Improve Your On-Site Optimization

You can't get success only by uploading your website on the www domain; the target is to attract well-qualified visitors towards your website, which can't be done unless you put your site in the eyes of the search engines.

Today, all of the internet users use search engines to find the site relevant to their interest. For example, if a person is interested in finding information about on-going and up-coming cricket events, he/she can easily do so by typing in the keywords in Google, Yahoo or any other search engine. The search engine, as a result, will present a list of most relevant websites on the basis of their keyword. So, in short, to get more traffic towards your website, make it more optimized and put all efforts into keeping your website in the eye of the search engine. This traffic is, without any doubt, the life of a business. No e-business can run without adequate traffic.

How to optimize your website for search engines?

There are two ways of doing it.

* Off Page Search Engine Optimization

* On Page Search Engine Optimization.

This article will focus on the tips useful for On Page Search Engine Optimization.

All search engine optimization techniques are usually classified into On Page Optimization Techniques and Off Page Optimization Techniques. Both help in achieving one common goal; to get higher ranks in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Useful On Page SEO Tips

Following are some of the most common tips for better On Page Search Engine Optimization:

The most important word; The Keyword: it is always suggested that before you upload your website, put all your efforts into the keywords since users will be using keywords to find websites of their interest. Each page of your website should be treated as a separate entity having its own title and targeted keywords.

Always try to name your webpage files starting with your targeted keyword like crickethome.htm etc. For instance, if your website is about Telescopes then the title of each of your web page should always start with the word Telescope and name each web page file starting with word Telescope like Telescopereview.htm because the search engine robots look at filenames.

Always remember that you have to make your website attractive for the human visitors as well as for search engine robots. Attractiveness for both of them can be achieved through better keyword optimization.

You should keep in mind the keyword density and never over-optimize your web page. It is not necessary that the greater the optimization level of your web page the better it will be.

Title Tags are considered to be one of the most important factors of On Page Optimization. You can say in other words that it is mandatory for you to include the main keyword as part of your title.

You should always use Header tags with lots of care. Most of the SEO experts recommend having a single H1 header tag that should contain the main Keyword in order to attract human visitors as well as the search engine robots. Other H2 tags can contain secondary keywords.

Putting the main keyword in the URL is always beneficial in the eyes of the search engines. Most of the users are usually not bothered with that but it will help in better SEO. If it is not possible to include the complete keywords or a phrase in the URL then try at least to include the most important keyword in the URL.

There are many more On Page SEO tips but the above mentioned tips are the most common and recommended by experts. You can add additional features on your website to make it more Search Engine Optimized, for instance, adding blog sections, feedback areas, guest books etc.

This post provided by Colm Byrne who has been working in the SEO arena for 4 years now and runs a blog to give tips on Internet Marketing and how to do Ethical Link building. His numerous articles provide a wonderfully researched resource.

SEO: Staying on Top of It All

These day's its more difficult than ever to stay on top of what all the "experts" are saying about search engine optimization. It seems that the search engines are changing their algorithms daily, giving you points for this and not that. So how do you stay on top of it all?

That's a good question and one that can be addressed in a variety of ways. If you're into Google, you can always visit Matt Cutts blog at www.mattcutts.com/blog/ . Matt is the guy everybody listens to for changes in how Google produces their search results. It may take some time for the changes to be implemented, but Matt usual reveals what's "new and improved."

Sign up for RSS feeds and blogs. The improve search engine rankings blog for instance and others, can provide helpful information, tools, and strategies related to changes in search engine algorithms.

Lastly, keep an eye on your own search engine rankings. As things change, dig a little deeper, pose your questions in online forums and collaborate with others to see if their site is experiencing the same thing. Collaboration is key.

SEO Myths: The Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Attending a recent trade show panel about search engine optimization at ad:tech San Francisco, one fact became apparent. There is a ton of misinformation out there when it comes to SEO. iMediaConnection recently covered this panel which addressed a number of SEO myths.

To address some of the more common mis perceptions about SEO, they asked several SEO experts to tell us about the most common myths they hear from their clients.
Here's what they found.. Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief, Search Engine Land

Myth #1: SEO is all about secret tactics

Reality

I talk to a lot of people about SEO, plenty of whom are new to it. I'd say the most common myth is that SEO involves all "secret" tactics requiring you to buy links or trick the search engines, and that no one in the industry can be trusted. In reality, there are a lot of simple but effective techniques that even the search engines will tell you to do that can increase traffic. And there are plenty of people who are not snake oil salespeople who can provide this useful service.
A good place to start the process is to look at your analytics. There are a variety of tools, including some from Google, that spotlight if you have problems being accessed by search engines. I also like a top-down approach. You start from the homepage and ensure that it is search engine friendly, then work your way back through the site going down the paths that are most important to your business.
Kevin Ryan, Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch

Myth #2: SEO means optimizing only for Google

Reality

True, Google is the dominant search engine in many parts of the world, accounting for 60 to 90 percent of all search traffic; but if you think all search engine optimization is for Google, you have missed the online marketing love boat and should return to work at your mimeograph machine.

Yahoo, MSN and hundreds of special interest sites, along with vertical or category-specific search engines, are crawling and indexing your content. The art and science of SEO includes optimizing for vertical information sites, news and social groups as well.

So, what's the best SEO strategy? While being aware of technological pitfalls and linking advantages is important, stop optimizing for Google and start optimizing for your intended audience. Building search-friendly sites in a content-friendly environment is the best way to win.
Kevin Ryan is vice president, global content director at Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch

Myth #3: Submitting your site to thousands of directories helps

Reality

I get countless spam emails promising to get me the top listings in Google by submitting my site to thousands of web directories. It's easy for anyone to start a web directory these days. Just buy some web directory software, and you're good to go. That's the danger! There is a proliferation of web directories from all the web entrepreneurs using web directory software, or some kind of PHP directory script.

