Blogcritics

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Getting Your Site Indexed In Alexa (Part VI Of A Series)

Jinger Jarrett — Wed, 31 May 2006 01:06:15 EDT

Although Alexa's search results are driven by Google, this is a definite must in your search engine marketing plan.The reason is that Alexa will provide statistics about your website that no other search engine or web directory will provide.These statistics include:*Your site ranking on the internet *What sites are linking to yours *Detailed traffic statistics *Site thumbnails *Site SpeedThese are just a few examples.You can also use Alexa to search for your keywords. This will tell you who your competition is for the keywords you have selected. You can more carefully study your competition, find out who is linking to your competition, and use what you learn to raise your rankings in the search engines, as well as find better keywords for your website.Alexa also has its own crawler, and eventhough you may show up in the search results powered by Google, you still want to have Alexa crawl your site.Alexa, like Google, may discover your site on its own. However, it's been my experience that Alexa only updates my site when I visit Alexa and make updates. This includes the thumbnails.The first step that you should take before submitting to Alexa is to type in the domain name of your site to see if you are listed.If you are listed, study the thumbnail for your site and see if needs to be updated. You should also check your site description, as well as contact information, and if it needs to be updated, update it.Alexa will require that you verify your website in one of two ways. The first is to enter your email address, and Alexa will send you a confirmation email. The other way that you can be verified is to create an info.txt file and upload it to the root directory of your website. You can then click the verification link and Alexa will verify your site.If your site isn't listed for some reason, you will need to submit. Alexa gives detailed instructions, as well as information on creating a robots.txt file.You can get more information, as well as submit your site to be crawled, at this link: http://pages.alexa.com/help/webmasters/index.html.If you want to find out who your competition is, and get a competitive edge, then Alexa is an indispensible tool to help you. Use the detailed information you'll find on this site, and you can easily raise your rankings in the search engines and get more traffic.

Jinger Jarrett wants to show you how to put your traffic on steroids when marketing affiliate programs. Grab your free copy of "Traffic, Signups, and Sales" from her blog. Or read her free ebook: "Internet Marketing for Free: The GUIDE".

Getting Your Site Indexed In Exactseek (Part V Of A Series)

Jinger Jarrett — Wed, 31 May 2006 00:55:05 EDT

Some may disagree with me on the importance of Exactseek. After all, Google, Yahoo, and MSN are the top three sites (not in that order), and then we jump to Exactseek, which is ranked in the top 2000. However, in the search engine game, Exactseek is a major player with some pretty cool tools and some great stuff to help you market your business online. Whether you choose the free or paid version, you'll get great results, and it's easy to submit your site.Exactseek is also an excellent way to help you get into the top three because of their spiders. This site gets spidered, and it also gets a lot of traffic. These are two of the reasons for its high rankings.Although the top three provide about 80 percent of the search traffic these days, this site will help you work on grabbing the other 20 percent that might not find you because you aren't in this directory, or all of the other smaller search engines.Unlike Google, which is a true search engine because it uses spiders to gather the links of a site, Exactseek is more of a web directory.Since this is a web directory, you will only need to provide the top level domain for your site, and you should only submit your top level domain.Before submitting to Exactseek, there are a few things you need to do to make sure that your site gets accepted.First, you want to make sure that the metatags in your header for your page are complete. Unlike the top three, your metatags are very important here because this is the description of your site that will be shown.Make sure that you write a good description, and that you properly target your keywords. Not only will this help you in getting your site accepted here, when the other major search engines spider this site, you'll be correctly spidered.Also, when you submit to Exactseek, you need to provide a valid email address. The reason is that you will need to confirm your submission. If you fail to do this, you won't be accepted into the Exactseek directory.You can submit your site here: http://www.exactseek.com/add.html.If you are looking to get exposure more quickly, you will find that Exactseek offers one of the best promotion deals on the internet.For only $12 per quarter, or $36 per year, you can get a featured listing. This is a very low cost way to get the word out about affiliate programs that you may be selling, and this allows you to be featured on 200+ websites throughout the internet.Unlike pay per clicks, you pay a one time fee, and you can check for keyword availability.To find out more, visit: http://exactseek.com/featured_listings.html. You will also want to read the help section prior to submission so that you fully understand the program.Although Exactseek isn't exactly a search engine, it's still one of the best places to promote your website. Using Exactseek can help you get some of the traffic you won't get from the three major search engines.

