Google Analytics - Tracking the Success of Your Website

By: Andrew Seidel

How successful is your website? Do you really know how well it is performing for your business?

Many website owners make the mistake of thinking that the more traffic they get to their website the better, and they work towards this end. It is better to focus efforts on bringing in targeted traffic that will convert to sales or inquiries. To understand more correctly how well a website is performing, and who is visiting the website, a good website statistics package is required, as well as an understanding of the data these website reports produce.

With many website hosting packages free, website statistics are available. However, the information is not always easy to understand or doesn't always give you the information in a way that is easy to understand.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great application that Google provides absolutely free (actually IMO it IS the best). It tracks all activity on your website, not just visits through Google. All you need is a Google Account, and FTP access to your website to insert a small amount of code in your website, and away you go. If you don't already have a Google account, I encourage you to set one up as soon as possible!

You can do so at: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount . Not only will you have access to Google Analytics, but having a Google account gives you a whole host of other tools.

Visitors

As a start, it is a good idea to find out how many visitors are coming to your website. Visitors are broken down into new and returning visitors. While it is great to attract new visitors to your site, you should aim to see a decent percentage of returning visitors as well, as this gives a good indication that people find your site interesting enough to come back to.

Depth of Visit

How many pages are viewed during a visit to your website?

Length of Visit

How much time do visitors spend on your website? If they are spending very little time on your site when you have an information-rich site, then you need to start looking at the navigational report to find out where you are losing them.

Keywords

The Keywords that people are finding your website through, are a good indication of what keywords are performing well for you in the search engines. Are the keywords that are displaying for you truly reflective of what you offër? If not, then it is time to revamp the content on your website.

Referrals

Which referrals drive the highest quality traffic? This report lists activity coming via referrals from other websites. This is useful for tracking links that you cannot control. You can gauge the overall effectiveness and importance of PR activities, partnerships, etc. The referrals are compared to the number of visits, page views per visit, conversion rates and average value per visit.

Navigation

Which navigation paths resulted in conversions during the visit? For each navigation path, this report shows conversion rates and the value per visit.

Exit Pages

From which pages do visitors commonly exit your site? This report shows the number of exits from pages on your site. If you notice a high number of exits for specific pages, it is time to seriously analyze these pages and try to improve them, because it is very likely that people are not getting the information they expect or want.

Conversion data

Arguably this is one of the most important pieces of information. Conversion data gives you a true understanding of how successful your site really is.

Conversion goals can be set up through your Analytics settings. Take time to think about what goals you want to track. These may be sales or web inquiries you are receiving, or specific pages in your website that you want to focus on. Keep in mind that if your visitor contacts you by telephone or fax, this will not be reflected in the goal conversions. However, you can set your contact page as being a goal to get a feel for how many people are looking for your contact details.

By monitoring the changes in conversion rates for your primary goals, you can monitor the overall effectiveness of website changes, marketing roll-outs and other events.

Organic vs Pay-Per-Click comparison

How does paid search compare with organic search in driving high quality traffic to my site? This report compares paid and organic referrals with respect to number of visits, page views per visit, conversion rates and average visit value.

Date Range

Throughout the report it gives you the ability to track your website statistics between various date ranges. At this time it only allows you to see a maximum of a month's data at a time. The reports also allow you to compare data, so you can find out how your site is tracking against a previous date period.

Beta Version

The current Beta which is just in the process of being released, provides a lot more flexibility, and one of the most exciting things about the new version is that it allows you to schedule reports, daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. This is great news as it makes the process of accessing your website reports even easier.

Google Analytics Features

There are many other features that Google Analytics offers, and it is worth spending the time having a good look at them and trying to understand what they have to offer you. Alternatively, speak to your webmaster or SEO specialist and get them to help you understand how Google Analytics can help improve your website performance. By having a better understanding of it, you can potentially increase your profits significantly.

Final Note

When you analyze the data from your website statistics with the intention of improving your site, or getting a good indication of how your site is performing, it is important that you have a decent snapshot of the data to work from, i.e. make sure that you are not making assumptions based on the data of a single day, as trends vary over time, and even from day-to-day. IMPORTANT- never become complacent! Make sure you review your website reports at least weekly or monthly--if not daily--to make sure that your website is performing to your expectations.

Andrew Seidel is the Director of Quantum Web Solutions, specialising in web site design and web site promotion.

How to Get Indexed by Google in 6 Days-WeblogHits.com

I justed checked and Google has finally indexed this site. I was beginning to wonder as I think I’ve had other sites listed sooner - but 6 days is nothing to scoff at. It would take many experiments to figure out what factors speed up the time it takes to get listed, but I’ll summarize some important things I did that may have played a part:

1. Submitted my URL to Google’s add url page.
2. Linked a word in one of my posts to an permalink on Google’s Blog.
3. Did the same thing to an article on TechCrunch.
4. Posted legitimate comments on a few blogs I enjoy reading
5. Announced this blog at BloggerForum.
6. Spent two or three hours writing a good article to submit to social news sites, submitted
7. Added RSS feed link to my site
8. Added blog to Technorati
9. Installed plugin to add Technorati tags to my posts
10. Installed this Google Sitemap plugin, created sitemap and pinged Google.
11. Optimized this blog using these excellent tips to make it more pleasing to the search engines.
12. Posted at least one article per day

For the most part that is basically all I have done. I just checked my stats and found my first hit from a Google search, so I’m pretty happy to have this happen in less than a week.

I’ve heard read quite a few times that the best thing to do is create high quality content…no spam…no garbage. It took me a couple hours or more to find all of the links and write this article, but a lot of people have enjoyed it, and I enjoyed researching and writing it. I think that is the most important key of all. You’ve heard it a million times…if you build it, they will come…yadda yadda yadda."

By :manateemedia@gmail.com

4 Great Reasons to use Google Analytics

By Sasch Mayer (c) 2007

Having used a large number of web site visitor trackers over the years, I first approached Google Analytics some time ago, with the somewhat jaded attitude of someone who's 'seen it all' or at least 'seen most of it'. What could possibly make this particular utility stand out in such a large crowd of competitors?

