How to Increase Your Search Engine Rankings

When talking about search engine rankings many people ask themselves questïons like; how many keywords should I put in my anchor text? What is the keyword density that I should have on the page? Should I use short copy or should I use long copy? Can I use flash or not? How many keywords should I put in my "alt" text? Etc...

A general statement to answer the above questïons is that "magic numbers do not exist." The most important thing you can understand as a search engine optimization expert is that algorithms change. Just when you think you understand what is going to make you number one for a keyphrase in a search engine, something could easily change, and you might have to spend months or even years trying to figure the new algorithm.

It is better not to try to reverse engineer the algorithm, do something much easier instead... observe your top competitors. All you need to do is to understand what elements your competitors are using to make them rank in the top positions.

The main elements to getting top search engines rankings are:

• Number, quality, and relevance of inbound links pointing to your site

• Fresh, relevant, quality content (needs to be added frequently)

• Keyword density of your home page or any page you want to rank highly

Links, Links, Links

The first thing to observe from your competitors' sites is their inbound links. This means the number of sites that have a link pointing to their website. You can easily measure it by going to Google and typing: "link://www.yourcompetitorssite.com". However do not only do this on Google because they don't show all actual links pointing to a site. Yahoo and MSN tend to show a lot more of the back links to any given website.

Part of the observation should be not only what the links say, but where the links come from. Think about what the category is that those links come from. If you start to see a recurring pattern, you should start actively searching for links coming from that category.

Some marketers use special software for robotic content creation. They generate thousands of pages with links pointing to their sites. This practice can be very dangerous, as Google will penalize unnatural linking or violations of their terms of service. And what happens is that those links do not look natural. One day one site may have 50 links and the following day have 2000 links, which all say the same thing and come from the same IP address.

If you understand how to observe, this will nevër happen to you. You will learn how to look at your competitors, and observe how they are getting linked to. Then, just do what they do.

Fresh Quality Content

The second thing to observe is how much fresh content the top sites have. Search engines love quality relevant content that is added and updated frequently. You will probably notice that the top sites in your niche have many articles and other quality content, and are continuously adding new content to their sites.

People that surf the web are usually searching for information, so content is the "fuel" of internet traffïc. If you want to attract many potential customers to your site, then you need to make sure that you provide enough content which is relevant to their interests. Updating it frequently with more quality content will keep visitors coming back to your website over and over again.

Keyword Density

The third thing you need to observe is the keyword density of your competitors. How many times should you repeat your main keywords? In which part of the web page should your main keywords be mentioned? Again, there is no magic number, it's all about observing and measuring against the top websites in your market. But what should you measure?

- Meta tags
- Alt tags
- Titles
- Names of the images on the page
- Heading tags: h1, h2, h3...
- Frequency and position of the keywords in the body text

Each one of these items should be measured independently. There are tools to run keyword density against your competitors. If you run them against the top 3 or 5 sites, you may start to understand the secrets of top rankings.

Again, your keyword density needs to look natural; otherwise you may fail in overall optimization. This is when you use keywords too often or too little. If you look unnatural, your rankings will suffer as a result.

So, what did we learn hëre? Basically that the key to ranking highly in the search engines is to understand what the top 5 websites in your niche are doing and to apply this to your own website optimization.

What do you do nöw? Get out there and start getting inbound links for your site. Add quality content to your site daily. And be sure that your on-site optimization, such as keyword density, is similar to that of your top competitors. Continue to do this every day and you will be ranking at the top of the search engines before you know it.

About The Author
Trent Brownrigg is a successful internet marketer. Learn more about all aspects of online business by reading his frëe business tips at http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com/home-business-blog.html.

Tags: Search Engine Optimisation, seo, SEM, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

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Hello, this is Google, your operator, speaking

Google has begun testing a new click-to-call service that lets people speak with advertisers on its search results page without having to pick up the phone and dial.

A Web surfer can click a phone icon adjacent to an ad, enter his or her own phone number and then click a "connect for free" button. Google's service calls the advertiser's phone number and when the Web surfer picks up the receiver on his phone, he or she hears ringing as the call to the advertiser is connected, according to a Google Click-to-Call frequently-asked-questions page..

Unlike voice over Internet Protocol, a technology that sends voice transmission over the Internet, this service appears to connect two parties over the regular phone lines. However, Google declined to provide more details, including the specifics of the technology employed.

"We won't share your telephone number with anyone, including the advertiser," the FAQ states. "When you're connected with the advertiser, your number is blocked so the advertiser can't see it. In addition, we'll delete the number from our servers after a short period of time."

It was unclear how broad the test is. A few sample searches for frequently searched topics, such as "shoes," "electronics" and "mortgage," failed to turn up any of the icons. However, blogger Greg Yardley was able to obtain screen shots, which he posted last Wednesday.

Google said it pays for the calls, whether local or long distance. However, the Web surfer may incur airtime fees depending on the mobile phone plan used, the FAQ said.

"Google is always considering new ways to provide value to its advertisers and we frequently run tests of potential new features and products," the company said in a statement sent via e-mail. "We are currently conducting a limited test of a pay-per-call model, but we don't have any additional information to share at this time."

Allowing customers to reach advertisers through the computer could increase the value of online ads, particularly for companies like Google, which reaps nearly all of its revenue from advertising.

In August, Microsoft said it had purchased Teleo, an Internet calling company with the potential to allow MSN to offer click-to-call capabilities.

IBM has said it will integrate click-to-call technology from Avaya in Lotus Notes and other applications. And Yahoo has tested click-to-call in instant messaging.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com

Tags: Google, Search Engine Optimisation, Able Net Design

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How to Write Articles to Drive Massive Traffic to Your Website

You probably know by now that one of the best methods of driving highly targeted visitors to your website is through the use of articles. These short, but to the point, pieces of content on specific topics can literally drive your website's hits counter into overdrive. They are the favorite, and sometimes, most kept secret of the more experienced Internet marketers.

There are many ways of making these articles. You can make them on your own by writing about what you know about the subject that you choose. If you are trying to write something that you are not really an expert on, you could still do it by doing research on it on the Internet. Visit article sites, FAQ pages and bulletin boards and read about your subject. Take note of the important facts about your topic so that you can write your article based on it.

