For the professional SEO expert, Wordpress can be frustrating as well as rewarding. Rewarding because there are many options that can be configured to suit your needs such as URL slug optimization as well as tags and categories. Frustrating, because Wordpress sometimes seems to forget the most basic things such as allowing you to keep the H1 heading as the post title instead of the blog title. And if you try and use the H1 tag within the body, it doesn’t show up at all!

Another issue that many users may struggle with is trying to insert the meta keywords and description into the post when viewed as a page in HTML. Despite Google claiming that it doesn’t give any importance to the meta tags, Yahoo certainly does, and it’s nice to tell a search engine which words are important to you. The “Custom fields” option isn’t really useful.

Luckily, Wordpress has plugins that allow users to write the keyword and descriptions easily and effectively. One such plugin is the All-in-One SEO plugin which places two text boxes below the post allowing you to easily enter the keywords and description. It also has a character counter – reminding you not to go over 160 characters for the description – the limit placed by Google.

We’ll see more of the All-in-one SEO plugin in later posts as there are a few more interesting things to discuss regarding this very useful plugin. Till then, stay tuned!

Popularity: 20% [?]

There’s no denying that SEO can get very repetitious. Several aspects of SEO sometimes seem to lend themselves very well to automation and this can appear attractive to professionals. However, it must be noted that SEO can never be performed using only automation.

While it’s true that SEO software can help you save time, there is always the danger that one will come to rely too much on automatic techniques. This even applies to mindless methods such as article rewriting. The goal of Search Engine Optimization is to ensure consistent high rankings, and this is only possible when we realize the ultimate goal of search engines – usefulness and ease of use – and align ourselves with them.

SEO software can be divided into several categories such as:

1. Keyword Research Software
2. Directory Submission
3. Link Building Software
4. Reporting Software

Out of these, Keyword research software and reporting software are arguably the most useful and least suspect. The other two don’t have the genuine stamp of authenticity since their main aim is to try and fool search engines – never a good idea.

In this blog we will, from time to time evaluate various pieces of software and provide directions to users on how to use them effectively to improve their SEO results.

Popularity: 20% [?]

I’ve used many a web hosting company and domain registrar in my internet ventures, and here I will give you my personal recommendations for choosing a domain registrar and web hosting provider. These are tried-and-tested services. Additionally, I have provided a live tool on the Estibot site for web host comparison – the tool compares current webhost packages and is updated daily

Navigate:

• Domain Registration
• Shared Web Hosting
• Dedicated Web Hosting
• Domain Parking and Marketing

Summary of my personal recommendations:

For shared hosting, Bluehost offers the most impressive package.

Make an environmental statement with this shared hosting package: ThinkHost Green Hosting

I have just personally signed up with Apthost

Choosing a web hosting provider

For a domainer or web developer, choosing the right service provider for web hosting and domaining is essential. Finding a reliable and affordable web hosting provider or domain registrar is not easy. The Web is loaded with services providers advertising their services. Searching for reviews results in loads of so-called “review” sites that do nothing more than compare the advertised features of various packages.

During my endeavours as a domainer and webmaster, I have used various services for web hosting and domain registration. I have gone through the frustration of poor support, unreliable DNS services, server downtime…you name it. After much trial-and-error, I have now enough experience and knowledge to present to you the jewels in the rough.

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is a good option for those who want an easy-to-use hosting interface for websites with limited traffic and modest computing power requirements. 99% of web users manage with shared hosting, and these days the shared hosting packages do allow for substantial traffic. It’s also an inexpensive option.

I have used many different hosting providers, and one really stands out: BlueHost. They offer a good package for $6.95 per month: You can host an unlimited number of add-on domains and web sites without any extra charge, 2,500 e-mail accounts, you get a lot of bandwidth for a shared server (I have never had any problems with speed although my sites bring in >5,000 visitors daily. I have however had some problems with CPU quota but that’s to be expected with any shared hosting solution). They are about equal to the UNEC/EstiBot hosting package, but I think the advantage of Bluehost is that they have cPanel. Bluehost support is very responsive, and they will accomodate to your special needs as much as they can.