But first... What is Google Analytics?

Analytics is Google's very own visitor tracking utility, allowing webmasters to keep tabs on traffíc to their site, including visitor numbers, traffíc sources, visitor behaviour & trends, times spent on the site and a host of other information gathered via two pieces of JavaScrípt embedded in the source-code.

Unlike other frëe visitor trackers, which insist on displaying annoying and often amateurish badges or buttons when they are being used, Google Analytics simply runs quietly in the background, gathering the necessary information without any visible signs of its presence.

Which brings me quite neatly to Analytics' first major plus-point; the price.

What webmasters are effectively getting, is a fully fledged visitor tracking utility without all the irritations and limitations normally associated with frëe products of this type.

Ok, so its free; but is it any good?

In a word; yes.

The sheer depth of information gathered, really leaves very little to be desired. From search engine analysis to page views, bounce-rates and more, the available data is presented so as to give users an easy overview of the most essential elements, with the ability to 'drill down' to less commonly accessed or more in-depth statistics and figures.

Additionally, on the 18th of July 2007, the Google Analytics old user interface was discontinued, making way for a newer, more ergonomic look which makes reports more accessible and the interface itself more intuitive for the user.

The new Dashboard provides 'at a glance' visitor statistics for the previous month, as well as a graphical breakdown of your visitor's geographical locations in the förm of a world map. A pie chart clearly shows what proportion of visitors reached the site through search engines, by referral or through direct access, whereas the 'Content Overview' provides a líst of the most commonly accessed pages.

What makes Google Analytics special though?

Although Analytics boasts all the features and statistical data to be expected from a top-class keyword analysis and statistics tracker, it also features a number of additional tools which put it ahead of most of the pack where ease-of-use and depth-of-information is concerned.

1. The Map Overlay

Essentially, this feature brings up a map of the world, highlighting the countries a site's visitors stem from. Clicking on a country produces a close-up view, along with a geographical breakdown according to the region and/or city from which visitors accessed the site. This tool in itself is invaluable for all those webmasters with geo-specific sites, concentrating on a particular catchment area.

2. The Site Overlay

This is conceivably Google Analytics' single most important feature from a webmaster's or online business owner's perspective, as it provides a hands-on view of visitor behaviour. When clicked, 'Site Overlay' opens the tracked web site in a new window and, after a moment's loading time, overlays each link on the screen with a bar, containing information about clicks to the target page and goal values reached [more about goal values in a moment]. Since it allows the webmaster or site owner to navigate his or her site and see exactly how visitors flow through it, it is difficult to imagine a more effective tool than this as far as raising a site's conversion rates is concerned.

3. Goals and Funnels

Unless the site being tracked is an information site which does not rely on generating sales or enquiries, conversion rates are as important as sheer visitor numbers. The 'Goals & Funnels' feature allows users to set up specific goals for their site, such as tracking a visitor to the 'Thank you for your enquiry' page for instance. It also allows the user to set up specific monetary values for each goal, and thus track the site's financial perförmance and profitability during any given period of time.

The term 'Funnels' refers to the specific path a visitor takes to reach the goal's target page. Since most web sites sell a number of different product ranges or feature a number of ways to enquire, all of which lead to a single 'Thank You' page, the funnel allows for the tracking of each individual path with a minimum of fuss.

4. Graphical Representations

A great many visitor trackers out there will present the collected information in a certain way, be it a líst, graph, pie chart, flow-chart or whatever. Whilst all these methods of presentation are of course valid, it is nevertheless a fact that most users are different, and a pie-chart is not necessarily ideal for those users preferring to work with graphs or vice versa. Google Analytics, however, allows users to choose between views on many of its reports. Although this may seem like a relatively minor point, it nevertheless makes things easier, as it allows the user to work with the view he or she is most comfortable with.

In Conclusion:

Google Analytics provides webmasters and site owners with a highly effective means of tracking visitors and analysing statistical data, easily the equal of most subscriptíon based services in the industry.

Although some concerns have been voiced amongst more paranoid internet users, that Google puts everyone's collective data to its own evil demographic uses, there really are precious few reasons not to recommend this fantastic tool as one of the best means to boost any web promotion and marketing campaign.

About The Author
As a technical writer with over a decade's experience, Sasch Mayer has been living and working in the Republic of Cyprus since 2005.

Currently under contract to IceGiant Web Design and Promotion Services, he mainly covers topics such as SEM and Site Promotion.

From site: http://www.sitepronews.com

Website Annoyance #6. Outdated Content

One huge advantage of the web is the ability of bloggers and other Drudge wannabes to bypass traditional media and post news online instantly.

If you have not updated your website in 14 months, what does that tell me about your company. Certainly, you are less than a cutting edge company.

There just is NO excuse nowadays. Even if you are on dial-up, you can email news to publish a blog. In simple text!

Help! My site's CMS has been compromised. Now what?

Directions

1. Change all relevant passwords
   Assume your passwords have been harvested and immediately change all critical passwords, including shell access, FTP access, Joomla! Administrator accounts, and the database account.
   
   
2. Check raw logs
   Identify when and how the attackers gained access to your site by carefully reviewing your raw server logs. Make careful note of the date/time and names of attacked files. Note that these logs may have been deleted or altered, so a lack of evidence does not prove a lack of activity.
   
   
3. List recently modified files
   Before making any changes to your site, generate a list of recently modified files. Here's a php script that will list the files for you. Remove this script as soon as you have your list and don't publish a link to it!
   
   
4. Note suspicious newly-created files
   Use this list to identify new files that don't belong. Pay particular attention to their creation and modification dates, and correlate them to the dates of attacks shown in your log files.
   
   
5. Note suspicious recently-modified files
   Check the modified files list for any files that were recently changed. Pay particular attention to the modification, and correlate them to the dates of attacks shown in your log files.
   
