and investigating, it is very
easy to find a company that will give you proper affordable
search engine optimization that will benefit your business for
years to come.

With the Internet becoming bigger and bigger each day, you
cannot even afford to not take advantage of SEO. The amount of
business that you will receive from this simple process will
astound you and the profits will amaze you. Before attempting
any other online marketing processes, keep in mind that
affordable search engine optimization is your first and final
answer.

About The Author: Andy West is a freelance writer for Vertical
Measures. For more information on affordable search engine
optimization services, please visit Vertical Measures at
http://www.verticalmeasures.com .

Promises Your Web Hosting Service Provider Can't Keep

Article written by: Ricardo D Argence

Many web-hosting providers offer their potential customers things that they simply cannot guarantee. Not only is this misleading and frustrating to customers when they find out that this is not really the case, it is on the borderline of false advertising.

For those who are looking at a web-hosting service, make sure that the company chosen is already providing what they are claiming to offer to their other customers.

Below are some examples of the types of guaranteed services that web-hosting companies offer their customers when they know that these services are impossible to guarantee.

100% Uptime
It is impossible to offer 100% up time 24/7 to customers. Even the most expensive, best quality machines are prone to fail some of the time. If the web host loses even a few seconds of uptime then it is fair to say that they cannot provide their customers with 100% up time. If a web-hosting company is offering this service, check to see if they will refund or compensate the customer if they do have any down time.

Unlimited disk space
There is no way that a web-hosting service can promise unlimited disk space. Even the biggest data center has limitations and size restrictions. The point being put across to customers may be that the disk space being offered is ample enough for any website, however, unlimited space is misleading.

Unlimited Email Accounts
By definition, any control panel has to have a defined number of email accounts allowed. This number may be very high, lets say a thousand. You will probably never use a thousand email accounts for your business and it would be crazy to try to handle that many. However, high as the number of email accounts may be, it's still not unlimited.

Anti-spam that never fails
Anti-spam is a great service, sometimes. All anti-spam services have their negative points. They are known to block emails that are wanted and let in the ones that are spam. Good anti-spam services allow the user to 'allow or deny' emails into their email box. But it is misleading to say that anti-spam services never fail.

Foolproof Anti-virus
With viruses popping up all of the time and the people creating the viruses getting better at creating trouble, it is untruthful to say that any type of anti-virus is fool proof. It is impossible to be up to date with all of the definitions all of the time. Even the best anti-virus services fail to catch a virus at times. This doesn't mean that the anti-virus service the web host has in place is not good, all it means is that nobody is perfect and there is no such thing as foolproof.

While all of these services are necessary, it is important to remember that, although outrageous promises made by some web-hosting companies can be very attractive, customers should make sure that the web-hosting company can deliver what they are promising before signing up for them.

About The Author: http://Alojate.com is the premier web hosting company in Mexico, offering a range or services for all business needs. http://www.alojate.com http://www.alojateextra.com

Pay-per-click Marketing Strategy Can Boost Your Sales

Article written by: Andy West

Every business out there is competing hard with others offering like products or services, thanks to the way the world has opened up and provided consumers with access to many different resources. Thanks to the pay-per-click marketing strategy found across the internet, someone requiring a service in Canada can easily hire a business in Florida or a product manufactured in Colorado can reach an end user in Australia. This is great, because the opportunities for higher sales and income are vast, compared to previous decades where your business was only locally known or only popular in the surrounding cities.

Stiff competition, however, has also meant that anyone with a business needs to promote and market their company effectively, encouraging and enticing surfers to visit their site and hopefully purchase their product or service. Having a pay-per-click marketing strategy to make sure your website gets seen and receives plenty of hits is integral to your business's success, because if you're not receiving traffic to your site, you've got a seriously struggling venture on your hands.

There are plenty of ways to boost sales and promote your website these days. Information is the current trend in tempting surfers to click links and reach your site. Articles posted on your website that teach people something new or give them pertinent information are helpful to draw in clientele. Press releases can also be effective to bringing attention to your business or company. Thanks to the way that individuals quickly turn to computers and the internet for their information, the written word and fundamental text has become the strongest venue to drawing in business.

Pay-per-click or PPC advertising is another growing method of boosting hits to your website. This principle of marketing is a venture of cooperation between websites, as you ask other sites to display a link for your website. When individuals are attracted to an ad displayed on a website, they click to follow the link through to your business portal. The company advertising your link receives income that you supply. In effect, this pay-per-click marketing strategy is paying someone to promote your company.

For someone adept with computers and having great interpersonal and negotiation skills, pay-per-click can be set up by an individual. Most people, however, don't have the know-how or the time to work through the steps needed to set up this type of advertising. The best thing to do is to hire a PPC consulting firm that has all the resources and networking skills to build an effective promotion program. Not only that, hiring a pay-per-click consulting firm means that you don't have to worry about links on dead sites, maintenance or creating a catchy advertisement.

