SEO is not a perfect science, but there are general methods that will effectively boost the ranking of your site on the major search engines. Basically, relevance of your site content to a search for keywords will generally determine whether your site will appear on search results. When you are writing SEO content, keep in mind the specific keywords that people may search for, and reflect those keywords on your site.

This does not mean that you should pepper your site with over-used keywords. Search engines of today are very sophisticated, and they can detect unusually high keyword concentrations. They may omit sites in their listed results which have the keywords used excessively. So use keywords as you would in normal written “conversation”, and only where needed.

Some sellers also use hidden text, either successfully or not. It is generally accepted that many search engines can detect hidden text, and this may affect your site’s standing negatively. There are many conflicting views on this subject, however – it may work for you, but it may not.

Each of your pages has a title, and it’s usually named with something that is relevant to the information on the page. In this case, you can give the page a title with wording to the effect of improving your search engine ranking. This way, the keyword sentence then exists on the page.

Linking is also a factor in search ranks for Google, which is why sites including Squidoo and eHow rank well, since those sites have many links from and to each page. Websites were originally thought of as islands, designed as such to keep visitors inside their own virtual world. But the nature of the terms “website” and “internet” actually suggest that web-rings and links are essential to the workings of the Internet.

To work with SEO to get your business website higher in search engine results, join as many sites and online communities as you have time to, and provide links back to your site wherever you can. Make sure that you read terms of use before you do link-backs, because some companies’ sites do not allow it.

You can also use back-linking to promote your business. Leave comments on blogs, sites or articles and include pertinent information for readers, and also information with links to your site. In this way you can help others while you help yourself. This type of strategy for linking also works with favorites, subscriptions and RSS feeds, or basically speaking, anything that will create a link between others and you. All that you will spend on SEO work is time, basically, so use these tips to generate more traffic to your site.

It should come as no surprise that many venture capitalists do not have the background, skills or knowledge to effectively tap into the market the internet has created from them. Optimizing your website and promoting your services has become a necessity. To a certain extent the techniques used to optimize the majority of websites apply to venture capitalists, but there are few that stand out for this particularly demanding field.

Typical Search Engine Optimization programs utilize press releases. They generally do not play a large role in campaigns, but they are a great way for venture capital companies to increase their presence. Standout venture capital SEO must look to press releases to a larger degree. Professionally written press releases on large investments or success stories are an effective way to generate interest in your services. By submitting them to directories, you can effectively increase your online presence.

Another typical SEO tactic is the use of content, both in the form of articles on the site that can be optimized, and blogs. Blogs; short, personal, public ‘diaries,’ should be utilized as part of a venture capital SEO program to generate a sense of familiarity and trust in your potential client base. By writing informative, interesting and personal blogs about relative venture capital topics, you will begin to establish yourself as an expert. Content also serves another important purpose – it tells search engines where to direct people when they search for venture capital businesses.

You should make sure that your internet marketing team is making your content efficient by:

* Optimizing all pages with content

* Making sure that content is written with the correct keywords and page titles

* Making sure the content is compelling for readers

* Can be easily shared and linked to.

While focusing on the content is important, don’t forget to utilize all of the other SEO techniques to improve your visibility and page rank. Keyword research, website design and layout, backlinks, social networking sites and forum and discussion boards should all be a part of your venture capital SEO program. A little time and effort spent implementing these techniques will have a big impact on your visibility.

If you are like many venture capitalists who want to stay competitive with a comprehensive SEO campaign, you may want to consider working with an internet marketing company to perform your optimization. A trained consultant can assist you maintaining your optimization, as well. A good SEO campaign is ongoing, and doesn’t stop once each page is tweaked. It takes vigilance and constant monitoring to keep up with any market, and your site should be continually tweaked for the best results. Contact us, we can help!

But, often time’s companies or “SEO experts” don’t know exactly what they’re doing. Not only is this unacceptable as you may be paying these companies or individuals good money, but in the long run some techniques employed by less experienced search engine optimizers or those willing to take short cuts can cause your site to become permanently banned by the search engines.

