Why haven't you been writing?

Hello everyone!

I wanted to write to let everyone know why my blog here has not been updated lately. Have you been so busy that you haven't had time? Well, actually I have been busy writing. Just not here!

See my latest entries please visit the new Totus Internet Marketing Blog. I have recently taken the roll of CEO/CTO of Totus eCommerce and Search Marketing.

If you were a previous subscriber, I do apologize for the headache, but please visit the blog above and subscribe. I made things a lot easier with feed burner and more... I hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Troy

Amit Singhal: Google's Ranking Algorithm

The New York Times has recently published an article about Amit Singhal. Amit Singhal is in charge of Google's ranking algorithm. The interview reveals some interesting facts about Google's ranking algorithm.

Google knows that its algorithm is not perfect

"Tweaking and quality control involve a balancing act. 'You make a change, and it affects some queries positively and others negatively,” [...] 'You can’t only launch things that are 100 percent positive.'"

"[...] Any of Google’s 10,000 employees can use its 'Buganizer' system to report a search problem, and about 100 times a day they do."

Why Google changes its algorithm

The article lists a concrete example why Google could change its algorithm:

"Recently, a search for 'French Revolution' returned too many sites about the recent French presidential election campaign — in which candidates opined on various policy revolutions — rather than the ouster of King Louis XVI.

A search-engine tweak gave more weight to pages with phrases like 'French Revolution' rather than pages that simply had both words."

If you want to get high rankings on Google, it's important to know whether you should use your keywords as a phrase or as separate words on your web pages.

This can be different for different keywords. Fortunately, there is a way to find out how you should use your keywords on your web pages (see below).

PageRank is just one of many factors

While PageRank was very important when Google was new, Google now uses many more factors to determine the rankings of web pages:

"PageRank is but one signal. Some signals are on Web pages — like words, links, images and so on. Some are drawn from the history of how pages have changed over time. Some signals are data patterns uncovered in the trillions of searches that Google has handled over the years."

There are many factors that influence the ranking of a web page on Google. If you want to get high Google rankings for your website, then you have to work on all of these factors.

How can you optimize your web pages for Google's algorithm?

Which factors are important for Google? Does your website have these factors?

You don't have access to Google's internal tools. How can you find out whether it is better to have the words "French revolution" as a phrase on your web pages or if you should use both words separately (see example above)? Which other factors are important for high Google rankings?

That's why TOTUS recommneds a top 10 optimizer tool. WebCEO Top 10 Optimizer demystifies Google's ranking algorithm by analyzing the top ranked pages. WebCEO tells you in plain English where to put the keywords on your web pages and which factors lead to top 10 Google rankings.

The information is specifically for your website, your keywords and for Google (you can also select other major search engines). If you haven't used the top 10 optimizer with your web pages yet, give it a try.

Google's March 1st 07 Ranking Algorithm Changes

In a recent thread on WebmasterWorld, people observed that there is a change in Google's ranking algorithm. It looks as if more pages are added to Google's supplemental results and that Google might re-rank the results based on new quality criteria.

What's new in Google's ranking algorithm?

It seems that Google internally returns a first set of results that is then re-ranked according to multipliers determined in testing just this set of results.

If your web site is not included in the first set of results then the re-ranking step cannot help you because no new results are added.

If your website is included in the first set of results then the re-ranking can either help you or hurt your rankings. If your web site fails one of the re-ranking tests, then your rankings scores (relevance score, trust score, website age score, etc.) might be lowered and your rankings will drop.

Such a new ranking method would explain the yo-yo effect that can be observed for some URLs: a web page goes from search result page one to the end of the results and comes back again. The same web site is always part of the first result set but re-ranked differently.

Are more pages going supplemental?

Google might use the new system to quickly get the first set of results (probably cached sets of results). To make the primary index less unwieldy, more pages might be moved to the supplemental results.

The supplemental index would only be accessed if the total number of sites in the primary index fell below a threshold.

What can you do to benefit from the new algorithm?

If you want to get high rankings with Google's new algorithm then you must create a trustworthy web site with good content:

• Get good inbound links from trusted websites to raise the TrustRank value of your own web site.
• Get links from websites that have many backlinks (these pages usually have a high TrustRank).
• Improve the co-citation of your website by getting link from web pages that link to other sites that are related to yours.
• Try to get links from pages that link to other trusted pages next to the link to your site.
• Optimize the content of your web pages to show Google that your web pages are relevant to a special topic.
  

