Error messages have numerous causes, such as misspellings, outdated links or internal server errors. When an error is encountered, your server will display specific generic error pages according to the error. These error pages are not only dead ends, but they are also very frustrating for your potential visitors.

When your visitors mistype your web address or click on an outdated link and receive the dreaded error page, they’ll most-likely click on their back button and never return. However, you can recover a majority of your lost visitors simply by taking the time to create some customized, user friendly error pages.

As servers run different types of software and do not function in the same manner, there isn’t a simple method for creating custom error pages that will work with every system. However, if you have your own domain and your site is hosted on a Unix/Linux server running Apache, this article will assist you in creating custom error pages.

If you’re not sure what type of server you’re on, visit the following web address to find out: http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/

Before we begin, keep in mind, editing your server files is serious business. Even one small typographical error can wreak havoc — make sure you make a backup copy of any file you’re planning to edit.

Guidelines for creating your error pages:

1. Create your error pages in standard HTML — just as you would create any other web page for your site.

2. Don’t alarm your visitors. Never include the word “ERROR” in large, bold text. Your visitors may immediately become alarmed and think they’ve done something to cause the error. Instead, be apologetic and encourage your visitors to click on the navigational links to locate additional resources and information.

3. Your error pages should look just like the rest of your web pages. Each error page should contain good navigational links, a search feature, and provide information in regard to the specific error they received.

If you’d like to see an example error page, visit the following web address:
http://www.web-source.net/error.htm

Once you’ve created an error page, save it as the error name. For example, if you’re creating a customized error page for a 400 Bad Request error, your page should be saved as 400.html.

Here are some of the more common errors:

400 Bad Request
401 Authorization Required
403 Forbidden
404 File Not Found
405 Method Not Allowed
500 Internal Server Error
501 Method Not Implemented
502 Bad Gateway
503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Once you’ve created your pages, you’ll need to access your server via FTP and create a new folder called “errordocs” where you store your HTML files. Upload your new error documents into your new folder.

Your next step will be to locate your .htaccess file and download it to your computer. (If you use FrontPage to publish your web pages, you cannot customize the .htaccess file, as FrontPage uses the .htaccess file. Editing the file may cause errors in your configuration.) The .htaccess file should be located on your server where you store your HTML files.

If the .htaccess file isn’t visible, you can create one within a plain text editor. However, you must first make sure your server isn’t configured to hide the file. Your FTP program should enable you to choose to display hidden files and folders on your server.

Once you’ve downloaded your .htaccess file, open it within a plain text editor, such as Note Pad, and add the following lines below any other text that may be present:

ErrorDocument 400 /errordocs/400.html
ErrorDocument 401 /errordocs/401.html
ErrorDocument 403 /errordocs/403.html
ErrorDocument 404 /errordocs/404.html
ErrorDocument 405 /errordocs/405.html
ErrorDocument 500 /errordocs/500.html
ErrorDocument 501 /errordocs/501.html
ErrorDocument 502 /errordocs/502.html
ErrorDocument 503 /errordocs/503.html

If you’re creating your own .htaccess file, open a plain text editor and add the above lines.

When typing in the information, make certain you type it exactly as it appears above. You can include the error documents of your choice.

Once the file is complete, save it as .htaccess and upload it to your server, via FTP in ASCII mode, where you store your HTML files.

For additional information on File Transfer Protocol (FTP) you may visit:
http://www.web-source.net/ftp_basics.htm

If you have a Windows operating system, you will be unable to save the file as .htaccess. You’ll need to save it as htaccess.txt. Once you upload the file to your server, you can rename it to .htaccess.

That’s all there is to it. When your visitors click on an outdated link, your custom error page will now be displayed.

Creating your own custom error pages is well worth the time and effort, as they will enable you to recover an unlimited number of your visitors. If you follow this step by step guide, you can have your pages up and running in no time.

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About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter – Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, “Killer Internet Marketing Strategies.” http://www.web-source.net

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Article from www.entireweb.com

Here are some excellent tips that can help you develop a user friendly site and please your visitors senses. Give yourself a chance before they get away.

1. Use lots of white space.
Don’t feel that because you have a whole screen that you need to fill it up with stuff. Your page should follow a clean outline. Include your site name at the very top. Below that list the subject of your page and below that expand on your topic. Leave adequate space between each section. Don’t cram a lot of pictures and ads. If you have an ad keep it off to the side or subtly intersperse it between your text. The idea is not to overwhelm your reader.

2. Don’t use animation and flashing objects.
As advertisers we feel the need to get our viewers attention. This is important but we need to do it gracefully. Flashing objects and scrolling images distract your visitor and take away from the content. If your product is better demonstrated with animation or some other multi-media, allow your viewer to select the option. Don’t force it on them.

