Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).
According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion. Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings.
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In recent years, search-engine marketing has seen triple-digit growth, gaining both more efficient opportunities for marketers as well as serious steam from millions of users.
The online search industry is expected to reach nearly $7 billion in worldwide revenues by 2007, according to Safa Rashtchy, senior research analyst for U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. She sees "search as the most efficient way to find products and information, and simultaneously the rise of search as the best way for advertisers to find and acquire customers."
Even so, getting results remains complicated, demanding close monitoring and measuring. To make the most of marketing through search engines, here are options to consider as well as five common mistakes to avoid.
Search engine power:
The idea, of course, is that you figure out which keywords your customers use to search for the products or services you market and then submit those keywords to search engines such as MSN Search or Google. When customers input the keywords, your site is prominently displayed in the results, leading to better sales or exposure.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Internet Marketing
Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, Internet advertising, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. When applied to the subset of website-based advertisement placements, Internet marketing is commonly referred to as Web advertising (also Webvertising) and Web marketing.
The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.
Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.
Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. In 2008 The New York Times working with comScore published an initial estimate to quantify the user data collected by large Internet-based companies. Counting four types of interactions with company websites in addition to the hits from advertisements served from advertising networks, the authors found the potential for collecting upward of 2,500 pieces of data on average per user per month.
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Business Models:
Internet marketing is associated with several business models:
e-commerce — goods are sold directly to consumers or businesses,
publishing — the sale of advertising, and
lead-based websites — an organization generates value by acquiring sales leads from its website.
There are many other business models based on the specific needs of each person or business that launches an Internet marketing campaign.
The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.
Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.
Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. In 2008 The New York Times working with comScore published an initial estimate to quantify the user data collected by large Internet-based companies. Counting four types of interactions with company websites in addition to the hits from advertisements served from advertising networks, the authors found the potential for collecting upward of 2,500 pieces of data on average per user per month.
_______________________________________________________
Business Models:
Internet marketing is associated with several business models:
e-commerce — goods are sold directly to consumers or businesses,
publishing — the sale of advertising, and
lead-based websites — an organization generates value by acquiring sales leads from its website.
There are many other business models based on the specific needs of each person or business that launches an Internet marketing campaign.
General Marketing
Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion often referred to as the 4 Ps) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations.
Marketing tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.
Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing an organization to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy.
Therefore good marketing must be able to create a "proposition" or set of benefits for the end customer that delivers value through products or services.
__________________________________________
Concept of Marketing
"Marketing" is an instructive business domain that serves to inform and educate target markets about the value and competitive advantage of a company and its products. “Value” is worth derived by the customer from owning and using the product. “Competitive Advantage” is a depiction that the company or its products are each doing something better than their competition in a way that could benefit the customer.
Marketing is focused on the task of conveying pertinent company and product related information to specific customers, and there are a multitude of decisions (strategies) to be made within the marketing domain regarding what information to deliver, how much information to deliver, to whom to deliver, how to deliver, when to deliver, and where to deliver. Once the decisions are made, there are numerous ways (tactics) and processes that could be employed in support of the selected strategies.
As Marketing is often misinterpreted as just advertising or sales, Chris Newton, in What is marketing? (Marketing Help Online, 2008), defined marketing as every strategy and decision made in the following twelve areas:
Identifying and quantifying the need in the marketplace
Identifying and quantifying the target markets
Identifying the optimum cost effective media – online and offline - to reach the target markets
Reviewing the priorities of the product offering in your overall product mix ‘matrix’
Identifying and developing the most effective distribution channels, be they wholesaler networks, partnering alliances, franchising, or any number of conduits to the market.
Testing different ways of packaging the concepts or products to find their most 'easy-to-sell' form
Testing to find the optimum pricing strategies
Developing effective promotional strategies and effective advertising and supporting collateral, offers, and launch strategies
Developing and documenting the sales process
Finding the optimum execution of the sales process – through testing of selling scripts, people selection, supporting collateral, skills and attitudinal training, tracking, measuring and refining
Ensuring that sales projections reflect realistic production capacities
Developing nurture programs to optimise the lifetime value of the customer
The goal of marketing is to build and maintain a preference for a company and its products within the target markets. The goal of any business is to build mutually profitable and sustainable relationships with its customers. While all business domains are responsible for accomplishing this goal, the marketing domain bears a significant share of the responsibility.
Within the larger scope of its definition, marketing is performed through the actions of three coordinated disciplines named: “Product Marketing”, “Corporate Marketing”, and “Marketing Communications”.
____________________________________________
Two levels of marketing
Strategic marketing: attempts to determine how an organization competes against its competitors in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competitors.
Operational marketing: executes marketing functions to attract and keep customers and to maximize the value derived for them, as well as to satisfy the customer with prompt services and meeting the customer expectations. Operational Marketing includes the determination of the porter's five forces
__________________________________
Four Ps
Main article: Marketing mix
In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company represented a “Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, also at the Harvard Business School in the early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements: product, price, place and promotion.
In popular usage, "marketing" is the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning which recognizes that marketing is customer-centered. Products are often developed to meet the desires of groups of customers or even, in some cases, for specific customers. E. Jerome McCarthy divided marketing into four general sets of activities. His typology has become so universally recognized that his four activity sets, the Four Ps, have passed into the language.
___________________________________
The four Ps are:
Product: The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.
Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary - it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, psychology or attention.
Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, branding and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.
Placement (or distribution): refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point of sale placement or retailing. This fourth P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or services is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales.
These four elements are often referred to as the marketing mix, which a marketer can use to craft a marketing plan. The four Ps model is most useful when marketing low value consumer products. Industrial products, services, high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Services marketing must account for the unique nature of services. Industrial or B2B marketing must account for the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions. Relationship marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term relationship perspective rather than individual transactions.
As a counter to this, Morgan, in Riding the Waves of Change (Jossey-Bass, 1988), suggests that one of the greatest limitations of the 4 Ps approach "is that it unconsciously emphasizes the inside–out view (looking from the company outwards), whereas the essence of marketing should be the outside–in approach". Nevertheless, the 4 Ps offer a memorable and workable guide to the major categories of marketing activity, as well as a framework within which these can be used.
_______________________________
Seven Ps
As well as the standard four P's (Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place), services marketing calls upon an extra three, totaling seven and known together as the extended marketing mix. These are:
People: Any person coming into contact with customers can have an impact on overall satisfaction. Whether as part of a supporting service to a product or involved in a total service, people are particularly important because, in the customer's eyes, they are generally inseparable from the total service . As a result of this, they must be appropriately trained, well motivated and the right type of person. Fellow customers are also sometimes referred to under 'people', as they too can affect the customer's service experience, (e.g., at a sporting event).
Process: This is the process(es) involved in providing a service and the behaviour of people, which can be crucial to customer satisfaction.
Physical evidence: Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it intangible. This, therefore, means that potential customers could perceive greater risk when deciding whether to use a service. To reduce the feeling of risk, thus improving the chance for success, it is often vital to offer potential customers the chance to see what a service would be like. This is done by providing physical evidence, such as case studies, testimonials or demonstrations.
____________________________
Four New Ps
Personalization: It is here referred customization of products and services through the use of the Internet. Early examples include Dell on-line and Amazon.com, but this concept is further extended with emerging social media and advanced algorithms. Emerging technologies will continue to push this idea forward.