Visit BlueHost

On the negative side, one service I advise you to avoid altogether: Active24.com. I have not had anything but terrible experiences with them. I hosted a few sites there but it was practically impossible to get anything to work and their support was completely unresponsive. It took 2-3 weeks to get a response! I ordered a Linux package and they set up a Windows package. They were unable to do the simplest thing right. Their user interface is horrifying. In short, they are absolutely horrible. Unless you’re specifically looking for problems, stay well clear.

Dedicated Server Hosting

If you have sites with high traffic, or want to have complete control over your own server features, you’ll need a dedicated server. I have only recently moved into the realm of dedicated servers – when I set up the EstiBot site, I wanted a powerful server to accommodate for the high CPU loads that my mathematical calculations require, and also I wanted to make sure that my visitors would get a smooth performance. I anticipated a lot of visitors, and wanted to have a solid server solution from the get-go. I use HostGator. So far the experience has been good. They offered 4 months for the price of 1, which was a good deal. Their support has been pretty good. They are still under probation as I have only used them for a few months. They are in effect resellers of ThePlanet servers. HostGator provides a very attractively priced package for powerful servers. So far no problems, but I will report here if I have any problems with them. EDIT 08-27-2007: These guys rock. My server was down today, I submitted a ticket as soon as I found out about it and went to live chat also. I got immediate help from the live chat guy, and a near-immediate response to my support ticket, and the matter was resolved within minutes. I’m liking Hostgator a lot right now. Visit HostGator

Domain Registrations

A domainer usually needs several accounts to ensure that bought and sold domains can be “pushed” from one account to another without delay. Therefore most domainers such as myself have accounts with the most prominent registrars. Accounts are free, so there is no harm in opening several.

For serious domainers, it is essential to have an account at Moniker. They provide a full set of reliable and fast DNS management, top notch security (no one will be able to steal your domains), very responsive support, and affordable pricing. They are also experts in promoting domains and regularly host domain auctions where you have an increased chance of making a sale. I am currenly registering all my domains with Moniker. Opening an account is free of charge. Visit Moniker

It is a good idea to have accounts at both Moniker and GoDaddy. I do use GoDaddy, they have some great special offers and so far I have not had a major problem with them. Their user interface can be daunting, and support is sluggish at times, but overall they do a good job. They also support a wide range of payment options for those without a credit card or PayPal account. Visit GoDaddy

Domain Parking and Marketing

I park, sell and buy my domains at SEDO. They have a solid system, with a lot of customization options, and nice parking pages. I have bought and sold many domains through their Escrow service and there have been no problems. Their support is responsive, although sometimes they do give the impression of being overloaded with work. Let’s hope they pay more attention to that. All in all – it’s a great service, and opening an account and parking your domains if free of charge. You get more exposure for your domain names, parking is made real easy, revenue is paid each month, and their interface is a breeze to use. I can without reservation recommend SEDO for domain parking and aftermarket sales and purchases. Visit SEDO

I have recently started experimenting with a new type of service. Instead of parking my keyword domain names, I set them up at WhyPark – they provide free, search engine optimized website content and you can add your own Adsense ads of affiliate links – the best part is that you get 100% of the ad revenue to yourself. A very interesting concept, and many of my domains at WhyPark have already started making money. Visit WhyPark

Hope this helps! Pick one of the above services, get your website going, register a free account for Adsense (see below) and enjoy domaining and webmastering!

Popularity: 35% [?]

Hello everyone,

I’m Esa, new owner of SEONotes.com. The transition of this blog is now complete, I’m still doing a bit of redesigning and other updates here, but will resume posting news & views of the SEO world very soon.

My intention is to revive this blog and keep my readers up to date with relevant, interesting and timely updates on what’s going on in the SEO business, as well as tips and tricks for search engine optimization.

Also I will be offering SEO services and website development services at low cost through this site.

Let me introduce you to our services and shed light on some of our plans.

I own and operate the website Estibot.com, a free cheap domain registration and web hosting services at Estibotdomains.com.

