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ROR Your Website - Help Search Engines Get Smarter
Friday, December 30, 2005
What is ROR?
ROR (Resources of a Resource) is an exciting new website content description tool and format. It makes it very easy to describe the content, objects, and structure of your website so search engines and other web applications can better find and understand your information.
For example if you are selling products, ROR enables you to document your product names, descriptions, prices, images, availability, affiliate programs, etc. Or if your site or blog provides information on a given topic, it allows you to describe how this information is organized (sitemap, topics, categories, new information, archive, blogroll, etc). ROR also provides terms for documenting objects such as contacts, articles, newsletter, feeds, images, audio, links, reviews, privacy policy, copyrights, and more.
ROR information can be easily added to your website by adding a ROR File called ror.xml. To create the file ROR provides templates and examples. It also provide a ROR File Editor, which will extract information from your website and allow you to describe it further. Larger websites can also generate ROR files from their databases.
Why Describe?
But why is it important to describe your website? Well, consider this phrase: "We offer a 10% discount on all our products until Mother's Day". While these words mean a lot to your visitors, they unfortunately won't mean much to a search engine or shopping search engine. Language is extremely complex and it will take time even for Google to elevate search to such levels of sophistication. And that's just one language, English.
So for now, to communicate your product information to shopping search engines you typically need to provide a feed (a machine-readable description of your products), and re-submit that feed to each engine each time the information changes. And to make matters worse, none of these feeds have the same format, so you also have to learn each format.
Another Approach
ROR suggests a better approach. Since search engines already come to your site to read text information about your products, it makes sense to also read additional information like prices, image URLs, discounts, etc. This way, you only change the information once, in your ROR file, and that's it. Product information is just one example but it illustrates this issue rather well.
ROR information can also be displayed on your website in a generic fashion so visitors can quickly and easily find information, without the need to re-learn or remember the structure and navigation of each website they visit. For that purpose, ROR provides an Info Button. The button reads the information directly from your ROR file.
ROR simply makes a lot of sense! It's powerful, easy, and very flexible.
ROR your Website, Spread the Word
You can get your ROR file at http://www.rorweb.com/, it only takes a few minutes for a basic file. You can always add more information later. You can also help spread the word by adding this article on your website, or a link to it.
Happy RORing!
The ROR Team
http://www.rorweb.com/
Labels: searchengines
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Just a quick post to wish everyone a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah and a very happy new year.
Labels: misc
Cost Effective Paid Advertising thru search engine marketing, pay per click (PPC)
Friday, December 16, 2005
Very often businesses require sales to function. Every business owner often wonders, how do I get more sales?
Most businesses often start with the traditional marketing methods such as flyers distribution, mailing of sales brochures, cold call, cold fax and of course word of mouth.
Now, is there any more cost effective marketing method? There definitely is .
Search engine marketing to lower the cost of acquiring customer and branding has effectively done so for many fortune 500 companies and SMEs, so why not you?
What is search engine marketing, pay per click? Yahoo and Google, two of the biggest search engine offers an online marketing service which you will pay to them to display your advertisement when people search for keywords related to your business.
Example
I am in the web design industry. I selected the keywords "Web design company". (There is broad base, exact match and other options when defining your keywords which I will touch on later.) Someone on the internet either uses Yahoo! or Google, searches for the words "web design company" and my advertisement in text will show up. For Yahoo!, on the top of the search results while for Google either on the top 2 of search results or the right side of the search results.
How can this lower the cost for acquiring customers?
For different industries, the cost is different, but for most industries, it costs between $0.50 to $1.50 per click to bring one visitor to their web site. Now, assume your average cost per click is $1.00 and assuming your web site is well built to convert visitors to become a sales lead. We assume a 10% conversion to sales lead per 100 visitors. So, for 100 visitors, it will cost you $100.00. In every 100 visitors, 10 people will contact you regarding your business products or services. So, $100.00 divided by 10, it will be $10.00 per sales lead. Now, isn't this the cheapest way of acquiring sales leads?
No? Consider word of mouth marketing, if you value your work at $20.00 per hour and it takes you 1 hour to get the message across for every person you meet to promote your business. Wouldn't that cost you more than $10.00 per sales lead?
The best part of search engine marketing?
Search engine marketing is targeted, people who only are interested in your products will search for keywords related to your product. (Of course you got to know what is the best keywords to advertise.) Search engine marketing budget is restrictable. You can set whatever budget you want for your marketing effort online. The process is always the same except the result is only vary by the amount you are willing to spend.