Participation: This is to allow the customer to participate in what the brand should stand for; what should be the product directions and even which ads to run. This concept is laying the foundation for disruptive change through democratization of information.
Peer-to-Peer: This refers to customer networks and communities where advocacy happens. The historical problem with marketing is that it is “interruptive” in nature, trying to impose a brand on the customer. This is most apparent in TV advertising. These “passive customer bases” will ultimately be replaced by the “active customer communities”. Brand engagement happens within those conversations. P2P is now being referred as Social Computing and is likely to be the most disruptive force in the future of marketing.
Predictive modeling: This refers to algorithms that are being successfully applied in marketing problems (both a regression as well as a classification problem).
Marketing tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.
Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing an organization to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy.
Therefore good marketing must be able to create a "proposition" or set of benefits for the end customer that delivers value through products or services.
__________________________________________
Concept of Marketing
"Marketing" is an instructive business domain that serves to inform and educate target markets about the value and competitive advantage of a company and its products. “Value” is worth derived by the customer from owning and using the product. “Competitive Advantage” is a depiction that the company or its products are each doing something better than their competition in a way that could benefit the customer.
Marketing is focused on the task of conveying pertinent company and product related information to specific customers, and there are a multitude of decisions (strategies) to be made within the marketing domain regarding what information to deliver, how much information to deliver, to whom to deliver, how to deliver, when to deliver, and where to deliver. Once the decisions are made, there are numerous ways (tactics) and processes that could be employed in support of the selected strategies.
As Marketing is often misinterpreted as just advertising or sales, Chris Newton, in What is marketing? (Marketing Help Online, 2008), defined marketing as every strategy and decision made in the following twelve areas:
Identifying and quantifying the need in the marketplace
Identifying and quantifying the target markets
Identifying the optimum cost effective media – online and offline - to reach the target markets
Reviewing the priorities of the product offering in your overall product mix ‘matrix’
Identifying and developing the most effective distribution channels, be they wholesaler networks, partnering alliances, franchising, or any number of conduits to the market.
Testing different ways of packaging the concepts or products to find their most 'easy-to-sell' form
Testing to find the optimum pricing strategies
Developing effective promotional strategies and effective advertising and supporting collateral, offers, and launch strategies
Developing and documenting the sales process
Finding the optimum execution of the sales process – through testing of selling scripts, people selection, supporting collateral, skills and attitudinal training, tracking, measuring and refining
Ensuring that sales projections reflect realistic production capacities
Developing nurture programs to optimise the lifetime value of the customer
The goal of marketing is to build and maintain a preference for a company and its products within the target markets. The goal of any business is to build mutually profitable and sustainable relationships with its customers. While all business domains are responsible for accomplishing this goal, the marketing domain bears a significant share of the responsibility.
Within the larger scope of its definition, marketing is performed through the actions of three coordinated disciplines named: “Product Marketing”, “Corporate Marketing”, and “Marketing Communications”.
____________________________________________
Two levels of marketing
Strategic marketing: attempts to determine how an organization competes against its competitors in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competitors.
Operational marketing: executes marketing functions to attract and keep customers and to maximize the value derived for them, as well as to satisfy the customer with prompt services and meeting the customer expectations. Operational Marketing includes the determination of the porter's five forces
__________________________________
Four Ps
Main article: Marketing mix
In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company represented a “Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, also at the Harvard Business School in the early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements: product, price, place and promotion.
In popular usage, "marketing" is the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning which recognizes that marketing is customer-centered. Products are often developed to meet the desires of groups of customers or even, in some cases, for specific customers. E. Jerome McCarthy divided marketing into four general sets of activities. His typology has become so universally recognized that his four activity sets, the Four Ps, have passed into the language.
___________________________________
The four Ps are:
Product: The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.
Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary - it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, psychology or attention.
Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, branding and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.
Placement (or distribution): refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point of sale placement or retailing. This fourth P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or services is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales.
These four elements are often referred to as the marketing mix, which a marketer can use to craft a marketing plan. The four Ps model is most useful when marketing low value consumer products. Industrial products, services, high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Services marketing must account for the unique nature of services. Industrial or B2B marketing must account for the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions. Relationship marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term relationship perspective rather than individual transactions.
As a counter to this, Morgan, in Riding the Waves of Change (Jossey-Bass, 1988), suggests that one of the greatest limitations of the 4 Ps approach "is that it unconsciously emphasizes the inside–out view (looking from the company outwards), whereas the essence of marketing should be the outside–in approach". Nevertheless, the 4 Ps offer a memorable and workable guide to the major categories of marketing activity, as well as a framework within which these can be used.
_______________________________
Seven Ps
As well as the standard four P's (Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place), services marketing calls upon an extra three, totaling seven and known together as the extended marketing mix. These are:
People: Any person coming into contact with customers can have an impact on overall satisfaction. Whether as part of a supporting service to a product or involved in a total service, people are particularly important because, in the customer's eyes, they are generally inseparable from the total service . As a result of this, they must be appropriately trained, well motivated and the right type of person. Fellow customers are also sometimes referred to under 'people', as they too can affect the customer's service experience, (e.g., at a sporting event).
Process: This is the process(es) involved in providing a service and the behaviour of people, which can be crucial to customer satisfaction.
Physical evidence: Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it intangible. This, therefore, means that potential customers could perceive greater risk when deciding whether to use a service. To reduce the feeling of risk, thus improving the chance for success, it is often vital to offer potential customers the chance to see what a service would be like. This is done by providing physical evidence, such as case studies, testimonials or demonstrations.
____________________________
Four New Ps
Personalization: It is here referred customization of products and services through the use of the Internet. Early examples include Dell on-line and Amazon.com, but this concept is further extended with emerging social media and advanced algorithms. Emerging technologies will continue to push this idea forward.
Participation: This is to allow the customer to participate in what the brand should stand for; what should be the product directions and even which ads to run. This concept is laying the foundation for disruptive change through democratization of information.
Peer-to-Peer: This refers to customer networks and communities where advocacy happens. The historical problem with marketing is that it is “interruptive” in nature, trying to impose a brand on the customer. This is most apparent in TV advertising. These “passive customer bases” will ultimately be replaced by the “active customer communities”. Brand engagement happens within those conversations. P2P is now being referred as Social Computing and is likely to be the most disruptive force in the future of marketing.
Predictive modeling: This refers to algorithms that are being successfully applied in marketing problems (both a regression as well as a classification problem).
Product Marketing
Product marketing deals with the first of the "4P"'s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion. Product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound marketing tasks.
For example, product management deals with the nuts and bolts of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others. Product marketing, as a job function within a firm, also differs from other marketing jobs such as Marcom or marketing communications, online marketing, advertising, marketing strategy, etc.
A Product Market is something that is referred to when pitching a new product to the general public. The people you are trying to make your product appeal to is your consumer market. For example: If you were pitching a new playstation game to the public, your consumer market would probably be a younger/teenage market (depending on the type of game). Thus you would carry out market research to find out how best to release the game. Likewise, a massage chair would probably not appeal to younger children, so you would pitch your product to an older generation
_______________________________________
Role of product marketing:
Product marketing in a business addresses four important strategic questions:
What products will be offered (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line)?