3. Every page of your site should contain an ‘about’ link.
The internet can be a rather cold and quiet environment. If someone can come to your site and find out about who you are and what you are about, they can feel a little better about doing business with you or taking advice from you. Always include your business address and phone number and email address as well. This lets viewers know that you are serious about your business and that you welcome contact.

4. Include a ‘Privacy’ Link
Viewers like the reassurance that you have a policy that follows privacy guidelines. They want to know that you will not sell or give away their information. In these days of rampant spam, your privacy policy needs to be prominently displayed. Many viewers and business partners won’t do business with you unless you have it.

5. Always keep your links in blue.
Why does that matter you might say? It’s an expectation that viewers have along with the links being underlined. There’s certainly no law that says they need to be as such but people spend a lot of time on the internet and it’s good practice to keep your navigation consistent and recognizable. If it’s not you may lose out on clicks.

6. Keep navigation consistent
Keep your site’s navigation consistent. What you do on your index page should be done the same way on the rest of your site’s pages. Keep the colors consistent as well. Don’t force your viewers to relearn each page of your site. Keep your navigation bars and links the same for each page.

7. Understandable buttons and links.
Title your links appropriately. Don’t use cute or misleading names. For example, if you have a link to sports equipment don’t label the link ‘Great Outdoors’, call it ’sports equipment’. If you have a link to ‘cameras’ don’t label the link ‘hotshots’, label it ‘cameras’. Your viewers don’t want to waste time figuring out what things are. Be clear with your labeling.

8. Focus on the ‘YOU’, not the ‘ME’.
Make it obviously clear to your readers that you are there for them. What can you do for your reader? What benefits are there for your viewer? How can you make their life or business better or more profitable? Request feedback on their success. Find out what they want to know or how you can offer them what they need.

9. Make sure your page loads fast.
If viewers have to wait for a page to load they will click elsewhere. Here’s a site that will help you determine how well your page loads. If a page doesn’t load in 8 seconds you lose 1/3 of your visitors. Here’s a great free tool to help you check your website’s load time:

http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.loading-time-checker.htm

10. Use a site map.
A site map will give visitors a “guide” on viewing your site and also eliminate confusion, especially with larger sites. It’s a road map for your visitors to follow while they are on your site. Sitemaps will also increase rankings and placement within the Search Engines.

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About the Author:
Elizabeth McGee has spent 20 years in the service and support industry. She has moved her expertise to the world wide web helping businesses find trusted tools, enhance customer service, build confidence and increase sales. You can contact Elizabeth at: mail@pro-marketing-online.com or visit her website at: http://www.pro-marketing-online.com

Article from entireweb.com

I look at sites everyday as part of my sales strategy and I can’t tell you how many of them violate the obvious elements of good website design and submission.

What even amazes me more is that they can’t figure out why they don’t get sales or visitors. Do yourself a favor and attempt to apply the following tactics to your site. They won’t cost you a thing except a little time and effort to apply them.

About Page

Always include an about page on your site.
Don’t be afraid to tell your story and let people know who you are and how you arrived where you are.

Opening yourself up and letting people know who you are adds an element of trust. It exposes your personality, capabilities and knowledge. All factors that let your readers know you are genuine.

Include all your contact information

Let your visitors know that you are available.
Encourage questions, email and phone calls. Include your name, address and phone number.
If you can, it’s also helpful to place a photo on your site. Familiarity is key and it can add one more link in the ladder of trust.

Headlines

Create compelling headlines. Peak the interest of your readers. This is your chance to grab their attention and incite them to read on.

Don’t be flashy or obnoxious. Simply tell it like it is. Capture their attention with descriptive, informative words. Get your readers involved in your information. Ask questions. Make them think.

You might be surprised to learn that just one compelling headline can bring instant sales almost overnight.

Create your meta tags

This is the first place I look when people tell me they aren’t getting visitors. I often see sites that have no title or description tag or the tags don’t follow the suggested guidelines for proper setup.

Here’s an example of how the tags might look for a site that sells hummingbird feeders:

You will need to do this for each page of your site. Each page needs to have it’s own set of tags. I also recommend focusing on one keyword per page, two at the very most. Too many keywords can confuse what your page is about.

Always make sure that your keywords are scattered throughout your text as well, however don’t sacrifice
good content for nonsense. Your text should be easy to read and should not sound redundant. Make your pages at least 250 words.

Testimonials

Solicit feedback from buyers you’ve had. Ask them to write a small testimonial that you can place on your site. This goes a long way to help convince your visitor that your products and services are sound.