Many web directories are brand new "out-of-the-box" and they don't have authority, aged domain, or a strong inbound link profile. So, submitting to these directories will not provide any substantial type of SEO lift you might hope for. The reality of the matter is that some of those submissions may actually put your site in a "bad neighborhood" and hurt your SEO efforts.

Here are some factors to look for in a quality web directory:
1) Quantity of inbound links
2) Quality of inbound links
3) Age of domain
4) Topical relevancy to your site
5) Human-edited is better than automated because editorial control tends to lend itself to quality
6) How frequently the directory gets crawled (check the Google cache)
7) The directory itself ranks in the search engines -- this can be a sign of authority and can drive clickthrough traffic
8) Are their links direct, static links or are they redirected to your site?
Bottom line: Web directory submissions do help. However, it's better to cherry pick a handful of the most reputable/authoritative web directories instead of taking the easy way and shooting yourself in the foot by using an automated process to submit your site to thousands of directories.

Myth #4: SEO is free

Reality

Just because it's not "paid search" (SEM), doesn't mean it's free.

The costs associated with SEO are:
1) SEO consultant
2) Programmer/graphic designer
3) Link development
4) Do-it-yourselfer's time (based on hourly rates)
Depending on the website and campaign objectives, an SEO campaign could cost a few thousand dollars per month to tens of thousands per month.

Metrics to measure SEO success are:
1) Keyword ranking
2) Website traffic
3) ROI
4) Brand awareness/brand engagement
Sandler's practice, which can be found at ShimonSandler.com, appears as the top result (behind a directory) on Google for the combined terms: "SEO Consultant."
Aaron Wall, founder, SEOBook.com

Myth #5: Keywords need to appear everywhere

A popular myth (brought on by people reading old SEO information that is not relevant to the current marketplace and optimization software that was programmed many years ago) is that you should put your keywords everywhere to rank as best you can. The truth is that Google's current relevancy algorithms favor more natural writing that includes a more diverse and realistic set of text with more variation in it. Some common variation strategies include using both the plural and singular versions of a keyword, changing the order of words in a phrase and adding relevant modifiers to page titles and headings.

Four or five years ago if you wanted to rank for "credit cards" you would put that phrase in your page title, in an H1 tag on the page, and in most of your inbound anchor text to that page. If you wanted to rank for the same phrase today, you might put a modifier word or two in the page title, opting for something like "Compare
Credit Cards Online." Within the page copy the heading might be something more like "Apply for a Credit Card Today."

Rather than focusing on the core phrase, this strategy still gets you decent coverage for it, but also helps the page rank for a much wider net of related keywords, and it makes the page much less likely to get filtered. You should also mix up your anchor text as well, if possible. If every link to a site has the exact same anchor text it doesn't look natural.

In addition to Wall's SEOBook.com site, he has also launched the SEO Training program to help interactive marketers better understand SEO.

Myth #6: SEO is a one-time event for a website

Reality

It's logical that a dynamically changing database of information (a search engine) requires recurring and systematic website optimization strategies and tactics.
SEO must be anchored with multi-disciplinary teams of interactive specialists who focus on website development, usability and search engine friendliness. In regard to

SEO, we investigate how a search engine works to discover the requirements for acquiring natural search traffic. Our methodologies are described best in Google's Guidelines. Following the principles of this document and taking advantage of many years of compliance, we have modeled an SEO methodology utilizing both one-time and recurring modules to produce a list of SEO client observations of success over a 12-year period. These are the factors known to contribute to SEO success, and our team is constantly aware of this when serving client needs.

Usually, the first three-modules are one-time events: keyword research, diagnostic audit and diagnostic audit modifications. The remaining three modules are recurring by nature: website and competitive analysis, page editing and optimization and link building strategy implementation. The recurring components work in sync with the way search engines work. They come into play when creating new websites, dealing with competitive pressures, adding new or dynamic pages, changing content and ongoing link profiling.

Myth #7: SEO will take years to return results

Reality

A professional SEO process begins with a "needs assessment," documenting past, current and future activities related to natural search (SEO). When allowed to provide our process and methodology, complex websites have returned excellent natural search results within 30-90 days.

A critical path to quick wins is having proper measurement metrics in place. Benchmarking natural search status prior to SEO implementation is also important for setting up your SEM scorecard. Measuring lift is easily accomplished by measuring non-brand keyword traffic and/or revenue using web analytics and/or interactive marketing analytics.

The "SEO assessment and measurement process" is distributed to provide stakeholders with critical data about SEO expectations and ROI. Clearly, statements about SEO results and expectations have long been misunderstood or even abused within the search community, primarily due to a lack of professional guidelines and/or industry standards.

Companies seeking SEO services must look for SEM qualifications. SEO best practices are now available to mitigate abuses creating false expectations, and no one has to wait years to see results.
Bruemmer is a regular contributor on search for iMediaConnection
Adam Lasnik, Google search evangelist

Myth #8: PageRank is the critical measure of a site's success

Reality

PageRank was a rather defining aspect of early Google search. Today, however -- while PageRank still plays a role -- we use more than 200 signals in ranking search results. This means that webmasters who focus primarily on PageRank are missing the bigger picture and overlooking aspects of their website that they have more control over. Of particular note, PageRank is focused on the issue of a page's importance, whereas a larger component in determining search results is relevance. We aim to deliver results that are relevant to the query typed into the search box, the area where the person is searching from and, in many cases, even each person's own demonstrated interests, based upon search history.

At the core, though, what generally makes a site successful is original and compelling content and tools. For a given set of pages, PageRank may fluctuate, and rankings do shift as the internet evolves. But in the end, what's most important is consistently happy users: people who bookmark and share your site, who understand and respect your brand and who can confidently and seamlessly make that purchase.