Getting Your Site Indexed In MSN (Part IV Of A Series)

Jinger Jarrett — Wed, 31 May 2006 00:00:26 EDT

Although MSN is lagging behind both Yahoo and Google when it comes to the ways you can get your site indexed, it is still one of the top three search engines, and it should not be ignored.MSN offers you two different ways to get your site indexed, and you should submit to both. However, before you do that, make sure that you have optimized your website first.You can get more information on optimizing your site for MSN, as well as tips on search engine optimization, here:http://www.submit-it.com/subopt.htmThe tips that you will find here basically apply to optimizing your site for any search engine, but they are definitely worth the read so that you focus your search engine optimization efforts in a way that will get your site indexed.As I mentioned before, there are two ways to get indexed by MSN. The first involves submitting to the Inktomi index. The Inktomi index actually powers the MSN search.Inktomi is now also part of Yahoo. However, you should still submit your site here. This will allow you to get indexed by hundreds of sites if your site is accepted.http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htmYou will need to use a valid email address for your site. Make sure that you use an email account that you actually use so that if there is a problem, you can promptly fix it. You may also need to confirm your submission.Keep in mind that there are no guarantees on turnaround, and there are also no guarantees that your site will be accepted.The second part of submitting to MSN is actually submitting to the MSN spider. Rob Benwell, of "Blogging to the Bank" fame, said that he used MSN for his searches when looking for niches, because MSN updates more quickly than either Yahoo or Google, and this was why he used MSN to test his results.This may be good advice. However, I believe that you should submit manually to MSN for the following reason: this is the number two website on the internet. It gets an enormous amount of traffic, and the traffic that this site brings you can help you with both your rankings, as well as being found by searchers.ComScore Networworks reports that 48 percent of MSN searchers are more likely to buy, whereas Google searchers are 42 percent likely to buy. Yahoo users are 41 percent more likely to buy. Although these statistics were released in 2005, you can get more information from this site on demographic buying habits of searchers: http://www.comscore.com/Now, you can use the link below to submit directly to the MSN spider:http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspxA word of caution here: when submitting to MSN, make sure that you understand the characters in the verification image on this page. You must type them exactly as you see them, or your site won't get submitted. If your submission is successful, you will see a message that tells you your submission is successful and will ask you if you want to submit another site.Once you have MSN crawling your site, you shouldn't have to resubmit.If you follow these steps carefully, you should have no trouble getting your site accepted. Create great content, build links back to your site, and target the correct keywords, and you can get very high rankings.

Getting Your Site Indexed in Yahoo (Part III of a Series)

Jinger Jarrett — Tue, 30 May 2006 21:16:30 EDT

Unlike Google, which allows you to use sitemaps as a way to get your site indexed and spidered, Yahoo uses several different approaches to indexing content. It can take a little while to get indexed, but if you are persistent, you'll see your site indexed on Yahoo in no time.First, you need to understand the different ways that Yahoo indexes content because there are both free and paid versions. However, since Yahoo no longer uses Google for its backend results, and Yahoo Directory listings are now mixed with search results, paying $299 a year to get included in the directory may not be the way you want to go.Of course, if you have a personal instead of a commercial website, you can get included in the Yahoo Directory for free. This will take some time; however, it is well worth the effort.Now, before you submit your site to Yahoo, you will need to make sure that it is properly prepared, and that you have a Yahoo account. You can sign up for free.The easiest way to get indexed, of course, is to have an RSS feed that has been correctly formatted in XML. Then all you have to do is log into your Yahoo account, add it to your My Yahoo page, and your site will begin to get indexed almost immediately. This works especially well for blogs, as well as sites that are updated frequently. If this isn't a viable option for you, then you can submit the traditional way.You will need to log into your Yahoo account to get started (it's free), and then you can visit the submission page.There are two ways to submit your site: you can submit your site feed, or you can submit the main URL for your website. When you use this form, you will be submitting your site directly to the crawler, which is free. This is no guarantee that your site will be accepted. If you don't get indexed the first time, add more content to your site, as well as optimize it, and resubmit.The real secret to doing well on the search engines is to offer real value to your site visitors. Offer real value to your site visitors, and you won't have any trouble getting indexed in the search engines.There are also other ways to get indexed by Yahoo depending on the type of content you offer and how newsworthy your site is. Google also offers several other paid ways to get indexed, like Product Search, as well as travel and sponsored search. Yahoo has a complete list.Although Yahoo isn't the largest or the highest ranking search engine on the Internet, it is still one of the most important, and if you want use search engine optimization and promotion as a main technique in your marketing arsenal, you definitely need to get listed here.