Linking

Reciprocal linking is a common and effective tactic for obtaining search engine status and page rank but it’s also the most time consuming. It requires making contacts, following up with contacts and updating your website.

While reciprocal linking is an excellent way of establishing page rank it’s not the only way. Page rank can also be established by submitting your site to directories, writing articles and setting up blogs.

Don’t underestimate the power of website links. Take the extra few hours a day and get your site noticed.

Review the page you are exchanging links with. Be sure it is a site that you find easy to navigate and informative. I also recommend that the site’s index page have a Google PR rating of at least one. This ensures that the site is not being penalized by Google. If it is a penalized site then you could be penalized as well for linking to it.
Include a ‘tell a friend’ and ‘bookmark’ script on your site. This gives viewers an easy way to bookmark you and most of all return to your site.

Include a Site Map

Site Maps let visitors know what information you have, how it’s organized, where it is located with respect to other information, and how to get to that information with the least amount of clicks possible.

Site maps also provide spider food for search engine robots. This can increase your chances of becoming indexed because a site map allows the search engines to easily visit every page of your site.

A site map works best if you include a link to your site map in the navigation of every page on your site.

Finally, don’t let your site become stale. I have found that my search engine rankings improve when I periodically add new pages to my site and keep the content new and fresh. Follow these tips and 2005 may be your year for traffic.

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About the Author:
Elizabeth McGee has spent 20 years in the service and support industry.
She has moved her expertise to the world wide web helping businesses
find trusted tools, enhance customer service, build confidence and
increase sales. You can contact Elizabeth at: mail@pro-marketing-online.com or visit her website at: http://www.pro-marketing-online.com

Article from www.entireweb.com

Perform the following steps to setup your ISA Server to work with a Cable Modem:

First, install the cable modem. After the cable modem is installed, open a command prompt and type the ipconfig /all command. You should see what appears in the figure below. Make a note of the physical address of the cable modem.

From the Run Command, open Regedt32. When a new Network Card is installed and your IP address isn’t specified, Windows 2000 will automatically assign it an address using Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA). To disable APIPA, you need to create a key in the Windows registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> Current -> Control -> SetServices -> TcpipParametersInterfaces[your_adapter's_MAC_address]. Create the Value IPAutoconfigurationEnabled and set it to 0×0.

Restart the server for the changes to take effect. Now, open a command prompt and type ipconfig /all. Note that the IP address of the adapter Cable Modem is now configured to 0.0.0.0 and that the parameter Autoconfiguration Enabled is now set to No.

Open the ISA Management console, expand your server or array, and then expand the Access Policy node in the left pane. Click on the IP Packet Filters node, and then double click on the DHCP Client packet filter.

On the General tab, enable the DCHP Client packet filter by putting a checkmark in the checkbox for Enable this filter.

On the Filter Type tab, leave the default settings and do not change them.

On the Local Computer tab, choose the option This ISA Server’s external IP address and type 0.0.0.0.

On the Remote Computer tab, you need to specify the IP address of the remote DHCP Server. If you don’t know the address of the remote DHCP server, type the ipconfig /all command after restarting the computer. You DHCP server’s address should be listed there. After you obtain the DHCP server’s IP address, select the This remote computer option and type in the IP address of the DHCP server. Click Apply and then click OK.

Restart the ISA Server. Your Cable Modem should work fine! Open a command prompt and type ipconfig /all. You should see the IP addressing information assigned to your Cable adapter.

Note: if the cable connection still does not work, you need to stop the Microsoft ISA Server Control (isactrl) and type ipconfig /renew at the command prompt. Then restart the ISA Server Control service.

To stop the ISA Server Control Service, open the Services applet from the Adminstrative Tools menu. Right click on the Microsoft ISA Server Control and stop it. Then issue the ipconfig /all command. After issuing the renew command, restart the ISA Server Control service by right clicking on it and clicking Start in the Services applet.

Run ipconfig /all again and you should find joy!

Edited by Thomas W Shinder MD MCSE

Author: Alexandre Cavalcante Alencar
Technical Support / Director
Aspec – Assessoria, Processamento e Contabilidade S/C Ltda
Microsoft Certified Partner
www.aspec.com.br
Phone: +55 (85) 254-3223
Fax: +55 (85) 254-4779
Cell: +55 (85) 9995-3649 / 9995-3302

Alexandre Cavalcante Alencar is a technical support / director of Aspec,
develop, support, consulting, account firm located in Fortaleza, CE Brazil
specializing in account software. Current project is to develop a practical
how to manual for the ISA Server and Windows 2000 OS Server/Professional.