After you gather all the information you need, you now need to sit down and write your article. It doesn't have to be a thousand-word masterpiece. Try to target around 300 to 700 words for your article and you will do just fine. Just write in a conversational manner, as if you are speaking to an audience or a single person.

After you finish the article, take some time to come up with a good title for it. Make sure that the title is something that will grab the attention of your readers so that they will read your article. Remember, your title can make or break your article. If you don't get your reader's interest to read further, they won't even bother about your content.

Now that you have your article with a good title, it's time to make your resource box. If your purpose for making your article is to drive traffic to your website, this is the right place to do this. I found that you could get more visitors to your website by offering them something of value that they can get by going to your website, such as a free ecourse or ebook. Here's an example of a resource box:

***
John Doe has been helping people to succeed on the Internet for many years now. He has written an ebook that teaches newbies how to earn thousands online. Get your free copy from his website at http://yourwebsitehere.com
***

Finally, you need to submit your article to publishers and article directories so that it can get published and read by many people. There are hundreds of publishers and article directories to submit to on the Internet. Here are a few of them to get you started.

http://www.GoArticles.com
http://www.EzineArticles.com
http://www.HealthArticleFinder.com
http://www.ArticleCity.com
http://www.Isnare.com
http://www.Ideamarketers.com
http://www.ArticleCentral.com
http://www.ArticleHub.com
http://www.ArticleWarehouse.com
http://www.AuthorConnection.com
http://www.ContentDesk.com
http://www.SubmitArticlesOnline.com

What are you waiting for? Start writing your article now and start driving massive traffic to your website.

About the author
Jun Lim is the webmaster of HealthArticleFinder.com, an article directory where you can submit your health articles for publication. Need help in submitting your articles? We highly recommend this article submission software. It's simply the best!

Tags: linking, traffic, marketing, seo

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How To Design A Website If You're A Novice On The Internet

Most of my students are Internet novices and ask many apprehensive questïons about how to design a website. They worry about their ability to design an attractive site and are anxiously seeking the quickest and best alternative.

After years on the Net, I believe you need to learn how to design your sites yourself, and here's why ...

The Internet is made up of two elements:

1. Text 2. Pictures

Yes, audio and video technologies are growing fast. But if you hope to sell on the Net, it's critical to appeal to your audience, those folks who are willing to pull out their credït cards and buy your products. A huge percentage of these are still on dialup and certainly aren't very sophisticated and fancy techniques will isolate you from many of them.

So what are your choices if you want to build a website?

1. Buy a Template:

This can work sometimes. I've bought them myself and they do look great. But there are some real problems with templates:

• They can be expensive - especially if you want multiple websites. Good templates aren't cheap. The few I've bought are in the $60-$70 range.

• If you don't know what you're doing, you can waste your monëy on templates that won't work for you. For instance, you will often see templates with icons, pictures, company logos, "Buy Nöw" buttons and more. Yes, they look great. But when you download the images they are not editable because if they are in jpg or gif format, you can't make changes. The most common 'editable' images are in 'psd' format. If you own image editing software, like Photoshop (which usually sells for about $600), you can make the changes you wish. But if you don't own this kind of software then forget it - your images can't be changed.

• Editing templates isn't easy. You might unwittingly purchase a template that allows 8" of space - and your copy needs 10" of space. Nöw what? Cheaper templates require the purchaser to "slice" them. This is tedious and time consuming and requires editing knowledge that most people don't have. Higher quality templates allow the owner to edit them without slicing, but they are more expensive.

• Even if you can edit your new template, do you really think that you should allow a designer to dictate the placement of your salës copy? Beautiful design does not equal salës. Just because something looks good doesn't mean it's a good salës site. Many novices are impressed with the good looks of a template, but Madison Avenue beauty doesn't equal profits on the Net. Earning monëy comes from effective direct response marketing which means testing the elements on your salës page and changing them until you have a winnër. If your design is forced on you, you are limited in the changes you can make.

2. Pay a Website Designer to Build a Site for You:

• Hiring a professional can be expensive. I currently have a goal of building two websites each week for a year. Let's assume I pay someone $500 to build a website (which is quite a reasonable amount for a well done site - it often costs much more.) That means I will be paying $1,000/week, every week, for a year. My monëy is better spent on marketing than design.

• Every time you want to make a change on your site, you must wait on a designer to make the changes. This is expensive and can be time consuming, if the designer is busy with multiple clients.

• Just like a purchased template, most web designers are focused on looks and appearance, rather than functionality or salës. All the best marketers acknowledge that plainer sites are more lucrative because the focus is on the copy, the words, rather than fancy graphics or beautiful colors. Take a look at the top money-making sites on the net. They rarely are flashy or dramatically impressive.

• Relying on a web designer creates dependency. Generally the motivation of entrepreneurs is freedom so waiting for another person to make even the smallest changes to your site isn't taking you in the direction you want to go.

3. Buy Site-Making Software:

Every program I have seen involves a learning curve. One popular site builder, for example, has a 500 page manual, is expensive and a lot of the learning doesn't transfer to other site systems. I looked at another one recently with a 300 page manual. The time that you spend learning these methodologies could be spent learning an HTML editor that will make you fully capable of building your own sites, whenever you choose, for almost zero cost.

Spend the time and learn do it yourself websites. I personally spent two weeks in 'Dreamweaver Hell' several years ago. All reviews indicated that Dreamweaver is the best HTML editor, so I bought a book and determined to learn the software on my own. The first book wasn't long enough so I returned it for a second - and longer - book, which eventually was exchanged for an almost-1200 page manual. There were moments of frustration, tears, triumph, cursing and the thrill of success, and I emerged able to put together websites whenever I chose.

Saying "I want to be an Internet marketer" and not learning how to build websites for yourself is like wanting to be a dentist - and refusing to learn about teeth; like being a star athlete - and refusing to practice your sport. So what if your first sites won't win a design award? You'll get better. And you will be independent. Isn't that the entire point of working on the Internet?

About The Author
Article by Sydney Johnston. Starting an eBay business is easier with mentoring from an eBay expert. Learn from our offers with an 11 Day Course that teaches how to sell on ebay: http://www.auction-genius-course.com/11days.shtml.

