Independent Digital

Google XML sitemaps

A sitemap is a file containing information about a web page. When a search engine crawls the website, it looks for a sitemap and if there is one, it reads it. The information in this sitemap makes it easier for the crawler and also lets it gather more accurate information about the website. Sitemaps supplement information that the crawler will get from the website but does not guarantee that web pages will be included in search engines.

The Google XML Sitemap plugin generates a XML-sitemap compliant sitemap of your wordPress blog in a format supported by Ask.com, Google, YAHOO and MSN Search.

Plugin features:

• Available for all WordPress versions since 1.5
• No PHP skills or file changes needed
• User interface to customize all parameters like priorities etc.
• Available in many languages
• Generates a sitemap automatically for all types of WordPress pages
• Calculates a priority for each post, based on the number of comments
• Notifies Ask.com, Google, MSN Live Search and YAHOO about changes via ping
• Includes a WordPress filter for other plugins which can add their pages to the sitemap
• Generates a static XML file as well as a zipped version
• ?and many more!

Plugin homepage http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/

All in One SEO Pack

The All in One SEO Pack optimises you WordPress blog for search engines.

Some of its features:

• Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
• Automatically generates META tags
• Avoids the typical duplicate content found on Wordpress blogs
• For Wordpress 2.3 and higher - just install, it works out-of-the-box.
• You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.
• You can fine-tune everything
• Backward-Compatibility with many other plugins, like Auto Meta, Ultimate Tag Warrior and others.
• Available in many languages

Plugin homepage http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/03/24/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Akismet anti-spam plugin

Approximately 91% of all comments are spam. Akismet strives to remove the hassle of comment and trackback spam and is free for personal use.

Plugin homepage http://akismet.com/

WordPress.com Stats

WordPress.com stats gives you just the stats you need as a blogger, clearly and concisely. It collects information about your pageviews, which posts and pages are the most popular, where your traffic is coming from, and what people click on when they leave. It’ll also add a link to your dashboard, which allows you to see all your stats on a single page. All the processing is done at WordPress.com so your host will love you for that. It?s also the fastest stats system around.

Plugin homepage http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Check out these useful posts on WordPress plugins you will find useful.

• WordPress Codex and Forum searcher plugin
• WordPress plugins you have to have

Need help with WordPress?

META ELEMENTS

Meta elements are HTML or XHTML elements used to provide structured information about a web page. These elements are placed as tags in the head section of an HTML or XHTML document. They are not directly visible to a user visiting the site. Meta elements can be used to specify page description, keywords and any other information not provided through the other head elements and attributes. An example of a keyword meta element can be seen below:

<meta
name="keywords"
content="wikipedia,encyclopedia">


The use of META ELEMENTS in Search Engine Optimization

Google, in an effort to prevent abuse and false rankings, does not use the HTML keyword or metatag elements for indexing.

Different methods are used to improve a website?s ranking with search engines. In the past, the right meta element usually led to a higher ranking with the search engines ? and thus, higher traffic to the web site. So-called consultants saw the significance of these meta elements and used a variety of techniques (legitimate and otherwise) to improve ranking for their clients.
Meta elements have less significance today as search engine robots have become more sophisticated. More significance is now placed on the volume of incoming links from related websites, quantity and quality of content, technical precision of source code, spelling, functional v. broken hyperlinks, volume and consistency of searches and/or viewer traffic, time within website, page views, revisits, click-throughs, technical user-features, uniqueness, redundancy, relevance, advertising revenue yield, freshness, geography, language and other intrinsic characteristics.

The KEYWORDS attribute

In the mid 1990?s, the keyword element was the most commonly used meta element but by the end of the 90?s, search engine providers realized that information stored in meta elements was often unreliable and misleading. Search engines began dropping support for metadata provided by the meta element in early 2000. Today there is no agreement as to whether or not the keywords attribute has any affect on ranking.

The DESCRIPTION attribute

The description attribute provides a concise explanation of a wepage?s content and is supported by most search engines. The description attribute gives a more meaningful description of the webpage?s listing and is often displayed on search engine results pages. It is recommend that the description contain less than 200 characters of text.

The ROBOTS attribute

Use the robots attribute to control whether or not search engine spiders are allowed to index a page and whether or not they should follow the links from a page. The noindex value prevents a page from being indexed, and nofollow prevents links from being crawled. There are also other values, which dictate how the robot should handle the page. Meta tags are not the best option to prevent search engines from indexing the content of your website. Try using the Robots.txt file , it?s more reliable and efficient.

