seo and affiliate marketing blog



            The only SEO Book that Tanya recommends is here: SEO Book
           

4/2/2005

Yahoo Index Updating

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 10:57 am

New Yahoo Update
Yahoo started updating, yesterday and today have shown many some good results. Some are not so happy with the amount of spam they are seeing in the results. More can be found at Yahoo’s Blog

I have seen some nice spots. Feel free to stop over at Digital Marketing Online Forum to post your thoughts on the update.

http://www.dmof.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118

3/27/2005

SEO Friendly Hosting - Multiple Class C IP’s

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 1:53 am

Multiple Class C IP’s Solution
Got Web Host is now open, for hosting that has multiple Class C IP’s and muliple nameservers available. Got Web Host has a unique setup to provide hosting with multiple class c ip’s for anyone looking for this type of service.

Virtual Hosting Packages
There are two virtual hosting packages available.

Virtual Hosting with 5 Class C IP’s
This package includes 5 different class C IP’s and 5 different nameservers. It also includes 2000 MB storage, 20 gig of bandwidth, php, MySQL and more. Click here to find out more on this virtual hosting package.

Virtual Hosting with 10 Class C IP’s
This package includes 10 different class C IP’s and 10 different nameservers. It also includes 4000 MB of storage, 50 gig of bandwidth, php, MySQL and more. Click here to find out more on this virtual hosting package.

Dedicated Hosting Package
This package includes 50 IP’s that are on 10 subnets, 40 GB Harddrive, 200 GB of bandwidth, PHP, MySQL and more. Click here to find out more on this dedicated hosting package.

Need more space? More bandwidth? No problem, just contact us and we will give you a quote. Go to http://www.gotwebhost.com for more details.

3/11/2005

Yahoo Launches Yahoo Mobile

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 3:13 pm

My Yahoo! Mobile RSS
Yesterday Yahoo mentioned the launch of Yahoo Mobile in their blog. Yahoo Mobile allows blog readers to read RSS Feeds on their cell phone.

The key to this new service is accessibility. What we wanted to do is get a mobile version of My Yahoo! out there that works on millions of phones, right this second. No installation required and you don’t need a smart phone, third-party browser or a custom Java client to use it. RSS feeds on a mobile phone is a no brainer, and using the phone’s built in minibrowser is really the best way to deliver them. If you’ve got a late-model phone, you can check out your feeds right now with a minimum of fuss (and teach your Mom to do it too).


Click here to read more about Yahoo Mobile.

3/9/2005

Google Cloaking and Link Networks

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 12:38 pm

Google Cloaking?
Do as I say, not as I do? There is a good post over at ThreadWatch. About Google cloaking and keyword stuffing.

A short while ago, Threadwatch member Adam_C discovered what for all appearances seems to be Google pulling dirty SEO tactics on it’s own pages and thus going against it’s own guidelines in an effort to rank highly within it’s own results.

Find the full post on Google Cloaking and Keyword Stuffing here.

Seo Book has a list of a few more link networks out there.

New link exchange network. seems like a hybrid between the Digital Point’s COOP link exchange network and some other link exchange sites.

Click here for the list.

3/6/2005

MSN SES Party

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 2:57 am

Search Engine Strategies Conference
In New York MSN had another SES Party. I missed the one in Chicago, I’m not sure how many people were there. The New York party had over 400 people.

Our MSN Search Party at SES turned out to be a big success, with the entrance continually packed with over 400 people attending the event. The event took up four rooms of a great restaurant in New York called The Park.

Click here to see the post and a picture.

3/4/2005

Directory Special

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 4:09 am

Directory Special
We are having a ONE TIME ONLY special on 1st spots positions in your select category for Okay Directory and Directory Buddy. You pick the category that you want the #1 position for both directories (each hosted in different datacenters, hint hint). And you get in them both for only $20, normally $40. Offer ends March 15th. Also when it renews you are locked in at that price!

I will remove this offer on March 15th.

Special is over.