Over the years we’ve learned that education is the key to success. Whether you’ve just begun the process of looking for a company to provide search engine optimization services, are well along the process, or already have a company you’re dealing with and want to make sure they’re doing things correct this is a helpful and simple 5 question guide:

1) Can you get my website to the top of the search engines?

This is an important question, and one you may have already planned to ask. What you want to look for is whether or not the company digs deeper and what their response is. For example you should expect to hear things like:

what would you like to rank for?
are their competitors in your market that you believe have a great web presence with search rankings you would like to emulate?

Without intimate knowledge of your industry as well extensive research it is hard to know what you really need to rank for and whether the terms you think are important will actually drive results.

Additionally watch out for too quick of an answer. Although a great search engine optimizer may be able to get you to #1 for something you want, it should never be guaranteed and it isn’t an overnight process.

2) Once my site is created, how do you make sure I show up on the search engines?

Many search engine optimizers or firms will talk about website submission. In reality all that is really needed for search engines to know that your website is there is a link (from any site on the Internet) back to your site. Some firms may talk about repeated search engine submission, but this is completely unnecessary and could actually end up hurting your rankings as the repeated blasts may be considered spam. One key thing to look out for when discussing this question is the mention of sitemaps and webmaster tools. Many powerful websites (content management sites, shopping carts, etc.) can automatically create a sitemap (a single file that shows the location of every page on your site). When this file is setup under a search engine’s webmaster tool console it can help significantly to increase your rankings and should be a staple of any search engine optimizers toolset.

3) What is link building, do I need it, and how do I do it?

3 questions in 1, I know, but this one is important.

Although on-page optimization (the way your website is built, text, etc.) is important, link building comes in at a very close second. Yes you do need link building! And the company you commission needs to assist in this process. If they don’t mention this run the other way. Your website needs links-in from other websites across the Internet to help you rank well. Links act like votes of confidence – the more you have, the more powerful your site. There are a number of quick ways to get links, but link building is a long process, but well worth the time or expense.

One thing to watch out for in link building campaigns is the creation of many smaller websites that then link back to your main site. Although in theory it is not a bad idea the truth is because of the nature of the search engines it is a colossal waste of time and money that would be better spent actually building quality links to your main site – from existing established sites throughout the Internet.

4) How do you measure the SEO process?

The advent of new tools and technology has made the measurement of search engine optimization and your website’s overall success easier than ever. Another key component to a successful search engine optimized site or campaign is the installation of proper metrics tools and the review both by the company being commissioned, as well as you the site owner. Like many things search engine optimization varies depending on a number of different factors, so implementing techniques is important, but measuring and refining are key next steps.

5) Do you start with pay per click marketing?

A good search engine optimization campaign should start with pay per click marketing and the company you commission should at least suggest this, even if you are opposed to it.

Why should you start with pay per click marketing?

Well, to understand why you have to start with pay per click marketing you have to first understand the difference between paid search (PPC) and organic search (search engine optimization). Organic search engine optimization is a long process. When you first launch your site it can take weeks or months for the search engines to even place you. On top of that, it will take months and sometimes years to rank well for competitive terms. Additionally, organic search engine optimization is not done for thousands of different key terms and phrases. It typically involves just a handful of terms, and is very specific.

Pay per click marketing or paid search on the other hand is immediate; allowing you to get in front of your audience right away and usually includes thousands of key phrases. You will literally pay for ads or listings when certain key phrases are searched for.

So, before you spend the time and money on all of the little details that help your site rank well organically (search engine optimization) how do you know what terms to select?

Research! And the best way to accumulate that research (while bringing in qualified customers) is through paid search. Paid search is the ultimate research tool and will help weed out less popular or less desirable terms and illuminate well performing key terms all while driving desirable traffic that will help your site get customers, leads, sales, etc.

Ask these five questions, analyze the answers questions carefully, and use your best judgement!

Feel free to give us a call at 404-664-8135 with any questions at all.