   
6. Coordinate with your host
   If you have identified how you were cracked, report the method to your host. If you are on a shared server, you may habe been attacked through another vulnerable site on your server. Report this to your host. A reputable host will appreciate your efforts in this area.
   
   
7. Delete the entire public_html directory
   This is the best way to guarantee that every potential vulnerabililty in that site is removed.
   
   
8. Delete related database records
   This step may only be possible if you have good backups. Simple script kiddies, who are only trying to mark your index page, may not attack your database, but professionals are usually very interested in confidential data, such as passwords. They may pose as script kiddies to avoid suspicion while repeatedly harvesting confidential information from your database.
   
   
9. Reinstall everything
   Use pre-crack backups. If you don't have good backups, go on to step 10.
   
   
10. Reset critical passwords again
    You must reset your passwards again now that your server is finally cleaned of any possible, hidden trojan horses.
    
    
11. Rebuild site: If you are unable to rebuild from clean backups, rebuild your entire site using original, pre-crack installs. Use only the latest stable versions of all software, and check the List of Vulnerable Extensions
    
    
12. Review security processes
    Follow standard security precautions for important settings in php.ini, globals.php, configuration.php, .htaccess, etc.
    
    
13. Review backup processes
    If you don't already have one, add a dependable backup process to your site administration practices.
    
    
14. Stay watchful
    Attackers often return repeatedly. Closely monitor your raw logs for suspicious activity.

Joomla!

Website Annoyance #5. Slow Pages (some extremely sloooow)

If I have to wait more than 4 or 5 seconds to begin viewing your site, I am gone - never to return.

If your servers are slow, find a new ISP.

If you loaded your pages with Flash, MIDI, audio, video, or other files that load with the page, dump them.

Put up links instead.

Let the visitor choose if they want to read or watch the video.

21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

Jun. 28, 2007

by Matt McGee

Small businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization. But if you read a variety of small businesses blogs and Web sites, you'll quickly see that there's a lot of uncertainty over what makes up "the basics." Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there's also a lot of misinformation about SEO strategies and tactics.

This article is the second in a two-part SEO checklist specifically for small business owners and webmasters. Last week, I shared 20 "don'ts." Naturally, this week addresses the "Do's"—things to make sure you include whether you're hiring an SEO company or doing it yourself.

Small Business SEO Checklist: The Do's

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn't a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn't about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It's your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.

4. Become a student of SEO. If you're taking the do-it-yourself route, you'll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall's SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock's Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I've read and recommend.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you'll need web analytics software in place so you can track what's working and what's not.

6. Build a great web site. I'm sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, "Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?" Be honest. If it's not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can't index pages that can't be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site's hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don't overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a "space," while underscores are not.

9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If y ou're on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what's important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google's AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn't show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it's Google's AdWords or Yahoo's Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it's worth the investment. It's also the solution if you didn't like the "Be patient" suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It's rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won't help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you'd like; it's close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don't appear on the page.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don't stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it's a particular challenge for online retailers. If you're selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say "click here" do nothing for your search engine visibility.

15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.

16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don't waste journalists' time.

17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there's no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that's not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.

18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you're a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don't spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.

19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.

20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google's webmaster Central and Yahoo's Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they're aware of.

21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.

Just like last week, this list could continue well beyond these 21 "DOs." Your additions are welcome in the comments.

With this checklist and last week's list of "Don'ts," you should be able to develop a good plan of attack for your SEO efforts for your small business.

Matt McGee is the SEO Manager for Marchex, Inc., a search and media company offering search marketing services through its TrafficLeader subsidiary. The Small Is Beautiful column appears on Thursdays at Search Engine Land.

Google EARTH Trackstick II Personal Tracker

Trackstick

Sounds like an awesome toy, just HAD to blog about it! How about tracks of hiking guides, fishing boats, diving boats, horse treks..... Excellent souvenir/gift for clients...

Stuart

==================================================

Trackstick

"The Trackstick records its own location, time, date, speed, heading and altitude at preset intervals. With over 1Mb of memory, it can store months of travel information. The Trackstick is the perfect tool for individuals looking for a way to track anything that moves. Use it for recording the exact routes you take when hiking, biking or vacationing. Record the location of everywhere you went, import pictures and other information into Google Earth™ to offer an entirely new perspective of your journey. Includes GPX photo stamping feature for adding your favorite photos to your own maps."

Trackstick II Personal Tracker

5 Things You Should Avoid [#1]

5 Things You Should Avoid [#1]:

5 Things You Should Avoid

About webdesign!

As a webdesigner my motivation to live, is the vision of making the web a more beautiful place to surf. I’ve spend thousands of hours surfing around the web looking at great designs, smart navigation, and beautiful colour compositions. I’ve come up with 5 things you, as a webdesigner, should avoid in the build up of a standard website! They are listed below, and they’re all based on my own experiences.

1. Intro
   .
   Don’t use a startpage/beforepage for your website, it’s useless.
   Which function does it include? If it lets people choose if they want to see the HTML-version or the FLASH-version of your site, pack your stuff and start all over again. YOU choose whether your site is HTML or FLASH, not the visitor! Period.
   .
   
2. Navigation
   .
   Don’t try to come up with some revolutionary idea of how a website-navigation should look like. Place the navigation right in the middle, top, to the left or the right side.
   .
   
   .
   Furthermore, don’t use dropdown-menus - they are waste of time, and people are tired of them.
   .
   By following this advice you utilize peoples navigation-habits, and your site appears more user-friendly (at least according to the navigation)
   .
   Two examples of bad bad navigation:
   The National Association for Child Development
   Brown University
   .
   If you really wanna explore the world of usability, you should probably read something by, the world famous (and Danish by the way ) usability-expert, Jakob Nielsen.
3. Colors
   .
   Don’t build extremely colorful websites. Choose one colorscheme of about 3-5 main colors. By that you increase the chance of building a clean and stylish website that’s worth looking at
   .
   There are tons of great colorschemes out there, I normally use Colorschemer or Colourlovers as useful and inspiring sources.
   .
   The colorscheme for this site:
   .
   