High Google rankings are still the result of two important factors: optimized web page content and the right inbound links.

The problem is to find out exactly how the web page content should be optimized and exactly how the inbound links now should look like. This is by far the best tool on the market to do just that: SEO Elite

Google's Pay Per Action (PPA)

Well I've mentioned the rumor almost a year ago today. The rumor is not more. Google is testing a new advertising system that allows businesses to advertise on a cost per action basis. Sorry CJ, Azoogle, Modern Click and others - prepare to get squashed. You can find Google's own announcement here.

My personal opinion on PPA: Much more worth your your advertising dollars than PPC ever was...

How does Google's new product work?

Until now, Google has primarily sold pay-per-click (PPC) ads, so-called AdWords ads: advertisers pay when someone on Google or a Google partner site clicks on the ad.

Google AdWords has one big advantage and one big disadvantage: You only pay for clicks of potential customers, but you risk paying a lot of money for nothing because of click fraud.

There has been a lot of debate around click fraud because Google has a short term financial incentive to promote it. Google's new advertising product is "pay per action" (PPA). You don't pay per click anymore but you pay when a customer takes further action, such as requesting a catalog, signing up for a newsletter or buying a product.

PPA advertising is meant to mitigate the risks of click fraud.

How can Google track the action?

If you use Google's PPA advertising product, then you must use Google's conversion tracking code in the HTML code of your web pages.

Of course, the advertiser has an incentive not to confirm the action, but cheating does not make sense. Like PPC ads, PPA ads will likely be ranked by profitability to Google.

What are the consequences for the market?

Google will be able to better maximize revenues on its advertising network, and it also should allay the concerns over click fraud.

Google's new PPA program is in direct competition to affiliate marketing networks such as Commission Junction and LinkShare. Publishers could leave those affiliate marketing networks and concentrate on Google's PPA program.

Yahoo und Microsoft will certainly offer similar PPA programs in the future. The current players on the PPA market Snap and Turn now face heavy competition.

What are the consequences for you?

If you already track the return on investment (ROI) on your PPC ads, then you won't be affected much. If you don't track the ROI yet, take a look at ROI tracking tools such as AxROI which can save you a lot of advertising money.

If you are a smaller advertiser, then PPA advertising could mean that you will pay less for better results in the future, and that you will never worry about click fraud again.

Note that Google's pay per action program is currently in beta test. This means that there are some limitations:

• participation is by invitation only, you must fill out a web form to request participating in the program
• the PPA program is currently only available to US customers
• ads are limited to Google's content network of partner sites (Google AdSense)

Wordpress WPMU Blog Site Creation Automation

I don't have to much time to give detailed information about this but wanted to go ahead and share what I have. If you are interested in manipulating the WordPress WPMU platform into creating thousands of blogs in one fatal swoop this will do the trick. I have written a web based application that will read a csv file which contains a list of the blog sites you want to create. It can be in the 100s of 1000s if you like. If you not familiar with WPMU don't bother with this app. Simply dump the file content into your www root directory that you have WPMU installed in and visit the web page. DO NOT ASK ME FOR HELP if you can't get it to work. Sorry, I just don't have the time but I did want to share.

Considering that I am giving my code away for free please consider some of the advertisements to the right and at least take a look at what they have to offer. That does involve clicking on their ads and visiting their sites. For whatever purposes you would need this mass blog creating capability is your own business and I hope it helps you in your endeavours.

Download here Go here: Mass Blogging

If you are in dire need of help getting this working shoot me an email and if I have time I will field it.

Search Engines DMCA Shakedown

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a power entity to be dealt with. But is it working when it comes to search engines and sites hosted overseas and outside our borders?

As some of you may have noticed, Google is now providing information within the footer of SERPS about sites that have been removed from their index that have been reported via DMCA notice. The irony behind all of this is the fact that Google references the notice that was submitted by the company who believes there is a violation on chillingeffects.org.



Not to mention, chillingeffects.org post the actual complaint notices on their site for public view.



KIND OF DEFEATS THE PURPOSE DON'T YOU THINK? This may alleviate Google's liability in a court of law, now what about chillingeffects? Or wouldn't Google still be liable for pointing people to the notices that are posted on chillingeffects.org which contain entire lists of urls that are in violation?

Let me clarify that I am not an advocate of software piracy. I am just merely pointing out the flaws in the system.

"Question: Why does a search engine get DMCA shakedown notices for materials in its search listings?