Myth #9: Accessibility doesn't really matter

Reality

Too many webmasters have thought of accessibility as an afterthought, as a "nice to add" feature for the blind or for a hypothetically small number of people on dial-up or super old computers. However, folks browsing the web on an iPhone can't do anything on a site that has all its content and navigation in Flash. Business folks wanting to make purchases on the go using a low-bandwidth connection may find many of today's multimedia-heavy sites simply unusable. And, especially relevant to your page's ranking in search results, Googlebot cannot understand the meaning of photos or videos.

Site accessibility -- by users on a wide variety of browsers and connections and by search engine bots -- should be one of the first things webmasters focus on. If users can't effectively use your site, you lose business. And if Googlebot can't access or understand your site, you lose traffic.

Here are a couple of best practices: Make the bulk of your content and navigation text-based, optionally adding multimedia to spice things up. Next, test your site using mobile phone browsers and ideally even a text-based browser such as Lynx. We have more details in our official Webmaster Central blog, here and here.

Myth #10: Google has an adversarial relationship with webmasters and publishers

Reality

We view webmasters as our allies, and that's not just pie-in-the-sky idealism. Helping webmasters get great content into Google benefits everyone -- the webmasters, Google and our millions of users. That's why we created Webmaster Central, which features a collection of powerful webmaster tools, our official webmaster blog, a forum featuring Googler and non-Googler search experts and help documentation in more than two dozen languages.

We are, of course, a bit constrained in what we can disclose about the subtleties of our ranking algorithms and such, largely to protect against unscrupulous folks who attempt to deceive both Google and our users. I was a webmaster myself for many years, so believe me, I know that can be frustrating. However, we've been sharing an increasing amount of information with site owners over the last few years, providing insights into how Googlebot sees a site's pages, what keywords these pages most commonly show up for in our search results and so on.

Of greater importance, though, we've been supporting more two-way communication. We have a message center in our Webmaster Tools where we can, for instance, let webmasters know that their site has been hacked. And we have dozens of experienced Googlers from our Search Quality team who spend a lot of time reading and posting in our Webmaster Help groups and attending conferences around the world, answering questions and building up communities of search experts.
Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMedia Connection.

Attending a recent trade show panel about search engine optimization at ad:tech San Francisco, one fact became apparent. There is a ton of misinformation out there when it comes to SEO. iMediaConnection recently covered this panel which addressed a number of SEO myths.

To address some of the more common misperceptions about SEO, they asked several SEO experts to tell us about the most common myths they hear from their clients.
Here's what they found.

Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief, Search Engine Land

Myth #1: SEO is all about secret tactics

Reality
I talk to a lot of people about SEO, plenty of whom are new to it. I'd say the most common myth is that SEO involves all "secret" tactics requiring you to buy links or trick the search engines, and that no one in the industry can be trusted. In reality, there are a lot of simple but effective techniques that even the search engines will tell you to do that can increase traffic. And there are plenty of people who are not snake oil salespeople who can provide this useful service.

A good place to start the process is to look at your analytics. There are a variety of tools, including some from Google, that spotlight if you have problems being accessed by search engines. I also like a top-down approach. You start from the homepage and ensure that it is search engine friendly, then work your way back through the site going down the paths that are most important to your business.

Kevin Ryan, Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch

Myth #2: SEO means optimizing only for Google

Reality
True, Google is the dominant search engine in many parts of the world, accounting for 60 to 90 percent of all search traffic; but if you think all search engine optimization is for Google, you have missed the online marketing love boat and should return to work at your mimeograph machine.

Yahoo, MSN and hundreds of special interest sites, along with vertical or category-specific search engines, are crawling and indexing your content. The art and science of SEO includes optimizing for vertical information sites, news and social groups as well.

So, what's the best SEO strategy? While being aware of technological pitfalls and linking advantages is important, stop optimizing for Google and start optimizing for your intended audience. Building search-friendly sites in a content-friendly environment is the best way to win.

Kevin Ryan is vice president, global content director at Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch

Myth #3: Submitting your site to thousands of directories helps

Reality
I get countless spam emails promising to get me the top listings in Google by submitting my site to thousands of web directories. It's easy for anyone to start a web directory these days. Just buy some web directory software, and you're good to go. That's the danger! There is a proliferation of web directories from all the web entrepreneurs using web directory software, or some kind of PHP directory script.

Many web directories are brand new "out-of-the-box" and they don't have authority, aged domain, or a strong inbound link profile. So, submitting to these directories will not provide any substantial type of SEO lift you might hope for. The reality of the matter is that some of those submissions may actually put your site in a "bad neighborhood" and hurt your SEO efforts.

Here are some factors to look for in a quality web directory:
1) Quantity of inbound links
2) Quality of inbound links
3) Age of domain
4) Topical relevancy to your site
5) Human-edited is better than automated because editorial control tends to lend itself to quality
6) How frequently the directory gets crawled (check the Google cache)
7) The directory itself ranks in the search engines -- this can be a sign of authority and can drive clickthrough traffic
8) Are their links direct, static links or are they redirected to your site?

Bottom line: Web directory submissions do help. However, it's better to cherry pick a handful of the most reputable/authoritative web directories instead of taking the easy way and shooting yourself in the foot by using an automated process to submit your site to thousands of directories.

Myth #4: SEO is free

Reality
Just because it's not "paid search" (SEM), doesn't mean it's free.

The costs associated with SEO are:
1) SEO consultant
2) Programmer/graphic designer
3) Link development
4) Do-it-yourselfer's time (based on hourly rates)

Depending on the website and campaign objectives, an SEO campaign could cost a few thousand dollars per month to tens of thousands per month.

Metrics to measure SEO success are:

1) Keyword ranking
2) Website traffic
3) ROI
4) Brand awareness/brand engagement

Sandler's practice, which can be found at ShimonSandler.com, appears as the top result (behind a directory) on Google for the combined terms: "SEO Consultant."