Link building of websites is very important because these are used by search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo in getting the relevance of your site’s web pages to the search terms provided by millions of users online. By getting or building quality links from other website owners, web pages from your site will be indexed and has the assurance of proper ranking by these search engines. The higher the ranking of your site, the more visitors you get for your site. Thus, acquiring more sales or clients from the promotion and marketing of your products and services online.

There are different forms of link building. One way of implementing link building is by using Inbound or Outbound links. In Inbound Links, these are links that are pointed to your web page from other web page of someone else’s website. On the other hand, an Outbound Links are links that are pointed from the web page of your website to the web page of another website. When another website links to the web page of your website, search engines will use this as a voting system for the ranking of your website.

Some links are more important than the other and search engines have the mechanisms to monitor this based from the design of their engines. It is very important for SEO experts and companies providing services for SEO implementation to understand the concepts of Link Popularity and Link Reputation in order to provide a natural link for their client’s website. More importantly, to follow the strict guidelines and policies set by the companies behind these search engines in implementing best SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices and strategies to avoid getting their client’s website penalized and banned by these search engines.

There are other techniques and strategies used in implementing SEO of websites. What is outlined here is just one of them. Provided here are some details on link building and the important results it can deliver with regards to SEO implementation is concerned on your website and on your business marketing or promotion.

In conclusion, it is very important for business and website owners to acquire and implement SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practices and strategies for their websites to gain more exposure of their products and services, and getting more clients and customers in their promotion. These are just one of the factors why SEO is very significant for business and website owners in the promotion of their products and services which will give them also higher ROI (Return On Investment) within their market.

For business or website owners wanting fast and quality results on your search engine ranking, you can turn to the expertise of Smart Marketer.

Tracking the available information allows for extensive testing on what is working and what isn’t which, in turn, will increase the efficiency of advertising and marketing efforts. The list of what can be tracked and tested is quite long but includes the following:

* How much traffic is there for the business category – This can determine the overall size of the online market, the budget required, and/or the viability of SEO/SEM

* What keywords are driving the most traffic in the category – What searches will lead visitors to your website

* How much competition is there for specific keywords – Going after highly competitive keywords in an SEO/SEM strategy may be counter-productive due to the high amount of resources and time required to move up in search engine rankings. Focus on can provide more immediate results

* How many visitors are coming to the site – Provides a base line to measure against for effectiveness of SEO/SEM

* How many visitors are search engine spiders/crawlers/robots – Another base line measure

* What keywords are driving traffic to your site now – If these are working, incorporating them in the SEO/SEM campaign is a must

* Unique vs. repeat visitors – Another baseline measure

* How long do visitors stay at the site – This can determine the effectiveness of keywords, possibly used in Pay-Per Click, the “stickiness” of the site, or whether there are navigation issues. If visitors are bouncing back off of the site within seconds, the keywords being used could be too broad in nature. Another factor could be that they’re not seeing what they’re looking for when they arrive so they “back” out. Figuring theses issues out is especially important if you’re using PPC as you are paying for these visitors that are bouncing out immediately. If visitors are leaving the site after visiting a specific page it could be a sign that there are navigation or content issues that are driving visitors off of the site.

* Is PPC profitable – PPC in general is carrying less weight for visitors than say, eighteen months ago. The organic searches are what most visitors consider important so a review of the profitability of your PPC efforts is probably in order. If PPC is not generating enough leads or conversions that money might be better spent on SEO/SEM, focusing on a higher page rank.

These are only a few of the metrics that can be tracked online. The companies that are successful on the web are constantly testing, analyzing, and fine tuning their marketing efforts. Using the information available, you can too, and with a little determination and planning your website can be converted from an online brochure to a cash generating machine.

Search Engine Optimization Methodology

There are several approaches to developing a strategy for improving a website for search engine placement. The most common is finding the top site for your keywords and “just doing it better than that site” using a follow the leader methodology. While this approach will give you some insight into the level of SEO the competition has employed it wont necessarily help you get ranked in a higher position without a deep understanding of all the criteria that drive that top position listing. A thorough review of the content below should help you get that understanding and you will see that while examining the top ranked competition may be instructive it wont reduce the hard work you need to do to be a web contender.

