The first successful communication on the internet was implemented on 25 December 1990. In 1992 internet access was made available to the common public and its use exploded. Until recently, websites were a great advertising platform. However, with the introducing of the first social networking site in 1995, and its widespread use today, websites have started to become invisible on the internet.

If you come up with a new website on the internet, then you would probably have to spend a lot of your time and resources to bring your website on the first page of the goggle search engine. However, a simpler way to let people know about your website or your company is through social media.

Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace.com, Twitter, LinkedIn.com, etc. are very popular and so are great sources of promoting your website and products.

Gone are the days of “have a website and advertise”

Today, it is too costly to be noticed on an internet that is already full. Social media is the only way for new websites to get traction. If Darren Rowse, the guy behind ProBlogger, or Brian Clark, the guy who founded Copyblogger, talks about your website, then it’s visible. If your website comes up on the front page of Digg, then it’s visible. Once your website starts getting incoming links and lots of regular traffic, then you can use traditional SEO practices for staying visible.

Some of the companies that benefited from social media are:

Rubbermaid: A survey conducted by BazaarVoice reported that when the company Rubbermaid added customer reviews to their website, their sales increased and returns of their products decreased.

Fog Creek software: This company has achieved great success with no advertising because its founder has built an amazingly popular blog about writing software.

Nike: This company allowed customers to build and order custom shoes on their website. This move was a great hit with people and generated a lot of profit for Nike.

Will social media survive in the long run? Not sure. But today and for the near future, you can’t do without it. You have to jump in even if you do not fully understand it, or you will go the way of print media.

Three European web sites alleged Google of anti-competitive behavior and said that, the Internet search giant was unfairly steering traffic away from them.  The three sites: Foundem, a British retail price comparison site; ejustice.fr, a French legal search engine; and Ciao from Bing, a Microsoft-owned shopping site that operates in Europe, alleges the search engine magnate, Google, of deceitful conduct.

The lines sound interesting and surely demand a pondering. Let us try to uncover the story, where lies the problem, why is the giant being probed?

Google AdWords, PPC, Bidding rates and Click Through activity…

All of us are aware of Google AdWords, it is the PPC Advertising service offered by Google, through which it displays click-able links from advertisers, in exchange for a charge per click.

PPC requires the advertiser to bid on key words in order to buy a top position in the search engine results for a particular keyword. Google determines the placement of the ad based on the bidding price and the ad’s click-through activity. The advertiser pays for each click made by a search engine user, through which advertisers’ web page gets a reckoning and is ranked accordingly.

Google AdWords is a powerful advertisement arena, by Google through which it is managing PPC sites. The problem is that, Google is being unfair by promoting its own products on every page it springs out. Google is indexing itself first amongst the PPC sites, whenever any keyword is searched for, here is the catch. Even if the keyword is not related to Google AdWords or Google Maps or some other Google product, Google is systematically favoring its own products, and indexing it foremost on most of the pages delivered by the search engine, irrespective of the keyword.

The service protocol of PPC, assures the advertisers, that their web sites will be delivered to the audience targeting the keywords, and the advertisers have to compete with their adversaries for the ranking through bidding and click through activity.

Let’s view this in affect:

If someone in US wishes to search for ‘SEO Service’, then the resulting page which Google shoots forward is like this:

We all know that “Google.com/AdWords”, is not a SEO Service provider…

What’s fraudulent here…?

No doubt, Google is unfairly steering away the traffic, by ranking the other sites lower to its own site, thus decreasing the click through activity and increasing the bidding rates. Moreover, it is violating its own protocol of delivering the clients’ link to a visitor, appropriate to the keyword being searched, by posing itself as a competitor to most client sites, irrespective of the keyword.

Let’s wait and watch the ramifications…

So now, when the titan is undergoing antitrust scrutiny by U.S. regulators, and is facing the music, let us see how it handles the ramifications of the allegations it has been alleged with.

You got it right, Yahoo has struck a twitter deal. These two have decided to face the Buzz challenge by coming together. Yahoo and Twitter have come to an agreement to share data between their properties. Hope this is no knee jerk reaction to the Google Buzz. This was hardly called for, as Bing is about to take the data aspect for Yahoo, and, which will very likely include the Twitter data as well. Moreover, Yahoo’s front end elements already include Twitter integration including Flickr. How far will it work? This is a million dollar question?

Even if this is all the rest against Google, it would in no way be an easy proposition. Buzz, although is new, has a very strong backing of Gmail, which just cannot be ignored. With a solid Gmail presence on the internet, it is unlikely that no matter how you set the table, Buzz will only get to be a very strong word.