Aaron Wall, founder, SEOBook.com

Myth #5: Keywords need to appear everywhere

A popular myth (brought on by people reading old SEO information that is not relevant to the current marketplace and optimization software that was programmed many years ago) is that you should put your keywords everywhere to rank as best you can. The truth is that Google's current relevancy algorithms favor more natural writing that includes a more diverse and realistic set of text with more variation in it. Some common variation strategies include using both the plural and singular versions of a keyword, changing the order of words in a phrase and adding relevant modifiers to page titles and headings.

Four or five years ago if you wanted to rank for "credit cards" you would put that phrase in your page title, in an H1 tag on the page, and in most of your inbound anchor text to that page. If you wanted to rank for the same phrase today, you might put a modifier word or two in the page title, opting for something like "Compare Credit Cards Online." Within the page copy the heading might be something more like "Apply for a Credit Card Today." Rather than focusing on the core phrase, this strategy still gets you decent coverage for it, but also helps the page rank for a much wider net of related keywords, and it makes the page much less likely to get filtered. You should also mix up your anchor text as well, if possible. If every link to a site has the exact same anchor text it doesn't look natural.

In addition to Wall's SEOBook.com site, he has also launched the SEO Training program to help interactive marketers better understand SEO.

Myth #6: SEO is a one-time event for a website

Reality
It's logical that a dynamically changing database of information (a search engine) requires recurring and systematic website optimization strategies and tactics.

SEO must be anchored with multi-disciplinary teams of interactive specialists who focus on website development, usability and search engine friendliness. In regard to SEO, we investigate how a search engine works to discover the requirements for acquiring natural search traffic. Our methodologies are described best in Google's Guidelines. Following the principles of this document and taking advantage of many years of compliance, we have modeled an SEO methodology utilizing both one-time and recurring modules to produce a list of SEO client observations of success over a 12-year period. These are the factors known to contribute to SEO success, and our team is constantly aware of this when serving client needs.

Usually, the first three-modules are one-time events: keyword research, diagnostic audit and diagnostic audit modifications. The remaining three modules are recurring by nature: website and competitive analysis, page editing and optimization and link building strategy implementation. The recurring components work in sync with the way search engines work. They come into play when creating new websites, dealing with competitive pressures, adding new or dynamic pages, changing content and ongoing link profiling.

Myth #7: SEO will take years to return results

Reality
A professional SEO process begins with a "needs assessment," documenting past, current and future activities related to natural search (SEO). When allowed to provide our process and methodology, complex websites have returned excellent natural search results within 30-90 days.

A critical path to quick wins is having proper measurement metrics in place. Benchmarking natural search status prior to SEO implementation is also important for setting up your SEM scorecard. Measuring lift is easily accomplished by measuring non-brand keyword traffic and/or revenue using web analytics and/or interactive marketing analytics.

The "SEO assessment and measurement process" is distributed to provide stakeholders with critical data about SEO expectations and ROI. Clearly, statements about SEO results and expectations have long been misunderstood or even abused within the search community, primarily due to a lack of professional guidelines and/or industry standards.

Companies seeking SEO services must look for SEM qualifications. SEO best practices are now available to mitigate abuses creating false expectations, and no one has to wait years to see results.

Bruemmer is a regular contributor on search for iMediaConnection

Adam Lasnik, Google search evangelist

Myth #8: PageRank is the critical measure of a site's success

Reality
PageRank was a rather defining aspect of early Google search. Today, however -- while PageRank still plays a role -- we use more than 200 signals in ranking search results. This means that webmasters who focus primarily on PageRank are missing the bigger picture and overlooking aspects of their website that they have more control over. Of particular note, PageRank is focused on the issue of a page's importance, whereas a larger component in determining search results is relevance. We aim to deliver results that are relevant to the query typed into the search box, the area where the person is searching from and, in many cases, even each person's own demonstrated interests, based upon search history.

At the core, though, what generally makes a site successful is original and compelling content and tools. For a given set of pages, PageRank may fluctuate, and rankings do shift as the internet evolves. But in the end, what's most important is consistently happy users: people who bookmark and share your site, who understand and respect your brand and who can confidently and seamlessly make that purchase.

Myth #9: Accessibility doesn't really matter

Reality
Too many webmasters have thought of accessibility as an afterthought, as a "nice to add" feature for the blind or for a hypothetically small number of people on dial-up or super old computers. However, folks browsing the web on an iPhone can't do anything on a site that has all its content and navigation in Flash. Business folks wanting to make purchases on the go using a low-bandwidth connection may find many of today's multimedia-heavy sites simply unusable. And, especially relevant to your page's ranking in search results, Googlebot cannot understand the meaning of photos or videos.

Site accessibility -- by users on a wide variety of browsers and connections and by search engine bots -- should be one of the first things webmasters focus on. If users can't effectively use your site, you lose business. And if Googlebot can't access or understand your site, you lose traffic.

Here are a couple of best practices: Make the bulk of your content and navigation text-based, optionally adding multimedia to spice things up. Next, test your site using mobile phone browsers and ideally even a text-based browser such as Lynx. We have more details in our official Webmaster Central blog, here and here.

Myth #10: Google has an adversarial relationship with webmasters and publishers

Reality
We view webmasters as our allies, and that's not just pie-in-the-sky idealism. Helping webmasters get great content into Google benefits everyone -- the webmasters, Google and our millions of users. That's why we created Webmaster Central, which features a collection of powerful webmaster tools, our official webmaster blog, a forum featuring Googler and non-Googler search experts and help documentation in more than two dozen languages.

We are, of course, a bit constrained in what we can disclose about the subtleties of our ranking algorithms and such, largely to protect against unscrupulous folks who attempt to deceive both Google and our users. I was a webmaster myself for many years, so believe me, I know that can be frustrating. However, we've been sharing an increasing amount of information with site owners over the last few years, providing insights into how Googlebot sees a site's pages, what keywords these pages most commonly show up for in our search results and so on.