   .
   NB: If you are afraid of your site getting boring because of a small amounts of (main) colors? Insert pictures and photographs, a picture says more than a thousands words…use that!
4. Crossbrowsing
   .
   Don’t make your website look sweet’n'nice in one browser (e.g. Firefox) while you let it suck in another (IE).
   Make your website look the same in all browsers, all people should be able to experience your site and have the same outcome of it. You should test your website in at least Internet Explore and Mozilla Firefox (More info on browser-usage here).
   .
5. (White)space & Proportions
   .
   Don’t ever think that you’re not allowed to use space, EVER! I think this is one of the most important things when you design a website. Use WHITESPACE and PROPORTIONS.
   It is so important to give the visitor a great experience when he or she visits your site, you can do that if you increase the amount of space (especially whitespace, if it fits your colorscheme of cause) between borders, text, tables, pictures whatever!
   .
   If you keep this in mind when designing, your site will not end up as a mess of fonts, pictures, colors etc. (e.g. like this site)
   .
   Good Bad
   

.
That was a few tips and tricks, I hope you guys find them useful. If you want to see more of this, I’ve found a few lists which could be useful, cheers!
.

Getting exposure on search engines

Getting exposure on search engines

Adapted from The Freelance Designer’s Self-Marketing Handbook. Wouldn’t it be great if new clients contacted you? In the following article I’ll show you how to conquer the search engines so prospective clients can find you online. We’ll look at four core areas: Choosing your keywords, Making the content of your website Googlable, Fulfilling the needs of browsers, and Getting other sites to link to you.

1. How to choose your keywords

By far the best tool for researching keywords is Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com). You can pay for access per day ($8), per week ($26), per month ($52), or per year ($260). It’s worth taking as much time as you can afford.

Amongst other things, Wordtracker allows you to type in words and presents you with an extensive list of connected keyword phrases with ratings. Ratings are based on the popularity of the keywords compared to the number of other websites competing for them. You’ll find that keyword phrases have better ratings than single keywords.

There are three obvious groups you could focus your keyword searches on:

* your specialist area (graphic design, web-design, animated web design, etc)
* the sector you work in (marketing & advertising,"

Tourism Internet Marketing: Search Engine Optimization & Pay per Click | Travel Business Success.com Online Radio Show

Tourism Internet Marketing: Search Engine Optimization & Pay per Click | Travel Business Success.com Online Radio Show:

"Tourism Internet Marketing: SEO vs PPC #14

If you are selling, providing or promoting — ANY TYPE OF TRAVEL — you cannot afford to miss this indepth website analysis and coaching for a Belize tour operator on critical elements to earn top search engine ranking with search engine optimization (SEO) and how it relates to Pay per Click (PPC) advertising.
Internet Tourism Marketing Topics:

* How to choose key word phrases to maximize traffic and return on investment.
* What key word phrases are better for SEO vs. PPC
* The importance of inbound TRAVEL relevant links and how to get more of them easier.

Online resource on more information on SEO, PPC and other profitable internet tourism marketing resources."

Tourism Internet Marketing: Search Engine Optimization & Pay per Click | Travel Business Success.com Online Radio Show:

How to Guarantee Your Press Release Won't Be Read

By Ben Silverman

On average, I receive fifty press releases each day. On top of that, I receive an additional 100 correspondences. My inbox is a disaster area. I have over 300 unread emails in my inbox from the past ten days and it's likely that eighty percent of those are press releases.

The question is: why do I read only some, and not all, of these press releases?

I only read press releases that come from two sources: press release services or from known public relations contacts. Press release services show me, as a journalist, that the business is serious and unless the story is what we call "embargoed," (i.e. given to me exclusively) I know for sure it's open game. My known public relations contacts are PR professionals who I have an established relationship with and who have been explicitly told that it is ok for them to send me press releases. These types of relationships are generally reserved for large businesses or PR firms, so if you own a small business, it is best to use a press release distribution service.

I ignore any press release that includes a file attachment.

Press releases should be written in the generally accepted manner -- plain text. File attachments may contain viruses and it is ridiculous that a simple statement be sent in anything but the body of an email. A fellow journalist also tells me that he frequently downloads his email to his PDA and reads press releases on the go. An attachment will not do in this case.

If the title of the press release does not clarify the subject, why read it?

A simple title such as, "eReleases.com Announces Launch of Newsletter Service" tells me exactly what the press release is about. A title such as, "eReleases.com to Launch Exciting and Fantastic New Service" does little to help me.

Adjectives are bad.

The worst thing you can do to a journalist is try to shape their view before they've had a chance to digest information. Using words such as "amazing" or "exciting," or simply using exclamation marks, is a huge turn off for journalists. It also sets you up for disappointment because a journalist will say to himself, "This isn't amazing or exciting." Think about it this way -- just the facts. You are marketing your business to a member of the media, not a consumer.

Grammar and spelling count.

I've seen too many press releases that have spelling or grammar mistakes in the title. This is a wonderful indicator for any journalist that the company does not have high professional standards.

Consider having a professional writer or service work on your press release.

There is a simple, yet complicated formula to writing press releases. Poorly written press releases are the easiest way to guarantee poor performance. Consider these tips as a starting point on your road to getting media exposure for your business.

Ben Silverman is the Publisher of DotcomScoop.com, a weekly newsletter digest covering the Internet, technology, telecommunications, media and finance sectors. He also contributes a weekly business news column to The New York Post. Previously, Ben worked in the music and Internet industries. He has received an incredible mount of media exposure, including features by The Wall St. Journal and CNNfn and being quoted as an expert on issues by The Washington Post and New York Times.