Tags: css, XHTML, Web Design, Web-Design

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Search Engine Optimization And Why You Gotta Use It?

E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings in websites and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites. For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.

Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in.

But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let's just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if not any at all.

So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site's existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site's content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.

Try to search the internet for many useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.

Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.

About the author
Subscribe to Gerardas Norkus' free Internet marketing newsletter at http://www.netmarketingstrategies.com and discover heaps of tips, tricks and secrets that will quickly boost your online sales and profits.

Tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEM

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Jagger, Google Analytics, and the Future of Search & SEO

Two big things have just happened in Google-land: Jagger and Google Analytics. Together, these two events may have changed the face of search forever.

Jagger

First, let's discuss Jagger... Just like hurricanes, Google updates have names. (A Google update is a change to the way Google determines its rankings. Google makes these changes periodically, and they're universally feared because they can impact dramatically on a website's ranking.) The latest update is called Jagger, and it has search engine optimizers (SEOs) all around the world in a state of panic.

Why was Jagger such a fearful update? Simple... With Jagger, Google once again outsmarted huge numbers of SEOs. You see, many/most SEOs spend their time (and their clients' monëy) trying to trick Google into thinking that their websites are more relevant and important than they really are. They do this mostly by swapping links, buying cheap links, and placing links on frëe directories. While there's nothing wrong with these sorts of links (i.e. they're not considered 'black-hat'), they don't really show that the site is relevant or important. All they really show is that the site owner has made a deal with another site owner. In these deals, the incentive for the linking site owner is a reciprocal link, monëy, or increased link volume. Google much prefers it when the linking site adds the link simply to enhance the value of their content or to increase their own credibility and authority.

In other words, Google wants its search results to contain relevant, important sites, not sites that merely appear to be relevant and important. To this end, Google invests millïons of dollars and employs the world's smartest mathematicians to create algorithms which identify sites that are trying to trick them. And that's exactly what Jagger did; and when it found those sites, it simply adjusted their ranking to more accurately reflect their true importance.

>From a technical standpoint, Jagger was well described by Ken Webster in his article, Google's Jagger Update - Dust Begins To Settle?. The most important points noted by Ken were:

1) Increased importance placed on IBL (Inbound Links) Relevancy
2) Increased importance placed on OBL (Outbound Links) Relevancy
3) Promotion of relevant Niche Directories (related to No. 1 & #2)

Some other interesting effects were reported by WG Moore. By monitoring the links to his test sites as reported by Google, he established that:

"... Google is down-grading or eliminating reciprocal links as a measure of popularity... a few of our reciprocal links did come back up... from articles where we discussed our area of expertise: Web Analytics... So we feel that these links came back because of content, not linking."

In short, Jagger undid the hard work of thousands - if not millïons - of people! As a result, hard-won high rankings and revenues plummeted.

Interestingly, article PR (article submission - came through Jagger seemingly unscathed. My SEO copywriting website DivineWrite.com, for example, went from no.4 to no.1 worldwide for "copywriter", and I've employed article PR almost exclusively. Whether it was promoted or the sites around it were demoted, one thing is clear: article PR is one of the best ways to obtain a high ranking.

Google Analytics

The second monumental event to occur recently was Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a frëe web-stats solution which not only reports all the regular site stats, but also integrates directly with Google AdWords giving webmasters an insight into the ROI of their pay-per-click ads. According to Google, "Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site."

Why is this such a landmark move? Because for the first time ever, Google will have access to your real web stats. And these stats will be far more accurate than those provided by Alexa. Furthermore, Google's privacy statement says: "We may also use personal information for auditing, research and analysis to operate and improve Google technologies and services.". Nöw let's put two and two together:

1) Google is 'giving' every webmaster in the world frëe access to quality web-stats.
2) Millïons of webmasters will accept this 'gift', if only because it integrates directly with their Google AdWords campaigns.
3) Google will then have full access to the actual web stats of millïons of commercial websites.
4) Google will have the right to use these stats to develop new technologies.
5) What's the next logical step? Google will use these statistics to help determine its rankings.

It should come as no surprise. It's been on the cards for a long time. For example, Jayde Online CEO, Mel Strocen, recently published an article on this very topic, The Future of WebSite Ranking. He quite rightly asserts that:

"Google's "democratic" vision of the Web will nevër be achieved by manipulating algorithm criteria based on content. It will only be achieved by factoring in what is important to people, and people will always remain the best judge of what that is. The true challenge for search engines in the future is how to incorporate web searcher input and preferences into their ranking algorithms."

In fact, the Jayde Online network already owns and operates a search engine, ExactSeek which incorporates user popularity statistics in its rankings.

The Future of Search & SEO

To date, ExactSeek is the only search engine which uses visitor stats as criteria for its rankings. But Google isn't far behind. We all know that Google specializes in taking a good idea and implementing and adapting it brilliantly. This is exactly what we'll see in this case. By combining link popularity and user popularity statistics, Google will be the only major search engine to consider both what other sites think of your website and what your visitors think of your website. And because they have the most advanced algorithms for assessing link popularity, and will soon have access to the farthest reaching, most accurate web stats to assess user popularity, its competitors will be a long time catching up.

So if that's the future of search, what's the future of SEO? The future of SEO is undoubtedly one where:

• one-way text links from relevant pages continue to be the most valuable links
• reciprocal linking continue to decline
• the 'shotgun' approach to link buying declines
• mass email link requests decline
• frëe directory submission declines
• niche directory submission increases
• article PR (article submission) increases
• article submission sites (e.g. EzineArticles, GoArticles, and ArticleBlast play a much bïgger and more important role in helping online publishers locate quality articles (due to the increasing article volume)
• user popularity is just as important as link popularity, which means:
  • the quality of article PR improves in order to increase site traffïc, credibility, and loyalty
  • the quality of website content improves in order to convert traffïc and encourage repeat visits

Clearly, the choices for SEOs will be pretty much limited to paying for links at niche sites and/or engaging in article PR. Being an SEO copywriter, I may be a little biased, but for me, article PR is the hands-down winnër in this comparison:

• It satisfies Google's criteria for relevance and importance. Linking site owners include your article and link because, in doing so, their site becomes more useful to visitors, and their business gains credibility and authority.

