Best Practice SEO: File Extension or No?

Not having an .html file extension - SEO benefits over an extensionless directory-style url

On the .html file extension:

A file extension makes any keyword-rich naming appear human-generated rather than computer-generated, since html files are typically static files. They also argue that a page named “/awesome-page.html” is considered one level higher than one named “/awesome-page/” and that higher level pages get more indexing-juice.

On the other side:

It doesn’t matter. It’s likely that Google does not really assign more weight to a page with an .html file extension, as extensions can easily be generated dynamically. Surely, Google or other search engines aren’t so naive as to make an assumption such as, “If the page has an .html extension it must be static”. Secondly, while it is true that pages higher up in the directory structure of a site get more weight in indexing, it’s also true that this is considered in relation only to the site itself. At that point, the argument becomes moot, since whether the site structure starts at level 0 or level 1, all sub-levels will line up equally. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the W3C recommends directory-style urls over extensions (under the heading, “What to leave out”).

Hire SEO Expert

Hire SEO Expert

Hire SEO expert from Rize and get your website optimized for major search engines. Our search engine optimization techniques include off site and on site techniques to get more targeted web traffic.

Hire the services of SEO, the most powerful tool to optimize your website for search engines by proper placement of keywords & optimizing links. Get organic search ranking by improving pagerank and link popularity.

Hire Search Engine Optimization Experts:

Rize is a search engine optimization and internet marketing company specializing in SEO and SEM services. Our professional ptimization search engine marketing services include:

* SEO, SEM Services

* Link Building Services

* Pay Per Click Management Services

* Content Development/Copywriting Services

* Social Media Marketing (Facebook, Twitter, and Google +1 Optimization)

* AdWords Management Services

* Internet Marketing

* Web Analytics and Competitive Analysis

Yahoo Site Explorer to Close down

Yahoo! has decided to shut down its search engine optimization and back link checker tool Yahoo Site Explorer. A large number of search marketers rely heavily on Yahoo’s site explorer tool to measure the success of their back link building efforts. Yahoo site explorer was a great tool for small time freelance back link builders but since yahoo has decided to close it down the only option remaining is Bing Webmaster Tools.

You may ask what about Google Webmaster Tools? The answer is, its not among the best tools to check back links. Google only displays very limited number of backlinks that it has counted as a genuine link towards your site. Since Yahoo search is now powered by Bing. Therefore, Yahoo has suggested users to move over to Bing. But the fact remains that Bing is also not very good in indexing back links. Specially for small and niche websites.

How Bing’s Tool be used by webmasters will now needs to be seen. But a great tool that Yahoo Site Explorer was, will always be missed.

Google Adsense

Tips To Help You With Google Adsense  

For home working business owners who run their business online, one of the most popular marketing ways to hopefully generate immediate income with your site is by placing Google Adsense ads on your website. To do it is free and Google determines the ads to put on your site depending upon the programming code that you put on your site, which Google will provide to you. But, you’ll still need to design your site well and use the correct SEO to get the traffic to your site in the first place.

There are several tips to making money through Adsense:

1. Make sure you follow the Adsense rules. Google can blacklist your site if you break any of their rules. After all, it is free so why should you even consider breaking their rules.

2. Ensure you still use white hat SEO techniques including content rich pages and inbound links. Content sites keep people coming to you (plus they might bookmark your site and recommend it) and the search engines will love you for it. Eventually you might rank well for chosen keywords.

3. Use good keywords. By developing all the pages in your websites rather than just the home page with targeted keywords will assist search engines to rank you higher so more visitors will see your Adsense ads.

4. Using colours correctly buy coordinating them with the colours on your site will make them seem natural. Some have 2 main colours of the site and use the same for their Adsense ads. They recommend keeping the URL link of the ad in blue as it attracts the visitor and visitors recognise it as a link. As well, it is recommended to blend the ads with the content on the page so they seem natural and not too overbearing.

