Consider Alexa Ranking In Search Engine Optimization

There are many things publishers should take into account when developing a web strategy with search engine optimization in mind. One particular aspect that might be overlooked in the shuffle is Alexa ranking.

Alexa is a creation of Amazon.com. It is a different kind of ranking system that might not necessarily be as "important" in the grand scheme of things as Google ranking, for example, but it still can play a big role in a site's income. Alexa tracks a site's traffic via a special toolbar that can be installed on browsers. When people with this toolbar visit sites, it counts toward Alexa ranking.

Although some consider the system unfair, the reality is that many advertisers use it to determine what sites they might want to invest their advertising dollars in. Alexa ranking is also sometimes used to help determine the rates a particular site can fetch. With this in mind, coming up with a good web strategy that includes Alexa ranking can be important to a site's overall success.

Boss Design has an article on search engine optimization and Alexa ranking that offers some insight on how to build ranking with this site. The most solid path to take is to create a site that people want to visit.

Boss Design can help on this front. The company specializes in web development from the ground up, covering all aspects of design and strategy along the way.

Link Baiting Can Fit Into Web Strategy

The word has gained a lot of negative attention as of late, but the reality is link baiting can fit into a solid web strategy. It all depends on how the prospect is handled.

When link baiting is worked into web strategy in a manner that involves solid content building rather than just baiting alone, the end results can be rather beneficial for a website. The key is to make sure a quality site is the primary focus, not just the development of incoming links.

The benefits of "good" link baiting can include traffic building, recognition and even an increase in PageRank. Link baiting itself is a blanket term that describes efforts that can be taken to increase the number of incoming links to a site. These links, especially when they are from high-ranking sites, can boost a site's ranking.

There are some very good ways to "link bait" without jeopardizing reputation. These include offering useful content, generating a positive buzz about a site and even working to pull traffic in through contests, quizzes and giveaways.

Unfortunately, there are other methods that are not necessarily considered legitimate. Learning how to create a web strategy that takes the good aspects of link baiting into account can really pay off though, so it is worth considering.

Boss Design specializes in helping others develop a solid web strategy that can pay off with sites that others want to link to.

10 Tips for Choosing the Right SEO Partner

Jonathan Ashton of Media Post Publications provides 10 Tips for Choosing an SEO Partner

For the most part, I'd agree with his recommendations. However, I don't believe that all good and worthy SEOs belong to SEMPO. In my opinion, many potential SEO clients couldn't afford the majority of those who belong to SEMPO. I'm not dissing the organization, by any means, but membership in a single organization doesn't necessarily make either an affordable or ethical SEO specialist, in my mind and joining such an organization just because everyone who is anyone is part of it isn't a very good reason for joining, either.

The best thing you can do is steer clear of promises and guarantees, because no one can guarantee you number 1 rankings - especially not overnight - not even the folks who belong to SEMPO. Search engine optimization is a long process that's subject to ever-changing algorithms and stiff competition. What you really need to do is put a balanced Internet marketing services campaign into your web strategy for ongoing and lasting improvements.

How Often Should You Add Content to Your Website?

There is an interesting forum discussion that's started over at Webmaster World on how often you should consider adding fresh content to your website.

Everyone should know by now that fresh content is important for any website - both for your visitors and for search engine optimization purposes. But how much content, and how often?

The topic is certainly open to debate and planning for regular content additions should be part of your web strategy. The discussion started when the operator of an ecommerce site wanted to know if adding five new articles at a time made any difference from a search engine's point of view than adding them one at a time. Responses vary on which is more effective - adding the content one piece at a time on a regular basis, such as daily, or adding 5 pieces of new web content once per week.

I don't think it makes very much difference in terms of search optimization and whether it matters to visitors depends on how often the average visitor comes to the site. Those looking for something new every day would of course be more attracted to daily posting of fresh content, even if it's only a short blog post. For optimizaiton purposes you wouldn't want to add 100 pieces at once unless you were just building out a new site. Search engines look for "natural" growth, and I don't think it takes an argument to consider that 100 new articles at once isn't "natural".

What is important is placing links to the new content on a page within the website that gets spidered frequently by the search engines, and most agree that new content benefits from being linked to from the home page as well as from the HTML sitemap. And don't forget to add the new URL to the XML sitemap, too.

How Colors Are Associated with Culture

This very interesting article by William Pacino talks about how different world cultures react differently to various colors.

When undertaking web site design for your site, your web designer needs to consider the culture of your targeted audience since colors convey different feelings depending on the culture of that target audience. Pacino points out:

"Color is far more complex than one might imagine. Realize that color is not a property of light but rather a property of the brain/mind. After all, light is not necessary to experience color. Although every physical aspect of visible light can be measured precisely in wavelengths, candelas, lumens, and lamberts, the psychological aspects of color are less easily explained."

Further, he explains that:

"In the United States, wedding colors are white and funeral colors are black.

In Asian countries where the religions Buddhism and Taoism are prevalent, orange and yellows are spiritual colors as well as colors for funerals. In Eastern cultures, red combined with white signifies joy. In Eastern cultures, white is associated with mourning or death.

In India where the religion Hinduism is more prevalent, the god Shiva (“the Destroyer”) is associated with the color red, Vishnu (“the Preserver” of the universe representing mercy and goodness) is associated with black, Krishna (“the union of existence and bliss”) is associated with blue, and Brahma (“the Creator”) is associated with white.."

Color is an important communications tool. It can be used:

• To convey meaning
• Change space perception
• Show similarities and differences (for example, the two previously quoted text passages use the same style and color to make them stand out as direct quotes from Pacino's article)
• Information chunking
• Attract attention
• Create emphasis

So you can see, color is an important communications tool. It can be used effectively not only in graphic designs, banner ad design and web page backgrounds, but with text - just as font size and font styles can be used as tools for different communications purposes.

Both the design and the content on your website can be used for effective communications - just remember to consider the cultural background of your website's target audience when developing your web strategy.

Source article: Color Association by Culture