Effective Tourism Marketing Secrets

By: Nancy Pfeiffer, founder
Adventure Travel Media Source

Successful Press Trip & Guidelines


Offering visits to members of the media is a good way to encourage favorable editorial coverage. Be sure you create a policy for hosting press representatives. A policy will allow you to operate more professionally in your dealings with the media. This should include such things as what you will provide, i.e.: meals, accommodations, activities, transportation, airfare, etc. It would also include whether or not spouses or guests are included, the length of the visit, responsibilities of host and guest and expectations

Read more at Adventure Travel Media Source

Ten Commandments of Travel Trade Show Success

By Tim Warren © 2003

Ask yourself these important travel trade show marketing questions.

1. Are you considering marketing with a trade show?
2. Have you spent more then $1,000 in travel trade show exhibiting?
3. You have exhibited less than 5 times?
4. Did you arrive at the trade show just in time to set up?
5. Were you under staffed in your booth?
6. Were your sales results less then you expected
7. Did you leave the show tired and exhausted?
8. Are you questioning whether you will ever exhibit again?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you need to read these top 10 strategies to increase your travel trade show marketing success.

No matter if you are a seasoned travel trade show exhibitor or a newcomer, do not consider exhibiting until you read and apply these valuable tips. These quick tips and training resources will save you an aching back, wasted money and increase your tourism sales – guaranteed!

Read more here: http://www.adventurebizsuccess.com/opt-in.php

Getting Started and Getting to the Next Level in Keyword Search Marketing

Just getting started with SEM? Or are you ready to take it to the next level? In this feature, we will give you The Scoop on the Paid Keyword Search and Contextual Advertising part of what is called Search Engine Marketing (SEM) with such services as Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing, the two leading paid-search operations on the Internet, plus links to lots of articles, books, sites, and other resources you can tap into for building your business on the Web.

PICK YOUR LEVEL

First things first: Where are you in the process?

1. Getting Started: You don't do keyword buying, but maybe you would like to — if it looks interesting, useful, and doable. We'll structure a minimal program to get you started, step by step, so you can see how it works and figure out whether it's going to do you any good.

2. Taking the Next Steps: You do some search-engine marketing/keyword buying, and now you need to leverage your success, to understand how to take the next steps — heck, you need to figure out what the next steps are. We'll suggest some easy ways to start heading up that ladder to better results, more efficiencies, greater opportunity. We'll also ask the important question: Is it time for you to hire someone dedicated to doing this full time?

Mixed in are resources such as AllBusiness.com gurus, Web sites, books, places where consultants hang out, and other expertise you can tap into.

Big Deal: The Benefits of SEM

Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a hot topic among those who have business Web sites. And for good reason.

The Web can drive more business your way with every passing day. In fact, the Web may be the best thing to happen to small and medium-size businesses since God invented advertising.

But it's a big topic, and it's a busy world, so you may not be fully up to speed on this topic yet. You may be optimizing your Web site for maximum business conversion — but probably not. You may also have a dedicated marketer buying tens of thousands of dollars in search engine keywords for you each month — but probably not that either. There are 500,000 buyers of Google AdWords, and a similar number using Yahoo! Search Marketing, but there are 25 million small and medium-size businesses in the United States alone — which means this is still a fresh, wide-open market for most of us.

Seriously, if your business can benefit from direct marketing to your most targeted customers, then paid search and Web site optimization — collectively known as Search Engine Marketing — is the greatest tool you could ever hope for in your search for untapped business growth.

Consider the benefits of paid search for direct marketing:

* You can try out paid keyword search for very little cash: How does 50 bucks sound?

* Feedback is very fast, so you can test, test, test — fast and cheap — and keep testing until you hit that buyer hot button that generates the sales you need.

* Google and Yahoo! will track conversions for you even if you don't have your own Web site analysis package, so you can calculate your return on investment more easily.

* You only pay when it works — that is, you pay only when somebody clicks on your ad. So if your first keyword tests are a disaster and nobody clicks, it doesn't cost you a fortune — in fact, it doesn't cost you anything. You can lick your wounds, cheap. It only costs you a fortune when you're making a fortune.

* OK, it's more complicated than that. For you to be making that fortune, all those interested customers clicking on your search ad have to find what they're looking for on your site. So your site has to be reasonably well designed, well organized, and optimized to make it as easy as possible for them to buy things from you. That can be a lot of work too, but again, you can test, test, test. Even better, you can steal — that is, you can learn good design elements and good e-commerce customer flow techniques, by observing the successful designs and buying processes of the big winners on the Web, like Amazon and eBay. What a wonderful world!

As David Saries, the AllBusiness.com direct-marketing guru who manages our own investment in keywords, says: "You pay little for clicks, you get highly targeted results, so you can get good ROI — and everything is trackable!"

Oh, and one more thing. It's easy to get started — all you need, basically, is a credit card. Fill out the application on the search engine's site and start experimenting, then feeling your way along.

Website Annoyance #10. Disabled "Back" Button

I don't want a website to dictate how I experience their site. I am a guest on your site. I don't need to come back to your page when I hit the back button. That's why I hit the back button in the first place. You don't have the information I am looking for.

In a similar vein, I don't like to see other right click functions like "view page source" disabled. I don't need to steal your HTML code, but if I want to, disabling right click will not stop me. I might want to see how you achieved a certain formatting effect. If I am impressed, you can bet I'll be back.

Pet peeves take many forms online. No list like this is complete, but any webmaster that can avoid these 10 major annoyances is a hero in my book.

I look forward to visiting your site and NOT being annoyed...

Joomla Templates, Components and Free Downloads for Joomla CMS - Usability, Accessibility, Web Standards, SEO and You

Absolutely great page describing the elements of web design and SEO. As you all know, I am a Joomla convert (earlier this year, a newbie really), but these guys explain it all very simply.

If you're looking for a one webpage summary of how the web pages work and how to be safe with SE's, then spend 5 ins browsing this page

Stuart

===========================================================


"Usability, Accessibility, Web Standards, SEO and You"

Summary

Usability, accessibility and search engine optimization are all phrases used to describe high quality web pages in today's world wide web. In reality, there is a significant amount of overlap between them and a web page that demonstrates the characteristics of one does so for all three. The easiest way to achieve these three goals is to do so using the framework laid out in the W3C web standards.