Who will be the target customers (i.e., the boundaries of the market segments to be served)?
How will the products reach those customers (i.e., the distribution channels to be used)?
Why will customers prefer our products to those of competitors (i.e., the distinctive attributes and value to be provided)?
For example, product management deals with the nuts and bolts of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others. Product marketing, as a job function within a firm, also differs from other marketing jobs such as Marcom or marketing communications, online marketing, advertising, marketing strategy, etc.
A Product Market is something that is referred to when pitching a new product to the general public. The people you are trying to make your product appeal to is your consumer market. For example: If you were pitching a new playstation game to the public, your consumer market would probably be a younger/teenage market (depending on the type of game). Thus you would carry out market research to find out how best to release the game. Likewise, a massage chair would probably not appeal to younger children, so you would pitch your product to an older generation
_______________________________________
Role of product marketing:
Product marketing in a business addresses four important strategic questions:
What products will be offered (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line)?
Who will be the target customers (i.e., the boundaries of the market segments to be served)?
How will the products reach those customers (i.e., the distribution channels to be used)?
Why will customers prefer our products to those of competitors (i.e., the distinctive attributes and value to be provided)?
RSS Feeds
What is RSS?
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" -- it's a format for distributing and gathering content from sources across the Web, including newspapers, magazines, and blogs.
Web publishers use RSS to easily create and distribute news feeds that include links, headlines, and summaries. The Christian Science Monitor, CNN, and CNET News are among the many sites that now deliver updated online content via RSS.
Yahoo! News offers dozens of RSS feeds you can read in My Yahoo! or using third-party RSS news reader software. Click here to find out more about RSS and how you can use it with Yahoo! News.
NEW: Photo thumbnails in Yahoo! News' RSS feeds! We're now offering thumbnails of related photos for stories in our RSS feeds, giving you an even richer news experience. (Note: your RSS reader may not support the viewing of thumbnails.)
What kind of content does Yahoo! News syndicate via RSS?
Yahoo! News is offering many feeds in the RSS format. The feeds are free of charge to use for individuals and non-profit organizations for non-commercial use. Attribution (included in each feed) is required.
Top Stories:
U.S. National: More U.S. Feeds
Elections:
Terrorism:
World: More World Feeds
Mideast Conflict:
Iraq:
Politics: More Politics Feeds
Business: More Business Feeds
Technology: More Technology Feeds
Sports: More Sports Feeds
Entertainment: More Entertainment Feeds
Health: More Health Feeds
Odd News:
Science: More Science Feeds
Opinion/Editorial:
Obituaries:
Most Emailed: More Most Emailed Feeds
Most Viewed: More Most Viewed Feeds
Most Recommended: More Most Recommended Feeds
Create your own RSS news feeds
You can now create your own custom RSS feeds using Yahoo! News Search.
What are the terms of use?
The feeds are provided free of charge for use by individuals and non-profit organizations for personal, non-commercial uses. We ask that you provide attribution to Yahoo! News in connection with your use of the feeds.
If you provide this attribution in text, please use: "Yahoo! News." If you provide this attribution with a graphic, please use the Yahoo! News logo that we have included in the feed itself.
We reserve all rights in and to the Yahoo! News logo, and your right to use the Yahoo! News logo is limited to providing attribution in connection with these RSS feeds.
We are also including the provider of each individual news story in the feed alongside each headline. Please do not alter this for display. We want our news partners to be attributed for their work.
Yahoo! News also reserves the right to require you to cease distributing these feeds at any time for any reason.
How can I use RSS?
Typical applications for consuming or using RSS include:
Using a program known as a News Aggregator to collect, update and display RSS feeds
Incorporating RSS feeds into weblogs
News Aggregators (also called news readers) will download and display RSS feeds for you. A number of free and commercial News Aggregators are available for download. Popular news readers include AmphetaDesk, NetNewsWire, and Radio Userland.
Many aggregators are separate, "stand-alone" programs such as those listed above; other services will let you add RSS feeds to a Web page. Yahoo! lets you add RSS feeds to your My Yahoo! page; to make this easier, you can click on the "Add to My Yahoo!" button to the right of each link above.
Now, you can also add RSS feeds to the front page of Yahoo! News, under the My Sources tabs that appear with each news module. Get more information about adding RSS feeds to My Sources.
Another way many people use RSS feeds is by incorporating content into weblogs, or "blogs". Blogs are web pages comprised of usually short, frequently updated items and web links. Blogging as a publishing tool is used for many purposes: traditional journalism, personal journals, group discussions around a topic, and many combinations in-between.
RSS links from Yahoo!
My Yahoo! RSS Help Page
Yahoo! Directory: RSS Format
Yahoo! News Search: RSS
Yahoo! News Help
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format.
An RSS document (which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.
The benefit of RSS is the aggregation of content from multiple web sources in one place. RSS content can be read using software called an "RSS reader," "feed reader," or an "aggregator," which can be web-based or desktop-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:
Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91).
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999, the RSS icon first gained widespread use in 2005–2006.
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" -- it's a format for distributing and gathering content from sources across the Web, including newspapers, magazines, and blogs.
Web publishers use RSS to easily create and distribute news feeds that include links, headlines, and summaries. The Christian Science Monitor, CNN, and CNET News are among the many sites that now deliver updated online content via RSS.
Yahoo! News offers dozens of RSS feeds you can read in My Yahoo! or using third-party RSS news reader software. Click here to find out more about RSS and how you can use it with Yahoo! News.
NEW: Photo thumbnails in Yahoo! News' RSS feeds! We're now offering thumbnails of related photos for stories in our RSS feeds, giving you an even richer news experience. (Note: your RSS reader may not support the viewing of thumbnails.)
What kind of content does Yahoo! News syndicate via RSS?
Yahoo! News is offering many feeds in the RSS format. The feeds are free of charge to use for individuals and non-profit organizations for non-commercial use. Attribution (included in each feed) is required.
Top Stories:
U.S. National: More U.S. Feeds
Elections:
Terrorism:
World: More World Feeds
Mideast Conflict:
Iraq:
Politics: More Politics Feeds
Business: More Business Feeds
Technology: More Technology Feeds
Sports: More Sports Feeds
Entertainment: More Entertainment Feeds
Health: More Health Feeds
Odd News:
Science: More Science Feeds
Opinion/Editorial:
Obituaries:
Most Emailed: More Most Emailed Feeds
Most Viewed: More Most Viewed Feeds
Most Recommended: More Most Recommended Feeds
Create your own RSS news feeds
You can now create your own custom RSS feeds using Yahoo! News Search.
What are the terms of use?
The feeds are provided free of charge for use by individuals and non-profit organizations for personal, non-commercial uses. We ask that you provide attribution to Yahoo! News in connection with your use of the feeds.
If you provide this attribution in text, please use: "Yahoo! News." If you provide this attribution with a graphic, please use the Yahoo! News logo that we have included in the feed itself.
We reserve all rights in and to the Yahoo! News logo, and your right to use the Yahoo! News logo is limited to providing attribution in connection with these RSS feeds.
We are also including the provider of each individual news story in the feed alongside each headline. Please do not alter this for display. We want our news partners to be attributed for their work.