Thus, many companies who think they cannot afford to search engine market are wrong. Search engine marketing is available for every business, however, do it the right way by doing some research yourself or hire the professionals to get the best result.
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I hope this guest article explained a little bit about PPC marketing.
Labels: ppc
Top 100 Searches for 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Lycos have released their list of the top 100 search terms for 2005. Unsurprisingly, it mainly consists of popstars, filmstars and a few sports teams, films and video games. On a more humanitarian front, it seems that a lot of people have searched for information on Hurricane Katrina and the Asian Tsunami, showing we're not completely celebrity obsessed!
Labels: searchengines
10 Ways To Keep Visitors At Your Site Longer
Saturday, December 10, 2005
The more time people spend at your web site, the more time you'll have to persuade them to buy your product or service. Below are ten powerful ways to keep visitors at your web site longer.
1. Provide your web site visitors with content they can't read anywhere else. People will stay longer at your web site to read the original content.
2. Remind your web site visitors they can print out your content. They may browse around your online store while it's printing.
3. Offer your web site visitors a freebie if they take the time to fill out your online survey. They'll be at the site longer and might buy something afterwards.
4. Offer your visitors free software that they can download right from your web site. While they are waiting they might read your ad.
5. Provide a huge online directory of information that your visitors could search. The directory must contain information your visitors would want.
6. Make sure all your web pages load fast or your visitors will leave fast. Time is precious; they won't waste it waiting for your site to load.
7. Tell your visitors what's offered at your web site at the very beginning. If people are confused about what's being offered they may leave too early.
8. Publish your web site professionally. People will get turned off and leave if they see a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes.
9. Make your site text easy to read. Most people won't strain their eyes trying to read text that is too small, light or bright.
10. Use headlines and sub headlines all over your your web site that will grab visitors attention. It will attract them to explore your web site longer.
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FREEE eBook! 5000 Words & Phrases That Sell Like CRAZY! http://www.ldpublishing.com
Labels: webdesign
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) vs. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
While Search Engine Optimisation and Advertising are specific tasks to engage, Search Engine Marketing is the key component that actually determines how you will optimise and advertise on the web. It is the research, analysis, strategy planning that will determine the execution methods. There is a distinct difference between SEM and SEO.
* SEO is the process of making changes to the HTML code of your web pages to be content rich in your specific niche and key phrase. This would include such tasks like modifications to your keywords, description, title tags, comment tags, alt descriptions, and title descriptions of anchors and the actual text of your web page.
* SEM on the other had is the process of integrating a variety of methods to insure the SEO work is successful. These methods will include research for your business, competitor analysis, link exchanges, articles, news, newsletters, audience analysis, and ultimately the method employed to generate traffic to your website.
It is the same distinction between the words "marketing" and "advertising".
* Marketing is the process or technique of promotion, selling and distributing a product or service.
* Advertising is to make your product or service publicly known; an announcement to call public attention by emphasizing qualities to arouse a desire to purchase.
There are two words that are feared in the SEM world: Patience and Change!
You will need ongoing commitment to making search-engine ranking a long-term investment in your website. You will need to give it time and energy - it isn't a quick fix.
Considerations with search engine patience:
Search engines often change their ranking formula. Each search engine has its own algorithm (formula) to determine site ranking. META tag keywords are not a magic bullet to improve your ranking. Search engines can take many months to index new information, so patience...patience.
Search engine spiders can be extremely slow to index new information, so be patient! It may take months to see your changes affect your search engine ranking. Remember, a website is a dynamic marketing tool that you are building over time. Treat it well, give it a little love and attention, and your long-term rewards will be well worth your efforts!
If you thought nowadays search engine marketing can still be done by acquiring (and using) an auto-submission software, drop this thought immediately. This brings us to the other feared word, "change"! It is inevitable for technological changes to take effect with search engine algorithms. Websites drop rankings from 8 to zero over night. Because things keep changing, search engine marketers need to devote a good deal of time staying on top of the SEO industry and its trends. Watch your page ranking, your website statistics, your Alexa traffic ranking. All of these tools will allow you to find out if there are any significant changes occurring on the web.
Melih Oztalay is the CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing providing businesses with turn key marketing solutions on the web. Please visit SmartFinds at www.hsfideas.com
Labels: seo
Domain Name Search and Suggestion Tool
DomainsBot have a great, free and simple-to-use tool that helps you find a suitable domain name. By typing an existing domain, a keyword or short phrase into the search box, DomainsBot comes back with a list of synonyms, related words and domain name possibilities. Clicking on the 'more information' button next to each possibility shows more information such as relevance and popularity.
Next time you are looking for a domain name, just have a look!