Why read, when you can witness? Last year surely has been the year for video marketing. What with more You Tube views than Google’s searches, video marketing is a more lucrative assignment. Finding ways and means to ensure that your video will not be lost in the crowd is what SEO would now be looking for. You do not expect to put together a video and hope it would generate business for you. You sure can add on a welcome video, a virtual tour, or a helpful tutorial video to your website, and use this as a riveting factor to compliment your content and your attractive web design. Expecting your videos to open up vistas all by themselves will require some innovative, creative and fresh approaches, which will now have to be accepted as a new challenge.

How You Make the Most from Your Video Presentation

There are some things to be kept in mind, and, which will come helpful for optimizing your video content to its’ full potential online. You can always be the first, and that definitely amounts to a very good start. Your competitors may just like to follow.

• Embed your videos and share – You will definitely benefit by sharing your videos with an embeddable feature. Whether you are having viral videos, trailers, or informative video clips, embedded videos is an advanced feature, and will come useful in time.
• Make sure to use the best format – There are a number of video formats available for you to choose from.  You can have FLV, MP4, AVI, and others if you want; but, make sure to use the most popular, as this will help you make it easier while editing and viewing.
• Make use of all available accurate tracking tools – What use are these videos if you cannot find out how they help you? Moreover, how would you be able to effectively optimize without understanding an angle that needs to improve upon? You would only be able to better your access and progress by measuring your performance and the impact each video can  create on your online presence.
• Video SEO will come useful – Your video is 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of a search result in comparison to your text pages. Make sure to utilize tags and keywords because these help you make your videos all the more visible.
• Consistency eventually pays – If you are planning on integrating plenty of videos onto your website, see that when put together, they are able to give a very reliable image. Never confuse the visitors or promise them a moon that is not there.

Multi-media content will enhance your capacity to make some deep impact. As it is, we have been using images since a long time to assist our textual content make more sense, so also videos can integrate into design and generate a better sense if and when properly applied.

• Seek Professional Help

If you really want to make any difference in your landing page conversions, we would need the help of professional experts. Go for specialists contributing to their dedicated area of expertise in order to maximize your landing page exposure, experience and off course conversions.

• Hire an SEM for SEO and PPC.
• A social expert for SMM.
• An expert web copy writer for web writing.
• A proven web page designer for landing page design.
• An experienced designer for additional conversion tips & tricks.
• A qualified web tester to monitor testing

• Choose the Best Possible Content & Design

Check your contents including design from all angles. The copy, size, colors, the placement of buttons, the functionality of your page, headlines must all be effectively managed. Check the copy for length, grammar and formality; images for type, size, color, variations and placement. Visual click heat-maps are great to gain an understanding of paths of interest, and to effectively make changes in layouts and design. Just make sure to give yourself the best possible content and design in order to optimize your own conversion rate.

• Compare Pricing Structures

Make it easy for comparison shoppers. Keep abreast with periodical reviews and check pricing on products and services. You need not be the cheapest to sell. You only need to be the most informative, authoritative and should have maintained a good reputation of delivery and performance. Goodwill is an asset no business can do without. Pass on these positive reviews to R&D. Conversion optimization is a combined process, where all units perform equally well.

• Keep Mandatory Completion Elements at Minimum

If the conversion page includes a form keep the mandatory completion elements at the minimum. Include as much of auto fill wherever possible and make this as easy as you can. Encourage click to subscribe with enticing content, offers and future discounts. Focus on the core objective should no way be lost.

• Target Your Landing Pages

Each target market demographic is distinctly different in many ways. Younger, or older; employed, or unemployed, or retired; attentive or inattentive, busy or bored, and all relevant parameters must be properly evaluated and effectively targeted.

• Pre-test Your Landing Page for Being Effective

Usability is all about how fast the essence and functionality of a page are communicated and how quick and effective this is in engaging. Test this on folks and find out. Just give them 6-8 seconds at the most to tell you what they think this page –

• is about
• if they liked it
• if they felt like leaving
• what stands out
• if they would like to bookmark it.

This will give you a fairly good idea of where exactly you stand.

• Learn & Run With Competition

Although online and offline competitors are different, keeping track of what both engage in will come very useful. You would be also wiser to learn from their experiences as well, so that you can save on both, your money and your time. Take their learning’s and make sure to run with them at the same time.