We have worked with several of the greatest marketing minds in the world and without exception not one would give a thought to the competition when defining a marketing strategy for the business. In fact if you are focused on the competition and not on differentiating your business and website from the crowd you will never achieve a higher ranking (your content will be seen as redundant and of low value to the search engines) and there is no guarantee that the competition is using the correct keywords for your business in the first place.

Your best plan of action for any SEO effort is to optimize, dramatically expand your content, and focus relevant content on specific keyword phrases that are based on your customers needs. It is this deep dive content with specific customer centric keyword phrase focus that search engines love and your success or failure has nothing to do with what your competition is doing. If you don’t know what keywords are relevant to your business or even if you think you do know talk to your customers. Take their language and their challenges as the basis for your keyword research. Then use a comprehensive free tool like Google keyword generator. You will have more truly relevant keywords than you know what to do with. Use them all and start generating content around them.

In search engine optimization there are a handful of things to check first. Then more advanced tactics to implement and finally a host of things to avoid. Here we have provided a comprehensive overview of all the tactics that make up an aggressive SEO strategy for you to use and learn.

#1 Linkability

Can search spiders find and see your content. Dynamic database driven content is a killer for SEO. You want to make sure your text and links are presented to browsers in a static form that can be read by search spiders. Dynamic menu navigation using javascript or DHTML can also be a problem. The way to correct this linking problem is to employ a site map. Link to the site map from a text link on your home page. Search spiders will follow the link to the site map and find all your pages from there.

#2 Page Titles

Each page of your website should focus on the keyword phrases that are search engine relevant to the page content. It is the primary keyword phrase that should be the title for the page. For instance this page is about Search Engine Optimization so the title of this page is Search Engine Optimization. Its that simple. Each page should have unique keyword focused content and the title tag should reflect that primary individual keyword phrase for that page.

#3 Keyword

Content – While search engines don’t measure keyword density as a criteria for page rank its generally agreed your relative keyword density should be about 3-5% of total page content. You can measure keyword density by dividing the number of keywords by the total word count expressed as a percentage. The more content you have the better. We recommend 500 to 1000 words of relevant content. Ever wonder why Wikipedia is #1 for many searches. Shear volume of targeted content. You may argue that this page about search engine optimization could be broken down into separate pages for better readability. Perhaps but not better for the SEO strategy we are engaged in. This volume of single focus single page content is what I’m talking about. Did I mention that this page is about search engine optimization and search engine optimization strategy? I think you get my point.

#4 Keyword

Headings – Your pages should be well segmented and defined by related keyword headings. Headings are expressed in HTML as H1 H2 H3. Search engines love content that is well defined by category and keyword focused on the section content. Note that on this page that the subject Search Engine Optimization is an H1 header while the sub chapters of the page are H2 headers.

#5 META Description Tag

This META tag is of the most importance. It will be used by most search engines as the descriptive text under your search listing. There are instances where these descriptions may be pulled from other directories such as DMOZ however this is less common as the quality of these directories erodes over time and you can actually use META tags to tell the search engines not to use DMOZ (My recommendation). So using a description META tag is very important.

Most websites fail at one or more of these most basic criteria for SEO readiness and fixing them can lead to dramatic improvements to your search engine ranking.

#6 Site Submission

There is so much garbage on the web regarding this almost useless tactic. The top search engines will find you whether or not you submit your site. The search spiders for Google are always looking for new and unique content to add to their index. Provided you have properly implemented all the basics above your pages will be spidered and indexed in a matter of weeks. If you want to be proactive then you can register for a Google AdWords account and access Google webmaster tools. This will allow you to submit an XML site map with all your pages to the index. Updating your XML site map to notify the index of changes to pages is also easy to do using these tools.

#7 Inter Linking

Inter linking is the practice of using keyword targeted phrases within the content as anchor text for links to your other pages. For instance in this discussion of search engine optimization I might describe SEO as subset of search engine marketing and use that phrase as the link to the relevant page. You should create content with one to five interlinks provided you have the pages to support that. You do not want to use several different phrases as links to one single destination page. The idea is to focus each individual page on the primary keyword phrase related to the anchor text.

