26th June 2007

Importance Of Resource Box

By : Admin

Normally you find a resource box at the end of an article when you used to submit the article in article directory. It usually contains a link to the site that has submitted the article. And of course, the article and the site both are related. A resource box contains the name of the author, a brief description of the author, a brief description of the sponsoring site and a link. It’s FREE advertising.

As we know that writing articles is one of the fastest ways to build traffic to the website. Not only that, they are great marketing tools and instant recognition vehicles on the internet.

However, one of the most overlooked parts of the article is the resource box - and it is almost as important as the article itself.

A well-crafted resource box has the capability to make or break your article writing. You may miss out quality visitors simply because resource box at the end of the article is not constructed effectively. There are a few check points to ensure that your resource box is always working to its maximum efficiency.

  • Ask the reader to click on the link you have presented to them.
  • Relate the resource box directly to the content of the article.
  • Avoid hyped up or promotional language.
  • Do not dilute the effectiveness of having a single link because you don’t have the space in a resource box to provide more than one link.

Things to keep in mind:

  • Resource box must be able to attract the attention and interest of the reader.
  • Use the right keywords and content.
  • Use creativity; it should not look either too boring or not eye-catching enough.
  • Do not mislead your potential website visitors.
  • Don’t ever think the resource box is not useful.
  • Keep it professional. Use spell check and verify your URL’s are correct.
  • Do not list every website you own in you resource box.
  • Get your point across quickly without overselling the readers.

Consider these key elements in your Resource Box:

  1. Name: The first line of your resource box should be a short sentence that gives your name and tells what you do on the Internet.

  2. Website URL: Listing your website URL will bring visitors to your website. Whenever your article is published on another website with a link, your link- popularity with the major Search Engines will be boosted.

  3. Newsletter Subscription Address: Getting an interested visitor to visit your website is great; do not forget to capture their email address. Remember when listing your newsletter; do not use an email address. Include the URL for your newsletter subscription address.

  4. List Something Free: By offering a free item you’ll greatly increase the chances of a reader clicking through to your website. You also have the opportunity for sales through your free offering. Make sure your product is relevant to the article.

Avoid these things when writing a resource box:

  1. Don’t oversell: This is not the time or place to list every product you sell and every detail that makes your website better than others. Include a couple of sentences where you sell yourself or your website.

  2. Stay on theme with the article: It is vital that whatever theme you choose, you stick with it. The best way to stay on theme is to include what the article was about inside the theme.

  3. Irrelevant information: Stay with either your website or the product you discussed in the article. There is no point and not enough room to discuss other products and thus providing irrelevant information.

  4. Affiliate links: If you want to promote affiliate links, do it on your website or in your blog because adding affiliate links will be selling your competitors, not yours!

  5. Short and concise: Your resource box should be no longer than four lines, short and to the point, meaning you have a limited amount of space to fit a lot of information in.

Writing a resource box is an art whereby you have a lot to say in very little space. So it is needless to say to put some thought into it and keep in mind that after writing a great article, the resource box is the reward for your gift. It’s entirely upto you, how effectively you use it!

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26th June 2007

What Influences Universal Search?

By : Nidhi Gupta

Universal Search is a term coined by Google in which results from different vertical search engines (images, video, news etc…) are integrated into Google’s regular search results. The idea is that textual listings may not necessarily be the most relevant result for a user’s query.

But when will these different search results show up? For example, what causes a video of a scene from Star Wars to appear within the organic search results for the query: “Darth Vader” Obviously it has to do with Google’s sophisticated algorithms which can correlate the right content to a user’s query, however here are some factors that can help influence the Universal Search results:

  • Number of Searches per Individual Search Silo - This theory is based on shear volume for a given query on a given vertical search engine. For instance, if the query “scenic mountains” has a high number of searches within the image search, perhaps this influences the top images to appear within Universal search for the same query.

  • Performance through ratings and views - This applies mostly to Video Search because on YouTube and Google Video both ratings and the number of views are kept track of. Could the ratings/views affect the appearance of videos with Universal Search?

  • Clicks per listing - Google applies this same type of algorithm on both AdWords and organic search results therefore it’s something that can help Google gauge the relevance of non-text based results.