I have provided SEO services and Domain development / Website development services exclusively to Estibot subscribers, but with newly increased capacity I can now offer these low-cost services to everyone in the SEO / domaining community.

Together with my trusted staff, we provide a unique kind of SEO / Development services. I have created a system for myself for developing domain names into revenue-generating websites, and have utilized that system to bring about a network of search engine optimized sites that generate continuous revenue and rank well in searches.

Last year, after developing and optimizing over 100 of my own domains, I decided to offer these services to others. Thus, Estibot SEO and Domain Development services was born.

Our services are based on tried-and-tested methods and purely ethical SEO. Our packages are designed for maximum effect in minimal time. Many of our sites rank within the top 10 results within weeks of creation.

Our SEO package is priced at only $47 and consists of the following:
1. A social bookmarking campaign to 25 SEO-friendly social sites. Everything is done manually and unique titles and descriptions/reviews are created for variety. It just works, plain and simple. It’s a great way to get your site indexed and ranked very quickly.

2. A directory submission campaign to 100 SEO friendly directories. Again, we use only manual submissions, and in contrast to many other SEO services, we handle the email verification for you as well! 10 unique descriptions are created for the submissions.

3. A blog posting campaign, complete with high quality site reviews and deep linking. We review your website on 5 of our blogs, and create keyword-specific links to your home page and 5 internal pages. Your home page will get a relevant in-text link from 5 different blogs, and each of your 5 internal pages will get a deep link from one of the blogs. The reviews are hand written by skilled writers, and in contrast to most SEO services, our reviews are real, meaningful reviews based on what your site has to offer, all in impeccable English of course.

The blogs that we use for reviewing your site are as follows:

1. ValuableDomains.us, a website review blog with an emphasis on how a great domain name is the window to your business.

2. Estibot Showcase, a blog about turning domain names into revenue generating websites

3. InnerBlogger.com, a business review blog.

4. DomainBeta.com, blogging about how to benefit from business domain names

5. DailyDropped.com, daily links to business websites

We are constantly adding more blogs to our list. These are aged blogs that we have operagted from the very start, and we make sure that all our blogs are ranked & whitelisted in the search engines.

The next in our blog list will be the Professional SEO Services blog, once that is fully set up.

We also offer website development services. For instance, we develop your generic domain name into an original high quality website, complete with free hosting and a link building campaign for $99 a piece. All you have to do is sit back, we’ll do everything else, and your site will be indexed & ranked in the search engines in no time.

We also provide custom website development and coding services, for details please email us.

Please contact us at info (.at.) estibot.com to talk to use about how we can help your business.

Cheers!

-Esa

Popularity: 35% [?]

Today every SEO suggest you to convert your old site with a new CSS/HTML website which they feel is more Search Engine Friendly. You must be wondering how to get rid of template based websites which is almost identical to one you visited several times.

Lots of website designers/ coders do provide you a template based websites for cheap after buying the same from places like TemplateMonster.com and so on. Of-course they are of high quality but you need to pay a designer to customize the same for you as several other peoples are using similar templates.

How to get an SEO Friendly, 100% custom website when your budget is small?

Here is one easy solution where you will get 100% unique design of your choice coded with Valid CSS and Valid XHTML well under $100 to $200, all you need to spend few hours and you are done. it’s no big deal!

Step One: Create a requirement sheet and pen down exactly all you are looking in a website. Develop a Link map in MSWORD and add contents accordingly, E.g. Home page, Subpages, product page and contact page etc.

Step Two: Hire a Graphic Designer, who specializes in graphics to get a PSD of Home Page and a Subpage. He will design a unique template for you and place all the contents. Normally freelancers are charging $20 to $40 depending upon the complexity of the work.

Step three: Hire an XHTML coder who can slice your PSD’s and code the same to Valid XHTML and CSS webpage. There are plenty of them available, but we recently came across CSSFOX PSD to XHTML/ HTML coding services, who code a home page just for $25 and subpages for $12.5 only.

Now if you calculate the price for a 5 page website it will comes near about $115 if you pay $40 for PSD’s. It’s cheap and more effective as all new CMS, including Wordpress are using a CSS based theme engine and any good programmer will easily port the same to any CMS, if you wish to get an dynamic website.