• It generates hundreds of frëe links quickly enough to make it worth your while, but not so quickly as to raise red flags at Google (in the form of link dampening).

• Links are permanent and you don't have to pay to keep them there.

• You get a lot of qualified referred traffïc who already trust you and your expertise. This satisfies Google's visitor popularity criteria, while at the same time bringing you a lot of extra customers.

(For more information on article PR, read How to Top Google with Article PR)

Conclusion

The lesson from Jagger is, don't try and trick Google! They've got more monëy and more brains than virtually any company in the world. It'll only end in tears! Don't spend time and monëy trying to make your site look important and relevant. Instead, spend that time and monëy actually making it important and relevant! Content - the real content behind the optimization - is the answer. After all, whether it's an article or a web page, it's the content that keeps 'eyes on paper', and that's what it's all about.

Happy optimizing!

About The Author
* Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He owns article submission service Article PR and copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit DivineWrite.com or ArticlePR.com for further details, more Frëe articles, or to download his Frëe SEO e-book.

Tags: Google, Jagger Update, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEM

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Link Building

Top tips coming straight from linking legends Eric Ward, Jim Boykin of WeBuildPages and Bill Hartzer of MarketNet at the Pubcon search engine conference.

This was posted on Lee Odden's blog from toprankresults.com.

What does Google rank highly?

EDU, GOV
High TrustRank (lots of authority and .edu backlinks)
Huge and powerful websites sub pages (Amazon)
Old page that never changes, but gets steady links over time
New page on old stablished sites (good internal links)
Old sites that update and get a steady flow of backlinks that coincide with new content additions

Age of web sites influences rankings (Google)
That means slow and steady rate of content.

Shows Touchgraph Google Browser screenshot

Shows Jim’s linking neighborhoods graphic. Unnatural linking structure will not be rewarded

Get links from the neighborhood.

Good link page is annotated links within a paragraph, not:
Link Title - link description
Link Title - link description
--
Next up is Bill Hartzer MarketNet Inc.

Site Content
Your site is ultimately responsible for getting links.
Bad content = no links
Great content = potential for great links

Great content:
Content people will link to unsolicited
Content that stirs emotion

Types of Links:
External links, Intenernal links
Links must be crawlable with descriptive anchor text.
:
All pages need at least one link from another page to stay in the index

External Links:
Submit to Yahoo DMOZ, Business.com, Joe Ant, Go Guides
Submit to strongestlinks.com directories
Provide free online tool or service
Press releases
Forums
RSS feeds
Articles

Search for variations of “add url keyword”

Link tools:
Wordtracker
Filthy Linking Rich - Mike Grehan article
OptiLink, OptiSpider
Linking strategy: www.refengeofthemininet.com
linkdomain: search in yahoo for a particular site
Outsource a linking campaign to an expert

Bad links:
Links from the same Class C Block of IPs
Links from the same IP address, but different domain
Links from same whois owner
Off topic links
Sponsored links

What’s happening now:
Links from automated link exchanges and paid text link ads seem to count less
Run of site links mean less
Google spam filters are better at catching hidden text and mini networks of links

Link Advice:
More links. quality, theme, age, anchor text, amount of other links on inbound page, html links, internal linking structure,

Inbound links from authoritative, related sites, consistently adding new links and content

Donate your skills to non-profit sites for a link

College and Universities

Create a relevant blog
--
Last up Eric ward - Presentation at: ericward.com/pubcon

Has been linking since 1993. What is linking and why does it matter?

Does linking to drive traffic, not for Pagerank,

Google caused it’s own problem with link spam by making it obvious that links are strongly influential for rankings.

Linking terminology:
Authority site - Subject expert
Hub site - Collection of links to expert sites
Quality link - Depends. Paid links, from a blog, editorial link topically relevant sites, discussion lists - long tail links
Organic link - One way, descriptive anchor text, looks natural, not on same Class C blog, not from same from same domain

Links can impact rankings, but also create buzz.
Yahoo Picks, Forbes BOTW

Paid links: AdBrite

Vertical links - links that are subject specific

Email links - while not usually crawlable, many emails are archived to the web

If you seek links only for rankings, you’re missing out on many traffic generating opportunities. Search engines do not crawl the entire available web.

Linking Tools:
Teoma - Resources
Google’s version of DMOZ
Linksurvey

Link Popularity Flaws:
Link depth - keep your content at top or second level directory at most
Non-web based links - Forbes BOTW, Lockergnome, Lil.org

Links for your site vs publicity for your site. There are many well-trafficed sites that review other sites.

Take aways:
Recognize the different types of links. Web based links are not the only types of links.

Tags: Linking, SEO, Link Building, link-building

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Add Content To Increase Website Traffic

Why lots of quality content is the key to lots of traffic.

Content - All webmasters want lots of it and need lots of it to get a lot of traffic to their websites. In order to boost traffic, many webmasters try work on their meta tags or even resort to tricks in an effort to get more visitors to their site.

But one of the simplest, most effective, and most dependable ways to increase the amount of traffic to your website is to offer more quality content. I'm sure you have heard it said that on the Internet, content is king. Well, it's true!

For your website to be successful, you need to understand exactly how more content brings more visitors to your site as well as how to generate quality content that is related to your particular website theme.

Why do you need more content to bring in lots of traffic?

Many websites are really just company brochures that have been placed on the web. The site simply describes the company, with some contact information thrown in.

These types of websites usually have anywhere from five to ten separate html files. If these pages have a moderate amount of text on them, it's possible to optimize them for a few keywords and a few web surfers may find the site via the search engines.

But if these sites are in fairly competitive fields, it may be very difficult to build enough traffic because the search engines try to rank the most important websites that match a search query. Search engine robots search for keywords or phrases in the pages' text to try to determine what the site is all about.

But the search engines also consider the links on the web pages. For example, if your homepage is about bicycles and you have links to other pages on your site relating to the same theme, such as mountain bikes, racing bikes, etc, then the search engine will conclude that the site is about bicycles.

So if your site has a lot of pages about bicycles, your site will be better represented in the search engines for the search term bicycles than one that is simply a bicycle company brochure site with a handful of pages.