• Finish With an Attractive “Add to Cart” button

Color has a deeper impact most often than even the size and shape. Your ‘add to cart’ button has a lot to say than just that. Make sure that the shade of the color, shape and size are not only compatible with your business it should also be elegant and most effectively designed.

You are now perfectly placed. So get going – what are you waiting for. There is no one, no one can stop you now.

These ad spaces are purchased through PPC advertising suppliers, the main two large ones owned by Google and Yahoo. The program ran by Google is called Adwords, and displays results on Google.com, AOL, Ask Jeeves and many other smaller search programs. Yahoo’s ads are run by an acquired company Overture, and the results appear on Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, and many other partners syndicating for this very purpose.

Factors Influencing Money Spent on a PPC Campaign

• The number of searches conducted every month using phrases relevant with your business.
• The bidding amount you along with competitors are willing to pay for these terms.

The normal average monthly ad spent on a PPC advertise is a couple of thousand dollars but may immensely vary for less than $50/per month on regional targets to millions a month by large national retailers.

Your Mantra to Success

• Advertise on a large and relevant number of search phrases. How to find good keywords and terms used to describe your products is a challenge that you will have to brainstorm your way out of. Spend some thoughtful and valuable time before you actually finalize.
• Build unique and innovative ads for each of the search phrases. This will mean a lot of extra work than having just one ad for all the search phrases; but in the end it pays so you have nothing to crib about. This will also mean more targeted traffic, where in some cases paying less per click (like on Google Adwords) due to the intricacies of how these ads are priced.
• Make sure to take these visitors to the most appropriate page on your website. Don’t just send them to the home page so that they have to research for the product or services that they were looking for. Instead of frustrating them further, take them to the most relevant page on your website, and make things easier.
• Keep track of visitors and the results you are able to generate. You are spending money for each click, and if you are not going to measure the returns that you are able to generate, would only amount to bad business practice. At least consider installing the free tracking tools available through the Google Adwords and Overture to measure the terms that are able to generate business through your pay-per-click campaign.

People are actually searching for what you are wanting to sell at this very moment, and if your site is unable to show up near the top of the results will only be satisfying your competitors, rather than the visitors that you would want.

On-site mobile SEO
• Using 100% valid XHTML 1.0 code is the best practice as mobile search engines may however have more trouble digesting invalid code.
• It is likely that WML will be phased out in the near future, so play wise and safe. If you validate, the mobile search engines will not have any trouble with you.
• Follow accessibility best practices as they will ensure that your content is accessible to anyone regardless of their platform. This would include mobile users as well as the mobile search engines.
• Follow the traditional on-site SEO best practices, and which by now you know by heart. Major keywords for the title tag, H1’s and body text, keyword rich anchor text for internal links, and allow the link wheels to spin around.
Getting Spidery and Indexed by Mobile Search Engines
If you are wanting, your site to be indexed by the mobile search engines, they must come to know about it first. Make sure to submit your sites to major mobile search engines for some swift recognition. It would be a wise idea to see that each of your pages is having at least one incoming link.
List of mobile search engines
The following search engines are the major players in mobile search at this point of time.
• Google XHTML Mobile Search from Google Mobile
• Yahoo! Mobile
• MSN Mobile Search
• AOL Mobile Search
• Nokia Mobile Search
• Technocratic Mobile
• 4INFO Mobile Search

My sincere suggestion is, do not wait for the “year of the mobile” to arrive. Google has left us with a hint as early as the beginning of this New Year, 2010, when they decided to launch Nexus One. Get onto it and start creating some meaningful and genuine mobile related content. Apart from the adult stuff, we are having today, there is more that we can now do to make mobile SEO more relevant and effective in the days to come.

Proxy servers are a computer system or an application that intermediates between the client and the server. It accepts the requests from the client and directs it to the required server that can cater the information or webpage requested.

Utility of proxy servers

A proxy server offers various operational advantages. An ideal proxy server can:

• Maintain anonymity of the client
• ‘Cache’ frequently needed information
• ‘Police’ the traffic
• Speed up access to servers
• Scan for malware
• Maintain the log of activities

It also offers some features that can be disadvantageous, like, it can:

• Bypass security controls
• Circumvent regional restrictions
• Hide identity of culprits

Types of proxy servers

Proxy servers are classified as under into various types depending on the way they function:

Gateway proxy – Its function is to direct the requests to particular server and send the reply to the client without ant interference or modifications.

Reverse proxy – This works mainly for web servers. It protects the main server by features like load balancing, authentication and decryption.