Yahoo! News also reserves the right to require you to cease distributing these feeds at any time for any reason.
How can I use RSS?
Typical applications for consuming or using RSS include:
Using a program known as a News Aggregator to collect, update and display RSS feeds
Incorporating RSS feeds into weblogs
News Aggregators (also called news readers) will download and display RSS feeds for you. A number of free and commercial News Aggregators are available for download. Popular news readers include AmphetaDesk, NetNewsWire, and Radio Userland.
Many aggregators are separate, "stand-alone" programs such as those listed above; other services will let you add RSS feeds to a Web page. Yahoo! lets you add RSS feeds to your My Yahoo! page; to make this easier, you can click on the "Add to My Yahoo!" button to the right of each link above.
Now, you can also add RSS feeds to the front page of Yahoo! News, under the My Sources tabs that appear with each news module. Get more information about adding RSS feeds to My Sources.
Another way many people use RSS feeds is by incorporating content into weblogs, or "blogs". Blogs are web pages comprised of usually short, frequently updated items and web links. Blogging as a publishing tool is used for many purposes: traditional journalism, personal journals, group discussions around a topic, and many combinations in-between.
RSS links from Yahoo!
My Yahoo! RSS Help Page
Yahoo! Directory: RSS Format
Yahoo! News Search: RSS
Yahoo! News Help
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format.
An RSS document (which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.
The benefit of RSS is the aggregation of content from multiple web sources in one place. RSS content can be read using software called an "RSS reader," "feed reader," or an "aggregator," which can be web-based or desktop-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:
Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91).
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999, the RSS icon first gained widespread use in 2005–2006.
Viral Marketing Information
Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.
Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.
Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.
It is claimed that a customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like. Viral marketing is based on this natural human behavior.
The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.
The term "viral marketing" is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns — the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.
Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.
Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.
It is claimed that a customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like. Viral marketing is based on this natural human behavior.
The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.
The term "viral marketing" is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns — the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.
Key Tools for PR Practitioners
* E-mail: press release
* Press briefings/ conferences
* Site, press and VIP visits
* Photography
* Video News Releases (VNRs): digital
* Stunts
* Editorial coverage
* Hospitality events
* Viral campaigns
* Advertorials
* Features
* Webcasting
* Interviews
* Competitions
* Surveys and results of market research
* Case studies
* Corporate literature and publications
* Newsletters and e-zines
* Contract publishing
* Web sites and portals
* Published surveys and reports based on consumer, medical or scientific research
* Press briefings/ conferences
* Site, press and VIP visits
* Photography
* Video News Releases (VNRs): digital
* Stunts
* Editorial coverage
* Hospitality events
* Viral campaigns
* Advertorials
* Features
* Webcasting
* Interviews
* Competitions
* Surveys and results of market research
* Case studies
* Corporate literature and publications
* Newsletters and e-zines
* Contract publishing
* Web sites and portals
* Published surveys and reports based on consumer, medical or scientific research
What is PR?
Of all the elements of the communications mix, public relations is the hardest to define. Many different definitions have been suggested by practitioners and academics alike. For example, the Institute of Public Relations define PR as:
“The discipline which looks after the reputation - with the aim of earning understanding and support, and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics .”
PR in essence, is about managing reputation and perception and establishing good relationships with key stakeholders. As such, it can be considered the key weapon in the armoury of corporate communication and reputation management. However, public relations has, rather ironically, suffered from an identity crisis. A search through marketing literature will reveal dozens of different definitions, some placing emphasis on its role in media relations, others offering a much wider perspective.
The main reason for such difficulties in defining not just the nature, but also the scope of PR, is that the ascendancy of reputation capital and the shift from product to value-focus means that the demands on PR have significantly increased. Traditionally within the communications mix PR focused on changing or influencing stakeholder beliefs and attitudes towards organisations and brands. Its activities were either proactive, by helping to generate attention and understanding through media awareness or reactive, in helping to protect an organisation's reputation during crisis or adverse publicity.
Although PR still retains these vital functions, and manages them daily for clients, its scope has widened considerably over the last 10 years. Now, at a corporate level, its primary role is proactive, managing issues and nurturing stakeholder relations. As reputation seems to have become the key capital, PR can be considered the most effective element to help co-ordinate other elements of the mix.
For many in communications, the term public relations has become redundant. The reasons behind this revolve around a mixture of negative connotations, the need to broaden their agency services and PR’s own inability to address its own identity issues.
A major strength of PR is that it plays a key role in educating audiences and further converting awareness (often generated by advertising and sales promotion) into understanding and acceptance. From the viewpoint of many organizations, its principal advantage comes from its third party credibility, when obtained through positive editorial coverage in major news media. Public relations is also critical in brand building, as brands cannot rely solely on advertising and sales promotion to foster the desired image.
Good PR is invisible; no obvious trace should be left so that consumers can point the finger at some form of news generating mechanism. Given it's ability to influence with subtly, public relations is one of the most important elements in building brands and creating both the right environment for the brand to prosper, but also for the right messages to be received at the right time to the relevant audiences. Once a clear brand identity has been conceived, it is the primary role of public relations to communicate its values to the consumers
“The discipline which looks after the reputation - with the aim of earning understanding and support, and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics .”
PR in essence, is about managing reputation and perception and establishing good relationships with key stakeholders. As such, it can be considered the key weapon in the armoury of corporate communication and reputation management. However, public relations has, rather ironically, suffered from an identity crisis. A search through marketing literature will reveal dozens of different definitions, some placing emphasis on its role in media relations, others offering a much wider perspective.
The main reason for such difficulties in defining not just the nature, but also the scope of PR, is that the ascendancy of reputation capital and the shift from product to value-focus means that the demands on PR have significantly increased. Traditionally within the communications mix PR focused on changing or influencing stakeholder beliefs and attitudes towards organisations and brands. Its activities were either proactive, by helping to generate attention and understanding through media awareness or reactive, in helping to protect an organisation's reputation during crisis or adverse publicity.
Although PR still retains these vital functions, and manages them daily for clients, its scope has widened considerably over the last 10 years. Now, at a corporate level, its primary role is proactive, managing issues and nurturing stakeholder relations. As reputation seems to have become the key capital, PR can be considered the most effective element to help co-ordinate other elements of the mix.
For many in communications, the term public relations has become redundant. The reasons behind this revolve around a mixture of negative connotations, the need to broaden their agency services and PR’s own inability to address its own identity issues.
A major strength of PR is that it plays a key role in educating audiences and further converting awareness (often generated by advertising and sales promotion) into understanding and acceptance. From the viewpoint of many organizations, its principal advantage comes from its third party credibility, when obtained through positive editorial coverage in major news media. Public relations is also critical in brand building, as brands cannot rely solely on advertising and sales promotion to foster the desired image.
Good PR is invisible; no obvious trace should be left so that consumers can point the finger at some form of news generating mechanism. Given it's ability to influence with subtly, public relations is one of the most important elements in building brands and creating both the right environment for the brand to prosper, but also for the right messages to be received at the right time to the relevant audiences. Once a clear brand identity has been conceived, it is the primary role of public relations to communicate its values to the consumers
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Google SEO: Improve your ranking in Google SERPs
Among all major search engines, webmasters give prime importance to Google and try to get #1 position in Google SERPs. Now a question arises, “why do people strive to get a good rank in Google?”