#8 Back Linking

This refers to one way links to your site from other content relevant sites. Notice I did not say reciprocal links. Link exchanges can work if you are careful not to allow garbage sites into your directory. You must also have actual content on your website meaning that your site can’t be just a link farm. These link farm sites are all but dead now. Having one is of no SEO value and linking back to one is likely to damage your SEO effort. Other strategies for acquiring relevant back links range from using online PR to making forum posts and blog entries with links back to keyword relevant pages using those keyword phrases as the anchor text for the link in your posting. Back linking is believed to be one of the most critical factors considered for page rank in the latest search algorithms. If no-one is linking to you from outside your domain you will have a very difficult time getting a first page ranking.

Things to Avoid – they will get you penalized and/or banned from the major search engines.

Overuse and repetition, repetition, repetition of keywords
Focus on keywords unrelated to the content
Colored text that matches the background
Duplicate content on different pages
Use of Cloaking tactics and Fast Redirect scripts
Too many reciprocal links or bad neighborhood links
The use of multiple gateway pages that all link to the same content page.

Some terms you may encounter are Keyword Stuffing, Google Bombing, Link Farming – all of these tactics are bad news and you should stay clear or risk having your domain banned from the major search engines.

But as a business owner, you can’t just throw in the towel. You have to push forward through these troubled times. At the same time, you have to be conservative. You need to find ways to bring in business while spending less on your marketing program each month. This is where I often sing the praises of search engine optimization (SEO), and with good reason.

About 90% of my business comes from people who find my website online, and then go on to contact me. Many of my clients enjoy similar levels of Internet success, because I’ve educated them on the subject. How do we bring in steady streams of new business through the Internet? Simple. We realize the value of search engine visibility, and we work hard to achieve it.

I define Internet visibility as the ease with which people can find you online. It directly corresponds to website traffic, which in turn corresponds to web-based leads, inquiries and sales. You can increase your Internet visibility in several ways, but search engine optimization is the brass ring in this department.

Doing More With Less – How SEO Drives Success

Now more than ever, it’s important to squeeze as much success from your marketing program as possible. You have to be responsible with your budget and focus on techniques that bring maximum results in relation to the investment you make. Search engine optimization is the perfect solution for reducing your marketing budget, especially if you handle it yourself. And let me be the first to tell you — you can handle much of it yourself, even if you have no Internet marketing experience. I’ve even created an SEO Learning Center for this very purpose.

SEO is like the gift that keeps on giving. With other forms of marketing, your exposure stops as soon as your payments stop. Take magazine ads for example. The moment you stop renewing your ad spot, the publisher will pull your advertisement. Goodbye exposure. The same goes for TV advertising, radio, newspapers, the phone book … even pay-per-click search marketing.

With SEO, however, the results are long lasting. Yes, it takes a lot of time and energy to achieve top rankings. But those rankings will remain for a long time, and with a minimal amount of “maintenance.”

Recession-Proof Marketing Strategy

Let me give you a prime example of what I’m talking about. One of my past clients worked in the real estate industry. She realized the value of Internet visibility years ago, so she began a concentrated effort to improve her web presence. Naturally, I helped with the search engine optimization side of things. One of her close competitors relied more heavily on direct mail marketing and TV advertising, both of which can be quite expensive over time.

When the housing market began to slow down along with the economy, my client’s competitor could no longer afford to spend as much on her paid advertising campaigns. So her marketing program and her exposure basically dried up.

My client, on the other hand, had been working hard on her web presence and her search engine visibility. So when tough economic times hit, she was perfectly positioned to “coast” right along. She didn’t have to spend a bunch of money on paid advertising — she had a steady stream of business leads coming in through her website. Low-cost marketing at its best! But none of this would have been possible without the SEO program she started several years ago.

What Ants Know About SEO

It reminds me of Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper, which is basically a lesson in proper preparation. In that story, the carefree grasshopper played all through the summer, while the industrious ant worked hard to store food for the winter. When the winter came, the grasshopper was ill prepared for it. The lesson is simple. It is best to prepare for the days of necessity before those days come.