5. The placing of the ads on the page is also important. If you’re income predications are through Adsense then it is recommended that you place the Adsense ads in the upper left hand area of your website as research shows that people naturally read webpages from the top left down. A vertical skyscraper ad has been seen to increase the click through rate to almost 30% (in the best cases). It is suggested to not place ads in the top right and bottom right corner of the site as visitors might not bother to read the whole page and quickly navigate on.

6. Finally, the shape or style of the ad. Google actually recommends that you use vertical ads as visitors psychologically prefer them. Wider styles also attract attention as they are deemed easier to read.
If you choose to include Adsense ads on your webpages, then you should also try and maximise their income potential by following the previously mentioned ideas.

SMO Helps In Alexa Ranking

Seo Vs Smo

There are many who are still thinking to create an online presence and if possible achieve such online recognition that can influence online visitors and work out as a successful conversion. The desire is almost the same for every online business that exist, but the essential fact to consider is the part, What makes this happens?

It is SEO or SMO, What are these?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): is a process, technique, tool, strategy, tactic to optimize a website in such a way that search engines understand, rank, read and index it appropriately.In SEO the optimization process helps websites to achieve favorable search engine rankings and increase traffic flow to their online presence.

SMO (Social Media Optimization): SMO is a method that considers social media networking in such a way that it attracts online users and promotes your business presence with help of enormous traffic. Some good examples would be of business networking websites, online communities and blogs.

Therefore, it is SEO and SMO that focus on to provide traffic for an online presence and this is where it is important to understand both methods that conclude to promote your online business and provide you the maximum benefits of Internet Marketing. Consider the following key points to make out the most from given options.

1)SEO is practiced widely to impress search engines whereas SMO is practiced to target and attract human beings. Thus the content written for SEO should be rich with keywords and quality shall be perfect to get noticed by search engines but in SMO we write content to attract the social media.

2)In SEO we consider an important aspect to be Meta headers, titles and keyword identification so the online presence is optimized according to the search engines, whereas in SMO the stress is upon social networking websites that enables us to work on various ways to get noticed and spread our online presence.

3)SEO works on to promote your online presence through search engines ranking and is in practice from quite some time now whereas SMO is a new method which is growing rapidly through social networks and the popular the social networking site the more chances you are to prosper in addressing your online existence.

4)SEO process involves several aspects within, each process having its own importance and results make it more long lasting and authentic source of achieving online recognition which requires help of a professional whereas SMO can be practiced by anyone who have little information and internet exposure.

5)SEO carefully considers each and every aspect of a website to its very basics to the content, its headings, tiles, keywords, structure of the sitemap and other aspects that it is created upon and thereon ranking is achieved but SMO does not consider any of this in its process.

This is where you should be aware of the fact that SMO cost you nothing or very less to perform and acquire results but SEO is something that comes of experience and the more you get the precise practice it will become for you to venture the very online presence.

SMO Helps In Alexa Ranking

Feed Your Customers With Social Media

10 Ways To Feed Your Customers With Social Media

Using social media simply as a tool to market to potential new customers is missing a huge part of what social media can do. Use your social media efforts not only to acquire new customers and clients but also to find ways also to increase your connection with existing customers.

Another way of looking at this idea is to say that you should use social media to feed or nourish your existing customers in a way that keeps them coming back for more and that makes them want to continue the relationship with you.

Here are 10 ways to feed your customers with social media:

1. Share information. Providing valuable information not only in your niche but in theirs is an excellent way to feed your customers through social media. Find success stories, how-tos and other articles to share. Make your social media profile more than just a place to re-broadcast and publicize your own articles and blog posts, but also a place for sharing the latest relevant information in your niche or industry from a variety of sources.

2. Share tips. Don’t stop at articles and the latest info. Tips that can improve your customers’ business and your own will help you chart a path together moving into the future and of sharing knowledge with your team, partners and other customers and clients (or pretty much anyone linked to you via social media.) More than the latest news, you can be a source of professional improvement and education in both your own industry and those dominated by your clients.