Generally, webmasters launch their websites to promote their business online. So, as a webmaster you can’t achieve your objectives unless and until visitors know where to find you. This is the main reason behind optimizing your website for search engines. Among all search engines visitors give more importance to Google because most of the searchers depend on Google to get their required information and it is currently dominating the search engine market because of its flawless results.A good position in Google can help you to get maximum benefits for your website. Among all forms of online advertising media, Google SEO is the most money-spinning form of advertising in the internet advertising market. So you need to know what you should do to properly recognize and categorize your website for top rankings in Google.
Google has laid down some important SEO guidelines to optimize your website. Some of them are given below:
* Follow advanced techniques for your web page optimization and link building.
* Discover distinctive keyword strategies.
* Google SEO content and text focus on the content you place on your web page and it should be unique and original.
* In your Google SEO campaigns, include the correct use and positioning of header tags.
* Always follow best practice-strategies to maximize traffic.
* The title of your webpage is the most vital part and it gives brief description about the actual content of the page. So, when you are working on Google SEO, focus on current use of titles.
* Maintain right keyword density in your content. Don’t overstuff your keywords within your content, otherwise it may get spammed.
* Inter linking strategy is very important from search engine point of view because it helps the search engine spider navigate different pages on your website and collect the information and content on each web page of your website.
If you are really interested to get a good rank in Google SERPs, then the points which are discussed above will definitely be helpful for you.
Generally, webmasters launch their websites to promote their business online. So, as a webmaster you can’t achieve your objectives unless and until visitors know where to find you. This is the main reason behind optimizing your website for search engines. Among all search engines visitors give more importance to Google because most of the searchers depend on Google to get their required information and it is currently dominating the search engine market because of its flawless results.A good position in Google can help you to get maximum benefits for your website. Among all forms of online advertising media, Google SEO is the most money-spinning form of advertising in the internet advertising market. So you need to know what you should do to properly recognize and categorize your website for top rankings in Google.
Google has laid down some important SEO guidelines to optimize your website. Some of them are given below:
* Follow advanced techniques for your web page optimization and link building.
* Discover distinctive keyword strategies.
* Google SEO content and text focus on the content you place on your web page and it should be unique and original.
* In your Google SEO campaigns, include the correct use and positioning of header tags.
* Always follow best practice-strategies to maximize traffic.
* The title of your webpage is the most vital part and it gives brief description about the actual content of the page. So, when you are working on Google SEO, focus on current use of titles.
* Maintain right keyword density in your content. Don’t overstuff your keywords within your content, otherwise it may get spammed.
* Inter linking strategy is very important from search engine point of view because it helps the search engine spider navigate different pages on your website and collect the information and content on each web page of your website.
If you are really interested to get a good rank in Google SERPs, then the points which are discussed above will definitely be helpful for you.
Effect of bad Neighborhood Links
Most people bask in the ignorance that more number of links help increase the page rank of your site in search engines. This is, however, true only to certain extent. If you link to a wrong website while you are at it, then it may affect your ranking in search engines.
Links to spammers can have a negative effect on your rankings in Google and other search engines. But if you have inadvertently linked to a site which is not related to your site, then it may not affect your ranking. In this case Google check your linking pattern and it gives ranking accordingly. There are some websites which are not good in Google’s point of view and if you are getting back links from those websites, then it can have a adverse effect on your Google rankings. Some of the features are given below which are considered as bad by Google. They are:
* The sites that are known as web spammers.
* The sites which are not relevant to the theme of your site.
* The sites which are free for all link pages. If you are getting links from these sites then those links have no value.
* The sites that have automatic linking format
Google statement about bad back links:
There are certain factors regarding bad neighborhood links Google consider during giving penalty to any website. They are-
* Google’s supplemental index has no relation with your outbound links. Google looks for bad neighborhood linking patterns.
* You should check your out-bound links on a regular basis. This is because sometimes your links may send your visitors to some inappropriate places and as a result of this you may lose the trust of your visitors. So to have the visitors return to you, always update your links. It is an effective method to get good rankings in Google.
Links to a wrong website has negative repercussions on your search engine rankings. So, you need to be very careful while approaching link to other websites.
Links to spammers can have a negative effect on your rankings in Google and other search engines. But if you have inadvertently linked to a site which is not related to your site, then it may not affect your ranking. In this case Google check your linking pattern and it gives ranking accordingly. There are some websites which are not good in Google’s point of view and if you are getting back links from those websites, then it can have a adverse effect on your Google rankings. Some of the features are given below which are considered as bad by Google. They are:
* The sites that are known as web spammers.
* The sites which are not relevant to the theme of your site.
* The sites which are free for all link pages. If you are getting links from these sites then those links have no value.
* The sites that have automatic linking format
Google statement about bad back links:
There are certain factors regarding bad neighborhood links Google consider during giving penalty to any website. They are-
* Google’s supplemental index has no relation with your outbound links. Google looks for bad neighborhood linking patterns.
* You should check your out-bound links on a regular basis. This is because sometimes your links may send your visitors to some inappropriate places and as a result of this you may lose the trust of your visitors. So to have the visitors return to you, always update your links. It is an effective method to get good rankings in Google.
Links to a wrong website has negative repercussions on your search engine rankings. So, you need to be very careful while approaching link to other websites.
Google Sandbox Effect: Pros and cons
If you are into SEO business for quite sometime now, then you must have heard about Google sandbox effect. It is really a nightmarish experience for those who have already had their site banned. Sand is a program of Google computer security; a safety system for secure operation of other programs. It is very often used to carry out untested codes or programs from untested third-parties and dubious users. As a search engine, if Google find anything insecure and obstructive for its smooth running, then it adopts “Sandbox Effect” for these kinds of sites.
According to many people Google sandbox effect is a penalty that does not allow new web sites to rank well in the search results of Google, even not for the least competitive phrases or keywords irrespective of a high page rank and good link popularity. Even if your site is better than your competitors, it will still be in the Sandbox for a certain amount of time. Often, new websites can find themselves in the Sandbox for 6-9 months during which traffic to the site is severely restricted. This also depends on how competitive your new web site's market and keywords are.
The website owners adopt various unethical techniques to get higher rank within very short period to get higher ranks in SERPs. They usually do so to get more and more number of inbound links to increase their link popularity as Google uses link popularity as one of its criteria to rank web sites in its search engine. Hence, Google uses the sandbox filter to discourage these web site owners.
There is no such way to know whether a new web site is in the Sandbox or not. But the only way to determine whether your site is sandboxed or not is to find out if your web site has enough of quality inbound links, rich quality content and a good ranking in other search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN. Alternatively, it can also be determined by checking the page rank bar on tool bar; if it appears to be grey then it is sandboxed. And, if it is no where present in Google SERPs for your keywords then this clearly means that your site has been victim of Google sandbox effect. There in no such concept called Yahoo Sandbox in Yahoo and other search engines do not have such filters either.
According to many people Google sandbox effect is a penalty that does not allow new web sites to rank well in the search results of Google, even not for the least competitive phrases or keywords irrespective of a high page rank and good link popularity. Even if your site is better than your competitors, it will still be in the Sandbox for a certain amount of time. Often, new websites can find themselves in the Sandbox for 6-9 months during which traffic to the site is severely restricted. This also depends on how competitive your new web site's market and keywords are.