Also, each page stands alone as a "mini website" and may come up in searches, allowing people to enter your site through the "side" or "back doors" and not the homepage. The more pages your site has, the more chances it has of being found in searches, and the more you can optimize your site for different search terms.

In a nutshell, more pages mean more "roads" from the search engines to your sites. And traffic needs roads to travel on.

So then, by adding lots of quality content pages to your site, you boost the chances of one of your pages coming up in searches and you will increase your site's overall traffic.

Another thing to consider: the more quality content your site has, the more respect it gets from human-edited directories such as the Open Directory Project as well as from other webmasters.

If you have lots of quality content, then you'll get lots of link requests, requests for permission to publish your articles in newsletters, and more links to content pages on your website. All of these factors result in more website traffic for you.

How do you get lots of quality content for your site?

Depending on the type of products or services you offer, there are many ways to build quality content for your site. Here are a few examples:

1. Product Reviews - If you are selling other companys' products as an affiliate, rather than just linking to the product, you can write a full-page review of it. Explain how the product has helped you and what its strengths are.

This type of content pre-sells the product, as well as providing interesting reading in itself. If you sell your own products, you can give background information on them or solicit satisfied customers or users to write reviews, or testimonials.

2. Background information - Every product exists in some context. For example, you may have a hotel in a particular city. Instead of only providing information about the hotel, you could offer some content pages about the history of the city where the hotel is located as well as any popular tourist attractions near there. The possibilities for adding this type of content are unlimited!

3. Questions and answers - Let your website's visitors help you create content. Place a questions and answers feature on your website or in your newsletter. Not only will you get insight into what is on your visitor's minds, but by answering these questions you can generate lots of useful content for your website and newsletters.

4. Forums - Your site's visitors can also directly write the content on your site through a forum. Some forums are searchable by search engine robots, while others aren't. If you have quality content on your forum, you can also cut-and-paste it onto the main pages of your website to ensure inclusion in the large search engines.

5. Guest articles by others - There's no real need to spend a lot of time writing your own articles if that isn't something that you enjoy doing (or of you aren't very good at it). You can publish the articles that other people write!

There's a lot of top-quality free content that is available on the internet. While you're usually required to provide a link back to the author's website (or give his/her email address), this is a small price to pay when you consider the fact that many of these well-written articles pull in tons of traffic.

Finally, if you're wondering how best to arrange all of your site's new content, you have two effective options. Some people may simply build a second content-rich website to draw lots of traffic and then direct the visitors to their main "sales site" via links.

My preferred method is to place an articles section on your existing site, or simply link your new content pages to the particular product and service pages that are most appropriate.

However you decide to present your content, you can expect to see a greatly increased traffic flow to your site as a direct result of the quality content that you have added.

Content Tips:

Do you want your own search engine? Do you want to get results for your meta search engine? With Entireweb's XML feed you can easily include our free search results into your services.

Entireweb´s XML feed enables you to add great functionality to your site or application quickly. There are no licensing agreements or restrictions regarding number of queries.

We highly recommend you to take a closer look at this and we are sure that it will help you to add extra value and another great feature to your site.

Read more about Entireweb's free XML feed at:
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About the Author: Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. Visit him at http://www.a1-optimization.com

Tags: Content, Marketing, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEM

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How To Choose Your Website Colors

Color is often overlooked in the business of optimizing websites for better returns on investments. Website salës can be greatly affected by simply changing its colors. Ever come across a website that uses some funky combination of print and background colors? If you ever want to experience an eye-twisting headache, try reading yellow print on a blue background. The reason you see black type on a white background so much is that it is the best color combination for reading, both on and offline.

And since it is even harder to read text on a monitor than it is on paper, we must all be especially careful with the colors we choose for our websites, or suffer less-than-optimal site traffïc and repeat visitors.

Color choice should also be dictated by other, less obvious goals, when designing or re-vamping a website. It's important to realize that different colors invoke different emotions, are associated with specific concepts and say different things in each society. For instance, green often times is associated with freshness or monëy, which is fairly obvious if you think about it. But every color does this, and some of the emotions and concepts are more subtle. For example, white means pure, easy, or goodness and purple can be associated with royalty or sophistication. What's more, each color carries with it both positive and negative ideas. The emotions and concepts that you associate with specific colors may differ from other people's associations, but there are themes that run throughout each color. Hëre are some:

Red:
Positive: Sense of power, strength, action, passion, sexuality
Negative: Anger, forcefulness, impulsiveness, impatience, intimidation, conquest, violence and revenge

Yellow:
Positive: Caution, brightness, intelligence, joy, organization, Spring time
Negative: Criticism, laziness, or cynicism

Blue:
Positive: Tranquility, love, acceptance, patience, understanding, cooperation, comfort, loyalty and security
Negative: Fear, coldness, passivity and depression

Orange:
Positive: Steadfastness, courage, confidence, friendliness, and cheerfulness, warmth, excitement and energy
Negative: Ignorance, inferiority, sluggishness and superiority

Purple:
Positive: Royalty, sophistication, religion
Negative: Bruised or foreboding

Green:
Positive: Monëy, health, food, nature, hope, growth, freshness, soothing, sharing, and responsiveness
Negative: Envy, greed, constriction, guilt, jealousy and disorder

Black:
Positive: Dramatic, classy, committed, serious
Negative: Evil, death, ignorance, coldness

White:
Positive: Pure, fresh, easy, cleanliness or goodness
Negative: Blind, winter, cold, distant

A major goal of marketers is to invoke emotion in their audience. We know that if we can cause some kind of an emotional reaction in the people we are marketing to and communicating with, we have a better chance of compelling them to buy from us. The battle between logic and emotion that rages in each of is usually won by emotion most of the time. By choosing the colors of our websites and online media with deliberate care, we are purposefully trying to invoke a specific emotional response that will increase salës. So pick your colors carefully.

Not only do colors evoke emotions, but they can communicate messages or concepts too. For example, look at ClickItTicket.com to see how color is used to communicate the new affiliation between Oak Web Works, LLC and ClickitTicket.com. The blues of Oak Web Works's logo swirl into the reds of ClickitTicket.com's logo. This can be interpreted as a melding of the two organizations, which is what the words underneath say, "in affiliation with". Also, the red of OakWebWorks.com indicates action and passion, two essentials for people who want to attend theater, sporting events or concerts.