• NOINDEX tag - tells a search engine not to index a specific page.
• NOFOLLOW tag - tells a search engine not to follow the links on a specific page.
• NOARCHIVE tag - tells a search engine not to store a cached copy of your page.
• NOSNIPPET tag - tells Google not to show a snippet (description) under your search engine listing, it will also not show a cached link in the search results

Additional attibutes for search engines

NOODP

Search engines sometimes use the title and abstract of the Open Directory Project (ODP) listing of a web site for the title and/or description in the search engine results pages. The “NOODP” value for the “robots” element of the meta tags tell the search engine not to use this abstract. The syntax is the same for all search engines that support the tag.

NOYDIR

Yahoo! also uses content from their own Yahoo! directory next to the ODP listing. The NOYDIR meta tag allows webmasters the opportunity not to have this listing displayed.

Robots-nocontent

Yahoo introduced the attribute value: class=”robots-nocontent” which is not a meta tag, but an attribute and value, which can be used throughout web page tags where needed. This attribute tells the Yahoo crawler to ignore the content within the nocontent class.

Redirects

Meta refresh elements instruct a web browser to automatically refresh a web page after a given time interval. One can also specify an alternative URL in order to redirect the user to a different web page. The problem with using meta refresh is that it can be turned off by the user via their browser settings.

OTHER TYPES OF SPAMDEXING

Mirror websites

Mirror websites are websites with similar content but using different URL’s. Some search engines give a higher rank to results where the keyword searched for appears in the URL. So the more URL?s containing the keyword, the greater the chances of getting ?hits?.

URL redirection

Taking the user to another page without his or her intervention, e.g. Using META refresh tags, Java, Javascript or server side redirects.

Cloaking

Cloaking refers to any means used to serve up a different page to the search-engine spider than will be seen by human users. When a user is identified as a search engine spider, a server-side script delivers a different version of the web page, one that contains content not present on the visible page. Cloaking is an attempt to mislead search engines regarding the content on a particular web site. It can also be used to trick search engine users into visiting a site based on the search engine description which turns out to have substantially different, or even pornographic content. However, cloaking can also be used to ethically increase accessibility of a site to users with disabilities, or to provide human users with content that search engines aren’t able to process or parse. It is also used to deliver content based on a user’s location; Google itself uses IP delivery, a form of cloaking, to deliver results.
gs and guest books where automatic programs can add spamming links to user edited pages.

• see part 1 for general SEO terminolgy
• see part 2 for Spamdexing: Content Spam
• see part 3 for Spamdexing: Link Spam
• see Part 4 for Spamdexing: World-Writable Pages
• see part 5 for Spamdexing: other types

USING WORLD-WRITABLE PAGES

Some spammers use sites such as Wikis and blogs that can be edited by users, to post links, etc in the comments.

• Spam in blogs

Any site that accepts visitor comments is a target. Spammers place keywords in the hyperlinked text of the inbound link. Guest books, forums and blogs are particularly vulnerable and are often victims of drive by spamming where automated software creates nonsense posts with unwanted and irrelevant links.

• Comment spam

Comment spam is a form of link spam and occurs in web pages that allow user editing such as in Wikis, blogs and guest books where automatic programs can add spamming links to user edited pages.

• Wiki spam

Spammers edit the Wiki pages and add their spam links which are usually unrelated to the Wiki content. Wikipedia has implemented a nofollow value for the ‘rel’ HTML attribute. Links with this attribute are ignored by the Google’s PageRank algorithm. Hopefully this will discourage this type of spam.

• Referrer log spamming

Some websites have a referrer log, which shows which pages link to that site. Robots are then used to access many sites repeatedly with a message or specific address given as the referrer. That message or internet address then appears in the referrer log. Since some search engines base the importance of sites by the number of different sites linking to them, referrer-log spamming may be used to increase the search engine rankings of the spammer’s sites, by getting the referrer logs of many sites to link to them.

• see part 1 for general SEO terminolgy
• see part 2 for Spamdexing: Content Spam
• see part 3 for Spamdexing: Link Spam
• see Part 4 for Spamdexing: World-Writable Pages
• see part 5 for Spamdexing: other types

LINK SPAM

Link spamming is having links purely to boost the websites page ranking. This is because of the search engines link based ranking algorithms such as Google’s PageRank algorithm which gives a higher ranking to a website with more other highly ranked websites linking to it.

Link spamming includes:

• Link farms

Involves creating tightly-knit communities of pages referencing each other, also known humorously as mutual admiration societies

• Hidden links

Putting links where visitors will not see them in order to increase link popularity. Highlighted link text can help rank a webpage higher for matching that phrase.

• Sybil attack

A spammer may create multiple web sites at different domain names that all link to each other, such as fake blogs known as spam blogs.

• Spam blogs

Also known as splogs, a spam blog, is complete fake blog created exclusively with the intent of spamming. They are similar in nature to link farms.

• Page hijacking

This is achieved by creating a rogue copy of a popular website which shows contents similar to the original to a web crawler, but redirects web surfers to unrelated or malicious websites.