If, down the road, you would like to have a perpetual marketing system that requires a minimal investment of time and money, then you must be like the industrious ant here in the present. By starting a search engine optimization campaign now, you will enjoy a steady stream of business later on.

Japanese search engine DW230 allows quick searches utilizing Google, Yahoo and MSN.

A vast majority of internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. As an online entrepreneur it is beneficial to know what search engines look for when they return search results. Having a website would be a waste of time without the proper SEO.

When you have a Website with information that has proven to be of great interest to the online community you will have to optimize it to drive traffic from search engines.

The amount of search volume generated by keywords and terms is the building block for search engine optimization. Your websites content should be directly related relevant to one topic. This will allow search engine algorithms to determine how to index your website.

Indexing is how search engines store websites so they will have relevant information to return when users perform a search.

SEO; for keywords and phrases:

To determine how often words and phrases are looked up in search engines go to:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Type in “Work at Home Business”. You see it generates over 37,000 in monthly search volume. (at the time this article was written)

Search volume needs to be the basis of what you’re looking for and how many other sites are competing for the same word or phrases should also be considered. Your website content should focus on providing quality content surrounding your keywords or phrases.

*Note: focusing on keywords does not mean repeating them over and over within your content. It has been said that Google considers websites with repetitive keywords as “spammy”.

If Google labels your website as spammy you will have difficulty getting indexed and ranked. So beware!

Search engine optimization entails many things but one goal is to provide search engines with websites they can identify to be of value.

“Quality content is discussed in the Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) article on my webpage.”

Having quality backlinks is another common but sometimes overlooked SEO strategy. Posting your website content to article and search engine directories is one way of achieving multiple backlinks. Obtaining quality backlinks is the most time consuming part of SEO and it is recommended that this process be outsourced.

The results you see from backlinks can take several months but the page rank and traffic you will obtain from it is astounding.

This is not an overnight process, SEO takes time (I will repeat this fact throughout the article)!

For HTML websites you can optimize for search engine robots by adding specific tags in your source code. For example:

* Search engine optimization: get the basic scoop on SEO.

* seo,search engine optimization,Internet,online business .

* You can not successfully run an Internet business without SEO.

Familiarize yourself with Search Engine Optimization today.

You should also have your keyword or phrase in your article/content headings. When search engine robots crawl your webpage they will find that your title specifies what the webpage is about. The keyword meta tag will further specify what terms will be discussed in your content (no need for a space between the commas in Keywords located in the meta tag). The description meta tag is how your webpage will appear in the search index (which should also highlight your keywords but it must be readable not spammy).

This is basic SEO information. I suggest you do all of the basics then outsource the rest. There are many companies that stay abreast of changes in all search engines. The value of outsourcing SEO is that it allows you to:

1. Grow your business

2. Free up time for you to start another website.

Ultimately you are trying to ensure your webpage appears in search engine results when someone does a search on your topic or keyword/phrase.

Lets Flash forward:

You have built a highly optimized website with a highly searched keyword phrase that has multiple articles which are spin-offs of you keyword/phrase. For instance:

* Work at Home: (phrase)

* Work at home jobs

* Work at home business

* Work at home opportunities

So you would have the main “phrase” as your home page and 3 different pages with articles. These are broad topics used for example only, you can ultimately get more detailed in your subjects. Remember each article must have a keyword density of no more than 12%. Some will argue the percentage of keyword density your article should have. My suggestion would be to have someone proof read your article and ask them if they feel your keyword phrase is repeated to often.

Again, be very light with the density (no more than 12%). Keyword density has increasingly become less important to search engine robots as it can be viewed as spam if over used. What search engine bots do find important is what synonymic terms are used with your keywords.

On your website, the home page links to each article page and each article links to the subsequent article. No article will link to the previous article or to the homepage within the article content. Place a “Sitemap” link and “contact us” links on each article page. The aforementioned is a basic website linking structure which will allow search bots to move fluidly through your website without running into broken links. This is important for search engine optimization because it will allow the robots to crawl your entire site. When you link from one page to the next have the link as far down in the article as possible. This will allow the search engine bots to fully crawl your articles. If unable to naturally incorporate the next page link in your article text you can create a visual line break between the bottom of your article and add the link to the next page below it.