3. Introduce them to friends. Some business leaders believe that introducing their clients, partners and customers to others in their network would be a mistake allowing others to bypass them on projects and form leveraging networks that do not include them. This is a shortsighted view of what social media networking can do. Introducing you customers and clients to others in your field and theirs will first establish you as an important networker, authority and connector in that field, and second, leverage new opportunities not seen before with new partners, clients and customers potentially benefiting everyone in the network.

4. Educate. Teach your customers, clients and suppliers what to expect and where your industry is heading. This will give you an opportunity to introduce new products and services that are available to your customers, clients and community but also to explain the benefits of these new products and services within the larger framework of your niche and industry. As a result, educating your community puts you in the position of helping your clients and customers prepare for trends while making them aware of the tools and services you offer to assist them with future challenges.

5. Take an interest. Knowing your niche, your industry and the products and services you offer is one thing, but knowing something about your customer or client and their needs is also imperative. Of course, your success depends on their success so use your social media channels to explore the niches and markets important to your them. It will show that you understand their business and help you gain insight into their market and how it is changing.

6. Empower. Providing your customers and clients with new information in their field or niche can open new opportunities and new vistas into which they and you can expand. Growth for your customers and clients means growth for your business as well, so focus on sharing information that uncovers new ideas, products, services and new markets, not just the same old tips for the same old markets your clients already dominate.

7. Spend some time listening. Social media is a telephone not just a microphone. By building connections not only with your customers and clients but with others in their niche or industry, you can monitor what’s important to those you serve sharing innovations and trends and pointing out new directions for their business that will in turn strengthen your authority in their niche or market and brand you as an expert, eventually drawing more business from existing clients and customers and others in similar industries.

8. Give a little more. Social media content is a great way of giving more to existing and prospective clients while eventually attracting more business from both and from others following you. Social media is one of the best ways to give more to your existing customers while at the same time branding and marketing your business. Using the tools of social media will allow you to streamline and combine your marketing and customer service efforts and boost your visibility all at once with others in your industry.

9. Strategize for the future. Using social media to follow trends in your own industry or niche and those of your clients will also help you and them forecast the future. Almost like mini-consulting sessions, social media allows you to share information on new directions and new ideas and share those ideas with clients and followers in a way that allows them to be assimilated and acted upon in the future forming a road map for future growth while establishing yourself as a thought leader.

10. Add a little magic. Links to special features and posts, video content, your own original blog posts, original interviews with industry leaders: all are ways to add some extra magic and an exciting dynamic to your social media channel. Be aware that retaining followers, including existing customers, is the key. Focus on material that will keep your readers coming back again and again and referring your content to others.

Are you using social media to set a banquet for your loyal customers? How are you using social media channels to feed your customers and yet keep them hungry for more?

source

Google Heavily Penalizes Websites

Three days ago Google launched and update that may radically affect the amount of search engine traffic your blog or website gets. They're calling it a minor update to their algorithm, but it has already had a major effect on some sites. 8 Days ago I mentioned on Hacker News that a site that was scraping the popular StackOverflow was ranking higher than them - by republishing their content. Well Google has updated their algorithm and the scraper site's traffic immediately plummeted by about 90%. The day-over-day drop is 40%. I'm not a fan of sites that steal content, but ouch!!

Here is Matt Cutts, head of Google's anti-spam team making the announcement a few days ago.

From industry buzz it seems that Google is going after two kinds of sites this year. The first is sites that scrape content from others and republish that content unmodified (scraper sites). The second is sites who have low quality content farms, where large numbers of low wage humans generate low quality content purely to try and attract search engine traffic. We've now seen hard evidence of the new anti-scraper policy but not much evidence of Google going after content farms.

If you run a blog or content site that relies on SEO traffic, here is how you need to react to this:

1. Make sure you limit the amount of republished content.
2. If you do republish content, make sure there is at least the same amount of original content on the same page to balance it out.
3. Beware publishing large amounts of low quality content. We haven't seen any evidence of penalties in this area yet, but trust me they're coming.