What are XHTML Websites?

The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax. XHTML is “a reformulation of the three HTML 4 document types as applications of XML 1.0″. Read more at Wikipedia.

You may refer more resources to learn more about XHTML below:

• XHTML™ 1.0 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language.
• Visit XHTML2 Working Group Home Page

Popularity: 76% [?]

A person creates his dream to reality on the Web and then….

Well it’s time when business is and I have some spare time to look around the web. I am identifying people with whom I can hang around, share my thoughts and learn something from them. During my journey to web I found some cool bloggers who are really concerned about issues which may kill anyone’s online reputation. Apparently it is an issue related to SEO so I am making a note in plain English even though I am no good in writing stuffs.

One’s thoughts, ideas, vision creates a beauty.. but raped ruthlessly by copiers!

I came across a wonderful blog post made by Lynn Terry who I believe is webmaster of ClickNewz Blog. I think she is just being too polite and saying thank you to those who steal others hard work, you can read this post at I’m a scum-sucking content thief which i feel the best way say thank you to any one. I can understand your pain Lynn but!

How you stop people who are rewriting articles just for the sake of search engine uniqueness?

There are plenty of people who are selling software’s which create numerous copies of any article. eh… i am triggering another issue though but fact is these type of blogs are growing fast. Even so called self proclaimed SEO’s suggesting in forums to rewrite and make them unique.

SE’s don’t know who is the original author and I am serious.

You will be surprised to know that Search Engines are not smarter yet to identify who is the original author and who is duplicate. All they will penalizes both where as original author is an innocent person facing hard time. I have came across some examples where poor webmasters absolutely lost every thing just because some one like the stuff and copy it. Who has given them right to play with someone’s life they don’t even know.

An Update: SE’s do know who is the original author. It may be a temporary setback to original site owner but in long run they do penalize the violators.

Just a small note to those gentle men, Creation, Idea, conceptualization all thrown to bin just because of copiers and this is not all a healthy world we live in.

Popularity: 39% [?]

eh! this sounds something fishy? but it’s right. I came across a post at readwriteweb.com explaining it’s concerns over “Fake Social Network Profiles and calling it a New Form of Identity Theft in 2009″.

Indeed it’s something very much annoying and dangerous even though you are no so famous today but who knows? Today consumers have wider reach as Internet is opened up all the possibilities. Some day you will find your brick and mortar site has been viewed by millions of people in just one day. What happens when some one researching your brand name and found a fake profile on any social network?

That’s an issue with no proper answer and one have to live with it.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Dear Readers,

I am really thankful to you for all your support. I have decided to sell this site as I am facing hard time to manage the same. Soon you will get a new owner who will justify the name and provide you more insightful notes on search engine optimization.

I am getting bit older, i have several commitments towards my parents, wife and children. I also like to focus on my new project offering custom price comparison store for almost all affiliate network. It took almost one year to conceptualize, develop and integration of various API’s and Web services. I have already sold one featuring Linkshare Web services and plan to sell 6 more stores where buyer can choose either or all, E.g. Linkshare, ShareaSale, CJ, Shopzilla and shopping.com API’s.

I will continue to offer blog designs and promotion services but I am also working on a another important project which is scheduled to launch in June 2010. Soon I will disclose the project details on my personal blog and company’s website at VA4Business.com.

The auction is listed at Sitepoint.com. Please review the auction below:

Thanks for your support and time.

Steve Arun.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Most webmasters understand that an increase in web traffic to their websites means a higher return on their investment, and continuous influx would guarantee that they too would be able to realize what every webmaster dreams of achieving online: unparalleled success in a borderless market.

Search Engine Optimization methods have been utilized by most successful webmasters who believe that a diversified, yet organized tasks have far-reaching results than those done one at a time, with no defined purpose.

Yes, a singular approach to search engine optimization may not be enough, but rather a synergy of techniques would often prove effective in achieving higher ranking.

