The Use of Google Reader For SEO

One of the recent services launched by Google is the Google Reader, which is available at [reader.google.com]. The Google Reader will allow Internet users to search for relevant RSS feeds and manage them too. As a result, Internet users will be able to benefit from the updated information and current news articles or snippets on various topics of their choice.

In the recent past, we have noticed an increase in the popularity and use of blogs as well as RSS and this increase is going to be there in the near future. One of the primary reasons for the popularity of RSS feeds can be contributed to the availability of updated information in a systematized manner and accessible to almost anyone. For the average Internet user, the launch of the Google Reader is being seen as one giant step. It is a powerful tool that is easy to use.

Using the Google Reader
For first timers, using RSS or downloading and configuring the RSS reader can be quite a cumbersome process especially when you can visit your favorite web site and use their advanced search features to look for new articles or topic specific articles/news. There is another breed of people who would not even try the task of understanding how a new process like RSS feed will work as they have a pre-conceived notion that it might be complicated. This pre-conceived notion gets most of its strength due to the availability of other options.

The Google reader has been hence created to make the pre-conceived notions disappear and to make searching for the latest news on RSS simple and easy. To use the Google Reader, you need to follow 4 easy/baby steps:

1. Visit [reader.google.com] to open Google Reader
2. Type your topic of interest in the search box
3. You will get a list of results related to your topic of interest. Find the one you want.
4. Click "Subscribe"

Did you ever think it could have been so easy? Well! That's all you have to do to sign up for your favorite feed and the good part is that you can sign up for more than one topic/feed.

What you need to do is click to go back to the Google Reader homepage. On the homepage, you will find a list of feeds displayed on the left-hand side. This is the list that you have subscribed. If you choose any specific feed from the left hand side then you will see all the new posts added on to that particular feed on the right hand side. You do not even have to search for new or updated feeds!

Hailed as one of the best products from Google, the Google Reader has a high usability and hence will make your life a little more comfortable in a world where knowledge rules supreme; where knowledge is the difference between success and failure.

Is the Google Reader for you?

Since the Google Reader is easy to use and is considered a powerful tool; it will be helpful for anyone and everyone who wants to keep themselves updated on any kind of news from forest fires in the tropical rain forest to Premier league soccer scores. Although the service is meant for every one but the people who will really benefit from it will be the researchers, business professionals, reporters, consultants, analysts etc.

The Features
The Google Reader comes with some value added advanced features, which include:

G Mail This: Through this, you will be able to advertise your website or services to others on G mail. All you need is a G mail account.
Blog This: This feature will be helpful for those who already have an account on blogger. If you click on "Blog This" then it will open your blog account and you can insert the link on your blog as a reference.

It is impact on SEO
The Google Reader will ensure that RSS and blogs become an integral component of any Internet Marketing strategy. Since the reader is being targeted at getting more users hence the feeds will soon become more SEO friendly and keyword/key phrase driven.

Standing in the present, it seems that the Google Reader is all set to take on the future!

Author: Moe Tamani

Role of W3 Compliance In Search Engine Optimization

There are many people who are unaware of W3C compliance and many who do not know what kind of role the W3C compliance plays in SEO. First you need to understand what W3C compliance really is. W3C stands for the World Wide Web Consortium and this body or association has been providing the guidelines for website structure since 1994.

The guidelines or rules have been created according to the best practices and there are certain reasons why you or your website designer should comply with the W3C guidelines. All the reasons are not SEO driven and some of the non-SEO reasons include:

1. W3C Compliance will ensure that your website is accessible to the disabled.
2. W3C Compliance will also ensure that your website can be accessed through different devices like cellular phones and PDAs and also from different browsers like Mozilla Firefox.
3. W3C Compliance will ensure that in spite of the different functionalities and requirements of different technologies and browsers, your website will be accessible and function in across different mediums in a similar way.

Now that you know the non-SEO reasons for ensuring full W3C compliance, you will probably ask: what has this got to do with SEO?

According to a statement made by Frederick Townes from W3Edge web design, if you use the standards and incorporate the best practices then you are ensuring that your website will be designed in such a way that it is easier for search engines to interpret it. At the same time, the search engines will be able to skew the content-to-code ratio in the right direction and force the information on each of the web pages to be accessible.

Basically, he means that if you remove excess code from your web pages then the keyword driven content will get a higher priority. The second most important thing is that following the W3C compliance will ensure that your web site can be easily spidered.

How to add W3C Compliance to your website.

Actually it is easier said than done. If you do not have a website then you can have it designed based on the W3C compliance from scratch and your website designer needs to know how he/she can do it. If you have a website, which is not W3C compliant then you have only one option:
You need to hire a web/graphic designer who is familiar with the W3C standards and has the capability to redo your site based on the standards.

Either ways, you will benefit if your website is W3C compliant.

Let us look at a worse case scenario where you will have to do the website all by yourself. There are quite a few good resources that you can take advantage of. One of the best is the FireFox Web Developer extension. You need to first install the FireFox browser and then install the Web Developer extension.

One of the major aspects of this tool is that it provides a one-click check for W3C compliance and it will provide you with a list of the different types of errors, their cause and the solution and everything will be according to the W3C standard. The Web Developer extension can test CSS, HTML, and XHTML, compliance.

Some of the other good resources that you can check include:
1. Holy CSS ZeldMan
2. A List Apart
3. CSS Zen Garden.