I'm also modifying my back-link strategy slightly:

Google has always had a duplicate content penalty but over the last few years scrapers have gotten good at getting around that by mixing and matching content and adding just enough of their own to have it appear unique to a machine. Now Google have made a few additional changes to their search algorithm to penalize scraper sites. The question is, what changes did they make?

My guess is that one of the things they are looking at is the number of "deep links" you have from other websites linking to content deep in your own site. Sites that scrape content tend to have many links from high ranking sites to their home page but few links to content deep in the site because people just don't find the content valuable enough.

So one of the ways I'm reacting to this algorithm change is to make sure that it's not just our home page that is linked to, but pages deep within the site too.

Expect to see a few more changes from Google like this as the year progresses. Remember, the most important thing is to have unique and useful content and to let the right websites know about it.

Lastly, Google just launched a service that you'll hear about in the news tomorrow to help Egyptians stay in touch with the rest of the world as the government there removes Internet and Cellphone access. It's called Speak2Tweet and it's a collaboration between Twitter and Google. Here's the quote from Google's Blog in case you don't have web access and are in Egypt:

"It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet."

There are already some incredible messages being posted by Egyptians including this one referring to the million person march planned for tomorrow.

On a personal note, having lived through the transition of South Africa to a democracy, I'd like to wish any Egyptians who are Weekly Feed subscribers or Feedjit members a safe and influential week!

Best regards,

Mark Maunder

Feedjit Founder & CEO

The Impact Of Google Instant On SEO & PPC - Is SEO Dead?

The Impact Of Google Instant On SEO & PPC - Is SEO Dead?

Last week, Google introduced a new capability to its search engine results page, a functionality called “Google Instant.” When the announcement hit, people were clamoring to chime in with respect to the effect that Google Instant might have on search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) advertising. The age-old question of “is SEO dead?” started popping up almost immediately on Twitter and throughout the blogosphere. So, is SEO dead?

Of course not. For those that understand what SEO is, SEO will never die. Techniques for SEO are ever-changing and although Google Instant Search will not kill SEO, there may be some changes to look out for in terms of user search behavior which may impact SEO strategy.

Our friends over at Covario, a leading SEM and SEO software and services company, have taken a deep dive into Google Instant and have offered up this excellent guest post to highlight, in-depth, changes resulting from Google Instant Search and to look into the potential effects that Google Instant Search may have on SEO and PPC.

About Google Instant Search

Just in case you haven’t heard the clamor web-wide regarding the new capability, here’s a brief description:

Google Instant is what Google is calling the next wave in its goal to make search more targeted, faster, and better able to understand you and what you want to see.

• Explicitly, Google Instant (per Google) combines predictive search (which we have already seen for years) with a real time visualization of the results of that search.
• Google Instant displays what it predicts you are searching for, allowing you to not only see your results faster, but also see results along the way as you type.

We Believe This Change Is Significant!

Though we caution advertisers to realize that all prognostications on the impact of Google Instant on user behavior at this point are just that – supposition. This article will discuss Google Instant, what its goal is from a user perspective, what we predict this change will mean for SEO and PPC performance, and how we plan to test our prediction.

What Is Google Instant Trying To Do?

For years, Google has tried to predict what you were searching for on their engine. Google does this to(a) reduce the time it takes for a searcher to log a query (and therefore provide a better user experience) and (b) because it saves Google in processing time with its support services (if you take two seconds to type a query versus four seconds, given the number of searches conducted, Google estimates this saves them 360 million hours of data center time annually.This is not going away. Google will continue to try to predict your search, as you probably have experienced with the drop down menu you now see – like in the example below for “Covario.”

Google Instant is taking this one step further by adding the visualization and changing the results page that gets updated in real-time, as you type.

What Does Google Instant Mean For SEO?