Aaron Wall of SEO Book has $100 in Adword Coupons

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 3:45 am

Adword Coupons
Tonight I was over reading Aaron Wall’s SEO Book blog. It seems the little sneak has a few $100 Google Adword coupons. Why do I say little sneak? Well…

I still like trying to grab the coupons for the game of it. I went back 4 times and never got caught or questioned.

Interested? Better head over there now before it is too late. Click here to get Google Adword Coupons.

2/26/2005

SEO Friendly Hosting - Multiple Class C IP’s

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 4:30 pm

Multiple Class C IP’s Solution
Preorders are now being taken, for hosting that has multiple Class C IP’s and muliple nameservers available. The hosting company will be setting up the first packages 7-14 days.

Virtual Hosting Packages
There are two virtual hosting packages available.

Virtual Hosting with 5 Class C IP’s
This package includes 5 different class C IP’s and 5 different nameservers. It also includes 2000 MB storage, 20 gig of bandwidth, php, MySQL and more. The cost of this package will be $79. Setup fee of $25, but this is waived on all preorders.

Virtual Hosting with 10 Class C IP’s
This package includes 10 different class C IP’s and 10 different nameservers. It also includes 4000 MB of storage, 50 gig of bandwidth, php, MySQL and more. This package will be $129. Setup fee $50 waived on all preorders.

Dedicated Hosting Package
This package includes 50 IP’s on 10 subnets, 40 GB Harddrive, 200 GB of bandwidth, PHP, MySQL and more. This package will be $249. Setup fee of $150. $50 waived on all preorders. Only $100 setup!

For those interested, these packages will be first come, first served. They will not be instant hosting setup. We take care in making sure the servers are setup with the best SEO Tactics possible. If interested, get your order in now by contacting tanyamartin@gmail.com. If you require anything special please be sure to include what you need. If you need more than what the packages offer, let us know and we will get you setup.

2/16/2005

Bill Gates is David and Google is Goliath

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 10:54 pm

Msn vs Google
Gary Price over at Search Engine Watch Blog writes about an interview on ABC World News Tonight.

Smiling, Gates tells Jennings that companies like Google and Apple keep MS on their toes. He says they’re “fantastic” competitors.

Find more information and the full interview by visiting Search Engine Watch

Free SEO Book and Yahoo Blog

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 6:53 am

Free SEO Book
If you haven’t heard Digital Marketing Online Forum is holding a refer your friends contest. The winner will recieve a copy of SEO Book. If you want a chance to win, now is a good time to head over there and register.

I would like to thank Aaron Wall for donating a copy of SEO Book for the contest.

Yahoo Search Blog
Last week Yahoo introduced Y!Q. The new beta Y!Q allows you to do contextual search.

Q: This question was posted by a blogger who thinks content publishers could use the Y!Q icons to help generate ad revenue. He asks, “Are there any plans to add contextual advertising to Y!Q?”

A: That’s an interesting proposition. Y!Q is a new beta product and we’re planning a lot of enhancements; but first and foremost we’re focusing on giving publishers more control over the display and content in Y!Q. As we develop new features, we’ll make sure to post them on the blog.

To find out more about Y!Q click here to read the rest of the interview.

2/15/2005

Step 6 - Sitemaps

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 1:01 am

If you haven’t already read steps 1 - 5, you might want to do that first:
Step 1 - Picking a domain name
Step 2 - Research the niche
Step 3 - Building your site template
Step 4 - Building a Product Page
Step 5 - Putting Your Site Together

Sitemap
Create a sitemap and keep it updated. Link to every section and page you put on your domain. Making a sitemap and linking to your own products or services, plus listing them again on your main page, should keep your all your pages indexed.

Product Map
If you sell products, like As Seen On Tv Affiliate Program, then make a product map for your site as well. Link to any pages you build that are just for the products. Also, link to the buy pages (your affiliate links). So you have a link directly to your page on your site, but then have a buy product now link as well.

Niche Map
If you have several niches or themes on your domain. Make a map of all your niches, link to each niche. You can even seperate niche maps if you have too many.