How to start
Once you have downloaded the Firefox browser and installed the Web Developer extension, you will need to bookmark your resources. Once this is taken care of, you will have to test your website and at the same time check that your site meets all the W3C standards.

You should first start with the CSS validation. CSS validation is an easy process and can be done quickly as compared to most of the other code files. Once you are done with CSS, move on to HTML or XHTML validation. This will take at least a few hours and even more. The bigger your website is, the more time it will take.

After the validation of CSS and HTML, you will have to comply with Accessibility standards. In this process, you will be cleaning a chunk of your existing code and moving some of the code to CSS.

What is the need?
By now you are probably wondering why you need to do all this. The only reason is that once you complete all the validations, you will have a fully compliant website. Although the W3C compliance is not the only factor that drives SEO but if your website maintains the standard then you will definitely have the edge in the rat race.

Author: Moe Tamani

SEO Is Key To Success On The Internet

Running an Internet marketing campaign will be unsuccessful unless you take into account the importance of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. If you ignore or skimp on this part of the equation, you will surely fail at promoting your website, product or service. While the acronym SEO is bandied about with abandon by gurus and would-be gurus, most Internet marketers have little idea what it means or where to start to get their site in shape to be in the top 10 of search engine results pages. Even those with some knowledge are always learning, expanding and evolving with the ever-changing algorithms and strategies that will produce targeted traffic on a consistent basis.

Advertising has been an integral part of business for a long time. Advertising to reach new clientele is a time-honored tradition that has been universally accepted to promote products and services. The difference between a geographically located store and a virtual store is extreme. While you can hang a sign in your physical store, there is a totally different method to attract visitors to your virtual outlet. If you are lucky enough to already have a customer base, you need only add your website URL to your business card and inform your clients. If you are new to the Internet and are trying to carve out a niche online, search engine advertising and knowing the ins and outs of SEO will make or break you.

There are a number of free and low cost advertising methods available on the web with varying degrees of success, but if you want a lot of traffic on a continuous basis, you'll need to really learn and understand the search engine advertising methodology.

While Google isn't the only search engine out there, it is the best known and it uses a variety of complex algorithms to arrive at which websites should be listed in the top 10 on relevant keywords or search terms. When you type in the search term "red nail polish cheap", for example, a certain website will be listed as #1 on Google. People will usually click on the first search term they see and as a result if you can attain that position versus position 4,234,030, you will get significantly more visitors looking for red nail polish. How you accomplish this feat falls under the purview of SEO. If you can understand this example, it will be immediately clear just how important it is to optimize your website.

With the "Why Optimize" clarified, lets talk about how you accomplish it. Most larger business go out and hire an SEO specialist who has their ear to the Internet ground with their thumb on the pulse of search engine algorithms. The world of SEO is complex and their are people who do nothing but navigate the industry for you. Their services do not come cheap; however, the results can be amazing and your company can benefit exponentially. Business owners who utilize SEO specialists versus the do-it-yourself method will have a distinct edge when it comes to ranking and position.

Some of the basics to familiarize yourself with include keyword density, META tags, titles, backlinks, unique content and the like.

Keyword density is measured by the number of words on a page divided by the number of times a particular keyword or keyword phrase appears on that same page. The concept behind keyword density rests in the fact that if a particular word or phrase appears a certain amount of times, when a visitor searches on that word, your webpage will appear nearer the top because it is more relevant to the searcher's interest. For instance, web pages on dog toys will never appear in a search result about nail polish. While this is fairly straightforward, it is more complex than that. If you put the word "nail polish" on a page too many times, you will incur penalties because it will be deemed inappropriate. Search engines will think you are trying to cheat the system and your page will wind up 4,000 pages down in the results.

META tags are part of the HTML code where you tell visiting search engines (called spiders) what your web page is all about. In conjunction with the META description, the search engine will put you in certain relevant search results and use the META description as the description in the listing. Again, you will want to avoid putting irrelavent keywords and idiotic descriptions in these areas because you will be penalized and your page dropped into obscurity.

Inbound links, also called backlinks are also taken into account when spiders visit your site. The more backlinks, the more popular your site. A backlink or inbound link is where somebody quotes you on their website and lists your site in the quotation or write up. As a result, the more backlinks you receive, the more search engines think you have some good, useful information to share. Otherwise, why would somebody else list you on their site if all you had on your site was junk. Logical, eh? Different search engines take backlink relevancy more or less into account.

Unique content or low duplicate content is another important factor for search engines. They will compare the content on your site to the content on every other indexed (listed) site in their database. If they find a ton of other websites with the exact same content, you will be penalized for duplicate content. Their thinking is that you are simply taking content from other places and placing it on your site. It is just junk to fill up the site. So, keep it to a minimum and use as much original content as possible. If you do cite or use content from another website, give them the love through using only a portion and giving them a link back to their total article. In your write up, give them credit, and write up your thoughts and feelings on what you've read. In that way, you will be creating original content and not snatching others hard work. It will be viewed as unique content.

If you can't string three words together, there are professional freelances on the Internet who are willing and capable for a fee to provide you with as much unique content as you need on any subject you desire. This extra step and small investment will insure that your website is valuable to your visitors and a site that the search engines adore. It will all convert into more sales for your business in the end.

Author: Kevin Sinclair