Judging from thesitewizard.com’s web statistics, my article “How to Protect Your Images from Bandwidth Theft (PHP Script)” appears to be exceedingly popular. And no wonder too: I read complaints about websites stealing another site’s images and making the victim pay for their bandwidth almost every other day. This article provides another solution to the problem of bandwidth theft, one that does not require the webmaster to modify any existing web pages nor install any scripts.

System Requirements
The solution outlined in this article requires your site to be hosted on a machine using the Apache web server and that your web host allows you to override the server’s configuration using a .htaccess file. For the more technically inclined, it uses the facilities provided in the mod_setenvif Apache module.

If this is not the case for your website, you cannot use the suggestions given here. You might wish to check out my PHP solution, How to Protect Your Images from Bandwidth Thieves, instead. The article may be found at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/protectimages.shtml

(To find out if your web server fulfills the requirements stated here, try checking up the documentation on your web host’s website – the information is usually available on their list of web hosting packages, price lists or on their order form. Alternatively, contact their technical support and find out from them.)

Steps to Take
Protecting your images using a .htaccess file is trivial.

Put all the images you wish to protect from being stolen (bandwidth-wise) in a separate directory.

Create an ASCII text file named .htaccess and save it in that directory. Note that the name starts with a fullstop (or period) and is entirely in small letters (ie, lowercase). Cut and paste (unless you’re using IE 6 in which case you just have to type it yourself) the following lines into that file:

SetEnvIfNoCase Referer “^http://www.your-domain-name-here.com/” locally_linked=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer “^http://www.your-domain-name-here.com$” locally_linked=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer “^http://your-domain-name-here.com/” locally_linked=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer “^http://your-domain-name-here.com$” locally_linked=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer “^$” locally_linked=1

Order Allow,Deny
Allow from env=locally_linked

Change “your-domain-name-here.com” to your real domain name. If your site can be accessed using other domain names (eg “www.your-domain-name-here.net”), be sure to add an additional SetEnvIfNoCase line for each of those domain names (with the URLs appropriately changed to the URLs of your domains. On the other hand, if your site can only be accessed using one domain, for example, using only “www.your-domain-name-here.com”, then delete the line with “http://your-domain-name-here.com”. The cut and paste code above caters to the usual case where most sites can be accessed with or without the “www” prefix.

Do not correct my spelling in the code snippet given above. “Referer” (with only one “r” in the middle of the word) is the word that needs to go into the .htaccess file – do not change it to “Referrer”.

That’s all there is to it. The above file should protect all images that have “.gif”, “.png”, “.jpg” and “.jpeg” extensions.

Remember to use an ASCII text editor (also known as “text editor” or “plain text editor”) to create the .htaccess file. Do not use Microsoft Word or Wordpad. Notepad (found on all Windows systems) is fine.

Explanation: .htaccess to Block Unauthorized Image Usage
Whenever a browser sends your web server a request for an image, it usually also sends the URL of the page that linked to that image. The above .htaccess file causes the server to check this URL (”Referer” in the above snippet) and if it is one of the authorized URLs that you specify, it will set an internal flag called “locally_linked”. This internal flag is technically called an “environmental variable”. If the URL sent is not in this list of authorised URLs, the flag (or environment variable) is not set. Note that we also set the “locally_linked” variable if the browser does not send any URL at all: this occurs when the visitor accesses your site using a browser or a proxy that suppresses the referring URL.

The web server then checks if the file requested has an extension in the list given above (gif, png, jpg and jpeg). If so, and the “locally_linked” variable is set, it will send the image. Otherwise it an error will be sent.

What Happens When A Bandwidth Thief Links to Your Image
After you create the .htaccess file, if some other site tries to link to your image from their site, they will find that the image will not display on their site. On the other hand, your images should generally load fine on pages on your site.

Potential Problems
Like the PHP solution, this method relies on the HTTP_REFERER variable (the variable that contains information about the referring page) being properly sent by the visitor’s browser. A number of modern browsers as well as some of the anonymous surfing proxies and firewalls allow the user to change this header. These browsers or proxies will thus either transmit HTTP_REFERER headers that have some user-specified value or not bother to transmit them at all. There are also buggy browsers around that unpredictably transmit the wrong HTTP_REFERER header on occasion.

When this occurs your visitor will either not view the image even when he is on your site (which means that your own page will have broken link images), or he may be able to view your images even when it is displayed on the copyright infringing thief’s site.

Hopefully the percentage of people who encounter this is small, but you have to be aware that these situations do occur.

Copyright Infringement Issues And Alternative Solutions
Besides the issue of paying for some other websites’ traffic when a bandwidth thief links to the images on your website, there is also the issue of copyright infringement. When someone links to your proprietary images in order to decorate their pages, that person has actually infringed on your copyright.