Of greater importance, though, we've been supporting more two-way communication. We have a message center in our Webmaster Tools where we can, for instance, let webmasters know that their site has been hacked. And we have dozens of experienced Googlers from our Search Quality team who spend a lot of time reading and posting in our Webmaster Help groups and attending conferences around the world, answering questions and building up communities of search experts.

Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMedia Connection.

How to Create Expandable Blogger Entries: Read More..

Expandable Post Summaries is the method by which each blog post consists of a short paragraph of introduction followed by a 'Read More' link. This enables the reader to get a small introduction to each post on the main page. He can then click the Read More link if he gets sufficiently interested.

Many bloggers have reported confusion when they tried to follow the instructions on the official blogger help page for this hence I have tried to put the help in more easy to follow terms here. There are basically three steps to follow if you want to implement expandable post summaries in the new layouts template.

CONDITIONAL CSS

The first step is to put the code for the conditional css. This changes how posts display on different pages. To do this login to Dashboard and click on Layout for your blog. Then click on Edit Html and first backup your template by using the Download Full Template link. Then scroll down till you come to [/head] tag and add the following code immediately above it :

[style]
[b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"']
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
[b:else/]
span.fullpost {display:none;}
[/b:if]
[/style]

Save Template. IMPORTANT NOTE in the layouts template there is a ]]][/b:skin] tag just above the [/head] tag. Add the above code so that it lies between these two tags. What we did here was to define a class called "fullpost" that will appear only on post pages (permalinks).

"READ MORE" LINKS

The second step is to add the Read More links which will appear after the paragraph summaries. To do this put a check in the Expand Widgets Template checkbox at the top of the Edit Template text box.

NOTE : If you do not put a check in Expand widgets template checkbox at the top of the TEMPLATE CODE BOX you will not see this code.
This is in the Edit Html subtab of Template tab. Then scroll down in the code till you come to the Blog Posts Widget code where locate this line of code :

[data:post.body/]

Add the code below immediately after the above code :

[b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"']
[a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank']Read more![/a]
[/b:if]

Save Template. This link will only appear on the main page and archive pages, and it will redirect your reader to the post page containing the full text of your post.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Do not use any other code or it will give error.

You can also add your post title at the end of the Read More link so that it will read "Read More on "My Best Post"!"
UPDATE

A Reader wanted to increase the font size of the Read More! link. To do this add this code instead of the one above :

[b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"']
[span ][a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'][font size="120" color="red"]Read more![/font][/a][/span]
[/b:if]

Increase or decrease the figure 120 as you want it and then save the template. To make the font bold use this code instead :

[b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"']
[span style="font-weight:bold;"][a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank']Read more![/a][/span]
[/b:if]

Save Template. To do both use this code :

[b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"']
[span style="font-weight:bold;"][span ][a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank']Read more![/a][/span][/span]
[/b:if]

Save Template.

POST MODIFICATIONS

The last step is to modify the post template so that each post when created will show you where to place your summary paragraph and where to place the rest of the post. To do this go to Settings------]Formatting and scroll down to the end of the page to the box for the Post Template. Copy and Paste the following lines there :

Here is the beginning of my post. [span class="fullpost"]And here is the rest of it.[/span]

Save Settings. When you click on Create Post and then Edit Html tab of Post Editor you will see the following:

Type your summary here
[span class="fullpost"]
And here is the rest of it.
[/span]

Replace the line "Here is the beginning of my post." (Type your summary here) with your summary paragraph. Then replace the line "And here is the rest of it." (Type rest of the post here.) with the rest of your post. Do not delete the other lines [span class="fullpost"] and [/span]. Also add your summary paragraph above both the lines and your rest of the post between the lines. Then click Publish to publish post.


CREATING YOUR POSTS

Login to Blogger.com and click on +New Post link on Dashboard. The Post Editor will come up. Click on Edit Html tab in top right frame of Post Editor. This is what you should see (The colors are mine) :

Type your summary here
[span class="fullpost"]
Type rest of the post here
[/span]

If you want to show a photo or any text on the summary post on the Main Page put it instead of the red text line.

If you want photo to show in the full post on the Post Page put it instead of the GREEN text.

Before publishing make sure that the two span (code) lines are present and the [/span] line is at the bottom and the span=readmore line in between your summary post and the second half of the post.

Then only click on Publish button.

PLEASE NOTE

1. The hack will not apply retrospectively. That is to say after you add the code you will have to edit your past posts so that they display in summary fashion on the Main Page of the blog.

2. The hack applies only to posts on the Main Page. Once a post having the hack moves off the Main Page it does not display in this fashion. This is a Main Page Hack.

Are Website Submission Services Really All That Effective?

If you're like me, you're constantly inundated with banner ads and emails that say, "submit your website to 50,000+ search engines." Well, when you're trying to get traffic to your new website, the promise of distributing your URL to that many engines becomes very appealing.

Being so involved in Internet marketing, I always wondered about the value of these types of services. Because of the low entry price, around $30, I figured I'd give it a try for this very blog. So I plunked down my credit card and gave it a go. Do you know what happened?

Within 3 hours of completing the submission, my Google search results plummeted. I went from the #1 position on Google to the #5 position. Now, you might be saying to yourself that this decline in rankings was merely coincidence. However, nothing else was changes with my search engine optimization strategy and my existing rankings had been steady for over eight months.

Truth be told, this was actually my second foray into using a distribution service. Previously I had experienced the same phenomenon with my other website - sometimes we make the same mistake a second time!

The evidence seems rather clear. Website submission services do NOTHING in the short term and can have a detrimental impact on your rankings. So if you're looking for a boost in search engine rankings on Google, stay away from website submission services.