Another online ticket website, BestShowTicketsLasVegas.com, has a different color approach. Its main colors are blue and purple, giving the site a comforting, secure and sophisticated feel. The main header on each page has all the colors in the rainbow in it, a collage of images, with the word `Tickets' in large, white font. Much of the site is white too, which gives it a clean feel.

As a general rule of thumb, when Oak Web Works designs websites, one primary color and one secondary or complimentary color will be chosen. These colors are based on the specific audience and market of our client and the messages the client wants to communicate to the rest of the world. If more than two or three colors are used, things tend to look a little messy, and the power of any one color is diluted too much, so we most often stick with two colors.

When I am not sure exactly which colors or combinations to use, I often start trying different things, then take a step back and ask myself what my chosen colors are conveying to me. After designing many websites over the years I have realized that going with my gut has often worked when I'm in doubt. You would be surprised at how creative and accurate your intuition can be.

However, if the client already has an established brand, we will always make sure to match the colors of the website with the original colors of the company. It is not wise to have print collateral material one color and the website a totally unrelated color. All marketing channels need to remain consistent, with one face only.

Since website visitors all have different platforms, different monitors, and different settings for their screen resolutions, the colors you choose for your website may not always be rendered the exact same way on your site visitors' monitors. That's why there are "Web Safe" colors that have a much higher likelihood of looking the exact same regardless of the user's computer, monitor or settings. Many graphics programs, including Adobe Photoshop, have a feature that allows you to choose "Web Safe" colors only.

Keep in mind however, that the sophistication of technology today allows for Web designers to be able to stray from the "Web Safe" colors more and more. So don't be overly concerned if you choose to use "un-safe' Web colors, chances are that most of your audience has the computers necessary to view your site the exact way you intended.

Whether you are designing sites for clients or designing your own business website, your color choice is vital. Be sure to try different colors, different shades, and different combinations before you decide. It's a lot of fun playing with colors but every choice you make comes with a set of pre-defined societal meanings and emotions, so choose with deliberate care.

About The Author
Jason OConnor owns and operates Oak Web Works, LLC - The synthesis of Web marketing, design, and technology. Jason is an expert at Web design, programming, e-strategy, and e-marketing. Call or email today for a frëe site consultation.

Tags: Web, Design, SEO, Layout, CSS, XHTML, HTML,

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Demystifying the Complexity of SEO

"SEO is still a tiny portion of the total search marketing spend." So states MarketingSherpa in its recent Search Marketing Benchmark Survey. I find it hard to understand the under-utilization of organic SEO compared to PPC (pay-per-click) advertising when organic listings are preferred by 5 clicks to 1. The natural organic listings convert better, too. So what gives?

MarketingSherpa also states that organic results are "better noticed, read and clicked on than paid listings." The report notes that organic listings convert as well as, or even better than, paid listings (4.2%, versus 3.6%). Study after study continue to demonstrate the power of organic links.

Delight and Dismay

MarketingSherpa researchers were both "delighted and appalled by the year over year data on marketing search spending." Delighted because more marketers said they would allocate largër portions of their marketing budgets to SEO to gain valuable organic listings. But appalled at the "continuing disconnect between paid search spending and SEO investmënt."

The keyword is "investmënt." SEO is an investmënt in time, resources and knowledge - an investmënt that is accountable and yields an excellent return. The benefits of SEO are long lasting when compared to PPC because paid clicks can start or end immediately, depending on your budget and a variety of other factors. Conversely, organic SEO changes to a website stay with you indefinitely.

Requisite Site Changes

Organic SEO takes a lot of expertise, and it also takes cooperation by the client in executing the recommended site changes that allow a site to rank well in the major search engines. A recent JupiterResearch study states there are numerous obstacles to achieving necessary site changes when search marketers outsource SEO to vendors. In fact, 64 percent of the marketers and agencies surveyed said they did not implement their SEO vendor's recommendations. This leads to the assumption that they didn't achieve good organic SEO results.

I myself wonder just what the "SEO recommendations" were that the marketers did not implement in this study. Why? Because I've seen and heard a lot of inappropriate and/or weak SEO recommendations over the past ten years.

While the reasons cited for not following through with site changes are reportedly varied, the most common were (1) "lack of internal human resources to implement changes," (2) "timing/ frequency of update issues," and (3) "lack of outsourced IT budget." In my opinion, this is by and large due to the SEO vendor failing to set proper client guidelines and expectations.

The Communication Workaround

Can any client trust the advice they receive from any given SEO vendor? It seems like a catch 22 for the politically correct -- clients pay big bucks for SEO services, but they don't get results because they can't make the site changes. I say horse feathers to this assumption -- clients come to an SEO vendor for help. It is the vendor's responsibility to guide the client to success. Failure occurs when the vendor fails to communicate what is required of the client prior to signing a contract.

A partial remedy for not implementing site changes would be to task the SEO vendor to FTP the site changes, but many companies will not allow outside consultants to access their site. The best solution is for the vendor to be clear upfront in communicating with the client, coming to mutual agreement on a procedure and schedule for making recommended site changes.

SEO vendors need to be more explicit in delineating the IT vs. marketing tasks necessary. They also need to consider the expertise and knowledge factor. SEO experts can likely accomplish the site changes in less time than the client IT technicians; however, there is tremendous value to in-sourcing SEO in the long run. Vendors can provide a realistic time schedule for accomplishing changes and factor in time for unknown contingencies due to client company operations. Explicit communication between the SEO vendor and its client's IT and Marketing departments will lead to much better SEO results - a win-win for both parties.

The SEO Mystique

The MarketingSherpa report stated that "SEO under-spending" is a trend that will continue in 2006. The researchers asked, "Why don't more marketers invest in SEO?" The major reason given by respondents was "Don't understand SEO, overall complexity."

Despite the fact that users prefer unbiased organic links, and the conversions from organic links average higher than those from sponsored links, some marketers won't invest in organic SEO because of its ambiguity and complexity.