In addition to using the .htaccess file to protect your images, you may also want to send the offending webmaster an email and/or a letter explaining that he/she is violating your copyright and asking him/her to stop the infringing practice. Sometimes that simple message would more than suffice.

If that does not work, you can always inform his/her web host of the copyright infringement. Reputable hosts are often very careful about hosting sites which infringe copyright. You will have to furnish proof, of course. If that does not work, you can try complaining to the upstream bandwidth provider. And finally, of course, you can get a lawyer.

I mention the above because sometimes, in the search for a solution to protect their bandwidth, people forget that they have rights that they can legally enforce through other means as well. I suppose this problem of overlooking alternative solutions applies particularly to the more technically savvy people, who tend to look for a software solution to everything even when there might be a simpler approach!

Copyright 2001-2003 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
Get more free tips and articles like this, on web design, promotion, revenue and scripting, from http://www.thesitewizard.com/ or subscribe to the FREE newsletter by sending an email to subscribe@thesitewizard.com.

This article can be found at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/bandwidththeft.shtml

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Submitting your site to the major search engines: that will help with the “can’t find it” problem. Even having links pointing back to your site can be enough to attract the search engine robots. Google, for example, suggests that you may not have to submit your pages; they will find your site if you have a link pointing back to it from at least one other site on the web.

If the robots can find your site but can’t make sense of it, then you may need to look at the content and technology used on your pages. Frames, Flash, dynamically generated pages, and invalid HTML source code can cause problems when the search engine robot tries to access your web pages. While some search engines are beginning to be able to index dynamically generated pages and Flash (e.g. Google and AllTheWeb), use of some of these technologies can hinder your ability to be indexed by the search engine robots.

Text in images cannot be read by the search engine robots. Using ALT image text is an important way to help the robots “read” your images. Websites with extensive images rely heavily on ALT text to present their content.

How Do I Get The Most Out Of Indexing?

If you know what to “feed” the spidering robots you will help yourself with search engine ranking.

Having a website full of good content is the major factor. Search engines exist to serve their visitors, not to rank your website. You need to be sure to present yourself in your site in the way that will be most useful to the search engine visitor. Each search engine has its own idea of what is important in a page, but they all value text highly. Making sure that the text on your pages includes your most important keyword phrases will help the search engine evaluate the content of those pages.

Making sure that you have good title and meta tags will further assist the search engines in understanding what your page is about. If the text on the page is about widgets, the title is about widgets, and the meta tags are about widgets, the search engine will have a pretty good idea that you are all about widgets. When their visitors search for widgets, the search engines know to list your site in the results.

A sitemap page is a very good way of giving the search engine robot every opportunity to reach your website pages. Since robots click through the links of your web pages, make sure that at least your most important pages are included in the sitemap; you may even want to include all your pages there, depending on the size of your site. Be sure to add a link to the sitemap page from each page on your site.

Another important consideration is that of keeping all of your pages within a small number of “clicks” from your top page. Many robots will not follow links more than two or three levels deep, so if your “widgets” page can only be reached from your home page by following multiple links (e.g. home page >> about us page >> products page >> widgets page), the robot may not crawl deep enough to get to the widgets page.

Testing Your Website For Search Engine Robot Accessibility

To get an idea just what the search engine robot “sees” on your page, you can look at the Sim Spider tool. You may be surprised at how different your site looks to the robot. You can find this tool at http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi

You will see text and ALT image text show up in the results. If your entire website is built in Flash, you will see nothing at all because robots don’t understand Flash movies.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to search engine robots, think simply. Lots of good content and text, hyperlinks the robots can follow, optimization of your pages, topical links pointing back to your site and a sitemap will help insure the best results when the robots come visiting.

Resources
SpiderSpotting – Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/spiders.html

Robotstxt.org
List of robots and protocols for setting up a robots.txt file.
http://www.robotstxt.org/

Spider-Food
Tutorials, forums and articles about Search Engine spiders and Search Engine Marketing.
http://spider-food.net/

Spiderhunter.com
Articles and resources about tracking Search Engine spiders.
http://www.spiderhunter.com/

Sim Spider Search Engine Robot Simulator
Search Engine World has a spider that simulates what the Search Engine robots read from your website.
http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi

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About the Author:
Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing (http://www.searchinnovation.com), a Search Engine Promotion company serving small businesses. She has specialized in search engine optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O’Reilly & Associates, a technical book publishing company.

