Search Engine Optimization

Find free edu blog links via Google search.

Type: inurl:blogs inurl:edu

Why are .edu links so important? .edu links belong to educational institutions, therefore many links referenced from them are meaningful or resource links to additional meaningful material, therefore search engines take give them credibility. In addition, they are less likely to have spam which also gives them more priority by search engines like Google.

How to get links from .edu domains relevant to your website's topic

Link: http://www.galido.net/blog/index.php/coolblog/2009/12/14/jingle-bells-played-backwards

See original post: Jingle Bells Backwards

Be on the top of Google using Digg

Here's how:

1. Determine what keyword(s) you would like to appear under. You can use Google's keyword tool (Google Google Keyword Tool). Do some analyzing by Googling the keywords that catch your attention. If the keywords appear in the millions+, there is high competition for those keywords, and it may be difficult to get to the top. Also, if there is high advertisement competition, it will be more difficult. Keep analyzing until you find keywords that have low advertisement competition, as well a results in the 100,000's and write them down.

2. Create a Digg Account and log in. On the top of the page click on Submit New. Enter the url of the website you are promoting. In the title box, type in the keyword you would like to focus on. In the description, type a description about your website and enter the keyword you are focusing on 2-3 times. Under choose a topic, choose a topic. Follow and answer the next few prompts.

3. Do the same by creating a profile at linkedin.com as well as popular forums and directories.

"Moguling.com has marketing tools and features you won’t find in other blog platforms."

http://moguling.com/

Keywords are text entered by the user into a search engine or directory. Found matches (known as hits) appear in a list. To get an idea of what top keywords users are currently entering, view some of these sites:

AOL Hot Searches (Top current queries, or see those in the last hour, last day and within particular categories.): http://hotsearches.aol.com/search/hotsearch.jsp

Google Trends (Allows you to tap into Google's database of searches, to determine what's popular.): http://google.com/trends

Lycos 50 (Long-standing service showing top searches at Lycos each week): http://50.lycos.com/

MSN Search Insider (Top 200 queries on MSN Search): http://www.imagine-msn.com/insider/

Yahoo Buzz Index (Shows you what's hot and what's not in terms of search topics at Yahoo): http://buzz.yahoo.com/

These sites display keywords that people have entered to search each specific search engine.

Search Engine Optimization - Key Suggestions

1. Submit Site to search engines

2. Submit site to directories (yahoo directories, dmoz project). Participate in forums and include links to your site.
Option: It is an option to get on the list by yahoo and dmoz for a fee of $300. This help you greatly in increasing your page rank and will help move traffic to your site.

3. Analyze page titles and keywords. Find high traffic keywords and optimize your site according to those keywords.

4. Insert search engine friendly meta tags; create robots.txt file and urlist.txt to tell search engines what links are available on your site
Note: Companies like google, altavista, msn, etc. do not look at meta tags as high priority when determining page relevance; they are heavy on alt tags and content;

5. Optimize your content. Use tags; ex. give your images alt tags with keywords

6. If products are advertised, create a ror.xml file that lists all your products and descriptions of products; this information is pulled by the search engines

7. Create a sitemap to help expose available links on your site

8. Page Rank: Page rank is increased by how popular your site is on the internet. Page rank is calculated depending on how many site have linked you to theirs. If you site appears on a high ranking website, your rank will also be increased
You: Start exchanging links with other industry sites to help improve your page rank

Link: http://www.doshdosh.com/20-quick-ways-to-increase-your-alexa-rank/

Alexa is a rank information site/toolbar owned by Amazon measured by the amount of users that have visited a site with the toolbar installed. (Google, Yahoo, and others have the same concept with their toolbars)

Why increase your Alexa rank?
Ad networks refer to your Alexa rank to determine the worth of a link on your site. The higher the reach and traffic, the higher the worth. Alexa is not 100% accurate as it mainly takes information from users using the toolbar, but many still refer to it's reports to get an idea of how a site is doing.

Here are some tips on increasing Alexa Ranking. These have been collected from several articles and I cannot guarantee its accuracy. Experiment at your own risk:

- Install the Alexa Toolbar or Firefox SearchStatus and set the site that you would like to increase as your homepage

- Post and Alexa Rank Widget on your site: http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup each click to the widget counts as a visit even when the toolbar is not installed. Post Widgets on heavily visited pages or on your pages with a high Google Page rank

- Have your company, friends, and family install the toolbar and visit your site or ask to make it their homepage. If that's too much for them, have them click on your Alexa Rank Widget

- Blog about Alexa. This provides rich content to your site and others will become interested in linking to you.

- Post your link in forums and other blogs along with posting your comments and feedback; get some help by hiring someone to post for you

- Use PayperClick Campaigns to bring in Traffic. The more traffic, the more likely you are to have people using the toolbar or click on your widgets

- Do link exchanges or buy banners/links on high traffic sites

- Pay Cybercafes to install the toolbar on all their machines and have your site as the homepage to all their computers.

- Use Alexa Auto-Surfs http://www.upmyrank.com/