*Next*

Submit your homepage URL to multiple WEBSITE directories to get your site indexed (outsource). There are paid and unpaid web directory services. I’d suggest using the unpaid services for now. Search engine robots frequently scan web directories for information so you need to have your website in a directory to get indexed.

Once your website is indexed submit each of your ARTICLES to article directories (outsource).

Do a search on “search engine friendly directories”. Do not waste your time with new directories or directories with low page rank.

Keep your website optimized and with fresh content by adding two articles a week and do not forget to submit them to article directories.

Adding just 2 articles per week will allow search engines to see natural website growth which studies have shown to be favored against automated article generation that adds 50 or so articles a week or a day.

Search engine optimization (SEO) takes time, in most cases you will not see results overnight.

As mentioned before; for a fee, companies will optimize your website and submit them to directories, but beware, you get what you pay for.

For instance, some companies advertise they will submit your website to 1000 search engine friendly directories for $100. More than likely these companies will not give your site the proper submission it deserves.

Submitting articles to search engine directories is a time consuming task and it is not cheap. On the other hand, when your site is submitted to the right directories the rewards are astounding.

It is only worth getting a website optimized if people have genuine interest in the information you offer. There is a substantial amount of time involved with submitting content to directories and in order to grow your Home Based Business you may need to find an auto submitter that will allow you to input your information and submit to hundreds of directories with the click of your mouse.

Is Firefox The IE Killer?
Can Firefox dethrone Internet Explorer? Or will IE’s seemingly insurmountable edge be just that? Discuss at WebProWorld.

In order to answer that question we’ll need to take a little trip down internet memory lane. Our first stop is the home of Linux founder Linus Torvalds. You see, Linus had this crazy idea that he could build a better OS than what was currently available and amazingly he did. Then he opened up his source code and the open source development movement was born. Open source affords anyone anywhere the ability to contribute to a development project or to download and use an application or source code absolutely free of charge. Many a software company lost a fortune due to the open source movement and scores more individuals have benefited from it so needless to say, it’s quite a controversial subject with software firms and developers alike.

Fast forward 10 or so years and you’ll see several other micromovements that look and smell an awful lot like the open source development movement. The most important difference with these new movements is the fact that they aren’t just for developers; they’re for the average joe and the Tiny Tims of this world. What are these relatively new micromovements? Forums, Wikis and blogs.

What do Forums, Wikis and Blogs have to do with Internet Explorer becoming extinct?

Well, in order to answer that question we must look at one other area the open source development movement has involuntarily impacted, API’s or application programming interfaces. They allow a developer to access data or processes they would otherwise not be able to access. APIs allow developers to grab book and author information from Amazon.com and allow developers to see what the most popular blogs are as seen by Technorati. There are dozens more cool apis and tools built around those apis but the fact of the matter is that APIs are changing the way businesses research and implement new features by allowing them to connect with their users while at the same time conducting free research & development.

That’s where Firefox, Mozilla foundation’s latest browser comes in. It’s the IE killer! Firefox’s source code is open and there is a standing invitation for anyone who’s interested to write code that enhances Firefox’s already robust list of features.

When a developer writes a piece of code for Firefox it’s known as an extension. Currently there are 178 and the list is growing all the time. These extensions aren’t just colorful skins there much more. In fact, they’re the key reason Firefox is my browser home. They’re saving me time and money by encapsulating functionality I could only get before from various web sites and software. Now instead of going over to the w3c to validate an html page I just right click on the page, select Web Developer then HTML Validation and I’m automatically using the w3c validator to find all the errors on a single page. Or I could just hit ctrl + shift + v and do the same thing in a single keystroke. That’s possible because I downloaded the Web Developer extension from the firefox site.

Here are some other cool features I could never easily do with Internet Explorer (in its current state) or without installing 5 different toolbars filled with features I’ll never use.