Answer: Many copyright claimants are using Section 512(d) of the DMCA, a safe-harbor for providers of "information location tools." Whether or not the search engine would have been liable for infringement by materials it links to, it can avoid the possibility of money damages by following the DMCA shakedown procedure when it gets a notice. See What does a service provider have to do in order t...?; What are the provisions of 17 U.S.C. Section 512(c...?; Does a service provider have to follow the safe ha...?. The person whose information was removed can file a counter-notification.
For more information on the DMCA Safe Harbors, see the FAQs on DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions. For more information on Copyright and defenses to copyright infringement, see Copyright. "

--Reference: ChillingEffects.org

Is Google Adsense Really Dead?

According to the supposed leading "Link Arbitragers", Scott Boulch and his crontraversal (viral marketing campaign) paper entitled "The Death of Adsense", and many other Adsensers that have seen their profits drop off and have decided to give it a shot moving up the theorized internet marketing food chain to the (required larger capital investment, higher risk) CPA networks - Google Adsense is DEAD! But is it really?

Below is just a sample snap shot of my most current case study using my own sites and blogs. You decide for yourself. This is definately open for discussion.

Google is paying more to its AdSense partners. Traffic acquisition costs were $916 million in the fourth quarter, up from $825 million in the third quarter.

You want Traffic?

You want to know how we did this in less than a month?



Contact me at: troy@zerobreach.com

Off site SEM/SEO Promotions

Off site SEO/SEM Promotions

White Paper
Author: Troy Perkins

ZEROBREACH.COM

Contents

• Blogging & ZEROBREACH Blog Syndication

• Public Relations – Internet Article Publications

• RSS – Really Simple Syndication

• Prominent Paid Listing Directories

• Link Popularity, Relevancy & Trading Practices

• CPA networks vs. Affiliate Programs

• Researching Linking Partners

Blogging & ZEROBREACH Blog Syndication Services

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

The term "blog" is derived from "Web log." "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

As of November 2006, blog search engine Technorati was tracking nearly 60 million blogs.

The “Blog syndication service” which is currently being conducted by ZEROBREACH in simple terms is the creation of blog sites that are industry related to the client which contain back-links (links pointing towards the client’s website and pages) with specific keyword anchor text within posted articles that are aggregated from numerous news feeds e.g. http://news.google.com/intl/en_us/news_feed_terms.html and http://news.yahoo.com/rss .

Keyword anchor text for inbound links has proven to be a factor in search engine website rankings and placement algorithms.

ZERBREACH strongly encourages website owners to create their own blog sites either on separate blogging platforms or integrations into their corporate website and post to them “frequently”. The bottom line is content and merging two divided search vectors, the new vector being internet social networking. Social networking has become the hotbed for internet activity in many areas and making headline news. Some platforms you may have heard of in the social networking community are sites like http://www.myspace.com, http://www.orkut.com, and http://www.youtube.com. This type of social networking (which includes blogging) is now becoming a part of corporate America. The following is a list of free blogging platforms:

· http://wordpress.com/

· http://www.blogger.com –Google Platform

Public Relations – Internet Article Publications

Internet Publications has proven to tremendously aid in website PR. The way in which these types of services aggregate brand recognition is done primary through RSS/XML information dissemination. Sites in which articles are published, especially those that have a higher PR (PR in terms of Google’s Page Rank methodologies) and strategically search engine optimized articles containing back-links to the publisher’s website can increase that websites chances of beating their competition for specific keyword phrases within organic search.

Google PageRank Explained:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query. –reference: http://www.google.com/technology/

The following is a list of Internet Public Relations Sites that will publish and syndicate your articles. ZEROBREACH will assist in optimizing your articles for publication and manage your relations with such companies as part of your current monthly fee. Average charged price by these companies per submitted article is around $80.

· PR Web http://www.prweb.com/

· Buzzle http://www.buzzle.com/

· Ezine Articles http://www.ezinearticles.com/

RSS – Really Simple Syndication

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.

Users of RSS content use programs called feed 'readers' or 'aggregators': the user 'subscribes' to a feed by supplying to their reader a link to the feed; the reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.

The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer to the following standards:

• Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
• RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)

RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats). RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed", "webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel".

Programs known as feed readers or aggregators can check a list of feeds on behalf of a user and display any updated articles that they find. It is common to find web feeds on major websites and many smaller ones. Some websites let people choose between RSS or Atom formatted web feeds; others offer only RSS or only Atom.

RSS-aware programs are available for various operating systems. Client-side readers and aggregators are typically constructed as standalone programs or extensions to existing programs such as web browsers and Email readers. Many browsers have integrated support for RSS feeds. There also are other applications that can convert an RSS feed into several usenet articles, viewable through the major newsreader software such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Forté Agent.

Web-based feed readers and news aggregators such as NewsGator Online require no software installation and make the user's "feeds" available on any computer with Web access. Some aggregators combine existing web feeds into new feeds, e.g., taking all football related items from several sports feeds and providing a new football feed. There are also search engines for content published via web feeds like Bloglines.

On Web pages, web feeds (RSS or Atom) are typically linked with the word "Subscribe", an orange rectangle, , or with the letters or . Many news aggregators such as My Yahoo! publish subscription buttons for use on Web pages to simplify the process of adding news feeds.

Please consult with your website developer in setting up a news page within your website in which you can publish articles “frequently” by logging into an account and filling in form data. This page should have archiving capabilities and XML or RSS nightly page generation with icons published as noted above.

Websites that have RSS or XML generation capabilities allows for people to subscribe to your news feeds and receive any new publications that you may publish in real-time. ZEROBREACH’s Blog syndication services can hook into your news feed and aggregate your articles within its Blog Syndication network. Note: this is very similar to how services like PR Web operate.

Prominent Paid Listing Directories

ZEROBREACH submits your site to all free prominent directories. The most comprehensive and well respected free directory is currently DMOZ. However there are other directories that are available for listing but do require a fee ranging between $25 to $300 a year. This is very similar to having a listing in your local yellow pages. The following is a list of prominent paid directories for consideration (all of these have a Google PageRank of 5 or better):

· Microsoft Small Business Directory http://sbd.bcentral.com/

· Yahoo Directory http://dir.yahoo.com/

· InCrawler http://www.incrawler.com/

· Best Of the Web http://botw.org/

· JoAnt http://www.joeant.com/

· MassiveLinks http://www.massivelinks.com/

· Seoma http://www.seoma.net/

Link Popularity, Relevancy, & Trading Practices

After attending the latest SEO convention my opinion is wavering in reference to Link Trade. Keep in mind that this is all theory and no one really knows exactly how Google’s and others algorithms weight the linking factor in site rankings. In summary, the buzz is that Google “is” factoring relevancy in topic of inbound linking sites but no one knows for sure. The only factors on inbound linking that have been proven are the use of “anchor text” and the Google PageRank of sites linking to yours.

Link popularity (the count of how many sites are linking to yours) most believe helps in your search engines rankings. The key is to have as many inbound (one-way) links as possible from high PR sites with relevant keyword “anchor text” surrounded by natural text. See the following example:

“Caribbean villas are the only way to go for vacation these days in my opinion. I stayed at La Bella Vita Villa in St. John the last winter for 1 week in December last year.”

I have stated to you in the past that my belief in the link trade arena was emphasis on PR and relevancy, which still holds true. However, I now believe that trading links in any form cannot hurt you if done properly. I will speak to you about “how” during our meeting. Topic bullet points will be:

· Preventing PageRank Bleed (how-to) in setting up a link directory.

· How to research link partners. (see illustration on page 7)

A new trading practice is what some people are calling triangle trading or asymmetrical link trading. This is a good way to establish one-way links. See example below:

Owner A has two sites (site A and site B)

Owner B has two sites (site C and siteD )

Site A links to site C and site D links to site B.

Each owner now has one-way links from each other.

CPA networks vs. Affiliate Programs

CPA networks Pros & Cons:

Pros:

• You don’t pay a commission unless an action takes place e.g. someone purchases a vacation.
• Potential traffic from contextual networks and some of them are huge.
• According to Scott Bolsch’s paper on “the death of adsense”, many Google Adsense publishers may be moving up the so call food chain and working for you.

Cons:

• Very expensive. Minimum investment just to get started through CJ was around $20,000.
• The chance of very little traffic.
• Potential fraud in poorly planned campaigns.

*After this writing, there have been a number of new CPA networks that have popped up some competition may soon drive down pricing soon.

Internet Marketing Food Chain Diagram (contact troy@zerobreach.com for full whitepaper that includes diagrams)

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Affiliate Program Pros & Cons:

Pros:

• A lot less expensive than CPA network campaigns. Most commercial shopping carts have the feature built into them such as X-cart or Miva Merchant.
• Less risk and some people believe there are only a few good so called “hunters” out there that give you a decent amount of volume anyway.