Transparent and non-transparent proxy – Transparent proxy acts like a gateway but does check for identification and authentication. Whereas, non-transparent proxy modifies the request or response in order to provide some added service to the user.

Forced proxy – It can be intercepting or non-intercepting forced proxy, mainly to monitor adherence to various transfer protocols.

Suffix proxy – It allows modifying the name of the proxy server to the URL of the requested content. They are easier to use than regular proxies.

Because of the diversity of functions and utility of proxy servers, they are turning out to be a useful tool in networking. By ‘caching’ the required information and providing it whenever needed, they have helped in reducing traffic to and load on the main servers.

What are paid links?

On a web page, link that links your click to buying or selling a product or service is a paid link. These links take you to altogether different site or page. So the paid links are like advertisements that we often come across in a publication. It is up to you to follow or ignore them.

Then, what’s the problem?

Paid links on web pages has always been the bone of contention between website owners and search engine optimizers. More links to your page or site was looked upon as a mark of reputation and believability.

However, recently, paid links pertaining to buying and selling are making their entry through some search engine operators. It is believed that search engines are unable to differentiate between general links and paid links; thereby raising serious questions about link based ranking of sites. Surprisingly, these links are passing PageRank by Google. They confirm that all paid links do not violate guidelines set by webmaster. These links generally do not have malicious intentions and help only to spread the business.

What’s the solution?

Solution is still nowhere in sight. Search engines fail to differentiate between general and paid links. Google, the best of them is studying the link architecture and trying to device software that automatically detects paid links. Presently, Google is actively asking its users to report paid links.

Reporting paid links on Google

Google has guidelines for reporting Paid Links. It says:

• Sign in to Goggle’s webmaster console and use the authenticated spam report form
• Then include the word “paid link” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report.
  • If you use the authenticated form, you’ll need to sign in with a Google Account, but your report will      carry more weight.
  • Use the unauthenticated spam report form and make sure to include the word “paid link” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report.

Are paid links worth?  Thousands of dollars are being pumped in to put one paid link at the site or page where it matters. It is expected to generate enormous traffic for the destination site. All it comes down to is link’s conversion rate that could give return on investment. Search engine optimizers are looking for methods to track pages and build links from the websites or pages that don’t cost you heavens.

Users must understand that buying/selling links is a high risk activity. There are ways to reduce it but the risk cannot vanish altogether. Most of the standard and reputed websites no longer display paid links to their clients. Other than ethical or moral grounds, the risk involved discourages them to do so. The reputation of the site is at stake in doing so and it will rank lower in search result pages.

Cross Linking or Internal Link Architecture

This refers to how we are managing to interlink various pages within our own web-site. Wikipedia is a good live example of how Cross Linking or Internal Link Architecture can be effectively and efficiently utilized.

• This is the key to enable the visitor to quickly and easily navigate to the desired content & topics on the web-site. This is easy to create when we are starting a new web-site, provided we have a map charted at the start.
• If it is an existing web-site, it would only require some old-fashioned patch-work, editing a couple of words on different pages for including these links.
• The idea is to inter-connect various contents of our site making relative sense. The search engines also appreciate this kind of an architecture where you show a commitment to the user’s experience. Another way for increasing page views from users.
• Contain this cross linking to relative pages, and do not use these for promotion. Also use them moderately, and do not over link pages, from one to almost every other; since you’d only be destroying the very purpose you desired. Your purpose is to help the user, and not build an internal link – spam.
• There will be links between a page, to another within any given web-site. The Internal Link Architecture of any site enables cross linking take up a required size. Navigational links take up the other half – however, both are equally important for the success of any web-site. Navigation helps organize content into logical groups, enabling our users find out all the content on our web-site.
• Although many forms of navigational links are available, and can be utilized. But the best bet for SEO purposes remains the conservative & old plain text links.
• Linked Images are selectively used by many web-sites. You click on an image or a button, to go to another page or section. These images better be nice, perfectly blending with the design, and when optimized for size – be fast to load. Image links wont pass the same value to a page as the text link, but out-weighs by the look and feel images are able to give to any web-site. However when using these, make sure to enter the fight info for the attribute tags.
• These would not be of any help with the SEO point of view, as crawlers still don’t have the ability to follow linked images, it is best left for the larger sites that have plenty of content groups, They make it simpler for the user to find out what he wants, although some tweaking may be necessary to make sure that they work as expected on browsing platforms. Considering the Crawler’s limitations, it is very important to have well laid out, and easy to access site-map.