• Buying expired domains

Some link spammers monitor DNS records for domains that will expire soon, then buy them when they expire and replace the pages with links to their pages.

• see part 1 for general SEO terminolgy
• see part 2 for Spamdexing: Content Spam
• see part 3 for Spamdexing: Link Spam
• see Part 4 for Spamdexing: World-Writable Pages
• see part 5 for Spamdexing: other types

SPAMDEXING

There are 3 forms of spamdexing.

In this article, I will cover CONTENT SPAM

Content spam includes the following:

Keyword stuffing

Keywords are repeated within the page so as to raise the keyword count, variety and density of the page. It increases the likelihood of the page being found by a web crawler. However, most modern search engines are able to recognise stuffing. Also, large webpages are truncated, so that massive dictionary lists cannot be indexed on a single webpage.

Hidden or invisible unrelated text

Keywords and phrases not related to the page are disguised by making them the same colour as the background, using a tiny font, or hiding them within the HTML code. However, hidden text is not necessary spamdexing as it is also used to enhance accessibility. Search engines can ban website for having hidden text on some webpages.

Meta tag stuffing

This practice involves repeating keywords in the META tags and using meta keywords that are unrelated to the site’s content.

Gateway or doorway pages

These pages are stuffed with keywords and phrases and contain very little real content. These pages serve no purpose other than to rank highly in the search engine results. A doorway page will generally have “click here to enter” on the page.

Scraper sites

These sites are also known as Made for AdSense sites and are created by ?scraping? search-engine results pages to create ‘content’ for a website. The content on these sites is unique and is merely an amalgamation of content taken from other sources, often without permission. These websites are generally full of advertising or redirect the user to other sites.

• see part 1 for general SEO terminolgy
• see part 2 for Spamdexing: Content Spam
• see part 3 for Spamdexing: Link Spam
• see Part 4 for Spamdexing: World-Writable Pages
• see part 5 for Spamdexing: other types

SEO

Search Engine Optimization are the steps taken to improve the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via the search results for targeted keywords. The higher the site appears on the results page, the more traffic that site is likely to get. Those trying to optimize a website need to consider how the search algorithms work as well as which keywords people use to do a search. Once this is known, they then need to design the site in such a way that the coding, presentation and structure all work towards optimizing the site for search engines. They will also make sure that the site contains unique content, that this content is easily indexed by the search engine robots and that the site is user friendly.

Other, less acceptable methods include Black hat optimization or spamdexing. These use techniques such as keyword stuffing and link farming. Black hat optimization may cause that the website is excluded from the search engines index. So beware.

Search Engine Optimizers are the people that do the optimization.

SEARCH ENGINES

Search engines are an information retrieval system which help find information stored on computers. Google is a well known search engine which searches for information on the World Wide Web. There are many more.

ALGORITHMS

Algorithms are a list of instructions for completing a task from its initial state to its end state. In terms of search engine algorithms, they process the search according to a definite set of instructions which make up the algorithm and terminate with the search result.

SPIDERING

A web crawler, also known as a web spider or web robot is a program which browses the World Wide Web. This process is called web crawling or spidering. During this process, a copy of all the visited pages is created and later indexed. It is the index that search engines consult when doing a search. Crawlers can also be used for automating maintenance tasks on a website, such as checking links or validating HTML code. They can also harvest email addresses which are then used for spam. So don’t have your email address anywhere on your website pages where the crawler can read it.

CONTENT

Web content includes the graphics, photos, video, animation, text and sound content that makes up the users experience when they visit a website.

BLACK HAT

A black hat is a person who compromises the security of a computer system without permission, typically with malicious intent. A black hat is also known as a cracker and generally tries to break into information systems.

WHITE HAT

A white hat is a person who is ethically opposed to the abuse of computer systems and is as skilled as a black hat. A white hat is also known as an ethical hacker. A white hat generally focuses on securing information systems.

NOFOLLOW

Nofollow is a non-standard HTML attribute value which instructs search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. Its aim is to reduce the effectiveness of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing.

SPAMDEXING

Spamdexing uses a number of methods to manipulate the likelihood of website content being indexed by search engines. Usually this takes the form of cramming keywords into the META keywords tag, or repeating keywords in the body of the page or even within the URL. Many search engines check for spamdexing and will remove transgressing pages from the index.

• see part 1 for general SEO terminolgy
• see part 2 for Spamdexing: Content Spam
• see part 3 for Spamdexing: Link Spam
• see Part 4 for Spamdexing: World-Writable Pages
• see part 5 for Spamdexing: other types

by Kevin Allman

The one thing that webmasters wish for is a steady flow of web traffic to their website.

