Owning a Tourism Business is awesome

25 Feb 2007

Google Rankings - Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

Google Rankings - Improve Your Search Engine Ranking:

How Google Ranks Your Web Page

For some time, Google was hands down, the Internet's most important search engine. It now has a lot of competition in the running now with Yahoo's new search engine and with the upcoming MSN search. Regardless, Google is still an important search engine to understand as it has the power to deliver a tremendous amount of traffic to your website.

This article does not strive to provide all the answers to Google rankings. This is not a technical document - it just provides you with practical tips on improving your Google rankings.
What Google Looks at:

Link Popularity: Google's version of this is called PageRank. Very simply put, the idea is that site A votes for site B by placing a link to site B on site A. Despite popular belief, simply exchanging links with a whole bunch of sites isn't necessarily going to increase your PageRank. The Google search engine analyzes the importance of the sites providing the links to your site. Focus on receiving links from sites with good rankings and that are related to your website.

Download the Google Toolbar to check your PageRank and the PageRank of sites you link with: Be weary of linking with sites a PageRank of 0 ~ perhaps, they are new to the Internet, but they may also be a banned site. "

Google Rankings - Improve Your Search Engine Ranking:

21 Feb 2007

Link Exchanges

Make it as easy for people to link to you as possible. Here are a few tips:

1. Create a page where people can get the information about linking to you. In other words, make a "Link to Us" page. Make it easy by providing with them the HTML that they can easily pasted into their web page editor.

2. Make sure your link partner's link page is on their own domain. There are free links managers (ex. Bravenet) that create links pages for users, but they are not on the users' domains. By exchanging with these people, you are actually exchanging links with Bravenet (for example), rather than your link partner. This is not the link you are looking for!

3. When you find suitable link partners, put their link up on your site before contacting them. Write a personal email requesting an exchange. Let them know why you think your exchange is a good one and provide them with the HTML code to put up your link. Don't send a mass email to everyone...it's too impersonal and your message is likely to be ignored.

Links take time to build. THERE IS NO SHORT CUT! I don;t know how many times I have had to tell people this, yet everyone seems to think there is some 'secret method' to get links.

18 Feb 2007

The Importance of Keywords

The Importance of Keywords: "The Importance of Keywords

The basis of all search engine rankings is keywords. Yes, search engines employ all kinds of technology that is beyond the average person's comprehension...but it all comes down to words.

Search engine users enter keyword phrases into a search engine to find the information they need. You need to find yourself on top for those keywords. Do you know which keywords people are entering and how to choose the most appropriate ones for your website?

Whether you are optimizing your website for natural rankings or looking to start a pay-per-click campaign, these articles will help:"

15 Feb 2007

News Aggregators

News Aggregators: "Web-based aggregators

These are sites that aggregate feeds for reading in a browser.

* 24bytesSimple Blog RSS/Atom aggregator
* 24x7 News24x7 Medical News Aggregator
* 24eyesWeb 2.0 RSS aggregator
* AggregatoTag-based RSS/Atom aggregator (R)
* Alesti Feed ReaderWeb 2.0 RSS reader
* AlmondRocksSimple aggregator
* Attensa Onlineis a free AJAX RSS reader that works like a dedicated RSS reader application.
* BeanRocketSocial aggregator (R)
* BlogLinesFolder style aggregator (R)
* Blox0rSimple news aggregator
* ClickBioClickBio Biological News Aggregator
* Chrysanth NETime Channel Online RSS/Atom aggregator and RSS/Atom preview (R)
* Editaste Aggregator, also enables creating feeds comprised of arbitrary items (free)
* FeedBucket RSS/Atom aggregator with River-of-News or individual feeds
* FeedFeeds RSS/Atom aggregator that also features FeedTV
* FeedLounge Commercial aggregator (N)
* FeedReader.net Your personal web XML/RSS news reader
* FeedShow.com RSS feeds reader / includes RSS monetization
* FeedZilla Dutch online RSS aggregator (N)
* FlipSkipper River-of-news style web based aggregator
* Freepress An political-news weblog aggregator with a set list of feeds, grouped by political party

"

1 Feb 2007

Social Media, Social Networking, User-Generated Content, White Label Solutions from Pluck

Social Media, Social Networking, User-Generated Content, White Label Solutions from Pluck:

"Why Social Media? Social media, social networking, Web 2.0, new media"

There are a lot of terms flying around that are hard to make sense of or understand. What do they mean? Should I get involved? How can they help me, or my business?

Social media is the concept of bringing content and information sharing from a passive to an active experience for everyone from a CEO of a fortune 500 company to your next door neighbor. Social Media makes the web, and specifically web content, more interactive and accessible to both the savvy and not-so-savvy Internet users.
User-generated content

Times have changed, and increasingly, the masses are adding their expertise, opinions and interests with others through their own words, photos, video or commentary. This phenomenon can be seen in social mediums, such as blogging, and in the explosive growth of social networking platforms, such as MySpace, Flickr and YouTube as resources of information and enablers of the next generation of monetizable Web technologies.

The world of social media is empowering to users, but also to the traditional mediums of information dissemination: publishers, media sites, portals and major brands. Icons such as the Washington Post, Better Homes & Gardens, USA Today and many others are embracing social media."

Social Media, Social Networking, User-Generated Content, White Label Solutions from Pluck: