Make Your Website Rank Higher In Major Search Engine!

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language that permits web designers to attach style like spacing, color, font, etc. to HTML documents. Cascading style sheets work similarly to a template; permitting web developers to label style for an HTML element and after that apply it to the number of web pages required. Thus, cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are collections of formatting rules, which control the appearance of content in a web page. With CSS styles you have great flexibility and control of the exact page appearance; from precise positioning of layout to specific fonts and styles.

There are many benefits of using CSS. One of the major benefits of using CSS is the easy maintenance of the website. Maintenance of a website made with CSS is much easier compared to the ones which are table based. CSS splits the presentation style of documents from the content of documents and makes the maintenance of the site easier. Aside from being able to make site extensive changes with no trouble through one CSS file, the clean code it generates makes it easier to update. Webmasters can characterize the appearance of a site in one place, and change the whole site by changing just one file. With CSS, when you decide to craft a change, you simply alter the style, and that element is updated automatically anywhere it appears in the site. So, if you have to alter the color of all pages in your site, you only have to edit one style sheet. This saves you enormous amount of time, particularly if you have to edit each page independently. CSS generally requires less code compared to table based. This makes your code lighter and cleaner. Clean code makes a huge difference in maintaining your site.

Cascading Style Sheets Benefits and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Another major benefit of CSS is that it makes your website SEO friendly. The reason behind this is simple. The search engines spiders are actually very lethargic. They do not go through the bundles of HTML codes to get to the indexed codes. Font tags and tables make the HTML code very cumbersome; thus, reduce the accuracy of the results. If you use external CSS files to design and determine the design attributes; the HTML code will be clean and it will result to better search engine rankings. With some knowledge of CSS you will be able to change the code layout without destroying the actual visual layout. For instance, you could easily make the main content of your site to show up above the header or navigation menu in the code of your website; thus will help to show search engine crawlers the importance of your content. I personally saw a huge boost in rankings in fully CSS web sites. When I look at someone's website that was built using old school HTML code with tags such as: TABLES, TD, TR, FONT and so on, I feel awkward and immediately convert that site to a fully table-less CSS layout. There are many tools on the Internet that shows the actual code over text ratio weight of your site. Do you know why? Because modern search engines such as: Google, Yahoo and MSN love light-weighted websites. They want to see your content; the text, not the code. With CSS everything is possible. You practically externalize excessive code into external file, thus leaving the actual page clean and simple.

Website Accessibility

CSS makes your website more accessible. The number of users browsing the web through hand held devices are continuously growing tremendously. It is estimated that by 2008, one third of the world’s population will be using hand held devices for accessing Internet. It is always important that your site is accessible to them also. You can make an additional CSS document particularly for handheld devices like cell phones, which will be called up in place of the regular CSS document; which is not achievable with a tabular layout. CSS benefits accessibility chiefly by separating document structure from presentation. By separating style from markup, webmasters can simplify and clean up the HTML in their documents, making the documents more accessible.

Increases Download Speed of Your Website

CSS code downloads faster than tables. Browsers read through tables twice previous to exhibiting their contents; first to work out their structure and then to determine their content. Moreover, tables are shown on the screen as a whole, no part of the table will be displayed until the entire table is downloaded and rendered. Tables support the use of spaced images to assist with positioning. CSS generally requires less code than cumbersome tables. All code to do with the layout can be placed in an external CSS document, which will be called up just once and then stored on the user's computer; while the table layout stored in each HTML document, must be loaded up each time a new page downloads. Also with CSS, you can manage the order of the items downloaded into the screen. You have the control to make the content appear previous to the slow loading images, which is liked by most of the web users.

Cross Browser Compatibility

For all webmasters out there! CSS makes your website more professional. Taking the benefits of CSS like making your websites load faster and easy to maintain, you save a lot of time and labor. This in turn makes you lots of money. CSS makes links of the website look more attractive and dynamic. Using CSS, you can slot in rollovers easily and effectively, without having to use a single character of JavaScript. Thus, CSS gives your websites a professional look. It is wise to use CSS to jive with the current trends of the industry. All major browsers like Firefox, Explorer, and Netscape presently recognize CSS and it is definitely safe for web designers to use CSS now.

About The Author: Mikhail Tuknov, search engine optimization specialist and a founder of Infatex.com, http://www.infatex.com. Mikhail offers web site promotion services: SEO, Link Popularity, PPC.

SEO - Insider Tips To Creating SEO Keywords And Phrases

If you have been practicing search engine optimization you probably already know that it is a good idea to include quotes in your keywords and keywords phrases to make your web copy more attractive to the search engines. You probably also know that is a good idea to put things that your site specifically sells in quotes so that the search engine spiders see you as having exclusive or specialized content or information. However there are a few more tips that come along with creating SEO keywords and phrases that are less well known.

Many SEO experts advise practicing word stemming. This means that when you do find a keyword that works that you should not hesitate to use it in the words different forms. For example take the phrase “SEO optimization”. You might also want to use phrases such as SEO optimizing, SEO optimized and SEO optimizers which branch out linguistically from your original keyword.

Another big tip is to avoid using what are called kill terms. This is just a phrase for conjunctions and prepositions that are largely ignored by the search engines. Common kill terms include a, an and, at, by, for, in, it, of, the too, to, web and with.

Yet another tip is to be aware of case sensitive keywords. When in doubt you should always submit them in lower case. However when it comes to names and places you might also want to put things in their proper cases. For instance if you are searching for Frank Kern you will want to put in Frank Kern as well as frank kern. Some experts even advise putting in a keyword all in caps as in FRANK KERN as many individuals have stuck capital key caps when they search. The search engine that is thought to be most sensitive to case is Alta Vista.

About The Author: Chris Angus is a SEO and website promoter, he can be contacted at sale(at)brilliantseo.com
http://www.illustratemyname.com
http://www.mobility-direct.co.uk
http://www.everest-oxfordshire.co.uk

How To Increase Targeted Online Traffic To Your Web Site Leveraging Free Internet Video Streaming Services

One of the most significant milestones on the web this year has been the popularity of the use of videos on the Internet. There are a number of free services that enable Internet users to easily upload and store videos on the Internet for free. These videos can then be broadcast (streamed) free over the Internet, to be viewed and shared by other users.

We will look at a simple but often overlooked way to help you get potentially loads of traffic to your web site using Internet videos.

But first let’s establish the background to the phenomenon and why it is important for you.

The popularity of Internet videos have really sky rocketed in the recent few months.

Consider these figures. In 2005, there were very few free video hosting web sites. Yet, in the month of August 2006 alone, according to a comScore Media Metrix report, there were approximately 6.98 Billion online videos that were streamed by Internet users in the United States alone.

More interestingly, the average US Internet video user consumed 63.3 streams during August 2006 or approximately 2 streams every day.

For marketers, businesses or even the Government or non-profit organizations, this opens up whole new possibility of getting in touch with their desired audience, in a content rich, interactive way that has never been possible before.

The huge number of online videos streamed every month should not come as a surprise, given the popularity of Google, MSN, Yahoo, You Tube and My Space web sites. These are some of the most popular sites in the world and each of them have incorporated a video service in their offerings in the recent months.

Traffic or Internet users are the fuel that helps generate revenue for most of these businesses. The revenue is earned by monetizing the traffic with targeted advertising.

You Tube the video hosting service was founded in February 2005, but famously bought by Google for $1.65 Billion dollars in October 2006. Although it seems like a large amount to pay, it was in fact a very strategic move by Google.

Based on the comScore report, for the month of August 2006, Fox Interactive (owned by News Corporation, which bought My Space) had 20.1% share of the total US video streams, followed by Yahoo with 11.8% share and then You Tube with 9.9% share of the streams. Google video was in fact in a distant 7th position with only 1.5% share.

Purchasing You Tube has enabled them to be a real challenger to Yahoo & Fox Interactive in the US market for Internet Video.

If we look at the numbers beyond the US, that is on a global basis, over 100 million videos were streamed on a daily basis by You Tube. This is a mind boggling number.

We are going to see more innovations in this area in the very near future from all the major players. All indications are that the popularity of Internet videos are likely to rise further.

So what might this mean for you, if you are a business, person or organization that would like to tap into and take advantage of this huge trend? Because this is so new, not many large corporations have figured out how to take advantage of the medium.

Most of the free video hosting and streaming services require you to register online and open an account (for free). You can then upload your video to the web site. You will be asked to provide a name for the video and then key words that describe the video. This is so that the videos can be categorized and also found by other users (your target audience). If you have your own web site, make sure this is mentioned in the video.

You can upload the video to a number of different free services. Why would you do this? To reach the widest possible audience for your marketing message, of course.

An interesting outcome of this is that in some cases this may drive huge amounts of traffic to your web. This is because, if your video becomes popular and there are other sites linking to it or it is being virally forwarded by the users, the search engines begin to take notice of your web site.

A case study in which a top 10 position in the search engines was achieved in under 24 hours using Internet videos to boost rankings is provided in a video at trafficgeysermethod.com. There is also a service here that takes one through the process of creating Internet videos, even if all you have is audio. You can create a simple slide show with a voice-over to create very effective, compelling videos.

If you wish to create full motion Internet videos, the process can quite straight forward and inexpensive.

Remember that the Internet videos do not need to be flashy, nor long or elaborate. The objective is to keep them clear, simple and easy to understand. Communication of the features and benefits that your product or service provides, differentiation or how it is different from other products or services that your competitors provide is important.

Finally, remember to include the unique value proposition that you have for your customers (ie. The reasons why your prospects should buy from you, rather than anyone else).

If you already have a digital video camera then you can start creating your video straight away. Your video camera will need some kind of direct connection to your computer. This can be by connecting either to the USB or FireWire ports. Some of the new Video Camera have the ability to record on a DVD straight away. In this case you can simply copy the contents of your DVD to your computer.

If you have an analog video camera, you can still create the required digital videos by using a converter.

Once you have video in digital form in your computer, simply log in to the account of the free video streaming service and upload your video. Ideally you can get wider distribution by uploading them to a number of different services in relevant category.

However uploading each video one by one to each service can be quite time consuming. The service trafficgeysermethod.com mentioned earlier in the article can help you with this, with a single upload and multiple distributions. Your video is now ready for viewing and sharing. Sit back and enjoy the traffic.

About The Author: James Coe is an Internet entrepreneur that runs a number of sites. He uses a number of ways to increase targeted web site traffic including the traffic geyser method http://www.trafficgeysermethod.com

Choosing An SEO Expert? The IR Litmus Test, Part I

The online marketing industry is full of purported SEO experts that know very little about how search engines work or the document indexing process. What I have come to find is that these 'experts' are always just regurgitating catch phrases and tactics that they have overheard in blogs and forums.

This class of search engine optimizers developed their tactics and portfolios during SEO's infancy. Low competition, low saturation, and with relatively under-developed search engines. Remember when all it took to get a client to the top of the search engines was to edit the Meta tags?

Not that current tactics are all that more complex. Title tags, focused content, keyword placement, RSS feeds, link exchanges, and blogs are all in the current expert's repertoire. Not exactly brain surgery.

This haphazard success is soon going to evaporate though, as competition increases, more companies continue to migrate online, and the search engines refine their indexing and relevancy algorithms.

So, why are many SEO experts not as qualified as they purport to be?

The answer lies in the skill sets of the individuals who are becoming search engine optimizers. Up until now, the bulk of the search engine optimization profession recruited from the ranks of HTML developers. It actually makes complete sense if we look at the minimum skills necessary to optimize a website, and the state of the HTML development industry during the rise of the SEO industry.

HTML developers were the ideal candidates to quickly move into the profession because they already possessed the minimal skills necessary to go behind the website and edit the HTML. I think we can safely assume that to perform the current SEO, the expert needs to have a decent knowledge of web development. Although learning a markup language such as HTML is not that difficult, it would be a significant roadblock to any newcomer who wanted to enter the field. The common lay person, or nuclear physicist for that matter, would be forced to first learn remedial coding skills.