What makes a good website?

Your website should have a goal. A measure how how 'good' the website is how successful it is in meeting that goal. The goal for an e-commerce site will be very different to a fan portal, but nonetheless, 'good' websites share some common characteristics. In order to meet your goal:

* Viewers have to find your site
* Viewers have to be able to view it easily
* Viewers have to be able to find what they want
* Viewers must think your website is credible

There is significant overlap between these characterstics. The things that make a site easy to find are the same ones that make it viewable, navigable and credible. Let's take these characterstics one at a time and"

Joomla Shack

FAQ's for resorts

Looking for easy ways to expand your site and give you more pages to SEO with your keywords? A simple way for small and medium reosrts (and big ones for that matter) is to create an FAQ page on your site.

A few hints:

• Make each subject or question a link to its own page and focus each page on 1 or 2 keywords.

• As a start, try to add 10 of these types of FAQ pages to your site. Each page should be about 300 words. Any less than 200 and it probably won't be indexed so this is no good. Elaborate your answers, and add a couple of paragraphs. Remember no duplicate copy....

• You can come up with ideas for FAQ'by reviewing your customer and guest emails and inquiries and trying to determine what they might not understand about your resort and the kinds of questions they might ask.

• Then post the questions and the answers.

This is a very easy way to add great content to your site and to help potential guests feel secure about your resort.

What is better: SEO or PPC?

Many webmasters are unsure whether they should advertise their website with SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay per click advertising).

Actually, most commercial websites work best if you use both SEO and PPC. The exact mix depends on your goals.

Pay per click advertising (PPC)

Advantages:

• You get instant results. If you advertise your website on pay per click search engines, then you will get traffic now and not several months later.
• PPC ads are perfect for time limited offers such as holiday sales.
• You can stop PPC ads at any time.
• PPC ads make it easy to test different keywords and landing pages.
• PPC ads also work with websites that are not very well designed and wouldn't get good search engine rankings.
• PPC ads allow you to bid on a large amount of keywords, including misspellings and other keyword variations that you cannot put on your web pages.

Disadvantages:

• PPC advertising can become very expensive if you bid on the wrong keywords or if you don't calculate the maximum bid price correctly.
• Click fraud can be a problem. Not all clickers are potential customers.

If you advertise your website with PPC ads then you should use a ROI tracking tool to make sure that you don't waste your money.

Search engine optimization (SEO):

Advantages:

• Traffic through organic search engine results is almost free if the up-front work has been done.
• After optimizing your website you can use your money for different things and the optimized site will still run.
• A larger number of visitors and search result clickers is not a problem.
• Search engine optimization delivers long term results that don't require permanent financial input.

Disadvantages:

• SEO can be relatively time-consuming up-front.
• SEO can require a redesign of your web pages to make your website search engine friendly. However, this usually also results in a better user experience.

Search engine optimization delivers lasting results and it costs considerably less in the long term. However, you must make sure that you optimize your website correctly, if your want to get high search engine rankings.

Pay per click advertising and search engine optimization both contribute to the success of your website. If you use both wisely, you can get many new visitors and customers without spending a fortune. See the recommended resources below for PPC and SEO software tips.

Visit Axandra.com

Article by Axandra.com

Website Annoyance #4. Registration Required to Visit Site

Some sites think their bytes don't stink. They think you should register and login to see anything beyond the home page.

What they are doing is asking me to get married before the first date. What's in it for me?

In this Internet day and age, a company and site has to build trust before a random visitor is going to cough up a name and email address.

Show me a little leg first...

For SEO Beginners: Twelve Definitions You Need To Know

Loved this list so much from Mike Tekula, decided to post the whole lot here. Here is a great start for all my new clients. I'll be sending this to them for a 5min read before I start talking to them to save me (and them) a tonne of time.

Stuart

=============================================================

For SEO Beginners: Twelve Definitions You Need To Know
By Mike Tekula (c) 2007

SEO is a trade that exists solely on the internet, and even then it is comprised almost entirely of the hot air of so-called "expert opinion." Plenty of it blowing around these days as search maintains position as one of the most important marketplaces in the modern business world. Many DIY webmasters will end up searching for blog entries, articles, informational web sites, etc to help get them up to speed. The problem is that in most cases certain key terms are flung around like household names while the people doing the flinging are way out of touch with the average web browser. What some of us don't realize is that not everyone knows even the basics of SEO.

This list of twelve SEO-related definitions in alphabetical order (with notes) serves as a great companion for your initial SEO reading. Read alone it will get you up to speed on some key terminology that you'll need to know to intelligently engage the ever-changing world of SEO.

• Algorithms. A search algorithm is, in short, the incredibly complex mathematical formula that a search engine uses to "rank" web sites for keywords. Based on a huge number of variables and calculations, algorithms are among the most closely-guarded secrets on the internet. Why? Imagine if they were leaked - suddenly the less-than-honest would have a very specific guideline to follow in climbing to the top of search results in a less-than-organic way, ruining the quality of Google's search results and their entire competitive advantage with it.

• Bot or Bots. See also "crawlers"

• Crawlers. Googlebot, for example, is a search engine crawler. Googlebot periodically traverses the web in record time, indexing content, links - everything contained in page source code - and storing it in Google's search index. Then, when a user visits Google and enters a search phrase, the index, filtered by the algorithm, is what the user gets. Please note: there is some delay in this process since the results you're getting are from the index and not the live web.

• Directories. When webmasters realized just how much power inbound links have in determining search rankings they quickly set out to do two things: 1) get inbound links and 2) set up web sites where other webmasters could achieve inbound links (meaning big traffíc revenues for the site). Hence the directory farms you'll find today. Link building has been a priority on the líst of any SEO-savvy webmaster for years, and as a result "quick fix" directories that allow streamlined listing submissions get a ton of traffíc. However, Google and the other major search engines are on to this tactic, and the word among SEO "experts" is that the benefits of listing your site at directories are diminished if not gone.