My aim with this article is to give you a few ideas for bringing web traffic to your website. Once your web traffic is up and flowing, what you do with the web traffic is up to you. First and foremost, web traffic mainly comes from the following areas; in no particular order

1. Web Directories
2. Search Engines
3. Link ahoy!
4. Discussion Boards/Forums

We go into each of these in detail below.

II - Web directories

A web directory is not my favorite medium for building web traffic; but it can be useful to build PR which can help to achieve better rankings in the Google Search Engine. PR (range of 1-10) is one of the factors Google uses to rank its results when someone does a search. Basically, with a higher PR; it is believed that your listing should rank better than those with other PR. With a quick overview about PR; PR is determined by how many backlinks you have, and the quality of those backlinks. The more backlinks you have from quality websites you have, the higher PR you will generate; and as a result; better rankings.Thats the beauty about some web directories and link pages. According to how high the PR values are for the webpage where you want to place your link; your webpage PR value would increase. If you could manage to get many links on various PR6 websites for example; your PR value should increase and your rankings should get better and should drive more traffic.How to find web directories you ask? Its a simple task: All you need to do is to go to www.google.com and type in your keyword and the word directory For example, if the keyword was ‘Cat’, the search term would be ?Cat directory? are various Cat directories should come up.

III - Linkahoy!

Ebaumsworld is a very popular website for finding jokes. It currently enjoys over 750, 000 unique visitors a month. Yet, on typing ?jokes? and performing a search, ebaumsworld is not present in the top 100 results. How then can Ebaumsworld enjoy so much web traffic a month?

Ebaumsworld.com

bausmsworld mainly achieves this through backlinks. Interestingly enough, on doing a backlink count with Google, Ebaumsworld chalked up 9,550 in backlinks.

Now lets face reality:

Manually creating 9,550 backlinks by manually going to web pages and submitting your link is a very tiring task.

The only way to create so many genuine backlinks is by having GOOD CONTENT.

After studying major websites, I’ve found that they are two great ways of creating this:

1 Media/Downloads

2. Articles

With Ebaumworld.com, their key is loads of media, not necessarily article writing. Web surfers are attracted to downloads and media in general; It?s a much welcomed difference to all of the text found on web pages. Once you start to create a number of articles and media/downloads, you will find that persons start to visit your website more regularly to check for more media/downloads; Your web traffic will increase especially when the articles and downloads are really great ones.

The added advantage with articles as well, is that you can post them on other related websites. By doing this, you can create numerous backlinks by including your link at the end of your article.Search engines love Article content; but we?ll go more into Search Engines in the next section.

IV -Search Engines

Search engines are great for driving web traffic if you can get into about the top 30 results for popular search terms. With Google, rankings depend largely on backlinks and PR.In addition to these two variables; another variable is Onpage Optimization.

Onpage optimization is basically the editing of your HTML code so that its ideal for placement in search engine results.

This editing may including the editing of meta tags, descriptions, keywords and content realignment.

Quick tips for Onpage optimization for web traffic

1. Use H1 header tags Make sure that this tag contains your keyword.

An example for Cats would be
Cat land

2. Use H2 tags.Largely taken as a subheading, make sure this also contains your main keyword;

3. Evenly spread keywordsAlso, with regards to the content, try to make reference to your keyword regularly, but not too often. Try to mention it evenly throughout the document. This is where the article writing from the previous sections comes in handy. With your articles, make sure that There are numerous other Onpage Optimization tips I can give you, but I go into that more in the Optimization tips article HERE.

V - Discussion Boards/Forums

Discussion forums are a great way to get your message out and generate even more web traffic.To find these forums use your keyword and the word ‘forums’ with www.google.com For example, ?Cat forums?. Make sure that you keep a log of all of them. You?ll want to be making regular posts here.

On registering, try to include your URL and a brief description of your website in your signature. If you make regular posts on the forums, and change signatures every once in a while to reflect what?s going on at your website, you will have a steady stream of visitors. For example, an example signature could be ?Catland.com ? ?How to make cats happy? article just posted 12/34/04?.

On these boards, you will also realize that there are several recurring questions new persons ask. With reference to the Cats forums; there may be a question which you find reoccurs ‘How should I groom my Cat?’. If you can create an article to answer each of these questionsScience Articles, you can always post the link to your article everytime a newbie asks question. This will drive fresh users to your website and once your website has in great content; will ensure repeat user and more web traffic.

V1 - Conclusion

There are always new ways of finding means of developing web traffic. Offline promotion such as developing business cards can also help. You’ve only just begun your journey! The last thing I want to say is that fresh content ALWAYS brings return vistors; keep adding content; and your visitors will return time after time.

With that said I wish you all the best with your web traffic quest!- Kevin Allman
Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kevin Allman is a webmaster with over ten years Internet experience. He runs a Search Engine Optimizationwebsite at http://www.pzeta.org/seo_global/ which contains many articles on how to optimize your website.





by Jo Mark