Link to every map you build on all your pages. Link back to the main index from all page (which you already did in your template and the head image of your template ;) )

It is always good to link to internal pages within your site. If you can link to every page on every page, then do it. Thinking of it as showing even the most unfamiliar surfer (the dummy that thinks email@emailsite.com is a website), how to find things on your site. If they can find it, a bot can too.

___________________________
Written by Tanya Martin from Over The Mark. Keep an eye out for more great articles and tips at her SEO and Affiliate Marketing Blog. Interested in having your linking methods evaluated or your affiliate system evaluated? Contact Debbie Bonventre at debbie@overthemark.com. or call 1.888.987.7861

2/14/2005

Step 5 - Putting Your Site Together

If you haven’t already read steps 1 -4, you might want to do that first:
Step 1 - Picking a domain name
Step 2 - Research the niche
Step 3 - Building your site template
Step 4 - Building a Product Page

Front Page of You Website
Hopefully by now you have had time to build all your products pages. Now it is time to begin making your front end. For this you need to take out your template.

Head Tags

Change the H1 Tag at the top to the theme of your store (or affiliate website). Place a few product thumbs (be sure to use the alt image tag) and a small introduction of the product on the page. Make each of these have a H2 tag. Link in to your product page, you can also link directly to the affiliate website as well.

Link Tactics

I usually put the name with a direct link to the affiliate program on top, then describe the item and put a click here for more info on product name. That link, I send to my website product page.

This helps send some traffic directly to your sponsor. But also allows then to stay on your site (and search engines to find all your pages).

Link All Products
Once you have enough product images and text to make the page fill up, you can make a directory at the bottom of the website to each of the other products.

Meta Tags
Now finish off with adjusting your meta tags. Change the title, keywords and description. Use several of the products names, preferably the ones you did pictures of.

We will continue with internal linking and site maps in the next part of these tutorials.

2/7/2005

Google Backlink Update

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 11:36 pm

Google Update
Google started updating backlinks this past weekend. Many people are not pleased with the update. Some that have had trouble ranking for awhile seem to be ranking now.

There has been some sort of change, but all anyone can do is guess what it was at this point.

Google Dance Tool
I ran into this new Google Dance Tool a while back. I have been meaning to bookmark it the last few times I have visited it. Today I’m finally getting around to it. You can find it here: http://www.uncoverthenet.com/google-dance/

It shows you backlinks, indexed pages and PR. Pretty useful tool.

2/3/2005

SEO Defined, Theories and Facts

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 11:15 pm

We will continue the tutorials throughout the coming weeks. Don’t think I forgot ;) More steps will be coming.

SEO Defined
Many people have different definitions of what exactly search engine optimization is. Today over at Make You Go Hmm, I have posted an article defining SEO. It also takes a deeper look at what search engine optimization includes.

If you want to get ahead with search engine optimization, I highly suggest you get a copy of SEO Book!

SEO Theories and Fact
Many seo theories or questions have been floating around about if your web host, shared IP or static IP can effect your rankings in Google. Many suggest different Class C IP’s can increase your chances of optimizing successfully. But many don’t place in facts with their assumptions.

Experience Fact
A few years back when the first wave of can my website IP effect my Google rankings hit, I decided to try switching some of my websites to their own static IP.

The Effect

Within weeks all sites increased ranking positions or ranked better. Of course, that doesn’t mean these will rank now, since Google has changed and is always changing.

Fact In Print

Google API Facts: Automatic Filtering

When enabled, filtering takes the following actions:

* Near-Duplicate Content Filter = If multiple search results contain identical titles and snippets, then only one of the documents is returned.
* Host Crowding = If multiple results come from the same Web host, then only the first two are returned.

Only the first two will be returned? What does host crowding mean? Are they looking at hosts by IP’s? Or by Class of IP’s? Are they looking at it by name servers? Maybe they are doing a whois on your site? Oh no!!!

Many huff and puff saying no way. Well it is right there in print, they are filtering out somehow. Calling it “Host Crowding". They mention same web host.

What can you do? Well I suggest doing what you are capable or can do to continue getting the traffic you want for your business. Am I saying start setting sites on different hosts? Really that is completely up to you. But if you want to optimize in every way you can, you should. Also to do that you need to figure out what exactly do they mean by “Host Crowding”. The best way to do that, is to make changes, keep a log of what you did and what happens.