• Frames. Frames are a way of laying out a website with multiple documents in one browser window. Essentially, there is one main document which contains the frameset tag - this document specifies the dimensions/placement of the frames and also the documents that will "populate" those frames. From an SEO standpoint the use of frames for your layout is not recommended. Since frames do not use links in the same way, and since links may point to one frame from another, they may cause serious problems for crawlers. Additionally, there are almost no uses for frames that can't either be 1) duplicated with other methods or 2) thrown away without much fuss. If your site was built with frames and you're thinking you don't want to rebuild - it might be tough luck if you're interested in optimizing for search. Consider it a learning experience - build yourself a CSS-based layout.

• Gateway Pages. Also "doorway pages." Although there isn't a real consensus about what these pages are, their function is always cited as their definition. In other words, these pages are created to "rank well in search engines" by playing to the algorithms. Often viewed as "spammy," "gray hat" or even "black hat." However, any page written with search in mind, and geared towards search, can be construed to be a "gateway page." The difference between a page well-optimized for search and a "gateway page?" No clear lines there, but quality of content is probably the determining factor.

• HTML. Okay, most of you probably know this one, but there are probably some of you who don't. HTML stands for Hyper-Text Mark-up Language, and it is the core building block that has made the web the greatest modern tool for business, social, informational, political and any other causes. Search engines look exclusively at a web page's HTML code to determine its relevance. Therefore, it's a good idea to pay attention to HTML and familiarize yourself with proper tagging techniques if you're hoping to get a good handle on SEO.

• Link Popularity. Inbound links are probably the most important optimization point for web pages. Number, quality, trust - these are all factors that affect the value of an inbound link. Going back to the HTML root of search, link popularity (in terms of quantity) measures how many pages point to your site using anchor text ( link text ).

• Link Building. In short, the process of gaining links at other web sites pointing in to pages on your own.

• Link Baiting. The process of generating high-quality content on your pages that users will appreciate and link to voluntarily.

• Meta Tags. Meta tags are found at the top of a page's source code. They are used to specify certain things that might not be found in the page content. They also allow webmasters to put up certain "flags" that search engine crawlers can react to. There are many Meta tags available for use, and many of them can help with SEO to a great extent and for a variety of purposes. However, Meta tags are no longer used in the way they originally were - as a place to stuff keywords to drive your site up in rankings. Some webmasters out there are still doing this, but they are decidedly behind the times and unaware of the impending, or already cast-down, penalties.

• Robots. See also "crawlers."

• Search Engines. If you don't know what a search engine is congratulations on finally making it out from under that rock. Search engines are essentially programs that scan an existing index of the web based on a query of search terms, or keywords, that a user enters. However, the word more commonly refers to companies as a whole - Google, for example, controls a search engine, while Googlebot is the crawler that gathers content for its index, but most users and webmasters think of a search engine as the whole package.

• Search Engine Marketing. Most often this refers to Pay-Per-Click marketing in which an advertiser bids on chosen keywords and writes several ads to be displayed should their bid achieve placement. These ads are displayed in the "sponsored" section of search engine result pages (SERPS). However, in some circles this term is used to refer to any action taken to gain rankings both paid and organic.

• Search Engine Optimization. This one is open to interpretation. It is quite often used to encapsulate a huge amount of different tactics. On-site optimization, off-site optimization (link building, etc) and many other techniques all feasibly fall under the SEO blanket. However, there is an obvious difference between optimizing a page's code to be clean and search friendly and writing link bait that will be popular and get linked to.

• Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The pages resulting from a search engine query run by a user. Webmasters review these pages to determine where their pages are ranking for certain search terms.

• Spamming. Basically, any unnatural effort to bring a page higher in search results. What constitutes sp@m is open to some interpretation, but the only interpretation you need to worry about is that of the major search engines. If Google, for example, considers a technique "spammy" you'd be wise to cease at once.

• Spiders. See also "crawlers."

• Submission. For SEO this has traditionally meant submitting a web site to search engines so they'll know about and crawl it. SEO firms offered submission services as a big selling point to bring in clients. However, for a long time now submitting your site to search engines hasn't done jack. They're all much smarter now - just focus on gaining quality inbound links and your site will be indexed in no time.

This is just a sample of the core vocabulary associated with SEO. Is this all you need to know? Absolutely not. But in my experience these are the words and phrases that newcomers have the most trouble with. If these definitions help one person have a better understanding of SEO, then I will be satisfied.

About The Author
Mike Tekula handles SEO, SEM, usability and standards-compliance for NewSunGraphics, a Long Island, New York firm offering Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, W3C-Compliant web design using full CSS layouts and all things web design/development.

Get More Web Site Traffic Using Web 2.0 Techniques

Get More Web Site Traffic Using Web 2.0 Techniques

By Leon Lioe

If you're doing online marketing, don't ignore Web 2.0. Take advantage of it instead because it can help you to get more web site traffic and increase your business bottom line. If you're using Google Adwords to generate traffic and find it not very profitable, you should explore and exploit the Web 2.0 sites.

In a nutshell, Web 2.0 is the next generation web technology designed for people to share information and interact with one another. Some examples of popular web 2.0 sites are MySpace, Blogger, YouTube, Squidoo, Wikipedia, Digg, Del.ico.us, Technorati.

All these sites are getting hundreds of thousands or even MILLIONS of visitors every single day. That is a lot of web site traffic.

Do you know that MySpace has more visitors per day than Google? And do you know why Google bought YouTube for $1.6 Billion? Think about it, Google has its own Video Publishing technology called Google Video. But did they buy YouTube? The reason is because of the customers database. YouTube has HUGE customer database, this site is attracting MILLIONS of visitors every month.

Now if you are promoting and marketing products online, you know that web site traffic is the lifeblood of your onlline business. Without traffic, your web site is like a supermarket without visitors. The most often asked question by online entrepreneurs over and over again is...

How to get more web site traffic?