Entireweb Newsletter

Ever since there have been search engines, there have been techniques that unscrupulous webmasters and shady search engine optimization firms have used to artificially boost rankings. As search engines caught on to these techniques, they devised ways to detect them without having someone physically look at each site (a practical impossibility, considering that several individual engines now index well over a billion pages). While most engines are becoming more adept at detecting “spam” pages and penalizing or removing them, there is an unfortunate side effect to this efficiency- some companies that are innocent of intentional wrongdoing unknowingly have sites that fall into the “spam” category. What follows is a list of some of the issues that can hurt such sites, followed by suggestions of how to prevent penalization or removal.

==> Issue #1: Bad Links

Much of the internet is founded on sites linking to one another (a search engine itself is really just a very large collection of links). However, with the relatively recent emphasis placed upon a site’s links as part of the ranking formula (commonly called “link popularity”), it has become crucial to carefully select and closely monitor the sites with which you exchange links. Google, the pioneer of this ranking methodology, often penalizes sites that provide links to what they call “bad neighborhoods”- sites that Google determines serve no purpose save for artificially boosting link popularity. It is important to note that sites are only penalized when they actively link to another site, not when a site links to them (which is only fair, as webmasters have no real control over what sites choose to link to theirs). If any page of your site contains links to outside sites, it is important to make certain that these outside sites are not being penalized. The easiest way to do this on Google is to download the Google toolbar (available at http://toolbar.google.com/). Most pages that you find on the internet have been assigned a “Pagerank”, which is represented by a sliding green scale on the toolbar (visit the link to see an example). To be safe, avoid linking to any site that does not show any green on this scale (most importantly when this scale is grayed out). Such sites may be penalized, and linking to them may get your site penalized in turn (do not, however, refrain from exchanging links with sites simply because they show just a sliver of green- these sites are not being penalized and links from them may become more valuable over time). It is also very important to monitor the sites that you link to periodically to make certain that they have not been penalized since you originally added their link to your site.

==> Issue #2: Hidden Text

Almost all search engines use the words on the pages of web sites as one factor in their ranking equation. This means that if the text on your pages includes your keyphrases, you have a better chance of ranking highly for those phrases than a competing page that does not include them. Some webmasters, aware of this but not wanting their visitors to actually see the text (usually for “aesthetic” reasons), began taking keyphrase-rich text and making it the same color as the page background. For example, if a page had a white background, they would add text to the page, loaded with keyphrases, in the same shade of white. A human visitor would not be able to see the text, but the search engine “spider” (the programs that search engines use to go out and index web pages) would, and it would get a ranking boost accordingly. However, engines soon caught on and began penalizing pages that used this tactic. Unfortunately, some innocent sites are still penalized for this, even though the text on their pages is visible. Say, for example, that the background of a page is white. On this white background is a large blue box that has white text within it. Even though the text is clearly visible to the visitor, the search engine is not smart enough to realize that the white text appears in a blue box- it just assumes that the white text has been placed on a white background. To avoid any potential problems, it is important that you let your webmaster know that the text on your pages should never be the same color as the assigned background color.

==> Issue #3: Keyword Stuffing

As mentioned above, the words on your pages can be an important factor in the ranking of your web pages. However, it is entirely possible to have too much of a good thing. “Keyphrase Density”, as it is commonly called, is the ratio of keyphrases on your page to the overall number of words on the page. While different engines prefer different keyphrase density, almost all have an upper limit, after which pages can be penalized. In most cases, this threshold would be hard to break without the text sounding inane. However, particularly when a keyphrase is part of a company name, density can accidentally become unnaturally high. For example, if your company name was “Atlanta Plumbing Pros” and you styled your text so that this company name was used in almost every sentence, you would have a dangerously high density for the phrase “Atlanta Plumbing” and would be at risk of penalization. To correct any potential problems, go over the text on each of your pages and make certain that it reads naturally and that no phrases are repeated too frequently (for example in more than half of the sentences).

==> Issue #4: Cloaking

Cloaking, loosely defined, is the practice of showing a search engine spider a different page than what an actual human visitor sees. This means that the server of a cloaked page makes a note of the unique address assigned to each visitor, and when that visitor is a spider, it feeds it specialized content that is designed to rank highly for certain search terms. Virtually every major engine now imposes harsh penalties on sites that use cloaking (although a few of them will allow you to pay them for the privilege, but that’s a topic for a future article). Unfortunately, the intent of cloaking isn’t always necessarily to trick search engines. Some high-ranking pages are cloaked simply to prevent others from stealing the underlying code (such theft is commonly called “pagejacking”). This concern, however, is somewhat unfounded today. With the increased emphasis of “off the page” elements, such as link popularity, an unscrupulous webmaster could steal the code from a high-ranking page and replicate it exactly without achieving the same high rankings. In any case, the practice of cloaking, for whatever reason, puts your site at risk of being penalized or removed from major engines, so make sure that your webmaster does not employ the technique.

