Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is a vast subject, but there are a few key areas which are absolutely vital to success. In another article I looked at the importance of good content. To get off the starting blocks at all in terms of being rated by search engines, you need to be producing web pages which are unique and of interest to others. So let us assume you have created your web pages full of things that thousands of people would love to read. Now you sit back and wait for the visitors to roll in - right? Wrong. Even if Google indexes your site and can see what your website is about and that it is the kind of informative site that it values, you are not going to show up in search results unless Google also thinks your site is 'important'.

When Google's algorithm sorts web pages into some sort of order, it does all sorts of complicated things that no-one outside Google really understands. However, there is general agreement that the main two things it does are sort out which sites are relevant to the term searched for, and then rank them in order of importance. Google judges importance to a great extent by the number and type of links pointing to the site from other websites.

Links pointing at your site are seen by Google as votes of confidence. Links from other sites with a similar subject to your site are considered more valuable than links from sites about unrelated subjects. Links coming from sites that Google already ranks as important are also far more valuable than links from sites that do not have many in-bound links themselves. The reason Google adopts this system of judging importance is the idea that if a website is genuinely of interest to people, other websites will automatically want to link to it.

So now we understand that your site needs links pointing to it for the search engines to rank it highly - but how do you get these links? Like search engine optimization, the subject of how to build links to your site is another huge field in itself. I will look at some of the most commonly used techniques for getting links to your website. These are; exchanging links, article writing and directory listings.

Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important - Link Exchange

Link exchanging is a common practice and can yield very good results, though it does take time and effort. The principle is that you approach webmasters for other websites and agree to link to their site if they link to yours. You should concentrate on sites that are related to your own in subject matter, as these links will count for more from a search engine optimization point of view.

My first website was to promote my artwork, so I contacted other artists to exchange links. Link exchange in that particular field is no doubt easier than in some other areas, due to the fact that artists generally are not worried about being in competition with each other and you are usually going straight to the artist to arrange the link. Link exchange worked very well for my first site, allowing me to achieve top rankings in a competitive field after a few months of hard work.

In other more commercial fields there can be concerns about being in competition, greater difficulty in getting through to the right person and an increased likelihood that the site may not even have links pages. Check websites out first to see if they have link pages, and don't bother with the ones that have hundreds of links on a page or with link pages that are hidden away and hard to find.

Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important - Article Writing

Another way to generate links to your website is through article writing. There are hundreds of article directories, which allow you to submit articles about almost any subject. Usually you are allowed to write an article, then at the bottom you can add a couple of sentences about yourself and your websites, providing links to your sites. When the article is published on the directory site, you have an instant link back to your own site.

In addition to this initial link, many publishers of e-newsletters and other blogs and websites visit these article directories looking for articles they can reproduce. In submitting your article to the directory site, you have to agree to allow your article to be reproduced by anyone who wants to use it elsewhere. The only condition is that if someone does reproduce it, they must also include your section at the bottom with your link in. This means that whenever someone else uses one of your articles elsewhere, you have yet another link.

So, for example, if you write one article, submit it to five directories and each one is then reproduced by five more publishers, you will have twenty five links to your website from that one article.

Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important - Links From Directories

The final method of getting links that I want to look at in this article is links from website directories. There are hundreds of directories on the web, each one listing websites in appropriate categories. The quality of these sties varies enormously, as does the value you gain from having a link from them.

The best directories, in other words the ones that will give you a definite benefit from having a link, are the Yahoo Directory and Dmoz. Being listed in these two costs money, but definitely gives your site a lift in the rankings.

Submitting your site to hundreds of directories is a tedious and time consuming business, and many people prefer to pay to have someone else do it. There are various directory submission services that will submit your site for you for a very small fee. The rate is so low that it is hard to justify doing it on your own unless you happen to have endless empty hours that you don't know how to fill.

Whatever kind of link you are arranging, you will need to think about the anchor text of your links. Google will be looking for an organic growth of links to your site, so the words carrying the link should vary and not all point to the same page. It is important that the anchor text of your links focus on the keywords that are important to you, but if every link to your site is identical it does not look like natural link growth.

If you have a website called Andrews Art Gallery, but you want your site to be found by people searching for British landscape paintings, then the anchor text of your links must say 'British landscape painting', not the name of your site.

Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important - Conclusions

Search engine optimization is important because without paying attention to this area your website will almost certainly get no visitors. You now know the importance of good content and why you

How to Optimize Web Pages With Author's Name As Keyword

Do you have a personal web site that you want to optimize for the search engines? If you have one, then read on to find out how I optimized my personal web pages and the many ways of how your keyword may be placed in different parts of the web page. Along the way, you may learn a lesson or two about personal web page optimization.

I recently undertook a small project to optimize the web pages on my websites using my full name as the keyword target. I used my full name as targeted keyword since it is the only common thing about the pages on my websites.