Why discount anything that can have an effect on your rankings? If it is an easy fix or a reasonable change, I would do it.

___________________________
Written by Tanya Martin from Over The Mark. Keep an eye out for more great articles and tips at her SEO and Affiliate Marketing Blog. Interested in having your linking methods evaluated or your affiliate system evaluated? Contact Debbie Bonventre at debbie@overthemark.com. or call 1.888.987.7861

2/1/2005

Step 4 - Building a Product Page

If you haven’t already read steps 1 - 3, you might want to do that first:
Step 1 - Picking a domain name
Step 2 - Research the niche
Step 3 - Building your site template

Building a Product Page
First open the template page we made in Step 3. This is what we will start with. Hopefully you know the products you want to promote or you have joined MixedGoods Affiliate Program.

Product Image
We will need a picture of the product. Place this in the top or side area of the page, your choice. Go ahead and link the image with your affiliate linking code. Include text for the image alt tag. ProductName is a good one. If the product has more then one word as the name, try putting it all as one word. Often there are searches for it as one word, but very low competition. This makes for an easy sale for you.

Page Tags
Next you will want to change the first Header Text (H1) to the name of the product. Then change the meta tags to match this product. Describe the product and put in the description that they can buy Product Name there.

You already have some ads on the page from when you built the template. You can customize them a little (the friend finder one) to other keywords.

Description Text
Next place the product text on the page. Describe the product. Change H2 to reflect something about the product. Example Product Name Features: can be a great Header Tag. Bold keywords in the text, don’t do this too much. Just a few times to highlight that this is what your page is about.

Anchor Text
Include the name of the product at the top of your text. Link that with your affiliate code. Also include Buy Product Name at the bottom under the text. Again link this with your affiliate code.

Repeat
Keep repeating this for every product you want on your website.

Later we will go over building the index page, internal linking and link building.

___________________________
Written by Tanya Martin from Over The Mark. Keep an eye out for more great articles and tips at her SEO and Affiliate Marketing Blog. Interested in having your linking methods evaluated or your affiliate system evaluated? Contact Debbie Bonventre at debbie@overthemark.com. or call 1.888.987.7861

1/27/2005

Step 3 - Building your site template

If you haven’t already read step 1 and step 2, you might want to do that first:
Step 1 - Picking a domain name
Step 2 - Research the niche

Building Your Website
If you don’t know html or how to use Dreamweaver (or similar program), well then you are in the wrong place. I’m not going to teach you that here ;)

You will want to come up with a design for your site. Preferable something that shows some nice image/logo and has room for text content. A good way for beginners to start is to make a simple header image for the top of the page. The name of the site and maybe some type of logo or image that relates to the theme of your site. Place this on the page and use the rest of the page for text and links.

Now that was pretty simple. Before you go any further, put a link on the bottom of the page. This link should be Keyword Phrase Home or just Keyword Phrase. Link that to the index page of your site. Also, link the header image you just made to the index. Put in the alt tag…alt=keyword phrase. The top and bottom do not have to be the same phrase. Similar is fine. Maybe you are promoting the As Seen On Tv Products or Unique Gifts from Mixed Goods. If your focusing on As Seen On Tv Products, then have as seen on tv in one place and as seen on tv products in the other.

Next layout the rest of the page, put an area for pictures and/or text. Add 1-2 area’s for other ads. Maybe one on the side and one on bottom. This will be our ads for Google Adsense and Friend Finders.

Header Text

Once you have the layout done, you can start laying out header text. Put the words Header Text 1 (set as H1 in the font settings) right under your header image. Next put Header Text 2 (set as H2 in the font settings) in the text or picture area. Finally put Header Text 3 (set as H3 in the font settings) in the ad box on the side and ad box on the bottom of the page. Now if you don’t like the big text (which I don’t) you can pick a font and a smaller font size for these.

Meta Tags
Place your meta tags in the top of the page, just under the html tag. These will be your basic tags. Here is an example:
meta tags

In the classification, I usually look at dmoz and find categories that my site would match. That is what I use there. First this will help you focus on what type of site you are building, second some search engines may pick this up.