Additionally, when the internet bubble burst (along with the web developers high paying salaries) no other group was better positioned to identify the new lucrative opportunities that SEO offered. A huge population of domestic developers found themselves out of work and being undercut by cheap overseas labor. Its not surprising that they were able to segue their current knowledge into offering higher-value services that would position clients more effectively to their consumers.

The problem is that 95% of these experts have no real idea how the search engines index web pages, or determine relevancy. They are simply recycling the formulas of previous SEO success, and following the latest trial and error trends that someone in the chatroom 'swears by'. Continually implementing and testing, without any underlying comprehension of the science they are up against. Its like someone without a bio-related degree trying to recreate evolutionary studies after reading a paper on Darwinism. Its absurd. They are completely flying blind.

A true SEO expert understands the fundamentals of information retrieval.

This includes document indexing, linguistics, and a strong knowledge of linear algebra, including stochastic matrices, vector space theory, latent semantic analysis, and singular value decomposition. This is the key knowledge that is necessary to understand how the search engines view your client's website, how that information will be received, and what needs to be done to increase their ranking.

Unfortunately, this knowledge, which does take a considerable amount of mathematical expertise, is well beyond the scope of your average HTML web developer. It has become difficult to not only find enterprise-level experts, but differentiate them from the rest of the masses.

So how are professional service firms expected to identify which SEO experts they hire are truly professionals?

In my next segment, I will continue my discussion on the survival of the SEO expert, in correlation to information retrieval. I will also introduce you to the IR Litmus Test, which are techniques that a firm can utilize to accurately qualify SEO experts, and differentiate amateurs from enterprise-level professionals.

If you would like to join the discussion for this topic, please post a comment at http://www.ProfessionalServiceMarketing.com

Grant

About The Author: Grant L. Aldrich is an editor for the
http://www.ProfessionalServiceMarketing.com blog. Grant has 6 years of internet marketing experience with professional firms. He is Director of Client Services at http://www.leadtank.com

SEO - How To Get A Top Ranking In Google

It’s a dream come true for a webmasters site to appear at the top of Google’s search results, especially if the website is actually selling a product or service. In a competitive industry this would mean that the orders would start rolling in with such a force that the business would grow incredibly quickly. Is it all just a dream? NO!

I’ve done it for hundreds of businesses and you can do it for yourself too.

The first and foremost task when trying to get your site to the top of Google is to start link building, not just any old link building but having your keywords included in your “anchor”. Anchor links are when the links are actually clickable, if for example you were selling green buttons the link would not be a www link. It would actually say “green buttons”.

The next step is choosing the correct keyword phrases for your site. Now most people want to be on the first page of Google for a one word phrase like “Buttons”. However, if you only sold buttons made of silver, it would be bringing you the wrong type of customer. It would be best to choose keyword phrases like “Silver Buttons” or “Buttons made of Silver”. This would bring you the right type of customer and it your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts would show results a lot quicker.

Integrate the keyword phrases throughout your site with your best ones on your homepage. Without the keywords on your site, your site will not perform at all.

The next step is to actually go out and get some back links to your site, be smart about whom you get links from, as websites that are relevant to your industry will have far more weight when it comes to giving you good results. Getting a few powerful links with a page rank of 6 or 7 will give you almost immediate results and I have personally seen websites make it onto the first page within a couple of days.

About The Author: Chris Angus is a freelance writer and journalist. He is available for hire and website promotion. http://www.mobility-direct.co.uk, http://www.mdhsasbestosconsultants.com, http://www.everest-oxfordshire.co.uk

Search Engine Optimisation - The Top Ten Ranking Guide

Search engine optimisation is all about achieving a top ten ranking on the major search engines. This is a fiercely-contended task and to stand a chance of succeeding you need an internet marketing agency or SEO Consultants that can implement an online marketing strategy that will deliver not only traffic, but targeted traffic to get the results you require.