Writing For Search Engines: Made Simple

To achieve maximum search engine visibility, you need to think a bit like a search engine when writing the copy for your website. Search engines look at the HTML code that makes up your web page and attempts to parse out the textual copy on the page, eliminating the HTML markup used for layout. The textual copy goes into the search engine’s “index," which is a very large database.

When a user conducts a search on the search engine, the database is queried to identify all the pages in the index that include those words on the page and/or in the links pointing to that page. So if your page does not include the words the user was searching for, it is unlikely your page will rank well, if at all. The same holds true when none of the links to that page include the words that the user searched for in the link text (the clickable text that forms the link).

Once pages have been identified, search engines order the results according to relevance. Relevance can be determined based on dozens and dozens of criteria, such as keyword prominence (how often your keywords appear on a page, and where they appear).

Developing Your Page

As you begin to start thinking the way a search engine does, most copywriters will realize that they are being too verbose in the first few paragraphs. It also occurs to them as they are writing that the title tag for the page they are working on doesn’t have the most important keywords listed first, but rather last. Moving the most important keywords for that page to the beginning of the title tag, as well as moving those keywords to the top of the page copy, can really help to boost your page ranking.

It is also important that you do not go overboard with what is called “keyword density.” This refers to the number of times your keywords appear on a page. Too many occurrences of your keywords and the page will trip the spam penalty algorithm, which will damage your page’s rank. Also, if you are going after a particular keyword phrase, your web page will appear more relevant if the individuals words in that phrase appear together in your page copy.

In addition to placing your selected keywords at the beginning of your title tag and also in the first paragraph or two of page copy, it also helps to emphasize your keywords by enclosing them in heading tags (i.e. h1). Think through how you can best structure the information on your page so that your keywords appear inside heading tags, body copy and other tags while still writing something interesting and compelling.

Once you have thought about each of these points, it is time to start writing. Try to write at least a couple of hundred words of page copy. This is not a rule, but a good guideline to follow. When you are creating links from text, be mindful to include good keyword-rich text in your link text. Avoid using phrases such as “click here” and “more information” in your links, and instead choose words that are relevant to the page the link will go to.

At this point, you presumably now have well-written, interesting and useful page copy that includes your most important targeted keywords in all the right places. However, don’t just assume that you have gotten it right, especially if you are new at this. Run your copy past a human being or two to ensure that it is interesting, engaging and communicates your message effectively. If it doesn’t, it’s time to start again and rethink your copy.

Once you have human approval, it’s time to run the draft page through a search engine spider simulator such as the one at searchengineworld.com/cgibin/sim_spider.cgi. This tool, and others like it, will tell you how many times you used each keyword. It will parse the text just like a search engine would, and occasionally you will see that another keyword comes through more strongly than you had intended and a more important keyword is dwarfed in comparison. Don’t worry, now is the time to fix this, and with a little practice you will have a good gut feeling for what will rank well.

The final test, of course, is linking your new page to the rest of your website and seeing how it performs with the real search engines. If the results are lower than expected, you can make some adjustments by moving text around, adding and subtracting copy and so forth. Pay particular attention to your title META tag, as this is given the most importance by the search engines out of everything on your page.

Another way to help convince visitors to click through to your website is to write a descriptive summary of your page to be included in your description META tag. Make sure that your description contains the targeted keywords that you have chosen for this page, and be brief. While this does not help with your search engine ranking, having a compelling description is just good form and worth doing.

Boost Link Density and Achieve Top Search Engine Rankings

In today's race to the top of the Google SERP's (Search Engine Result Pages), there are a number of factors that can help you achieve those coveted spots. While certain techniques may weigh better than others based on your industry and level of competition, there is no questioning the power of links.

There are several methods, some common and some yet to be discovered, you can try out to help boost your link density and search rankings. While it would be near impossible to go into great detail on all methods (that would require a book) below I have outlined some of the more common techniques a web site owner can use to increase their site's popularity.

1. Reciprocal Links Reciprocal links used to be a huge asset and played a significant role. Today, fewer sites are employing this technique as it is thought by many to have no role in the eyes of Google. This is simply not true. While the overall value of reciprocal links has declined over the years, they can and will still help your rankings if done correctly. The key with reciprocal links is very simple - relevance. If you trade links only with highly relevant sites, you will get value from this.

There are some things to watch out for: ensure that the links returning to you are spider friendly, that they reside on pages with as few links as possible, and are contextualized, meaning the content on the page, and preferably the site as a whole, is related to the content of your link and site.

If you contact a relevant site to request a link exchange, keep the email personal to help grab the attention of the webmaster. Most link exchange emails are spammy automated submissions and are deleted without being read. Write the subject and entire email in such a way as to entice the user to read on, but keep it short. Offer to put their link up first, or even better yet, put it up before you contact them.

2. Purchasing Links Google has been devaluing links, and in extreme cases, even penalizing sites for selling links, but there is no denying that this technique still works as many sites have skyrocketed to the top of the SERP's through the art of buying links. Many high profile sites such as major and local newspaper publications sell text links, yet nobody seems to be penalized for it as the publications rank well with high PR and the site they link to ranks well as a result.

If you choose to take the gamble and purchase links back to your site, check out how they are linking back, how relevant they are, and try to get a sense of how their site is treated by Google. If you see other sites that appear to have purchased links from them, check their back links and see if the linking site appears (although it may not be displayed as Google displays very little of this information to the public these days). It is thought that if penalties will arise from the sale of links, that only the selling site will be penalized. Even if this is the case, Google's policy could change at any moment, so be warned that this could potentially come back to bite you.

3. Industry Contacts Get in touch with your industry contacts and ask them if they will link to your site. You just never know, and the worst they can say is no. This is usually best requested in person or by phone if it is someone you have a good relationship with. It may include manufacturers or retailers of your products, or various business partners and companies you have a relationship with.