Getting Your Site Indexed in Google - Part II

Jinger Jarrett — Fri, 26 May 2006 07:58:12 EDT

Getting your site listed in Google is easier than ever now, since Google offers sitemaps. By using a sitemap, you can make it very easy to get all of your pages indexed by Google. This can help you raise your rankings in Google as well as help searchers find you. The beauty of sitemaps is that once you've set it, you can basically forget about it until you make updates to your site. Then you will need to add the new entries to your sitemap. Google will take care of the rest. However, if you're a non-techie, or the idea of setting up scripts or learning new software doesn't appeal to you, there are other ways to get the job done without stressing yourself.There are plenty of online tools you can use that are absolutely free. Although these sites won't help you if you have a really large site (usually over 1,000 pages), for the average site owner, these tools will get the job done and, at most, all you'll need to know how to do is cut and paste, save, and then upload your sitemap to your site.Below are some tools you can use to help you get started. Try the various tools out first to see which ones you like best. These are the easiest solutions I've found for creating sitemaps and it will only take you a few minutes to get your sitemap created and submitted.1. Sitemap Doc -- This site will create a sitemap for sites up to 750 pages. All you have to do is enter your URL for the main page for your site, click the create map button, and this site will extract your urls and create your sitemap. It also allows you to customize your map by adding additional urls, as well as changing time, date, and priority settings.2. Audit My PC -- This sitemap creator actually gives you two options: you can create a sitemap for Google and you can create a sitemap for your visitors. The sitemap you create for your visitors can help you in getting spidered by the newer spiders offered by MSN and Yahoo.3. ROR -- ROR is very similar to XML, which is the formatting used in sitemaps. You can use it to create your sitemaps. Unlike most sitemap utilities, this tool does more. It will help you more fully describe the content on your website. You can also use it to create feeds for your products and services, as well as feeds for your site.I used the ROR generator to create sitemaps for my sites and I found it to be much easier. I submitted the ROR sitemap feeds to Google and it has eliminated any errors I had in my previous sitemaps. What I liked about this site is that it gives you plenty of options in both the types of feeds you create, as well as a choice between an online tool or software to create sitemaps and feeds.4. WordPress Sitemap Generator -- For those of you who use Wordpress for your blog, this is the only tool you need to create your sitemaps. This sitemap generator is actually a plug-in you can install on your Wordpress Blog and use it to automatically generate a new sitemap for your blog each time you post. This keeps your sitemap constantly updated and it allows Google to more fully spider your blog. Once installed and updated, you can forget about it. The plug-in takes care of the rest.5. Google Sitemap Generators List -- If none of the solutions above work for you or you need something more comprehensive, Google offers a large list of scripts and software you can use to generate your sitemaps. This will be the solution for any site with a large number of pages and needs a sitemap that can't be created with the tools listed above.Once you've created and uploaded your sitemap, then it's time to submit it. You will need a Gmail account so you can sign into Google Sitemaps. You can also find out more about the various types of content Google accepts. Follow the instructions for submitting your site. It should take you about two minutes to add your sitemap. Once you've added your sitemap, Google will take over. Not only will you be able to get your site more fully spidered by Google, you'll also get plenty of helpful statistics on your site. You can use what you learn from your statistics to improve your search engine coverage and raise your rankings.

Getting Your Site Indexed by the Major Search Engines

Jinger Jarrett — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:49:34 EDT

Part IThis is the first article in a six part series on how you can get indexed in the most important search engines on the Internet. These search engines include Google, Yahoo, MSN, Exactseek, and Alexa. These sites cover over 80 percent of the searches done on the Internet, so it's well worth the effort to prepare your site correctly and submit it to these search engines.Before you do any kind of promotion on the Internet, you need to make sure that your site is properly prepared for the search engines, which is the primary way other will find you.If you haven't optimized your site for the search engines, now is the time to do it. There are two tools that you can use that are absolutely free to optimize your website - keep in mind that your main focus should be on optimizing individual pages for various keyword terms on your topic.Good Keywords - This tool will tell you what others are searching for, as well as how often the search terms are searched for in a month. For Windows.Web CEO - This software suite will not only help you optimize your pages for the search engines, but it will help you find link partners, as well as keyword terms, and you can use it to submit to other lesser-known search engines. For Windows and MAC.It is beyond the scope of this article to teach you how to optimize your site for the search engines. Web CEO contains step-by-step documentation that will teach you everything you need to know about search engine optimization.What's important here is that you find out specifically what keywords and keyword phrases searchers are looking for when searching. If you optimize your site for the wrong keyword search terms, either no one will find you, or you will have so much competition you won't be able to get your site to rank very high.Most searchers won't go beyond the first three pages of results. Rank below this, and you'll have a tough time being found.Another important point to remember is that each of the main search engines is different. You can optimize your site for Google, which is the most important search engine right now, but you can optimize your site for indexing in all of the major search engines if you do it right.Avoid techniques like keyword stuffing, redirect pages that are unrelated to your site, and junk pages. Multiple domains pointing to the same site or a mirror site are a definite no-no.Although there is some debate these days about using other writers' articles because of the duplicate content rule, remember that all of the major search engines are full of duplicate content.Using articles written by other authors is a great way to provide value to your site visitors, but you will want to write a few of your own articles. By writing your own articles, you can optimize them for your keyword terms, something you can't do with other writers' articles.When you write your articles, convert them to HTML and then use Web CEO to optimize them for your keyword terms. Make sure you focus on no more than two to three terms per page, or you will have problems optimizing your page. You want your articles to make sense, and you want them to provide value to your readers.Finally, once you've optimized your site, you'll want to make sure that you submit them to the major search engines. Although there is some debate these days over whether or not this is necessary, the major search engines aren't perfect, and they don't always update properly.Once you've submitted your sites, you can move on to the next steps in your Internet marketing campaign. Resubmit only when you've made major changes to your sites.Search engine optimization and submission is a long-term marketing strategy. Good ranking, as well as good coverage of your site won't happen overnight. It will happen, though, if you stick to good search engine optimization techniques to improve your site's ranking.