The first key change Google Instant causes is in the drop down “suggestion box” that attempts to predict queries. This, depending on the query, occupies one and sometime up to three of the advertisement positions on the “all important”first page. Google is rendering the paid and universal search listings as high as possible, but is pushing the SEO results “below the fold.” Whereas in the past, a standard web search would yield four organic listings above the fold, this does not happen now until searchers commit to their search and the page re-renders.

This means that top ranking is now more important than ever. We believe users are less likely to scroll below the fold as related results are instantly reconfigured as the search query is completed. Before a user would type in a search query, check the results, refine the search and then repeat the process until they found what they were looking for, there is now the potential that Google Instant helps with the delivery of this process.

Here is another example for the term “home mortgage”. There are no less than four (4) paid listings showing in the prime Google Instant real estate and only one organic listing. The four (4) organic results return once the searcher commits to the search and the standard search page is rendered as the suggestion box recedes.

From an SEO perspective – if Google Instant drives the changes we expect – CTRs on positions 1 and 2 organically will rise at the expense of positions 3 and 4. Being 1 and 2 is now key.

This means that SEO tactics must change. Traditionally, we’ve seen that users tend to spend a good portion of their time examining meta descriptions and we often recommend placing calls to action in the meta description to grab searchers’ attention and get them to click. However, with results changing so quickly, we see calls to actionpotentially moving into the Title tag as users spend less time examining the results and will rely more on those parts of the result they can examine quickly.

Perhaps the biggest impact of Google Instant is the impact the function will have on long-tail searches. Let’s say a user goes to Google to search for “Las Vegas Hotel Deals.”

• After typing in just “Las Vegas” the user sees a paid ad for Vegas.com and the organic entry for the Las Vegas Tourism website.
• What is the impact of those impressions on the user’s search behavior?
• How likely is it that users will abandon their search and click on one of those results or the map of Las Vegas that appears just below the top paid result?
• Or, are users more likely to finish their search and ignore the populating results?
• Will the page populating with results just become insignificant noise to searchers as they continue to use Google as they have been for years?

Arguments can be made for and against the increasing importance of long-tail, but there will be some effect from Google’s Instant search. Our belief is that Google has tested the accuracy of their predictive search results over the past years. Our bet is that it is pretty accurate – say 25% of the time it predicts correctly (this is a made up number – just for example). That means that 25% of long-tail searches will be rendered correctly off the first keyword and some percent of users will click on the results. The other 75% will modify and append their searches as results appear and are unsatisfactory. For the 75% it can be argued that long-tail will gain importance because users will see right away that their initial search wasn’t going to work, and will thus mold their search query until they see results more to their liking. It will also be interesting to see whether the conversion rates on those “predicted” results that get activated improve or degrade versus the full search query conversion rates – something that is measurable over time and will ultimately dictate user experience.

We recommend continuing to incorporate your long-tail terms into your SEO, and closely monitor the before-and-after performance to see how user behavior has adapted to these changes. Do this for the top 10-25 multi-keyword phrases for the SEO program for 30 days. Then, if the performance degrades, you know that SEO tactics on long-tail have to change.

What Does Google Instant Mean For PPC?

With the prominent placement of the PPC results in the Google Instant page rendering, it is our prediction that Google Instant will also have a large impact on PPC performance and tactics.

So the first issue is “what now constitutes an impression?” Google has released the following information to address this. An impression will be counted if the user:

• Presses ‘Enter’
• Clicks on ‘Search’
• Selects a prediction
• Stays on page for >3 seconds
• Clicks on a result
• Clicks on a refinement (maps, news, latest)

The good news? Advertisers will now receive sub three-second impressions for free (“free” meaning that these impressions do not impact quality score), so long as the user does not interact with the page in any of the ways mentioned above. If your brand is present for all Google Instant refinements as searchers complete their queries, this is an indication that your products or services are relevant to what they seek.

The bad news? If this change does in fact lead to shorter queries, AdWords CPCs may go up for many terms over the next several weeks, due to lower inventory of valuable keywords; more advertisers bidding on the same real estate means higher prices and lower ROI. Good for Google. Bad for advertisers. Consumers – well, they are likely unconcerned.