Basically there are two methods to get traffic to your web site:

1. You ATTRACT traffic using content of your site or...
2. You BUY traffic using PPC advertising.

Most people are using either one or both methods to get more web site traffic everyday. But there is another method ONLY few people are exploiting it effectively. And they're making a lot of money from it. The type of web site traffic generated by this method is known as REFERRAL traffic.

As Web 2.0 sites are attracting MILLION of visitors everyday, those who know how to drive and REFER these traffic to their web sites will benefit enormously. Another trait of referral traffic is that they are SUSTAINABLE. This means those who buy your products and are happy with your service are likely to buy from you again. The reason why referral traffic is sustainable is because it's based on TRUST & RELATIONSHIP. These are keys for repeat business.

Click here if you want to learn how to get more web site traffic using web 2.0 techniques.

Leon is an infopreneur dedicated to sharing his online discoveries across the net. You can visit his site at: http://www.online-business-journey.com

5 Tips For Increased Website Traffic

5 Tips For Increased Website Traffic:

By Elizabeth McGee

"There are lots of ways to get traffic to your website however most people are interested in getting the most traffic for the least amount of money, preferably for free.

While it's difficult to get anything for free nowadays there are still a few good ways to help build your web traffic and still pay nothing.

1. Build a second content-rich website.

Because content is king on the internet many have adopted the idea of building a content-rich site in addition to their original sales site.

If you set up your title, description and keyword tags carefully and find a good balance for your keyword saturation, you may be better able to achieve high search engine rankings with a site that contains only good content and information.

Once you have built your content-rich site you can then use the content to point your viewers to your sales site.

2. Add an article page to your existing site.

By adding article pages to your web site you can once again point your readers to your sales page.

For example, let's say you have a website that sells vitamins. Set up a few article pages that reference vitamins such as a page on the benefits of vitamins, how to take vitamins, the effects of vitamins, etc. Allow each of the articles to reference links to your sales page."

Read full article:

http://ezinearticles.com/?5-Tips-For-Increased-Website-Traffic&id=5811

Exotic Goods and Novelties Emporium - Anti-Spyware Programs

Exotic Goods and Novelties Emporium - Anti-Spyware Programs

f you are a regular Internet user, then you've probably come
across the term ""spyware"". This is a pretty good description of
what these programs are. Spyware is a program that exists within
your computer system to carry out tasks like displaying unwanted
ads, recording your keystrokes, and even monitoring how much you
use your computer.

These programs enter your computer system without you even
knowing it (just like real spies). They may slip past you when
you’re downloading music, or they may even be disguised as
programs that you thought were harmless. That’s how tricky the
creators of these programs are.

So what exactly does this mean for you? The implications of
this range from the annoying, to the down-right maddening. On
the one hand, some spyware programs simply generate pop-up ads
while you are browsing. Others can change your browser's
homepage.

The other, more disturbing, part of this, is that some spyware
takes note of what your computer habits are, what sites you
visit, and even (and this is the scariest part) can record your
user name, passwords, and credit card information. This
information is then sent back to the person spying on you.
There is no telling, really, what he or she will then do with
that information.

Fortunately, there are programmers who have worked on solutions
addressing spyware. These solutions comes in the form of
anti-spyware programs. Anti-spyware programs are designed to
recognize the spyware that live in your computer. These
anti-spyware programs are like dogs trained to sniff out the
spies and alert you of their presence.

So just how does anti-spyware work? How is it able to detect
programs that are designed not to be found?

Spyware, just like other programs, has a code that
differentiates it from other programs. That code is called a
signature. The signature is as unique to that program as a
fingerprint. Each anti-spyware program contains a vast database
of these signatures.

When the anti-spyware scans your computer for spyware, it
compares all of the files in your system to signatures in its
database. If it finds a match between a signature in the
database and a file in your computer, it raises an alarm. It
then gives you the option to remove that file or to quarantine
in order to later report it.

You might be wondering, ""why would I want to quarantine spyware
and report it? Wouldn't it be better to just delete it?""

Not exactly.

The programmers of spyware know that anti-spyware programs will
get rid of their creations. In order to keep on advertising on
your computer or stealing information, they create new spyware
that has signatures that haven't yet been recorded in
anti-spyware databases.

This is why you can put a file suspected of being spyware in
quarantine, and why reporting it to anti-spyware creators is so
important. The programmers are alerted of this suspicious file
and they examine it to see if it is really spyware. If they
determine that it is, they’ll update their anti-spyware
signature database to include the program to recognize the new
spyware.

So if you're a regular Internet user, it is a good idea that
you install anti-spyware programs. It is a good idea to have at
least two anti-spyware installed, as one program working alone
may not have a database as extensive as two. That way, you have
a much finer net with which to screen for spyware that enters
your system.

Getting more than one anti-spyware program will not cost you
very much. It may, in fact, cost you nothing at all! Several
reputable anti-spyware programs are available for free.
(Ad-Aware, and Spybot: Search and Destroy are the most
popular). Their creators of anti-spyware do so for reasons
ranging from building a good reputation, to allowing you to
sample their product.

Installing anti-spyware in your system should not be the end of
your spyware campaign. Regularly check your anti-spyware
program's website in order to look for updates, so that you can
continue to detect new spyware.

Securing your data is as important as securing your actual
homes, these days. Arm yourself with good anti-spyware and you
will be a step closer to breathing easier when you go online.
About The Author: Linda Davis writes for several web sites,
such as http://yetra.com and http://tocip.com

Xuzo.com - Exotic Goods and Novelties Emporium - Ressource Library for your site

Xuzo.com - Exotic Goods and Novelties Emporium - Ressource Library for your site

Understanding the True Value of a Resource Library for Your Website

Many websites currently offer a resource library for visitors - an area filled with articles covering relevant topics to the industry with which the site is connected. The articles may cover how to do something or define a particular aspect of the industry, but they do not usually directly sell the company's products or services.

Full article here....

Xuzo.com - Exotic Goods and Novelties Emporium - Ressource Library for your site