  • Time Spent - With the Google Toolbar installed on so many users’ computers as well Google Analytics installed on so many websites, Google can start to understand how engaged users are with a website (after a user clicked on a listing) by measuring time spent.

  • Return Visits - If a user clicks on a result listing, visits a website/image/news listing, returns immediately and clicks on another listing and continues this cycle, will Google start decreasing the quality of the websites/image/news listings that were selected?

  • Usability - Google performs rigorous usability testing using eye tracking to further understand users’ search behavior and reactions to different types of search results.

How Can You Leverage Universal Search?

Universal Search requires a wide-range content strategy in addition to simply text. Here are some tactics worth looking into in terms of Universal Search:

  • When using images in your web pages consider adding related keywords to both the name of the image (filename - ie: imagename.jpg) and the alt text.

  • When uploading videos to YouTube and Google video take full advantage of adding a full description about your video.

  • Promote your uploaded videos on your blog or through press releases. The higher your ratings and the number of views, the more authoritative your video.

  • Apply to be a Google News Source. If this doesn’t work, submit your latest content to sites which are Google News Sources.

  • Keep visitors on your site longer by adding enticing content which compares competitors, offers pricing and gives them something tangible to take away (whitepapers, data sheets).

Get More Details At : Webanalyticsassociation.org

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25th June 2007

Common Terms Used in Link Building

By : Admin

Link building is a job of common interest these days as it fetches desired results and with the increasing use of internet, the situation has really changed because today the world is of internet. Everybody is making use of internet in his /her business. To be more precise and accurate with the usage and the scope of link building, one has been clear with the terms involved in it. As we commence with words when we make attempt to learn a new language, likewise in order to understand link building more precisely, one really has to have an in depth knowledge of the terms used in link building! Let us now have a look over these terms in an alphabetic order and understand what they really mean!

Directory: a directory is basically an index of web pages, which is compiled by people. It is generally organized by the topic or theme! Examples of directory could be taken as Yahoo, About etc.

Keywords: a keyword is a word or a phrase used when we searches for a website through search engine or search in a directory. Keywords are used by the webmaster in order to describe or explain in brief, what his site is all about, what is the content of the site!

Keyword Density: keyword density represents the frequency of the keywords that appears in a page of website or precisely, in a particular portion of page. The more often the keyword or phrase appears in a page, the higher its search engine ranking. That is why it is really critical and important element. Not only this, if it is repeated too often then it could be penalized for practicing spamming.

Link building: link building is a process of creating inbound links to own website.

Link Exchange Programs: A link exchange program refers to a sign up program whereby the webmasters agrees to host and link to a member-only link pages! Although some variations are also observed!

Link Farm: link farm are the random links on a page. They can be considered as spamming as they really do not help in popularity.

Link Management: link management is the process of managing reciprocal links of a website. It basically includes maintaining and organizing them! This is normally a paid service and the examples could be taken as LinksManager!

Link Popularity: link popularity is the number of sites that links to a particular site. It is also used by many websites as a factor to determine the search engine ranking of a website.

Meta Description Tag: Meta description tags are those which are present in the header of a web page and it is used to provide a short description of the content of the webpage!

Meta Keywords Tag: on the other hand, Meta keyword tags are present in the header of a webpage but it lists the words which represents the content in the body of the web page.

Pay Per Click Search Engine: Pay Per Click Search Engine is a search engine in which the ranking of the sites is determined by the amount it pays for its each click done from that search engine to the website.

Portal: Portals are the directories and many of the portals have added features like news, reminders, browser based email, calendars, fax services, discussion forums and chats!

Reciprocal links or link exchanges: it is the process where two webmasters agree to show the other’s link on their website for a mutual interest and benefit. Reciprocal links are usually listed in e-zines, newsletters, directories, search engines, etc.

Search Engine Optimization: This is the practice of trying to ensure that a website ranks high in the search engines. It entails all of the practices and processes those results in higher indexing and ranking of a website!

Search Engine: search engine is a computerized index of the web pages; that creates a searchable database. Examples of search engine are AltaVista, Google, Yahoo and MSN!

Spamming: Spamming is the process of abusing the search engine ranking techniques. Practices includes, using hidden text, excessive repetition of a keyword, etc. sending unsolicited bulk email is also spamming!

Vortal: vortal is basically a portal which is centered on a specific issue.

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