Cons:

• Finding the “hunters”
• Not as much traffic as CPA networks can generate.

Researching good link partners tutorial:

1.) Using the Google search engine, search using what you think is your most desired for ranking keyword.

2.) Observe your competition (note: illustration below)

Link Partners Illustrations contact troy@zerobreach.com for full whitepaper that includes diagrams)

3.) Type the following in the search engine field and click search.

Link Partners Illustrations contact troy@zerobreach.com for full whitepaper that includes diagrams)

4.) The results shown will be all the sites that are currently linking to your competitor for that particular keyword phrase.

5.) Begin contacting each of these site owners for link trade arrangements.

Link Partners Illustrations contact troy@zerobreach.com for full whitepaper that includes diagrams)

What are Google Sitelinks/Sublinks in Organic Search?

The following is an example of a Google Sitelinks listing in the natural search area of the Google search engine:

Approximately a year ago Google started experimenting with an enhanced listing or what some are terming as sublinks or sitelinks in their organic search results that can increase a site's visibility and reputation, and generate more traffic. Who stapled the name “SiteLinks”? On September 7, 2006, Google's sitemap guru, Vanessa Fox, wrote a blog entry titled Information about Sitelinks. She explained that Sitelinks are generated automatically, and that they are designed to provide searchers with more valuable search results. Vanessa also stated that Google is planning to expand the Sitelinks program. I have been getting inundated with the question of how does this happen and how do we make it happen from fellow SEOers and clients alike for quite some time.

In the illustration above which is derived from a Google search for the keyword "florida keys," beneath the main search result; we see links to various areas of the fla-keys website. “This would help a searcher in two ways: they can get a better understanding of what the site is about before they visit, and they can take a shortcut from Google to the topic that interests them. Only the best sites seem to get Sitelinks. Virtually all of the webmasters I've spoken with feel that Sitelinks enhance a web site's visibility and reputation.” Says Hochman

Google Doesn't Say How to Get Sitelinks

The workings of many Google algorithms, including Sitelinks, are kept secret to discourage people from manipulating the rankings, but we can still look at examples and try to understand where Sitelinks come from. I've worked on a number of sites with Sitelinks, and these sites are similar in the following ways:

• Website Age of several years or longer
• Site ranks first for the keyword(s) that generate the Sitelinks listing
• Easily spiderable, structured navigation
• Fairly decent natural search volume traffic
• High click through rates from the search results page
• Inbound links from high quality sites
• Useful outbound links

“These factors may, or may not, be exactly what Google uses to trigger Sitelinks. Nevertheless, everything on this list is desirable for a web marketing program, so using the list to guide our strategy will probably help our sites become more effective.” - Hochman

What Signals Does Google Use for the Sitelinks Algorithm?

Again, we do not know for sure, but we can deduce some of the signals by looking at Google's Webmaster Guidelines and by studying the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Google's Webmaster Guidelines say, in the first item under design and content guidelines, "Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links." That's good advice for several reasons. A clear navigation heirarchy is good for visitors and helps search engines understand the topic of each page. Google can't create sitelinks if it can't fix the meaning of the sub-pages, either by analysis or by "watching" visitors.

We know that Google search results pages (SERPs) contain links with tracking info, and that many users have Google accounts, so Google can watch their behavior over time. Google isn't expending resources to do all this tracking without reason. We can safely assume that Google will somehow use all that data to improve their search results, and possibly to deliver new features like Sitelinks.

If I were Google, I'd be very interested to know which search results have above-average click through rates for particular keywords. I'd also like to know if searchers were happy with my search results. If too many searchers choose a listing and then return to the SERP, that could indicate a poor quality search result. All this information is collected automatically, providing a scalable way to identify search spam, and the opposite, search "gems." A search gem with significant search volume would be the ideal candidates for a Sitelinks listing.