Website Template
Now save this as your index page and then as temp or template.html. This will be the page we will start with on everything else we do for the site. You will adjust things on each new page you build using the template, like keywords, title, etc. But you have the basics ready when you get that far.

We will start building more tomorrow.

1/26/2005

Step 2 - Research your niche or theme

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 10:43 pm

So you know the domain you are going to use. If you don’t please read Step 1 - Picking A Domain Name.

Researching the niche
In Step 1, you researched some keywords to help you pick out a domain. Now you need to use some of those keywords to find out what websites are listed for them. Check Google, Yahoo and MSN for each of the keywords that you are interested in using.

Click through to these sites and see how they are laid out. What type of words do they use? How much text do they use? How many sites are linking to them? How many pages on this site are indexed?

Search Engine Commands
Some search engine commands can help you with the task of finding out how many backlinks a site has and how many pages are indexed for that site. (backlinks - how many links they have pointing to the site)

Google & MSN Commands
site:domainname.com (shows the pages indexed)
link:domainname.com (shows the sites that link to it)

Yahoo Commands
domain:domainname.com (shows the pages indexed)
linkdomain:domainname.com (shows the sites that link to it)

Evaluate the research
After you know these things, you can decide on what keywords you would like to use. Just realize that if the keyword you are targeting has 25,000 links to it, it may take some time.

I never tell anyone to pick something easier to get. It just shows you how much link building you will need to do. I go for the tough ones, but target the smaller keywords at the same time. We will get to that after we go over building the site.

Remember, if someone tells you that the keyword has too much competition, that you should try something easier, just maybe they don’t want another competitor. How will you know whether or not you can do it if you don’t try?

Research Conclusion
You should now have an idea of how much link building you will need to do. Also, you can see how much content and how many pages most competitors have. You will want to try to get this many on your website. It will give you a good internal link structure. I will go over that when we start building the website.

1/25/2005

Step 1 - Picking a domain name

Filed under: — SEO Tanya @ 11:19 pm

Domain Name
First part of search engine optimization is your domain. Google doesn’t put much weight on this, but Yahoo still does. So you want to pick a domain that has some keywords in it that matches your niche/theme (what you are selling). If you have a domain, know your niche and don’t really want to build a new domain, then you should skip this article.

Affiliate Programs
First I look at the affiliate program. As Seen On Tv Affiliate Program has many different types of products. You will find automotive, kitchen products, gifts, as seen on tv products, jewelry, etc. Decide which type of products you are interested in promoting. This is the theme of your site.

Other sponsors like Google Adsense and Friend Finders are good add ons. You can build very targeted sites and pages for Friend Finders, but they are wonderful for any type of site you have. Google Adsense and ads like this can be used anywhere.

Keywords
To help find some good keywords you can use for your niche and new domain, you might try wordtracker if you have an account. Or you can head over to Digital Point’s Keyword Tool which is free.

Domain
After you pick your niche and research a little for keywords. Find a domain! Remember not to use any more then 2 hyphens (buy-this-now). Hyphens are good with Yahoo, okay with Google.

The last thing to think about is the look of the domain name. When you have your site ranked in the top 3 listings on Google, it is nice if the domain name makes the surfer interested. You can get the #3 spot and get more clicks then #1 and #2 if you do your job now.

Domain Examples
Say Google has these sites listed in the 1-3 positions:
hot-products-here.com #1
myfavoriteproducts.com #2
productsofficialsite.com #3

Which one would you click? I know each person will have their own pick, but most will click that ProductsOfficialSite.com or Products-Official-Site.com. There is just something a little more special about the name, something, I don’t know “Official".

Stop back by tomorrow for Step 2 - Research the Niche/Theme

___________________________
Written by Tanya Martin from Over The Mark. Keep an eye out for more great articles and tips at her SEO and Affiliate Marketing Blog. Interested in having your linking methods evaluated or your affiliate system evaluated? Contact Debbie Bonventre at debbie@overthemark.com. or call 1.888.987.7861

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