Switch user agents and pretend I’m Googlebot or Yahoo’s Slurp to detect cloaking. Easily read an rss feed. Pretend I’m a user in Argentina to see if Google serves up the Polar Bear Logo down there too. Disable the referer info when browsing. View all the http headers a server returned when I clicked on a link. View the source code for a site in a neatly formatted text editor that’s color coded. Show all the anchors in a page. Show all the heading tags in a page and in the order they’re rendered. Validate a page’s css. View a page’s style sheets. Disable cookies, java, images, etc… all with a single right click. Save specific sessions / visits on a web site. Delete my downloads after viewing them.The list goes on and on but here are a few key factors that may foreshadow the defeat of IE in the browser war.

Firefox has generated incredible brand loyalty by allowing average folks to contribute extensions to its evolution as a browser / internet application. By opening the hood and letting developers peek inside, they’re making Firefox better. Not only is this making Firefox the better browser but it’s also building the type of brand loyalty you can’t buy. This is something Microsoft may never been able to accomplish with its current business model (not they would want to anyway). Mozilla extended this grass roots approach about getting users involved down to the development of the Firefox Logo. Selecting the design team of SilverOrange to create the new logo, who then recruited John Hicks of Hicks Design, was a stroke of genius. Small companies run by individuals demonstrating the less fluff more stuff attitude and less is more approach to design / layout / media. This immediately seeded Firefox into the roots of bloggers across the web.Mozilla is making our lives easier by allowing us to use Firefox as much more than just a web browser. It’s a validator, backlink checker, web developer tool wizard and more. This saves me time and with the tight schedule I keep, that’s a huge advantage over IE. Extensions are easily downloadable and arranged in a way that makes them easy to find. Even better still is that I can see who contributed an extension, when and what other people’s rating of that extension is. Mozilla is giving credit to the little people that are making their product better and Microsoft doesn’t like to touch little people, they’re icky. Firefox is capitalizing on the API wave and user generated content (open source) wave hitting the internet today. Combine that with a strong product that will only get stronger and you have a solid case for the death of IE.With the creation of the SpreadFirefox website and the amount of community feedback they’re getting, the brand loyalty levels are insane.That being said, it’s also important to note that Firefox is a voluntary download. Meaning, I have to want it in order to get it on my machine. Internet Explorer ships out standard with the Windows operating system and that may very well be enough to foil the death of IE. However, good things have a way of coming to the forefront of society and my money’s on Firefox. I don’t believe Microsoft can mount a campaign strong enough to deny Firefox its place on our systems but I could be wrong. If you think about it though, that’s MSFT’s business model.

“Find the best and brightest and if you can’t buy or hire them then we build a better mousetrap and use our existing infrastructure to bombard the marketplace with it. Sure we’ll take a pr beating for it but that’s what we hired Scoble for.”

All kidding aside, its going to be an interesting 2005 on the Firefox vs. IE front. I’m not the only one talking about it either. Even BoingBoing is commenting on it. Here are some stats on the emergence of Firefox as the IE killer.

Jason Dowdell is a technology entrepreneur and operates the Marketing Shift blog.

News Tags: Development, Firefox, logo, Software, Internet, Code About the author:
Jason Dowdell is a technology entrepreneur and operates the Marketing Shift blog. Publish A Comment Your name: E-mail: The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. Homepage: Subject: Comment: * Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.Allowed HTML tags:

WebProNews is an iEntry Network ® publication - © 1998-2010 All Rights Reserved

Blogging has done a lot to extend the idea of mobile technology. The desire (and growing ability) for people to post from anywhere about anything has led to technologies that happily support the blogger addiction—for a small fee.

I predicted a few years ago that laptops would be sold in the future with cell-phone like data plans attached. After all, the gap between the phone and the computer is getting smaller and smaller as technology moves forward.

Wired has called it the next netbook trend. On the one hand, I think it’s cool that we’re seeing more modular connectivity, and it’s going to open a whole world for bloggers and small business people to be on the move while keeping track of their blog.

On the other hand, it’s a bad pricing model for the consumer.

View the original article here