==> Conclusion:

Search engines are becoming increasingly cognizant of the techniques used to try to fool them, and they are also becoming better at detecting and removing pages that violate their terms of service. It’s important to remember that search engines make decisions on how to rank pages based upon extensive studies of their users and their preferences, and any webmaster or optimization firm that claims to know better (and subsequently uses underhanded techniques) is doing a disservice to their client. Unfortunately, however, sometimes the spam detection methods that the engines use target good sites that inadvertently meet the criteria for removal or penalization. By paying attention to the four issues above, you can help ensure that your site isn’t one of them.

By Scott Buresh

Many businesses recognize that search engines can bring volumes of highly targeted prospects to their website, typically at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing.
Unfortunately, these same companies often overlook the most important part of their search engine marketing campaigns, which is keyphrase selection and evaluation. Keyphrases (those phrases that potential customers are using to find products or services on search engines) are the building block of any search engine marketing strategy. It is essential that they are chosen carefully, or else the remainder of the campaign, no matter how effective the implementation, will
likely be in vain. What follows is a three-step process that goes over the process of compiling, selecting, and evaluating the ongoing performance of keyphrases for search engines.

1. Compiling a keyphrase list:
Usually, companies are sure that they already know their ideal keyphrases. Often, they are wrong. This is typically because it is very hard to separate oneself from a business and look at it from the perspective of a potential customer (rather than an insider). Compiling a keyphrase list should not be, despite common practice, a strictly internal process. Rather, it is best to ask everyone outside of your company for their input, especially your customers. People are often very surprised at the keyphrase suggestions they get- and sometimes dismayed to realize that an average customer doesn’t speak the same language that they do. Only after you have put together a list of likely phrases from external sources do you add your own. As a last step, try to add variations, plurals, and erivatives of the phrases on your list.

2. Evaluating keyphrases:
Once you have compiled a master keyphrase list, it is time to evaluate each phrase to hone your list down to those most likely to bring you the highest amount of quality traffic. Although many individuals will base their assessment of keyphrase value based only on popularity figures, there are really three vitally important aspects of each phrase to consider.

Popularity
By far the easiest of the three to judge is popularity, since it is not subjective. Software like WordTracker gives popularity figures of search phrases based upon actual search engine activity (it also gives additional keyphrase suggestions and variations). Such software allows you to assign a concrete popularity number to each phrase to use when comparing them. Obviously, the higher the number, the more traffic that can be expected (assuming you are able to obtain good search engine positions). However, this number alone is not good enough reason to pursue any particular keyphrase, although too often keyphrase analysis stops here.

Specificity
This is more abstract than the sheer popularity number, but equally important. For example, let’s assume that you were able to obtain great rankings for the keyphrase “insurance companies” (a daunting prospect). Let’s also assume that you only deal with auto insurance. Although “insurance companies” might have a much higher popularity figure than “auto insurance companies”, the first keyphrase would also be comprised of people looking for life insurance, health insurance, and home insurance. It is very likely that someone searching for a particular type of insurance will refine their search after seeing the disparate results returned from the phrase “insurance companies”. In the second, longer keyphrase, you can be reasonably sure that a much higher percentage of visitors will be looking for what you offer- and the addition of the word “auto” will make it much easier to attain higher rankings, since the longer term will be less competitive.

Motivation of User
This factor, even more abstract than specificity, calls for an attempt to understand the motivation of a search engine user by simply analyzing his or her search phrase. Assume, for example, that you were a real estate agent in Atlanta. Two of the keyphrases you are evaluating are “Atlanta real estate listings” and “Atlanta real estate agents”. Both phrases have very similar popularity numbers. They are also each fairly specific, and your services are very relevant to each. So which phrase is better? If you look into the likely motivation of the user, you will probably conclude that the second is superior. While both phrases target people looking for real estate in Atlanta, you can infer from the second phrase that the searcher has moved beyond the point where they are browsing local homes or checking out prices in their neighborhood- they are looking for an agent, which implies that they are ready to act. Often, subtle distinctions between terms can make a large difference on the quality of the traffic they attract.

3. Evaluating Keyphrase Performance:
Until recently, judging the performance of individual keyphrases was a dicey proposition. Although it is possible to tell from your log traffic analysis how many visitors are getting to your site from each keyphrase (valuable information, but unfortunately not enough to do much with), it was very hard to decipher which phrases were bringing you the most quality traffic. Recently, however, some sophisticated but affordable tools have been developed that allow you to judge the performance of each individual keyphrase based upon visitor behavior. This new software makes it possible to periodically analyze which keyphrases are bringing your site the most valuable visitors- those who buy your products, fill out your contact form, download your demo, etc. This type of data, rather than the sheer number of visitors from each search phrase alone, is invaluable when you are refining your search engine marketing campaigns, since you can discard and replace non-performing keyphrases and put increased effort toward the phrases that are delivering visitors that become customers. This kind of ongoing analysis is the final piece of the keyphrase puzzle, and allows you to continually target the most important phrases for your industry, even if they change over time.