Things We Can Do to Improve the Odds of Getting Sitelinks

While we can only make educated guesses, we may as well do things that are also good for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and user experience. Even if our guesses are off, we won't be wasting effort with these recommendations:

• Create structured navigation using HTML features like unordered lists (UL) and text links. Use CSS to style menus with the desired appearance. Lists can be displayed horizontally or vertically, and be any size or color. We can add background images, colors and border to create the appearance of a box or button. All this can be done with text links.
• Organize navigation to present a smallish number of logical destinations that visitors will choose frequently. Don't overwhelm the visitor with too many choices on the main menu. If necessary, add second level menu items using CSS hover menus.
• Brand the web site with a unique name. If the name is too generic, no matter what we do, the click through rates on natural search may not be very good, because the user will have too many choices on the SERP for similarly named sites. Google probably won't give Sitelinks to a site that is just average for a particular search term. We want to be the overwhelming first choice.
• Add really useful titles and META descriptions to the site, especially the home page, to improve click through rates from the SERP. Make sure the meta information is accurate to avoid misleading searchers. We don't want people to bounce off the site because it fails to meet their expectations.

Latest SiteLinks News

On December 21, 2006, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application by Google that describes the process of selecting internal links to display within the search results. An explanation of this patent is addressed in William Slawski's article, Google’s Listings of Internal Site Links for Top Search Results. What Google applies for in the patent may or may not be what they actually use in practice according to Hochman. The article does confirm his hypothesis that user behavior plays an important role in selecting Sitelinks.

References: Jonathon Hochman (What are Google Sitelinks? A Delux Listing in Google's Search Results), Googles Webmaster Guides, Vanessa Fox sitemap guru Blog.

What YOU should know, about SEO

New legion search engine technologies and YOUR website.

By Troy Perkins (Owner) ZEROBREACH LLC

Opposed to any other advertising vector, a successful internet presence will determine if the vessel will sink or sail businesses in almost any industry. Studies show that approximately 85% of initial web site visits originate from search engine referrals. This clearly indicates that search engine marketing is no longer a luxury but rather an absolute necessity for online success. Search engine optimization (SEO), a relatively new art, is quickly developing and gaining notoriety among businesses who are competing in internet space.

Today's standards are much different than those early methodologies of search engines and search marketing. In the past, metatags or descriptors were embedded in web page header tags to rank high in search engines. Today's search engines utilize much more advanced algorithms to determine the best pages. In addition to metatags, these new algorithms also consider factors like word choices, who is linking to you, back-links from directories, if you're being talked about on blog sites and forums, the frequency of site content updates, and syndication of information. The list goes on!

These factors combine in what is now being termed by some as "organic" search results. Organic search is the new buzzword for the concept of pure, or crawler-based search. Organic describes a search that returns results by indexing pages based on content and keyword relevancy. This is in contrast to listings ranked based on who paid the most money to appear at the top such as those on Overture.com or Google Adwords , even Microsoft is surfacing with their own pay-per-click or ppc schema.. Why not!? After all, it is Google's primary revenue stream earning $592 million in the first quarter of 2006, compared with $369 million in the year-earlier period. The "unbiased search", sometimes called "pure" or "natural search" as it is supposed to be "untainted" by commercial payments or bids. The unbiased results section, usually placed below and to the left of most search engines paid for advertising.

Making these combinations of factors even more difficult to decipher, the search engine companies regularly reconfigure their algorithms as frequently as once every few months. With the interest of shareholders (since each is a publicly traded company), they are continually working to maintain an edge over one another.

Google is a prime example of use of these new methodologies and are now providing tools that display what is termed as PageRank (PR). Google's new desktop toolbar has PageRank measuring built-in showing how important Google thinks websites are to internet surfers. Google has filed an organic search patent, termed "Personalization of placed content ordering in search results", to serve organic search results based on user profiles. Google has also applied for a similar behavioral targeting patent for its advertising networks.

Since search engines regularly change algorithms, it also helps ensure that a company's own pay-per-click or ppc services remain useful and effective. These services will place a sponsor's link at the top or along the side for particular searches for 25 cents per click and a minimum deposit, usually of around $200. Although these services offer rapid and reliable placement, they can also be quite expensive.

Additionally, SEO services are very complex and a time-consuming element of successful web presence and visibility. Start up fees for some SEO companies range from $5,000-$10,000 in addition to monthly fees of $300 to $5,000 to maintain a client's site.

ZEROBREACH has helped businesses both large and small enjoy top rankings in the major search engines and directories as well as experience an increase in their web traffic. By working diligently with each client to understand their business and marketing objectives, we are able to develop a strategy that ensures their web site will have greater visibility in the search engines and above all, empower our clients by giving them the ability to measure their success. Our services will actively work to maintain and improve your web presence providing regular content updates and syndication of your content throughout the web. By maintaining a strong web presence with organic growth, your business will generate new leads and increase sales in the internet arena.

For more information, please e-mail me at: troy@zerobreach.com