That's why it is necessary to educate marketers and technical people on SEO, demystifying the process. It is really not difficult to understand when examined step by step, but the problem lies in identifying qualified SEO vendors. SEO requires specific knowledge of appropriate methodology and a bit of perseverance. Some of the vendors with marketing visibility lack such traits, leaving a lot to be desired.

Another obstacle to the widespread adoption of organic SEO is that experts in the field offer conflicting advice. A lot of what you hear on the Forums is rhetoric and hearsay. Then there is the lack of SEO standards and a code of ethics, which further erodes the integrity of the industry.

Some SEO experts talk in very general terms, e.g., all you need to do is write your site content for both your customers and the search engines, give each page a keyword-optimized Title and Description Meta Tag, and get as many quality inbound links as possible. Others will say it's more a matter of technical changes, "you need maintenance." Very few know what goes on behind the scenes, and this contributes to the SEO mystique.

SEO Made Simple

First, you need a site review. This includes establishing your business goals with respect to search engines, leading you to measurable organic SEO results. I'm talking about Server Header Status, your IP C Block, dotting the (i) and slashing the (t) in the basics of server-side status, site architecture, page construction, content and inbound link popularity.

Next, a competitor review tells you what you are up against. Your site is obviously lacking several criteria or you wouldn't have such poor positioning. This will also wake you up to the reality of what is required to achieve good positioning. Hello! I think Wake Up is the keyword hëre, get specifics from your vendor and don't settle for rhetoric or marketing lingo. Here's your scrïpt.

I want evidence that my IP address is not IP blocklisted, I want to know why a robots.txt file should be in my root directory, I want to see I have a site status header 200 when you ping my server and not a 400 or 302. I want to see if my HTML is being read properly by a spider read, a browser read and a request read. I want to know how to determine what my odds are of acquiring my strongest competitor's best positions in Google. I want to know I will be sp@m frëe, and I want to know how my site should be arranged so that spiders can find, crawl, index and rank all my data.

About The Author
Paul J. Bruemmer has provided search engine marketing expertise and consulting services to prominent American businesses since 1995. As Principal Business Analyst for Bruce Clay, Inc., he is responsible for strategizing and implementing business development activities. Paul is well-known in the industry, having written articles for ClickZ, Search Engine Guide, Pandia, iMediaConnection, MarketingProfs and SitePoint. He has also been a featured speaker at the Search Engine Strategies Conference and eComXpo.

Tags: seo, Search, Marketing, Advertising

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Selecting a Quality Domain Name

When you're ready to launch your web site and you're trying to select a good domain name, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Select a Domain Name that Reflects Your Web Site

Above all else, your domain name should reflect what your web site is all about. For example, if your web site is about grooming a dog, you certainly wouldn't want to select a domain name like 'mybusinessname.com,' since this would have nothing to do with your web site's focus. You would want to select a domain name that tells the world what your web site is all about -- something like 'doggrooming.com.'

Select a Domain Name that Contains Your Web Site's Keywords

Another consideration of great importance are your keywords. Try to select a domain name that contains your most relevant keyword phrase because some Search Engines place relevancy on them. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page. If your web page is focusing on grooming a dog, your best keyword phrase will be "dog grooming."

Select a Domain Name that will be Easily Remembered

With millïons of web sites accessible on the Internet, it is also very important to select a domain name that will be easily remembered. As in the 'doggrooming.com' example above, 'doggrooming.com' is very easily remembered, contains the most relevant keyword phrase and describes the web site in explicit detail. It is the 'perfect' domain name for this particular web site.

Select the Best Domain Extension

Another consideration of importance is the domain name extension. Although there are many new domain extensïons available, dotcom is still the best choice. When typing in a web address, Internet users automatically want to type in a .com extension, since this is the extension that has been embedded into our brains from the start.

Avoid Using Numbers in Your Domain Name

Although you may be tempted to do so, avoid using numbers within your domain name. Including a number within your domain name can cause problems. When you tell someone your web address, you will continually have to tell them it's a number and not the word. For example, if you selected a domain name like number1host.com, if you were to tell someone your web address, they may try to type it as 'numberonehost.com' instead of 'number1host.com.' This type of domain name can cause confusion.

Avoid using Dashes and Underscores in Your Domain Name

Although many people do it, don't make the same mistake I made when I first started out. Avoid using dashes, underscores or any other characters within your domain name that may cause confusion. When I registered my domain name, Web-Source.net, I actually wanted websource.com; however, it had already been registered. So, I settled for Web-Source.net. Nöw, when I tell someone my domain name, I have to say it like this: web dash source dot net.

Don't get me wrong, www.Web-Source.net is nöw a high traffïc web site, but I can önly imagine how much traffïc I've lost over the years due to my domain name. I have received many emails over the years from visitors who had a hard time finding my site. They said they couldn't remember the domain name and kept wanting to type in websource.com.

Avoid Using Abbreviations Within Your Domain Name

Although well-known companies, such as IBM, can get away with using abbreviations within their domain name, most companies can't. As a rule, try to avoid using abbreviations or anything that will be difficult for your visitors to remember. Not önly will this cause confusion, but it can also cause your potential visitors to make spelling mistakes when trying to type in your web address.

Avoid Using Long Domain Names

Although you may nöw register long domain names, it's really not a good idea. I learned this lesson the hard way. I registered 'www.workfromhomebusinessguide.com' and the sad thing is ... I can't remember the domain name half the time. How can I expect my potential visitors to remember it? Try to keep your domain name as short as possible. The longer the domain name the harder it is to remember and the more apt your potential visitors are to make a typo when typing it into their browser.

Ensure Your Domain Name is Not a Trademark Infringement

Prior to registering a domain name, you may want to consider searching the Trademark Electronic Search System, to ensure your potential domain name isn't infringing on any trademarks.

Please don't take this point lightly, as trademark infringement could cost you your entire business. It is your responsibility to ensure that your potential domain name doesn't infringe on any registered trademarks, as the trademark laws that apply in the hard copy world also apply on the Internet. Any company that registers a trademark has the right to protect their trademark and has the right to notify you that your domain name is infringing upon their trademark.