Companies devoted to PPC consulting will work with you to develop a strong pay-per-click marketing strategy to know what product or service you're trying to sell. From there, they'll define your market target and develop surveys to help with the set-up of the promotion program. Once they've achieved result from these surveys, pay-per-click consulting firms will create advertisement that reaches the people you want it to and test the results. Revisions are sure to come into play, and businesses geared to pay-per-click consulting will compare their marketing against solid results. Considering the amount of work involved in this type of promotion, you certainly don't want to go less than the full distance by trying to set up pay-per-click advertising yourself.

Reputable consulting firms that specialize in creating a pay-per-click marketing strategy for businesses are ones that are geared to website promotion. Every type of industry has experienced and skilled experts and the common jack-of-all-trades individual won't be able to pull off such an intensive networking to boost your sales. If you're serious about a successful business, you should hire companies that provide exactly what you need and you'll soon be able to see that the cost of their time and efforts pays for itself over and over again as your sales increase.

About The Author:

Andy West is a freelance writer for Vertical Measures. Vertical Measures is an Internet Marketing Company that offers quality pay-per-click consulting for your business. For more information, please visit http://www.verticalmeasures.com/pay-per-click-consulting.html .

Some Financial Pros And Cons Of Practicing Search Engine Optimisation Specifically For And In The Uk.

Article written by: Bill Kruse

Economic pragmatism would be the main reason. If I have a dispute with a client having an office in the UK - not that this ever happens, of course! - I can go to court in the UK and in the first instance get my case heard locally and in the second instance have the further option of sending the bailiffs round when the defaulter simply ignores any court judgment against them.

If the client is based abroad, then the chances of bringing them to book are remote and improbable if they exist at all. Being a one-man band, I don't deal in the sort of figures that make extradition a realistic proposition, and suggestions of invasion or all-out war evaporate when I wake up. Nor, reverting to pragmatism again, is it feasible to sue them locally and, while the local public bar would no doubt be packed with eager volunteers, it's an expensive effort sending the boys round.

So from the point of view of resorting to legal redress, sticking to UK based clients makes sense.

It can be embarrassing, though, working in the UK and trying to explain our archaic and exploitative banking system. Clients from more enlightened countries (read; anywhere else on the planet) find it hard to believe that the money they sent by bank transfer a week or so ago has yet to emerge from that mysterious bourne where money temporarily vanishes to when it enters the British banking system and appear in my account. "Certainly we paid it", they indignantly assert in response to my timid query about, er, actual payment for my services. I feel like an idiot trying to explain that despite the interim period I still haven't seen hide not hair of any remittance.

I've known my bank to indignantly deny any knowledge of any monies being in the system the very day before it appears in my account, right up till closing time. I've logged into my online account the next morning and there the money is, in some cases to my intense relief. Paypal money can be transferred between international accounts in a matter of moments, so how can the banks possibly justify not operating at the same speed? My guess would be that they can't justify it but a succession of supine governments allows them to get away with this, bad for all other business though it is.

This regularly presents me with a dilemma - has the client paid me for the work already carried out or not? Should I do more work for them effectively on their say so - and remember, this is likely to be someone I've never met or spoken to even on the telephone, that's the nature of the business, you communicate by email - or do I do work instead for a known and reliable client who lives, relatively speaking, just up the road? Obviously, I have to do work for the known client as I can't live on assurances, which in some cases can mightily displease those whose patronage I would dearly love in order to be able to expand my business. Rosy visions of future prosperity have been known to gloomily recede under these circumstances.

So there's good and there's bad aspects to practicing search engine optimisation in the UK.

About The Author: Bill Kruse is a UK-based SEO with a site at
http://www.kruse.co.uk/

Using A Web Directory

Article written by: Tony Adams

A web directory is just what it sounds like: a directory that is found on the World Wide Web, that directs you to various web sites. Unlike a search engine, which displays results based on key words and phrases, a web directory groups information into categories by topic. Perhaps the best known web directory is the Yahoo Directory.

Directories organize info that can be accessed in a process known as "drilling down"-you go from the most general (for example, "travel") to increasingly specific subcategories (for example, "United States," "amusement parks"). You might drill down from "Reference" to "Phone Numbers" to "Businesses" to get to a listing of various online yellow pages.

A web directory directs you to links to web sites that may contain the information you seek. Insiders refer to directories as either general or niche. Niche directories attempt to collect as much information as possible within specific research areas, for example, a web directory of career advice, or a web directory of safe toys for children.