What about quality score? Google has stated that Google Instant does not change the way they determine the relevance or quality of your ads. Advertisement performance will be judged relative to that of others, as it has been in the past – give the new definition of an impression.

We do believe that this change will impact your CTR and therefore your quality score. Generally speaking, many advertisers can expect their impression count to go down on longer tail terms. This translates to lower awareness, which over time, means lower market share.

What about volume? We expect advertisers to see a drop in traditionally high volume head terms. Let’s use an example:

• Do a search for the high volume keyword “mortgage.”
• Google Instant Search predicts the keyword to be “mortgage calculator.”
• Google Instant populates the results shown for “mortgage calculator.”

The search volume for “mortgage” will drop and the volume for “mortgage calculator” will increase, making “mortgage” a less desirable keyword to optimize for than “mortgage calculator” if users do what is expected – get distracted from their original search and activate one of the Google Instant results.

And CPCs? We believe Google Instant is essentially institutionalizing broad match keyword bidding – aka, “the most expensive way to advertise on Google.” With Google Instant, however, there is a more salient ramification – ads are actually being shown – mostly paid ads – and off the board match of the first word in the multi-word search query. PPC programs are going to migrate toward strategies that broad match off the initial terms in the most popular multi-keyword queries – as these will drive a larger share of the impression volume – and we expect CPCs on broad match to increase (at least in the short-term, until the conversion rates on these terms are better understood).Advertisers will have to budget more toward Google in order to drive similar volume.

What to Test And What To Watch For?

There is no need to change metrics. Monitoring all KPIs related to SEO and SEM should, of course, remain consistent. However, we also recommend filtering those metrics by browser. Here’s why. Google Instant search is not supported in Internet Explorer Versions below 8, Firefox Versions less below Version 3 – so results from those browsers are not being impacted by this feature. Google Instant search is supported in Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8.

The key metrics to track are the Google search volumes of your targeted keywords in the coming months in Google Adwords to understand what the impact there is on the potential of your targeted keywords. If the search volume for your targeted keywords is trending down in Google Adwords, then adjust your strategy to focus on those keywords with more potential. Also consider that keyword volume may trend up as Google now counts a three-second stay on a search page as an impression.

Google Instant Replay

To review, we believe Google Instant is important to search advertisers and the ramifications of the system need to be taken seriously.

• For SEO – CTRs on position 3 and 4 organically will drop and go up for positions 1 and 2, making SEO more focused and more important than ever.
• For PPC – we expect that, in the short term, this will drive CPCs up and CTRs down. Advertisers will have to pay more, through increased use of broad match strategies, to maintain same results.
• And – ALL OF THIS IS SPECULATION. This needs to be tested. We should be able to see the results in the next 30-45 days to see if the ramifications we lay out in this note will indeed manifest themselves.

About our Guest Expert – Jeff MacGurn
Jeff MacGurn is Senior Manager of Search at Covario managing Covario’s SEO team providing strategic services for Covario’s Clients which include more than sixty Fortune 500 companies and Internet 100 companies. Jeff began working in SEO in 2000 in the Financial industry and also brings more than a decade of Software Development and Web Development experience to Covario. Jeff has worked on web programming and development for companies such as NBC, UFC, and the NBA. As a member of Covario’s SEO team, Jeff has worked with a variety of Fortune 500 companies managing online marketing programs such as Wells Fargo, Sony, Samsung, T-Mobile and Research in Motion.

SEO and SEM

SEO and SEM: Two Names for the Same Thing?

By most people's standards, the internet is still very young. New technologies and developments in existing technologies are appearing at an extraordinary rate. As technologies change, so does the terminology used to describe them.

I worked for two years as a search engine optimizer. Ask a dozen people to define that term, and you'll get a lot of different answers. A webmaster may be the leader of a large team, including developers, writers, marketers, designers, usability experts, technical support people, and yes, search engine optimizers. Or s/he may perform all or some of those duties alone.