The website owners adopt various unethical techniques to get higher rank within very short period to get higher ranks in SERPs. They usually do so to get more and more number of inbound links to increase their link popularity as Google uses link popularity as one of its criteria to rank web sites in its search engine. Hence, Google uses the sandbox filter to discourage these web site owners.
There is no such way to know whether a new web site is in the Sandbox or not. But the only way to determine whether your site is sandboxed or not is to find out if your web site has enough of quality inbound links, rich quality content and a good ranking in other search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN. Alternatively, it can also be determined by checking the page rank bar on tool bar; if it appears to be grey then it is sandboxed. And, if it is no where present in Google SERPs for your keywords then this clearly means that your site has been victim of Google sandbox effect. There in no such concept called Yahoo Sandbox in Yahoo and other search engines do not have such filters either.
Google Search Engine Ranking Secrets
Updated Google search engine ranking tips and tricks are your demand? We are back with another exclusive article on Google from our SEO articles, SEO tips and tricks section. This time we will discuss why Google search engine ranking is the most popular in the world of SEO optimization. We will also suggest you ways to improve Google ranking. Take a look at the following questions:
1. Why Google is leading the search engine industry?
2. Why do other search engines like Yahoo, MSN and ASK provide biased results?
3. How is Google-SERP unique and different from Yahoo and other search engines’ SERPs?
These are some of the general questions which most of the people (who are closely associated with internet-search) ask. It’s apt and obvious for anybody to ask these questions. Let’s go to the background where these queries are exactly evolved.
Every day millions of searches are conducted on World Wide Web through out the world. There are several search engines to help net users in searching their required information, but the industry leaders are Google, yahoo, and MSN. Let’s limit our discussion among these three popular search engines. The comparative views on quality service vary from expert to expert.
To find whether the views are biased or not, I conducted a pilot study by searching for the keyword “SEO Company” in Google, Yahoo and MSN. Google result was different from both Yahoo and MSN. After analyzing the Meta Tags of top listed (SERPs of these three search engines) websites, I found both Yahoo and MSN producing almost same result; where as Google’s result was a bit different. The finding was Google’s result is more focused and particular than Yahoo and MSN result. I don’t like to give a biased comment. Rather, I would like to add what exactly experts say regarding these three search engines’ consideration before producing results. Let’s start from Google.
Google stands on the top among its current industry competitors due to its unique filtering technique while producing results. Google considers each and every aspect of webpages to list them in its SERP for a particular keyword/phrase. It gives more priority to keyword/phrase and considers it as the base element for producing of results. If a user conducts a search for the keyword “SEO Company”, then Google looks for the keyword at locations like inbound links, internal links, at the start of your page title, at the beginning of your first page header (H1 tag) etc. Thus Google filters the web documents and produces the result. Though other search engines like Yahoo and MSN have similar algorithms to filter web documents, yet their crawling algorithm is not that much advanced and sophisticated. I hope all experts will agree to this view. Despite such an advanced and sophisticated algorithm, some webmasters are able to find their way out with the help of some ‘Black Hat’ techniques. Though they rule the top spot with the help of Black Hat techniques, yet their top spot acquisition is confined only to a very few days. Once Google finds or is informed, then future of those websites becomes dark. Google immediately sends them to the Sandbox. This unique filtering technique always enforces the webmasters to practice ethical ways and become original and creative. One of the well known SEO experts views that:
Yahoo's hits are much cleaner than Google's if you have pure intentions in this search. Also, Yahoo's results are also presented in a more appealing way.
But I don’t agree with this view because almost all the experts say Yahoo is a bit commercially biased, whereas Google’s comprehensive webpage list of SERP is more information oriented. Google looks for thematic relation of the query with the webpages; on the other hand Yahoo and MSN search for exact keyword/phrase in the content. Yes, the difference we can make out is that Google gives more importance to off-page elements, whereas Yahoo and MSN value the on-page elements a lot. Still Google’s filtering technology is much more advanced to cover on-page elements also.
1. Why Google is leading the search engine industry?
2. Why do other search engines like Yahoo, MSN and ASK provide biased results?
3. How is Google-SERP unique and different from Yahoo and other search engines’ SERPs?
These are some of the general questions which most of the people (who are closely associated with internet-search) ask. It’s apt and obvious for anybody to ask these questions. Let’s go to the background where these queries are exactly evolved.
Every day millions of searches are conducted on World Wide Web through out the world. There are several search engines to help net users in searching their required information, but the industry leaders are Google, yahoo, and MSN. Let’s limit our discussion among these three popular search engines. The comparative views on quality service vary from expert to expert.
To find whether the views are biased or not, I conducted a pilot study by searching for the keyword “SEO Company” in Google, Yahoo and MSN. Google result was different from both Yahoo and MSN. After analyzing the Meta Tags of top listed (SERPs of these three search engines) websites, I found both Yahoo and MSN producing almost same result; where as Google’s result was a bit different. The finding was Google’s result is more focused and particular than Yahoo and MSN result. I don’t like to give a biased comment. Rather, I would like to add what exactly experts say regarding these three search engines’ consideration before producing results. Let’s start from Google.
Google stands on the top among its current industry competitors due to its unique filtering technique while producing results. Google considers each and every aspect of webpages to list them in its SERP for a particular keyword/phrase. It gives more priority to keyword/phrase and considers it as the base element for producing of results. If a user conducts a search for the keyword “SEO Company”, then Google looks for the keyword at locations like inbound links, internal links, at the start of your page title, at the beginning of your first page header (H1 tag) etc. Thus Google filters the web documents and produces the result. Though other search engines like Yahoo and MSN have similar algorithms to filter web documents, yet their crawling algorithm is not that much advanced and sophisticated. I hope all experts will agree to this view. Despite such an advanced and sophisticated algorithm, some webmasters are able to find their way out with the help of some ‘Black Hat’ techniques. Though they rule the top spot with the help of Black Hat techniques, yet their top spot acquisition is confined only to a very few days. Once Google finds or is informed, then future of those websites becomes dark. Google immediately sends them to the Sandbox. This unique filtering technique always enforces the webmasters to practice ethical ways and become original and creative. One of the well known SEO experts views that:
Yahoo's hits are much cleaner than Google's if you have pure intentions in this search. Also, Yahoo's results are also presented in a more appealing way.
But I don’t agree with this view because almost all the experts say Yahoo is a bit commercially biased, whereas Google’s comprehensive webpage list of SERP is more information oriented. Google looks for thematic relation of the query with the webpages; on the other hand Yahoo and MSN search for exact keyword/phrase in the content. Yes, the difference we can make out is that Google gives more importance to off-page elements, whereas Yahoo and MSN value the on-page elements a lot. Still Google’s filtering technology is much more advanced to cover on-page elements also.
Google Zeitgeist- Mode of presenting Internet
“Google Zeitgeist – Search Patterns, Trends, and Surprises according to Google”. This is sufficient to prove why Google is the best among its competitors. Google has revolutionized the use of World Wide Web. Wherever you are in the world, Internet has made the distance shorter and Google has quickened and systematized the process. Let’s have a glance what exactly ‘Google Zeitgeist’ offers.
