Monday 25 February 2008

How do You Overcome the Google Sandbox??


The Google Sandbox Effect was coined by a few Internet marketers to describe a new rule that Google has put in place, with regards to ranking new websites. Google puts you in the sandbox if you have a new site. You stay in this sandbox, until Google decides your site has matured enough; then lets you come out and play with all of the others.

It does not matter how great your new website is, or how optimized it is. In fact, your website might have all the makings to become topped rank in your niche, but this will not happen until Google lets you out of their sandbox.

The general feeling is, new sites do not leave the sandbox for a few months. Some says, up to six months and possibly up to 8 months.

Google has not come out with any officials statements about this imposed delay; they have placed on new sites. Google employee has all but came out and admitted to this practice, but stop short of official statements. SEO experts and long time Internet marketers have more than enough evidence to support the sandbox effect as being real. This is no Internet myth.

At many of the Internet marketing forums that are available online, many marketer's posts express this desperation of feeling lost and at a standstill. Not being able to overcome Google's sandbox effect has crippled the way a lot of people do business, using Google as a means to generate traffic.

Google's reasons for aging a site, before giving it the same fair treatment as it's more established sites, is a measure to stop the blackhat tactics from making their search engine irrelevant.

With so many practices, such as creation of duplicate content, keyword stuffing, and bulk buying of links to reach top Google ranking; these blackhat practices tend to compromise Google's integrity as a search engine, which people can depend on for their relevant searches.

There are some methods that others have resorted to, in order to minimize the sandbox effect.

One sure fire method for bypassing the sandbox entirely, is to pay Google for the service. Use AdWords, their PPC, pay per click advertising program. As a new site owner, you can get instant exposure on Google by using their AdWord program. Using their PPC program will also gain your site exposure on other search engines.

As mentioned, you do have to pay for this PPC service, yet it does take care of sandbox effect. PPC is not an option to just jump head first into, unless you are familiar with AdWords. As with any program, there are strategies to consider when choosing your keywords. Play the AdWord game correctly and you could very well have a nice return on your PPC investment.

Alright, so Google will not allow you to jump high in their search engine ranks for awhile. There are other search engines that people use on the Internet with regularity.

It would be to your advantage to concentrate your efforts over at Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves and many other directories you can take advantage of. Just because Google is the most popular of the engines, does not mean you have to close up shop. These other directories and search engines are invaluable to your new websites campaign, like never before. Both MSN and Yahoo are very fast at updating content and including fresh new sites in their directories.

Another tried in true method is an old practice to gain traffic. Link exchange has never died and never will. Finding other relevant sites to your own, to swap links with, will always help your site get target traffic. Be on the lookout for more established sites to exchange links with. You might end up at the bottom of their referral link page, but if that site is getting heavy traffic, you will see some of it come your way.

In conclusion, there are other methods some are using to get around the sandbox effect, which Google has imposed. They are tactics that fall into the blackhat arena and will not be covered here. There are other online resources that will tell you how they are used.

The best campaign for a new website to gain exposure and traffic is a combination of link exchange methods and submission to several different search engine directories; even Google. By doing this you can help ensure that you Earn Money From Home with your internet business. If nothing else, you can wait until Google lets your site out of jail and work the other search engine directories, while waiting. Actually, the idea is not to wait, but start working your campaign now.

The Best Methods For Link Building


One of the most important aspects to your website ranking in the search engines is link building. This is an ongoing process, which ensures your sites ranking continues to move up in ranking, instead of sliding down the ladder and ending up on the back pages of the search engine.

Generally, link building is not just used to increase link popularity with search engines. This term also refers to link exchanges, newsletter channels, directory submissions and many more avenues that will help your links build traffic.

The best link building practices to use are those methods that not only provide increased exposure to your website, but also go toward turning your site into one that reflects good design, relevancy and builds a solid reputation. This is all goes toward good SEO, search engine optimization. As you will see, most of these link building techniques can all be used together.

One of the most popular methods used for link building is also very cost effective. Exchanging links with other relevant websites and blogs is practiced by many. This method takes some time, yet because of the network you have created by exchanging with other related sites, you are building a very solid network that will generate target traffic for you and your business opportunity. This practice only relies on your ambition and the time it takes, for you to cultivate other related sites for the link exchange.

A few things to keep in mind when using link exchange methods would be:

1. The link partner should have a related theme to your own website for this reciprocal link. It will do you little good, to exchange a link with a dating site, if your site is a bridal theme site.