The same is true for search engine optimization. For many people, the term is a new one, and they have no idea what it is an SEO does. To others, SEO is synonymous with SEM -- search engine marketing. In my opinion, there is a big difference between the two.

Search Engine Marketing

I see SEM as a rather broad term. It's everything that can be done to utilize the technology of search engines with the goal of promoting a web site and increasing its traffic, its "stickiness," and, in the case of sites that promote a business (or are a business), increase profits. SEO, therefore, would be a subset of SEM.

Aspects of search engine marketing which I would consider to be outside the realm of search engine optimization include the following:

Paid Inclusion

This is simply the practice of paying a search engine or a directory to add a site to its database immediately, rather than setting up that site so that it will be found by the search engine spiders on its own. In the case of some search engines and directories, paid inclusion is the only way to get listed. For others, it's presented as an option. If you're willing to pay, your site will be listed sooner. It's also a useful practice if you wish to make frequent changes to your content, because your site will be spidered more often and you will be able to test how changes affect your ranking.

Traditional Ads

This involves placing paid advertising on the search engine result pages (SERPs). Normally, these ads appear based on the keywords entered into the search engines, and one is charged based on the number of impressions, i.e. appearances, of the ad. In other words, you pay whether the ad sends anyone to your web site or not.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC ads are simple enough to look at. They're text-only. PPC ad campaigns are completely controlled by the advertiser. You decide which keywords should bring up your ads, you write the copy, and you decide how much you want to pay. And, as the name indicates, you only pay for an ad when someone clicks it and is brought to your site. There are two main networks of PPC ads, run by Google and Overture, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but in both cases, one should be prepared to spend a great deal of time (and money) monitoring and adjusting such a campaign.

The Advantages of These Practices

In contrast to pure SEO, these SEM practices offer the advantage of immediacy. If you need to increase your traffic and your visibility right away, and you don't have a problem with spending a lot of money, this may be the way to go.

The Disadvantages

You knew this was coming, didn't you? Think about it this way: you've spent your time and money to bring people to your web site. What will they see when they get there? You've convinced them, at least for the moment, that your site is worth visiting, so they're expecting to find exactly the information they were seeking. Is it easy to find? Is it there at all? You only have a few seconds to convince them that your site can deliver what they want. Will your visitors, failing to find what they're looking for, click their browser's back button and try another site?

Your site has to be ready for your visitors. It needs to be written, structured, and coded in such a way that the information is clearly laid out and easy to find. If it isn't, your site will either be immediately forgotten by visitors, or worse, it will be remembered as one that fails to deliver.

SEO First

No SEM campaign is complete without SEO. Moreover, since the purpose of SEO is to make the site better for both search engines and users, you may find that it will suffice on its own. In any case, the advantages of SEO over the other aspects of SEM make it clear that, even if you are going to spend additional money on advertising and paid placement, SEO must be your first step in promoting your site.

Gmail Priority Inbox Sorts Your Email For You. And It’s Fantastic.

Gmail Priority Inbox Sorts Your Email For You. And It’s Fantastic.

Email overload has finally met its match. Tomorrow, Gmail is rolling out a new feature called Priority Inbox that is going to be a Godsend for those of you who dread opening your email. In short, Google has built a system that figures out which of your messages are important, and presents them at the top of the screen so you don’t miss them. The rest of your messages are still there, but you don’t have to dig through dozens of newsletters and confirmations to find the diamonds in rough.

The beauty of the system lies in its simplicity — it’s nearly as easy as Gmail’s one click spam filter. There’s almost no setup: once it’s activated on your account, you’ll see a prompt asking you if you want to enable Priority Inbox. You can choose from a few options (the order of your various inboxes and if there are any contacts you’d like to always mark ‘Important’) but don’t have to setup any rules or ‘teach’ Gmail what you want it to mark important. It just works, at least most of the time.

Watch the video here..