A web directory can take different forms, according to how the information is gathered. Some directories accept paid submissions. Information is there because people pay to be listed. Sometimes listings are free but the positions are paid for. Understanding the structure of how a web directory collects and presents its information lets you now how much you can trust the information it contains.

Directories can be a part of many an online business's search engine optimization strategy. The more diverse the links pointing to a specific web site are, the greater the chance for better traffic, and the higher the possibility of ranking in search engine algorithms. Paying to be listed in more than one directory, or to be found quickly through premium positions in a directory, can result in improved traffic to the listed web site.

About The Author: http://www.hotdiscover.com

Internet Search And SEO

Article written by: Oleg Ishenko

Internet Search

For the last decade the Internet has emerged itself into an integral part of our everyday life. What previously was mostly a network of research institutions has become an unprecedented medium for commercial and social use. With the number of web pages now exceeding 12 billion it is extremely difficult to find information without using search engines.

Search engines appeared almost immediately once the WWW was born. A pioneering search engine called Archie was created in the University of Montreal in 1990 and was used to search files located on public FTP sites. The first search engine created to crawl and index text files on the web, World Wide Web Wanderer or Wandex, was introduced in 1993 in MIT and worked on principals similar to those used by the modern web search engines.

However it was not until late 90s when search engines have become the major tool to find information on the Internet. Before Internet directories such as Yahoo! or BestOfTheWeb were used to locate web pages. But it didn't take long for web users to recognize the usefulness of the Internet search, once indexing and ranking algorithms have reached a state where search engines were able to quickly return highly relevant results

Search Results Relevancy

It is all about the relevancy of results. In their infancy search engines were utterly vulnerable to abuse. Originally search engines used to index file names and later meta-tags. It doesn't take much to stuff file names and meta-tags with popular keywords which are irrelevant to the document's content. When a user queried a search engine with a keyword he received results that couldn't satisfy him. That is why Internet directories with pages classified into directories by human reviewers were far more useful than the search engines of those days.

The problem of relevancy has become increasingly important with the growing commercial use of the Web. The profits of commercial websites depend on their exposure and if there is anything that can help improve the exposure in search results - it must be done. And the first attempts to influence the search results by using popular but not relevant keywords to drive more traffic were made.

With their increasing computational and storage capacity search engine have become able to index the entire content of a page. But it was still possible to abuse search results by using excessive keyword stuffing, hidden keyword-rich text or many other spammy techniques. Basing solely on the page content it was impossible to ensure the relevancy of search results and more advanced ranking algorithms were introduced.

Search Engine Optimization

But even modern sophisticated search engine algorithms are not perfect and can't guarantee 100% relevancy. There still exist many loopholes that can be exploited to manipulate search results. Search results manipulation is not necessarily an unethical conduct. Consider three biggest travel websites: http://Travelocity.com, http://Expedia.com and http://Priceline.com. They provide booking service of a similar quality and are equally relevant for keywords like 'vacation' or 'airline tickets'. But nevertheless they rank differently in search results, and it is natural for a lower ranked site to try improving its position by using search engine optimization techniques.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is about defining what factors influence the placement of a page in search results and adjusting these factors to obtain a higher position. To optimize the relevance of a page you have to adjust keyword frequency and proximity, add keywords into headings and bold text. It must look natural though - excessive keyword stuffing might have negative effects. To increase the popularity of a page you must obtain incoming links with targeted keywords in the anchor text, and make sure that links come from authoritative pages but not from irrelevant link farms.

Search engine optimization is an extremely dynamic field. Once a loophole in ranking algorithms becomes known and widely used, search engines change their algorithms to neutralize its effect.
Every algorithm update can drastically affect positions and traffic of websites utilizing aggressive crash and burn optimization strategies. Such strategies are based on the most recently discovered loopholes and tricks and are able to put your pages into top positions quite quickly. Their effect however lasts only to the next algorithm update.

Another far more time-consuming approach is the creation of websites with high quality content following so-called Google quality guidelines. This approach emphasizes the website's value for users and persuades against using tricks to manipulate search results. In short - good websites eventually will rank high. But it takes years and tons of effort to make a site popular this way. Some sites are by their nature difficult to promote this way. For example few grocery stores can afford turning their websites into top Internet grocery portals; it just wouldn't be worth the effort.

SEO alone can't guarantee a lasting effect. Not using SEO at all requires too much effort to promote a site. The wise way to make a website popular is make sure that it is useful for users, obtain quality incoming links and do not forget to fine tune your pages focusing the targeted keywords. Follow the famous Brett Tabke's Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone - after four years it is still a valid approach.

About The Author:

Oleg Ishenko, Berlin, Germany. BSc in Telecommunications Industry Business Management. Master student in Humboldt University Berlin. MCSE and MCDBA certifications. Get more useful information at our Comprehensive SEO and Online Marketing Research -http://www.seoresearcher.com