2. Find sites to exchange with that are popular. Also, find sites that are search engine friendly. If you find a related site, as your own, that comes up in the search engines with a high ranking, go for it! This could be a gold mine for your site.

3. Links coming from sites should have been in place for a long time. This helps to ensure stability and reliability.

One way link building is another avenue to consider, if you have the resource money for this method. One way link building relies on paying for your links to build for traffic. There are many marketing companies that cater to Internet marketers, providing this service to them, for a fee. It should also be noted, none of these services will guarantee their performance for you. When looking at this method, one should also look at the company's background, in question.

Back link methods are also known as inward links, incoming links, inbound links and a few other nick names. These back links are like gold and the search engines love those that used back linking practices in their websites and blogsites. Google considers back links a major factor when it assigns page ranking to a site.

Link building is a combination of different techniques and methods you need to use on a regular basis to build good traffic. Search engines index sites frequently. Keeping your back links verified and fresh is essential to good SEO. Ensuring your site looks professional, with all of your links exchanges in relevant order is expected.

When you use good sound link building practices you are growing your websites popularity. As you do the necessary steps, you may not notice any large returns on your time invested into your website campaign immediately. Rising in the ranks of search engines and receiving traffic from other sources, takes time and patience on the Internet. Quality, verses quantity using your link building practices will always pay off. Your traffic will be better for it.

There is a wealth of informational resource material online that is free for the taking. Take the time to learn more about great link building practices, and then you can have a plan. Some of the best plans are, using a few of these link building methods together, this is a good resource for link building. Pay attention and learn all you can about SEO, too. Give your site that old, "one-two" punch. By paying close attention to the best ways to optimize your website, you will also naturally be using link building methods.

The Do's & Dont's of SEO! White Black or Grey?




SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to a set of techniques that are performed on a website with the intention of increasing its search engine rankings. SEO can be performed during the programming stages, while planning and producing content, and by exchanging links or by building one-way links.

Now, SEO is big business because if performed well it has the potential to catapult a website to the top of the search engine rankings. Getting on top of search engine rankings is like getting free front-page exposure in an oracle that caters to a billion Dollar market. Naturally, websites are keen to make it to the top and this has generated a massive demand for SEO firms.

Well, there are two types of SEO techniques - Ethical, also known as White Hat SEO and Unethical, also called Black Hat SEO. The lure of getting prime exposure has brought to the surface many firms and individuals who try to adopt unscrupulous SEO techniques to fool the search engines into giving a website top exposure. Of course, there are those too who work by the book - this is how both these techniques work:

WHITE HAT SEO TECHNIQUES

White hat SEO techniques are solid, credible, quality techniques that ensure that a website gets to the top and stays there. Here are some of the popular ones:

1. Great Content: For SEO purposes content is not just king - it is the emperor. If you upload quality content that is well written, informative and entertaining, then search engines will fall in love with your website. Of course, you must ensure that keywords relevant to your website's theme are built into your content. Search engine algorithms are always on the lookout for websites that provide quality content that is of use to their surfers - so, well, content rules.

2. Programming techniques: SEO while programming a website involves placing search-engine-friendly text in the meta tags, building a clear and concise website structure that can bring up the searched-for content in a jiffy, using structural mark-ups, and building in tags in the title, subtitles and the footers of every content page.

3. Solid keyword research and use: Before developing content, you must figure out the most popular keywords relevant for your website's theme. To do this you will have to conduct a thorough research using keyword tools provided by major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Some SEO firms also use third-party software such as WordTracker for keyword analysis. Once SEO firms get their finger on the most expensive and effective keywords, they skillfully build them into the content.

4. Link building: SEO firms trade links with other reputed websites. When a website's links spread, its search engine rankings automatically go up. Nowadays, may website owners get articles written and submit them to reprint directories, where other websites who need content can pick them up. Of course, the trick in article submission lies in including a resource box at the end of the article that points back to your website.

BLACK HAT SEO TECHNIQUES

Unscrupulous SEO firms use black hat SEO techniques to fool the search engines. These techniques are shortcuts that can take you here and there, but ultimately lead to a dead end. Here are some of the common black hat SEO techniques:

1. Veiled content: The website is stuffed with popular keywords that form part of the background color scheme, and hence are not visible to a surfer. The idea is to trick the search engine into picking up the hidden content.

2. Keyword-spammed content: There are SEO firms who do not get quality content written - instead, they plug in all blah-blah content that is spammed with keywords. The idea is the same - to trick the search engines.