Labels: domains
Guest article - Why Content is King of the Internet
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
The Internet is not merely a community or merely a new medium through which the people around this world connect and communicate with each other, crossing geographical and political barriers to communicate, trade, interact, entertain and inform, rather it has reached mammoth proportions and become an empire on its own. The Internet Empire does not belong to any one person but it belongs to and is completely ruled over by an abstract yet concrete idea â?? content. Content is the king of the Internet, content is what people are after and content is what attracts millions of users everyday and night to their computers to seek information, seek entertainment and friends.
However, there is a major difference between the content we find in a print medium such as a newspaper or magazine and the content we expect to find in a dynamic, interactive medium such as the Internet. To be successful, print magazines cannot simply transfer what is already written in the pages of their print magazines and turn them into e-magazines by placing the articles in an electronic form. For the magazine to be successful on the Internet, it is necessary to find a different layout for a medium that is capable of supporting audio and video players. Content writer should play upon the strengths of the medium, which are that the Internet can support text-based content, it supports audio and video players therefore to interest the viewer to the content available, it is necessary that all three of these strengths be used to the hilt. The advantages that Internet holds over the rest of the other communication mediums should not wasted because of the inability to find a comprehensive plan that will bind all these faculties together.
For the time being, the Internet is still in its infant stage, content is still free for the most part and users are experiencing unlimited opportunities to speak their minds and express their opinions through blogs where they not only voice their opinions about world affairs and such but they also have the chance to showcase their talent. Amateur writers, poets and musicians are already a sizeable population on the Internet. There are thousands of sites that are entirely devoted to the poetry and the talent of innumerable people. In an almost anarchic way, the Internet allows people to be whatever they choose, they can play out their dreams of writing and singing and gaining the appreciation, in some cases, of the users who are adventurous enough to try out some of this pieces. However, as corporate and big players are contemplating moving into cyber territory, they should be forewarned that at this stage, the content available is still to develop a style of its own, in such circumstances very few of the users of the Internet would be willing to pay for content that is provided free of cost until there is some drastic and radical change in the way it is presented to them.
About the author
Jakob Jelling is the founder of Sitetube.com. Please visit http://www.sitetube.com/search-engine-optimization.shtml and learn how to optimize your website for the major search engines.
Labels: webdesign
Domain Name and Hosting Reseller Business
Sunday, December 04, 2005
GoDaddy, one of the largest domain name and hosting sellers worldwide have several reseller plans that look to be good value. On the basic plan ($99 per year), net rates start from $7.75 for domains, $3.35 for hosting and $23.10 for SSL certificates. You set your selling price, and pocket the difference. GoDaddy also provide you with a fully customisable website, allows you to sell through affiliate programs such as Commission Junction and ClickBank, throws in loads of useful extras such as customer support for you and your customers, reporting tools, search engine submission software, a free SSL certificate and gives you a Google AdWords credit ($100 credit on the basic plan).
So what's the catch? With all these "sounds too good to be true" opportunities, there is always a sticking point somewhere. With this opportunity, the obvious catch is the $99 annual outlay. However, the real question is whether you are able to commit yourself to marketing the site. If you are established on the web with a mailing list of eager potential customers, it will be a lot easier than starting up with no contacts. See my previous post on a free dating website business for more marketing ideas.
Find the reseller plans here at GoDaddy.
(Approximate prices in GBP - $99 = £57; $7.75 = £4.50; $3.35 = £1.95 ; $23.10 = £13.35)
Fair Trade First - Sourcing affordable fair trade for businesses
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Fair Trade First is a company set up to promote personal and corporate social responsibility through the use of ethically sourced products. LittleFish Web Design worked alongside Fair Trade First to produce their website, and became a much bigger believer in Fair Trade in the process!
Products aren't limited to tea and coffee - they include snacks, recyclable office supplies, industrial strength cleaning products, biodegradable catering disposables and numerous other items. Even the coffee is award winning - it's not the Fair Trade produce of old!
Labels: internet
Website Plagiarism Search
Just a quick post - Copyscape is a website plagiarism search - just type in the page you want to check, and it will come back with any matching results.
If you find unauthorised duplication of your site's content, there's plenty of advice on the site as to what to do next.
From the Copyscape Global Web Rights Campaign page:
"Copyscape is dedicated to protecting content rights online and defending against the threats of plagiarism and content theft. The Web is built on the hard work of honest people who devote their time and energies to creating original content for the benefit of all. The global epidemic of content theft violates people's hard-earned rights and discourages the creation of new web content. Copyscape was created as a free public service to address this growing problem."
Labels: internet, legal, resources
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