Use Keyword Phrase Exactly As It Is

A quirky thing about web page optimization is that the keyword phrase which in this case is the author's full name must be used exactly as it is. And since I use a middle initial in my full name, the target keyword I used was my full name with the middle initial included.

While the principles may be the same, search engine optimization work done by professionals for web sites of big companies needs enormously more resources and larger efforts than optimizing personal web pages, which is normally done by the personal web author himself.

While big companies spend a lot of time and money on pinpointing what keyword to target, the keyword to optimize with on personal web pages may at first glance be already evident.

Optimize the Most Sub-Optimized Pages First

I started by searching my web pages on Google using my full name as keyword and then identified those web pages that are the farthest away from the first page of the search page results. I worked on these sub-optimized pages first, and then moved closer and closer to the first page where the pages did not really need any optimization.

My main goal was to be able to place as many instances of my keyword which is the author's full name on the pages that I have identified to be optimized. In the process, I was able to discover various ways by which the keyword can be placed on the page.

Use both the Visible and Hidden Portions of the Page

The keyword target can be placed at both the visible and the hidden portions of the page. The visible portion is what the user can see displayed on the browser. The hidden portion includes links, images and Meta tags which can all be employed to insert the keyword that is being targeted.

I found out that I can use the title property of the anchor tag to sneak in my targeted keyword. I also discovered that I can insert my targeted keyword on the alt and title properties of the image tag which I used extensively on my optimization project.

Of course the Meta tags were included in the HTML specifications to provide for a place where the keywords can actually be placed. Meta tags include the description and the keywords tags where the author of the page can provide information about the contents of the web page.

I managed to put in multiple instances of the targeted keyword on the description of some of the pages. I also ensured that the targeted keyword was repeated on the contents of the keywords Meta tag.

How To Test the Results

Optimizing a web page is not an exact science and it may take a lot of trial and errors to come up with the optimal solution. In addition, the results may not be immediately known and there is a lead time to content with before the optimization results may be gauged.

To test the results of the optimization efforts, a keyword search on the search engine must be made using the keyword target as the search keyword after a good amount of lead time has passed for the search engine to re-scan the changed web page.

Personal Web Page Optimization Works

The results of my optimization works are clearly evident on the search engine results before and after my personal web page optimization project.

Some of my web pages were found at later pages say page six or seven or even page 10 or 14 before my optimization works. After optimization, all my page results are now grouped closer on pages one to four of the search engine results and the only pages that are still left behind are those pages that I felt no need to optimize. The pages that I have optimized would appear on the first two pages or at worst the third page of the web search results.

But remember that this optimization would work only if the exact keyword used to optimize the page is used in searching for results. A somewhat sub-optimized result may come up if the keyword used for searching is not exactly as the one used for optimization but still the pages will come ahead of the others.

Windows File Loss Problem and Solution

When you start Microsoft Windows computer, Kernel32.dll corruption errors or Invalid Page Fault in this file may prevent your system to boot. This behavior makes your Windows system unbootable and thus your critical files can not be accessed from your Windows system. It results into File Loss and needs File Recovery to be fixed.

While starting your Windows computer or while opening an application, you may encounter any of the following error messages which indicates Invalid Page Fault in Kernel32.dll file:

1. "Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module Kernel32.DLL"
2. "Commgr32 caused an invalid page fault in module Kernel32.dll"
3. "Error in Kernel32.dll"
4. "[PROGRAM NAME] has caused an error in Kernel32.dll"

The Kernel32.dll is a 32-bit DLL (Dynamic Link Library) file which handles memory management, interrupts and input/output operations in Windows. When you start Windows computer, Kernel32.dll is loaded into the protected memory area so that other applications/programs don't take over that space.

Causes of Invalid Page Fault in Kernel32.dll file

There are several possible causes of this behavior of Windows operating system and Kernel32.dll file. Some major reasons are as follows:

1. Damaged File Allocation Table
2. Corrupted or incorrect version of Kernel32.dll file
3.Damaged Windows registry
4.Third party application which is corrupted or improperly installed
5.Damage to .CPL (Control Panel) file
6.Damaged .LOG files
7.Damaged or incompatible DLL files
8.Virus infection

If this problem occurs due to any of the above mentioned reasons, you can not access your critical data from Windows hard drive.

Resolution

You can sort out this problem using any of the following methods:

1.Reinstall the application if the error is occurring in a single application
2. Run virus scan to detect and remove viruses
3. Perform repair installation of Windows
4. If all else fail, perform Clean Installation of Windows

Although, reinstalling Windows can help you in solving most of the Kernel32.dll errors but it also has a downside. It requires hard drive formatting that removes all your files from hard drive and put you in need of File Recovery.

It is best possible using third party software, known as File Recovery Software. These software are capable of thoroughly scanning entire hard drive and extracting all the data from it.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a robust tool that can recover all types of file in most of the file loss cases. It supports recovery from FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system partitions. This File Recovery Software is compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista, 2003, XP and 2000.