3. Redirecting: Many unscrupulous SEO firms own a bunch of websites that have already been indexed by search engines. When you approach them for SEO, they may plant a code on their existing websites redirecting their links back to your website.

4. Cloaking: Using this technique, SEO firms direct specified content towards search engine spiders but do not hoist it on the website, because it is useless.

5. Tag spam: Meta-tags and other tags of a website, which are used by search engine spiders to quick-reference or index a website are spammed with keywords using this technique.

6.ks from link farms: Link farms represent a humungous amount of useless, content-less websites. Unscrupulous SEO firms use these link farms for building backlinks.

Black Hat SEO can finish a website

Remember that if you use black hat SEO tricks on your website, you might as well write it off. That is because search engine algorithms are getting smarter by the day and now can sniff out useless content, hidden text, redirections and other foul SEO methods. Once search engines figure out that a website is up to mischief then they blacklist it - and once blacklisted, a website is suspended from the search engine's index and is not picked up until and unless all the black hat SEO is removed. Plus, when a website's visitors come to know that it is using black hat techniques they will get put off and stay away from it.

To sum up, black hat SEO techniques can destroy a website or business opportunity, while white hat SEO techniques can make it flourish in the long run. Go ahead, make your choice!

How to Make Sure You Generate Targeted Traffic



Would you rather receive 10,000 generic hits on your website each month, or 1,000 targeted hits on your site every month? This is not very difficult to answer if you know what targeted traffic is.

If you are a affiliate marketer, promoting products for individuals that experience excessive sweating, how many of the 10,000 generic visitors that arrive at your site will actually want to know more about these excessive sweating products you are offering to sell them?

Mass traffic can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, unless you have a product that is appealing and needed by everyone. Generally, your product or services that you market is in a niche category. Your market is not going to be for everyone. The goal is to target the traffic.

When your website visitors have been looking for methods and products to help them stop over sweating, this is considered target traffic. Target traffic is the goal of anyone marketing online. The ability to generate targeted traffic to their place of business is a goal every Internet marketer shoots for in order to earn extra income

To target traffic is to address an individuals needs and desires. If you sell beaded crafts for making costume jewelry, your target traffic will be within the broader topic of crafters and hobbyists. Even more specific, women and teenage girls that enjoy making and wearing jewelry. This is considered a niche market very narrowly defined, a focus group to target for traffic to induce them to visit your site that sells everything about beaded jewelry.

It is not enough to have a blog or website offering your product. The next question is how will people be able to find you? A website by itself stands alone until action is taken to generate the type of traffic to your site that is needed to make it a success. You are not marketing a thing until you can begin to address this issue.

Buying your traffic is an easy way out if you have the budget. You can receive target traffic from joining a program like Google AdWords. This is a PPC, or pay-per-click method to generate target traffic. They are those small ads that Google places alongside their search engine posts when you use Google's search engine. These ads also show up on Google's free site space that people build their sites on. These AdWord ads are all over the Internet. Google has a very long reach out here.

By opening an AdWord account and choosing your keywords carefully, your ads will begin to appear alongside related search results that individuals have looked for in the search engine. This can generate a lot of target traffic for you when people click on your ads. When they do click on your ads, Google charges you per click.

Writing articles for submission to article content sites is another way to generate target traffic to you site. Write compelling articles about your service, or product. At the end of each article is room to include your "bio". In this area, leave a link to your site to let others know they can get more tips or information by visiting your site.

The only people who will read your articles and want more info will be those that are interested in your market. The target traffic that you can receive from article submission sites is phenomenal.

You do not have to have a degree in creative writing to write compelling pieces. Take the time to cultivate your readers. When your articles reflect on you as well informed about the topic, you become that expert. Others will begin going to your site to get more information and learn more about what you have to offer them.

Another way of generating targeted traffic is the link exchange way. This method is becoming even more popular than ever before. Reciprocal linking is swapping links with another site that is related in theme to your own market. On the Internet, one thing always leads to another. When people see referral links on other sites about a related theme they are interested in, they click those referral links.

Link exchanges do generate targeted traffic in a very natural way that is not intrusive. When you create a network of reciprocal links with other sites, the power to generate good traffic to your site can be tremendous.

These are a few methods to generate target traffic. Yes, there are many more ways to accomplish this. Keep in mind that it is the quality of traffic you want to attract. The ability to receive unfocused hits on your website is not necessarily going to generate sales for you unless you have that product that no one can live without.