Gaining the top ranks using Search engine optimization may not be possible using just one campaign or marketing strategy. Multiple strategies, which involve the optimization of the pages of your website, as well as making sure that its graphics are compliant with the requirements of search engines, and employing off-site marketing strategies like search keyword density trending and link development are effective in gaining better ranks on the search engines.

There are plenty of factors that can add color to your position on the Search Engines. Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask Jeeves are but some of the top search engines visited by online companies and search engine optimization managers who want to find out about their ranking positions.

Search engine optimization is getting a better response from web internet users as well as web marketing and promotions managers these days as an excellent search ranking mechanism they can employ that often translates to better audience traffic and faster ROI.

A multi-pronged Search engine optimization and online marketing project will certainly increase your visitor traffic and post the site to the top spot of the search ranking results. Understanding the needs and wants of the target online audience and providing for them can greatly aid the promotions efforts.

To better understand SEO techniques, three (3) basic methods have been highlighted below. There are thousands more ways to get your site on the top spots of the search engines, but you can start with these 3:

STEP 1: Writing Articles and Blogs

Very important details in Search engine optimization or SEO are content and keywords. Pages of a website call for properly optimized keywords or key phrases woven into quality articles to aid them to rank better and get listed well on the Search Engines.

STEP 2: Submitting Content

Submissions of properly optimized articles or content to content directories do not only help in the promotion of web pages or products, but it can also improve a website’s SEO score. Content submission directories are also good sources of one-way links to a particular site.

STEP 3: Building Links

Several websites that reciprocate links with each other must be importantly from the same category or keyword topic. Exchange links help in traffic sharing between two websites.

You may test different combination of strategies from time to time, but never fail to examine results. Make a comparison study of the strengths and weaknesses of each campaign in order to establish those strategies that truly work.

To avoid “hit or miss”, vigilance in determining feedback on each campaign is not only necessary – it’s crucial.

PS: Also read, Do it yourself SEO.

PPS: If you like this article please visit seocontest2008 to learn more about this exciting seo contest.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Online links and politics – Are there similarities?

There was an earlier article that was developed which likened online websites with real-life communities. That article went so far to try and establish the similarity between real-life neighbors and online reciprocal linking neighbors. Now this article will talk about one way linking and how it is very similar to real-life politicking.

Every person in the planet has his or her own personal views, agendas, and political leanings. Some people may not support a particular politician without getting something from them in return, while some are just avid fanatics of a particular candidate just because they like what that politician represents.

Very similar to one-way links online – most of the well-informed websites would not think of directly linking or supporting another website without getting something (a reciprocating link) in return; while others directly link with a ‘popular’ site just because they like or love the content or what it has to say.

These “politicians” or what can be referred to as Future-High-PR sites often resolve to a lot of politicking or online strategies just to be able to get plenty of support from the masses. One of the more famous online strategies to getting one way links is through email marketing. Telling webmasters that the site or page has something great to offer their online visitors can sometimes prove very tempting and can merit an inbound link. Sending out HTML-based newsletters can also be very useful, especially if the outbound emails can be tracked and can be reconciled with the inbound traffic and generated links.

Another excellent strategy is through social communities. Posting messages on social networks about tempting offers or supporting a group cause do have its merits. Link baits on the social networks will also give the site the opportunity to expose their content more, and thus generate inbound traffic.

Those who will heed the “politicking” of these Future-High-PR sites would want to be closely associated with them, and thus inbound links will be formed. Posting link baits are very common on social networks. Utilizing link baits to get better traffic from a particular social class and age group which may be interested in what you have to say or to the content of your site can be categorized as potential inbound links.

Blog comment posting is also an excellent strategy to gain widespread exposure on blogging networks. Finding categorically related blogs and posting some “useful” message on their comment sections can be very beneficial. And one of the best ways to gain inbound links is by writing articles and submitting them to various article directories, while adding an inbound link to your site on the resource section of the article. That way, people will be able to trace where the article came from.

There are plenty of ways to get one way links. Using white-hat strategies is always encouraged. Black hat strategies can get you penalized or banned. It’s better to read and follow the guidelines set forth by the different search engines to have an idea on how they rank and track different websites online.

Popularity: 37% [?]