4. Good Old Fashion Content Believe it or not it works. If your site is loaded with original, valuable content, you will get some people linking to your site on their own. While you can not base your entire linking strategy around this concept, as it could take forever to get enough links, rest assured knowing that if you build it, some will link.

5. Build a Blog Everyone and their dog seem to have a blog these days, and for good reason - they work. Blogs help you create a never ending stream of content, and if updated regularly, written well, and interesting, you will find people will link to it. Not only that, others may pick up your blog through your RSS feed - this can result in an increase in both links and site traffic. Be sure to utilize your Digg and other social media accounts within your blog to help gain a little extra attention.

6. Social Media Promote your site and your blog using various social media tools. When someone "Diggs" or "Stumbles" your article you can not only get a link back to your site from the media platform, but you can also see traffic generated by this. The more people that flag your article, the more traffic you can get, and the higher the value of the link. Creating company profile pages on platforms such as Squidoo, Facebook, MySpace, and even uploading photos and videos to Flickr and YouTube, can all count as back links to your site, so be sure to utilize these platforms to the fullest extent. Do not use these networks to spam them full of links, but rather to inform. Build unique relevant content and become a member of the community, and you will find your links will work much harder for you.

7. Article Syndication When you write worthwhile articles, submit them to any known article aggregation websites in your industry or great general portals such as ezinearticles.com. When submitted to the right places you can drive traffic and increase your links. Again, be sure to include a link or two within your article that links back to your site when possible.

8. Press Releases Press releases are still doing wonders. When your business hits a milestone, releases a new product, or has anything worthy of a press release, issue one through the services of PRWeb. You will get a link back to your site, and you may also get some targeted traffic from those interested when reading your release. If your press release is of significant news, you may also find bloggers and other writers referencing it and linking to it from their articles, providing even more value. Ensure that with any press release you include deep links back into your site. Links from within the bio are helpful, but those integrated into paragraphs of the release are worth much more.

9. Comments I know I am going to get a hard time for this one, but if used wisely, it can help. When reading relevant blog posts, if you have something useful, constructive, and worthwhile to say, leave a comment and include your link if they provide the option. A comment like: "nice post" is inappropriate, but if you have something to add or contribute that others will find of interest then go for it. These links can add up, and they do add some value. Don't stuff your comment or name with keywords, keep it natural, and use your real name.

10. Form Posts and Signatures This is an area where you may be able to grab a few links, but it is also one you need to be careful about as it can backfire. I do NOT recommend going out and wildly posting in random forums and including your link. Where this area can be useful is if you establish yourself as a solid contributor to a particular forum directly related to your industry. Once you are established, and people know and trust your name, and understand that you are not there as a spammer, then you can consider adding your link to your signature file, and including the odd link in your forum posts when it is fully in context. This will allow you to get the odd relevant, inbound link. Check with the terms of the specific forum though before you start. Some do not allow links of any kind.

11. Testimonials You see them on many sites offering products or services, and quite often they include a link back to the submitter's website. If you have used a product or service, don't be afraid to write a testimonial for the company. In many cases online businesses will post your testimonial along with a link. The testimonial helps that business instill confidence in their customers, and you get the valuable link back.

12. Directory Submissions Yes, do still submit your site to the major directories. While DMOZ can be very difficult to get into, once you are there, it is like gold and will play a part in your top rankings. Yahoo directory has a high price $299US, but can also provide you with a valuable inbound link. Consider submitting to the major directories, as well as any industry specific directories. These links add up and will contribute to your site's well being.

13. Link Bait We have heard this phrase thrown around for a while now, but the technique has worked long before the phrase "link bait" was coined. Why all the hype? Because it works. Take a look at your web site, your business and your industry. See if you can think of some way to attract people to link to your site. Perhaps sponsor a contest, add an elaborate and unique tool, write a controversial article, provide something useful for free - whatever you do, do it well, and promote the heck out of it, and people will naturally link to you.

A Few General Rules: Before you actively seek out a link from a specific site do some investigating to ensure that the site is not spamming or using any black hat techniques. If they are, run. If the link you are seeking is merely for you to try and boost your link density, then also check out how they are linking to other third party sites. Does the site use the rel=nofollow attribute? Are the pages your link would reside on blocked by the search engines, or do they use the robots Meta nofollow? Are they using other techniques that would not allow a spider to follow them (such as JavaScript, Flash, or frames)? If so you may want to move on. And a note on Google PR (Page Rank) - the PR you see on your toolbar is outdated. While it can give you some insight, just because it says 0, doesn't mean it is. Also what has a 0 or 1 today, could be a 4 or 5 tomorrow. Don't use PR as your sole means of deciding if you should obtain a link or not.

Using any or all of these linking methods will help you to increase your link density. There is power in diversification. Use variations on anchor text and descriptions, use inline text links within articles, and gain links in as many different venues as possible. By being diverse your site will stand the best chance of being around well into the future. Today, blogs are huge and can be a strong asset, but what would happen if tomorrow Google decided to ban blogs? Highly unlikely, but it could happen, and if it did, would your site survive? By being diverse, your site has the best chance to survive change.
by Scott Van Achte, Senior SEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

Your search engine ranking depends on a number of factors: assuming you get listed in the first place. If you have managed to get that listing then you can improve your search engine position by means of links back to your website and also by improving your content.

Significant improvements, however, will likely involve radical restructuring of your website, and would have been better thought out before building your site.

Many so-called SEO experts will attempt to make sure that all your meta tags are in place, even though they have little bearing any more on your search engine rank, be that on Google, Yahoo, MSN or Ask.

They might even have a look at your internal linking, but once you have built your website it is too late for that. Your internal linking strategy should have been formulated prior to constructing your website. There are ways to design a site to be search engine friendly, and I use them all the time.