Conclusion:
Keyphrase compilation, evaluation, and performance are all vitally important to any search engine marketing campaign. While high rankings in search engines are an admirable goal, high rankings for poor keyphrases will consistently deliver poor results. Integration of this keyphrase process into your overall search engine marketing strategy can dramatically improve your website performance (and thus your bottom line).

About the author:

Scott Buresh is Co-founder and Principal of Medium BlueInternet Marketing http://www.mediumblue.com . For monthly tips on how to get the most out of your internet presence, sign up for our Internet Marketing Newsletter http://www.mediumblue.com/newsletters

By Herman Drost

If you are serious about improving search engine rankings, you need to check the keyword density of your web site. In order to do this you must integrate proper keyword phrases within your meta tags and web copy.

What is keyword density?

This is the ratio of a keyword or keyphrase to the total words (depth) on a page. It is one of the most critical aspects of search engine optimization. To improve search engine ranking, your keyword density must not be too high or too low.

Try to aim for a keyword density of 1% to 7%. To achieve 1% you would need to insert your keyword or keyword phrase once for every hundred words. If you only used your keyword once in one thousand words, this would result in diluting your keyword density.

Don’t try to stuff all your keywords together, separated by commas. Search engines may see this as spam, penalizing your rankings.

How to improve your search engine ranking

The best way to achieve good rankings, is to research the appropriate keywords or keyword phrases related to your web copy before you even begin building your site.

If your site is already built and it’s on the Internet, you may want to consider reviewing the keywords and make the necessary changes to your meta tags and web copy. It makes no sense to have a site that is not targeted to the right audience and expect high search engine rankings.

If your site has a lot of graphics or flash and is short on content, you should consider redesigning it. Search engines love content rich pages, so use images and flash sparingly.

1. Use the Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) or the overture suggestion tool(http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion), to research your keywords. These tools will show you how many times a particular keyword was searched for each month. It’s no point including keywords in your web pages that nobody searches on.

2. The best keywords you SHOULD include on your site, are those that are very popular (high number of searches when using the tools above), but have a low number of competing web sites.

3. Select two or three of your most important keywords related to your business and try to use them 3-7 times for every 100 words in your web copy.

4. Incorporate these keywords or keyword phrases in your title, description meta tag, keyword meta tag, alt tags (words that describe your images) comment tags, heading tags and main text of your web copy.

Search engines will spider the heading tags in your web copy first (H1, H2, H3) because these stand out from your main text.

5. Write your web copy so that it not only satisfies the search engines but also is compelling enough for your web site visitors to read (don’t make it sound weird to read or obvious you are just writing for the search engines). Repeat your keyword phrase or combinations of them every few sentences.

6. Write at least 250 words (or longer) for each of your web pages. Search engines will spider the text near the top of the page, rather than at the bottom. Therefore include your keywords in the first 250 words on your page.

7. To avoid making your text hard to read, split your paragraphs into 2 or 3 sentences or make use of bullets.

8. Avoid using words that may be popular, but are not related to your site. This will not improve your search engine ranking and will only frustrate your visitors who are searching for relevant content.

9. Keyword density analysis – use a keyword density analyzer to check the keyword density of your web pages. This will tell you if you have used too many or too few words in your web copy.

http://www.keyworddensity.com

10. Realize that not all search engines treat keyword density the same. Some will only place significance on keywords in your title, meta tags and web copy. Google (the most important search engine), places the most significance on keywords in your web page text.

Conclusion:
Achieving optimal keyword density throughout your web pages, will dramatically improve search engine rankings, therefore boosting your web site traffic. Try it..you will be pleasantly surprised!

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About the author:

Herman Drost is the author of the NEW ebook “101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site” a powerful guide for attracting 1000s of visitors to your web site. http://www.isitebuild.com/web-site-promotion
Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com. You can read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
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2. Give visitors what they want, good quality content and lots of it. Articles, tips, newsletter archives and details of each product or service on your site is always a welcome to the visitors.

3. Choose the graphics carefully. Lots of graphics slow sites down and your affiliate goal is to get your visitor to click your affiliate link. If your web site takes a long time to load your visitor may just leave and not even get a chance to click your affiliate link.

4. Use a simple layout with a prominent, easy to find link to each major page on your site.

5. If you offer a newsletter, make it very easy for people to sign up by having subscribe details on every page of your site.