The term “Zeitgeist” is the combination of two German vocabulary; Zeit (means TIME) and Geist (Spirit) which literally means ‘The spirit of the time’. The term is defined in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate English Dictionary as "The general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era". Google has realized the essence of the meaning and has done a great job implementing the idea in this service. Google Zeitgeist explores its own users’ search behavior and their preference. This explored information is based on an analysis of the total searched queries through Google Search Box weekly, monthly as well as yearly. The most important factor is that it can show you the global result and country wise result, too. This information can give you a clear (at least a rough) list of queries for which World Wide Web is searched.
I don’t know how far this Google Zeitgeist will be helpful for common users, but I’m sure, one can easily tell what the globe prefers to search in World Wide Web. Has not Google Zeitgeist made this complex (and almost impossible) task easy for a layman’s comprehension?
Though, some analysts doubt over the validity and reliability of the Google Zeitgeist information, I would like to tell these great, but dissatisfied minds that you can’t mean both ‘popularity’ and ‘top’ synonymously. Every top keyword might be a popular one and the search volume might be high but that doesn’t mean every popular keyword will have high search volume.
This Google service gives significant information to the online service providers regarding their positive areas and drawbacks, which will enable them to improve the quality of their services and products. This can ease the World Wide Web monitoring process and tracking the web surfers. The data can be useful for the online marketers in promoting their products. For search engine optimization experts, this information is also very useful. They can analyze queries such as which sector is high on demand and in which areas so that they can optimize the websites by using those queries or keywords. Thus, we can conclude that Google Zeitgeist information gives us a clear and precise idea related to the preferences and trends of Google users worldwide.
The term “Zeitgeist” is the combination of two German vocabulary; Zeit (means TIME) and Geist (Spirit) which literally means ‘The spirit of the time’. The term is defined in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate English Dictionary as "The general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era". Google has realized the essence of the meaning and has done a great job implementing the idea in this service. Google Zeitgeist explores its own users’ search behavior and their preference. This explored information is based on an analysis of the total searched queries through Google Search Box weekly, monthly as well as yearly. The most important factor is that it can show you the global result and country wise result, too. This information can give you a clear (at least a rough) list of queries for which World Wide Web is searched.
I don’t know how far this Google Zeitgeist will be helpful for common users, but I’m sure, one can easily tell what the globe prefers to search in World Wide Web. Has not Google Zeitgeist made this complex (and almost impossible) task easy for a layman’s comprehension?
Though, some analysts doubt over the validity and reliability of the Google Zeitgeist information, I would like to tell these great, but dissatisfied minds that you can’t mean both ‘popularity’ and ‘top’ synonymously. Every top keyword might be a popular one and the search volume might be high but that doesn’t mean every popular keyword will have high search volume.
This Google service gives significant information to the online service providers regarding their positive areas and drawbacks, which will enable them to improve the quality of their services and products. This can ease the World Wide Web monitoring process and tracking the web surfers. The data can be useful for the online marketers in promoting their products. For search engine optimization experts, this information is also very useful. They can analyze queries such as which sector is high on demand and in which areas so that they can optimize the websites by using those queries or keywords. Thus, we can conclude that Google Zeitgeist information gives us a clear and precise idea related to the preferences and trends of Google users worldwide.
Google Page Rank Algorithm
What is Google PageRank algorithm? It is a mathematical formula used by Google to determine the value of a page when compared against others. It must be kept in mind that Google algorithm update can change at anytime. Few years back PageRank of a web page was very significant to get high position in the SERPs. The term PageRank of Google PageRank is coined by the big G (Google). Yahoo also has such a similar term called ‘Web Rank’. The PageRank of web page can be calculated using the PageRank algorithm. The algorithm says that the PageRank of a web page is the sum of the Page Ranks of all web pages linking to it (its inbound links), divided by the number of links on each of those web pages (its outbound links).
Mathematically the Page Rank algorithm can be represented as follows:
PR(WP) = (1-d) + d [ PR(W1) / O(W1) + ... + PR(Wn) / O(Wn) ]
where PR(WP) is the Page Rank of a web page WP
PR(W1) is the Page Rank of a page W1
O(T1) is the number of outbound links from the web page W1
n is the number of sites that link to webpage WP
d is damping factor in the range 0 < d < 1, usually set to value 0.85
Thus from the above algorithm it can be concluded that there are two factors that can affect the PageRank of a web page.
* The number of incoming links/inbound links to the web page.
* The number of outgoing links/out bound links on the page which points at your page.
The more number of inbound links is better as it helps in increasing the PageRank. The fewer of outbound links on the page which points at your page is also better.
PageRank is also some way related to link popularity. Link popularity is the quality and quantity of inbound links to a website. So the calculation of link popularity depends on the quality and strength of the links, not just on the quantity and volume of links. So, you should be very careful while building and increasing the number of inbound links to your site as it shows its direct effect on the PageRank of the web page.
Some people have in their mind that increasing the PageRank of a web page is too difficult, but it is not so. But Google suggests that before you begin to increase the PageRank of your website and sites individual web pages, you need to evaluate the current PageRank of your site's pages.
Mathematically the Page Rank algorithm can be represented as follows:
PR(WP) = (1-d) + d [ PR(W1) / O(W1) + ... + PR(Wn) / O(Wn) ]
where PR(WP) is the Page Rank of a web page WP
PR(W1) is the Page Rank of a page W1
O(T1) is the number of outbound links from the web page W1
n is the number of sites that link to webpage WP
d is damping factor in the range 0 < d < 1, usually set to value 0.85
Thus from the above algorithm it can be concluded that there are two factors that can affect the PageRank of a web page.
* The number of incoming links/inbound links to the web page.
* The number of outgoing links/out bound links on the page which points at your page.
The more number of inbound links is better as it helps in increasing the PageRank. The fewer of outbound links on the page which points at your page is also better.
PageRank is also some way related to link popularity. Link popularity is the quality and quantity of inbound links to a website. So the calculation of link popularity depends on the quality and strength of the links, not just on the quantity and volume of links. So, you should be very careful while building and increasing the number of inbound links to your site as it shows its direct effect on the PageRank of the web page.
Some people have in their mind that increasing the PageRank of a web page is too difficult, but it is not so. But Google suggests that before you begin to increase the PageRank of your website and sites individual web pages, you need to evaluate the current PageRank of your site's pages.
Concept of Google Page Rank & Its Algorithm
Google Page Rank is a unique concept and it is one of the Google's way of finding out the reputation and rank of a webpage. Let’s know a bit more about the term “PageRank”, how “PageRank” is determined, and why “PageRank” is given to a site. The term “PageRank” is a combination of two words, i.e., ‘page’ and ‘rank’. ‘Page’ refers to any web page and ‘rank’ refers to the particular number assigned to a webpage by Google. PageRank determines the popularity and value of a particular webpage. It’s a kind of vote of support by all the other webpages on the web to your webpage. So, the more support you get, the more value they add to your webpage and the higher goes the PageRank of your webpage.