The very first two websites I tried these techniques on each reached page #1 on Google for their main keyword within less than a month. They were listed within two days due to other techniques I use, but their high listings were due to the site design. I then designed a third, and true to form, it reached page #1.

You want that success as well, and it is not difficult to achieve. However, it involves starting from the bottom up, although there is a lot that you can do with your existing website apart from just playing around with meta tags. I am not suggesting that you shouldn't make sure that you have meta descriptions and a title tag in your html, but they are nothing like as significant as the changes I make to my websites to improve their search engine ranking. Not even close!

There are a number of changes you can make to improve your search engine position, ranging from your internal linking to the way you lead the spiders around your site.

Just ask yourself one simple question: what determines your search engine rank on Google? How does Google calculate your search engine position? That's the first thing you have to learn if you want to improve yours. You have to know your enemy to beat him.

It's not only links, as many would have you believe, or I would never have achieved a Page 1 position so quickly. In fact of my two main websites, one is at ~1 and the other at #2 for their main keyword: the titles of their first page. I achieved that by using a silo structure in my website design, but not only that. Many people use silos without achieving high search engine ranking.

I added a little more, and made sure that the search engine spiders moved from one section of my home page to another, exactly as I wanted them to, before leaving for the next page at exactly the point I wanted it to.

It's not difficult, and you can do it too. In fact anybody can get a top search engine ranking, or improve their search engine position (everybody can't be top!), with just a little thought, and by using a couple of simple rules when designing their web pages.

One of these is by using a silo structure, and the other is by careful use of their html, and of their internal links.

Peter Nisbet - If you want to learn how I achieve my high search engine ranking positions, visit SEOcious where I will show by means of screenshots of my html exactly what I do, and also how I lead search engine spiders as though they were on a lead.

Improve Your Ranking on Google With These Helpful Tips

Google looks at everything from the "authority level" of the linked sites to their "PageRank" and even the IP class they use (Internet Protocol designation.) While we don't have hours to get into every little detail, I have provided three simple surefire ways to get hundreds of top rate inbound links to any page or your site you wish. This really is the quickest way to get to the top of Google and stay there. So, here we go...

1. Hire a Blog Reviewer

Hiring a blogging pro is a fast way of getting the links you want. Here's how it works... You are basically hiring a blog reviewer to chat up your Website. You set the tone of what is said and even give them acceptable working parameters to meet, such as the blog's traffic rating, type of blog and overall popularity.

You can hire independent people from services like eLance.com, Guru.com or RentaCoder.com or you can use a service that specializes in blog reviewers for hire, like http://www.PayPerPost.com. Personally, I like PayPerPost because it's their specialty and this is their "posties" livlihood, so they tend to do a great job. It's extremely reliable and great for social networking but considerably slower and ultimately more expensive than the following methods if your goal is simply link building.

2. Use Article marketing Focused on Your Site's Main Topic

Offering free yet valuable content to the publishers, and ultimately readers, of blogs, newsletters and article directories is among the the fastest and most reliable ways to get high quality inbound links with minimal expense. But even more important to some is that if you share your expertise the right way, you will likely become a recognized expert in your field in no time.

People have filled entire books on the subject of article marketing so let me just hit the highlights here. This will be enough to get you started and help your name become trusted by both publishers and readers alike. Just remember these six simple guidelines...

1.) The article has to accomplish two things. First, it has to be 100% legitimate and not contain any inflated facts or sales pitches. And second it absolutely must present real value to the reader and the publisher. Don't ever write an article just for your own sake. A solely self serving article will be immediately transparent to the publisher and to most readers. Most people understand you want something in return for sharing your knowledge and are very happy to oblige a mutually beneficial arrangement, such as a great article for a link back in your bio.

2.) Obey the rules of where you are submitting your work. This is extremely important! Don't waste an editor or publisher's time. Be sure to select the best, and most descriptive category possible for your submission.

3.) You can (and in my opinion, should) write in a casual, conversational style but be careful to spell check the article and review it for clarity before submitting it. Once you have written something, especially something with your name attached to it, it will be a representation of you.

4.) Make the the length of your article appropriate for what you have to say. Don't drone on or cut it too short. Most article directories have guidelines about how long they like to see submissions. The same goes for newsletters. If you can't find this info for the directory you like, sticking between 500 and 1,000 words is usually a safe bet and usually up to 1,250 is OK. If you have more to say, consider splitting it into multiple articles that deal with one specific topic each.

5.) Be brief in your bio section. If your article is well written and contains similar words to the keywords you want to be found for, 350 characters (or about 40 words) should be more than enough to tell a little about yourself, your services with one or two relevant keywords properly placed. Just be sure to use those keywords as anchor text when linking to the page that covers that keyword's topic on your site. Many directories will let you have two links in the bio section and all allow at least one.

6.) And here's the big one. Provide unique content to each article directory. No article or newsletter publisher wishes to have a bunch of duplicate content so carefully rephrase at least 30% to 35% of the article to make it unique. This will help both the publisher and the quality of your resulting inbound your links.

3. Use Three Way Linking

Google has discounted the use of straight reciprocal links to the point that many people feel they are not worth the time and effort to obtain. I still use them sparingly but I avoid reciprocal linking systems like the plague. Google hates them and they are so easy to detect that you might as well put a banner on your site saying "Hey Google, I use a link farm!"

Three way linking, however, is another story. Reciprocal linking is very easy to detect but 3 way links are altogether different. It works like this... Site 1 links to Site 2 and then Site 2 links to Site 3. And finally Site 3 links to Site 1, or even to another site in the chain. In short; every link is a true and verifiable one way inbound link.

If you are part of a group of similar sites, this is well worth doing. But if you need to build links quickly or don't have the time to set this up yourself, you can use a service like 3 Way Linker (http://www.3WayLinker.com ). It's the ideal "set it and forget it" option and gives you full control over important aspects of linking.