In highly-competitive industries such as recruitment, travel and insurance etc, you would not succeed without a comprehensive search engine marketing strategy.

Using only proven, ethical methods, an SEO consultant will bring targeted traffic to your web site and generate leads or sales for your business and with over 75% of the internet's searches coming from Google, Yahoo and MSN, your business cannot afford to miss out on the vast numbers of potential customers looking for your product or service.

One of the key elements for a rock solid internet marketing plan is good quality content focused on your business and it's industry. Literally the more quality and unique content there is on your site, the better off your site will be, in terms of rankings.

Another major factor for your marketing plan is the coding and search engine optimisation of your site. Whether you have an html, dynamic or a flash-based website, there are important steps that your SEO consultants should take to ensure your site is search engine ready.

Flash web design may look good but are notoriously poor for top ten search engine rankings, thankfully there are steps you can take to still get your site listed and ranked on the major search engines. The same applies to dynamic web sites that are written in programming languages such as PHP, ASP and .NET.

Once your site is search engine optimised, your internet marketing strategy will start to work and you can start to work on one of the other more important factors that search engines look for, which is the trust factor of your site. This can be achieved by partnering with other web sites that are regarded as trusted and have a good rank on the search engines already.

After performing all of these steps, your internet marketing agency or SEO consultants will have your site well under way to achieving a top ten search engine ranking.

Copyright Utopia Solutions

About The Author: Lee Smith is a London SEO consultant that writes articles for many agencys and has a passion for search engine optimisation and Internet marketing. View more articles at: http://www.utopiawebdesign.co.uk/articles

The Truth on Search Engine Rank and How to Achieve It

Today starting up a website in order to put up for sale your products or services over the Internet is a smart business move. Not only will you be able to reach out to several more potential buyers than if you maintained a physical store or even tried to sell through direct mail or catalogs. On the other hand, setting up a website is just the beginning. You also have to find some way to get people to visit your site in order to view what you have to offer. The key to ensure that your website gets lots of traffic is to have a high search engine rank.

Once your website has a good search engine rank, it will show within the first few pages of results returned by Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista as well as others. This would in turn make a considerable difference in the number of visitors that go to your website. Simply think about the way you carry out your own searches. When you type a term into Google, you probably click most of the links on the first page of results, and a few on the second page. Ever wondered if you reach as far as page seven or page ten? It’s not likely. This is the reason why a good search engine rank is important to the success of your business.

One must note that websites that have a high search engine rank have a couple of characteristics in common. Firstly, they feature pages and pages of relevant content. For example, if you’re selling accounting services, you ought to have a lot of articles about accounting, taxes, and bookkeeping. When you do this, your website will obviously contain many keywords that people searching for accounting services would enter into Google, Yahoo, etc. Thus the more keywords you have, the better your search engine rank. The number of links is yet another feature of successful websites that they have to and from other sites. Now when other websites link to yours and when you link to others, it makes your website appear more important, relevant, and legitimate. This leads to a higher search engine rank.

I’m sure at this point; you might be thinking to yourself that only incredible marketers are able to attain a high search engine rank for their websites. Well that's not entirely true. While a good search engine rank is so critical to web-based businesses in recent times, there are lots of companies that focus in getting you the best placement possible. They not only offer you with original, targeted content for your site, but also give you tips on how to market your site effectively and submit your URL to Google, Yahoo, MSN, as well as other engines for consideration. If they simply do their job the right way, you'll have a prime search engine rank within a couple of few months.

The significance of a high search engine rank shouldn't be taken too lightly. Just before you begin to sell on the Internet, you should consider hiring professionals to assist you quickly achieve good placement for your website. The major difference between appearing on the first page or the tenth could literally amount to tens of thousands of dollars, so no matter what, do everything you have to in order to get a high search engine rank as soon as possible.

About The Author: Nick P. Bentley provides readers with up-to-date commentaries, articles, and reviews for http://www.marketingmagazineguide.com, http://www.all-business-guide.com as well as other related information.