World Wide Web is global information domain which provides the combo-facility of read and write. It has a vast web of links within itself. When a search engine searches for a visitor’s query, it goes through all the links in the web and provides a result list which is popularly known as Search Engine Result Page (SERP.) If the SE goes to more sites through a single 00 page then it considers the page more valuable. Thus it determines the PageRank of the page. Don’t be confused that all things have been done by human beings. Rather, Big G (Google) has a unique combination of advanced hardware and software. It applies a specially designed PageRank algorithm method while determining the PageRank of a webpage. In real sense, Google attributes a link from page of site 1 to page of site 2 as a vote, by page of site 1 for page of site 2. But only more links don’t determine the PageRank, it also looks whether linked pages have some value or not. If a page has some good links then obviously Google will give more PageRank to that particular page.
Hence, a good website must get higher PageRank than a mediocre site. PageRank is not determined only by links that a page receives but also by some other aspects too. We surf web for necessary information, and if our query doesn’t meet with right information in a SERP then obviously we’ll be frustrated. To guard this aspect, Google too has provisions while assigning a PageRank to a page. Here comes the idea of “keyword”. If the visitor’s query has some relevance with the certain Page’s information and the content contains the exact vocabulary that the visitor has asked, then the page gets higher PageRank. This means the content should contain relevant keyword to get higher PageRank. But in the modern era of cut-throat competition, more often than not, many webmasters have been found resorting to spam techniques such as ‘PageRank abuse’ for their survival.
All Search Engines provide search services. Google too does the same. But the difference between Google and other search engines is maintained only due to some unique features. The search engines revolutionized the World Wide Web, especially website marketing. Several new concepts come into the sphere and now it has become a full-fledged marketing strategy that does all kinds of marketing as we normally do in direct marketing. For more information on online marketing visit Website Marketing.
World Wide Web is global information domain which provides the combo-facility of read and write. It has a vast web of links within itself. When a search engine searches for a visitor’s query, it goes through all the links in the web and provides a result list which is popularly known as Search Engine Result Page (SERP.) If the SE goes to more sites through a single 00 page then it considers the page more valuable. Thus it determines the PageRank of the page. Don’t be confused that all things have been done by human beings. Rather, Big G (Google) has a unique combination of advanced hardware and software. It applies a specially designed PageRank algorithm method while determining the PageRank of a webpage. In real sense, Google attributes a link from page of site 1 to page of site 2 as a vote, by page of site 1 for page of site 2. But only more links don’t determine the PageRank, it also looks whether linked pages have some value or not. If a page has some good links then obviously Google will give more PageRank to that particular page.
Hence, a good website must get higher PageRank than a mediocre site. PageRank is not determined only by links that a page receives but also by some other aspects too. We surf web for necessary information, and if our query doesn’t meet with right information in a SERP then obviously we’ll be frustrated. To guard this aspect, Google too has provisions while assigning a PageRank to a page. Here comes the idea of “keyword”. If the visitor’s query has some relevance with the certain Page’s information and the content contains the exact vocabulary that the visitor has asked, then the page gets higher PageRank. This means the content should contain relevant keyword to get higher PageRank. But in the modern era of cut-throat competition, more often than not, many webmasters have been found resorting to spam techniques such as ‘PageRank abuse’ for their survival.
All Search Engines provide search services. Google too does the same. But the difference between Google and other search engines is maintained only due to some unique features. The search engines revolutionized the World Wide Web, especially website marketing. Several new concepts come into the sphere and now it has become a full-fledged marketing strategy that does all kinds of marketing as we normally do in direct marketing. For more information on online marketing visit Website Marketing.
Useful SEO Techniques: Boost traffic of your website
Competition between webmasters to get a good rank in search engines has become all pervasive. However, gaining the winning edge over the competitors is not always so simple and easy. Hence, new webmasters launching their websites are adopting different advanced SEO techniques to achieve good ranks in major search engines. This ultimately helps them to increase the traffic to their websites. Among all the SEO techniques, link building can be considered as one of the most significant techniques to get a good rank.
Inbound links are considered as the most valuable resource for websites. The rank of a website varies in search engines according to the number of incoming links pointing towards it. Google Page Rank is considered as a standard measure for incoming links. There are different SEO techniques you can follow to know the number of back links towards your website. It is the number of links which shows the link popularity of your website.
But not all of the incoming links to your websites are equally valuable. Only those links which are relevant to the theme of your website can be considered as having some worth. So before following any particular SEO technique, you should be aware of the methods that can give you better results. If you have been planning for optimizing your website for a higher search engine results position, choose a service provider that provides all the effective SEO techniques.
TThe following are some useful SEO techniques that will help you achieve your SEO objectives.
* Article Submission:
Now-a-days article submission is considered as one of the best SEO techniques to get more number of back links. Write a large number of quality articles optimizing on your targeted keywords and submit them to different article sites or directories.
* Blog Posting:
Blog posting is considered as another useful technique to increase the link popularity of websites. In blog posting you can submit your blog to different blog directories and can get link back from different websites. In your blog, you can give link back to your website as well. To make it effective, you should link back to those pages of your website which are very much relevant to the theme of your content.
* Online Forums:
Among all SEO techniques online forum is one of the best methods to get more number of back links to your website. You can participate in ‘Online Question & Answer Session’. You can also give a link back to the any page of your website in your comment though it is not allowed by some forum sites. You can put the URL of your website in your website to make it look more credible.
* Press Release:
To get more inbound links, you can go for press release as well as article submission. Submit your press release to free PRweb and other PR sites. It is similar with distributing an article and the results are also similar.
There are various techniques that you can follow to get valuable back links. Some of the important SEO techniques have been discussed above. If you follow these techniques, then you will definitely be able to get quality inbound links.
Inbound links are considered as the most valuable resource for websites. The rank of a website varies in search engines according to the number of incoming links pointing towards it. Google Page Rank is considered as a standard measure for incoming links. There are different SEO techniques you can follow to know the number of back links towards your website. It is the number of links which shows the link popularity of your website.
But not all of the incoming links to your websites are equally valuable. Only those links which are relevant to the theme of your website can be considered as having some worth. So before following any particular SEO technique, you should be aware of the methods that can give you better results. If you have been planning for optimizing your website for a higher search engine results position, choose a service provider that provides all the effective SEO techniques.
TThe following are some useful SEO techniques that will help you achieve your SEO objectives.
* Article Submission:
Now-a-days article submission is considered as one of the best SEO techniques to get more number of back links. Write a large number of quality articles optimizing on your targeted keywords and submit them to different article sites or directories.
* Blog Posting:
Blog posting is considered as another useful technique to increase the link popularity of websites. In blog posting you can submit your blog to different blog directories and can get link back from different websites. In your blog, you can give link back to your website as well. To make it effective, you should link back to those pages of your website which are very much relevant to the theme of your content.
* Online Forums:
Among all SEO techniques online forum is one of the best methods to get more number of back links to your website. You can participate in ‘Online Question & Answer Session’. You can also give a link back to the any page of your website in your comment though it is not allowed by some forum sites. You can put the URL of your website in your website to make it look more credible.
* Press Release:
To get more inbound links, you can go for press release as well as article submission. Submit your press release to free PRweb and other PR sites. It is similar with distributing an article and the results are also similar.
There are various techniques that you can follow to get valuable back links. Some of the important SEO techniques have been discussed above. If you follow these techniques, then you will definitely be able to get quality inbound links.
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