When you're ready to begin, create a list of a dozen or more potential domain names, as chances are, your first choice will already be taken. With any luck, one of the domain names on your list will be available.

Take your time and select a quality domain name that will grow with your business. It will be well-worth your time and effort in the long run.

About The Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for your complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of Shelley's acclaimed ebooks, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies" and "Work from Homë: A Complete Guide..."

Contact us to register a domain name or if you need any help on anything todo with your website or online marketing plan.

Tags: SEO, Search, Domain

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Tools of the Trade

I was searching around a reading notes that i have taken over the years about seo and thought maybe some of the tools that are used by me and many other seo companies may come in handy.

1. How old is the site? Sandbox = time
Use http://www.archive.org - Wayback Machine to see older versions of a web site.
Another site age tool: http://www.123promotion.co.uk/tools/age-of-website.asp

2. Is your site a resource?

Sites with content usually rank high.
Spider simulator tool to see how much content is on the site/pages
http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go

3. Does the site have unique content?
Subscribe to copyscape.com and it will send you urls of duplicate content to the site you’re monitoring

Swiss army knife of seo tools: http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/

4. Change up anchor text

Google
allinachor:keyword phrase
make sure you don’t use the same anchor text

http://www.webconfs.com/anchor-text-analysis.php

5. What are the related phrases?
http://www.kwmap.net

6. What does the backlink neighborhood look like?

Aaron Wall’s hub finder
http://www.linkhounds.com/hub-finder/hubfinder.php

7. What are the current your rankings?
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
(need google and yahoo api)

Domain server tools

Check Domain Name ownership - http://www.whois.sc/yourdomainhere.com
check to see if a domain or ip is in any spam http://www.databasesdnsstuff.com

Checks for different class c blocks http://www.ip-report.com

Competitive information
www.googspy.com - what types of adwords terms are being bid on, top competitors by industry

Extension for firefox masks your indenty http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/switchproxy

Check backlinks
www.webuldpages.com/tools/ tool #5

Check past 1000 links http://www.linkhounds.com/link-harvester/

Keyword information
http://labs.google.com/sets - find related terms

Ontology tool http://www.gorank.com/seotools

Header and page level info

Lets you know server response http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/tools/server-header.php

Spidering and indexability
xenu link slueth - checks for broken links also good to make site maps

That will be all for now.

Tags: SEO, Search, Marketing, Advertising

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Great Employees Are Like Fine Restaurants

You're out on the town with some good friends hoping to have a great dinner and a memorable evening. There's a diner on the corner and a great Italian restaurant down the street. Which one are you going to choose?

The Diner - You May Want to Stick to the Basics Want a Steak? They've got it. Want Crab Cakes? They've got it. Want Veal Parmesan? They've got it.

They've got it but I'm not sure you'd actually want to eat it. The focus of a diner is to satisfy everyone by providing every type of food imaginable. However, quantity and quality are two very different things. Go ahead, ask the waiter what he recommends and you'll get a blank stare.

You may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with employees? The goal of most managers is to create well-rounded employees. They try to achieve this by identifying the employee's weaknesses and trying to fix them. What about their strengths? They languish and dull due to lack of attention. The result of this focus, at best, is an employee who can do most things but is not remarkable at anything. Sound familiar?

When you order from a diner, you should probably stick to the basics. I'd do the same with your well-rounded employee.

The Fine Restaurant - Go Ahead, Try the Escargot The fine restaurant has a much more limited menu but what they have is incredibly good. They make the conscious decision to forego many types of foods to focus their efforts on what they do best.

Great managers treat their employees in much the same way. They help employees to focus on what they do best, rather than trying to improve their weaknesses. Employees will rarely become strong in an area of weakness. The best one can hope for is that they will rise to become mediocre. However, where an employee has talent, they can become world-class. In addition, focusing on those areas where we have true talent is incredibly motivating.

Imagine a team of people who are all the best at what they do. Imagine your competition running scared.

Would you rather have well-rounded employees or remarkable employees?

How to Allow Employees to Become Great

Traditional management methods will not create great employees because they don't focus on what each employee does best. Here are four steps to make it happen:

1. Identify your employees' strengths - This task is not easy. It requires a much more individualistic approach to management. Here are the best ways to make it happen: * Observe - The best way to identify your employees' strengths is to observe their actions. What types of work are they attracted to? How do they act in group discussions? What do they like to do when they're not working? * Use Personality Profiles - There are several profiling tools available on the market which can help you to identify people's tendencies, talents and styles. * Conduct 360 Degree Surveys - This can be a great way to get feedback from supervisors, peers and subordinates as to an employee's strengths and tendencies. * Ask The Employee - Ask your employees what they feel their strengths are. The danger here is that most people are not self-aware enough to accurately answer the question.

2. Determine how to take advantage of those strengths - Once their strengths are known, you should: * Encourage Improvement - Additional training and experience can turn strengths into incredible talents. Michael Jordan wasn't born great; he practiced. * Refine Roles - Find ways to allow your employees to spend a greater portion of their time on tasks that lend themselves to their strengths.

3. Figure out how to manage around the weaknesses - Focusing on what employees do best doesn't mean forgetting about their weaknesses. Here are three strategies to deal with weaknesses: * Shift roles - If possible, change the employee's responsibilities to shift focus away from their weaknesses. * Partner - Find an employee whose strengths offset another employee's weaknesses and team them together. * Training - Training will probably not turn a weakness into a strength; but it can get their performance up to more acceptable levels.

4. Build a team of people who compliment each others strengths - Traditional teams are made up of many interchangeable parts. This new, remarkable team is more like a jigsaw puzzle of talents. Place the right people in the right roles and change any job descriptions and performance measures that no longer fit.

Back to the original question...Would you choose the diner or the fine restaurant? It's nice to have a few diners around for when you want something cheap or don't know what you want to eat. But, if you want something truly remarkable and memorable, hit Zagats and find a great restaurant.

About the Author: Mike Goldman is the owner of Pridestaff of Paramus, providing workforce solutions to companies in Northern New Jersey. Mike also spent 17 years consulting to Fortune 500 companies and is a writer and speaker in the areas of career management and workforce strategies.

Tags: employees, Business, Marketing, Management, Leadership

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